Pro-democracy activists in Myanmar choose fighting inside over flight to border

Nearly 20 years ago, thousands of student activists from Myanmar fled to this border region, determined to wage an ultimately doomed guerrilla war against a military which had crushed their movement.

Victims of malarial mosquitoes, the bullets of a vastly superior force and their own infighting, the young jungle warriors withered, many becoming disillusioned exiles scattered from Australia to the United States.

Some expected a similar exodus following the recent suppression of another pro-democracy uprising in the military-ruled Southeast Asian nation, but only a few have so far sought refuge along the rugged, 1,800-kilometer (1,100-mile) Thai-Myanmar …