The Frontline Club will screen a short documentary, made by journalist Shafiur Rahman on the current crisis, followed by a panel discussion on the ongoing atrocities that are afflicting the region.

Shafiur Rahman’s documentary on Rohingya women uses harrowing footage from the border with Myanmar as well as devastating testimony from Rohingya refugees. The panel will further help to decipher whether this is an ethno-religious conflict or something more?

Chair

Professor Penny Green

Professor Green is Professor of Law and Globalisation at Queen Mary University of London. Professor Green has published extensively on state crime theory (including her monograph with Tony Ward, State Crime: Governments, Violence and Corruption), state violence, Turkish criminal justice and politics, ‘natural’ disasters, transnational crime, mass forced evictions/displacement and resistance to state violence. She has a long track record of researching in hostile environments and has conducted fieldwork in the UK, Turkey, Kurdistan, Palestine/Israel, Tunisia and Myanmar. Professor Green is Founder and Director of the award winning International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) – a multi-disciplinary international initiative to collate, analyse and disseminate research-based knowledge about criminal state practices and resistance to them. Professor Green’s most recent projects include a comparative study of civil society resistance to state crime in Turkey, Tunisia, Colombia, PNG, Kenya and Myanmar); Myanmar’s genocide against its Muslim ethnic Rohingya; and forced evictions in Palestine/Israel.

Speakers

Shafiur Rahman 

Shafiur Rahman is an independent documentary maker. His projects highlight issues around human rights, migration and poverty.  Filming in a wide variety of contexts and countries from Bangladesh, Libya, Italy,  South Africa,  Kenya, the US, his work has taken him most recently to the Myanmar/Bangladesh border. He has been documenting  Rohingya refugee stories since 2016

Dr Azeem Ibrahim

Dr Azeem Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Policy and Research Professor at the Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College. He is also author of The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar’s Hidden Genocide, He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and has previously been appointed an International Security Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a World Fellow at Yale University. Over the years, Dr Ibrahim has met and advised numerous world leaders on policy development. In his most recent roles, he served as National Security and Defence Policy Advisor to the Leader of the (UK) Labour Party, Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP, and the Shadow Cabinet from 2012 to 2015, and as Strategic Policy Advisor to the Chairman of Pakistan’s PTI party, Imran Khan. Read his recent interview in New York magazine here.

Dr Thomas MacManus

Thomas MacManus is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow based at the International State Crime Initiative in the Department of Law. Thomas is admitted as an Attorney-at-Law (New York) and Solicitor (Ireland). Thomas is an Editor in Chief of State Crime journal, and Joint Editor of Amicus Journal: Assisting Lawyers for Justice on Death Row. He is also a Director of the Colombia Caravana.

Anastasia Taylor-Lind 

Anastasia Taylor-Lind is an English/Swedish photojournalist who has been working on issues relating to women, population and war for over a decade. She is a Harvard Nieman Fellow 2016, and recently finished a year of research at the university on war, and how we tell stories about modern conflict. She has written about her experiences as a photojournalist for The New York Times, TIME LightBox, Nieman Reports and National Geographic. As a photographic storyteller, her focus has been on long-form narrative reportage for monthly magazines. Anastasia is currently in Bangladesh covering the Rohingya crisis for Human Rights Watch.

We see mafias as vast, powerful organisations, harvesting billions of dollars across the globe and wrapping their tentacles around everything from governance to finance. But is this the truth? Travelling from mafia initiation ceremonies in far-flung Russian cities to elite gambling clubs in downtown Macau, Federico Varese sets off in search of answers. Using wiretapped conversations, interviews and previously unpublished police records, he builds up a picture of the real men and women caught up in mafia life, showing their loves and fears, ambitions and disappointments, as well as their crimes.

Mafia Life takes us into the real world of organised crime, where henchmen worry about their bad managers and have high blood pressure, assassinations are bungled as often as they come off, and increasing pressure from law enforcement means that a life of crime is no longer lived in the lap of luxury. As our world changes, so must mafias. Globalisation, migration and technology are disrupting traditions and threatening their revenue streams, and the Mafiosi must evolve or die. Mafia Life is an intense and totally compelling look at these organisations and the daily life of their members, as they get to grips with the modern world.

