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Last Updated: Aug 27, 2008 - 10:59:31 AM |
“When I fled my village in Burma I had to leave my baby behind. She
was too small to survive the jungle.” says Nang Ga a 25 year old Shan
tribe’s woman. She hid in the jungle after the State Peace and
Development Council,
(SPDC) soldiers of the Burmese army demanded that one member from every
family be forced to work as porters or be killed. With tears filled
eyes Ga says; “The SPDC said we weren’t allowed to go into the rice
fields anymore. How could we survive if we couldn’t grow food?.. They
told us if we ran away they would shoot us!” Many westerners have never
heard of the Shan, even though they are the largest ethnic minority
group in Burma with a population of approximately seven million. In a
brutal war that has been going on for nearly sixty years the Burmese
junta occupy Shan ethnic villages to control the rural populations.
Rape, torture, murder, slavery and forced relocation are common.
Parents are often killed or separated from their children, leaving tens
of thousands of orphans living in refugee camps in Thailand or IDP
camps in Burma. The Shan are not eligible for refugee status as a
result most work illegally as servants, laborers or prostitutes.
Children, twelve years old or younger, eke out an existence as
undocumented migrant workers in Thailand. When the SPDC raided her
village, Nan Ga’s husband, 21 year old Non Geet, was away from home,
serving in the Shan State Army (SSA), a tribal defense force, battling
for the independence of Shan State. Nan Ga hid in the jungle for two
months before being found by a SSA battalion. She was reunited with her
husband at the rebel armies’ headquarters of Loi Tai Leng. Nang Ga and
Non Geet are among roughly 3,000 internally displaced people
(IDPs) who have taken refuge at Loi Tai Leng. The base which is set
high upon the ridgeline, on the Burmese side of the border with
Thailand, is surrounded by minefields and guarded by several thousand
rebel soldiers. Inside the villagers are trying to rebuild their
shattered lives. They have built a meeting hall school, a temple,
several restaurants, and a school. The children are educated in both
English and their native tongue to keep their cultural traditions Nang
Ga says “Life is better here than in our village. The SSA gives us
food. In Shan State we had to pay for school, but we were too poor. In
Loi Tai Leng school is free.”
The young parents have no news whether their child is alive or dead.
The villages don’t have telephones, and visiting the child would mean
weeks of walking through hostile enemy territory. Non Geet has never
seen his child (he was with the Shan State Army at the time). He says;
“She would be four years old now.” Nang Ga is expecting a second child
dreams that someday their two children will be reunited to share their
bamboo hut. Motioning toward her pregnant belly she says “This baby
will go to school and live in safety. And she will never be hungry.”
When the school bell rings for lunch break the children file out into
the street and wait patiently in line for their basic issue of food, as
they do three times per day. They are given rice topped off with
watery vegetables. They only eat meat once a week.
Kawn Wan, 20 years old, is an English teacher at Loi Tai Lang. He
learned to speak English after coming to the rebel base in 2001. In his
first English poem Kawn Wan describes his parent’s murder by the SPDC,
“The sound of a gun took my family away.”
He remembers when his parents’ fateful day with vivid detail. Kawn Wan
believes he has relatives who are still alive inside of Shan State.
He says, “I haven’t heard anything about them since I came to Loi Tai
Lang. They left the village to look for food. Some people told me the
SPDC caught them.”
Kawn Wan has lived half of life as an orphan. Now he looks after the
197 boys who live at the dormitory at Loi Tai Leng giving them the care
he never had. Pointing to two young boys who live at the dormitory Kawn
Wan says, “They are orphans and have been here for about four years,”
shaking his head sadly he says, “They don’t remember anything, not even
the name of their village.” The orphans, refugees and soldiers have
formed a new community at the rebel camp while the war in Burma rages
around them. In 2005 the base came under attack. For forty-five days
the inhabitants were subjected to constant artillery barrages and
frontal assaults by the SPDC and United Wa State Army. The Wa are
another ethnic minority group who have come to a cease fifre agreement
with the SPDC and earn their money from drug trafficking. Loi Tai Leng
survived the attack but the memories of the battle are ever present in
the minds of the IDP’s at the camp. Things are quiet for now but the
villagers know this could change overnight. The Shan people are part of
the Tai ethnic group, which includes the Lao and the Thai. The Shan
feel themselves to be the historical cousins of the Thai. The soldiers
were given a day off to celebrate the 80th birthday of the king of
Thailand. In every Shan home, there is a Buddhist shrine depicting
images of the current Thai King, His Majesty Rama IX and the ancient
Thai King Naresuen, who helped the Shan king fight against the Burmese.
