An Oscar Nominee: Burmese Military Oppression

On Sunday, March 7th, the Oscars will be giving out awards to this past year’s best films. One of the potential winners is the documentary “Burma VJ” which stars U Gawsita, a Buddhist monk from Burma who has been living as refugee in Utica, NY for the past year.

“Burma VJ”is about a peaceful protest lead by monks in 2007, in which over 100,000 Burmese people took the streets protesting against the cruel military dictatorship that has been burdening the country for more than 40 years.

Though all foreign news medias were banned from capturing the event, a group of undercover Burmese video journalists put their lives on the line to secretly capture the protest which eventually became this documentary.

One would imagine that being the star of an Oscar nominated documentary would have its perks, this has not been the case for U Gawsita. The release of “Burma VJ” in 2009 allowed the world to see the cruel oppression of the Burmese military government, but it also resulted in many death threats sent to U Gawsita and the various monks involved in the protest.

So over a year ago, with no alternatives but death, U Gawsita fled his home country for Thailand, traveling by foot at night and finding asylum in jungles and fields during the day. All the while the Burmese Military Police lingered close behind raiding monasteries while trying to track down U Gawsita.

After more than month of fleeing, U Gawsita finally reached Thailand and disguised himself as a bus fare collector only to be arrested by Thai authorities as he did not have a refugee status. With the help of the U.S. Embassy, U Gawsita and other displaced monks were offered to resettle in the United States. U Gawsita was assigned to stay in Utica, NY.

Talking about the film, Agga Nya Na, one of the fellow English speaking monks, said, “We hope this movie can bring awareness.”

Far from danger, yet far from home, what U Gawsita and his fellow monks will be thinking about this coming Sunday is not whether they’ll be bringing home an Oscar, but instead how this nomination and possible win will aid their fight to achieve, “what we believe is truth — that is democracy, freedom for our people.”

Here is the trailer for Burma VJ.

Source: here.