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| Story and Photos by Thierry Falise |
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Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are minority refugees, a group created by the ruling military junta's suppressive domestic policies against the Burmese ethnic minority, who make up 30% of the total population. Current IDPs were mostly farmers whom the junta had accused of being sympathetic to secessionist minority ethnic guerillas, and whom the junta subsequently forced to abandon their homes, "relocating" them to another predetermined site. More often than not, the ethnic minority groups fought to escape the terrible conditions of such "relocation centers," and chose instead to fend for themselves. As a result, these internally displaced domestic refugees were compelled to wander the jungles for a safe shelter, which usually meant ending up in one of the refugee camps in Thailand, where more than 120,000 such displaced persons are currently being sheltered. |
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Recently, a medical mobile team organized by the armed Karen National Union (the Karen organization fighting for more than half a century for the independence of their Kawthoolei land), was charged with the task of providing the IDPs with basic medical assistance and medical supplies, not to mention moral and spiritual support. During the time of the team's expedition into Burma, a delegation representing the EU, unrelenting in their admonition of the Burmese military junta, offered once again their support for renewed dialogue between the junta and Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party. While the talks were being conducted in the Burmese capital of Rangoon, Paw Htoo, a 31 year old Karen nurse and Shannon Allison, a 39 year old American dentist and former Special Forces soldier and Gulf War veteran, were busy dispensing medical treatment while also mentally absorbing their patients' stories of burning villages, murders, rapes, forced labor and dangerous escapes. The plight of the minority refugees of Burma continues, despite efforts to stem their misery. |
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The expedition needs to reach the next village before dark... the enemy is never far - Burmese outposts are sometimes as close as a thirty-minute walk. Still, this does not stop the Karen guerillas, porters and medics from joking in loud voices and freely bursting out in laughter. Their portable radios are blaring - they are oblivious it seems, to the most basic of safety measures. Is it fatalism or simply carelessness? Perhaps it's a little bit of both. Or perhaps, the endless years of fighting and living in constant fear, has taught them to live in contempt of danger. |
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