life under military regime of burma (myanmar)

8/3/2019 Life Under Military Regime of Burma (Myanmar)

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Burma’s military regime has been in pow-er or almost 50 years. It is a rule o harshphysical and psychological oppression. Dur-ing the student uprising in 1988, more than

3,000 demonstrators were shot dead and thousands more arrested in the streets o Rangoon. In 2007, Burma’s generals bru-

tally crushed peaceul demonstrations ledby monks and students and threw thou-sands o demonstrators in jail. As o this mo-ment, more than 2100 political prisoners are

jailed in harsh prisons around the country.

Burma’s suering was compounded in 2008when Cyclone Nargis ripped through the Ir-rawaddy Delta killing 140,000 and leaving more

than two million people homeless and trauma- tized. Initially, the country’s paranoid generalsresponded with complete disregard or the

population and made an already horrible situ-ation worse by rejecting oreign aid or weeks.

The Burmese people suer every day un-der a regime that is as inept as it is repres-sive. The regime’s aulted economic policieshave resulted in double-digit ination thatdevastates wages and salaries. An averageBurmese lives on less than a dollar per day.

Lie under theMilitary Regime

oBurma

(Myanmar)Photographs and text by

Christian Holst

Burmese Army cadets in the central market in Pyin U Lwin, Myanmar. Pyin U Lwin is located in the Shan hills and is a ormer British hill station where the whole British administration would move in the summers to escape the heat in Yangon. This image was published in Time Magazine July 26, 2010 as the Asia edition cover.

www.reportage-by gettyimages.com



Today, minimum wage buys 8-10 times ewer basic commodities like rice, salt, sugar andcooking oil than 20 years ago. The countryonce dubbed “The Rice Bowl o Asia” cannow hardly eed itsel and has gone rom

being the richest in the region to one o theworld's most impoverished nations. While the majority o the Burmese live in poverty,military leaders and their business cronies ex-ploit the country’s riches like timber, minerals,gemstones, hydropower, oil, and gas.

The world’s best jade and rubies come rommines in middle and northern Burma. Under-paid, overworked migrant workers carve


gems out o the ground while they live inshantytowns away rom amily. Drug abuseand HIV/AIDS is rampant in the miningcamps. Access to healthcare is mostlynonexistent. The mines are state-owned,

but leased out to private investors who payvast sums o money, both over and under the table, to the Junta (Burma’s military regime)or mining rights. Despite trade sanctions anda ban on Burmese gemstones many o thesestones make it to western markets.

The growing elite and middle class o Chinais creating huge demand or, especially, jadestones and jewelry. To the Chinese, jade

represents virtue, purity and prosperity – aChinese idiom is: “Gold has a value, jade isinvaluable.” At a gem trade air in Rangoon inspring 2010 more than 2000 oreign tradersattended, and the vast majority o them came

rom China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. More than 500 million dollars worth o mostly jadewas sold in little less than two weeks. At amore recent, smaller, gem air in Rangoon,one 33-carat ruby etched one million US dol-lars: 400,000 US dollars went straight to theregime, which demands 40% o the proceedsrom the most lucrative and amous mines.

Recently, the Junta has started a massive

privatization o state enterprises but criticspoint out that the assets are being sold either

to retired ofcers or to businessmen alliedwith the military, reinorcing the strength o a class o oligarchs and military cronies. The

highly lucrative oil industry is to be privatizedand the Junta has instructed its avorite crony,Burma’s richest civilian, Tay Za, to head anew petroleum association. Tay Za is also theman behind a newly built residential area inRangoon with condo high-rises and 22 luxuri-ous villas with a starting price o 850,000 USdollars. So ar all the villas except one havebeen sold – most o them to army ofcers.

Burmese Army cadets in a photo studio May 16, 2010 in Pyin U Lwin, Myanmar. This image was published in Time MagazineJuly 26, 2010.

Burmese Army cadets in a small cae May 15, 2010 in Pyin U Lwin, Myanmar. This image was published in Time Magazine July26, 2010.




