In order to monitor these issues and find sustainable solutions, WIN has helped community health workers develop a detailed information collection system to identify the most common hindrances to these people and ways to get around them. During the pilot phase, this survey has already covered hundreds of villagers, documenting the issues that stop them accessing healthcare.

This month 4 medics came out of the jungle to receive survey training so that they can pass their skills on to clinics across Karen State. By December this year, we plan to have documentation covering 4 key regions affected by war that can be used first and foremost to improve provision of healthcare but may also be able to help gain international support.

When people think of human rights, the most violent ones usually come to mind, but in fact the right to travel is a fundamental human right that few governments or cultures would argue was not crucial to living a stable peaceful life. While in Karen State, violence is also a horrible reality, the effects on the everyday lives of generations of Karen citizens gains little attention despite its severity. WIN is dedicated to enabling war victims in Burma to building stable living environments for their families so programmes like this are crucial to developing an understanding of what the real issues are that people face.

Every time we talk to members of the Karen community about getting their message out to the world, they say they want to tell the UN, and rightly so. The United Nations has the power to enforce international cuts in communication, trade, military support and diplomatic relations to any government they feel is a threat to peace. Training programmes like these, therefore, aim help local community run groups to bridge connections with the UN.  Now, when abuses are suffered in their communities, they have the capacity to report these crimes on an international level.

Solid UN-approved evidence of Burma’s war crimes are tantamount to gaining international support for the country’s victims of war, both political and funding for relief and development. However, the international body often struggles to gain information from areas of war due to restrictions put in place the ruling military regime. Therefore, these community workers have been very enthusiastic to begin recording cases of abuse, which they come across regularly, and then report directly.

This also comes at a crucial time politically, as western governments across the globe are calling for the UN to implement a Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights Abuses in Burma. It is crucial that the UN is receiving up-to-date reports on the horrific crimes committed by the Burma Army from all angles so that these calls can be acted upon.

Showing video and photographic examples of Burma Army operations and the devastation caused in one of the country’s most war-torn regions, he made a case for a need for more cross-border aid and understanding of the situation among all those reassessing Burma policy. While many have heard numerous statistics about the human rights situation in the region, few understand the continuing severity of the situation or of its implications on Burma’s development as a whole. Step-by-step explanations of the process as well as clear visual representation of the frequency of attacks on civilians were used at the talk to give a deeper understanding.

Some European governments and funders have begun to lean in favour of supporting legitimate aid and development groups working with the Burmese government’s permission, rather than those working on underground aid or civil education. While this shift has proved beneficial for many communities in non-conflict regions, the same approach cannot be applied to those in areas where rebel fighters are present, as civilians are attacked regularly, indiscriminate of age, sex or occupation.

Not only will people in these regions be unable to vote in the upcoming military-dominated elections, but the leaders that have supported them for decades will in most cases have never participated in Burma’s political discourse, making the incorporation of these people into the country a far-away prospect. For decades, the ruling regime has tried to achieve this process through a violent strategy of forceful assimilation aiming to destabilise entire communities while brutally subjugating ethnic minority groups and their claims to sovereignty. This has been attempted through regular destruction of houses, farms, schools and markets as well as attacks on individuals, using torture and rape.

It is important for all of those working on policy or allocating funding for aid to the Burma to understand the deeper factors effecting stability and the long-term risks politically if these populations continue to remain isolated and oppressed. Therefore, WIN has made advocacy at this level a top priority, and will continue to give the nation’s most oppressed war-affected communities the voice they need to stand up for their rights.



For thousands of people in Eastern Myanmar, the family home environment is without walls, deep in the jungle where they hide from the Burma Army. Shelters like these just about keep children protected from the insects on the ground and the pouring rains from above, but provide little consolation for the years of oppression keeping them forever homeless.

These people are living like this now, and those that have survived the nearly finished monsoon current await the annual military offensive that could force them to leave once again, with all the possessions they can carry, to avoid being shot, arrested or taken as slave workers by Burma’s ruling military regime. Visit www.worldwide-impact-now.org to learn more about how you can help them today.

Video training in Karen State

At this time, the education of their people through media is critical due to the upcoming sham national elections that will threaten to solidify the current dictator’s grip on power for another generation, and the inevitable military offensive directed at the Karen people that comes with every dry season. We are now providing technical support and guidance on a number of Karen-led projects to do just this, distributing DVDs and MP4s to communities that have been denied access to independent media for their entire lives.

Every year, when the rain stops, the attacks begin. The Burma Army move into areas where the Karen National Union (KNU) are present and systematically devastate entire communities in a matter of days. Villages will be shelled with mortars from a distance before being entered and burnt to the ground, leaving little behind but burning embers and anti-personnel landmines. Following such attacks, hundreds, if not thousands, of villagers will be forced to leave their homes and hide in the jungle to avoid being arrested, beaten or killed, as they are every year.

