Barbet Schroeder spent months with Ugandan dictator Idi Amin at the height of his power, when corpses would wash up every morning on the shores of Lake Victoria and Kampala was rife with rumours that he was eating his opponents.
But in his decades of documenting evil, the veteran Swiss filmmaker says he has never been as scared by anyone as he was by a Burmese Buddhist monk named Wirathu.
“I am afraid to call him Wirathu because even his name scares me,” the highly acclaimed director said. “I just call him W.”
The Venerable W, his chilling portrait of the monk who has been accused of preaching hate and inciting attacks on Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority, has been hailed by critics at the Cannes film festival as a “stirring documentary about ethnic cleansing in action“.
What dismays Schroeder is that Wirathu, whom Time magazine dubbed “The face of Buddhist terror” in a 2013 cover, is utterly unfazed by the chaos and suffering he has unleashed.
Buddhism is supposed to be the philosophy of peace, enlightenment and understanding, he thought.
It helped center Schroeder’s own life when he made a pilgrimage to India to follow on the path of the Buddha 50 years ago to “cure myself of my jealousy”.
But the hate speech and fake news that Wirathu spreads from his Mandalay monastery, accusing Muslims – barely 4% of the country’s population – of trying to outbreed the majority Burmese, made Schroeder’s head spin.
Devilishly clever
“He is much more intelligent and in control of himself that I thought, devilishly clever in fact,” said Schroeder, who shot his film secretly in Myanmar until he attracted the attention of the secret police.
“It was like being faced by a good Jesuit or some very clever communist leader back in the day,” he said.
Rather than “question him like a journalist”, Schroeder just let the monk talk as he did with the other subjects of his “Trilogy of Evil”, which began with “General Idi Amin Dada” in 1974 and includes his 2007 film “Terror’s Advocate” about the French lawyer Jacques Verges, who defended Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.
“If you wait long enough, slowly the truth would come out,” Schroeder said. “That is what I did with Idi Amin and Jacques Verges.”
“When he lied I’d say, ‘Tell me more, how interesting… So the Rohingya burn their own houses so they can get money from the United Nations…’”
“For me one of the most shocking moments is when he says they destroy their own houses, and then you see a crowd of maybe 3,000 people fleeing their burning homes. It’s nightmarish.”
In another telling scene Wirathu, leader of the Buddhist nationalist 969 movement, is shown watching Muslims being beaten to death in Meiktila near Mandalay in 2013, a month after he gave an anti-Muslim speech there.
Hate speech ‘escalating’
Schroeder said the monk had returned “all peace and love” to the town to call for calm, “but he was at least indirectly responsible for what was happening.”
“Wirathu said all this happened because a monk was killed by the Muslims. But I read the pamphlet that sparked the riots and it sounded very much like his speeches and that he could have written it.”
This month, Wirathu – who has been called the Buddhist Bin Laden –stirred tension by touring Muslim areas in troubled Rakhine State despite Myanmar’s top Buddhist body banning him from preaching in March.
Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims died in 2012 when sectarian violence ripped the state apart, and tens of thousands still languish in fetid displacement camps.
More than 70,000 have fled into neighbouring Bangladesh since October after the military launched a months-long crackdown that UN investigators say cost the lives of hundreds of the persecuted minority and may amount to crimes against humanity.
Last week a UN envoy criticised the government of Aung San Suu Kyi for not clamping down on “hate speech and incitement to discrimination” which she claimed “appear to be drastically escalating”.
In the film Schroeder, 75, seems to trace Wirathu’s Islamophobia to the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by a Muslim in his hometown of Kyaukse.
But in person he is not so sure.
“Another theory is that his mother left his father and married a Muslim, or because his monastery was burned when he was 14. But every time I checked I was never sure.”
“Why was Hitler like he was? We will never know how this garbage collected in his mind.”
Agence France Presse
A lying, disgusting, despicable propaganda film aimed at destabilising Myanmar and inciting violence between Buddhists and Muslims.
People involved in the production of this fim are Satan followers,
A radical Buddhist monk sure is news and worthy of a documentary presentation at Cannes because ever increasing muslin radicalism throughout the rest South-east Asia and their prosecution of non Muslim minorities is every day event and thus not news.
Budhist authorities there reject his hatred inciting material… http://www.smh.com.au/world/myanmar-monk-wirathu-dubbed-face-of-buddhist-terror-gagged-by-authorities-20170312-guw9jt.html
The comment by George Silversurfer is the truth——–does anyone care about the plight of Christians living in Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria? and the hell they live through co existing with a increasing radical Muslim population world wide???
you must be joking
As long we think there the good ones and the bad ones we keep the energy of hatred living. What is it that we fear so much that we need this hatred.
This really has to do with fear mongering, economics and political influence on the perception and attitude of people who are predominately non-Buddhist
Imbecile.. suprising to see you are American!
