Episcopal Press and News
Karen Refugees Along Myanmar-Thailand Border Face Uncertain Future
Episcopal News Service. February 8, 1996 [96-1391]
(ENS) Following the southerly course of the Salween River for a time, the border between Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand eventually veers off as a serpentine line that twists and turns around rugged hills hidden in thick jungle.
For the more than 74,000 members of the largely Christian Karen (pronounced KahREN) ethnic group who have fled Myanmar for Thailand, that line represents a small measure of security from the upheaval of their decades-long war with the Myanmar government.
As Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning prepared for a pastoral visit to Archbishop Andrew Mya Han of the Anglican Church of the Province of Myanmar, several representatives of the camps traveled seven hours by car to Bangkok to meet with him, his wife, Patti, and the Rev. Brian Grieves, the Episcopal Church's peace and justice officer.
Speaking through an interpreter, they told the party just how little protection the border provides them and just how desperate they are to return home in peace.
The Karen, one of many distinct ethnic groups uneasily contained within the Union of Myanmar, have been locked in a struggle with the Myanmar government for selfdetermination since the country won independence from Britain in 1947. They are now the last of some 16 ethnic insurgent groups to continue to resist Myanmar's military regime, and are currently under increased attack in a stepped-up government offensive.
There have long been Karen people on both sides of the border, more than half of whom are Christian, explained the Rev. Bruce McNab, vicar of Christ Church, Bangkok, who helped organize the visit of the camp representatives. Christ Church supports an ongoing ministry to the refugees and, along with other churches and organizations in Thailand, helps channel aid to the camps.
While the largest percentage of the Christian Karen are Baptist, others are Seventh Day Adventist, Roman Catholic and Anglican. In Myanmar, where there are some 5 million Karen, they make up the largest single ethnic group represented in the Anglican Church.
"They consider themselves a people -- not unlike Native Americans," McNab said. "The border between Myanmar and Thailand means nothing to them; it's only a river. The Karen 'nation' is on both sides of the border."
From the early 1980s, as the army of the Myanmar government (now the State Law and Order Restoration Committee -- SLORC) harassed Karen and other ethnic villages in Myanmar, forced whole villages to relocate and pressed Karen and other minorities to serve as army porters, the exodus across the border began and grew until 98,000 refugees, including 74,000 Karens, had resettled in Thailand. Almost 2,500 of the Karen refugees are Anglicans.
Between 10 and 15 Karen refugee camps -- small villages in the jungle -- once dotted the Thai side of the border, but in the past year the number of camps has declined. Thai officials, McNab said, unable to protect the spread-out refugees against attacks from Myanmar, have gathered some of the village-sized camps into two massive camps -- Mae La with about 20,000 people and Sho Klo with about 10,000.
In April, Myanmar forces burned three main refugee camps and at least two sub-camps, leaving more than 1,200 families homeless just before the onset of the monsoons. And even with the increased security, camp residents continue to be kidnapped and returned across the border, or shot and killed. Just a day before the camp representatives met with Browning, they said, a retired Karen army general was killed as he resisted kidnapping from his home outside the Mae La camp.
"Some of our members have to hide themselves, flee from the camps" to avoid capture, said the Rev. Caro, one of four Anglican priests serving the refugees.
Much of the harassment of the camps has come from members of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a splinter group from the Karen National Union (KNU) created when SLORC forces artificially aggravated religious differences between Christians and Buddhists.
"SLORC helped organize the Democratic Karen Buddhist organization by suggesting that Christians had all the leadership roles in the Karen National Union and were shutting the Buddhists out," McNab said. "But the reason many KNU leaders are Christian is because they were educated Karens from mission schools. SLORC would like to create those kinds of divisions that have never been there before."
Karen Christians and Buddhists have always been able to live together in peace, he said, and even the alleged religious differences are contrived. "There are Buddhists in the KNU and Christians in the DKB," he said.
"Karen Buddhists and Karen Christians love each other," confirmed Caro. "We cooperate together, live together. The Buddhist Karen, they protect us. That's why the DKB can't always come and give trouble to us."
"We have Christian churches and Buddhist monasteries," said Ah Htoe, a member of the KNU standing committee. "Both Buddhists and Christians celebrated the Karen New Year together."
Even though Ah Htoe claimed the KNU organization is still strong, and that the DKBA is made up mostly of younger soldiers rather than leaders, the creation of the splinter group clearly has hurt.
