Young Burmese Long For Brighter Future

Saturday, 03 March 2012 13:29 Banyar Kong Janoi

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The Burmese government is spending 4 percent of this year’s budget on education, a two-fold increase from last year.

But it’s still below international standards according to the UN, which recommends 6 percent of Gross National Product be spent on education.

Burma’s meager education funding explains why more than 50 percent of Burmese children did not finish fourth grade in 2009.

Trapped inside refugee camps, these young Burmese are worried about their future.

Banyar Kong Janoi travels to one refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border to look at the realities of education in the country.

Around 60 students are celebrating their graduation day.

The event is being held in a refugee camp in Mae Hong Son, on the Thai-Burma border.

They’re singing a song about protecting culture and heritage.

Joseph Nor feels fortunate to have been able to finish his vocational study in the camp.

“The Burmese soldiers always came to search villages for porters. They took everyone including students so I had to hide during my school time in Burma. I normally slept in paddy fields to avoid them. I was lucky that I could pass high school here in the camp but I could not continue my study afterwards.”

Nearly four thousand children are studying in this refugee camp because of political turmoil inside the country.

The camp has more than 10 schools ranging from primary to post-high school, and accepts100 post-high school students each year.

Myar Reh is a principal at the post-high school, teaching students subjects on human rights and environmental awareness.

“We want to bring up people’s lives, especially those whose rights were taken away. We train them about environment so it is good, our country, when they go back to Burma. We are also giving them training in politics to develop the future of democratic society in the country.”

The schools have limited seats, and there is not enough for all of the children in the camp.

And as international donors tighten their budgets, the schools are also facing financial problems.

The Karenni Education Department, in charge of education in the camp, received 20 percent less funding this year.

Shwe Htoon is the director.

“As the political situation inside Burma has been changing and the financial crisis hit in Europe, the interest of donor to support us has been low. It affects a lot of us.”

Living as a refugee for most of her life, 29-year-old Lo Reh Shan has never been to school.

“I have never had formal education in school in my entire life. We were always hiding from Burmese soldiers from one place to another. I thought about attending school in this refugee camp again, but we don’t have any relatives here to take care of us. This is not easy for me.”

24-year-old Matiyalay is a high school graduate and chairman of the Karenni National Students Union.

He says the Union is fighting for greater rights for students in the camp.

“Being a refugee and living as a stateless person, we can’t think of going to a university because we don’t have travel documents so our chance is very rare. There are many students here who are qualified to study at a university but there many obstacles for them achieve such goal. Many young people want to find a way to get an education but when they don’t see a light, they end up in drug addiction. Or being married at an early age, there are many series of consequences.”

After playing volleyball, 23-year-old Joseph Nor shares his vision for the future.

“After I finish this school, I will teach, but teaching not my passion. I would like to be involved in politics because I want to help my people.”

Burma Refugees Struggle Under Minimum Support

Saturday, 18 February 2012 14:04 Banyar Kong Janoi

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Forced to leave their homes after brutal military attacks against minority groups, millions of displaced Burmese have spent years in refugee camps.

Amid cautious signs of government reform, they are anxious to return home.

But with uncertain futures waiting back home, many decide to stay in the camps instead.

As international donors tighten their belts, they are surviving on the bare minimum. Banyar Kong Janoi takes a look at the harsh reality of Burma’s refugee camps.
25-year-old Chae Mae is weaving with four other women in a workshop at the Mae Hong Son refugee camp.
“I have nothing to do at home so I come here to work, earn money and learn some new skills.”

Chae Mae is paid around 25 US dollars for two month’s work. The money usually goes toward buy ingredients to cook meals.

Sewing is the only job available in the camp and she doesn’t mind working for more than 8 hours a day.

The camp is located near the Thai-Burma border and under Thai law, refugees are not allowed to work outside the camp.

Prae Mae, 45, says that deciding to stay or go home is a challenging decision for her family

“I want to back home but going home is not easy because we have nothing left in Burma: no land to plant crops for our food, and no pod for cooking, no place to live. But staying here is also a struggle because I am the only one who can make some money from this sawing and feed all of my children.” –

Prae Mae has been living in the camp for more than a decade with her four children.  Her sick husband died when they arrived in the camp.

They left Burma in fear of army brutality, Prae Mae continues.

