The Hellhole Spectator: A Forgotten War
Bandow, Doug
party. He propels the women round the narrow spaces between the old wooden tables as if at the wheel of an expensive sports car. Like most of the men present, many of whom are old with gnarled...
...Soldiers carry a motley assemblage of arms, ranging from antiquated M1 carbines to captured Ma rifles to AK-47's to homemade teak landmines...
...Villages lack indoor and outdoor plumbing...
...The American Spectator . Ju l y/A u g u s t 2 o o o 73 How to end the conflict...
...the European Union simply denies Rangoon duty-free access to its market...
...Electricity- was unknown in the village and the only running water was located in the river...
...Pay is irregular, training sparse, and morale low...
...Enthused Jacobson, "If the hospital lasts through the dry season, we'll build it up...
...Like most of the men present, many of whom are old with gnarled farm laborer's hands and missing teeth, I watch with a smile on my face to conceal my envy...
...He is possessed by her...
...One 22-yearold said he had been fighting "for many years," perhaps ten...
...I do not dance...
...First, "we "re going to try to get them to dig latrines," he says...
...Still, it was something in which CFI head Jim Jacobson-whose cargo pants, print shirt, floppy hat, and running shoes seemed more appropriate to Washington...
...More investment and trade might help spread such "tools of freedom...
...So too are many Kachins and Karens, whose ancestors were converted by missionaries centuries ago...
...government increase pressure like trade sanctions and diplomatic sanctions, and other pressures...
...Some activists contend that stronger multilateral sanctions would bring the regime to terms...
...More than too,ooo Karen now live in refugee camps in Thailand, many just across the narrow Moi river...
...There was also a small clinic, constructed with American aid...
...Although Bangkok has no love for the SPDC, it also eschews conflict with the numerically larger Burmese army...
...Of course, that isn't going to happen-and for good reason...
...In fact, the Burmese government's victories are usually costly and often shortlived...
...Australia is considering restarting aid projects...
...Which leaves Suu Kyi and the Karen alike hoping for outside support...
...War consumes their lives...
...One 38-year-old guerrilla, whose long brown hair made him look more like a Bohemian resident of Greenwich Village than a dedicated defender of Burmese villages, figures that he has killed some 2o0 SPDC soldiers...
...America's interest in the Karen's struggle is humanitarian, not strategic, and does not justify risking U.S...
...Jacobson works through local pastors to arrange visits, bring aid, and offer spiritual support...
...But every month we can see that the casualties of the SPDC are more than before...
...policy has hindered their efforts to counter Chinese influence...
...Rice baskets are sealed with dried dung...
...Last year CFI lost only one Freedom Hospital...
...Rangoon has not repented...
...h a t is making Rangoon so upset is that we change lives," explains Jacobson...
...And, he adds, as independence hero Aung San realized, "Burma must be based on a system of federal union...
...The latter bears the heaviest burden...
...Streams simultaneously act as toilets, wash basins, and water fountains...
...Unfortunately, however, warns Robert Manning of the Council on Foreign Relations, as a result of sanctions Rangoon "has drifted toward Beijing, its major arms supplier...
...Such restrictions obviously inconvenience the SPDC, but have not shaken its hold on power...
...The KNLA lost its capital of Mane> plaw ("victory field") four years ago...
...The trouble is I am worried about how Sergio, a farm laborer who is constantly chewing gum and grinning, will react...
...What is more, the owner of the house I rent is unhappy at the messy state it is in and when 1 asked Giusi if she would come and clean my house, she agreed...
...Most languish in obscurity, like Burma...
...Nor is there any evidence that the SPDC is prepared to end its murderous depredations, let alone offer the autonomy for which the Karen have been fighting for halfa century...
...Such a message seems mundane in the larger geopolitical scheme, but it means lives saved...
...Indeed, in May the SPDC cracked down on unauthorized international e-mail and telephone services...
...Rangoon maintains numerous bases in eastern Burma, while guerrillas move freely around the camps...
...That largely means private assistance, like that provided by CFI and similar groups, since neither the U.N...
...Yet this is impossible so long as war rages...
...Unfortunately, answers are in short supply...
...People sleep without mosquito nets...
...Indeed, at meetings in Seoul earlier this year Asian, European, and U.S...
