finally clears one bridge supposedly what does it mean for one of the worst performing industrial economies. counting the cost on al-jazeera. hello and welcome to rewind here at their house museum of islamic well the 1st story as we have it was the main man government's brutal crackdown on peacefully protesting monks news reaching the outside world was scarce but al-jazeera correspondent tony bettany was able to film the unfolding events while working undercover as one of the few international journalists on the ground at that time from 2007 here's his news special inside myanmar the crackdown. it started as a protest over fuel subsidies it became a popular uprising against the generals and their policy of oppression. throughout me and my hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets calling for freedom and democracy such gatherings hadn't been seen here for nearly 20 years. the focal point was the film a capsule young gone at one stage 100000 people demonstrated here and the leaders with the monks men of peace. they became the rallying point for a nation. worship and followed by my name is tony burton and i was one of the few journalists and young then to witness the uprising and the brutal crackdown by the i. mean she. was the world was moved by scenes like these but being down there on the streets among the thousands you could see the spirit and feel the exhilaration of ordinary people who believed they could throw off the yoke of military rule was that it was. i was. i well you get democracy was it was because if i was going to heal the many people. the hot air still going no democracy here no democracy. here no democracy for you to only you know do what i know you're not although we want them over but you know that anybody who didn't have a man was understand me you know it was they were shooting here before that little have you broken up with anyone anyone hurt anyone hurt and without thinking was. was there is going here that moving forward inch by inch and they seem to be testing the military the standing over there with their guns ready to anyone's guess what's going to happen i was just the 2nd group of months we were going to force what we discussed by the army now to go spend 5 minutes see this actually was a photo of the 2nd was the symbols and it was going on was directly 5. 100 have was for a little while nothing happened the ranks of the protesters swelled they became bolder you. was. that it wasn't to last. friday night that you know. my all these people are going to focus on the fine he was. finding more than 5 people gathering at any one place now the army on the right he's aligning up there now and now saying for people to disperse or they will move things this seems as if the start of the crackdown is now beginning thank you you're. already there. more than live as if i wasn't there for good ok. this is with 510 here. but it will go well we do just as the c.d.c. it was a 10 minute tenure. very much. i. mean . i. think i. i. think i got. to see what is now the public are responding i think it is pretty i think they tend to put. this out. to. you. in 1988 the military killed more than 3000 pro-democracy demonstrators that hadn't been forgotten and it wasn't long before shots are being filed the luck of. the. it wasn't 100000 pounds but it yeah i want to thank you i mean i got out i was a bad actor i was out of how do i am i so many want to hate on course because it takes you in the movie maybe i won't because things are moving 5 people think ok tory typically heading directly now to the city to codify migiro bank i think i was right thank you terry i think i think by god i army and police fired tear gas rubber bullets and live rounds did it thank you. thank you thank you thank you ok ok ok. i think i have i was. my guy was. in the shadow of the shwedagon pagoda the monks gathered as it turned out for one last time i heard they had megaphones to shout out their message for peace and calm they were faced by soldiers with raised rifles and bandits i knew i. was i it was monks who tried to keep a tense situation calm i months and begged the police and soldiers for restraint i normally go to school and then knees before monks there was no pretense of respect any longer. thank you. the e.u. . was i was some of the scenes of never being before that shows how ruthless the security forces were i mean miles foreign minister had told the un security council the police and army exercise restraint i the scenes prove. i. i was was was was was was was was was was was was was i think ye was incredibly some months for but i was i was i was. others a skate join the confusion. i i want to talk one on one was security forces responded with tear gas i. i i i i. i i i. i was. i was i i was clashes broke out all over the city volleys of shots were fired around us and over our heads i. 7 i i i i i. want for you. i i want to talk one on one. i think you. army rapid response units made lightning sweeps. i. was i. was. already almost coming out you know but now you walk things got hard and i think. i was going to go ok missing for a while that they had signs saying no marks. turning a very fast. maybe they stopped. i. here i filmed while i walked through the middle of the soldiers as they beat and arrested civilians. i think. i kept on walking but eventually i was grabbed and hauled back. in the confusion i managed to get away with. my camera. at the height of the crackdown something like 15000 troops and riot police