“At that time, the soldiers arrested so many people. I don’t know why they did that. We were so afraid to live in our home and decided to leave to Thailand, all of us from the same village. Five years ago my oldest son went back home to collect some of our belongings, but he got arrested by the Burmese soldiers. They killed him.”

The sewing project is run by the Karenni National Women’s Organization to empower women and children living in the camp.

Rosy Htwe, the spokesperson of the group, says the project has been running for more than a decade.

“We want to create jobs for unemployed mothers and children in the camp to get some money. At the same time, we want to provide some clothes for them. They can work for us and we can lend them some money to produce a piece of cloth on their own. By this they’re making some money.”

It’s a small-scale project with around 30 people involved, out of more than 10,000 refugees inside.

The organizer wants to expand the project, but it’s not possible says Mahm Saw, the director of Karenni National Refugee Committee.

“Every time we think of ways to stand on our own financially, there’s always an obstacle. For example we want to produce bricks in a large scale, but this will affect Thai local business. The same goes if we want to raise animals or grow vegetables. Plus we don’t have the land to do that.”

Some refugees are not hiding in Thai camps but inside Burma.

Thousands of refugees are living across the border of Mae Hong Son.

They also rely on international donors who are tightening their budgets.

There are around 300 people in this camp, with 80 children enrolled in the primary school inside the camp.

Ko Han Aung, the camp’s school principal says, it’s hard to maintain the school.

“We still have some money to run the school this year. But I don’t know what will happen next year onward. We have been thinking over the past years how to keep the school if we don’t receive any budget. We now produce key chain from plastic and grow vegetables as part of vocational learning, and we sell them.”

Although they have found small ways to survive, it won’t last long, he adds.

“We depend mainly to our donor support because we cannot get profit quickly from growing vegetables. They are long-term crop productions. It will take 3 to 4 years from now.”

Burma Refugees Fear of Coming Home

Saturday, 11 February 2012 10:42 Banyar Kong Janoi

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Burma has promoted a series of political “reforms” to the international community - and given new hope to 1 million Burmese refugees, one of the world’s largest refugee populations.

For years they have been living in frontier camps and hideouts across Burma’s borders driven out by conflict.

But despite peace talks between the government and several rebel groups, sporadic fighting continues.

Banyar Kong Janoi traveled to Mae Hong Son province on the Thailand-Burma border, the site of several large camps and asked refugees when they plan to go home.

An officer at a refugee camp in Mae Hong Son is calling out people’s numbers in front of a long queue of refugees.

They are waiting for charcoal to cook meals.

Basic supplies for refugees have been reduced by 30 percent this year, making life tough.

But they are not allowed to work outside the camp because it’s illegal under Thai law.

Last year 23-year-old Shay Reh secretly went to the Thai town of Chiang Mai to earn money, so his wife could get medical care to deliver their child.

“When I arrived in this camp, they gave us everything, like rice and cooking oil. But later on, they didn’t give us enough support so we had to find jobs outside the camp. Unfortunately, I don’t have a work permit and I don’t speak Thai so I was arrested while working in a factory.”

The police released him after two months in jail and he came back to the camp empty-handed.

Now he relies on only the aid provided by international donors.

And donors are not giving more fund, says Sally Thompson, the Deputy Director of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium.

“Most of our donors have straight lines in terms of funding so we are getting the same support that we got last year. But we face increasing commodity prices and also we continue to see new arrivals coming to the camps. So in actual Thai Baht terms, we have been spending the same amount for the last three years but what that Thai Baht is actually able to buy has gone down. So, yes, we have been now forced to make cut, significantly cut for 2012.”

In the past, refugees received 15 kilograms of rice for each person, plus some beans, salt, chili and charcoal.

Now, they get less – 13 kilograms of rice and beans, but no salt or chili.

And donors are thinking of shifting their funding to inside Burma.

“They like to think that the time for refugees is coming toward an end, toward hopefully a period when they will be able to go back to Burma. And donors would like to put their money in the country to try to address some of the many humanitarian needs inside Burma. So they are reluctant to increase funding to refugees at the time they feel they should be increasing support inside the country.”

Thousands of people leave Burma every year. The number increases every time political tension rises between ethnic rebel groups and government troops.

Along the Thai-Burmese border, about 5,000 people are fleeing from the war to refugee camps.