"Our headquarters were attacked by SLORC for many years, but they couldn't defeat it," he said. But with the DKBA soldiers' knowledge of the terrain, the Karen headquarters finally fell in December, 1994, he said, setting back a process of peace negotiation that seemed on the verge of success.
Archbishop Mya Han, himself both Burmese and Karen, was serving as a mediator between the government and the Karen insurgents when the Karen headquarters fell. As the Karen make new overtures for peace, they have asked that Mya Han again serve as a member of the mediation team.
"We want peace. We want real peace," said Ah Htoe. The other ethnic groups that signed cease-fire agreements have given up any hope for political rights, he claimed. Until there is a real peace, he said, "if we let our people return into our country, it is to let them go back to be killed."
In a later visit with the Browning party inside Myanmar, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi echoed the camp representatives' concern for political rights for her country's minorities.
Suu Kyi, whose party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), would have taken control of the Myanmar government in 1990 if SLORC had not nullified the election, said, "We have always held that the role of the ethnic peoples is absolutely crucial. They are as much a part of our nation as the majority Burmese are."
Over decades of struggle and mistrust, "the relationship between the Burmese and the ethnic people has not been as good as you or I would have wished," she acknowledged, because "the Burmese have not been as understanding of the aspirations of the ethnic peoples as it should have been."
The Burmese have more responsibility as the majority ethnic group, Suu Kyi said. "It is for them always to make the first step toward reconciliation, it is for them always to make more concessions because they are in the stronger position."
Her concern is motivated by pragmatism as well as compassion.
"Unless there is trust and confidence between the ethnic peoples and the Burmese I do not think that our country will ever make real progress," she said. "There can not be real human development in this country."
The policy of the present government "seems to be with a firm hand they will be able to maintain unity," she said. "I don't think you can achieve or maintain unity with a firm hand. You can achieve quiescence but that is a different thing all together. People may be unable to move because they are in a strong grip, but that doesn't mean that they are united within that grip."
True unity "comes from within because we trust each other, and because we want to live together and work together, and we're prepared to suffer together," she said. "Unless these sort of feelings can be engendered, there will never be unity."
Real democratic institutions that allow people to voice discontent will be needed to establish understanding between the ethnic groups, she said.
"People must be allowed to say what they don't like," she said. "If I don't know what is making you angry with me, I will never be able to dissipate your anger. And if you don't know why it is that I don't trust you, then how will you be able to gain my trust? We have to be allowed to speak out why we don't trust each other or why we don't like each other, in a civilized way."
In the nearly 15 years of the Thai camps' existence, an active and energetic ministry has sprung up. The four priests are assisted by 11 catechists, all paid a nominal salary by Christ Church, Bangkok.
"What these clergy have done with virtually no resources is miraculous," said McNab. "The priests have done evangelization among Thai Karen Buddhists and animists. Now there is a solid Thai Karen Anglican Christian group."
As yet, though, there are no Thai Karen clergy, he said, a serious lack should the Myanmar Karen ever return home. "We need priests to minister to the converts left in Thailand," he said.
"Since we first crossed into Thailand, we started spreading the gospel," said the Rev. Shwe Mya, another of the four priests. Five congregations currently worship, and while all have not yet built church buildings, they are active with Mothers' Unions, Fathers' Unions, Sunday schools and youth training programs.
Two mission schools were operating for the refugees, though one -- St. John's Orphanage School -- had to close because of the unsettled situation after the camps burned. The schools need more trained teachers who can instruct the groups in Karen, Shwe Mya said. And Karen students who are outgrowing the camp schools need scholarships for further study.
Recently Bishop Daniel Hoi Kyin of the Pa'an Diocese, one of two predominantly Karen dioceses in Myanmar, visited the portion of his flock that is now in Thailand. "It was the first time they've had an episcopal visit from their own bishop since 1981 when the refugees first came," McNab said.
The Thai government, in order to maintain a relationship with the Myanmar government, has refused to allow the Karen official international status as refugees, and provides no support beyond protection, said McNab. Instead, a network of churches, non-government organizations and other aid groups assist the camps.
Last year, after the three camps were burned, the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief issued an emergency grant of $10,000, which rebuilt 50 homes.
Thanks to the broad-based church support, "we have enough food and enough clothing," the Rev. Caro said. "We know that whatever hardships there are, God walks with us."
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