"After decades of isolation, Burma is experiencing a political thaw that has taken the most jaded observers by surprise. The long-standing military regime has made peace with ethnic militias around the country and allowed civilian leaders to play a greater role in the new government. The United States has responded by ending a wide range of sanctions, encouraging businesses to invest in the 'New Burma'. A foreign investment boom is now underway.
"But there's a darker side. This investigative documentary, by veteran crisis journalists Jason Motlagh and Steve Sapienza, reveals a hidden conflict that contradicts the political and economic reform narrative now emerging from Burma.
"In July of 2012, Motlagh and Sapienza smuggled themselves into the northern state of Kachin to document the intensifying ethnic civil war between Burmese armed forces and rebel militia. Despite a Burmese media blockade, their reporting exposes the underlying factors that have led to thousands of ethnic Kachin deaths, and at least 80,000 displaced by a Burmese Army offensive that is deliberately targeting civilians. They reveal a terrifying war zone where rape, extra-judicial killings, and forced conscription are commonplace. Both sides violate international law with the use of child soldiers and land mines.
"With unprecedented access to the war zone and its victims, Blood and Gold exposes the deadly contradictions in Kachin state, where minority rights remain hostage to the greed of generals who still wield enormous power from the shadows. Kachin ancestral lands boast a wealth of precious metals, coal, timber and, most critically, multi-billion dollar Chinese-backed hydropower projects. Much as Burma's new posture toward the West is aimed at securing economic largesse after years of sanctions, the film vividly illustrates how the Burmese Army's northern offensive is largely about profit, at the expense of minorities that continue to be denied their fair share.
"As 2012 came to a close, escalating attacks by the Burmese military in Kachin territory cast further doubts about whether the retired generals in a government hailed for its reforms have really changed their harsh old ways. As Western investors line up for their stake in the country's vast riches, Blood and Gold offers an incisive and thought-provoking counter-narrative to the reform hype that has swept from Yangon to Washington. For years to come, this film will stand as a record that indicts the rhetoric of 'irreversible' reform presented by the Burmese government in its new era of openness.
"The film for People & Power on Al Jazeera English was part of a larger six-month investigative reporting project about the Kachin conflict that yielded related stories for the Washington Post, the Economist, and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
"Thank you for your consideration of this under-reported and vital story for a Peabody award."--2012 Peabody Awards entry form.
Corporate Producers: Al Jazeera English (Television network)
Persons Appearing: Jason Motlagh
Broadcast Date: 2012-10-04