15-year old Deh Reh arrived in the camp six months ago with hundred other people fearing that Burmese soldiers would take them to join military.

“We were afraid that Burmese soldiers would come and take us to join military and send us to Shan State, so we decided to leave our home. And we travelled to the border to reach the camp here.”

The Burmese government has held peace talks with ethnic armed groups across the country, but sporadic fighting still continues.

The Thai government, meanwhile, hopes to send the refugees home.

The push to return the refugees intensified when Burma’s President Thein Sein was sworn in last year.

But the Thai government promises not to use force, and says it will wait until it is safe to return.

And it’s still far from safe now, says Mahm Saw, director of the Karenni National Refugee Committee.

“If there’s no fighting going on in our area, we will consider going back. Even there is no fighting, it takes us some time to go back safely because there are landmines everywhere. Besides, the international community should continue supporting us for at least
3-4 years. At the moment, we can’t think of going back home.”

Children are playing outside Shay Reh’s bamboo house.

He has been living here for a decade with his wife, and now their one-year old daughter.

He has no idea when he will go back home.

“We can’t go back even if the Thai government sends us back, because local authorities there already know us. If there are safety guarantees for our return, we might go back; otherwise I am sure they will torture us.”

A Promise of Media Freedom in Burma

Saturday, 04 February 2012 11:41 Banyar Kong Janoi

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Photo: Banyar Kong Janoi

Download Burma’s president this week pledged to establish a "healthy democracy". He made the comments during a visit to Singapore where he asked for help to modernise the country's economy.

One area that is under going rapid change in Burma is press freedom.  The government is easing restrictions on the press and is in the process of drafting a new media law.

Recently a group of government officials, journalists and members of civil society gathered in Hong Kong to discuss the transition from a military dictatorship to a democracy.

Banyar Kong Janoi went to speak with some of the delegates about media reform in Burma.

For the first time in years or decades people in Burma can now freely surf websites from exile media groups such as the Democratic Voice of Burma…they can also check-out the BBC and CNN sites.

And newspapers are now allowed to publish photographs and reports about the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

These are things that would have been unthinkable just one year ago.

Ma Myint Su works with civil society groups in Rangoon.

“We have seen many developments but in my opinion, I would say this is relaxation; it is not a real change yet. Some things are easier than in previous years but we still need permission from local authority to do things.”

Burma is said to have the world's most heavily censored media.

More than 50 journalists have been put in jail for their work in the past ten years.

But last October the head of Burma's powerful press censorship department called for greater media freedom in the country.

Tint Swe said censorship was incompatible with democratic practices and should be abolished in the near future.

Now the government is holding workshops on the role of media in a democratic society with Burmese journalists and exile media such the BBC and Voice of America Burmese services and the Mizzima News Agency.

The government also says they are in the process of drafting a new media law.

U Ye Htut is a spokesman for the Burmese government.

“The ministry of information has drafted it. Now, the attorney generals office is reviewing the draft. If the attorney general gives it his approval, we will send it to the parliament. To achieve a democratic society, we will create the new law freely and openly under the constitution. According to the president’s speech, if we are moving towards a democratic country we need the media to play a role as the fourth estate. Therefore the media should not only have freedom but they should also take on responsibility. That’s why we are drafting a media law which grants freedom but also makes the media responsible for the betterment of our society.” 

By ‘responsible’ he says the media must be fair and balanced.

In the past, journalists have been arrested and jailed for charges under the electronic act.

“The electronic is not under our control. It’s under the ministry of Communication, Posts and Telegraphs. However, I understand they are also reviewing this law and thinking about amending it because we have to amend all laws which contridict our new constitution.”

But changes to the electronic act and the media law are being done behind closed doors. Information about the details of the new laws have not been released.

But U Soe Thein a Rangoon-based editor from Thought & Vision Magazine says some parliamentarians have approached him for his input.

“They came and ask our opinion about what the media law show be like but the actual drafting committee, the information ministry, has never consult with us. I think what will happen is after drafting the law the upper house and lower house will read the law and compare it to our opinions and demands and then will make a decision whether to pass it or not.”

He says at the moment the situation is far from free and fair.

“Compared to era before the new government came to power now is a lot more relaxed but we still have to have everything approved by the censorship board before publishing. Some times, our stories are edited and some are cut altogether. So as long as that censorship is imposed on us we don’t have  a free press in Burma.”

