Warning This video contains distressing content
Our houses were all burnt down, we have nothing left.
We couldn't take anything. We came here to India with nothing.
Tens of thousands of people from Myanmar
have fled across the border to neighbouring India.
They’re seeking refuge from a brutal crackdown by their own military,
who seized power in a coup last year.
His body was covered with knife wounds.
His arms were broken.
The military is trying to crush a people's uprising.
It started as a mass protest movement demanding democracy be restored.
Now it’s an armed struggle that’s fighting to remove the military from power.
We were protesting peacefully but the military turned their weapons on us.
In this world nothing is free.
It turns out freedom is not for free.
Joseph is trying to build a new life in India.
In Myanmar, he fled into the jungle when the military raided his village.
But my 13-year-old son Pali Nang didn’t make it.
My son and my nephew were arrested by the Myanmar military on 6 January 2022
along with four other guys.
Joseph’s son was at the time delivering food to local resistance fighters.
Members of the Chin Defence Forces or CDF.
They’re part of a network of civilian militia groups
that are fighting to restore democracy.
The CDF told me to run as the army was approaching,
I gave the rebel fighters a blanket and told them,
‘when you find my son's body please cover him with this’.
A few days later they found it and posted a picture of it on Facebook.
I saw my son’s body on Facebook.
Images of the bodies of the five other people arrested with him were also posted online.
They show clear signs of torture.
Their hands are tied behind their backs and their bodies are covered with knife wounds.
One of them is Meezali’s husband.
When I looked carefully at the photo I saw my husband.
He was naked,
his body was covered with knife wounds.
His arms were broken.
He was blindfolded and his mouth gagged.
They have two young children.
It’s so painful. We were only married for three years.
Our eldest son is still learning to talk. He's still very young.
Sometimes he dreams about his dad and asks me, ‘where's my dad?’
It’s very painful to try and answer him.
Meezali and Joseph crossed this river.
It’s all that divides India and Myanmar,
also known as Burma.
Since the military coup in February last year,
tens of thousands of people have made this same journey.
That guy has been struggling with his bike, because it’s a deep river,
this river Tui Pui, it acts as a natural border between India and Burma,
and this is one such crossing from where thousands of Burmese refugees
have crossed from Burma to India and have taken refuge in different parts of Mizoram.
Also, now crossing the river are injured rebel fighters.
They entered India seeking medical treatment.
Seventeen-year-old Hing Phyo Yu may never see again.
After a clash with the Myanmar military I went on patrol. I saw a bomb.
I thought it had already exploded.
When I saw that it hadn’t I tried to get away
but it exploded and hit my face.
He’s now in this safehouse in Mizoram, India,
along with other injured young rebels.
Hing Phyo Yu decided to take up arms after the military killed his uncle.
My uncle was feeding the cows when the military arrested him.
They killed him with a knife.
The Myanmar military killed my uncle.
I was so sad and cried and cried.
I never thought that they would be this brutal.
They deserve to be killed, so that's why I took up arms to fight back.
The Chin ethnic group have been fighting the Myanmar military
for greater autonomy for decades.
After the coup, they formed an alliance with other ethnic groups
and a civilian militia network,
to fight their common enemy, the military.
The Chin National army have trained protesters and joined the fight for democracy.
Their main camp is just a few metres from the India border.
I am right now in Farkawn village in Mizoram in India, it’s the last Indian village,
which borders with Myanmar and behind me is the famous Camp Victoria,
which hosts the Chin National Army and Chin Defence Forces.
And it is the major training ground for all the Chin rebel groups
and this river acts as a natural border between India and Myanmar.
From this bridge, it is one of the crossing points from where
thousands of Burmese refugees have crossed into India
and this also acts as a supply line, so the only way for them to get supplies is from India,
so they cross in India’s Mizoram from different
crossing points, get their supplies and go back.
While the resistance is largely funded by public donations,
the military they’re fighting is well resourced.
Russia and China are supplying its weapons.
And it’s willing to use whatever force necessary to stay in power.
Soldiers burnt Sang Ci's town of Thantlang to the ground in September last year.
This is the picture of our house,
which was burnt down by the military.
They burnt down everything, that's why we fled to India.
We put everything we had into building this house.
But we only got to live there for four years. We hadn't even finished building it.
We’re now living in this place that’s been given to us.
We didn’t even bring utensils to cook with.
The people here have had to provide us with everything.
Before the village was burnt,
it was the scene of intense fighting between the civilian militia and the military.
Twenty-three-year-old rebel fighter Onenorking was badly injured in the clashes.
The military used heavy weapons. I was hit by rocket propelled grenades.
After I got injured, I was sent to Camp Victoria.
I spent two nights there before being sent to Aizawl in Mizoram.
My bone is broken so they replaced it with steel.
Two bullets hit my leg. I was also hit in other places.
While a border divides them, the people of Mizoram, India
and the Chin state in Myanmar share a same culture.
The refugees from Myanmar cross over to Mizoram because of the military takeover,
because of the turmoil there, so they are forced to come.
Since they are our ethnic brothers and sisters, we have to accept them
and provide them shelter and food, all the requirements, whatever we can.
But the central government 2,500 kilometres away in New Delhi has a different view.
They don’t officially recognise refugees from Myanmar.
The Indian government is also I would say in a very tricky position.
I mean that's the word they use in my presence.
It's a tricky position because they have to see the geopolitics.
They have to see their relationship with the other neighbouring countries
and so they can't just change that.
And not officially accepting it, it also puts your government and your state at a position
where you can't accept international, organisations can’t come here to help you
until the government of India says that we are accepting refugees.
Exactly, very true, well we have been having talks with the UNHCR also,
they are very sympathetic, they understand,
they are extending humanitarian considerations.
But they also have to see the position, the official position of the government of India.
So even though they are at present lending help,
material help, they cannot extend financial help as such.
And so is the case with the Mizoram government.
The Mizoram government is a part of India, I mean it's a part of the union of India
so they can't just ignore the stand taken by the Indian government,
so they have to tag along with that.
The Indian government did not respond to the BBC’s interview request.
With the central government failing to recognise them as refugees,
people here are having to rely on local goodwill and donations.
Joseph hopes that one day he will be able to return home.
He wants justice for his son.
It's so painful, I wanted to pick up a gun and join the resistance
but my family stopped me. So that's why I came here to India.
I would have liked to kill them
but one day I'll take them to court.
I’ll seek justice when our country is stable again.
But this is likely to be a long fight.
When rebel fighter Onarking is strong enough, he will return.
I will go back and fight.
For the sake of my country, I’m willing to sacrifice my life.
Our world is not safe anymore.
Our hopes and dreams are dying now.
There is no more light.
Oh our world. Oh world, oh life, happiness is gone.
Oh our life.
Twenty-five-year-old Milley Sui is a singer and a pro-democracy activist.
She now manages logistics for the resistance in Camp Victoria.
She also writes songs about what’s happening in Myanmar.
People are dying, people are being separated from their families
and forced to live in the jungle.
I, too, have gone through that.
I try to express this loss in my songs.
I want to tell the world what is happening in our country.
This is my way of raising awareness.
Stay brave and don’t lose hope.
One day we will succeed and be free.
One day this will end.
As the world looks away and the conflict intensifies in Myanmar,
more people will be forced into exile across this border.
They’re relying on the support of the local community.
With India officially refusing to recognise them,
their life here will be fraught with uncertainty.