The Burning of Karenni Camp 2 And Relief Efforts

Michael Yon ^ | April 15, 2013 | Free Burma Ramgers

[Wuli]

13 April, 2013 Karenni State, Burma Written By: Free Burma Rangers

Dear friends,

On Friday afternoon, 22 March, a fire devastated the Mae Surin Refugee Camp, home to more than 3,605 people. The deadly fire killed 39 people and left 2300 homeless. The response of people wanting to help has been swift. Thank you for part in this and for the help for these Karenni families. Here is an update and photos of the situation and a thank you for all who helped. This report is written by the team we sent to help.

[see the whole report at the link]

[Wuli]

I extracted the following comments from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_people#Origins although I changed the order a bit and did not include everything.

The Karen people are a cultural group that is mostly in Myanmar (Burma) and in places along the Mayamar border with Thailand. They make up about 7% of the population of Mayanmar and form the third largest minority group in Mayanmar. A pan-Karen ethnic identity is a relatively modern creation, established in the 1800s with the conversion of some Karens to Christianity and shaped by various British colonial policies and practices and the introduction of Christianity.

The Karen languages, members of the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family, consist of three mutually unintelligible branches: Sgaw, Pwo, and Pa'o. The Karen languages are almost unique among the Tibeto-Burman languages in having a subject–verb–object word order. This anomaly is likely due to the influence of neighboring Mon and Tai languages.

The majority of Karens are Theravada Buddhists who also practice animism, while approximately 15% are Christian.

The Karen have been at war with the government of Myanmar (Burma) since 1949, desiring to establish an independent state of their own. Since 1976 the main Karen armed group has called for a federal system within Mayanmar with wide autonomy for the Karen in their domestic affairs. The armed struggle against the governments in Mayanmar have uprooted Karen in large numbers and forced many to flee to refugee camps, mostly in Thailand.

The last reliable census of Burma was conducted in 1931. A 2006 VOA article cites an estimate of seven million in Burma. There are another 400,000[8] Karen in Thailand, where they are by far the largest of the hill tribes. Some Karen have left the refugee camps in Thailand to resettle elsewhere, including in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and the Scandinavian countries. In 2011, the Karen diaspora population was estimated to be approximately 67,000.

Reports as recently as February, 2010, state that the Burmese army continues to burn Karen villages, displacing thousands of people.[19] Many Karen, including people such as former KNU secretary Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan and his daughter, Zoya Phan, have accused the military government of Burma of ethnic cleansing.

Kawthoolei is the Karen name for the state that the Karen people of Burma have been trying to establish since the late 1940s. The precise meaning of the name is disputed even by the Karen themselves; possible interpretations include Flowerland and Land without evil, although, according to Martin Smith in Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity, it has a double meaning, and can also be rendered as the Land Burnt Black; hence the land that must be fought for.

Their legends say they crossed a "river of running sand" in their migration into Indochina; suggesting that the crossed the Gobi desert.

"Karen" is an Anglicisation of the Burmese word "Kayin", whose etymology is unclear. The word, which was originally a derogatory term referring to non-Buddhist ethnic groups, may have come from the Mon language, or is a corruption of Kanyan, the name of a vanished civilization.

[IbJensen]

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

Refrain

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!

Refrain

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

[Amberdawn]

Thank you for posting this. It is sad to see stateless people treated horrifically by their government. I pray for their survival and success.

[Wuli]

In some ways I think history will and should blame the British empire, in part (not all but in part), for the course of things in places like Myanmar.

They ignored self-determination of local peoples, threw rival groups together in artificial borders that served the adminstration of the empire, played favorites and INCREASED rivalries and resentments and left messes that may have been avoided, or might have ended sooner and better, in the absence of the British empire’s occupation and meddling.

[Amberdawn]

It seems to me that human beings are quite capable of hating and slaying each other all by their lonesome. However, by dividing and ruling and playing favorites, colonial countries do bear some of the blame.

[Wuli]

“It seems to me that human beings are quite capable of hating and slaying each other all by their lonesome. However, by dividing and ruling and playing favorites, colonial countries do bear some of the blame.”

Yes; I was not trying to pretend that in the absence of a European colonial era that various peoples would have completely avoided armed conflict in resolving their own “self determination” defining borders.

I only meant to suggest that at the end of that process - minus the colonialsts and their meddling - my sense is that (a) more borders would have been settled in ways that mixed SOME different ethnic groups less and (b) when “your group” is more secure within its own space it is easier to be at peace with your neighbors, and so (c) the age of inter-tribal-ethnic conflict would have ended or receeded sooner than it has under conditions that the colonialists left. It’s only my guess and sense it did not happen that way we’ll never know for sure.

[Amberdawn]

Oh, I think you’re right. Iraq is a case in point-The borders were drawn by some British Consul with a ruler and pencil! I like the idea of population exchange PROVIDED it’s agreed on by those involved.