Ten Thousand Things
Multicultural Webfinds

"Ten Thousand Things" is a Buddhist expression representing the dynamic interconnection and simultaneous unity and diversity of everything in the universe.

Photographer Yuzo Uda on the Repression of Buddhists, Urban Dissidents, the Karen & Other Tribal People in Burma

In 2004, I was impacted by a exhibition of Yuzo Uda's Burma photographs at the Nishi Hongwanji, a Buddhist temple in Kyoto (my grandfather's family temple, where I stayed for two days). Nishi Hongwanji hosted the exhibition in a spirit of engaged Buddhist solidarity with the Buddhists and people of Burma/Myanmar, and besides studying the photographs, I also studied the faces of other temple visitors expressing empathy and concern as they walked through the exhibition.

Uda's website also provides powerful black and white photos of the Karen ethnic minority. Uda, whose approach to photography is social documentary, using images to counter the "complicity of silence" to global oppression and suffering, is compelled to return repeatedly to Burma:

"Oppression of the Burmese people by the military government is rife. Slave labour, child labour is an unfortunate reality, anachronistic though it may seem. Despite having 82% of the popular vote in the election, Aung San Suu Kyi, the voice for democracy, was put under house arrest by the generals. The people had spoken, yet those with the guns, the military, sought to kill such expression by the bullet.

"Amongst the worst group affected are the Karens. Perhaps not surprisingly, since they had already been in conflict against the military rulers longer than any other part of Burmese society. For them, the struggle preceded the eighth minute, of the eighth hour, of the eighth day, of the eighth month, in the year of 1988. Long before. Taking up arms in 1949, they have continued to fight to protect and preserve their own identity and culture. Besides the fighting, other forms of oppression have long since been inflicted on the Karen people. Leading to 110,000 of them fleeing to Thailand. Refugees continue to increase in number, especially since the drastic shift in the fighting of 1995, when the Burmese military found support from the Chinese government. Since which time, the Karens have lost their headquarters and many strongholds besides. The Karens retreating, now face the very real prospect of total destruction."

Aung San Suu Kyi, Buddhists, urban dissidents, the Karen and other tribal people are not only in conflict with the Myanmar junta but also with the Chinese, Indian, and Thai governments supporting this repressive regime. So much for uniform "Asian Values."

The latest news from Myanmar reflects some of the messy diverse interests and values violently clashing away within Asia, as well as within the nation of Myanmar. The story of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest is known to the world. Lesser known or not known at all, is the Burmese government's military repression against the Karen and other tribal people in Burma, which comprises territory historically belonging to multiple ethnic groups in conflict with each other for centuries.

Because of a recent surge in military repression, Burma has the worst internal displacement situation in Asia, with over one million refugees fleeing to neighboring countries of Bangladesh, China, India, Malaysia and Thailand in search of asylum. The Thai-Burmese border has become a huge refugee camp NGO cottage industry. George Soros' Open Society Institute (OSI) has a 2006 audio forum "Life on the Thai-Burma Border—Resistance, Refugees, and Resettlement" and a visual slide show of Karen refugee people, at its "Burma Project," which links to OSI's "Burma: Country in Crisis," and to "BurmaNet News," an excellent global news site.

A comprehensive website on Burmese displaced peoples and refugees, Burma Issues provides information about the more than 100 ethnic groups who live in Burma. Operated by the Peace Way Foundation in Bangkok, one of many global groups dedicated to bringing transnational attention and support to the grassroots movements towards peace and justice in Burma:

"To build up international awareness and support for the struggle in Burma by acting as a bridge between the grassroots people of Burma and international community in such a way that the grassroots people help international support groups focus actions on the most critical issues which prolong the country's cycle of war...

"But the international community is not just the English speaking parts of the world. We also have a strong commitment to raising awareness among Thai people about the democratic struggle in Burma."

This year ASEAN, the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations, broke with past policy, joining Nobel laureates, the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States in calling on Burma's military dictatorship to release Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Conspicuously absent from the group of nations calling for Suu Kyi's release is the Chinese government, which says this is "an internal affair" for Burma. Of course this is not surprising since Beijing uses the rationale of national autonomy to justify its own repression of political dissidents, religious, and ethnic minorities. Beijing also provides diplomatic support and investment, especially in oil, gas and minerals, to Myanmar's junta. China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-backed resolution in the U.N. Security Council in January 2007, calling on Myanmar to end political suppression. At the time, China's U.N. ambassador said Beijing would support ASEAN policies toward Myanmar. Obviously not so.

Reuters' Ed Cropley reported that the junta extended Suu Kyi's house arrest for another year on May 25, and, in an earlier article, brought historical context and raised questions in "Burma junta 'too scared' to free Suu Kyi":

"A rare spate of protests in Burma means the junta is very unlikely to release democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi when her latest year of house arrest expires this weekend, former political prisoners say.

