Burma's Perpetual War

Illegal crossing at Mae Sot

The small town of Mae Sot in Thailand is located on the border of Thailand and Burma.  A river separates the two nations. There used to be a border crossing at Mae Sot - the Bridge of Freedom brought you to the Union of Myanmar, but the bridge and the border crossing have been closed for over a year.  The only way to cross from one country to another in Mae Sot is to do so illegally.  It's not hard to do.  You pay a bribe to the Burmese police and you pay a person to tow in an inner tube to the other side. 
  Across the river from Mae Sot is home to the ethnic group called the Karen who have been at war with the Burmese military junta for over 40 years.  The Karen want a democratic Burma or an autonomous Karen union where they can make a living and be free from terrorism by the Burmese army and state police.  A sham election in Burma last November legitimized the military government which is one of the most corrupt governments in the world.  At one time, Burma used to be the rice bowl of SE Asia, but since the mid 80's it has been on the U.N.'s least developed country list.  This designation probably marks the beginning of the intense civil war in Burma.
    Many of the Karen villages have been destroyed by the Burmese army.  The displaced Karen people either become refugees or migrants in Thailand or they go into hiding in the jungles of Burma.  Mae Sot has become a predominantly Burmese town of migrants.  The migrants cannot leave Mae Sot.  If they do they can be arrested by Thai authorities and sent back to Burma.  Just south of Mae Sot is the largest of the 9 Burmese refugee camps in Thailand (holding 45,000 or more people).  Residents in refugee camps also lack the freedom to leave the camp.  As we were leaving Mae Sot to return to Chiang Mai, we passed through 4 military check points. 
    One way that the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) protects the Karen villages in Burma is to plant home-made land mines around the villages.  These landmines aren't intended to kill, just create considerable bodily harm and a lot of fear.  The land mines are a cheap and effective.  However, sometimes the villagers step on the landmines.
     During our stay in Mae Sot, we visited a health clinic and several NGOs that are helping the Karen who have entered Thailand legally or illegally or who are internally displaced in Burma, or who are political prisoners in Burma.  Mae Sot is also a town of NGOs working with Burmese migrants and, actually, so is Chiang Mai.  I taught Burmese migrants at an NGO in Chiang Mai.

A list of people  waiting for artificial limbs

not the best, but they work

He'll be getting legs soon

  

Refugees are provided with daily rations of rice, fish paste, mung beans, plus some other things.  The number of calories per day is adequate, but the diet is deficient in many vitamins and minerals, even when the refugees supplement their rations with vegetables and chickens that they raise in the camps. 

Migrants do not get rations.   However, it is probably easier for them to work illegally in Thailand.  In fact, Burmese migrants contribute to over 6% of Thailand's GDP.  There probably aren't many compelling reasons to eliminate migrants in Thailand.  They take jobs that Thais wouldn't take.  On our visit to Mae Sot, we caught a glimpse of how hard and tenuous life is for migrants and refugees.  It was impossible to imagine that life was worse in Burma.  

The food and markets in Mae Sot were outstanding.  I'll describe them in another blog.

This is fish paste

Mae La Refugee camp