We just got an email this morning saying another 33 families (204 people) have been forced from their villages in Burma and are moving to a safer location (safer, not SAFE) near the border of Thailand. The place they are fleeing to has been burned down by the Burma army several times in the past. Their situation is a direct result of the continued oppression of the Burma Army, which has destroyed over 3,300 villages in the last 10 years. If the world were just, fair, or remotely reasonable, it would be the generals on trial and Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma would be free. Instead, she faces prison, and they continue driving families from their homes and taking or destroying the little they own.
Category: Uncategorized
Former UN Envoy Speaks Out
The New York Times this morning published the following Op-Ed piece by the former envoy to Burma:
End Burma’s System of Impunity
SAO PAULO, BRAZIL — The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has spent 13 years under house arrest in Myanmar. This week, the Burmese junta is likely to extend her detention for up to five years under the trumped-up charge of allowing a visitor into her compound.
During eight years as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, I repeatedly called on the Burmese junta to release Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s 2,100 other political prisoners, to no avail. It is imperative that she be released immediately for the country’s process of reconciliation to move forward.
But while Suu Kyi has deservedly received a great deal of international attention over the past two decades, Myanmar’s ethnic minorities — more than one-third of the population — have suffered without international outcry. For Myanmar’s process of national reconciliation to be successful, the plight of the minorities must also be addressed.
Over the past 15 years, the Burmese Army has destroyed over 3,300 villages in a systematic and widespread campaign to subjugate ethnic groups. U.N. reports indicate that Burmese soldiers have frequently recruited child soldiers, used civilians as minesweepers and forced thousands of villagers into slave labor.
An official policy of impunity has empowered soldiers to rape and pillage. According to one account, in December 2008 a Burmese soldier marched into an ethnic Karen village in eastern Myanmar and abducted, raped and killed a 7-year old girl. Authorities refused to arrest the soldier; instead, officers threatened the parents with punishment if they did not accept a cash bribe to keep quiet.
In 2002, I received a report about 625 women who were systematically raped in Myanmar ’s Shan State over a five-year period. There was not a single account of successful prosecution.
I repeatedly documented the military’s many abuses in reports to the U.N. General Assembly and the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. My work is only one example of U.N. efforts in Myanmar — since 1990, U.N. representatives have visited the country 37 times in an attempt to facilitate dialogue and promote human rights.
They have exhausted all domestic and diplomatic remedies without achieving human rights protection and national reconciliation in Myanmar. And while the U.N. General Assembly and the U.N. Human Rights Council have passed over 35 resolutions regarding Myanmar, the U.N. Security Council has yet to pass a single one. The United Nations will not be successful until the Security Council acts to directly address our stagnant efforts.
It is clear that the attacks in Myanmar will continue. It is equally evident that the country’s domestic legal system will not punish those perpetrating crimes against ethnic minorities.
It is time for the United Nations to take the next logical step: The Security Council must establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity and impunity in Myanmar. The Security Council took similar steps with regard to Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. The situation in Myanmar is equally as critical.
Creating a commission of inquiry will accomplish three important goals:
First, it will make the junta accountable for its crimes with a potential indictment by the International Criminal Court. Second, it will address the widespread culture of impunity in Burma. Third, it has the potential to deter future crimes against humanity in Myanmar.
For two decades, ethnic minorities in Myanmar have suffered while our diplomatic efforts failed to bear fruit. The time has come for the Security Council to act.
While the generals prosper…..
While oil revenue goes up and you build a brand new capital, you plunder your nation and send the people deeper and deeper into poverty; health care is neglected, rebuilding after the cyclone is a shell game, and education gets next to nothing…only the generals get rich……this commentary in Mizzima news explains the shell game of the Burmese generals and international aid….so FULL of contradictions!
Through Burmese eyes…
A videographer from Burma posted this video on YouTube….I don’t know the story behind it, or the person who produced it. A glimpse into his culture, and an act of courage….
One year after the cyclone….
BBC report on the Cyclone, one year later….. click here and the Irrawaddy brings a picture report…. click here, or here. Time’s article is here.
Food Crisis in Burma
This week the Karen Human Rights Group published a new report highlighting both causes of and the solutions to the food crisis in Burma.