Oo is one of his nation’s predominant emerging filmmakers and of the many talents being showcased at the Frontline Club’s ‘A Country in Motion: Films From Burma’ event. Organised by the Czech Centre, the films highlight the recent political, cultural and social transitions in Burma.

Four films were exhibited. The Little Finger, A Peaceful Land, I Wanna Go To School and A Buffalo Boy. Focusing on a range of issues including development, human rights, democracy, education and exploitation, the films provided an illuminating insight into life in modern day Myanmar.

Interesting and thought provoking screening at @frontlineclub learning about human rights and activism in #Myanmar pic.twitter.com/drL04LQmXX

— Haylea Campbell (@HayleaCampbell) November 10, 2016

Left to Right: Human rights campaigner, Igor Blaževič, Burmese MP, Susanna Hla Hla Soe (National League for Democracy Party), Former Czech ambassador to the UK, Pavel Seifter

Chaired by the former Czech ambassador to the UK, Pavel Seifter, the event drew on the remarkable work being produced by a selection of Burma’s emerging filmmakers. During the open discussion after the films’ airing, Seifter was joined on stage by Burmese MP Susanna Hla Hla Soe (National League for Democracy Party) and the internationally renowned human rights campaigner Igor Blaževič. Oo joined on Skype.

Addressing the crowd from his native Burma, Oo is broadly positive about the course of progress in his country. He cautions however that further change is needed and highlights aspects of Burmese life that remain problematic. Oo spoke of the need to tell stories that had not been possible to tell in the past, rationalising that as a result, many of the documentaries emerging out of Burma are testimonial in nature.

Igor Blaževič agreed that despite the political developments made, problems remain. He outlined four major problems facing the country today:

“First is the military… the military protects the constitution and the constitution protects the military. The second problem is ongoing civil war… there is profound disagreement between the ethnic minorities and those in power. The third problem is ethnic nationalism… and the fourth problem is that the country is economically captured by the oligarchy groups created under the military”.

Oo concurred that the Army represents a major obstacle to further progress in Myanmar: “Now there is a new distinction between the Army and the Government. They used to be the same thing. It is fine to criticise the Government but the Army remain hard to touch”. He explained that filmmakers still have to submit material to a censorship board which decides upon what may or may not be shown to the wider public. This process prevented a number of films containing material critical of the Army from being shown at the Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival in June this year.

MP Susanna Hla Hla Soe concluded: “The first challenge is the expectation of the people… They would like to see the new Myanamar happen, but change is slow”.

Former Czech ambassador to the UK, Pavel Seifter

Film Reviews:

The Little Finger

Produced by: Shune Lei Thar, Kaung Myat Thu Kyaw, Saw Reagan

The Little Finger portrays the tale of the Burmese democracy in its infancy, covering the 2015 election from the perspective of two women leading notably different lives. One of the women filmed was Susanna Hla Hla (a guest at the Frontline Club for the evening), a parliamentary candidate for the National League for Democracy party, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi. The other is a grass grower living and working in rural Burma.

The film exposes the flowering yet fragile state of Burmese democracy. The shots of voting day queues, an old man sitting patiently waiting to cast his vote, a young man taking a ‘selfie’ in the queue, contrast with the concerns expressed by NLD activists regarding election tampering and voter documentation malpractice.

The Little Finger reveals the intertwined excitement and nervousness of democracy in action. It is hopeful yet truthful, it doesn’t fail to expose the disappointment felt by those left out of the democratic process. “They never failed to collect our taxes but now they are saying we can’t vote,” says one man upon finding out he can’t be registered to vote due to residential status issues. A warts and all look at the democratic process in action — The Little Finger records the joy of those who have waited so long for the vote exercising their democratic right, and the pain felt by those who’s wait goes on.

A Peaceful Land

Produced by:Sai Kong Kham, Lamin Oo

The early shots of toy soldiers in the sand beautifully set the scene for the story that unfolds throughout A Peaceful Land. This is the tale of land taken, of an entire way of life disrupted. Drawing on a range of interviews with those impacted, the film documents the 2005 government initiated nation-wide campaign to plant Physic Nut – a bush-like tree, used for biodiesel production.

