Re: information about "Karen"


I must warn you that you will get one side of the story about the Karen
people from this ng and that side won't be the side of the karen
people.

> Is there anyone who is willing to explain
> the situation of the Karen, why they are prosecuted, what their objectives
> are etc.?

The Karen and the Burma have a long history of enmity. It is like
Serbians and Bosnians.


> I also wondered, where do the Burmese get their support from? The government
> needs weapons to effectively maintain their power. Who supports them?

China, of course.

> The bottomline is, that I would like to find out how this woman can get her
> children outof Burma. Are there organisations that in practice are able to
> help such desperate and unhappy people?

My family has met and become friend with a missionary who is involved
with the Karen refugees from Burma in Thailand. Chiang Mai is the city
name. We have learned a lot about these people including seeing a
documentary film that shows how these people played a role in helping
the British drove the Japanese out of Burma which is never written in
any history book in Burma. As the Japanese were fleeing through the
jungles where this ethnic group reside, the British would not have been
effective had it not were for the help of these people. The British
colonel in charge of that operation was young and naive and didn't know
about the politics and didn't know how his own government was
misleading this group with hope of granting autonomy in time of
independence. The colonel turned himself in to the Japs when the Japs
found out about him and was torturing the Karen villigers to capture
him. He was beheaded. This part of the story about his capture was
told by Bo Mya, the leader of the Karen people, now ailing. Ask her
(the refugee) who Bo Mya is she would tell you.

Anyway,

To help her get her children out of Burma would be a difficult task as
she could be from any of those small villages which get destroyed
(burned down) by the Burmese army with people fleeing toward Thai
border.

> Are there organisations that in practice are able to
> help such desperate and unhappy people?

The military government allows no humanitarian orgaization to function
inside Burma.

The children, if still alive, could be in one of those many small
villages migrating from one to another. I am talking about villages
with no running water and electricity at any time.

If she has information that the children are still alive, she could go
to the border and try to make arrangement (pass info that anyone
getting the children reach the border would get paid, etc.). If she
has someone at the border who could make arrangement on her behalf, she
doesn't need to go there.

Your best bet to help is to contact people of her ethnic group still
living in border area as refugees.


ronwer wrote:
> Hallo!
>
> My name is Ronald, living in Norway and I got acquainted with a refugee from
> Burma, a young women who says she is from the Karen people, who lost her
> husband, had to leave her children behind in Burma, managed to escape to
> Thailand and got the status as UN refugee and was allowed to live in Norway.
>
> She doesn't speak English and her norwegian is still very poor.
> Communication is therefore very difficult.
>
> Therefore I would like to try to learn a little bit more about the Karen
> people by asking this newsgroup. Is there anyone who is willing to explain
> the situation of the Karen, why they are prosecuted, what their objectives
> are etc.?
>
> I Googled, and found some information, but would like to hear some comments
> from people who I can ask some direct questions.
>
> I also wondered, where do the Burmese get their support from? The government
> needs weapons to effectively maintain their power. Who supports them?
>
> The bottomline is, that I would like to find out how this woman can get her
> children outof Burma. Are there organisations that in practice are able to
> help such desperate and unhappy people?
>
> Thanks for any comments, advice or help.
>
> Greetings from Norway,
>
> Ronald

.

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