Today Reporter, Mike Thomson crossing the Moie river on route to a village for displaced people in Burma
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I'm Mike Thomson and听during the week of March 6th听I'll be reporting on life inside Burma ( Myanmar ) These are some of the photographs I took in this isolated country after gaining rare access to rebel held areas as well as on an undercover trip to the capital Rangoon .
Ever since the Military junta took control in 1962 much of the country has been out of bounds to foreigners and in particular foreign journalists. My mission was to slip over the Thai Burma border in a couple of different places and find out first hand what is happening to people inside the country now.
I looked at everything from the human rights violations long common in the country such as rape, killings, looting, forced labour and the ill-treatment of the country's more than 1100 political prisoners. The war that has been going on in many of Burma border areas for nearly sixty years between ethnic groups like the Karen, Shan and Karenni and the military government was on my list too.
I also travelled to Bangladesh to investigate the plight of the Rohingya people, of ethnic Indian origins, who have been described as one of the most persecuted people on earth. More than 200,000 of them fled Burma in 1992 after sustained and widespread human rights abuses against them by the Rangoon Regime. Even today those that remain are denied citizenship, can not own land and can not travel or marry without permission. Many remain in refugee camps in Bangladesh or in the countryside around them despite ongoing efforts by Dacca to get them to return to Burma .
Ever since the Military junta took control in 1962 much of the country has been out of bounds to foreigners and in particular foreign journalists. My mission was to slip over the Thai Burma border in a couple of different places and find out first hand what is happening to people inside the country now.
I looked at everything from the human rights violations long common in the country such as rape, killings, looting, forced labour and the ill-treatment of the country's more than 1100 political prisoners. The war that has been going on in many of Burma border areas for nearly sixty years between ethnic groups like the Karen, Shan and Karenni and the military government was on my list too.
I also travelled to Bangladesh to investigate the plight of the Rohingya people, of ethnic Indian origins, who have been described as one of the most persecuted people on earth. More than 200,000 of them fled Burma in 1992 after sustained and widespread human rights abuses against them by the Rangoon Regime. Even today those that remain are denied citizenship, can not own land and can not travel or marry without permission. Many remain in refugee camps in Bangladesh or in the countryside around them despite ongoing efforts by Dacca to get them to return to Burma .
