"Where are you from?" "I am from Thailand."

Refugees at Jubilee learn basic English, but how much English they actually learn depends a lot on their aptitude, age, and proficiency in their own language(s).  However, regardless of their English level, all refugees learn to answer some basic questions, including, “What is your name?”, “How old are you?”, and “Where are you from?"

 

None of these basic questions is as politically charged as “Where are you from?”.  During our time here I would like to do a blog post for the different countries that are represented by my students.  Currently, the answer for both of my students is “I am from Thailand.”  Neither of them was born in Thailand, and neither would consider Thailand their home country, but it is where they have both spent, most likely, the last 5-15 years of their lives.  Both of these refugees (Sae Der and Koe Jam Bee, SD and KJB going forward), are originally from the country of Burma (renamed to Myanmar in 1989 by the ruling military dictatorship, many independence groups refuse to recognize the new name, as it was not chosen by the people, simply by the ruling powers).

SD is from the Karen ethnic group, a minority group residing in the eastern part of Burma, in a very rural part of the country, mostly consisting of jungles.  Since being at Jubilee I read “Undaunted” the story of a young Karen woman (Zoya Phan) who fled here country and ultimately ended up in Europe, working for an NGO that draws attention to the humanitarian crisis in Burma.  She is from the Karen ethnic group, and her story likely mirrors many of the Karen who come through Jubilee.

Here is a brief history of the last 70 years in Burma from a Karen perspective (mainly drawing from “Undaunted” as a source).  If you don’t care to wade through the history, feel free to skip this paragraph.  In 1948 Burma gained independence from Great Britain.  During World War II, the Burmese (the primary ethnic group in Burma) supported the Japanese and the Karen supported the British.  In return for their support, the Karen were promised an independent state if the Allies won WWII.  Unfortunately, after WWII, the British left Burma as an independent country, and left their promise to the Karen unfulfilled.  In 1949 the Karen National Union (KNU) began an armed struggle after the  Burmese Army carried out attacks against Karen civilians.  This was the beginning of an ongoing time of ethnic violence against the Karen and other minority ethnic groups by the Burmese government.  In 1962 General Ne Win seizes power in a military coup.  In 1976, the National Democratic Front (NDF) is formed, consisting of a variety of ethnic groups opposed to the military dictatorship, and the KNU stops demanding an independent Karen state, and instead focuses on calling for federalism within Burma.  In 1988 a democracy uprising across Burma (led by students) topples the Ne Win regime, but ultimately results in the massacre of thousands of protesters and the rise of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), an even more brutal regime.  1990 elections are held, the National League for Democracy (NLD)  wins 82 percent of the seats in Parliament, but the SLORC refuses to hand over power.  In 2007, another democracy uprising (this time led by Buddhist monks), is suppressed by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the renamed SLORC.  After some additional elections and developments, critics are mixed on the current state of affairs in Burma, but many people say the government is making progress (though most of these critics are discussing the main areas of population, and not the Karen and minority ethnic group areas).  

On a more personal level, many of the Karen villagers fled from their homes during government bombing raids and assaults across the Thailand border.  In many cases they traveled through heavy jungle for days or weeks, constantly in fear for their lives and surviving on anything they could find.  In Thailand they settled in refugee camps, overseen by the Thai military and United Nations.  Because the Thai government is an ally to Burma, the Thai are not happy about the refugees’ presence, and this makes the situation even more difficult.  In the camp, refugees receive some basic necessities (food, basic medicine), but are prohibited from traveling outside of the camps.  Their chief hope is that they will someday be accepted by some country as a refugee.  In SD’s case, his family lived in the refugee camp for at least 10 years before they were able to come to the US as refugees.

KJB is from the dominant Burmese ethnic group (and her English is still very basic), so why she fled the country is more of a guess.  She and her 10 year old son (Anaing) are here, so perhaps she fled because her husband worked for the democracy movement.  She is also a Muslim (a minority religion in Burma) so perhaps she fled religious persecution.

Even though I may never know the complete story of SD or KJB’s time in Thailand (or Burma), I can only hope that they are able to move into Atlanta after their time at Jubilee and find enough support among other refugees with similar backgrounds to make a new life for themselves.  Even though English will probably always be something of a foreign language to them, hopefully at least their children’s future will be brighter here than it may have been in Burma.

-- Nate