A wedding picture or a Burmese couple sits at the entrance to a ball room in a hotel May 22, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar. The groom is a Burmese Army ofcer. It is said that ofcers have to marryuniversity graduates i they harbor hopes o reaching high ranks in the military.

While the military has doubled in size since1988 and currently consumes up to hal theannual budget, the government spends less

than $1 per citizen per year on healthcare. The patients pay or more than 90% o health

expenditures – which means that proper healthcare is out o reach or the vast popula-

tion o the country. Government hospitalslack medicine and doctors and nurses aregrossly underpaid and treat people accord-ing to the amount o “lunch money” thepatients are able to provide.

In a 2005 survey by WHO (World Health Or-ganization), Burma had the second-pooresthealthcare system in the world, only toppedby Sierra Leone. Hal o all Asia's malariadeaths occur here; the country has some o

the world’s deadliest strains o TB; and theregime has a potentially devastating HIV epi-

demic on its hands. The lack o willingness to treat people or let oreign NGOs treat ona sufcient scale means that, at most, onlya fth o the people inected with HIV haveaccess to treatment.

Burma’s health and education sectors arecrumbling through neglect and crippled bycorruption due to low salaries. The regimehas built a number o universities but doesnot allocate enough unds to operate them.

Too keep up appearances, the governmentprovides educational degrees o dubiousquality, which artifcially augments the coun-

try’s educational statistics. Thereore, it is notuncommon or a Rangoon rickshaw or taxidriver to have a master’s degree in philoso-phy or law.

Burma’s many ethnic minorities also strug-gle. Some have struck deals with the regime



in exchange or access to valuable resourcesand saety, but many others live in neglectand poverty and some have been locked tightin a deadly war or survival with the regime or decades. Burmese o all ethnicities ee the

country or survival, in the hope o a saer andmore prosperous uture. Surviving in Burmacan be so difcult that even working andliving on a Thai dumpsite is a viable alter na-

tive. Thailand alone is believed to be home to up to two million Burmese migrants andreugees; Bangladesh, already a poor countrystruggling to eed its own, has up to a quarter o a million Burmese. Inside Burma, 500,000Burmese are internally displaced. Most o


them are in the Karen State - a Burmeseethnic minority that resides along the Thai/ Burmese border - where villages are torchedand thousands o villagers are on the run romfghting between Christian Karen, govern-

ment troops, and a rivaling Karen action.

The generals seem to think that an op-pressed, sick, and uneducated citizenryposes less threat to their power. Some main-

tain that the generals’ behavior is due to their commitment to keep Burma united. Otherssay that the iron-fsted rule only proves their commitment to stay rich and in power. Nomatter what the explanation, the Junta seems

incapable o going beyond harsh military rulewhen attempting to govern Burma’s diverse,multiethnic society.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled or

November 7, 2010, yet it looks like they willonly perpetuate military rule under a acadeo legislative ormality. The regime’s constitu-

tion allows the military to hold 25 percent o the seats in the new parliament and to controlan appointed body with veto power over allparliamentary decisions. Opposition leader and Nobel Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Ky i,whose party won the 1990 elections and hasbeen under house arrest or 14 o the last 21

years, has been barred rom the elections andher party disbanded. But despite the obvi-ously awed election laws some Burmesehave decided to participate hoping that their presence in parliament can help steer Burma

slowly towards real democratic reorms.

Christian Holst has been working on Burma-related issues since 2006. Part o this workhas been made possible with the support o The Art Works Projects, a non-proft organi-zation, whose mission is to use design and

the arts to raise awareness o and educate the public about signifcant human rights andenvironmental issues. The Art Works

A man repairs t he roo o a monastery October 3, 2007 in Yangon, Myanmar. Burmese men sit at a street side tea shop April 21, 2009 in Yangon, Myanmar.