Following Government orders, the Army set about confiscating acres of farmland as part of the programme, forcing farmers to plant the trees and work the land appropriated.

Faced with hardship and injustice, four courageous farmers from Nat Mauk (Magway Division) stood up against the authorities and fought for their rights and land.

Following prolonged harassment and even in some cases imprisonment, the afflicted were offered miserly compensation from the Government in return for seized acreage. Many felt forced to accept the terms and as such lost their deep connection to their farmland.

Despite intense pressure from the authorities, one female farmer explains why she refused to give up her plot: “The money will run out in the end, but the farmland will never run out”.

The documentary is beautifully shot and tenderly portrays the widespread pain felt by Burmese farmers at their loss of land and community. The documentary closes with frames depicting earth eroding into a river beside rural fields, symbolising the farmers plight.

I Wanna Go to School

Produced by: Nyan Kyal Say 

A powerful, short animation about a Burmese brother and sister who dream of going to school together. The story demonstrates effectively the obstacles to education faced by children in Burma. It highlights the prevalence and impact of gender inequality, poverty, child labour and abuse. With one in five Burmese children not in education and one in three Burmese children working, the story told is sadly an everyday reality for many young boys and girls in Myanmar.
A Buffalo Boy
Produced by: Mai Ah Nway (Ta’ang Chitthu) 

A fiction film detailing the life of a small boy in a rural village in the Burmese countryside. The boy is caught in the midst of warring parents, with his father a destructive opium addict and his mother struggling to provide for the family. The boy longs for an education and to join the other children from his village at school but is instead forced to work for the family, performing tasks such as gathering water and organising the family home.

The film provides a potent insight into the life of this one young boy, carefully detailing the everyday defeats inflicted upon him which curtail his happiness and development. After an argument between his parents, his mother is arrested whilst trying to buy opium for his father. The boy is left alone with his dad and is soon after sold off to a stranger to finance his father’s habit. Hard hitting, raw and skilfully weaved together, this is the story of the innocence of youth lost.

Followed by a discussion with Burmese filmmakers and experts, responding to the films as well as reflecting on Czech – Burmese parallels, Václav Havel´s friendship with Aung San Su Kyi, and the collaboration between Czech and Burmese filmmakers.

Organised by the Czech Centre in partnership with Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival, Human Dignity Film Institute and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic

Speakers:

Igor Blaževič is most known as a relentless human rights campaigner of Bosnian origin living in the Czech Republic. He participated in many humanitarian missions (Sarajevo, Chechnya, Cambodia, Burma, East Timor) and together with his wife, filmmaker Jasmina Blaževič, directed a wide range of documentaries (The Refugees of Twenty Years War (2000), Only 500 Deaths (2002), Burmese Prisoners (2002)) focusing on political oppression. In 1999 he founded One World Human Rights International Film Festival in Prague, which is today the biggest festival of its sort in Europe. For several years he headed the human rights department of the renowned Czech NGO People in Need. In the past five years, Igor has been based in Thailand and Burma, as the director of the Educational Initiatives, training program for Burmese activists. He is an international consultant for the Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival in Burma, in the establishment of which he played a crucial role. Currently he is with the Prague Civil Society Centre in charge for the Transitions Program.

Pavel Seifter was Czech ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1997 until his retirement in 2003. A lecturer in labour and social history in Prague, he was forced to leave his post after the Soviet invasion in 1968. He then worked as a window cleaner for twenty years, and signed the Charter 77, before becoming a key member of the Civic Forum movement, which led to the return from totalitarianism to democratic values in Czechoslovakia. He subsequently served as deputy director of the Institute of Contemporary History and then as the deputy director of the Institute of International Relations in Prague. He was appointed as Director of Foreign Policy to the President in 1993. He is currently a visiting research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, LSE.