Media Advocacy Strategy Training

WIN has worked with people in these zones to develop specific shooting plans to document this entire process from the outbreak of conflict through to the documentation of life in hiding. We are also empowering numerous community groups with the knowledge of international human rights mechanisms to collect incident details for the United Nations.

Working with these people on these training courses has been an inspiration for all those on the ground working for WIN. The determination among these young people to resists the temptation to seek asylum in refugee camps or resettle to the west and stay working to help their communities is remarkable and keeps us motivated everyday.

Three Generations of War Victims: Still No Home

End of July 2010, this grandmother, mother and son were forced to leave their homes to avoid a Burma Army attack . While they were gone, the soldiers burnt down the entire village and destroyed all the food they could find. Today, they are back, rebuilding their homes, while tens of thousands more remain hiding in the jungle following similar attacks.

In all wars, regardless of political persuasions or ideologies, civilian families are unjustly caught between conflicts. But in Burma the threat to the people is particularly severe, following decades of draconian military rule and total disregard for human rights.

Mon internally displaced families seek refuge in NMSP territory

Already, as SPDC troops move in on non-state armed groups’ territories, or “ceasefire zones”, thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their homes, many not for the first time, in search of refuge. Some have moved into Thailand across its northern and western borders while others have remained in Burma fleeing to the jungle or deeper into ceasefire zones.

In the past week alone mass relocation was documented in and from regions under the control of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the New Mon State Party (NMSP), the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA).  There are already estimated to be between 1-3 million internally displaced people in Burma and over 150,000 refugees in Thailand. These figures could rise dramatically if the SPDC carries out its threats that “war will break out like it did in 1989.”

Trade has all but stopped on the Thai- Shan State border as a result of local fears of conflict and increased SPDC scrutiny at checkpoints. As a result, local markets have upped their prices dramatically. On one stretch of road between Tachilek and Monghsat it has been reported that there are no less than 20 SPDC checkpoints and as a result vegetable prices have gone up 30% or more.

Forced to operate under a self-reliance policy, SPDC battalions are notorious for exploitation of locals, in some cases surviving solely from extortion and forced labor. Traders and travelers are routinely stopped at checkpoints in ethnic regions and forced to pay bribes, give gas or their hand over produce. Such measures put local business and livelihoods under severe strain. This is at its worst in conflict regions where acute poverty and neglect of civilian needs has led to under-5 mortality rates being as high as 20%.

As part of its counter-insurgency strategy, the SPDC systematically targets civilians in an effort to cut off all possible support for armed opposition groups. By destroying entire villages, targeting schools and hospitals it aims to destabilise communities and keep them under strict martial law. In 2009 alone over 100,000 people were displaced in Eastern Burma, including over 60,000 in Shan State, home to the highest number of ceasefire groups. The region was totally independent from Burma until the British conquered it in the 19^th century and is home to many different ethnic nationalities, many of which demand far greater autonomy than the SPDC will allow.

Upcoming events in Burma’s ethnic regions are hard to predict but the clearest indicators that heightened conflict is imminent have been shown by the civilians who have fled their homes, stopped trading or put prices up on their market stalls. For the older generations who experienced widespread civil war in the 1980s these are likely all warning signs of a return to the struggle of living amongst conflict.

The month of April saw Burma draw severely close to widespread civil war. Continued demands from the country’s dictators on all non-state armed groups to join the national forces continue to be rejected, leaving over a dozen decades-old ceasefires perilously under threat. In a country where civilians are routinely targeted by the government as part of military strategy, the expected outcomes are nothing short of horrific.

Ceasefire Zones of Northern Burma

On April 28^th, the final deadline passed for all of Burma’s ceasefire armies to accept the junta’s Border Guard Force plan, a process that aims to bring them under direct state control and work to eradicate all remaining insurgents. Determined to stay autonomous until their people are given the rights to civil, political and humane justice, almost all groups have rejected the plan calling for a political dialogue to achieve national reconciliation.

During the month of April, numerous statements were made by ethnic leaders calling for peaceful solutions to the nation’s protracted military and political tensions. However these requests have been met with persistent threats of violence from the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) forcing the groups to prepare for battle. This was seen most recently on April 30^th in Kachin State following 2-day talks between the Kachin Independence Organsiation (KIO) and the SPDC. A statement made by KIO leaders stating that they would like to“continue with the ceasefire and work for a genuine federal union with equal rights between majority and minorities in the country”, was shortly followed by a public threat to eliminate the group for rejecting the SPDC’s plan.