The King of Thailand is credited with providing most of the outside aid
to the Shan. Unfortunately, to maintain good relations with Burma,
Thailand cannot officially or openly endorse the Shan resistance. Tun
Yee is a young Shan soldier. Yee says; “I am not sure if I am twenty or
twenty one. It seems like a long time ago. My father died when I was
very young. When I was about ten, the SPDC attacked our village when my
mother was in the rice fields”.
The monks who lived in his village helped Tun Yee escape. He says, “We
walked through the jungle for about a month.”
Tun Yee lived illegally in a Shan temple as a monk in Thailand until he
was fifteen and he moved to Loi Tai Lang, to attend school for the
first time in his life.
Tun Yee doesn’t know if his mother is alive. Recently, a newly arrived
refugee told Tun Yee that a Shan woman, bearing the same name as his
mother, and who also lost her son, was living in the city of Fang, in
Northern Thailand.
The soldiers had to restrain the impetuous youth, to prevent him from
running across the Thai border where he was sure to be arrested. Once
again, the monks intervened. The head Abbot of the temple at Loi Tai
Lang ordained Tun Yee as a ten-day monk. His head was shaved and he
donned the sacred robes of a novice. Together, with the head Abbot, he
made the long journey by car, first to Chiang Mai, and then Fang. Along
the way, they were stopped numerous times by Thai military, but the
Abbot talked them through all of the checkpoints, before reaching their
destination.
Yee says with tear filled eyes, “It wasn’t her. I don’t even remember
what she looks like. When I close my eyes, I try to imagine her face,
but I just don’t see it anymore.” At eighteen years of age Hsai Leurn
is the youngest teacher at the school. Hsai Leurn is a budding artist.
He has drawn portraits of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi
and has learned to sing the song, “Freedom from Fear.” Aung San Suu
Kyi, the brave woman who the west has chosen as the face of the
conflict in Burma, won the only free election in recent Burmese
history, and has been under house arrest ever since. Her party,
National League for Democracy, is extremely popular among Burmese in
exile. Inside of Burma, however, open support for the NLD or the mere
mention of the name, Aung San Suu Kyi, could be dangerous business,
resulting in arrest, torture, or execution. Her biography, “Freedom
from Fear,” has become a kind of Bible for Burmese who dream of a
brighter future. The book inspired a song by the same name, which has
become a mantra. Freedom from Fear could be interpreted this way. If
you can release yourself from fear, you can have anything. Or maybe, it
means that when the Burmese have political and spiritual freedom, they
will also have freedom from the fear which rules their everyday lives.
In the free countries, when small children sleep, their parents leave a
light on, so the children won’t be scared. In Shanland, turning on the
lights would give the enemy a target for artillery fire. Only a free
election, not a nightlight, could free the Shan children from fear.
Hsai Lern says; “We respect Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League
for Democracy (NLD). Although She has never made any official statement
regarding the independence of Shan State, many Shan support Aung San
Suu Kyi. Whether or not they gain independence, the Shan will probably
have a better life under a free democracy than under a dictatorship.
Kawn Wan says, “The NLD have never visited us in the jungle. They
cannot help us. They cannot even help themselves... You foreigners,
when you aren’t happy with something, you go and change it. You protest
and fight, but here in Burma, it is impossible for us. I want the
American people to know that we have a country, but we cannot live. We
have no human rights. The government doesn’t do anything for us. We
want the international community to tell the SPDC to give us democracy.
We want to live freely like other countries. In America and democratic
countries they have freedom and they have rights. They can use their
rights to help us. When I lived in Shan State I didn’t know about
democracy. When I went to school I learned about free society and human
rights... Now I want to use this knowledge to help my people.”
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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