Young women enter a pickup truck ater working as "ashion models" in a night club in Yangon's downtown red light and entertainment district May 12, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar. The "ashionshow" is a Burmese euphemism or what is in eect a hostess and prostitution setup. The girls will perorm a catwalk-like show and customers can buy overpriced garlands to give to the girl. I enough garlands are being given the girl will join the customer at his table. I so inclined, the customer will then negotiate a price with the woman or sexual services.

Projects and Christian Holst are collaborat-ing on a campaign on human rights issues inBurma and more specifcally to shed light on

the Junta’s lucrative control o the gemstoneindustry.

http://www.artworksprojects.org/




Workers in a supermarket in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. This market serves primarily the military elite and government ofcials. Theeveryday Burmese citizen cannot aord the items in this market. The military regime built Naypyitaw as its new capital andmoved there in 2005.

Passengers and vendors wait o a erry to depart to Bogalay in the delta May 21, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar.




LEFT TO RIGHT A man, most likely o Indian decent, holds aower bouquet May 24, 2010 in Yangon, My-anmar. There is still a sizable Indian populationin Yangon due to the British colonial periodrom 1824 - 1948.

Burmese youth pass time April 12, 2007 in atKandawgyi Lake in Yangon, Myanmar.

LEFT TO RIGHTBurmese men play soccer in the streets dur-ing a rain shower June 6, 2010 in downtown Yangon, Myanmar.

Burmese people pray in the Shwedagon Pa-

goda February 1, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar.




LEFT TO RIGHT A young girl in a massage parlour whichdoubles as a brothel June 3, 2010 in Yangon,Myanmar.

Two Burmese boys take reuge rom the rainin ront o sacks o charcoal. Burmese daylaborers who have been carrying the charcoalrom a boat to a truck waiting on land take arest in the background October 8, 2007 in Dala Township on the Yangon River across romdowntown Yangon, Myanmar.

LEFT TO RIGHT A monkey chained to a tree touches its headOctober 9, 2007 in Botataung Township in Yangon, Myanmar.

A couple walks on Strand Road February 9,

2009 in downtown Yangon, Myanmar.




GEMS

A potential buyer inspects a ruby at a gem stone air August 20, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar. The price tag is aminimum price - all lots are sold via either closed biddingor in an open auction - so prices oten end up many timeshigher. The minimum price or this stone was 150,000 USD- it sold or one million dollars. This particular stone comesrom a mine where the junta receives 40% o all profts.




Potential buyers inspect jade at a gem stone air August23, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar. The price tag scribbled on the jade stone is a minimum price - all lots are sold viaeither closed bidding or in an open auction - so pricesoten end up many times higher.




LEFT TO RIGHTPotential buyers inspect jade at a gem stoneair August 22, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar. Theprice tag is a minimum price - all lots are soldvia either closed bidding or in an open auction- so prices oten end up many times higher.

Chinese buyers and Burmese sellers trade jade in a jade market March 31, 2007 in Man-dalay, Myanmar.

LEFT TO RIGHT Two young Burmese women tend to a smallbooth showcasing jade at a gem stone air August 20, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar.

A workshop making jade cuttings and jade

jewellery in Bogyoke Market June 1, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar.




ABOVEGem traders inspect gemstones at a tea shop in BogyokeMarket June 3, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar.

A jewelry piece with Burmese jade and Burmese Ruby isdisplayed by a shop assistant April 28, 2010 in Mae Sot, Thailand.

RIGHT Tables ull o potential buyers ollow the announcementso winning bidders on the last day o a gem stone air

August 23, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar.




HEALTH CARE

A visibly emotionally and mentally unstable man stripso his clothes and lies naked on a pedestrian overpassMay 19, 2010 in downtown Yangon, Myanmar. The lack o health care or the Burmese people leaves those mentally

ill with no place to go or treatment or care. There is onlyone hospital or the mentally ill; but like all the other hos-pitals, payment is needed to be admitted, which makes treatment and care out o reach or the majority o theBurmese.




