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ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
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Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Relief Worker Executed as Burma Army Launches New Attacks on Karen Villages

By Jeremy Reynalds
Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

SURREY, ENGLAND (ANS) — A member of the Free Burma Rangers relief team has been executed by the Burma Army.

The killing occurred on April 10. According to a news release from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Lee Reh was captured two days earlier as he was providing humanitarian assistance to villagers in Karenni State. He was then taken to the Burma Army headquarters where he was interrogated and tortured before being shot dead. CSW reported that in 2006, the Burma Army began its worst offensive against civilians in Karen State in almost a decade. Over 27,000 civilians were displaced in Karen State last year, and several thousand have been displaced so far this year. Karenni State is situated between Burma and Thailand. One web site (www.unpo.org/member_profile.php?id=29) says, “For almost five decades the Karenni people have endured extreme Burmese persecution and have fought to retain their unique identity and sovereignty.” According to its web site, the Free Burma Rangers is a humanitarian service group. Members “bring help, hope and love to people in the war zones of Burma. Ethnic pro-democracy groups send teams ... into the areas under attack to provide emergency assistance and human rights documentation. Together with other groups, the teams work to serve people in need. The teams are to avoid contact with the Burma Army but cannot run if the people cannot run.” Lee Reh was captured after patrolling Burma Army troops attacked Ha Lee Ku village, killing one pro-democracy Karenni soldier. On April 9 the Burma Army also arrested the headman and secretary of the village, although their whereabouts remain unknown. In Karen State, CSW reported, three Burma Army battalions burned down four villages on April 22. One villager was killed in the attack as he tried to escape. More than one thousand people fled the villages and are now in hiding. According to CSW these attacks follow a month of smaller assaults against villagers in northern Karen State, during which five people were killed and a nurse was shot and severely wounded. CSW’s National Director Stuart Windsor said in a news release, “The tragic and brutal death of Saw Lee Reh Kyaw, who was providing much needed assistance to the Karenni people, illustrates the brutality of the Burmese regime. Their total disregard for the lives and needs of the Burmese people is horrifying. The international community, and particularly Burma’s neighboring governments, must send a clear signal to the ruling military junta that these violations of human rights cannot be tolerated.” Since 1996, CSW reported, over 3,000 villages in eastern Burma have been destroyed by the Burma Army, and it is estimated that one million people are internally displaced. For additional information about the conflict in Burma, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/2151458.stm CSW is a human rights organization which advocates for victims of religious persecution. For more information, visit www.csw.org.uk. To learn more about the Free Burma Rangers, please visit www.freeburmarangers.org.

Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico’s largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction. He has a master’s degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is “Homeless in the City: A Call to Service.” Additional details about “Homeless” are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net. Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 400-7145. Note: A higher resolution JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com.

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