Roll Call of Angels
I love angels….not the cute little cherub type guys with white wings or harps, but the real life practical kind who do all kinds of creative things to help refugees get resettled in our lovely metropolitan area:
Minhee: the “taking dinner to a refugee who’s not feeling well” angel
Kate: the “tutoring girls, bringing friends, mentoring and networking like crazy, be back in June, helping a single dad, going to Goodwill to help organize a household for the newly arrived” angel
Mona & Rosie: the “cell phone translation, we speak your language (literally) and can help you communicate with others what’s going on in this new world called America and bring groceries and teach you where to shop and check on other issues, mentoring a family” angels
Jenny: the “set up getting girls in school, interact with and arrange ESL classes, take father to emergency medical appointments, get furniture that fits a really small apartment (loft beds are great!), check in with the family regularly” angel
Steve: the “translation by cell phone covering three different languages” angel
Dale: the “arranging tutoring schedule for all three family members” angel
Chad & Melinda: the “let me give you some books of bus passes” angels
My husband: the “you are welcome in my heart and my home, I will include you in my life, help connect you to a community of people, and take you on some adventures whenever I get a chance” angel
Eunice: the “doing creative expression projects with the girls and giving Dad a break” angel
Ginny: the “welcome to my house, let’s play soccer, balloon volleyball in the living room, treat you like a little sister, above and beyond expectations” angel
Janelle: the “take you to the aquarium with some friends to hold starfish and see Seattle” angel
Tina & Linda: the “Sunday School in your language, translation by cell-phone, welcome to America, we were new once too” angels
This list is not finished…will work on it some more later, but just some examples of creative ways normal average people can help welcome strangers, pick up where the job of resettlement agencies end, and sometimes entertain angels unaware….
World Water Day
World Water Day is today, this year highlighting transboundary water, the places in the world where ownership of water rights and the need for access to clean water can mean the difference between life and death for you and your kids. Check it out. According to the Irrawaddy, drinking water is still a crisis in the delta area where Cyclone Nargis devastated parts of Burma a year ago. One of the organizations working in creative ways in Southeast Asia is Thirst Aid.
Where do refugees come from?
Refugees come to the US from many countries. The US Department of Health & Human Services has a table on their web site that gives statistics of where in the country refugees have been resettled and where they have come from. According to their web site, they came from 63 countries. During the 2007 fiscal year the top 12 countries they fled from were:
- Burma 9776
- Burundi 4525
- Iraq 5474
- Thailand 4059
- USSR 4583
- Ivory Coast 1605
- Cuba 2923
- Eritrea 1043
- Afghanistan 418
- DR Congo 841
- Liberia 1576
- Vietnam 1550
From Burma during the 2008 calendar year, statistics provided by TBBC show that 17,172 were resettled to third countries during 2008 from the camps on the Thai Burma Border. These refugees, who fled rape, forced labor, an illegal government who burns their village and takes their land, and other multiple human rights abuses were resettled in 10 different countries as follows:
- USA 14,280
- Australia 1562
- Canada 637
- Finland 283
- Netherlands 144
- Sweden 134
- Norway 77
- United Kingdom 29
- New Zealand 24
- Denmark 1
Who is a refugee?
Many people are unaware of the differences between a refugee (and the intensive screening process they go through) and illegal immigrants. Refugees are legal to hire as soon as they get here. They are invited by the US government. They have a limited time to learn a new language, a new culture and get employed before the assistance of the resettlement agency is finished. (They are also some of the hardest hit by the economic chaos-bottom of the food chain minimum wage jobs seems to disappear when times are tough).
Wikipedia explains: “According to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecution. “Owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country.”
Reflections from the kitchen (refugee resettlement)
Kids are the most awesome ice breaker. Start with a family of three working (English only speaking) adults, add a family from Burma (a dad and two daughters , age 9 & 11 speaking Burmese and Karen-little English) in the process of being resettled to the US from a refugee camp in Thailand, put together in an apartment for two weeks and what do you get? A recipe for some of life’s better moments.
Start with lots of vegetables, add a huge quantity of rice and fish sauce, mix with liberal amounts of curry and laughter. Throw in lessons on recycling, can openers, garbage disposals, dishwashers, running water, teapots that stay hot, and some pantomimes of going out, coming in, time to sleep, and “Ten Apples Up on Top” for some diligent eager students. Show a video done by kids doing relief work in Burma with their parents (www.freeburmarangers.org) and you will find a way, in spite of language barriers, for the dad to communicate that he was an IDP, packing his possessions on his back as he fled from the Burma army. The girls were born in the refugee camp and this is the first time they have ever been free. Give thanks with a grateful heart for food, shelter, safety, family, new friends, and the grace of God to cross borders, boundaries and language barriers as you pray the agency resettling them will find an appropriately priced apartment in our very expensive city….
