Constant warfare, military repression of ethnic minorities, crippling poverty, and a fundamental lack of respect for human rights by the Burmese central government have resulted in a constant exodus of refugees. Although it is nearly impossible to estimate the number of internally displaced peoples inside Burma, an estimated 2 million people have fled into neighboring Thailand5, where nearly 150,000 people have been left with no choice but to settle in the 9 camps located on its western border6.
Sadly, for the people of Burma, oppression is nothing new. For the Karen, who have been engaged in armed resistance against the central government since 19497, parents and grandparents alike haven't known the true meaning of freedom. Of course that has not stopped segments of the population from trying to bring about change.
Despite the incredible amount of human suffering that has resulted from decades of fighting and the magnitude of the human rights abuses perpetuated by the Burmese junta, the international community has successfully managed to ignore what has been happening in Burma for decades. My intention in creating this photo essay was to bring attention to a situation that most people in the world do not even know exists. I gathered all of the information for this piece during a twenty five day trip to northern Thailand where I was able to secure permission to spend five days inside the Umpiem Mae refugee camp in addition various other points of interests on the western border of Thailand, including Mae Sot and the district of Tha Song Yang.
This map shows the northern regions of Thailand and Burma. The seven major refugee camps located on the Thai side of the border are marked by red dots, while prominent IDP (internally displaced person) camps inside Burma are marked by blue dots. The Thai district of Tha Song Yang, adjacent to the area where fighting between Burmese government troops and KNLA soldiers erupted in early June 2009, is located in between Mae La camp and the city of Mae Sariang. 
I arrived in Mae Sot, Thailand on May 26th, one day before Prime Minister elect and pro democracy activist Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was supposed to be released from house arrest where she has been held for 13 of the last 19 years by the Burmese Junta. Following the May 5th arrest of John Yettaw, an American who swam across a lake to Suu Kyi's Yangon residence, she has been indicted on the trumped up charges of violating the terms of her house arrest, and is currently on trial8. Outside observers consider this a ploy designed to prevent her participation in the national elections that have been scheduled for 2010, twenty years after she became the democratically elected Prime Minister of Burma. On May 27th, protesters gathered in Mae Sot in order to deliver a letter to the UN High Commission for Refugees calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the other 2160 known political prisoners being held in Burmese prisons9. 
The SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) has restricted even the most basic rights of its citizens in the fear that its people will use their freedoms to oppose their unjust rule. Lacking a clear political ideology outside of unrestrained militarism, they lack the support of any group of the general population, forcing the Junta to focus most of its energies on containing its own citizens10. Inside Burma all forms of free expression have been systematically denied. It is illegal to use a fax machine without authorization11. High school students have been sentenced to long prison terms for handing out political pamphlets, and when protesters took to the streets as they did in 1988 in opposition to General Ne Win's unpopular rule, about 3000 people were killed12. If this protest had taken place in Burma instead of Thailand, some of the people in these pictures would likely be dead or in prison.
This picture shows a retired major in the Karen National Liberation Army who asked to remain anonymous. The tattoos that cover his body represent battles he has won. The size of the tattoo corresponds to the size of battle. In his eyes, political change and armed resistance cannot be separated. Thirty years of service as a KNLA soldier has made him believe that, "without a position of strength to bargain from, nobody will respect you." 
At twenty-six years old, Esso has been fighting with the KNLA for half of his life. He joined the army when he was thirteen years old after hearing about the brutal murder of his father by the SPDC. Villagers informed his family that they had found his father's severed head hanging from a mango tree outside his village. Most of the soldiers I interviewed joined the KNLA for similar reasons. With the knowledge that no one else will fight for the Karen, they continue to take up arms in the name of freedom for their people.
After ten years of distinguished service as a special weapons sergeant in the KNLA, Minnai (26) was blinded by a landmine northeast of Gawcher village in October of 2008, one month before his first child was born. He told me, "I will never know how beautiful my daughter is," as he was on the front line during her birth. Still, when asked whether he regrets his life as a soldier, he turned his head and said that "freedom for my people is worth far more than my two eyes."
This picture shows a Karen home made landmine on its way to the front line in Karen state. Heavily outnumbered and outgunned, landmines are the most important defensive weapon used by the KNLA, according to Colonel Mya Nerdah. Without them, holding territory and defending military installations would be almost impossible. Since the fall of Manerplaw, the KNU general headquarters, in 1995, the KNLA has been increasingly forced to adopt guerrilla tactics when engaging the larger and better equipped Burmese army.
This picture shows part of Umpiem Mai refugee camp, located several hours south of Mae Sot and less than 10 km away from the Burmese border. Although the number of inhabitants fluctuates as some are resettled and new refugees arrive, there are at least 15,000 refugees living in the camp according to a report released by the TBBC in April of 2009. Many of the refugees have spent more than a decade living in the camp.
Umpiem Mae can be described as a jaw-droppingly beautiful cage. Although the TBBC (Thai Burma Border Consortium) provides rice and building supplies to the majority of refugees who live there, the quality of life can best be described as tolerable. Outside employment is officially forbidden, and opportunities to work within the camp are extremely limited. Although little data exists on the psychological effects of camp life, a 2001 study carried out by the CDC reflects depression rates of nearly six times the US average, while camp inhabitants are more than four times as likely to suffer from anxiety.
