Victims of a Stalled Revolution (Fred Hiatt, Washington Post, 3/7/05)

burma

In January 2003, I traveled to Thailand, the Thai-Burma border, Laos and Vietnam with the U.S.-based organization, Jubilee Campaign, USA . The delegation included Lord David Alton of the British House of Lords. We had an excellent visit with government officials and non-government organizations (NGOs) as we discussed human rights concerns, particularly trafficking and religious freedom issues.

One of the key purposes of the trip was to hear direct testimonies of the suffering that the people of Burma endure at the hands of the military dictatorship, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Many Burmese have lived in refugee camps in Thailand on the border with Burma. These camps have made Thailand a safe haven for the refugees fleeing death and destruction in Burma.

The ruling military junta in Burma, has engaged in a deliberate policy to eliminate the ethnic minorities. A scorched earth policy, destroying entire villages along with food storage and production sources, systematic rape, the use of humans, including women and children, as landmine sweepers, forced labor, also known as slavery, the refusal to allow the duly elected leader of the country to take office, and many other abuses have turned the country of Burma into one large concentration camp.

Sadly, the international community has turned a deaf ear to the cries of ethnic minorities, the refugees, the IDPs, and the democracy activists. Several organizations track the violations in Burma and we were given copies of dozens of reports providing detailed documentation of of the SPDC’s brutal human rights abuses.

The situation in Burma is dire, and I would not hesitate to call it, according to legal definitions genocide. We visited refugee camps north of Mae Sot, Thailand and spoke with Karen refugees, Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims who had all fled the attacks of the SPDC on their communities. We saw landmine victims, orphans and school children, who all had suffered from the actions of the SPDC. The Thai government has been gracious in caring for these refugees, often with little help from the international community, yet there are many hiding in the jungles of Burma who need a safe place to go.

Our visit with the refugee orphans was both heart-wrenching and delightful. It was a delight to see these young children and to hear the songs they sang to us, but it was heart-wrenching to hear the amount of tragedy in these young lives. One group of four children, the oldest was 12, had lost their father; their mother could not take care of them so she brought them to the orphanage. An eight-year-old boy, who could not smile, saw his parents murdered, was then trafficked across into Thailand as slave, somehow escaped from his “owners,” and reached the safety of the refugee camps.

It is heartbreaking to know that many of the young children, including the orphans, in the refugee camps had watched family or community members being killed by the SPDC, wounded or killed by landmine explosions, raped, or even burned alive.

The ethnic cleansing of Burma is an international tragedy and the United States government and international community must help these people. The international community can send human rights monitors to Burma, pursue prosecution of those responsible for 

these crimes against humanity, press for the immediate end to deportation of democracy groups back to certain death in Burma, press strongly for the recognition of the democratically elected government of Burma, and send international peacekeepers to Burma.

The United States government could do more to assist the refugees in Thailand, increase pressure on the military regime in Burma and those nations that assist the SPDC, and further assist the democracy and humanitarian organizations focusing on 

aid to the people of Burma. One practical way we can assist the refugees is by offering scholarship opportunities for the refugee students to study abroad – the refugees currently have no legal means to continue their education past middle or high school.

In addition to all the human rights abuses committed by the military, the SPDC military runs, controls and earns the profits off the illegal drug trade of a reported 1 billion plus methamphetamine pills per year. It is vital that we work even more closely with the Thai government in fighting the drug trade controlled by the Burmese military.  

There are reports of the SPDC forcing its soldiers to take drugs before attacking ethnic groups – captured SPDC military personnel sometimes have difficulty remembering what took place during an attack because they were given drugs.

While in Thailand, our delegation also met with organizations assisting women and children, often ethnic minorities from Burma, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, who are victims of trafficking. Organizations, such as the New Life Center, provide counseling, health and medical advice and treatment, education and job skills opportunities for victims; many of those at risk for being trafficked, after the assistance provided by NGOs, return to their communities to help educate women and children about trafficking, health, and other issues.

Statement in Support of Burma's Democracy Movement (2/16/05)
Rep. Pitts: Burma Becoming Sudan of the East? (12/7/04)
Don't Leave Behind the People of Burma

State Department Reports
Report on Activities to Support Democracy Activists in Burma as Required by the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003
Report on Religious Freedom in Burma (2002)
Report on Human Rights Practices in Burma (2002)

U.S. Policy towards Burma
Summary of sanctions
Statement of American policy

Links
Shan Human Rights Foundation
Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People
Burmese Border Consortium
Karen Human Rights Group
US Campaign for Burma
Refugees International Report: "No Safe Place: Burma's Army and the Rape of Ethnic Women"
Licence to Rape: The Burmese Military Regime's use of Sexual Violence in the Ongoing War in Shan State (report by the Shan Human RIghts Foundation and the Shan Women's Action Network)
Earthrights International Report: "Valued Less Than a Milk Tin: Discrimination Against Ethnic Minorities in Burma by the Ruling Military Regime"
Christians Concerned for Burma