Shin Nyein
A Myanmar military outpost from Kangyi Kone Village, Chaung-Oo Township, which boasted as no ammo can penetrate their camp, was bombed by a drone on 20 August.
Those sorts of blitzes were typically led by men.
Yet, this time women fighters of T.G.R women Drone Force of Myaung People Defense(Myaung PDF) uniquely led the blitz by Drone and due to this attack, four Myanmar soldiers were dead and five were seriously injured.
The leading woman combatant of T.G.R. who was nicknamed Kyar Khin Sein or Tiger Khin Sein( nicknamed as Tiger because of her bravery) said “ their ( Myanmar soldiers and their pro-military armed-militias-Phyusawhti) camp could not be set fire and it is bullet-proof, so they proclaimed. Then we made up our minds to be successful and consulted within our force. I just have a concern whether the mission fails.”
Myanmar military announced from state-sponsored TV channel MRTV that they are inquiring about the attack and which groups are acting attacks.
However, the Tiger Lady boldly said not to investigate who is responsible for the bombing but exactly Tiger Khin Sein of TGR women Drone Force and its allies will carry on bombing them.
Because of her activities, the leader of the TGR Force Captain Tiger(nicknamed) noted that Tiger Lady (Kyar Khin Sein in Myanmar) is named as she is very brave and has no fear in battle.”
Tiger Khin Sein was brave and decisive in the past as well and she is the one who can give up not only her family but her life for what she believes in. Thanks to her abilities, she has become the leader of the TGR Women Drone Force.
She was just an ordinary student of Mandalay University before the Covid-19 and coup.
Her ambition is not so high and grand as other peers but would like to have a very simple life in the countryside as a teacher. After her graduation, she bluntly thought of applying for the position of teacher.
As she has got two brothers and is the youngest girl among siblings, she hasn’t got any worries about their love and indulgence.
Yet, when the military coup took place, there were a lot of demonstration columns in the street, which are opposing the military taking the State Power unjustly. The Tiger Lady actively took part in the protests, too.
Although her family banned her not to participate in the strike against the unfair dictatorship’s coup, she could try to join the walkouts without fail by telling different ways of lies to her family to get her permission to go out.
So far, she considered that her family prohibited her from joining the protest as she is the youngest daughter in the family. Actually, her family has the opposite way of thinking about the revolution, unlike her opinion, then, finally, she left her family.
The Tiger Lady added “I don’t have the chance of joining in the revolution and my family can be in danger. That’s why I left my home. I took all my jewelry off and left them, too. I was with 3 sets of clothes and my collection of money -1 lakh”
As soon as she left her home, she went to join the underground activity in Mandalay. As to the Underground cell, most of the dangerous activities are to assassinate the pro-military informers and combat the military camps.
It was encountered that some missions failed at times and had to open fire on Myanmar Soldiers. As she is into risk-taking work and dangerous activities, the Tiger Lady (kyar-khin-sein) never discourages any hardships on the duty of underground cells.
Still, when some of their underground cell members were arrested, and then they uncovered their location, they had to run amok for their life’s safety.
“I asked some of my close friends for helping me to stay a night but failed. Finally, I had to spend a night in the graveyard outside of the town and faced some troubles when there was nothing to eat and stay there”, said the Tiger Lady grievously.
With the aim of armed revolution, she went alone to the camps in the jungle with the aid of her friends when their members split off and could not stand fast any longer in Mandalay.
Once she got to the camp in the jungle, she took basic military training for two months under the leadership of Captain Tiger of People Defense Force -Myaung T.G.R. Like other combatants, she got used to being hardship and tired as long as it took.
The Tiger Lady remarked,” I think I am more energetic on revolution and so I feel tired. But I enjoy this kind of tiredness and am heartened for me.”
One of her close coaches of the course noted, “She is pretty willing to help other comrades and she follows the guidelines of the coaches in the military training, and plus she is more active than her peers.
The trainers explained that they coached the trainees on how to think and decide in fighting to end the dictatorship.
After the basic military training, other female soldiers joined in office stuff, in the kitchen, and in the Medicare unit but as the Tiger Lady was willing to wage battles, she joined the landmine production unit.
Due to the scanty arms and ammunition for all the fighters, those who stay back at the camp have to work whatever they have, like joining other units. They have learned how to produce hand-made landmines and how to detonate them during the training.
