Much more than 20 years

Posted on August 12, 2008
Filed Under Burma news, Commentary |

Karen soldiers at their base inside Burma

Today is Martyr’s Day for the Karen, when the Karen people remember those who have died during the long fight for freedom and equality.

The Karen revolution began in January 1949 and despite numerous setbacks and defeats has continued ever since. In short, the Karen have been fighting for almost 60 years!

It is one of the longest running conflicts in the world. It is also one of the least known.

In the last year, there has been plenty of attention given to the Burmese junta’s brutality.

We all watched in horror as Burmese soldiers turned and open fire on unarmed monks and ordinary civilians protesting massive fuel price hikes last year, and were shocked by the junta’s slow response to the suffering of its own people after Cyclone Nargis. But, while these events grabbed the headlines, they also seem to have pushed the Karen’s struggle further into the background.

Yet, throughout all of these events, the Burma Army has continued its attacks on Karen civilians.

On Friday, I was at Mae Tao Clinic, visiting some of the patients I’ve been praying with, and it seemed like almost every other person at the clinic was wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the numbers 8888

Karen refugees began fleeing to Thailand before 1988

The twentieth anniversary of the junta’s massacre of thousands of pro-democracy protesters has become a key date for many people. The US Campaign for Burma and many Burmese democracy activists have been criticizing China for choosing the date for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. And Laura Bush, who was in Mae Sot the day before, incorrectly identified it as the start of Burma’s problems (see: Laura Bush calls on China and ASEAN to impose sanctions on Burma).

It is true that the State Law and Order Restoration Council or SLORC (renamed the State Peace and Development Council or SPDC in 1997) came to power in the aftermath of the 1988 protests. But, they merely took power from the previous military government. And, many historians agree former leader General Ne Win continued to wield power behind the scenes after the coup d’état.

However, by making 8-8-88 into a watershed for Burma’s problems, we risk diminishing the country’s many other problems.

The Burma army’s strategy of targeting Karen civilians means their actions go beyond merely suppressing an armed insurgency. It is nothing short of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

The world needs to start looking beyond events in Yangon and the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The junta has for years used ethnic tensions as a means of justifying their own rule: What will happen to Burma without us they argue. But, in doing so, they have strived to increase frictions between the majority Burmans and the ethnic minorities and even between the different minority groups. So much so, that some Burma watchers have even questioned whether a democratic Burma will be able to withstand the internal strife caused by ethnic tensions.

The process of national reconciliation needs to begin with the world paying more attention to the plight of the Karen and other ethnic minorities. Part of the reason the junta has been able to act the way it has towards the Karen is because the world has not been paying attention.

In the meantime, the SPDC’s tactics have become a catalogue of crimes against humanity: Rape, torture, forced labour, murder, forced relocation; destruction of homes and crops, the list goes on.

Martyr’s Day was originally meant to honour Saw Ba U Gyi, the founder and president of the Karen National Union (KNU), who was assassinated along with eight colleagues in Kawkareik in Karen State by the Burmese Army on August 12 1950.

But, today the most many people will know about the Karen’s struggle will be from Sylvester Stallone!