Myanmar junta arrests Swiss national over film ‘harming’ Buddhism

This picture taken on Oct. 11, 2021 shows a motorcyclist waiting for monks to pass as they collect alms along a street in Mandalay. Myanmar authorities have arrested Swiss citizen Didier Nusbaumer for writing and directing a film “which could harm the morality and dignity of Buddhist monks,” the country’s military said on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. STR / AFP

YANGON, Myanmar—Myanmar authorities have arrested a Swiss citizen for writing and directing a film that allegedly harmed the “morality and dignity” of the Buddhist religion, the country’s military said on Friday, Aug. 18.

Didier Nusbaumer, 52, was arrested on Aug. 8 over the film “which could harm the morality and dignity of Buddhist monks,” the junta’s information team said in a statement.

The roughly 75-minute film titled “Don’t Expect Anything” had been posted to a Buddhist YouTube and TikTok channel in July, the statement said.

In the film “a young woman used rude and insulting words against the culture and tradition of Buddhists by harming the good virtues of monks,” it said, without giving details.

Thirteen others involved in the film who had “acted without care… to downgrade the morality and dignity” of monks were also arrested, the statement said.

“Action will be taken effectively against those arrested persons.”

The statement did not say if Nusbaumer was being held in custody.

AFP has contacted officials at the Swiss embassy in Yangon for comment.

Religion is an important part of daily life for many across Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where crimson-robed monks walk the streets every morning and prayer halls regularly blast chants on loudspeakers late into the evening.

In 2016 a court jailed a Dutch tourist for three months with hard labor for insulting religion after he unplugged an amplifier relaying a late-night Buddhist sermon.  /ra

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