View to a Distant Struggle

This is the story of the 44-year-long civil war in Myanmar, formerly Burma, as seen through the eyes of U Kyaw Win, 59, a Burmese-American Orange Coast College counselor who left his homeland three decades ago because the country was headed in the wrong direction under a repressive military government.

Los Angeles Times photographer Gail Fisher and freelance journalist Jane Ellen Stevens went behind rebel lines with Win, sneaking into the country from neighboring Thailand, for a firsthand view of the military regime’s harsh campaign against the country’s rebellious tribal groups and students seeking the government’s ouster.

Win, who has been barred from re-entering his country legally since 1969, recently completed his sixth foray into Myanmar. Over the past 24 years, he has waged a tireless campaign, from California to the halls of Congress, to help the rebels and the refugees, raising money, and lobbying for congressional support of the rebel cause.

Win realizes that it is difficult for Americans to care about one more place where a government has run amok, and its people live in misery. But as Win is the first to admit, he is an optimist and a dreamer.