MP Susanna Hla Hla Soe is a member of the Burmese parliament representing the National League for Democracy, Susanna Hla Hla So has an impressive record as an activist working to improve the lives of Karen women in Burma. She worked for 12 years for the World Vision and established The Karen Women’s Action Group (KWAG) in 2010. Through KWAG she continued to empower Karen women in Karen State, ran anti-trafficking projects and took part in the peace negotiation process between the Karen National Union and the Burmese government to finally bring to an end 60 years of fighting between the two groups. She successfully ran for the MP position in the 2015 landmark elections. In 2012 she received the InterAction Humanitarian Award in Washington DC.

Lamin Oo is a Burmese filmmaker and director of A Peaceful Land

Programme:

THE LITTLE FINGER

Shune Lei Thar, Kaung Myat Thu Kyaw, Saw Reagan / Myanmar / 2016 / 35 min

Shot during the 2015 election, a portrait of a female Parliamentary candidate and an ordinary woman in the context of the change brought about the little fingers of the voters.

A PEACEFUL LAND

Sai Kong Kham, Lamin Oo / Myanmar / 2016 / 21 min

In 2005, Myanmar government started a nation-wide campaign to plant Physic Nut – a toxic bush-like tree – for biodiesel production. It was considered “a national duty” to grow these
trees. The country was to plant eight million acres within three years. This radical program resulted in land confiscations and forced labor all over the country. Faced with these hardship and injustice, four courageous farmers from Nat Mauk (Magway Division) stood up against the authorities and fought for their rights and their land.

I WANNA GO TO SCHOOL

Nyan Kyal Say  / Animation / Myanmar / 2015 / 3 min

A short animation about a brother and a sister who dream of going to school together. They are trying to escape from obstacles such as gender inequality, poverty, child abuse, child labour, human trafficking, etc. that are blocking their chance to education.

A BUFFALO BOY

Mai Ah Nway (Ta’ang Chitthu)  / Myanmar / 2015 / 12 min

A short fiction film about a boy from the village of Paloung Mountain and how he become a buffalo boy. Winner of the Min Ko Naing Award and the Hantharwady U Win Tin Award at the 2015 Human Rights and Dignity Film Festival.

PARTNERS

Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival (HRHDIFF) Burma´s first festival of its kind, Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival, aims to promote human rights awareness in Burma/Myanmar by using the power of film and to create space for encouraging human rights discussions amongst the general public. The festival is closely connected to the Human Dignity Film Institute which offers media and film trainings to aspiring young filmmakers in Yangon. The festival also tours every year in Burmese towns and villages.

Czech Centre London‘s mission is to actively promote the Czech Republic by showcasing Czechculture in the UK. Its programme covers visual and performing arts, film, literature, music,
architecture, design and fashion. As well as hosting its own events, the Czech Centre offers support for other groups organising Czech related initiatives in the UK. The centre also seeks to further enhance cultural relationships between the UK and the Czech Republic through curatorial visits, media tours and artistic residencies; helping to generate creative dialogue among artists, scholars and cultural activists from both countries. The Czech Centre is a member of EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture).

L to R: Richard Cockett, Hkanhpa Sadan, Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, Robert Cooper, Paul French

Meanwhile certain regions of Burma are about to learn how to cast a ballot on November 8, ethnic minorities in rural areas are fleeing their homes that are being burnt by the military forces.

On Tuesday September 22, a panel of experts and activists discussed the uncertain future of the country that has been suffering the longest ongoing civil war.

Shortly after Paul French, commentator on Asia chairing the panel, invited the speakers to make their pitch about the current situation, it became clear that opinions about the value of recent reforms value immensely.

Meanwhile general secretary of the Kachin National Council Hkanhpa Sadan and campaigns officer at Burma Campaign UK Wai Hnin Pwint Thon said they can be hardly excited about the election, The Economist correspondent Richard Cockett  and adviser to EU representatives Robert Cooper sustained that the progress has been palpable.

“What western community did was they gave us furniture so far and television, but we still don’t have a roof to live under. They gave us the furniture, because they want the garden,” Mr Sadan outlined the perspective of the Burmese.

Ms Pwint Thon criticised the constitution introduced in 2008, which in her view gives a fake illusion of a legal state. “The aim of the constitutions is to create an appearance of change while still holding on to military power and while giving the military the power to decide on economy and politics of the country,” she said.