LEFT TO RIGHT A male patient works on replacing the drainsor the roos June 5, 2010 in a leprosy colony two hours outside o Yangon, Myanmar.

A newly arrived male patient June 5, 2010 in aleprosy colony two hours outside o Yangon,Myanmar. This man lived as a homeless mansomewhere in Yangon when another patientrom the colony ound him and brought him to the colony's health center.

LEPROSY

LEFT TO RIGHT Two male leprosy patients have an early dinner June 5, 2010 in a leprosy colony two hoursoutside o Yangon, Myanmar. The patient s in

this colony, app. 60 o them, receive the equiv-alent o 20 cents per day rom the regime. Thisis supposed to cover medicine, ood and allother necessities but it barely covers 1/7 o theprice o rice or one day. Myanmar (Burma),once dubbed the “Rice Bowl o Asia,” can nowbarely eed itsel and has gone rom one o theregion’s richest countries to one o the world’spoorest.

A woman shows pictures o her daughter whom she hasn't seen or 12 years June 5,2010 in a leprosy colony two hours outside o Yangon, Myanmar. The daughter has sent her the pictures.




LEFT TO RIGHT A young unidentifed Burmese woman with TBand HIV/AIDS is carried down the stairs to taxiwaiting to take her way to a hospital August22, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar.

A male nurse patient sits in a taxi waiting to go to the hospital as he is severely sick June 11,2010 in an HIV shelter in Yangon, Myanmar.

HIV

LEFT TO RIGHT A 19 years old Burmese woman with TB andHIV/AIDS lies on the backseat o a taxi on her way to a hospital August 22, 2010 in Yangon,

Myanmar. The unidentifed woman was alleg-edly raped by an army ofcer, and as a result,contracted HIV. She lived with her little sister and grandmother. When the grandmother learned o her disease, she asked her to moveout due to the general lack o knowledgeabout HIV and the stigma connected to thedisease. The young girl died ten days later at the hospital.

A patient waits or a nurse to check his healthstatus and administer TB medicine June 11,2010 in an HIV shelter in Yangon, Myanmar. This shelter is run by the NLD in response to the lack o help rom the regime. As the militaryhas doubled in size since 1988 and currentlyconsumes up to hal the annual budget, thegovernment spends less than $1 per citizenper year on health care.




Burmese migrant parents tend to their prematurely bornbabies in the Mae Tao Clinic April 28, 2010 in Mae Sot, Thailand.




CONSTRUCTION

YANGON

A painting in a showroom shows how an almost fnishedresidential area will perhaps look once fnished May 12,

2010 in Yangon, Myanmar. The project is owned by super tycoon Tayza. Myanmar (Burma) is one o Asia's poorestcountries with a huge gap between the majority o itspeople and the tiny elite o high ranking army ofcers and their cronies.



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Workers bathe ater fnishing work on a residential buildi ng project May 12, 2010 in Yangon, Myanmar. The project, namedMinhdama, is owned by super tycoon Tay Za.

Construction workers work on a new highway between the old capital o Yangon and the new one, named Naypyitaw, May 13,2010 between Yangon, and Naypyitaw, Myanmar.




LEFT TO RIGHT The new parliament May 13, 2010 in Nay-pyitaw, Myanmar. The military regime builtNaypyitaw as its new capital and moved therein 2005.

The restaurant at Mount Pleasant is suppos-edly the regime's top general Than Shwe'savorite May 13, 2010 in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. The military regime built Naypyitaw as its newcapital and moved there in 2005.

LEFT TO RIGHTConstruction workers take a break rom build-ing a road May 14, 2010 in the new YatanarponCyber City, Myanmar.

Construction workers build a road May 14,2010 in the new Yatanarpon Cyber City,Myanmar.




