BANGKOK and KUALA LUMPUR
Forced from his home by conflict in 2018, Zau Lawn is now trying to bring aid to some of the thousands of civilians stranded by fresh clashes in the aftermath of Myanmar’s military coup.
Since March, Zau Lawn, a pseudonym for a 24-year-old divinity student in northern Myanmar’s Kachin State who asked that his real name not be used, has broken nightly curfews to travel clandestinely from the state capital, Myitkyina, to the forests of Injangyang township more than 50 kilometres north.
He takes a three-day journey by car, boat, and motorcycle, risking run-ins with security forces, to help people trapped by conflict between military junta forces and the armed wing of the Kachin Independence Organisation – among the largest of more than 20 ethnic armed groups lining the country’s border areas.