...Occasionally one captures newspaper headlines--Kosovo last year, for instance...
...D.C., where he used to work, than the DouG BANDOW is a senior fellow at the Burmese jungle--could take pride...
...No Burmese pledge of safety could be believed...
...Anyway, most countries are movfng in the opposite direction...
...Winn rejected it out of hand, suggesting instead that the KNU send representatives to Rangoon...
...China, which covets naval access to Burma's long coastline, began arming and financing Rangoon in 199o...
...But 243 people called Law Thi Hta home...
...This happens every year," observes Jacobson, but this is "one of the worst years...
...Earlier this year Jim Jacobson carried a new offer by the KNU to negotiate, at a neutral location outside of Burma, to Tin Winn, Burma's ambassador to the U.S...
...Pastors will spread the message, using the Bible as reinforcement...
...I am looking forward to Giusi coming to my house with her mop and bucket...
...Nevertheless, Gen...
...You are from the U.S...
...General Saw Htey Maung, the 7 oyear-old commander of the Seventh Brigade, described how he started with the Karen Rifles, then part of the British Army, in 1946...
...Pay is irregular, training sparse, and morale low...
...Secession struggles began against Prime Minister U Nu's government in 1949 and intensified after Ne Win's coup...
...Every time he sees me talking to her I see him in the background slicing his neck with the forefinger of his right hand-his knife hand no doubt- chewing away and grinning...
...Some Karen pine for Western military intervention...
...he was arrested by the army when he arrived...
...A short walk along the dirt path led to more houses, sitting on stilts and open to rain, animals, and mosquitoes...
...Jesus is with the Karen soldier," says General Htey...
...KNU President Saw Ba Thin says that "only a political settlement can make peace last...
...You can come and help us...
...nor Western governments will work in Burma against Rangoon's wishes...
...But this will be an uncertain and long-term process at best...
...Conscripts are simply dragged off the streets...
...But Jacobson doubts they would return alive...
...But the 1997 Asian economic crisis actually has had this effect, cutting ASEAN investment in Burma by 7 o percent...
...Just six weeks after my visit earlier this year, Burmese forces advanced, capturing some villagers and driving the others away...
...Bangkok responded by killing all of the raiders and shelling territory occupied by God's Army, pushing them deeper into Burma, where SPDC troops overran their camp...
...CFI is currently supporting six "freedom hospitals" in Kawthoolei ("flower country," as the KNU calls the territory under its control), which typically treat about 600 Karen a month, and will be constructing new facilities to replace the two destroyed earlier this year...
...Dense, green jungle covered the hills that marched endlessly beyond...
...In response, the SPDC has expanded its military to some 4oo,ooo...
...General Ne Win seized power in 1962 and, though formally retired, remains the leading power in Rangoon...
...You risk death, Inglese...
...Freedom Hospital Number One, as it was called by Christian Freedom International (GFI), a relief group based in Front Royal, Virginia, looked anything but...
...At the same time, Burma's internal instability and porous border offer profit opportunities...
...Lost limbs from landmines are a result of war...
...CFI also sells Karen handicrafts to help provide refugees with a means of support...
...Burmese forces have even launched attacks into Thai territory...
...Military action typically ends mid-year, but SPDC troops arrived at Law Thi Hta and Freedom Hospital Number One before the rain...
...The Karen are increasingly pressed against the Thai border...
...They mix fatigues and boots with ethnic Karen wrap-around skirts, flip-flops, and American shorts, T-shirts, and baseball caps...
...The ASEAN states Jacobson is determined...
...The West's most important role may be to help the Karen and other ethnic peoples cope with the SPDC's brutality...
...Law Thi Hta, Burma I t wasn't much by Western standards: a clearing in the dense foliage with a half dozen wood and bamboo buildings, covered by thatched roofs...
...Without Chinese help, the Burmese would never have taken Manerplaw," complains General Htey...
...But "on all of these occasions it told the KNU to lay down its arms instead of trying to reach an understanding through political discussion...
...Their shared Christian faith gives them hope...
...Moreover, a shared faith gives CFI an important connection that government 74 July~August 2 0 0 0 . The American Spectator agencies and other private groups lack...
