After weeks of brutal captivity, the man's desperate escape hinged on a delicate diplomatic negotiation—and a dangerous, life-or-death journey to freedom.

In 2023, Alex Kliševits ended up in the Kokang self-administration area, around 500 kilometers to the northeast of Mandalay, in the northeast of Myanmar.

Kokang lies in the Shan State, which borders China and is, "Pealtnägija" reported, controlled by Chinese mafia and local warlords. This lawless region, historically linked to the Golden Triangle, is now a hub for cybercrime, human trafficking, and corruption.

Kliševits, born in Tallinn, served for nearly 15 years in both the Estonian Navy and the EDF's Scouts Battalion, later working as a private maritime security guard.

His wife, Anna, is also a former soldier now a tactical medicine instructor in the Defense League; she had moved to Estonia from Ukraine.

In 2021, Alex founded his own company, Iron Navy, a security firm offering maritime security services, and later expanded to provide training in Ukraine following the full-scale Russian invasion.

In August 2023, after finishing up a contract with the EDF, Alex saw a job ad for personal security services, offering US$4,500 per month.

The post, shared by a foreign acquaintance, was vague in terms, though evidently not for the faint-hearted, stipulating applicants with special forces or French Foreign Legion experience would be preferred; the intermediary clarified that the employer was a Chinese businessman.

The destination on the flight tickets was Myanmar, a country under military junta rule.

Despite this, Anna said Alex: "Wasn't really afraid, because I knew that he had worked for a long time as a maritime security guard in similar countries, some of which were highly dangerous."

Alex flew out from Tallinn on September 6, arriving two days later in Mandalay, Myanmar's second city and immortalized in a poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling.

At a hotel on the outskirts of the city, Alex met two other bodyguards: Yve (a Canadian) and Peter (from Hungary).

The local staff were uncommunicative, he said, and Alex sent video clips home showing the men giving a thumbs-up.

The journey to meet their employer, however, soon took a strange turn.

They were stopped at a military checkpoint, but their employer's representatives quickly switched vehicles and drivers.

Odder still, a Chinese family traveled along with them, sometimes hiding in the vehicle's trunk. "At that point... I don't know what's going on, I don't understand anything," Alex recalled.

Eventually, the entourage arrived at a compound, apparently controlled by warlords and the Chinese mafia, and surrounded by high walls, barbed wire, even featuring a casino-hotel.

Alex later learned that they had ended up in the Kokang region, capital Laukkaing.

"We don't know how Alex ended up there or what his employer told him about whom he was going to guard," Marti Mätas, Deputy Head of the Estonian Embassy in Beijing, told "Pealtnägija."

Alex didn't initially understand the situation.

"Yes, there was a casino — be it a legal or illegal one ... We didn't immediately understand what they were doing," Alex said.

On his first night at the compound, he witnessed a man being harshly punished for some misdemeanor but didn't react, as local police officers were present.

It wasn't until reaching Laukkaing that Alex learned his employer's company, Shadow Defense, was run by Chinese nationals.

The company had hired 12 Western security guards, mostly veterans of the near-legendary French Foreign Legion.

Their job was to secure a Chinese businessman, whom Alex described as "the pajama boss" due to his habit of wearing expensive pajamas with Gucci or Armani brands.

"I saw him, but no one spoke to him," Alex recounted.

As the days passed by, Alex found himself in increasingly strange circumstances.

He found himself in rooms where cybercriminals were evidently at work, but couldn't communicate with them, due to the language barrier.

Meanwhile, leaving the compound was nigh impossible, as he had no written contract and would be required to leave at his own expense.

Outside the compound, gunfire and the presence of armored vehicles were common sights and sounds; a street battle broke out between soldiers and rebels right outside their hotel windows.

On October 27, 2023, at a time when Western nations were urging their citizens to leave the country, Alex and his companions began their journey back to Mandalay.

Their convoy came under fire, however, and rebels ambushed them.

"I saw a man with an RPG7... Then I looked back, and soldiers were already moving in and shooting," Alex said.

One of their drivers was hit and fell. Alex and his companions were captured and taken to an abandoned house, then to a detention facility, and finally to a prison with poor conditions.

"There was no light, no facilities, no bath or toilet anywhere," Anna recalled. "It stank... and we were expected to sleep on the floor," Alex added.

The group was interrogated multiple times, but Alex said no violence was employed, at least on his group.

"I did hear soldiers shouting, like someone was using an electric shock device," he added.

Meanwhile, Anna contacted the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Internal Security Service, the Kapo, prompting action from Marti Mätas.

"The first step was to start communicating with the Chinese authorities," Mätas explained, adding the goal was to get the group across the Chinese border, in the opposite direction from Mandalay.

Then on November 6, Alex managed to call Anna.

"Their physical condition may not have been all that bad, but their mental condition… their mental state had deteriorated," Mätas said.

The rebels moved the men to an abandoned hotel, where Mätas negotiated for their release.

"Fortunately, they were also interested in getting rid of that group," Mätas said.

By the end of November, the men were escorted to the border, where armed forces awaited them.

"If they weren't there, the Chinese wouldn't accept them," Mätas noted.

Following more questioning, the men were put on a bus and flown to Kunming International Airport, in Yunnan Province in southwestern China.

Alex met Mätas and some other Estonian diplomats there.

"Right up until the last moment, we didn't know how this operation might end up," Mätas recalled.

Alex finally got to return home to Tallinn, just in time for Christmas 2023.

"I can say that I'm very grateful to the Estonian diplomatic corps, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Internal Security Service, and my wife that I'm sitting here right now talking to you," Alex said.

The company that recruited him took no responsibility for what had happened and didn't even pay his salary.

Meanwhile, the region remains a hub for cybercriminals and human trafficking.

To help cope with the trauma of the experience, Alex wrote up a manuscript documenting his travels, which he plans to publish as a book.

Myanmar, formerly Burma, lies in Southeast Asia and is bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos, and Thailand.

With a population of about 55 million, the country has a long recent history of political unrest, including military rule since a 2021 coup. It has been engulfed in civil war, ethnic conflict, and ongoing human rights violations, despite being resource-rich.

The country's most famous champion of democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, 79, is currently back under house arrest after a 2021 coup. She had been Myanmar's de facto leader in 2016, serving as State Counsellor after her party, the NLD, won the 2015 elections.

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