Mr Cockett underlined that the reforms should be considered in a relevant context. “You should judge Burma against the standards of the region, not against standards of western democracy or British parliamentary democracy,” he said numbering increasingly oppressive countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia.

According to him, the idea of restoring order in the country is inaccurate. “This country has never experienced order. It’s never experienced peace. Indeed, it’s never experienced an existence as a coherent country at all,” Mr Cockett said referring to the conflict ongoing since 1948.

Mr Cooper reckoned that the upcoming election might become the fairest that the country will have witnessed. “It’s been contested by a large number of parties. It’s got a large number of observers, very large number of local monitors and a large number of international observers there. And it’s not happened before,” he said.

Nevertheless, all the speakers concluded that the way towards genuine democracy, peace with ethnic minorities and complete freedom of expression will be long and bumpy.

Ms Pwint Thon criticised the western “wait and see” approach and Mr Cockett admitted that the economic withdrawal from Myanmar didn’t help the situation either. “It meant that the best practices left the country and they were left with Chinese companies who didn’t care or ever thought about human rights,” he said.

The panel also agreed that the anticipated election might not be that key in the transition. One of the root causes of the conflict is oppression of the country’s minorities.

Mr Sadan underlined that Myanmar has introduced one of the most discriminative religious laws in the world. Ms Pwint Thon added it is not only Muslims, but also women who are not treated equally.

Mr Cockett spoke about a “very poisonous sectarian atmosphere” that he considers one of the real dangers of the election. “It could be a real flashpoint that they exploit all this in the run-up to the election and even after the election. It’ll be extremely explosive in Rakhine state itself where the Rohingya have been entirely disenfrenchised and the buddhist Rakhine nationalists will use this to rally opinion and if the attack Muslims,” he said.

On 8 November, the people of Myanmar will go to the polls in an election that is being seen as a step towards full democracy after nearly half a century of military rule.

Myanmar has seen reforms come into effect since 2010, when military rule was replaced by a military-backed civilian government, but how far have these reforms gone and what more needs to be done?

One of the largest and once one of the richest countries in Southeast Asia, what impact have successive military regimes had on Myanmar?

With a panel of experts we will explore what life is like in Myanmar, the political and ethical divisions, and what change the election will bring.

Chaired by Paul French, an author and widely published analyst and commentator on Asia, Asian politics and current affairs. He is author of North Korea: State of Paranoia and the international bestseller Midnight in Peking.

The panel:

Hkanhpa Sadan is general secretary of the Kachin National Council, Kachin National Organisation. He is one of the founding members of the exile Kachin political movement based in the UK with branches across Europe, the US and Asia.

Dr Richard Cockett is editor and correspondent at The Economist. He is the author of several books, including Sudan: Darfur and the Failure of an African state and Blood, Dreams and Gold: The Changing Face of Burma.

Robert Cooper worked for ten years for the European Union High Representative, Javier Solana and later Catherine Ashton. From 2012 he served a further year as a special adviser on Myanmar. He served as a diplomat from 1970 to 2002, his posts included Tokyo, Brussels, Bonn, head of the policy planning staff and Asia director.

Wai Hnin Pwint Thon is a campaigns officer at Burma Campaign UK. She is the daughter of Mya Aye, one of the leaders of the 88-generation Students Group. Born in Rangoon – because of her father’s activities she faced harassment and discrimination and left the country in 2006 to continue her studies.

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT WILL BE FILMED AND STREAMED LIVE ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Photo: Htoo Tay Zar. Aung San Suu Kyi greeting supporters from Bago State in 2011.

On 11 June, the Frontline Club hosted Wendy Law-Yone, in conversation with the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall. She was discussed her new memoir based on the manuscripts of her father, Ed Law-Yone, the founder of Burma’s The Nation newspaper.

It was not until 20 years after his death that Law-Yone found the confidence to unearth her father’s manuscripts. She said:

“I can give my version of his version, so in a way this memoir is very slanted, because it’s not an attempt to write a full rounded autobiography.”