arrest a makeshift of been on the streets the government has admitted they killed 10 people including a japanese photographer observers believe far more died but it is impossible to say for sure. i really don't know where all this is heading so i've just witnessed the arrest about 8 or 9 young men who were trying to confront the army the army were rapidly they responded arrest them cut them off beat them a little bit and then were taking their documentation. i saw them paraded through the streets i was trying to film not very successfully because they say you're filming we're going to take your camera and i'm very where what happened to the japanese photographer so it's a bit risky so you hear from everything from a distance very served to. people here living at ground every single day of their life and they got front row seats they turn out never can is and when i was filming sneakily to look at me and smiling at you having a degree of guns in the air. thousands of people were arrested during the night time curfews and the streets were finally under the control of the military. we used secret cameras to record what was happening to avoid detection you constantly change hats and shirts never stay too long in one place and always check to see if you were being followed. a few people have said to me here that these protests and not yet finished a month told me that as a young people but the stranglehold by the police and the military is so restricting that it's very difficult for anyone to move about it alone gather for mass in a kind of numbers that we've seen in the past few days. it's very difficult situation now people are talking about spies everywhere they're worried to be seen with a foreigner very concerned about what's going to happen to still the heart if you. still say they're prepared to brave the bullets in a battle they will have to say. the army is in control of all the main shrines in monasteries few monks could be seen on the streets hard to imagine in a city where there are something like 75000 monks. i think protest of punishment. or you think there will happen again. don't have to spend long happened what we don't know and they will. be done and began. soldiers and police are reviled here despised by many civilians for being the tool of the military hunter who's deprives them of basic human rights you wonder how they can ever be reconciliation here. they can do without it the dire social and economic problems which plague this once prosperous country and which provoked the 1st demonstrations still exist visible prominent affecting millions of people. there are a lot of this country and these monetary systems show. the statistics sometimes nontraditional worse than. they. all move numbers suggest musician rates broadly around 35 percent. we know it's actually much more severe a number of life because it's so i think where scraping the surface actually is me. me i'm aspens less on health and education per person than any other country in the world apart from north korea. it's quite amazing here when i used to be a capital c. . this is not even in the suburbs a short way from the city center you've got some poverty and very very basic conditions here but even so all the people here seem to smile where they seem to be kind of happy i wouldn't say contempt but there is a. gentleness about these people that makes the situation around here even more difficult to comprehend and make sure a little bit angry i suppose seeing how they live and how difficult things are they want the basic fundamental rights that many people in the world enjoy and has been denied to go for so long. and probably will be denied them for longer as well. everywhere you turn there is poverty and hardship here. but not for everyone. so i just try to film some big modern luxurious houses and such a contrast to what i've been seeing around the city in young gone the slums the policy the conditions the sanitation this is really something special. about i want to seeing those 4 men. on the construction site how much they're getting in comparison to people in those houses so kind of i mean those houses something probably would cost about $3400000.00 which is an awful lot of money in this country where the average wage is something like a dollar dollar 50 a day and that's if you're lucky enough to. hire you high unemployment you know because no statistics because the government doesn't release them but. the people without a lot of people in need of help people suffering hardship and. a climate of fear invades everything here people are being detained in a number of centers a young gone including here in the same prison. many i spoke to feel the treatment of the monks may in the end turn out to be the general's biggest mistake you know where where all they want to go they are in the division but if you were to give. them the money right what do you. know this is the worst i've got over the last of what was the war. about. now finish 4th and finish your thought on little you know what you will never forget my . little son that. who knows how many have been killed or imprisoned we may never know it's very difficult again to have a precise number that the authorities are putting out any press releases they did admit to 10. but most people suspect that there is far more than mom and have done for in terms of around us i'm sure it's in the bosnians by these arrests started the old august all on from what we understand every night off to. go start trouble