BAGAN

A view o Bagan rom Burmese tycoon Tay Za's "Bagan Viewing Tower" May 17, 2010 in Bagan, Myanmar. Tay Zais closely connected to the Junta and initially made hisortune on illegal logging. Since then, he has had a hand

in everything in Burma which is proftable. In Bagan, TayZa has built a luxury tourist resort and a tall viewing tower which critics say is architecturally out o place. The day this photograph was taken, no tourists had visited the tower at all. It is said that in order to be allowed to build the tower and the nearby luxury resort Aureum Tay Za had to soothe the generals who wanted him to build a replicao a Mandalay-styled palace as well. The palace is evenmore out o place amongst the old temples o Bagan.




NAYPYITAW

The generals built a replica o the country's most sacredpagoda Shwedagon in its new capital May 13, 2010 inNaypyitaw, Myanmar. The military regime built Naypyitawas its new capital and moved there in 2005.




BURMESE MIGRANT WORKERS

Burmese migrant workers sort through garbage roma truck February 13, 2010 on a garbage site in theborder town o Mae Sot, Thailand. It is believed thatapproximately two million Burmese o all ethnicities live

in Thailand. More than 100.000 migrant workers orm asubstantial community in the border town o Mae Sot in the east o the country. On a garbage site on the outskirtso the town a ew hundred o them try to make a living outo sorting the garbage and reselling scrap. Escaping near-certain poverty in Burma, the migrants work in hard andunderpaid jobs in Thailand and are requently harrased bypolice and subject to pay bribes in unauthorized raids bylocal police. Many chose to endure it because the pay isoten three times higher than or similar jobs at home.




LEFT TO RIGHT Two young Burmese migrant workers sleepFebruary 14, 2010 on a garbage site in theborder town o Mae Sot, Thailand.

Children o Burmese migrant workers relaxoutside a hut February 14, 2010 on a garbagesite in the border town o Mae Sot, Thailand.

LEFT TO RIGHTChildren o Burmese migrant workers walk through the garbage February 13, 2010 on agarbage site in the border town o Mae Sot, Thailand.

A Burmese migrant worker prepare dinner while her children sit in the amily's hut in thebackground March 21, 2010 on a garbage sitein the border town o Mae Sot, Thailand.




Bur me se m igra nts a t wor k in a ship ya rd Se ptem be r 1 7, 20 10 in Ra nong, Tha iland. Bur me se fshe rm en rom Mon State re la x on the ir f shing b oa t nea r a d ry dock Sep te mb er 16 , 2 01 0 in Ranong, Thai la nd . Theboat is owned by a Thai, but Burmese fshermen are oten employed by Thais who do not have to pay them as much as theywould have to pay Thais.




LEFT TO RIGHT A Burmese man holds a baby while a womanholds another baby inside the house behindhim September 15, 2010 in a migrant workersarea in Ranong, Thailand.

A 32-year-old HIV inected mother o two sitsin a wooden shack September 17, 2010 inRanong, Thailand.

LEFT TO RIGHT A Burmese migrant woman takes a bath in ariver while a horse grazes on a hill September 16, 2010 nearby the wooden barracks in whichshe lives in Ranong, Thailand.

Burmese migrants cross a river betweenBurma(Myanmar) and Thailand February 10,2010 an hour's drive rom Mae Sot, Thailand.




The one-a-hal-year old son o an illegal Burmese migrantworker couple lies in a cofn as cremation starts April 29,2010 in the Thai-Burma border town o Mae Sot, Thailand. The boy had died o tuberculosis the day beore but only the mother, a ew riends and volunteers rom a uneralservice or the poor attended the service. The ather wasabsent since the amily had just spent 370 USD to get himsmuggled rom the border town to Bangkok where jobsare easier to be ound. They could not aord to bring himback or the uneral.



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5th Floor New York, NY 10013USA

Annick [email protected]+ 01 (646) 613.4248

Christina [email protected]+01 (646) 613.4187

The ull set o 216 images is available via your local Getty Images ofce.

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Getty ImagesLondon

101 Bayham Street

London, NW1 0AGUnited Kingdom

Patrick di [email protected]+44 (0) 207 428 5256

life under military regime of burma (myanmar)

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