Length: 13:50

On the one-year anniversary of Burma's September uprising, when hundreds of thousands of monks caught the world's attention by protesting for democracy, the country's military junta continues to wage war against its own people and the crisis there has slipped back into obscurity.

As a journalist, I can understand this reality. Given the financial crisis, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters, the troubles of this Southeast Asian nation can feel remote.

On the one-year anniversary of Burma's September uprising, when hundreds of thousands of monks protested for democracy, the country's military junta continues to wage war against its own people.

To find out what has become of that uprising, much of it distilled into this video report, I've made several undercover trips back to Burma during the last year. Increasingly, I found a place as complicated as Iraq -- divided by political interests, ethnic groups and languages. It's a land of contrasts, with as many soldiers as there are monks -- roughly 400,000 of each.

At the heart of the country's long political struggle and isolation is Burma's reclusive dictator, General Than Shwe. The general, trained in psychological warfare, so reviles the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi that he won't allow her name to be uttered in his presence.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for leading her country's pro-democracy struggle, has spent the best part of the last two decades under house arrest in Rangoon.

Economically, Burma should be one of the most prosperous countries in the world; it has vast natural gas reserves, minerals, teak and the finest rubies, jade and sapphires. Instead, the generals mismanage the country, selling its resources to the highest bidders -- China, India, Thailand and Russia among them -- while pocketing most of the profits for themselves. The average Burmese makes less than 66 cents a day and a third of the country's children are malnourished.

Even if the pro-democracy movement that Aung San Suu Kyi inspired could oust the regime tomorrow, it would take years for the country to get back on its feet.

One senior monk, whose monastery was shut down after the uprising, compared the junta's 50-year grip on the country to Cambodia's reign of terror under the Khmer Rouge.

One senior monk, whose monastery was shut down after the uprising, compared the junta's brutal 46-year grip on the country to Cambodia's reign of terror under the Khmer Rouge.

"Millions could die," he said, "simply so that they [the military rulers] can keep their hold on power."

"The authorities have destroyed the economy, public health and the environment. Now Buddhism itself has come under attack," he said.

Since last year's mass protests, the junta has intensified its crackdown on democracy activists. Many have been imprisoned; others have died from old age before they could be caught. Some, like the two main characters in this film, have been granted asylum in the West.

As the old saying goes, "It's darkest before the dawn;" and from the many who have told me their stories inside and from exile across the border, Burma feels very much like a country descending into its darkest hour.