Reflections from the Thai/Burma border – Part 1, the social/political dynamic:

Today, March 27, is Army Day in Burma. Each year on this day the country’s military leaders show a unified front in a pompous ceremony in their new capital, Naypyidaw. The junta chief, Senior General Than Shwe, has imported another new Mercedes Benz to stand in as he leads the parade. He brought in a new one last year for the same occasion. However, rumblings are more frequent that all is not unified within Burma’s military leadership. There seems to be a split between the “traditional army” and Than Shwe, who has major business interests and is among the small few amassing huge wealth through corrupt dealings with select trading partners such as China, Russia, India, and (sadly) Thailand. Ironically, the army faction (who see themselves as the real protectors of Burma) are said to be open to dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been under house arrest for 15 years and is still leader of the National League of Democracy party. The leadership of Than Shwe and his State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) have maintained a hardline stance since 1962, and ordered the crackdown on monks during their September 2007 demonstration in the streets of Rangoon and throughout the country.

Adding fuel to the fire of this tension at the top of a ruthless corrupt government is the upcoming May referendum to decide on a new Constitution. This will create the rules for the widely publicized “free election” in 2010. Both the referendum and future election are considered total sham events by the Western world. The May referendum will put in place such stringent rules that it effectively eliminates any possibility for Aung San Suu Kyi, her sons, and virtually of all her party members to be able to be on the ballot for any office. It will stipulate that any person who has a family connection with a foreign country (Aung San Suu Kyi’s deceased husband is from England) and their decendents would be ineligible to participate. It also bars any person who has been part of an “opposition” voice to the current regime to be ineligible to participate. The SPDC is effectively labeling any person who has a dissident voice a terrorist, and is conveniently hiding behind the “War on Terrorism” argument as the defense for their insidious behavior. As an aside, I frequently find myself asking what is the “war on terror”? As Roger Cohen notes, it amounts to a war without end, because “terror” is a tactic, and tactics don’t surrender. Perhaps a lesser known consequence of this policy is that rogue governments can hide behind it in order to persecute dissident voices crying out for justice.

Another farce of the upcoming elections was revealed this past week when it was discovered that civilians have been forced by immigration officers to buy identification cards to vote in the May referendum. For the pleasure of having these ID cards, they are asked to “donate” at least 5000 kyat ($5.00) to the officers. This is obviously a huge sum for a country where the average income is far less than $1.00 per day. The officers give them propaganda material to support voting in favor of the constitution as proposed, and the material describes the consequences of not voting in support of the constitution . . . imprisonment for 30 years.

Amid this political circus of the SPDC ruling power lays the ruin of the Burmese people. The September 2007 demonstrations, while temporarily making the world aware of the junta’s atrocities, have caused the targeting of monks and other sympathizers by the SPDC. This has resulted in the fleeing and forced evacuations of thousands of monks and others (primarily from the Karen ethnic group) to areas along the border of Thailand. Many have settled in the border town I’m living in, Mae Sot. It’s estimated less than half of the 500,000 monks that were in Burma prior to September are now in the country, and in the former capital of Rangoon, where there was once 30,000 monks, now only 3000 remain. Many are concerned the famous temples of Rangoon, that number greater than 10,000 in that city alone, will fall into ruin with no monks to maintain them. While many involved in the demonstrations have fled, the number of political prisoners now gruesomely held in the infamous Burmese prisons has tripled since September totaling well over 2000. For the first time ever, monks have been targeted and many defrocked their robes and wore crucifixes to get across the border undetected.

Political activities are not limited to the Burmese side of the border. To the casual tourist or person passing through town, Mae Sot looks like a sleepy little border town. However, it only takes a bit of time here talking with locals and Westerners working in the area to realize there is a very seedy underbelly to Mae Sot. While some of this is related to the illegal transport of gems, teakwood, and drugs across the border, much of it is the undercover political activity of Burmese (specifically) Karen activists living here and just across the border in the Karen state of Burma. This fact was brought home in a very real way on February 14th when a Valentine’s Day surprise occurred in Mae Sot with the brutal assassination of Mahn Sha, the General Secretary of the Karen National Union, the democratic governing party of the Karen people. Two gunmen entered his unguarded house in a residential area of Mae Sot (less than ¼ mile from where I lived last year) at 4:30pm, greeted him as their “uncle” and shot him at point blank range. I heard about it at 6pm while sitting in Casa Mia restaurant with 10 others having a farewell dinner for some med students. The streets immediately filled with police, which made for a very interesting bike ride home. Everyone was stopped and questioned at police road blocks, because apparently the license plate of the pick-up truck used by the assassins was communicated by a neighbor witness. It was actually quite comical to bike back to my very quiet little side road and notice at least 30 motor bikes take a quick detour down my road to avoid the police road block. Obviously, they were illegal migrants and try to avoid the police at all times. That night our side street became a major thoroughfare of motorbikes.

Although rumors abound concerning the responsible party for the killing, the prevailing thought here seems to be involvement by a splinter Karen organization that split from the KNU a few years ago and recently sided with the ruling junta (SPDC). The group goes by the name of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), an oxymoron of a name that perhaps I’ve ever heard. This organization has sided with a military regime that has destroyed over 3200 villages in Karen state over the past 10 years, forcing more than 1.5 million Karen and Burmese to be displaced. As a point of reference, this is twice as many villages as has been destroyed in Darfur – a much more well-known world crisis. Attacks on Karen and other ethnic minorities in Eastern Burma are one of the most under-reported stories in the world. The attacks by their own government are aimed at civilians, destroying food supplies, schools, clinics, and homes.

The assassination of Mahn Sha was a severe blow to the Karen people, and struck the normally stoic people hard here in Mae Sot and at the Mae Tao Clinic, who knew and admired him very much. Mahn Sha and the KNU were strong supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League of Democracy, and he was known for his strong compassion toward child soldiers and Burmese army deserters. The Burmese army has conscripted more child soldiers than any country in the world, totaling more than 70,000 under the age of 16. Deserters and child soldiers have frequently fled the army and sought refuge with the KNU, and Mahn Sha provided homes and protection for them.

The days surrounding Mahn Sha’s death were quite eventful around Mae Sot and the clinic. The morning after his death (February 15), a junior medic was found at the clinic after committing suicide that night by ingesting 30 chloroquine (antimalarial drug) tablets. It was unclear if it was a Valentine relationship issue or some surmised it was his grieving of Mahn Sha’s death. With the constant stress of illegal migrant life endured by these medics, it’s little wonder that an occasional suicide does occur, and the prevalence of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder is quite high. The funeral of Mahn Sha in Mae Sot was attended by hundreds of people, including many Karen who had immigrated to Australia in past years and were good friends of the KNU leader. Tension was high and security quite tight with so many Karen and Burmese leaders in one place, including our own Dr. Cynthia from the clinic.

Rumors have been flying that more covert actions are in the works, and I’m sure many things have been happening that we never hear. It’s the nature of this very unique border town . . .