Unreported World

Burma: The Village that Took on the Generals (2012x16)

Air date: Dec 21, 2012

Unreported World meets the Burmese villagers fighting for their ancestral lands as foreign investors flood in to a nation rich in undeveloped resources. After 50 years of military dictatorship, Burma is finally re-emerging from isolation as a pariah state. The release of political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi and the moves towards a more open society are the end of the story for some. However, economic development is leading to new social unrest as tensions build between big business and local people. Reporter Evan Williams and director Wael Dabbous travel to the north of Burma, close to the country's famed second city Mandalay. It's the centre of a farmers' resistance movement against some of the most powerful forces in the region and the stakes couldn't be higher. On one side is what is believed to be one of the biggest undeveloped copper mines in the world; on the other, villagers who refuse to leave the land their families have farmed for generations. Plans show that the mine will entirely demolish a mountain range of 33 small peaks and displace thousands of farmers. In the village of Wet Hmay - right in the middle of this contested land - Williams meets cousins Aye Net and Thwe Thwe, the two women who are leading the campaign against the mine. Their trenchant resistance has made them unlikely leaders for farmers who say they are being tricked into signing over their land and forced out by intimidation. 'I will not accept any amount of money to leave this land,' says an impassioned Aye Net in the shadow of an encroaching pile of earth from the mine, 'It is the land our ancestors lived on and we have to pass on to our grandchildren.' Williams and Dabbous stay with them for two weeks as the women try to repair a community being torn apart by the pressure, try to organise protests and seek the support of Burma's politically powerful Buddhist clergy. The monks - who rose against military rule in 2007's 'saffron revolution' - tell Willi