In the lovely tolerant hot spot of Egypt 25 Christians murdered on a bus——–by who I ask? probably someone upset with the non believers
Part 1
Instead of being critical to the documentary “The Venerable W” produced by Barbet Schroeder, who was born in Iran and a "closet muslim"; the AFP article by FIACHRA GIBBONS simply echoes the narratives often repeated by jihadists, left wingers and Islam apologists who want to silence any and every one critical of islam and their underpinning ideology of world domination. In defensive Jihad, any critical expression that portrays Islam in negative light must be suppressed by all means necessary. “Maim and crucify the infidels if they criticize Islam” Koran 5:33. (Note: No sooner than you can quote from Koran some islam apologist will typically respond from the islamic playbook by stating "You are taking them out of context….")
It is sad that Asia Times has found it worth reproducing an article that supports the cause is islam and jihadi terror. IT MUST BE MADE CLEAR THAT IN ALL OF U WIRATHU SERMONS AND DISCUSSIONS THERE WAS NEVER A CALL FOR KILLING, MAIMING OR HARMING ANYONE. Barbet can only produce a few anecdotal strong words used by Wirathu (for understanding of simple peasants in Myanmar) and taking them our of context and extrapolated them to fit his narrative.
Thus, if anybody (including U Wirathu) ever criticizes Islam and islamic terrorism and is an inconvenience to your narrative, just cry Islamophobia. It’s like a magic spell. Remember Barbet Schroeder: if all goes wrong, cry ISLAMOPHOBIA! An entire army of jihadists, left wingers and Islam apologists comes to your calling.
Therefore, it is critical that one needs to understand that Buddhists do not kill Muslims but the natives are responding to the islamic terrorists (so called rohingya) who are virtually on a ethnic cleansing mission is Rakhine State. If Buddhists were at fault, they should probably be attacking Christians too. At least some type of discrimination against Christians which is the 2nd largest religious community in Myanmar which has never happened… Christians and Hindus, the 2nd and 4th largest communities, by population, are integrating just fine…
Now the question every one of us must be asking is, why do Muslims kill Christians? Why do Muslims kill Muslims? pretty much everywhere in the world. None of the Buddhists we know did/ does / wants to kill Muslims, at least not because of any religious reasons.
More importantly, history—true history, not the whitewashed versions currently peddled in American schools—demonstrates that for 14 centuries, Islam has, in fact, wiped out entire peoples and identities: what we today nonchalantly refer to as the “Arab World” was neither Arab and almost entirely Christian and Jewish in the 7th century, when Islam came into being and went on the jihad. Today, Christians remain a persecuted and steadily dwindling minority. How many Christians in Europe or American know about Charles Martel (c. 686 – 22 October 741) a Frankish statesman and military leader who as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was de facto ruler of Francia from 718 until his death….in October 732? Charles Martel united the Christians of Europe and decisively defeated the muslim army of the Umayyad Caliphate led by Al Ghafiqi at the Battle of Tours to save Christianity in Europe.
Part 2
If Buddhists understand that their entire civilization is at stake, — moral relativism and pro-Islam bias, and that dangerous mixture of confidence and ignorance—that characterize the Western elites’ inability to acknowledge, let alone respond, to Islamic aggression. The Buddhists of Myanmar also noticed the long-running islamic terrorism around the world, particularly in neighboring country of Bangladesh and Thailand. Is it any wonder that those Buddhist monks feel that it is they, their religion, their Buddhist culture, that are now imperiled, by Muslims following the same texts as those who put a virtual end to Buddhism in India, and who have carried out attacks on the last remnant of Buddhists in present-day Bangladesh, and destroyed so much of the art and artifacts of Buddhist culture in India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China?
The Buddhists of Myanmar are also fully aware of what happened in Indonesia, now a hot bed of jihadi terror where recently three police officers were killed, the governor of Jakarta was sentenced to jailed for being a Christian, two men were publicly canned for being gay, etc.. Consider the words of Fr. Daniel Byantoro, a Muslim convert to Orthodox Christianity: "For thousands of years my country (Indonesia) was a Hindu Buddhist kingdom. The last Hindu king was kind enough to give a tax exempt property for the first Muslim missionary to live and to preach his religion. Slowly the followers of the new religion were growing, and after they became so strong the kingdom was attacked, those who refused to become Muslims had to flee for their life to the neighboring island of Bali or to a high mountain of Tengger, where they have been able to keep their religion until now. Slowly from the Hindu Buddhist Kingdom, Indonesia became the largest Islamic country."
On the other hand, the millions of islamic preachers including Anjem Choudhary, Omar Bakri, Moustafa Zayed, and Dr Zakir Naik calling to kill infidels as stated in Quran are not only given a free pass but also a silent acquiescence from Barbet Schroeder and his islamic collaborators. In fact, Dr Zakir Naik from India who is wanted there for inciting violence has been given asylum in Saudi Arabia, and with its wealth from petro$$ is the "Godfather" for extremist sunni muslims. This month alone, Saudi Arabia has donated ONE BILLION US DOLLARS to muslim Bangladesh ostentatiously to spread Islam, but more than 90% of Bangladesh is already muslim. No doubt, the money will be used to make Bangladesh after its image – i.e. 100% muslim with sharia law (Note that justice statue in front of Bangladesh High Court was removed), and demographic islamic invasion of Myanmar and India. For Shia extremist muslims, Iran is play a similar role.