around the city long picking up more people. barbed wire barricades are still around the city and across the road leading to the home of the suci who has lived under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years the monk's leaders are gone left behind of the young and the old and what the military may think ineffectual but the air of resistance remains here. mostly not afraid not afraid and leave these in the musty when they come out on the street when they come people in the usa. i think when you. get home and we grab. a seat so protest not finished not going to be happy. for sure here. so i'm walking up the road now to the trade again to go to this is about the 1st time in a week we're going to do this before the roads were blockaded with crude wooden than why devices behind which were armed police. this is about the 1st time in a week we could have to do this before the roads were blockaded with crude wooden than why devices behind which were armed police and it's impossible to pass this is one of the symbols of the resistance from the monks and the police and the army wanted to stop that but now it's open and i suppose that's now indicative that the generals the military hunta have got the situation under control to their liking that they have. got degree of security now that no one else will come out and protest i suppose this marks the opening of this road map to the fact that this protest this uprising for democracy in short dispirited is probably over now. those streets saw the violent protests are now empty of monks for a very brief time they carried the spirit of a nation seeking justice and human rights and they have paid a terrible price and no matter what political agreements are made what dialogue is followed it's a price which will never be forgotten by the people of being. a remarkable record of advance which helped hasten the end of military role inside myanmar very mcgregor is a journalist who's written extensively on men over the last few years and she joins us now via skype from yang gone really fantastic to speak to you if you know thanks for joining us here on rewind to what extent did those protests that we saw in tony berkeley's report pave the way for the end of military rule and unsung suchi becoming to factor a leader. i think we have to remember that military is still a huge problem here and there and 81925 percent is in the parliament and i think it is 1st until a member there's a lot of questions of as to how much control those who actually has but how does that improve the lives of people given that they bow got the democracy they crave for has that come with them proved sounds of living i think it depends very much for you there but i think the military voting for more than a modicum of power i mean dorsey has said heard it from the very beginning that her even where. to bring peace. and bring about a constitutional change the military effectively has a veto over whether the constitution if. i'm very very still in a border areas particularly fiction and that also the reason it's in conflicts in the trains. and of the city and. in the northern reply. to these are only areas very rigid with the military very much tell me what happens there and he was saying earlier that the military still retains milf a lot of control in the areas outside of yangon shan state in iraq hina of course the reading direction is huge today and unsung suchi comes under a lot of criticism for not doing more to protect the writing of people but hobson and maybe you'll correct me aaron tell me a bit more about that perhaps she doesn't how that control in that area. i think most people would say that she has very little control over the. you know they are taking her in you know. even the streets and who feared for her. are incredibly poor so i don't know if anyone really appreciates. acting in important it. is and happening. however if she. were in general it's your right it's. maybe. very disappointing to anybody. is. them honest committed to the voluntary safe and dignified repack trace of displaced persons from a con under the framework agreement reached between bundle a day she and. mr president talk and there'd be an ongoing genocide or genocide or intent and this country checks are being taken into account. manager. capturing a moment in time. snapshots of other lives. of the stories. providing the clips into someone else's work out the. do day or. inspiring documentaries from impassioned filmmakers. like witness on al-jazeera in india identity politics on the rise what we're seeing is the construction of budget shooting cuts and loads of millions of people across the country and as a dark side is you do see the grit from his off the majesty of the him into something more like the team i didn't see of the british today i meet with victims of violence and discover what life is like for minorities in the country join me on my journey in search of india's soul on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. and. this is al-jazeera. hello i'm rob matheson and this is the news hour live from our international broadcast center in doha coming up in the next 60 minutes panic at a shopping mall in thailand as a soldier goes on a shooting rampage killing at least 21 people. a 3 way tie exit polls and islands general election suggest it's too close to call. china builds more hospital beds to cope with the corona virus outbreak as the world health organization award is about the spread of misinformation.