...Human Rights Watch 72 Jwly/August 2ooo " TheAmerican Spectator estimates that 1,3oo political prisoners languish in prison...
...Thailand has announced that it hopes to move the refugee camps into Burma within three years...
...But the Karen fight on...
...The KNLA fields 4,ooo to 5,000 illequipped guerrillas...
...A reported World Bank/United Nations offer of $l billion in aid in exchange for democratic reform has fallen on deaf ears...
...tially deadly diarrhea, adults with typhoid, and anyone who stepped on a landmine...
...But most of the world doesn't know enough about the Karen to abandon them...
...T he dry season is known as the "killing season" because steep jungle trails dry out and rushing streams run low...
...Fifteen-year-old Yei Shweh, who defected to the KNLA, describes taking a bus to Rangoon to see the big city two years ago...
...Periodically the government strikes at villages suspected of harboring rebels...
...Three other Americans and I spent three days with one group of such itinerants as they climbed narrow jungle trails, dodged SPDC patrols, and acted as human pack animals to provide basic medical care and distribute drugs, food, Bibles, and hymnals...
...insects travel from animals to humans through floor slats...
...The battle is sadly uneven, however...
...The local slang Italian word for "to make love" is trombare--to trumpet--as in, did you trumpet...
...Last year a top KNU official told my colleague, journalist Rich Miniter: "Do like you did in Kosovo...
...The pervasive diarrhea, dysentery, malaria, measles, tuberculosis, typhoid, utero-infections, and other diseases--malaria alone afflicts up to 60 percent of some village populations-- reflect the lack of minimal sanitation...
...The KNLA is not strong enough to safeguard the territory...
...Karen representatives have met with the central government several times, most recently in 1996...
...The U.S...
...This peaceful coexistence was challenged in January when soldiers from God's Army, a small independent Karen force, and the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors, a faction of exiled students, briefly seized a Thai hospital in an attempt to win international attention to the Karen's plight...
...SLORC foolishly called elections a decade ago and Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won more than 8o percent of the votes...
...As a result, the Karen fight desperately...
...He can also offer practical advice...
...The insurgencies have waxed and waned over time...
...What puzzles me with all these Fascists about is how it is that the local council has been controlled since the war by the Communists and their various post-Cold War, post-Communist permutations...
...Still, the Burmese military will continue to kill...
...Moreover, economic restrictions impoverish those who languish under SPDC jackboots...
...The troops I met tended to run from teens to thirties in age...
...SLORC, which has since transmuted into the less-sinister sounding SPDC, annulled the election, put Suu Kyi under house arrest, and arrested many of her followers...
...I drink the local red Sangiovese wine, rosso, which the Fascists, naturally, call nero...
...Moreover, most Burmese are animists or Buddhists, while the Chins and Nagas are primarily Christian...
...officials met to consider new approaches to Burma...
...drug smuggling and teak logging have enriched people on both sides of the 1,30omile border...
...Look, Nicola, if you want to be mio ragazzo, you must do as I say...
...The leading democratic figure is Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of General Aung San, a leading nationalist who was assassinated shortly before Burma won its independence in 1948...
...The Cato Institute and a former special assis- clinic served children suffering from porchrant to President Reagan...
...Mass protests for democracy in 1988 led to creation of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which crushed dissent with martial law backed by bullets...
...Other than the plastic water jugs and English-language T-shirts, life is largely unchanged from a century ago...
...And no matter how hard it works, CFI can only help clean up the carnage that results...
...Conscripts are simply dragged off the streets...
...Cattle, chickens, and pigs run loose and settle under homes...
...The result is a million internally displaced persons and 20%000 refugees in Bangladesh, China, India, and Thailand...
...Over time broader contact with the West might strengthen internal democratic forces...
...Western nations have far less clout...
...Nor does Giusi-the girl with Mussolini eyes...
...They burned the hospital and other buildings and sowed the area with landmines to prevent the residents from returning...
...But fear keeps most soldiers in the ranks...
...he says...
...But it doesn't have to...
...In a video smuggled out of Burma earlier this year, Suu Kyi argued that the greater the international backing received by democracy activists, "the sooner we shall achieve our goal...
...Britain promised them autonomy, but did little to implement its commitment when Burma became independent...