Finally, U Wirathu is no different that Fr. Daniel Byantoro, Winston Chrchill, Raymond Ibrahim who have exposed the ideology of Islam to the masses for what they are, and if any words used by them contains hate or racists, they are the very words contained in islamic books e.g. Kill the infidels wherever you find them.. (Koran 9:5). They all agree on one thing, which is excellently summarized by Craig Winn, author of the book "Prophet of Doom"
“..for the plight of Muslims. I want nothing more than to free them from Islam, and in so doing, free us from the terror their doctrine inspires…”
Excellant comments by Thein Maung ? Bravo !! All the facts are there in his comment ! I did not know Bart Schroeder was born in Iran and a closet Muslim from Swiss until now. That explains it all about his OIC Propaganda documntary. I noticed many disinformations and omissions of facts in his afirementioned documantary and its related article.
The following are some:
( 1) He claimed U Wirathu spreads fake news against Muslims in the country. U Wirathu is a devout Buddhist monk and never ever spread any fake news against any Muslims in the country. Spreading fake news or lying is against the Buddhist monk vows and is a severe sin. What he does is unfolding the picture of realities happening in the country and that is the soft Islamization slowly and sneakily happening in the conservative Buddhist country with hidden supports from OIC.It is the timely wake up call to the Buddhist people of Myanmar and thanks to him for it.
(2) Myanmar Muslim population is not barely 4% as stated in the documantary. The figure was from 1962. The figure is now about 15% or more in the country. Mr. Schroeder intentionally and falsely understated it because he wants to falsely portray the Myanmar Muslims in the country as victims in the eyes of the world.
( 3) He omitted many facts of Meiktila riot in 2013 between Myanmar Buddhists and local Muslims there. He blamed it on U Wirathu who was neither directly or indirectly responsible to the riot. He omitted many local Muslims atrocities against local Buddhists there that sparked the riot.
(4) The facts of the matter in details of the Meiktila 2013 riot which he omitted was that the local Buddhist couple was provoked, physically assaulted in a Muslim owned pawn shop by the shop owner and a group of local Muslim.It was over an argument over a gold comb of the Buddhist couple who was unfairly treated by the pawn shopowner. The Buddhist neighbours interevened when they saw the Buddhist couple being violently beaten by a gang of Muslims including the pawn shop owner . The fight broke out on the street between the two groups. Followingly the same afternoon the local Muslim group gathered in force and when they saw an innocent Buddhist monk on the street,they attacked him also,dragged him to their mosque, they continued to beat him up viciously, disrobed him,cut his genital, pour kerosene on him and set fire on him resulting his death. When local Buddhists found out about this vicious atrocities against the innocent Buddhist monk, they became more angry and they 5)responded by severly attacking them back. Thus, the violence escalated in Meiktila in 2013. Mr.Schroeder failed to mention it in details about the provokation and atrocities committed by local Muslims against the Buddhists that sparked and escalated the Meiltila 2013 riot. He falsely claimed that it was the pamphlet of U Wirathu who visited Meiktila a month earlier that sparked the riot. He blatantly omitted maybe with an intention of his own the actual root cause analysis of the Meiltila 2013 riot in his documentary.
( 5) He claimed that U Wirathu was seen witnessing the Muslim man being beaten by a group of Buddhist during the riot. Maybe their own digital manipulation of a fake photo which is quite common nowadays if anyone saw any photo of U Wirathu witnessing the beating of the Muslim man by local Buddhists during the riot. Actually U Wirathu lives in Mandalay City which is in upper Burma and he was in Mandalay when the Meiktila riot 2013 began in Meiktila which is located in middle of Burma.
( 6) He also omitted the facts in details regarding undocumented Bengalis so called Rohingya terrorists,their sneak attacks in Maungdaw on 10/9/16 to the Myanmar Border Police at the border . A group of reportedly about 500 or more armed Bengali so called Rohingya terrorists sneakily attacked after midnight on 10/9/16 and viciously killed nine Myanmar Border Police who were outmanned at Maungdaw, some beheaded ,some their neck slashed. In response ,the Myanmar military launched a month long crackdown on them in the area causing many undocumented Bengalis so called Rohingya to flee into neighbouring Bangladash in October,2016. Mr Schroeder blamed the Myanmar military on the crackdown on the undocumented Bengalis so called Rohingya in October 2016 but blatantly omitted the root cause analysis of the Myanmar military crackdown on them at the time.
This documantary recently shown in Cannes,France by the Swiss citizen but born in Iran,Mr.Bart Schroeder is nothing more than an OIC Propaganda tool against Buddhists in Myanmar because it contains many disinformations and many omissons of facts about the subject. It is a shame misleading the world on the subject in his documantary.
Why comment under a fake Myanmar name? Your knowledge of Buddhism is appalling.