Meanwhile, SPDC troops are being deployed across the country close to regions administered by ceasefire armies and a number of clashes have already taken place, some of which it has claimed were accidental.

While the SPDC’s demands have brought some non-state armed groups closer together, others have become divided leading to speculation about conflict worsening within various ethnic groups. The Shan State Army- North (SSA-North) which signed a ceasefire agreement in 1989 has become divided over whether to accede to SPDC demands. While its headquarters announced  that around 700 troops would transform to become a Border Guard Force, its strongest faction, 1^st brigade remains defiant and has already been accused of launching an attack on SPDC troops en route to its territory.

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which has been aligned with the SPDC for over 15 years, has also become divided over the plan, with some generals strongly opposed and others ready to sign . On Tuesday 27^th, a sort bout of fighting broke out between the two armies, leading to the arrival of 10 more SPDC battalions to the region and a mass exodus of civilians. While no high-ranking generals have publicly denounced the plan, hundreds of soldiers are said to have defected and sought refuge with the Karen National Union, an insurgent groups that remains at war with the SPDC.

Leading the pro-agreement faction is General Chit Htu, leader of the notorious 999 Brigade. Chit Htu has become one the SPDCs closest allies in recent years, making vast profits from natural resources while terrorizing ans exploiting tens of thousands of civilians under his jurisdiction.

For years ethnic regions in Burma have been divided by armed forces which align themselves with the SPDC and those that continue to fight the regime. In many of these regions, such armies have been able to  keep conflict to a minimum by purposely avoiding each other. However, as the SPDC has increased pressure to force groups to work for or against them, this has become increasingly difficult. Such practices will become impossible if the Border Guard Force plan moves forward as SPDC commanders will be implemented in each battalion, giving the regime far greater control over its proxy forces.

After almost a year of threats from the SPDC, speculation that conflict would reignite appears to be becoming a reality. Everyday seems to take Burma a step closer to widespread civil war and it is fast becoming a question of not if but when.

Congressman Rohrabacher speaking in Washington D.C

“Washington, Apr 20 I rise to draw attention to the on-going plight of the people of Burma, now referred to as Myanmar. Shortly after the Second World War, Burma was granted its Independence from Great Britain.  With Democratic institutions in place, rich natural resources, and an educated population, it was expected that Burma would become a wealthy and stable country. Sadly, that country, with so much potential, has been dominated by a corrupt tyrant, and despite its vast wealth its people suffer in abject poverty.”

To read the congressman’s statement in full, click here

According to The Irrawaddy (published April 10, 2010):

As the last rays of sun beam through the wooden wall, the choir assembles in the hut. Without delay, the men bellow out the first verse of a Karen song.

One member of the choir tilts his head back, seemingly fully engrossed in the sounds around him while another raises his amputated arm to his ear. The back row breaks off into a harmony filling the room with melancholic songs of freedom and hope for their people.

They have been brought together by a love of music, but this is not your average choir. These men have formed a bond as a result of their near-fatal encounters with landmines.

“In my village, I had never seen a blind man or a person without a limb, so when I lost my sight I felt like such an outsider and lost all hope,” said Has Ka Tarai, who at 15 years of age, is the youngest member of the choir.

When he was 12, Burmese government forces stormed his village, deep in Karen State, burning down all the homes. He and his mother fled to the jungle where they hid for days till they thought it would be safe to return.

As they walked up the hill to the village, Has Ka Tarai recalls being excited to return home. Suddenly he was knocked to the ground; he had hit a landmine with a knife he was playing with.

He says he remembers feeling a pain in his eyes, something he compares to ants eating out his eyeballs. He remembers the sound of his mother shouting and crying. He was blinded and lost much of his hearing.

It has been well documented that the Burmese army often leaves landmines outside villages they raid in order to deter people from returning to their homes. By doing so, they are able to control more territory and leave a psychological scar on the jungle communities who reject their rule.

For two months, Has Ka Tarai’s eyes went untreated until a Free Burma Ranger medic came to the village. Seeing how severe his condition was, the medic took him all the way to Chiang Mai in Thailand. Has Ka Tasrai was told he would never see again.

He didn’t want to go back to his village, fearing for his life. Instead, he was offered a chance to stay at “Care Villa,” a foundation set up in 2000 by the Karen Handicap Welfare Association to look after landmine victims at Mae La Refugee Camp in Thailand.

Not only have many of the residents at Care Villa lost limbs, but many have lost their sight as well. Basic daily activities can be extremely difficult for them. Before coming to Care Villa, many of them stayed with friends or family who were unable to help satisfactorily. Many say they fell into heavy depression.

Continue reading the article here

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