A Burmese student in Hong Kong who wants to stay anonymous says it is too soon to say if Burma is changing.

“The government officials say they have changed but they are very clever at selecting the right words. I am not sure whether their words will transform into action. We have to wait and see if the upcoming by-election and next term election will be free and fair.”

Rape Being Used as a Weapon of War in Burma

Saturday, 20 August 2011 13:46 Banyar Kong Janoi

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Burmese Rights activists and the US based Human rights watch are accusing the Burmese military of crimes against humanity.

They say the Burmese army is raping civilan women in the conflict zones where there is separatist fighting between the state army and armed ethnic groups who are demanding greater independence.

Banyar Kong Janoi in a village in Kachin State hears the story of one such rape victim.

It is raining when I arrive in a small village in the Kachin state where 35 year old Ma Myit lives.

Ma Myit is not her real name; she asked to stay anonymous.

She says all her life she has lived in fear of Burmese soldiers.  

“When I was about 15 years old, I was out in the woods finding food for pigs along with other girls from our village. There is a Burmese battalion posted near our village and when soliders saw us they tried to catch us. Luckly I escaped then. Some of my friends who couldn’t run fast enough were caught and raped by the soliders.”

But this year on the 20th of June Ma Myit wasn’t so lucky.

“Our village is on the way between Myitkyina and Bhamo. I was heading to Bhamo for a religious meeting. There was fighting on the way, so I was walking around the paddy field instead of going straight to avoid confrontation. Unfortunately, I met the Burmese soldiers in the paddy field and they captured me.”

She says the Burmese soldiers used her as entertainment for five days.  

“The soldiers took me along with their army battalion, passing by many villages. During that time they were raping me every night. I don’t want to recall my experience with them. I feel bad even when talking about it now. I don’t want to recall anything: I just want to forget it. I was forced to sleep with a soldier and a colonel. In the middle of the night, the colonel came to me. I screamed, but the soldier beside me said nothing and neither did other people. The colonel and I struggled. I think he is about 60 years old. In the morning, I told the soldiers that if they continued to assault me this way they would have to kill me first.”  

Ma Myit escaped and ran to a Shan village where she asked for help.

“I was naked and came knocking at a house the village in the middle of the night. The people came out of and pointed with flash lights.”

Then a woman gave her clothes and brought her some food.

The next day they helped her return home.

Ma Myit is one of the many women force to live with the horrors of war.

Ma Naw Myay Sein is from a Kachin womens organization in the provincal capital Laiza.

The group is documenting rape cases taking place in the Kachin State.  

She shows me some documents and pictures of the raped victims.  

“We have documented a lot of rape cases. As an example case, two Burmese officers raped a woman on the way when she went to a rice field. One officer ordered her to perform oral sex and another assaulted her. While one of the officers attempted to kill her, she ran away. There are countless cases we have received but some cases we can not verify so we have to put them aside. In some cases, the victims were able to escape, but some were killed by the Burmese soldiers on the spot.”

They have verifyied 18 rape cases commited by the Burmese soldiers since the fighting broke out in the Kachin state in early June.

Kachin independence activist Htoi Bu says the human rights abuses are politically motivated.  

“In Kachin State, if the Burmese soldiers see a passerby, they asked: ‘Are you Kachin?’ If he or she answers yes, he or she will be killed. In the worst cases, women including young girls are raped and killed by the Burmese army. We have heard that the soldiers get their orders from their senior officers. This kind of act is really inhumane and shameful among Burmese people and in the international community. If the Burmese government is to be genuine in its call to build a united country, they must recognize that Kachin people are their people.”

Elaine Pearson is Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director.  

She says it is time to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate the allegation of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma.

“Clearly, the Burmese government has shown that they are unwilling to address this kind of abuses unless there is some kind of external pressure. So the number one thing we are calling the commission of inquiry to investigate is this allegation of war crimes. This would then lead to an international independent investigation. And we believe that could indeed play a role in deterring the future violation of human rights and future abuses by the Burmese army.”

The co-ordinator of a relief committee for the Kachin, La Rip said international communities should respond quickly to this emerging humanitarian crisis.

“The fighting should not be excuses for these abuses. Simply people around here would say that ‘aww, it can be because the war is there, because the fighting hasn’t been stopped, so the abuses would happen.’ No, actually, I don’t agree with that. Even the fighting if there has been on dialogue at the moment that kind of abuses should be totally stopped. And if those kinds of abuses are taking place, international organizations, who are responsible to protect civilians, should take immediate actions.”

