Thai-Burma Border

The border lies a just a few miles from our house crossing at a place called the "thai/burma friendship bridge". It's a funny name considering that not many people feel very friendly with Burma. There are 3 bridges long the border. Ours, and one in te south and north. We were told that we should go and watch the Burmese swim across the river into Thailand without anyone trying to stop them. We thought this seemed far-fectched, but decided to have a look. Sure enough as soon as we walked up to the river we could see Burma on the other side and a lot of people swimming back and forth on the river on top of giant innertubes!! They would fit nearly a dozen people on one while the "captain" paddled with his hands to get them to the other side. It would be kind of funny if it weren't for the fact that on the other side of the river they were being savagly oppressed. As we sat and watched this wierd scene infront of us a Burmese man came up and started making conversation with us in very broken english. He told us that all you need is about 300baht to pay off the Thai authorities on that side of the border and they were allowed to proceed into town to look for work or get or sell provisions, and in a lot of cases to get to the Mae Tao clinic for some desperatly needed medical care. Needless to say it is not the Rio Grande at the Mexican/American boarder. As we sat watching the Burmese scoot acorss the river, we came upon an American couple. The man was a former C.a.r.e manager (a humaniarian aid gorup) and the woman was a former teacher. The man gave me some pointers on biopsychoscoial devleopment along the Thailand border and the woman gave Ben some teaching pointers. They had traveled through Burma recently. We then made our way to the border market. It is a giant labrynth of stalls selling all kinds of items, from ipod speakers to antique clocks. We got a big bag of the most delicious cashews we have ever had, and some grilled bannanas somehow infused with coconut.
We have been researching and talking with people from Burma. There are a few ethnic minorities who are rebelling agaisnt the Miltary junta. Many of the ethnic famrers are being relocated from through means of burning thier villages, murdering, forced labor (slaves), human landmine sweepers, rapes, and torutre. Many of the other enthinc tribes have signed seize fire agreements with Burmese military, but the Karen are the last left fighting this repressive regime ( it is the longest running civil war in the world, 60 years).
There are several refugee camps along the border for karreni, Karen, and Mon tribes. Then there is a large group of migrant workers who travel through Thailand looking for work to feed their fmailies. These people have crossed iillegally into Thailand. There is a huge amount of illegal Burmese living in mae Sot. many things are surpirizing out in the open and often have to pay hefty bribes to Thai authorities to remain oporatating. Dr. cynthia, a karen, who started the Mae Tao Clinic has to do a broder run still even though it has been 20 years next month that the clinic has been opened.
There are still many people living in the jungle in Burma to afraid to come out of hiding.
I asked why people would chose to go to either the refugee camp or to be migrant. Many stated it just depends on who is there. If a fmaily or friend is in a mcap maybe you go there, if they are living along the broder then you may go htere. Many of the Burmese take jobs in construction or in teh factories. At the facotry often the Burmese are working 55 days and paid 30. They are paid veryl ittle. It is similar to our illegal imigrants in the states where there is not much rights they have. Who would they go to to complain? One group talked about building a house for 1000 baht (about 30 US dollars) and not being paid at the end.
They are not giving rights to work, so it is a dififuclt life, but at the cmaps they are held as prisioners. Many leave, but have ot pay Thai authroities a bribe. Some of the camps are turning away people unless they are physically forced from their camps (which usually means hundreds are killed or enslaved). So if they leave before they are attacked they may be denied access to aid. There are many slums along the broder of the river.

Burma provides no meidcal facilties, schools, etc for their citizens. The miltray is taking people's homes and livestock. All peope have ot pay a fee to the governemnt who own any business. Anyone speaking outagainst hte miltary regime or speaking of democracy is punished, jailed, and possibly killed. There is no outside contact like cell phones, the only TV stations people receive are milatry propoganda, the military government censors what is palced on the TV.
People talk about smiling faces whose eyes tell it all. The pain, the frustration, the desperation. They are not aloud to vocalize this and may be killed.
Aung San Suu Kyi is a democratic idol in Burma. She stood up for democracy in 1986. She was placed under house arrest shortly after this and this is where she remains. She has been arrested 2 more times since then refusing o leave Burma and her democracy fight even when her husband became sick and died (if she left she could never return and he was not allowed inside). She rightfully won in a democractic election by a landslide, but the miltray regime refused to aknowledge the results.
1988 students, teachers, activist, monks, etc stood up in a march for freedom, they were bombed, killed, kidnapped, and left to die. They had another political uprising in 2007 where again monks, etc. took to the streets pleading for the governemnt to take care of the people. Thousands of monks have never been seen since.

We visited AAPP a slightly secretive organization in Thailand who is run by former political prisioners. They have a museum where they have pictures of many of the political prisoners who were arrested for suspected disrespect of the government. They often have a bag thrown over their heads and are then severely beaten over and over. They have 6kg shackles placed on their legs and arms sometimes with a metal bar between the legs. They are often punished by sitting in these contorted positions for extended periods of time often on hte tip toes with sharp pins placed under their heel to make sure they do not faulter. They can be electrocuted, etc. They are refused visits from their families and can even be pretended to leave and then denied. Sometimes the prisioners do starvation demonstrations and many people die, but they are trying to advocate for better conditions. Occassionally this works.
Mostly the prisioners are students, activists, political figures, monks, and just some random arbitratry people. Burma is a primary Buddhist society, but the monks are disrobed and treated the same as other prisioners or killed. Some people's sentences can be 104 years. There is a death row, but many of the prisioners when released if they do not die in the prisions die afterwards from diseases. Many stay in Burma continuing to do advocay, but some leave too scared to be a prisioner again.
Here is hte website for AAPP.
http://www.aappb.org/
George Bush had visited here and Laura Bush had visited at Mae Tao.
It really opens your eyes to the resilience of people and the freedom of speech and life I take for granted. Watching the inaugeration here especially was an interesting take on democracy.

The Karen day of revolution is january 31st 60 years ago. Coming up shortly. Many people are preparing to celebarte. Many may go into karen state in Burma to particpate in the celebrations. People say it should be safe because the KNU (Karen National Union) will provide protection from the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council- this is the burmese military junta). The KNU is less powerful now than before because the Buddhist secton of karen have broken away signed a peace agreement with SPDC and have even begun to fight against their fellow Karen Christians. The internal configurations of the ethnic minorities like the karen are very complex.