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Words and Drawing By Ben Hopkins From Thailand’s north western most province of Mae Hon Son to its northern most province of Chiang Rai Gasping like a man dragged up from the ocean bed and several kilograms over weight I reach the top of the first major climb of this tour. The ascent was a torturous swine but the view is magnificent. Immediately to the west lie the forested mountains of Thailand’s northernmost province Mae Hon Son and a few kilometers beyond the Karen, Kareni and Shan states of Burma. It’s an appropriate spot to begin a tour that’ll lead me overland from Thailand to England with the aim, in part, to raise awareness and money for the plight of Burmese refugees. The previous day I met Put, a spokesperson for the exiled Burmese Kareni people outside a tea shack in the town of Mae Hon Son. He recalled the day he was driven from his village in the Kareni region of Burma by the military junta some 17 years ago. “I remember my mother shouting; run,” Put explains, displaying little trace of emotion or anger. “I was seven years old. The military descended, shooting the people and setting fire to our village. We had no time to collect our belongings. All we could do was keep running.” The attack that drove Put and his family from their home followed the military coup that crushed Aung San Suu Kyy’s electoral victory of May 1990. 
The Burmese refugee crisis has its roots in the late 1940’s when the Karen (Burma’s largest ethnic minority group totaling around 7,000,000) were persecuted by the Japanese army and the Burma Independent Army for supporting the British. Following the assassination of elected leader Aung San (Suu Kyy’s father) in 1947 Burma faced decades of unstable government and military rule. The drive to decimate the ethnic minorities of Burma is an attempt to silence their demand to establish a subdivision or state within parts of Burma where they hold the majority. For decades the Karen armies have been holding a resistance against the junta in the forested mountains across the border. In the 1980’s their numbers totaled around 20,000. Today their strength has shrunk to less than 4,000 opposing what is now a 400,000 man Burmese army. The refugee crisis remains equally as desperate. Hundreds of thousands of Burmese have been forced to flee their country as a result of political persecution and ethnic cleansing. Most are unable to return home. In the fifteen TBBC camps lining the border there are 160,000 refugees whose only hope of experiencing a life beyond the claustrophobic confines of their camp is for the military junta to collapse. For several months after the attack Put and his family were forced to camp on the Thai border, waiting for the trouble to subside in the hope of returning home. Battling malnutrition, disease and hiding from the military the villagers were faced with the stark option of entering Thailand or returning home to a near certain death. Most of them were given shelter in the TBBC camps where they remain till this day. Put, however, was one of the (relatively) lucky ones. As the son of one of the leaders of the Kareni peoples fight for independence he was given the role of a spokesman for his people. With an excellent grasp of English and awareness of the political realities inside Burma he holds no illusions over the scale of the task ahead. “My aim is to gain an NGO sponsored scholarship to study in a foreign country. From there, at some point in the future I hope to re-enter Burma.” For him to attempt to re-enter Burma from Thailand with his current ID would be suicidal. When I ask him what his hopes are for the future he’s clear. “The Kareni people want to return to their home state and to have autonomy within that state. In the future we’d push for independence from Burma.” With the decimation of the Karen army, the strength of the Burmese military and the unwillingness of neighboring countries to take a stand it may seem there’s little hope for change inside Burma. Then again the same was said about Eastern Europe shortly before the Berlin Wall came down. The military junta in Burma will collapse; it’s just a question of when. Puts friend eyes me suspiciously as I stop asking questions, swig back my tea and say farewell. Meanwhile Put merely smiles and assures me I'm welcome to return anytime.
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