On Tuesday April 29th Lord Alton of Liverpool chaired a meeting in Parliament on behalf of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Freedom of Religion or Belief:
Lord Alton with Lord Dubs, Zoya Phan and Sai
The meeting viewed extracts from a new documentary: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/witness/2025/1/27/please-enjoy-our-tragedies-art-as-avoice-for-myanmars-forgotten-struggle
The Meeting Highlighted The Suffering of the Burmese People At The Hands Of The Military Junta.
- More than 4 million people have been forced to flee their homes since the 2021 coup.
- Schools and hospitals are deliberately bombed by the Burmese military.
- More than half the population is now living in poverty.
- Famine is threatened in Rakhine State. As one of the most vulnerable countries to climate
change, food production is being hit by rising temperatures and extreme weather events
causing frequent floods. - 29,000 political prisoners have been arrested since the coup; 22,170 of these are still
detained. - A devastating earthquake: the military has reportedly obstructed aid access and continued
airstrikes even in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. - Half of the population has fallen into poverty
Response and Policy - Lord Alton said that
- With the recent earthquake in Myanmar has caused widespread devastation and killing over 3,000
people, this is a very timely moment to discuss human rights in Myanmar. - The earthquake has only deepened the suffering and turmoil of a country plunged into darkness
after the 2021 military coup. Since then, the military has committed widespread abuses,
including arbitrary arrests, torture, executions, and airstrikes against civilian areas. - The Junta has escalated its attacks on civilians in a campaign of fear; airstrikes have bombed
hospitals, schools, villages and camps for internally displaced persons. - The military junta has ferociously targeted journalists and banned international media and
human rights organisations from entering the country. - Lord Alton introduced two Burmese speakers: Sai and Zoya Phan .
- He said that activists who speak out risk retaliation
against their families or being made stateless. - Sai’s father, Dr Lin Htut, is the democratically elected Chief Minister of the northern Shan
State. He is one of more than 29,000 political prisoners arrested since the coup. He has been
subjected to torture and remains imprisoned to this day (19-year sentence for bogus charges of
corruption). His detention is not only a violation of his personal rights but also an affront to
democracy itself, as the imprisonment of elected officials has extinguished Myanmar’s fledgling
democratic institutions. - The meeting saw extracts from a 25 minute documentary made by Charlie Scrimgeour
- Lord Alton said that the film highlights the emotional and political challenges faced by Burmese exiles and
refugees, both in the UK and along the Thai-Myanmar border. Refugees in Thailand face
increasing risks of extortion and deportation by Thai police. Cuts to US and UK aid threaten
what little support exists for those in exile. - that Sai’s moving artwork raises important questions about how we consume news and media from
Myanmar and questions if it has become a ‘forgotten conflict’. It raises awareness while
encouraging us to develop a deeper emotional understanding of the situation. - There is a fierce resistance from the people of Myanmar, and the Military Junta controls less
than a third of the townships nationwide and has lost thousands of troops to defections and
casualties. The military junta is weak, and with more support, democracy may prevail in
Myanmar again. - International legal processes are advancing and there are coordinated efforts to hinder the Junta
through sanctions. But despite these efforts, impunity prevails, and Myanmar’s civilian
population continues to suffer gravely.
Please Watch Our Tragedies, the 25-minute documentary, commissioned by Al Jazeera Witness
Watch: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/witness/2025/1/27/please-enjoy-our-tragedies-art-as-avoice-
for-myanmars-forgotten-struggle - ====
- Sai’s Story:
- Sai is a Burmese artist and activist currently based in London. Since the film’s release, his work has
been shown internationally, including exhibitions with Amnesty International and the Bangkok Art
and Culture Centre.
He has spoken at US congressional briefings and continues to expand his Trails of Absence project
with the support of Magnum Photos, documenting themes such as torture, abduction, and
extrajudicial killings. Sai and K are currently curating two exhibitions in London: one that exhibits
the last remains of victims of airstrikes in Myanmar, and another focused on portraits of former
political prisoners. - When Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021, Sai’s life changed dramatically. His father,
the democratically elected Chief Minister of Shan State, was arrested along with the democratic
leaders of the country.
With little international support and growing concerns that Myanmar was becoming a “forgotten
conflict”, Sai chose to act. He documents his father’s arrest and the broader crisis through his
photographic artwork.
After reaching out to NGO’s for help for his father and being told they ‘cannot help as he is a
politician’, Sai knew he had to get out of the country to advocate for his father. Sai then flees to the
UK with his partner, K, on a scholarship from Goldsmiths University London, with the plan of
using their art to advocate for Myanmar’s political prisoners and raise awareness of the country’s
worsening humanitarian situation.
Sai quickly reaches out to many international charities to support his father and the political
prisoners but receives little response. He believes art has the potential to have the greatest impact.
As Sai and K prepare for their exhibition, we see their unique artwork, which repurposes clothes of
political prisoners smuggled out of prisons in Myanmar into the art piece.
Sai’s exhibition is successful and he is invited to the Venice Biennale amongst other exhibitions, but
the success is contrasted by his father having further charges brought against him and Sai’s UK visa
extension is rejected.
Sai and K are offered an artist residency in Paris to put on a new exhibition. As Myanmar continues
to suffer under the military junta, Sai begins to question whether his art and advocacy are making a
meaningful impact.
He decides to travel to the Thai-Myanmar border to document the ex-political prisoners living there
and amplify their voices. Here, he sees that political prisoners have received little aid and live in
fear of being deported by the Thai police.
We hear testimonies from ex-political prisoners and exiles, such as a man who was arrested and
tortured with the torturers threatening to kill his wife.
The film captures the emotional toll of exile, the ongoing persecution of political prisoners, and the
challenges of advocacy from afar. It includes first-hand testimony from former political prisoners
and highlights the struggle for democracy and freedom of expression in Myanmar.
Panel Participants
Sai
Sai is a Burmese artist and activist currently based in London. Since the film’s release, his work has
been shown internationally, including exhibitions with Amnesty International and the Bangkok Art
and Culture Centre.
He has spoken at US congressional briefings and continues to expand his Trails of Absence project
with the support of Magnum Photos, documenting themes such as torture, abduction, and
extrajudicial killings. Sai and K are currently curating two exhibitions in London: one that exhibits
the last remains of victims of airstrikes in Myanmar, and another focused on portraits of former
political prisoners.
More info: myanmarsolidarity.info
Zoya Phan
Zoya first met Lord Alton when she was a young woman and he illegally travelled into the Karen State of Burma, Today she is a prominent Burmese democracy activist and Campaigns Manager at Burma Campaign UK.
Born in Karen State, she fled Myanmar after a military attack on her village and spent years as a
refugee in Thailand before continuing her education in the UK.
She is the author of Little Daughter: A Memoir of Survival in Burma and the West and has spoken
widely on ethnic persecution, military violence, and the struggle for democracy in Myanmar.
