After the Myanmar military detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ousted her elected government in the Feb. 1 coup, democracy activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi threw herself into the protest movement that took root across the country.
The 29-year-old had moved from one secret location to another just an hour before a video call with TIME in mid-March. Changing locations is something she and her fellow activists do every two to three weeks, Thinzar Shunlei Yi says, sitting against a white wall with curtains drawn.
“Nowhere is safe in the country right now. Nobody is safe. Even though I’m staying in my safe house, actually I’m not safe. I don’t feel safe at all.”
Security forces have intensified their violent crackdown on anti-coup protesters. At least 261 people have been killed since the military takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a human rights organization based in Thailand that tracks political imprisonments and deaths in Myanmar. The death toll continues to rise daily and police and soldiers have taken to targeting protesters in night-time raids.
“It’s clearly a daily slaughter of the peaceful protesters,” says Thinzar Shunlei Yi, who is now one of the most prominent figures in the resistance against the military junta—a rebellion that is starting to be known locally as the Spring Revolution.