Practice price comparisons at Ballard Market and Viet Wah. Glimpse how overwhelming Costco can be while getting a deal on a rice cooker for their new apartment. Play with scrabble pieces together practicing showing love through laughter and phonics and listening….Stop, look and listen at cross walks. Wear seat belts.
Grateful once again for the incredible gift of community, and how truly amazing grace is. Reminded once again you don’t have to be especially gifted to be able to touch someone’s life. You just have to show up, and be willing to treat someone else like you would want to be treated if you were a stranger in a strange land. It’s SO worth it. Glad again, that even quiet bookkeepers who like to cook Thai food and have a house full of people have a place in the kingdom of God. Grateful. Very grateful!
Give thanks for all those partners on this journey: Deanza, who brought a doll house that is getting MUCH use, Kate & Janelle and a friend who took the family to the aquarium last Saturday, Mona and Rosie who have translated by cell phone across different states and in person (and brought an amazing meal), Dr. Tao for advice, our daughter Ginny for being willing to share our space and befriend those in it, Linda for being an amazing friend, example, translator, and either big sister or new auntie to her delighted new friends, Maggie for being a caseworker or pastor (I have a really hard time telling the difference on most days as I watch her shepherd those God has placed around her!), Tim for the balloons we used to play volleyball in the living room in the evening without disturbing the neighbors, Gary & Gloria, Bethany (who suggested to her friend the case manager to call Deanza), the folks at World Relief, and the list goes on…
PS When this opportunity first came up, I thought it looked like a good fit, but I hesitated to ask my husband what he thought ’cause it was his schedule that would have to get monkeyed with to make it work. But he took the bait too, and has proven, again, to be amazing. I don’t think he ever saw himself as a teacher before, but he excels at it. Funny how both time and hearts can expand to make room for what needs to fit in them. Funny too, how once you let people in to your heart, normal is over. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
Migrants Adrift
News from Thailand the last few weeks has not been great…
- Refugees set adrift in boats with no motors, left to drown, die or wash up on someone else’s beach… Thailand to tackle problem.
- Christians and Muslims told they are not to worship even in their homes in Rangoon….
- DKBA troops crossing from Burma into Thailand near No Poe refugee camp-attack feared…
- Cyclone Nargis volunteer sentenced to 10 years for helping people…
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction….The chain reaction of evil–hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars–must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., Strength To Love, 1963.
Praying for light…..
“Not Rape” (a tough read)
For any man, woman, husband, wife, teenager, sister, parent, brother, teacher, pastor, friend….please click on the link here to the instructive but tough read on what the writer calls “Not Rape“. Unfortunately, this experience is too common, too untouchable, and too often, those who experience it are blamed for causing it and have nowhere to go. It’s not written as guy bashing, but as someone’s story, and worth acknowledging. It happens to people of faith as well as those who claim no faith. It’s a human thing gone wrong. The gift of sexuality misused….abuse of power….
Waiting for freedom
“Eighty-eight years after students first led the movement against British rule, the country’s current rulers are busy sentencing student activists to long terms in prison for continuing the struggle for freedom in Burma.” (see article and picture below from yesterday’s Irrawaddy)
Those who have spoken out, as always in Burma, are still suffering. Zarganar, a popular comic, was just sentenced to 45 years, and Gambira, a monk involved in the 2007 protests was sentenced to 68 years. Pastor Eugene Cho included some really good video clips on the situation in Burma and the history of the conflict in his post for today.
As the picture above from the Irrawaddy demonstrates, Burma has been waiting for freedom and human rights for a long time. The injustices continue. US Campaign for Burma has a list of action steps you can do to help speak for and advocate for justice for those suffering under this illegal regime.
What’s love got to do with it?
Not the Tina Turner song, but the title of it, has been replaying over and over again in my head this week along with John 13:34-35 where Jesus commanded us to “…love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Looks like love is supposed to have a lot to do with it! Not how right, how righteous, how uptight, how socially conscious, how politically correct, how (fill in the blank with your personal favorite) we are…. But how we love each other. May grace, humility and love guide our dialogue and our interactions, so the world will know who we belong to.
Jewels in the Ashes 