Yet, even Malaysians seem to be completely unaware that a bloody struggle is ongoing much closer to home, with far-reaching effects.

Since 2021, the authoritarian military junta of Myanmar has been at war with its own civilian population, with atrocities committed every single day.

While this is a terrible state of affairs, the more tragic truth is that for the ethnic minorities of Myanmar, this has been their way of life for years.

With the media spotlight currently on Eastern Europe, one photojournalist has launched a poignant photography exhibition in Kuala Lumpur highlighting the intolerable situation in Myanmar.

The exhibition titled “Burmese Minorities, and Endless Oppression” consists of 36 black and white photographs, most featuring the hardships faced by Myanmar’s minority groups on the frontlines and behind.

According to the man behind the lens, Belgian photojournalist David Verbeckt, he chose to take his photographs without colour for a specific reason.

Speaking to FMT, he explained that colours can sometimes be distracting, robbing the “subject” of the attention it deserves.

Verbeckt is a man who knows his craft, travelling the world to document places and people who the world has forgotten.

“I consider myself to be a storyteller who uses images, more than words. I’m not much for writing,” he said. “I use my photographs to tell the story.”

There is a certain power which photographs have over the written word, he explained, with a single photo capable of telling an entire story at times.

For the most part, Verbeckt covers what he calls “post-conflict situations”, explaining that these are often the conflicts neglected by mainstream news sources.

In the course of his career as both a photographer and a humanitarian, he has worked in Afghanistan, Rwanda, Bosnia, the Caucasus, Morocco and Brazil.

Myanmar, however, has been his centre of attention since 2015; Verbeckt first worked on highlighting the plight of the Rohingya population before it was brought to international attention.

He also visited and worked with other minority groups in Myanmar who are oppressed.

He said he hoped his current exhibition would show that while the Myanmar civil war officially began in May 2021, the ethnic minorities there were experiencing violence for even longer.

“The situation has not dramatically changed for them since the coup. They were being persecuted long before. Myanmar is witnessing the longest ethnic civil war in the world.”

For more than 70 years now, armed minority groups have been fighting the junta forces, fending for themselves since the British granted Burma independence.

“What I want to show through the exhibition is that what’s happening there is not something new. It’s happened continuously for a long, long time.”

While the junta committed atrocities even during Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy, the regime has dramatically increased its use of violence since the 2021 coup d’etat.

According to Verbeckt, not only are ethnic minorities the target now, the majority of the people are as well.

Conflicts as long-lasting as this have “enormous” consequences on the population, he said, with many fleeing the country as refugees.

“These never-ending conflicts create waves of refugees, who at the end, become generations of refugees, people who are completely disconnected with their home country.”

He explained that refugees are often given no choice but to flee, or to stay and suffer the regime’s acute persecution.

Verbeckt is quite aware that he is on the junta’s watchlist and if caught within Myanmar, he risks being arrested.

Despite this, he has his ways of entering the country to visit the frontlines and the backlines of the conflict.

While there, he has seen overcrowded camps of displaced people, with nowhere to go after their villages were destroyed by the military.

With how dark and depressing covering the war can be, how does he power on?

“I’m not 20 anymore,” he shrugged. “That’s just the world we live in, regardless whether we want to see it or not to see it,” he said, adding that he regarded it as his responsibility to shed light on conflicts that have been forgotten.

As to what can be done to bring the conflict to an end, Verbeckt said: “I don’t know. What I do know is that we need a consensus of countries to take action against the junta. One country cannot do anything.”

‘Burmese Minorities, and Endless Oppression’ is open to the public from now until March 23.

Kuala Lumpur & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall
1, Jalan Maharajalela
Kampung Attap
50150 Kuala Lumpur
WP Kuala Lumpur