It’s been a while. I hope you all haven’t given up. At least I hope there was enough of interest here to sustain you during these few months of silence.
I’ve just come back from the border area. Much is the same as it has been for the past twenty years, but much is changed.
I’ve talked of resettlement here before, and generally it gets the most impassioned responses, especially from the Karen community themselves. Resettlement was all people talked about on this trip. Resettlement has been on the agenda for years now but this time the talk is most certainly replaced by action. Refugee registration through UNHCR has proliferated and people are being moved to third countries in the hundreds.
Most of the Karen in Tham Hin will be in the US by the end of the year, that’s almost 8,000 people. Nu Po, Mae La, Umpiem, 500 here, 200 there and thousands of Karen that were formally encamped becomes increasingly smaller.
2 dear friends have already gone, one to Sweden, the other to the US. 2 others have decided to stay, despite their entire families being resettled. When I ask why they tell me their work is here, on the border, close to their people. But they express more complex concerns with resettlement. How will they maintain their Karen ethnicity in the face of a dominant, western, capitalist society? Who will continue to fight for the thousands of villager’s that continue to be displaced inside Karen State, or for the thousands that continue to face other forms of discrimination and persecution? Who will teach in the refugee camps?
And my own question. What effect is resettlement having on the community that has been established along the border? Networks have been formed with international entities. Various ethnic groups have formed alliances to address issues as diverse as ethnic respresentation and the environment. New forms of culture and identity are being learnt, practiced, explored. Functioning support systems are evident throughout family, community and camps. Resettlement will have devastating ramifications for the border community.
The decision whether to resettle is an excruciating one. We can’t even be certain it is the correct one. What we do know is that it is proving devastating for the Karen community along the border. Families are divided and split. Education is disrupted. Skills, knowledge and training are being lost to third countries. And it is unlikely much of it will return to benefit the Karen community’s claims for political equality. Direction is lost, and to get it back requires mammoth commitment and support, only now there are fewer people to provide it.
Ideally you would hope that Thailand could provide a safe haven for the Karen, a transit lounge if you like, until they can return to their home. You would hope that Thailand could provide a home, food, education, health services, and do so with compassion and respect.
Only that seems more remote than the possibility of one day returning to Burma.
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