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Myanmar's Rebels: Freedom Fighters or Crime Lords?

Simon Whistler · September 30, 2025 · 18 min video · China & Indo-Pacific

0:00Locked:2:00–17:33

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What this episode covers

Myanmar's Rebels: Freedom Fighters or Crime Lords? — a Fronts video briefing on China & Indo-Pacific.

Chapters

  1. Myanmar's Rebel Forces and Their TerritoryIn the free preview
  2. How Myanmar's Rebels Fund Their WarInsiders
  3. Freedom Fighters or Organized Crime Lords?Insiders

From the transcript

Over the last few years, Mar-Mar's Rebel Alliance has achieved some pretty incredible things. As recently the start of the 2020s, the nation's many ethnic militias were dis organized, disinterested in working together, and armed with little more than grit, determination, and single-shot hunting rifles.

But ever since the nation's democratically elected government was overthrown in a military coup on February 1, 2021, Mar-Mar's rebels have learned to band together, ally themselves with delusion-freedom fighters, and take the fight to the ruling regime in a way that's never been seen before in the nation's history.

Right now, Mar-Mar's rebels have pushed the ruling regime from massive portions of the country, surrounded them in others, and constrained the regime's true power base to just a handful of cities and southern districts.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

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