It sounds like science fiction or 1984. An evil power hungry elite group of military men take over the country and impose martial law. SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council) now control the populace. No opposition is tolerated. It is systematically weeded out, tortured and killed by one of the largest armies in South East Asia. The entire populace live in fear, many well below the poverty line, while the generals and their family live the lives of the privileged. But it’s Burma. A country without enough oil to to provoke the rest of the world to consider humanitarian intervention.
Given the recent protests in Burma against the oppressive military junta, the slaughter of monks, students and resistance leaders in a savage reprisal and the rest of the world prepared to do little but watch, and condemn from a distance, this release from Siren is somewhat timely. It offers background to current unrest, offering intimate details of day to day life of those who dare oppose the junta. There are two documentaries presented here. State of Fear, where Australian reporter Evan Williams walks the streets of Burma talking with activists, former prisoners who have been captured and journalists. He even spends time with the Free Burma Rangers, an outlaw group based near the border of Thailand who offer medical and humanitarian aid to villagers who have been attacked by the military. We see some compelling vision of a freshly destroyed village, the distraught villagers and then later the soldiers who committed the atrocity relaxing in another town. Burma: Student Power actually features an interview with Ang San Suu Kyi, the rightful leader of Burma, now under house arrest for the last 17 years “her own safety’ in a house that is crumbling around her. The film also uncovers the extensive networks and links between the students and monks and offers and an insight into the dangers these incredible people face on a daily basis from a vicious and power hungry military.
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Bob Baker Fish
