Arrested and deported

As it wasn't on my Cambodia radar, I missed this story from my good friends Karen Coates and Jerry Redfern, who were both deported from Myanmar a couple of weeks ago. Karen (pictured) is the author of the excellent book Cambodia Now and Jerry is a well-respected photographer. Here is their own press release issued on 11 May from Bangkok, when they became the center of attention on the media wires:

Arrested & Deported: The two of us were detained in Mandalay on the evening of Wednesday, May 6, and deported to Bangkok the following night. The arrest came within hours after we had finished a series of feature writing and photography workshops, organized by the American Center in Yangon and approved by the country’s Scrutiny Board (censors). All of the 20+ government authorities we encountered during the ordeal said they were acting on orders from Naypyidaw. They did not give a reason for the arrest. Many said they did not know why we were arrested. They asked us nothing, told us nothing, searched nothing, took nothing. We were not mistreated or manhandled.

We were arrested at our hotel after dinner on May 6. Immigration authorities came to the hotel lobby and ordered us to pack for an evening train to Yangon. They said they had received the arrest order from Naypyidaw half an hour after our last class and lecture had ended. We spent the following 16 hours under the escort of two officials who shared our cabin. When we arrived in Yangon, we were taken to the airport, then Immigration offices downtown, then back to the airport for several hours before an evening flight to Bangkok. We had been in Burma to teach and lecture about creative nonfiction feature writing and photography. The programs were follow-ups to similar work we did in January, all of which had been approved and acknowledged by the Scrutiny Board and the Special Branch (police). In fact, Special Branch officers briefly visited Jerry on the first day of his class in Yangon, on April 27. All of our classes and lectures proceeded without incident or further visits from the authorities.

We have no idea why we were arrested, though we have since heard many rumors. Perhaps it was fallout after another American – whom we do not know nor have any connection to – allegedly swam across a lake to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon. We have heard people say we are CIA agents in disguise as teachers – that is not true. We have heard people say we met with monks in monasteries and other politically sensitive sources – that is not true. We have heard rumors that we met with the Moustache Brothers comedy troupe in Mandalay – that is not true. In fact, we met very few people outside of the classroom, mostly because we wanted to avoid any run-ins with the government for just this reason.

Other rumors allege that we were working on sensitive stories. That is not true. The only story we had in mind was a small piece on laphet thote, (pickled tea leaf salad) explaining the flavors, history and cultural significance of the dish. This would have run on the food page of a travel magazine. In Mandalay, a colleague introduced us to the owner of a longstanding laphet thote business. That man invited us to see his place, which we did. He then invited us to visit a trade center where people buy and sell beans and pulses, key ingredients for laphet thote. He was very excited about the invitation; we thought little of it. We accepted and planned to meet on Thursday morning – but we never had that chance. This might be all, or part, of the reason we were deported.

What happened to us does not compare to what happens to Burmese who run afoul of their own government. We were spooked, and the train trip was uncomfortable and unnecessary (we already had plane tickets back to Yangon that could have been switched to Thursday morning). But we were fairly certain we were not going to jail for years – or decades. We are heartbroken to think we might not be able to return to Burma. But that is trivial to how we worry about the safety of the people who helped us on these trips. We worked hard to avoid government scrutiny, or any “journalistic” appearance. In the end, we cannot say why we were arrested. That mystery rests with the Burmese government. [end]

On an entirely separate note, I presented The Tenth Dancer and Samsara at Meta House Thursday evening to a small, but nicely-rounded audience. In taking a few questions from the assembled throng afterwards, one comment came from a lady who said she was excited to see Em Theay on The Tenth Dancer as Theay had briefly been her dance teacher in 1979 in Pursat. As Theay made her way back from Battambang to Phnom Penh, she spent time en route teaching dance and the audience member had been in her dance class for about two months in 1979. I didn't manage to speak to the lady involved after the session, but what a lovely addendum to the screening of the film.