"In what is becoming an annual ritual in the run-up to Sunday's deadline, the White House, European Union, United Nations and fellow Nobel peace prize laureates have issued urgent appeals to the generals running Burma to set her free.
"But the pleas for the release of the 61-year-old woman, who has been behind bars or under house arrest since mid-2003, are even more likely than usual to fall on deaf ears.

'Two exiled dissidents said a prayer campaign for Suu Kyi last year and protests this year against deteriorating living conditions in the main city, Yangon, had sent shivers through the junta top brass – even though the demonstrations have been tiny.

"'They are scared of her, especially at the moment,' said 54-year-old activist Khun Saing, who spent 13 years behind bars before fleeing to the Thai border town of Mae Sot in 2006.

"The last time Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, in 2002, she drew huge crowds on a tour of the country, a reminder to the generals of the huge sway the daughter of independence hero Aung San still held over the country's 54-million people.

"'In 2002, the regime thought they could control the people not to support her. They were shocked by the level of support -- people came out to greet her in great numbers,' Khun Naing said.

"Suu Kyi, who has now been in detention for more than 11 of the last 17 years, is being held under an obscure security decree that has to be renewed every 12 months, giving her supporters annual cause for optimism.

"Quite why the junta, which ignored her party's massive election victory in 1990, makes such a show of observing the rule of law in keeping her in isolation, without a telephone and requiring military permission to receive visitors, is a mystery.

"'They just make the laws for their own convenience,' said Khun Saing, standing beside a wall of black-and-white photographs of Burma's estimated 1,100 political prisoners in the offices of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Mae Sot.

"Near an image of Suu Kyi is journalist Win Tin, now 77, Burma's longest-serving prisoner of conscience.

"He was jailed for 20 years in 1989 for offences including subversion and anti-government propaganda – writing a critical human rights report and sending it to the United Nations.

"While there has been no progress under a junta "roadmap to democracy" unveiled in 2003, former prisoner Bo Gyi (42) said the recent protests could be signs of a stirring public conscience.

"The people are doing something for their rights. We are seeing complaints about living conditions," he said.

"The army crushed the last mass uprising against military rule ruthlessly in 1988. Hundreds, if not thousands, were killed as troops machine-gunned students in Yangon and elsewhere.

"Those leading the current campaigns, many of them members of the "88" uprising, were well aware of the risks, Bo Gyi said.

The Asia Tribune reports on the Myanmar's army escalation of violence towards the Karen, the largest of multiple ethnic minorities in the country, who live in the mountain ranges of eastern Burma and northwestern Thailand:

"Burma Army troops have reportedly shot dead a deaf man, raped and murdered a woman, taken thousands of villagers for forced labour and displaced thousands more people in their continuing offensive against Karen civilians...

“'These attacks are the latest in the Burma’s Army’s worst offensive against the Karen in a decade. On 5 April, Burma Army troops mortared Sha Zi Bo village in northern Toungoo District, killing a two year-old girl and injuring at least five people. In Nyaunglebin District, villages have been shelled and burned, and farms destroyed.

“Stuart Windsor, National Director of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said: “The continuing offensive against the Karen people, and the accompanying gross violations of human rights including torture and killings, are completely unacceptable. How much longer will the international community, including Burma’s neighbours, allow this to go on? The evidence is mounting, and efforts should be made to investigate crimes against humanity and genocide.'"

Reuters has also recently reported on the worsening situation of the Karen: in a May 16, 2007 report, "Burma: Military Offensive Displacing Thousands of Civilians":

"The worst Burmese military offensive in 10 years has displaced at least 27,000 people in eastern Burma's Karen State since November 2005. The displaced are civilians who have been targeted by the army and are living in exceptionally vulnerable conditions. An estimated three million people have been forced to migrate in Burma as a result of conflict, persecution, human rights abuses, and repressive government measures that prevent people from earning a livelihood. Instead of fulfilling its responsibility to protect its citizens, the Government of Burma, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), is the biggest perpetrator of violations in the country.

"Ethnic groups, comprising one-third of Burma's 52 million people, have borne the brunt of the government's repressive policies. The pattern of the Burmese military or the Tatmadaw has been to eliminate all opposition and take full control of ethnic areas. As part of its strategy to curb the support of ethnic insurgent armies, it targets civilians it perceives as backers of the insurgent groups.

"In the course of Tatmadaw operations at least 3,000 villages have been destroyed along the eastern Burma border since 1996. Villagers have been forced to flee to hiding sites in jungles, move to government-controlled relocation sites, or travel to relatively more secure ceasefire locations. Today Burma is estimated to have the worst internal displacement crisis in Asia. More than 500,000 civilians are displaced in eastern Burma, with those in hiding being the most vulnerable. People unable to care for themselves and their families have fled to Burma's neighboring countries of Bangladesh, China, India, Malaysia and Thailand in search of asylum. Burma's refugee crisis has a regional impact and the number of refugees from the country is believed to be more than one million.

