After our visit to Burma yesterday it was hard for me to completely believe that things are rough in the country. I thought maybe the stories I heard were exaggerated tales. I was trying to sort things out in my mind as we drove about 30 minutes to a refugee camp. The camp is home to almost 50,000 people within a few miles of land and is set at the base of beautiful green mountains among thick vegetation. Hebrew lives and works at the camp as a Thai teacher. He had to ask permission from the Thai government for us to enter the camp. They allowed us to enter but we could only stay in one section and could not go across the bridge to the area with the most homes.
Thai government officials guard all the roads leading into the camp. The homes inside the camp are not much different from many of the Karin homes we have stayed in. They are constructed mainly from bamboo, leaves and some wood. Hebrew led us to a school that has been developed within the camp. A man named Wado answered many of our questions. The people living in the camp left Burma because they are Karin and were being persecuted by the Burmese government. The government has been burning villages, planting land mines, and murdering men women and children belonging to the Karin hill tribe; ethnic cleansing. The Thai government started setting up temporary refugee camps in several areas for the Burmese Karin back in the early 80’s. The camp has existed for 17 years. Wado has lived there for 16. The refugees have strict regulations that they must follow. They are not allowed to leave the camp unless they can obtain a day pass. Even with a day pass, it is risky to leave the camp. Wado has been roughed up on a few occasions when leaving. This means they cannot work or earn money. All of their food is provided by the UN. Wado explained, “We need more freedom. A man must work; he must have something to keep his hands busy.” I can’t imagine spending the past 16 years of my life in such a small area.
Wado’s speaks English very well and spends his days teaching philosophy in the camp’s Bible school. In order to get a master’s degree he sneaked through Thailand’s international borders into India, “It was very scary.” Some of the Karin Burmese refugees have left the camp and moved to USA, Canada, or England. The US has been accepting more and more of this people group because of the problems they have been through. Wado seemed appreciative of the American help, but does not think it is the ultimate solution, “We are grateful for the camp and for the foreign aid, but more people leave Burma everyday. Things are not getting better. We want to go back to our country. Everyone is trying to help but they are not going for the root of the problem. Things are not going to get better until something happens with the Burmese government.” Wado asked us to pray that the Burmese government would change and that the ethnic cleansing would stop, “We just want to go back to our own country. You would want to do the same.”
Our visit had to come to an end, so we walked back through the streets to the truck. Kids played in the river and with a soccer ball. Many of them probably have spent their entire lives within the fences of this camp. They do not know what life looks like outside the walls of the camp. The camp seems to operate like a normal city. Wado seems to think that the organization is due to the culture of the Karin, “When we move, we don’t just move a little. We move a lot and organize.” People seemed to be busy, kids moved to and from school, women washed clothes, men carried sacks of rice. From the outside life does not seem to be too rough, but I imagine many of the refugees long for freedom, peace, and the ability to go home.
After hearing Wado’s story I believe that problems do exist in Burma. What a rough life; to be a refugee. Please keep the Karen people in your prayers and all other refugees around the world.