A report issued by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) in June of 2008 ranked Thailand as one of the world's ten worst places for refugees. The Thai government has been widely criticized for its refusal to recognize the majority of Burmese refugees and preventing them from working13. The millions of Burmese who are currently living on Thai soil are instead regarded as "persons of concern." Official recognition would force the Thai government to acknowledge the human rights abuses of the Burmese junta and admit that the dictatorship is actively waging war against its own people14. Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 refugee convention which establishes the rights of asylum seekers, as well as the responsibilities of host nations in their treatment of refugees within its borders. The Thai government's refusal to address the human rights atrocities in Myanmar, along with restrictive administrative policies that limit the involvement of the UN and NGOs inside the refugee camps are often blamed for the refugee crisis on its western border with Burma15. In line with the Royal Thai Governments desire to keep the situation as low profile as possible, access to journalists and aid workers is strictly controlled. No one is officially allowed to be inside the camps after 6:00 p.m. Of course, taking pictures is strictly prohibited.
At the end of June 2009, the UNHCR announced the resettlement of the 50,000th Burmese refugee from Thailand under the largest resettlement program in the world16. While resettlement to a third country offers refugees a once-in-a-lifetime chance to start over, many political activists and freedom fighters alike consider the UN's efforts detrimental to the cause of Karen freedom and democracy in Burma. For those left behind, the struggle only becomes more difficult as they continue to be pressured from all sides to accept the circumstances that 60 years of conflict have imposed upon them. Sadly, young girls like the one shown above will be brought up in a foreign environment, ignorant of their own cultural history and sense of belonging that for many is tied to their strong sense of community and homeland. 
In early June of 2009, SPDC and DKBA (Democratic Karen Buddhist Army) mounted a major joint offensive against the KNLA 7th Brigade, resulting in one of the largest movements of refugees across the Thai-Burma border in nearly a decade, most of whom fled from the Ler Per Her IDP camp located across the Moei river from Thailand's Tha Song Yang district17. This man and his son arrived in Thailand less than 3 days before I took their picture.During the several days I spent there, I was struck by the extreme lack of other reporters in the area in the wake of such a massive humanitarian crisis. An Australian journalist I was traveling with, Daniel Pederson, received a phone call from some Japanese reporters who wanted to know how bad the situation was. He told them that three thousand refugees had just crossed into Thailand before advising them to make plans to come immediately. Underwhelmed, they responded that it wasn't worth their trouble for any less than unless five thousand refugees! How many more people will have to suffer to get the world's attention?
It is not just the renewed fighting that these people are fleeing. Many of the villagers I spoke to cited the harsh conditions they had to endure as porters for the army, in addition to being forced to serve as human land-mine detectors, as the primary reasons they left their homes in Karen State for the relative safety of Thailand. Even in times of relative peace, living in fear of the SPDC/DKBA is part of daily life. All of the refugees I talked to reported being required to provide supplies for the soldiers who are destroying their homes, schools, and villages. Sadly, most of the children I met didn't even realize the enormity of what had just happened. As we handed out supplies, the youngest of them reacted like it was Christmas morning, not realizing that they were not going to be returning home.
During my stay in Mae Salit, across the river from the KNLA 7th Brigade Headquarters, I visited the Safe Haven Orphanage which nearly doubled in size during the previous two weeks from approximately 50 students to 96. All of the new arrivals were children who had recently fled across the border, many of whom were suffering from malaria, diarrhea, and infections. Despite their predicament, when I arrived, the children were playing happily together inside the temporary classroom made of blue tarp, in the absence of proper building materials. Since I left the area about a month ago, another hundred orphans have arrived, while aid groups have been notably absent despite the pitiful conditions the children are currently living in18. 
This woman was forced to travel for two days through a heavily mined jungle during the rainy season with her 3 week old child to reach the relative safety of the Thai border. She is wearing everything she owns. Through a translator, I asked her how she could stay in such high spirits. She replied, "Of course I am devastated, but in reality, I am so thankful to be away from the fighting." That seemed to be the general feeling.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Works Cited:
1. http://www.visionofhumanity.org/news/158/burma-low-in-global-peace-index/
2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/07/burma-rebels-child-soldiers-vow
3. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/12/world/heroin-from-burmese-surges-as-us-debates-strategy.html
4. 2009 Freedom House "Worst of the Worst: The Worlds Most Repressive Regimes" survey
5. http://www.feer.com/international-relations/2008/october/Burmas-Fleeing-Masses
6. http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,,MMR,,4a6452c932,0.html
7. http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?action=conflict_search&l=1&t=1&c_country=19
8. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8049187.stm
9. http://www.aappb.org/
10. http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs/GBV-situation_in_burma.htm
11. http://khrg.org/background_on_burma.html
12. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7012158.stm
13. http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,IRIN,,THA,487f10c1c,0.html
14. http://www.danielpedersen.org/articles-about-burma/report-refugees-fate-in-the-hands-of-warring-armies/
15. http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-11-29/48674.html
16. http://www.unhcr.org/4a4a178f9.html 17. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8088947.stm
18. http://www.danielpedersen.org/articles-about-burma/pity-the-children/
1 comment:
Good on you Aaron, come back now
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