There is an image that strikes me. In September of 2007, a Japanese reporter is lying on the ground. He has just been shot at close range and yet with the little life force still in him, he continues to film the brutality of a regime bent on destroying a movement for democracy. His body is finally dragged away by Burmese soldiers.
But across the street, behind a cover, is someone else with a camera. It belongs to one of the handful of undercover cameramen filming for the Democratic Voice of Burma.
It is the story of an uprising. A story that started over 20 years ago and then exploded onto the streets in Rangoon that no media blackout could possibly hide. Some of the images coming out were gruesome, some displayed the enormous potential of the human individual to face down oppression and in many instances, death itself.
Last night I met Aye Chan Naing, Executive Director of the Democratic Voice of Burma. His frank and honest assessment of the military regime, of the West’s lacklustre response, of the hope of another day to once again take back the streets, was refreshing and inspirational.
“We now have more reporters inside Burma than in 2007. We thought because of the crackdown this would never happen. But many people have come forward to work with us inside Burma,” he told a crowded hall after the screening of the opening of the International Human Rights Film Festival, One World in Brussels.
The film, Burma VJ by Anders Ostergaard, had already won the Vaclav Havel Special Award at One World 2009 as well as Sundance. It wasn’t difficult to see and understand why.
Organized by the Czech NGO People In Need, the struggle for democracy had a particular resonance amongst the Czech present. One World founder Simon Panek was himself implicated in the democracy movement during 1980s when the Czech Republic was under Soviet control.
After the film, an audience member asked the panel to comment on the European Council’s extended sanctions against Burma. It later turned out that the individual who had asked the question was a former Soviet secret police agent in the Czech Republic, a man that had fought against Panek’s democracy movement and now works for the EU.
Burma VJ is a powerful insight into our desire for freedom and justice. For anyone who can, go and watch this film.