...B ut what can be done about a repressive, secretive, and isolated regime like the SPDC...
...Saw Ba Thin concurs: "If the American government could do it, it would be helpful...
...The Karen's only hope lies in groups like CFI (www.ehristianfreedom.org), which are helping oppressed peoples survive until the so ~ar elusive political solution is found...
...Consider the controversial Yadena natural gas pipeline, running from Burma's coast to Thailand...
...But they can rarely stop a determined SPDC offensive...
...A second clinic to the north, along with an entire refugee camp housing 4,ooo people, was also destroyed...
...Remember the Karen people...
...Refugees also report frequent beatings, rapes, and murders, stories confirmed by the abashed defectors...
...Not that more contact is likely to change the SPDC's repressive policies...
...Don't abandon us like the British did," Saw Ba Thin pleads...
...A better alternative to current policy, which has manifestly failed, is probably a mix of diplomatic pressure, which can most effectively be applied by Japan, India, and the ASEAN states, and economic engagement, primarily by private individuals and organizations...
...SPDC forces impress civilians, women as well as men, as porters for months at a time...
...The Japanese have long chosen to deal with Burma...
...Rangoon joined in 1997) similarly complain that U.S...
...23:13...
...The latter tragedy continues to worsen, despite the canting sanctimony of political leaders who routinely invoke the "international community" when pushing their favored causes...
...had only modest economic ties with Burma before banning trade and investment in 1997...
...You look for death...
...The project has generated jobs and led to the construction of roads, wells, schools, and health clinics for local residents...
...Wooden platforms served as beds, operations were performed on bamboo tables, and modern equipment was absent...
...The bar has it on tap at the equivalent of 75 cents a half pint...
...All it has to do is terrorize and displace the Karen...
...Although international attention has focused on Suu Kyi, the more serious threat to Ne Win and his junta comes from the Karen and other ethnic groups...
...Like thousands of other ethnic Karen in Burma, they had been displaced by the Burmese military--the dictatorship styling itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC...
...Although some sections of the border are less than lZO miles from Rangoon, the SPDC cannot garrison the rugged and isolated jungles...
...Years of practice are hard to change, but Jacobson is determined...
...Similarly, General Htey says, "If we had a chance we would request that the American people help us to get our freedom state...
...Burma, now officially Myanmar, is an international tragedy...
...It regularly sends teams of CFI-trained medics (usually five, accompanied by several helpers and soldiers) into eastern Burma for up to four months at a time...
...The investors, including America's Unocal, should be held accountable if, as critics charge, forced labor was used to construct the pipeline, but many outside observers back the companies' denials...
...Yei Shweh and two other Burmese defectors described how food rations are no more regular than the $2 monthly pay: Hungry soldiers take villagers' crops and livestock...
...But later that night she caught me talking to another woman and she came up and whacked me hard on the head...
...Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself," God instructed the Israelites (Deut...
...N...
...Htey offers a positive spin: Since the Karen rely on "guerrilla tactics, hit-and-run," it appears "to the outside world that we are losing...
...As General Htey acknowledges, "The SPDC try to fight the grassroots, our backbone, the villages," so the people "don't have the morale to support us with food or anything else...
...During the last decade several groups have come to terms with Rangoon...
...lives...
...First, "we're going to try to get them to dig latrines," he says, and then to "pen up the animals...
...General Htey says, "The Karen people were waiting for the English government, but never mind if the British don't come and help us...
...But General Bo Mya, who also serves as vice president of the Karen National Union (KNU), joined the Karen revolution when it started in 1949...
...Scores of wars dot the globe...
...KNU President Saw Ba Thin explains that "we'd like to see the U.S...
...The war has no rules...
...The KNIA usually inflict far more casualties than they suffer-they claim a 2o-to1 kill ratio...
...This, I thought, was a good sign...
...Perhaps it is just that the Italian far right drinks more than the Italian far left...
...But if me and Giusi, the girl with Mussolini eyes, ever get round to a spot of trumpeting, I know who will cast the first stone, cN i/Ill D lIll::llUll_m LII It] l! [~ 7~ I~ I~ [4hi by Doug Bandow A Forgotten War The Karen are in Burma, not Kosovo, and thus unknown...
Vol. 33 • July 2000 • No. 6
