Q&A: Author Clare Hammond reveals how railways made and broke Myanmar

Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — For three months in 2016, Clare Hammond, a British journalist working in the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar, traveled across the country on trains with a mission to find out where they went, who built them, and why. Hammond recounts the journey in her book, “On the Shadow Tracks: A Journey through Occupied Myanmar.” She describes how the rails carried the force of military occupation deep into Myanmar’s interior, first on behalf of the British and later the Myanmar military. In a Q&A with The Associated Press, she says the journey gave her hope.