Law-Yone talked about her father’s early career:

 “[Ed Law-Yone] had been working as an editor on a newspaper owned by the Foreign Minister, and after which was supposed to get a diplomatic posting. At the end of the posting his boss said ‘you have no future as a diplomat, but you would make a very good newspaper man’, so in a huff he wrote his resignation and stormed off.”

Wendy Law-Yone with Bridget Kendall Photo credit: Millicent Teasdale

With Rangoon still in ruins following the Second World War, Law-Yone revealed:

“The only place he could afford was in downtown Rangoon, in some old Japanese stables. It stank and there was no electricity, but in that setting he produced his first copy of The Nation. Very optimistically he printed 2,000 copies. Just 12 were sold.”

Law-Yone explained her feelings at the time her father was arrested:

“Life changed from this great promise that I was nurturing about going to study abroad and everything stopped. One of the real paradoxes of exile and one of the real cruelties is that you’re forced to be absent, but it makes it really impossible for you to actually ever leave, because in exile you are constantly harkening back to a place you can never get to.”

Although admitting her mother probably never sent the letters, throughout Ed Law- Yone’s imprisonment, Law-Yone wrote letters to General Ne Win.

“Of all the dictators, Ne Win seemed to be the most knowable, and he had some very obvious human flaws.”

Kendall questioned the title of the memoir, to which Law-Yone replied:

“Whilst in the jungle trying to ferment this revolution, he was permanently frustrated at his peace-loving Burmese colleagues. He was always trying to light a fire under them and he said, ‘Remember the old Burmese saying: Die and it’s the vile earth, Live and it’s the golden parasol. So go for the golden parasol.’ It seems to characterise his do-or-die attitude to life.”

Law-Yone talked of the strength of her fathers voice and biting editorials:

“In one I remember he wrote ’the average Burmese is a wonderful ignoramus.’ He was more than a newspaper editor; he was telling people how to behave as newly independent nation.”

In light of the current anti – Muslim violence across Burma, Law Yone commented:

“This book has led me to try and understand a little more of what it means to be Burmese; this notion of what is Burmese is a very fluid thing, as the Burmese are all an amalgam of the differences that have been a part of Burma’s cultural history.”

Watch or listen to the event here:

https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/insight-with-wendy-law-yone-a

Bangkok-based photographer Nic Dunlop, in conversation with BBC foreign correspondent Fergal Keane, previewed his new book Brave New Burma at the Frontline Club on Wednesday 15th May. Twenty years in the making, Brave New Burma explores the country from the ongoing civil war to its deceptively tranquil cities, using both photographs and words by Dunlop.

Fergal Keane (L) and Nic Dunlop. Photo credit: Sally Ashley-Cound

Keane started off by asking Dunlop: why spend 20 years photographing Burma? Dunlop explained:

“I understood so little about Burma and I felt the only way to really get to grips with it was not only to read about it but to travel. . . . It grew out of a quest to really understand how a deeply unpopular regime could hold on to power. . . . I thought that if I was really going to get under the skin of what was going on in Burma I needed to really bide my time.”

Until recently the Burmese regime was considered to be in the same bracket as North Korea, but Dunlop said that initially he got little sense of that:

“Everything seemed normal, any sign of oppression – what I was expecting – was not there. It was a country that had been sealed off from the outside world for many years, steeped in tradition; it was almost like it was trapped in the 19th Century.”

http://twitter.com/#!/DocChrisKing/status/334745775575805955

Dunlop said that he has a difficult time trusting photography so he felt that putting words to his images helped to contextualise his work and, in turn, the oppression of the Burmese people:

“What journalism in general has a difficulty with is trying to uncover or follow ongoing oppression. . . . When people talked about oppression I didn’t know what they meant. I didn’t know what it looked like so I resolved to take photographs and try and describe something of what was happening on a daily basis.”

Of a photograph showing the distribution of newspapers, Dunlop commented:

“Images like this are very deceptive. Without the context that I’m going to give you now, you wouldn’t know what this photograph says. Many journalists were in prison when this photograph was taken . . . they were heavily censored. Photography for me has always been a difficult and complicated medium, I’m not sure I entirely trust it. That’s why I felt that contextual information was important, hence the idea of the book.”

http://twitter.com/#!/charlyfeldman/status/334757068533813248

Keane asked whether Dunlop is hopeful about the future of Burma:

“I think an opportunity has been missed. I think that Suu Kyi’s continued silence on the violence that has been perpetrated by many different groups, and the silence about the militaries role in all of this, has dashed any hopes of any sense of reconciliation between enemies that have been enemies for many years.”

