“The world can and must hold the country’s leader and his regime accountable for atrocities against the Burmese. In eastern Burma, more than 3300 ethnic villages have been destroyed, more than in Darfur. Civilians are deliberately targeted and shot on sight. Every day I ask myself: have I done everything I can to end the atrocities being committed in Burma?”–Desmond Tutu
You may or may not know much about the long standing conflict in Burma (the US does not recognize the legitimacy of the current ruling military regime, thus still refers to this country as Burma not Myanmar). You may be more familiar recently because of the increased news coverage about the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, human rights activist, and leader of the National League for Democracy-Aung San Suu Kyi. (Who, by the way, was sentenced to another 18 months under house arrest which will prevent her from running in next years election!…yet another sign of the extremely oppressive nature of the ruling military junta).
(I know the last geography class I’ve taken was in the 6th grade…so I thought I would help you out and give you a visual.)
The conflict in Burma is one of the longest on-going wars in the world. Recently the violence has been between the ruling military regime that has ruled the country since the 60′s and several ethnic groups primarily the Karen, Shan and Mon. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)-the official name of the current ruling regime-is one of the five or six remaining governments who still actively recruits children to fight as soldiers in armed conflict. Children as young as 11 years old have been recruited and deployed into armed conflict. Street children, rural school children and even novice (Buddhist) monks have been among those recruited.
The UN has documented the forced recruitment of tens of thousands of child soldiers, more than one million refugees and internally displaced persons, numerous cases of killings and torture, and mass rape.
Armed conflict, forced relocation of villages, and human rights violations-not to mention poverty, disease and the devastating effects of the 2008 cyclone-has caused hundreds of thousands to flee to their neighboring country (and my new home for the year)-Thailand…
During a 5 day break during midterms, my friend Ghazala and I packed up and headed to the Thailand/Burma border in the Western Province of Kanchanaburi. After several e-mails and phone calls we were headed to Baan Dada Children’s Home (‘Baan’='home’ in Thai and ‘Dada’='brother’ in Sanskrit) in the small village of Huay May Lai in Sangklaburi. We had no idea what we were in for, or what experience awaited us. All we knew was that Dada would pick us up at the 7 eleven (yes, they are everywhere!) in Sangklaburi after he picked up the kids from school in town. So we boarded the 7 hour bus to Sangklaburi excited with the thought of playing with little kids all week. We knew we would have an incredible eye-opening experience but I don’t think we expected to fall in love so quickly…we were instantly welcomed in like family with an overwhelming sense of love and joy despite their appalling living conditions…
I can hardly express in words my experience however I will give it my best shot, but it deserves a post on its own.
I will write more tomorrow…so please check back. In the meantime, I have posted just a few of the hundreds of Ghazala’s lovely photos (link on the right)!
Love. Christina.
