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Can Burma Army Be Trusted?

Mahn R. Ba Zan. 

Our mothers feel very sorry
and shed tears like falling rains that flow into the mighty Salween river
because the Burma Army soldiers' barbarous and brutal treatment of the
people: they burnt down our houses, take our belongings, rape our sisters,
nieces and daughters, force us to work them, force us to leave our village,
terrorize us with summary executions, take husbands, sons and nephews as
porters, to carry for the army until they are exhausted and then beat them
to death. 
Our fathers feel very sorry and shed tears like falling-rains
that flow into the mighty Salween River, because our Karen people come into
our neighboring Thai territory nearly 120,000, refugees for more than
fifteen years. Refugee camps are not comfortable and luxuriate, nobody
wants to say in the camps, it's like a hell. We want to go home, to our
beloved and sacred land, Kaw Thoo Lei. It's our wishful thinking: we cannot
go home, there is no land to cultivate, no food to eat, no medicine to
cure, no guarantee for our life, nothing to live on. 
All our animals, our
chickens, ducks, pigs, goats, oxen, buffaloes, even cats and dogs were
already eaten by war monsters, the Burma army soldiers. Our grandparents
had grown coconut, mango trees, but now all these trees gave been cut, to
make training grounds for the Burma army. All our villages have been burnt
down and wiped out, to set up enemies' headquarters and lay gas
pipelines.
We all are afraid that we will become the Burma army porters,
forced laborers. Once we have become porter and forced laborers, there's no
way to return to our sacred land, and to meet our families. So we cross the
border, to seek temporary shelter in the Kingdom of Thailand. 
Mighty King
and the brotherly Thai people give humanitarian aid, offering shelter for
our peoples for over fifteen years during our just struggle for peace,
liberty, equality and dignity for all Karen. Our gratitude has become a
credo. Our credo is "Until mighty the Salween and Chao Phraya rivers dry
up, our Karen and Thai brotherhood will never end."
Thai and Karen people
have settled along the border from Chaing Rai, Chaing Mai, Mae Hong Son,
Tak, Sangkla Buri, Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi, Petchburi, Singburi, Pramburi,
Prachup Kirikhan, Chumpon to Ranong centuries ago. We have never fought
each other. We never seized Ayutthaya as the Burma army's
great-grandfathers did four times. 
We both settle peacefully generation
after generation. Never has there been war among our two brothers. Our Thai
brothers forget or don't know about the Burma army's grand strategy. Their
grand strategy is, to eliminate all the ethnic groups in Burma, leaving
only Burmese. Their slogan - The nation who win the war is civilized (?)
In
order to win the regional war or to be a civilized nation, the Burma army
must build a great army. The Burma army officers are afraid that they will
be removed from power and hanged by the people. So they build up military
force, nearly half a million soldiers, the second largest in Asia except
China.
The Burma army needs money to feed his big army, to run the
government, for stability. The SPDC (State Peace and Development council)
wanted to be a member of Asean. Once the SPDC becomes a member of Asean,
unless removed by the people, they will become legalized government. The
SPDC generals would be very proud and more brutally oppress the people and
commit more human rights violations. 
Externally, The SPDC tried to
legitimize his government by Asean. Internally, they tried to negotiate
cease-fires with ethnic revolutionary forces using tricks and tactics. With
negotiating cease-fires groups the SPDC refuses to resolve political
issues. However, unless political issues are resolved, there can be no
cease-fire, no peace, and no stability in Burma. 
Solving problems with
might is the nature and behavior of militaristic, war monsters the Burma
army. Correspondingly, if every ethnic revolutionaries forces cease-fire
with the Burma army and there is no more war in Burma, what will the Burma
army do? Their war strategy would be Thailand. There are too many border
conflicts and problems: Moei River, near Mae Sot, Point 491 in Chumpon
area, Island near Ranong, Burmese pagoda inside Thai Soil in Ratchaburi and
so on. Will the Burma army try to solve these problems and conflicts with
diplomacy or military force?
Most of the Burma army officers think that the
Thai army have no military experience, even though they have modern
equipment and technology. "We only have to shout at the fighting, and the
Thai army would retreat and run away, we could occupy Mae sot, Mae sai
within an hour!"
According to Asean and other countries more interested in
Burma, the Burma army has become richer and the Burma army mightier and the
Burma army generals more proud than ever. 
Now that the cold war has ended,
global economic war is started. China wants superpower status in Asia.
Japan, Korea, and Asean countries want economic mighty as well. They want
natural resources from Burma. 
Every nation seeks natural resources. In
Burma, foreign investors construct gas pipelines, highways, a deep seaport
at Tavoy, the Salween hydroelectric dam and so on. Their projects make the
Burma army richer, and the Burma army mightier.
Do Thai brothers remember
the Burmese Army which invade Thailand and annexed Ayutthaya fourth times
killing, raping, and torturing the Thai people? Who would guarantee that
the Burma army led by the generals, Maung Aye, Khin Nyunt and Tin Oo would
not attack Mae Sot, Ranong, and Mae Sai like their great-grandfathers? 
In
conclusion, I pray that our Thai brothers will not suffer like our Karen
people, who suffer hardships, starvation, summary execution, rape, forced
pottering, forced labor, forced relocation, torture, and genocide. The
Karen and Thai people must safeguard our dignity, solidarity and
fraternity. 
"Until mighty the Salween and Chao Phraya rivers dry up, our
Karen and Thai brotherhood will never end. 



Mahn R. Ba Zan.
Karen
Solidarity Organization
(KSO)
17 Oct 1999.