Remembering Burma: One Refugee’s Story

In his earliest years, Neineh (pronounced Ne'-ne') can remember running with his family far from his village, deep into the camouflage of the jungle. There they would hide for days and weeks on end, until the SPDC troops were gone. Sometimes the family fled to Thailand and set up tents in villages across the border. But even in Thailand, they hardly felt safe.

Neineh recalled those nights, "You could hear all the gunfire, it's so close to Burma. We stayed on a river, so at night you could hear motor boats carrying in wounded resistance soldiers, carrying them to our camp."

When he was seven years old Neineh's family fled for the last time. "I never got back to my home again," he told me.

Talking over a cup of coffee at Starbucks, Neineh's tumultuous past seemed like it was a million miles away. But for him, it is always there.

There was really only one option available once the family fled. "I ended up growing up in a refugee camp in Thailand," Neineh told me. I ask him what would have happened if they had stayed.

"We would have been killed," he says quickly.

The village where he was born is now what the SPDC calls a "model village," for other Burmese villages to copy. Everything is arranged the way the SPDC thinks it should be. The original villagers are gone, having escaped or been killed.

Crimes against Humanity

The Change for Burma Campaign chronicles the Burmese regime's crimes on its website, noting that the country "has proportionately the highest number of child soldiers in the world." An estimated 70,000 children have been "forcibly conscripted" into Burma's military, making one-fifth of the total soldiers.

Forced labor is also commonplace in Burma. "The SPDC uses forced labor for military construction projects. International trade bodies have been reporting on the use of forced labor for 16 years; yet, it still continues," the Change for Burma Campaign states.

The military junta's uses widespread torture as a tool, both in prisons and areas of conflict with ethnic people. As Change for Burma chronicles, "One Buddhist Karenni reported having been tied up by SPDC soldiers and beaten with guns and sticks and stabbed by a bayonet. Another time, he was brutally tortured for ten days which resulted in an inability to walk for five months."

Camp Life

Neineh escaped these horrors. Yet in the refugee camp he found other challenges. The lack of electricity and paved roads weren't so hard to deal with, but as year after year passed by, he grew restless.

"The challenge for refugees is both cultural and moral," he said. "You are in a camp, and everything is provided for you. Most refugees are rice farmers, and there is no land for them to farm. So if you rely on people for a long time, you become handicapped in a sense. It is very dangerous for kids. Just growing up in an isolated, closed area, you are losing your culture, your way of life, your very identity."

For 16 years - the entirety of his childhood - Neineh and his family tried to make the most of camp life.

"Since [the camp] is closed to the outside world, it's very hard to get updated on what is going on," he said. "So if you really want to know, you have to find old newspapers, listen to the radio, talk to foreigners, take whatever opportunity you find." That's what he did, year after year after year.

Then, through a surprising turn of events in 2005, Neineh was offered a scholarship by the U.S. State Department. Through the Burmese Refugee Scholarship program, Neineh found himself with three other Burmese refugees on a plane to the United States. Within a short time he embarked on the International Studies bachelors degree program at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

But here, too, there were challenges.

"A Person with Two Homes" 

He found that his refugee background was hard for people to identify with. Making new friends and feeling at home in Indiana proved to be a struggle.

"Home is a big dilemma for me," he says. "I will never feel like home here. Although this is my adopted home, and this country has been very good to me, I cannot just come home. I belong in another place. I belong in a place where I cannot be."

His entire family is still living in a refugee camp along the Thai-Burma border.

"I still consider the place I left home. In a sense, I am a person with two homes. My heart is still lingering in the middle, because my people, the people of Burma, are living under very challenging conditions. It seems selfish to be here, to live a good life, to drive an SUV. You think of the people there and you just don't feel good. We are connected by blood. Very close. As soon as I can, I want to go back. I want to finish my job here, and then go back."

The Global Day of Prayer for Burma is coming up on March 14, 2010. It's a time to remember Neineh's people, the afflicted and oppressed people of war-torn Burma.

Benedict Rogers, the East Asia Team Leader for Christian Solidarity Worldwide and author of A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma's Karen People, says that "This year is a crucial year for Burma, as the regime plans to hold sham elections to entrench its power. It is therefore vital that we unite in prayer for the nation - pray for peace, true freedom, and real change, an end to the regime's crimes against humanity and reign of terror, the release of political prisoners, and for strength for Burma's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi."

Getting Involved 

There are many organizations working on behalf of the oppressed people of Burma. Relief and development organizations offer the opportunity to travel and assist the Burmese people, both in Burma and Thailand. Campaign organizations help to raise awareness of the regime's abuses and call on the international community to speak out. Refugee resettlement organizations offer the unique opportunity to help welcome Burmese refugees to the United States.

In a recent report produced by the Free Burma Rangers, a nonprofit organization working to improve the lives of the Burmese people, one statement seemed to capture the vision of groups and individuals fighting for freedom in Burma.

"We, the global community, have the opportunity to work with the people of Burma for change," the group writes. "Freedom everywhere is good for all people and we of every nation must be able to stand with others even if there is no perceived or immediate benefit for us. Each of us can live our lives for the highest things, use the best of our heritage, values and prosperity to be part of positive change in the world. This takes courage, selflessness and finally a belief that all people count. May God give us all wisdom, love and humility as we move forward with the people of Burma."

Image of a Karen man with early warning radio copyright Free Burma Rangers.

*This article published March 12, 2010.

Kristin Butler has visited with Christian communities throughout South Asia and the Middle East. She is a contributing writer at Crosswalk.com and covers religious freedom and human rights issues at BreakPoint.org. For further articles, visit her blog at kristinbutler.wordpress.com, or email [email protected].