Episode #130: Igor Blaževič experienced the chaos, violence and fear of the Bosnian War at a young age. Once the war ended, Igor wanted to support others who were suffering from the lack of freedom he had only just escaped from. With this in mind, Igor traveled to such hotspots as Kosovo, Chechnya, Cuba, Belarus, and eventually to Myanmar.

This work led to a close friendship with Czech President Václav Havel, whose own country had recently emerged from a traumatic past. Havel’s participation at events that Igor sponsored ensured a wider visibility to their cause.

In Myanmar, Igor found the oppression similar to what he had seen elsewhere. He stayed in the country for five years, working with former political prisoners and ethnic activists. These were the transition years, and despite the optimism brought by the new period of openness, Igor saw red flags from the start. He tried to explain that it was only a superficial democratic façade, but the situation only deteriorated when the Rohingya crisis hit. And as the crisis worsened, things began to play out in a way that was eerily familiar to Igor from his experience with communal violence in Bosnia.

Igor saw how military intelligence was infiltrating and radicalizing parts of the Saṅgha, using the highly respected monastic clergy to advance its own fear tactics under the guise of Buddhism, spreading the poison of ethnocentrism and xenophobia. But he wasn’t heard, dismissed as a know-nothing foreigner. 

Even so, Igor was totally taken by surprise when the military coup was launched last year. However, he now found that diverse groups in Myanmar were united in facing a common enemy, and so he saw a chance for building solidarity that had not been possible before. To him the course is clear: recognize that the Tatmadaw is the common enemy, unite to destroy it, and then work together to build a better future after it is defeated.