The Present

-----------------

The first thought that possibly confronts any journalist looking to do stories from Myanmar is the question of getting inside. The ruling regime of Myanmar has effectively converted the nation into one of the world's most isolated places, where everyone is watched including visiting journalists.

So when trouble began in Myanmar in September this year, the first thing that the military regime did was curb the outflow of information. I watched keenly the international coverage that happened in those days in networks like CNN, Al Jazeera and the BBC. All that ever came out was running footage of Yangon streets and monks parading by the monasteries. Not enough to convey the real story but good enough to tell the world outside that there were many stories waiting to be told from that land....

Now back safely from there, I have only but the utmost respect for those who braved it all to send those pictures and footage. By November things had quieted down a bit in Myanmar but journalists were and are unwelcome. So when I approached the regime for a visa the first thing they wanted to know was if I was a journalist. For reasons obvious I told them... I was not and then crossed my fingers. It helped that I had a student visa from the UK stamped on my passport but what helped more was the definite 'stroke of luck' that got me in.

I reached the country armed with a small handheld camera; playing the stereotypical tourist. I must admit I was apprehensive and nervous. And there were reasons. A Japanese journalist was shot dead a month ago while covering the protests. And I learnt later that he had used the exactly the same modus operandi to get into the country.... Also, when I landed it was not the time of active protests, which means... as a journalist I did not have access to stories in plain sight. There were no monks out on the streets, there were no students agitating....all that prevailed was an eerie calm. I felt lost.

But within a few hours the tragedy of Burma started unfolding. One could see the pickets that have become a fixture of Yangon streets. Manned by army and police... these are the watch points for any suspicious activity. A little more time in the streets and it became clear there were plainclothes men with radios that relayed and scraped for information that had the slightest tinge of opposition to the junta and its military generals.....

It's not easy to shoot in Myanmar. People do not speak on politics. The minimum punishment for anyone who is caught speaking to a journalist is at least two years in the Juntas notorious hell holes. These are prisons where inmates are known to hunt rats for food. I learnt that just about anything could land one in jail. I heard about an army officer 'who had made the mistake of giving water to some monks who were protesting'. He was summarily dismissed and jailed. Needless to say that for offences perceived more severe by the junta... the punishment is often summary execution... where the suspect just 'disappears'. The list of those gone missing has been increasing ever since.

So when people refused to talk on camera I could understand. But I got the story nonetheless. The story was right there, the omnipresent fear in people's minds accentuated by their deadpan expressions, as if nothing was wrong with their country, revealed more than it concealed...

There were enough indications of this. I couldn't see monks around. Dressing up as a local, wearing a trademark Burmese lungi I sneaked into some monasteries where I discovered the strange absence of monks. Post the September uprising the generals had systematically targeted these monasteries. The monks who led the protests were either dead or in jail. The rest had fled for their lives. Some of the prominent monasteries had soldiers armed with automatic weapons surrounding them....So much for the rebellion, every picture of the protest that made its way to the international media was carefully examined, the participant identified and severely punished.

The famous Yangon University that was the cradle of Burmese nationalism propounded by the likes of Aung San does not exist in the true sense anymore. The junta has dispersed the erstwhile university to different parts of the country. There is a total ban on student assemblies. The junta thinks that this way dissent from enlightened minds can be curbed. But has it been successful? I think not. Wherever I went I met people simmering with anger. In streets, in hotels, in pagodas, they would come and talk to me. I was a foreigner and I could spread the word outside.

On several occasions I was questioned. Once when I had ventured precariously close to the house where Aung San Su Kyi is under house arrest. Second was when had gone to visit the National League for Democracy office in the heart of Yangon. Plainclothes operatives I found were following. For I realized I was a natural object of suspicion. A foreigner who went about filming randomly wasn't something they were comfortable with. But I was lucky that I was not arrested, deported or that they did not take my video tapes away.

The Sule Pagoda killings

---------------------------

Contrary to the claims of the junta the number of people killed in the infamous Sule pagoda (Yangon's main square) firing is much higher. Eyewitnesses told me that at least a hundred protestors were killed that day alone. The military had blocked all exit points and fired at monks who were chanting in protest. Like at the Tiananmen Square in China, here too soldiers were drugged to weed out any remorse when they fired at unarmed monks and protestors.

What's up Burma?

--------------------

Myanmar to me is a country stuck in two eras. The hotel I stayed had the trappings of a five star. The floor below doubled as a night club that sold sex and drugs were easily available. Interestingly the night manager whom I befriended turned out to be policeman. His reasons were pretty simple he said "I have two young children and a wife to look after and the policing job isn't enough to sustain them.

Night clubs are just about everywhere. And I found that there were more prostitutes than there were customers. These girls had come from all over the country looking for livelihood. Unemployed, thousands of women look to prostitution for sustenance. The few I spoke to had parents and children waiting for food at home. Most of these women spoke only Burmese had never heard of HIV or AIDS. Myanmar's international isolation and continuing sanctions mean that little or no aid reaches the country. Also absent were major international aid organizations, otherwise active in other parts of the developing world. This has reportedly brought the country's HIV infection rates to epidemic proportions.

I found parallel economies all over. The official exchange rate at airport counters for a dollar is six kyat (pronounced chats) but black-market traders were willing to pay over 1300 kyat for a solitary dollar. It is extreme poverty that defines Myanmar's underbelly. Most people live with less than a dollar a day. Slums that exist amidst sewers, children rummaging through piles of garbage for food.

On the other side, fabulous wealth mocks the country's ever increasing misery. On the streets I saw cars that I had only seen in world metropolises like London and Paris. BMWs, Mercs ran past each other. Not everyone was suffering in Myanmar. These are people close to the junta. They have access to the country's gas projects; the trade in precious stone and the burgeoning narcotics and amphetamine businesses, often associated with the 'Golden Triangle'; the region that exports the major chunk of world's narcotics and synthetic drugs. Khun Sa, the notorious drug lord lived in Yangon under the regime's full protection till recently. All of Myanmar's night clubs, hotels, and resorts are for these privileged few. Even dental care, I found was out of the reach of an average citizen. The cost of root canal treatment in any Yangon clinic costs hundred of dollars. The average monthly salary of teacher employed in a government school is merely thirty dollars.

Winds of change

-----------------------

But there appears a glimmer of change. Under international pressure, the junta has finally agreed to talk to pro-democracy leader Aung San Su Kyi. This engagement has been imitated by others in the country. I got my hands on the first copies of local newspapers that published pictures of Su Kyi with the Junta's negotiator Aung Kyi. This would have been unthinkable even three months back. So is this the first move towards reconciliation and restoration of democracy in this battered country? Even in Myanmar, no one knows. Most assume the Junta is just buying time.