"As the military takes control of new territory in ethnic areas, it initiates development projects and exploits natural resources, which displace more civilians. The forced migration of civilians is ongoing even in ethnic states, such as Mon and Kachin, where political leaders have signed ceasefire agreements with the central authorities. According to a Burmese asylum seeker interviewed by Refugees International in Thailand, "The outside world thinks that just because a ceasefire has been signed between the Mon and the SPDC, it is safe for us to live in Burma. But we continue to face abuses on a daily basis. The military confiscated all my orchards and my family could barely survive. We still tried to stay but had to leave when the military tried to recruit my teenage son."

"The Karen National Union, the indigenous political leadership in Karen State, has not entered into a ceasefire agreement with the SPDC and conflict and displacement are not new phenomena there. However, the intensity and spread of the Tatmadaw offensive in recent months are estimated to be the worst in more than a decade. The attack is linked to the military's attempt to consolidate its control over parts of Karen State and the districts of Toungoo, Papun and Nyaunglebin have been particularly hard-hit by the offensive. According to a community-based organization assisting the internally displaced, the recent attacks differ from previous ones in that the military did not withdraw during the 2006 rainy season but continued to attack the same areas repeatedly...

'The military has planted a large number of landmines in and around villages so people are unable to go beyond a certain area, and at the time of harvesting many do not have access to their crops. In some parts of Karen State the army has set rice fields on fire. According to the estimates of a community-based organization assisting the internally displaced, 25,000 people have lost their harvest for the entire year, and in Lerdoh Township alone, 2,800 civilians are believed to have been taken away from their villages and fields by the Tatmadaw to relocation sites where they are being forced to dig trenches and build fencing. Since 2006, the military has also placed a prohibition on trading in some areas of Karen State and prevented villagers from selling or buying certain products around harvest time. After harvest time, villagers are allowed to sell their products, but at half the normal price and only to the military, contributing to food insecurity.

"Besides food, the displaced are in urgent need of shelter and medicines. The displaced in Karen State are being assisted largely through cross-border assistance, coming from agencies based in Thailand, and a few community-based organizations inside Burma. This aid is helping people cope with their situation and preventing large numbers from fleeing to Thailand as refugees...

Claudio O. Delang, author of Living at the Edge of Thai Society: The Karen in the Highlands of Northern Thailand (2003) writes that the plight of the Karen and other Indigenous minorities have been overlooked by international media coverage which focuses on the detention of Suu Kyi and urban dissidents, in Suffering in Silence: The Human Rights Nightmare of the Karen People of Burma (2001):

"Situated in the triangle between South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China, Burma is a country of 50 million people struggling under the oppression of one of the world's most brutal military regimes. Yet, the voices of its people remain largely unheard in the international arena. Most of the limited media coverage deals with the non-violent struggle for democracy led by Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi or the Army's repression of university students and urban dissidents, but these only form a small part of the story.

"This book presents the voices of ethnic Karen villagers to give an idea of what it is like to be a rural villager in Burma: the brutal and constant shifts of forced labor for the Army, the intimidation tactics, the systematic extortion and looting by Army and State authorities, the constant fear of arbitrary arrest, rape, torture, and summary execution, the forced relocation and burning of hundreds of civilian villages and the systematic uprooting of their crops.

"Three detailed reports produced by the Karen Human Rights Group in 1999 are used to give the reader a sampling of the life of Karen villagers, both in areas where there is armed resistance to the rule of the SPDC junta and in areas where the junta is fully in control."

An advocacy website, Karenpeople.org, details the history of the over six million Karen in Burma, and over 400,000 in Thailand, most of whom are divided into two subgroups – the Skaw (or Pgaganyaw) and the Pwo (or Plong); and the Karen's armed and violent struggle againt the Myanmar government, from a Karen point-of-view.

"We, the Karens of Burma, have been cornered into fighting against the ruling Burmese Governments for the past forty-three years. Holding the reins of all organs of the state, and in full control of the press, radio, and television, the successive ruling Burmese Governments form U Nu’s AFPFL (Anti-fascist People’s Freedom League) to the present Military Junta headed by General Than Shwe and his State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), have always painted us as black as they can. They have branded us insurgents, war mongers, a handful of border smugglers, black-marketeers and stooges of both the communists and the imperialists...

"Throughout history, the Burman have been practicing annihilation, absorption and assimilation (3 A’s) against the Karens and they are still doing so today. In short, they are waging a genocidal war against us. Thus we have been forced to fight for our very existence and survival.In this document we venture to present a concise outline of the Karens’ struggle for freedom; the Karen case, which we consider just, righteous and noble. We hope that through it, the world may come to know the true situation of the Karens, a forgotten people who continue to fight for our freedom intensively, single-handendly and without aid of any kind from anyone...

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