“We have to look at Burma for the complicated place that it is and not see it as being this polarised idea. I think if we can engage in Burma in the complicated, fascinating, diverse and dynamic country that it is, then yes [I am hopeful].”

Dunlop continued:

“2007 was a landmark event, not so much for Burma, [but] in the way the West understood what was going on. The monks took to the streets and protested against the regime . . . within days the army and the police, with rifles and live ammunition, opened fire and it was quelled within a matter of days. I think it really confirmed to many people throughout the world that the regime was brutal. . . . It became a major media event and Aung San Suu Kyi became the embodiment of everything that was right about Burma, and the military was everything that was wrong.”

“It’s become almost impossible to talk about Burma without talking about Aung San Suu Kyi herself.”

Keane then added:

“She is taking the stick [for not doing anything about the oppression], when she actually has no real power to effect any change.”

Burmese civil war has been ongoing since it attained independence in 1948 and it is the longest-running civil war in the world, involving over 135 ethnic groups. These ethnic diversities are reiterated in Dunlop‘s photographs:

“The first thing you notice is the look of everyone; how rich and diverse. . . . It’s these [portrait] pictures that defy the national image that the Burmese regime has tried to impose – that there’s only one original ethnic group.”

Nic Dunlop’s new book Brave New Burma is available on Amazon now.

Sally Ashley-Cound is a freelance journalist based in London.

Watch Nic Dunlop discuss his photographs in full or listen to the podcast below:

https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/in-the-picture-brave-new-burma

https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/insight-with-wendy-law-yone-a

In 1948, as Burma gained independence, a young man named Ed Law-Yone founded The Nation newspaper. It went on to become Burma’s leading English-language daily and a hugely influential voice in the country. Ed Law-Yone, the editor and proprietor, became a major player within the political elite, but following the military coup of 1962 the paper was closed and he was imprisoned.

After five years he fled to Thailand to form a government–in-exile and to try to ignite a revolution. He was unsuccessful and later settled in the US where he died in 1980. He did not live to see the Burma he dreamed of but he entrusted his daughter, Wendy Law-Yone, to tell his remarkable story.

It was not until 20 years after his death that Wendy Law-Yone found the confidence to unearth her father’s manuscripts. She will be joining us in conversation with the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall to talk about the unique portrait of Burma she discovered.

Wendy Law-Yone was born in Mandalay, Burma, in 1947. She fled after the 1962 coup, settling in the US where she published two novels The Coffin Tree and Irrawaddy Tango. She came to the UK on a David T.K. Wong creative writing fellowship at the University of East Anglia, and has been here ever since. In 2010 she published her third novel The Road to Wanting and her memoir Golden Parasol: A Daughter’s Memoir of Burma has just been released.

https://soundcloud.com/frontlineclub/in-the-picture-brave-new-burma

This event is organised in partnership with the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature.

Twenty years in the making, Nic Dunlop‘s new book Brave New Burma is an intimate portrait of Burma through pictures and words. It takes the reader from the front lines of the ongoing civil war to its deceptively tranquil cities; from the home of Aung San Suu Kyi to the lives of ordinary people and their struggle to survive.

In a talk chaired by BBC foreign correspondent and writer Fergal Keane, Dunlop will present images from Brave New Burma and speak about the changes he has witnessed in the two decades he has covered Myanmar as it opens up to the outside world.

Nic Dunlop is a Bangkok-based photographer and writer represented by Panos Pictures in London. In 1999, he received an award for his discovery and exposure of Pol Pot’s chief executioner Comrade Duch, a story told in his book, The Lost Executioner. Dunlop also co-directed Burma Soldier, an HBO film which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the United Nations Association Film Festival and nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing.

Picture credit: Burma’s Army © Nic Dunlop/Panos Pictures