“One day we will get our freedom back.”
The 22-year-old has spent much of his adult life fighting for it. But now, after five years of civil war in Myanmar, he has had enough of war and political struggle.
“I want to help our people as much as I can. But I choose another way. A non-violent way.”
The young man is part of a huge exodus of people from Myanmar seeking sanctuary in the Thai border town of Mae Sot.
He spoke to the BBC from a small, dark room tucked away down a back street – one of a network of safe houses set up by charities to help new arrivals.
Most have very little. They are exhausted, traumatised by their experiences in Myanmar, and very vulnerable. With no legal status in Thailand, the safe houses are their only refuge.
He was 17 when he joined the nationwide protests against the military coup in Myanmar in 2021.
When these were crushed by the army, like many young protesters he travelled to an area controlled by ethnic insurgents to get military training.
He returned to Yangon as part of an urban guerrilla squad, planting bombs outside targets like police stations. “I thought then that non-violent protests were not the right way to get back our freedom.”
But he was soon caught and sentenced to seven years in Insein prison, notorious for its brutal treatment of inmates.
He was released last year, and fled to Mae Sot because of the intense police surveillance of his family at their home in Yangon. It is for their sake that he does not want to use his name.
For the millions of Burmese who have risked their lives and left their homes to oppose military rule, these are disheartening times.
They have been dreaming of a revolution which will remake Myanmar as a more democratic and inclusive country, and purge the armed forces from politics.
Instead, they are watching the man they hold responsible for igniting the civil war strengthen his hold on power.