“In my opinion, I like to fight in the frontline. I like to kill soldiers”, she said those words with really powerful tones.
“When the comrades go to blow up the mines, I would like to be with them. So, I ask for permission from the leader. First, there are some concerns, yet when I explain what I would like to do, he says yes” said she.
In the past men used to lead the drone team. But, now, the leader of Myaung T.G.R People Defense Force –Captain Tiger considered that women have to lead in Drone combat.
She formed the T.G.R Women Drone Force in June 2022 to reveal women can lead in combating and she believe she can show proof as women can be a leader in this Spring Revolution.
This Drone Force was organized by 15 women including the Tiger Lady and was given one-month training on how to fly a drone and how to fight with a drone.
If the drones are damaged, they have a technical team to fix them, too.
After the course, when the mission starts, Tiger Lady can make the plans successful and she has expertise in her assigned work. Captain Tiger said that she was picked as a leader based on her combative outlook.
Although she previously operated under her real name, she got the nickname Tiger Lady (Kyar Khin Sein) when she became the leader of the T.G.R Women Drone Force.
Captain Tiger explained that she was given the nickname Tiger Lady because she was brave and agile like a tiger and she could ambush and attack his prey with full strength.
He said that there have been some drone losses in the training, and there have been mission failures in some combats because they have to use the repaired drones in some attacks due to the financial condition.
Public support for the revolution has been becoming less and less as this revolution took a little long and arrests and burnt-down of villages by the military.
Since T.G.R has shared the donated money of the public for the attacks, the explosion, food ration, and the drone respectively, they have to fix the old and low-tech drones to be used in the attacks.
These days a drone costs at least 30 to 50 lakh MMK. The drones currently in use in the Force were bought with the money of the public as well as some were bought by selling off some comrades’ fields.
Captain Tiger said that they have not yet requested the requirements from the National Unity Government (NUG) because they are just starting attacks now.
Tiger Lady has some concerns whether the attacks may fail, or the drone may be shot down, or will be dropped down, or may be damaged due to some requirements on drones so far.
As they have to use the low-tech used drones, sometimes it malfunctions only when the mission is about to be successful and at that time the soldiers see it and shoot it down, so they have to run away by leaving the drones. Though the mission info was sometimes leaked and run away at such time, the Tiger Lady has never been disheartened.
“Our drones were shot down around 2 or 3 times. Memorably, when we drove the drone back, it was shot down and so we could not pick up the drone where it fell down,” said the Tiger Lady.
As this kind of work is risky and secretive in nature, it can be exhausting, but the Tiger Lady commented that it is a normal job for her, so her perseverance and courage can be seen here.
What’s more, even if one of the comrades from the Force died of some cause, she would grieve, but she had no intention of stopping the revolution and said,” I feel sorry and depressed as an emotion. I have absolutely no aim of quitting the attack. If one dies, I will work two times for that person too.
Thanks to these factors, the Lady Tiger’s Drone team has started getting some frequent successes in the month of August.
On August 2nd, the Tiger Lady’s Drone team dropped bombs twice on 30 military convoys on the Sagaing-Monywa highway, and around 10 soldiers including a captain were killed in the attack.
On August 9th as well a military outpost in Myin-mu township, Sagaing Region was blitzed by Women Drone Team and there 4 soldiers were killed and one seriously injured in the attack.
As a Women Drone Team, they have combated nearly every day ever since they had finished the training; however some attacks are declared publicly, and some are not.
Captain Tiger noted that since the formation of the TGR women Drone Force in 2 months, they have waged many battles, and around 30 soldiers, including the rank of captain, have been killed by their drone attacks.
Tiger lady estimated the number of casualties from the military side may be higher as they cannot go down to the ground immediately due to the security condition, so they only have to count the remaining bodies.
She said proudly, “Though the army has causalities, the Tiger Lady’s Drone Team has no causality but just some bruises and injuries so far.”
In fact, fighting with a drone seems a bit easy but it is a life-threatening task. While attacking with drones, we have no arms to defend, so after dropping the bombs, we have to fly back our drones and pick them up and have to run amok.
If we run a little later, soldiers can trace the location of the drone pick-up and we can be fired.
However, the leader of the women drone team- Tiger Lady said,” I know I can die any time in the battle. But if we die, let it happen and we have joined in the People Defense Force with this attitude.”
She courageously avowed that “till we can uproot the military dictatorship, we will fight back the dictator fearlessly.”