Is the government really honest to ethnics groups?

I was in a conference of Asian nation’s transition from military dictatorship to democracy. The conference aimed to be closed-door discussion between the Burmese government delegations and academics. 

The Burmese government representatives boldly said there is no human rights abuse in Burma and they blame the ethnic insurgents for disrupting economic growth.

I wonder why they did not mention about corruption and mismanagement of the country economy are obstacles of the growth too.

Ye Htut, the ministry of information, said the ethnic armed groups should not participate in the politics fold because it is unacceptable in international standard. However, the 2008 constitution, which drafted by junta, allows the Burmese military general to take up 25 per cent of seats in parliaments.

Dr. Kyaw Yin Hlaing, said if we are only pointing out those problem, we can not move on to the next stage. Should we ignore those evidences to build confident among us? The past is a lesson for future. So the government should show different to win the ethnics trust.  

Ceasefires will not Bring about Lasting Peace: Burmese Ethnic Leaders

Saturday, 28 January 2012 12:07 Banyar Kong Janoi

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Burma’s government has held ceasefire talks with ethnic Kachin rebels to end fighting near the northern border with China.

But officials say the preliminary meeting did not yield any major breakthroughs.

The Kachin Independence Army or K-I-A is one of the country's most powerful and well-armed rebel groups.

Earlier this month the government signed a ceasefire with Karen rebels in the east of the country. It has also held talks within the last two months with the Shan State Army.

But as Banyar Kong Janoi reports many are suspicious about these ceasefires.

61 years old, Law Reh sings about the richest of his homeland -- the Karenni state in eastern part of Burma.

He has spent the last two decades in a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border because of fighting between an armed group of Karenni National Progressive Party and the government.

Law Reh says he is lucky to be alive after being forced to work as a porter for the Burmese military.

“They used us to clear landmines. I witnessed people being killed and tortured in front of me. One of them was a teacher, who taught Karenni language in our village school. He had his mouth cut out in front us. He finally bleed to death. Around 100 people in our group, including me were going to be shot but then the soliders changed their minds and decided to let us starve. We went with out food for ten days. We some how manage to survive but I was so weak I could not lift my arms. Then we were finally allowed to go home.”

Early this month (January) the Karen National Union and the Burmese government agreed to a ceasefire.

But Law Reh is not convinced that it’s safe enough to leave Thailand and go home.

Hhun Okkar is a spokesman for the United Nationalities Federal Council, an alliance of ethnic armed groups.

He is also suspicious about the recent ceasefire aggrements.

“The ethnic groups have made ceasefire agreements with the military government many times before with past military leaders and now with the President Thein Sein. Although different tactics were used to reach agreements we can see the government’s intention is the same. The government promises to improve economic opporitunites for the ethnic groups but they never aggree to real political power. Now we are expecting that their will be discussions about ethnic political power but we are not sure if it will happen. It’s too early to say the problem has been solved.”

Burma has eight major ethnics groups who make up 40% of Burma's population.

They have been demanding - without success - for greater regional autonomy from the majority Burman-led central government since independence from Britain in 1948.

Khun Oo Reh is the general secretary of the Karenni National Progressive Party.

He says the government needs to understand what ethnic groups are fighting for.

“We have been discriminated against and we have been ignored. The majority Burman ethnic group always wants to control the country. We are not treated fairly. Also we are fighting to protect our ethnic identity. We want self-determination. We want a federal democractic system in Burma.  When Burma gained independence from Britain it was not so that the Burman people could rule but so all ethnic group could have self-determination.  We all have to live and rule together.”

He says it is too early to say whether the nominal civilian government under the leadership of Thein Sein is serious about giving ethnic groups a greater say in how they are governed.

“Throughout history the ruling party in Burma, whether you call it a military dictatorship or the Burmese government, always name us separatist groups. They don’t use the word ‘Federalism’; they only talk about the ‘Union of Burma’. Their slogan is ‘federalism is separatism’. I believe that none of the ethnic groups are demanding an independent state.  What we are fighting for is a real federal democratic system in Burma. There is no guaranteeee for peace unless there is a political solution, ceasefires can be broken at anytime.”