INVITATION TO FUND RAISING FOR IDPs IN THAI-BURMA BORDER

 

Burma used to be called the “rice bowl of Asia”, and had a prospering and successful economy. Now it is ranked among the poorest countries in the world. Since 1962 the people of Burma have been ruled by a military dictatorship, and some regions have suffered civil war for over 50 years.
 
Due to the ruling Burma army’s fascist policy of “Burmanisation”(Ethnic Cleansing) an estimated 1 million people in ethnic states are now without homes, shelter, food or medicine. These people are the Internally Displaced Peoples or IDPs of Burma.
All ethnic groups in Burma have suffered persecution at the hands of the Burma army, but the Karen people of Eastern Burma are currently experiencing a massive genocidal onslaught by the army that started in December 2005. The attacks have continued unabated throughout the rainy season, leaving over 20,000 people destitute, desperate, hungry and afraid. It is expected that with the coming of the dry season the attacks in Karen State will intensify.
When the Burma Army attacks a village they burn it to the ground, rape women and children and capture villagers to use as porters for the army, some are then tortured or killed in horrific ways. During these attacks the Burma army indiscriminately shoots villagers. Children as young as 9 year old Naw Eh Ywa Paw (pictured left) are victims of these indiscriminate shootings, as well as old people.
Any food, grain or livestock will be either taken by the army or destroyed to ensure that the villagers cannot come back for it. The army will also destroy the people’s means of survival including destroying cooking pots. Then they lay landmines to ensure that the villagers do not return.
 
IDPs in Burma live in hiding in the jungles, in constant fear that the next day, the next hour, the next minute, the Burma Army could discover their hiding place and they will have to run again.