The Karen people of Burma: marginalization and conflict since independence

Karen People: Their Plight and Marginalization

The Karen people encompass an ethnic group living in Thailand and Southeast Asia which speaks the Sino-Tibetan language. The Karen are an ethnically diverse group of people: many of them are Skaw Karen and still others are Pwo Karen and Bwe Karen. This group makes up around 7% of the Burmese people and many of them live on the border between Thailand and Karen. Approximately seven million Karen live in Burma and around 500,000 Karen live in small villages in Thailand, with even smaller pockets of the Karen in south Asian countries like India as well as other Southeast Asian nations. There are also populations of the Karen living as refugees in a number of western nations. In terms of survival, the bulk of the Karen peoples work as subsistence farmers, living within small villages, raising livestock and growing rice and vegetables. They are a group of people who are guided by beliefs in spirit worship (Animism) often intermingling it with Animism in a harmoniously fashion. When it comes to Buddhism, the Buddhist monastery generally acts as a pillar of the community in Burma and the monks there are often leaders within the community while doubling as teachers, human rights activists, counselors and others. The influence of Christian missionaries has had a marked effect on the Karen, causing them to become Christian (in amounts currently around 15%) and acting as a catalyst for many in giving up their traditional values and belief systems.

For many decades, the Karen have been organized and led by the Karen National Union (KNU) with engaging in war against the central Burmese government since the late 1940s. This war was waged for the sole means of achieving independence for the group. This is based on the historical condition of Burma, as they were colonized by the British in the 19th century, and the Burmese did not achieve their independence until decades later in 1948. However, the eventually receiving their independence did not make the situation instantaneously better, as the years of colonization led to disorganization and marginalization of certain groups, and a generally fractured state which led to civil war breaking out between the government, the Karen and other ethnic minority groups in large and small ways. In fact, post-independence marked the period of growing pains and discord that are bound to occur with the removal of the British government, while the nation figured out where they stood; thankfully to many fascism could not rise to power as there was no military force to support it (Furnivall, 1949).

Ultimately the Burmese Army got to power, and keeps the nation in Burmese dictatorship. This has lent itself to creating and even more complicated situation as the government of Aung San Suu kyi has been elected in a democratic fashion, but cannot receive power as the Burmese army refuses to give it to them. Even the most recent election was viewed as fixed as so many of the spots reserved in the new Parliament go to leaders within the military; largely this was viewed as an empty attempt to create a "discipline flourishing democracy" and people like the Karen who live in remote villages have seen little difference there. In fact, unrest continues throughout this region and in the Karen state and is manifested through extortion and forced labor by the Burmese army and which is exacerbated by a landmine problem, forcing many of the Karen to migrate to refugee camps within Thailand. At this time, minimal conflict has occurred within the Karen State, but just last year the Burmese Army engaged in yet another offensive against the people of this area.

If one looks at history, the "Four Cuts" policy comes into play with relevancy and strategy, as a means for pushing the insurgents from the middle of Burma to the nation's more remote mountainous areas, thus, removing them from the help of the local population (which can offer them the help of food, money, intelligence, along with new recruits: the military leaders thus mapped the nation into designated zones (black, brown and white) which were thus guerilla-controlled, mixed government-insurgency controlled, and then government-controlled (Falise, 2010). In the black zones, the soldiers were given the freedom to shoot at will (Falise, 2010). The result was ethnic cleansing at a rate which continues even to this very day: "Burmese soldiers, emboldened by a system that ensures total impunity, have engaged in murder, rape, torture, destruction, looting, forced labour, and child conscription. The army's daily oppression also prevails in the brown zones, although with a less brutal but more insidious facade, dubbed 'Burmanization' -- the gradual replacement of local tribes by ethnic Burmese settlers. Life in the brown zones depends entirely on local commanders' good, or more often bad, moods. Reports of forced labor, economic exploitation, and all varieties of harassment are ever present" (Falise, 2010). Thus, it becomes clear that being free from political oppression is now one of the fundamental desires of the Karen people. They are now on the receiving end of clear and unadulterated oppression and it's a practice that absolutely must stop. For the Karen people, their freedom also now means being free from persecution. The problems that are being experienced in Burma and in the surrounding areas have long been predicted and noticed by scholars (Fairbairn, 1957) and are currently reaching an exacerbated fervor.

This paper will examine the primary political demands of the Karen ethnic minority along with the primary political organizations used by the Karen and the strategies they employ.

Problems of the Karen

Another massive problem that the Karen face is that Burma is now playing a larger figure in the war against terrorism. There's a strong connection between the significant Muslim population which lives in Burma and the wider Islamic world (Selth, 2003). While this has been deliberately misrepresented at particular times, the impacts of this misrepresentation have been formidable and dire. In fact the needs and disfranchisement of the Muslim population in Burma has sparked the attention and interest of Bin Laden, and the impact of insurgent groups forging lines with such extremist organizations like Al Qaeda have been coming up more and more -- and are essentially, a growing phenomenon (Selth, 2003). How this spells out a clear problem for the Karen should be obvious. Al Qaeda is one of the most formidable terrorist organizations on the planet. The fact that Burmese insurgent groups are joining forces with this highly powerful and well-organized terrorist organization is intimidating. It means that the Burmese Army will become more powerful, more violent and more heartless in its mass extermination of the Karen.

Furthermore, the likelihood that it will join forces with various Al Qaeda cells is entirely likely. Moreover, any alliance with Al Qaeda is likely to act as an "educational experience" for the Burmese army, as they learn new tactics of violence and destruction -- new strategies for harming people and for annihilating ethnic groups.

"According to the relief organization Thailand Burma Border Consortium, between 1996 -- the year of the first comprehensive survey -- and 2009, some 3,506 villages in eastern Burma, the area most deeply affected by military oppression, were destroyed, abandoned, or forcibly relocated into communities under the army's control. Over 600,000 people have been displaced. Pursued relentlessly, 13 armed ethnic groups agreed on a cease-fire with the junta from 1989 to the mid-1990s. Today, only a handful of armed organizations -- mainly the Karen National Union, the Karenni National Progressive Party, and the Shan State Army-South -- are still resisting the regime. But 'cease-fire groups,' among them the powerful Wa and Kachin along the Chinese border, are increasingly ill at ease with the junta's new strategy to transform them into militias under its control before the general election planned for the end of this year" (Falise, 2010). Thus, the Karen are thus some of the innocent people who have been left to survive and endure this miserable existence. While there are some humanitarian relief groups at work, who are providing medical treatment and counseling to these groups and some material relief, the melancholy destiny of violence, bullets and barbed wire is a truly horrible one for the Karen people and is the responsibility of the entire international community to rectify (Falise, 2010).

The realities of living as a member of a marginalized and at risk Karen village is captured by one journalist, Robert Young Pelton, in his famous essay, "The Black Zone": "democracy may have pushed Burma from an isolated nation to potential partner to the rest of the world. But a trip deep inside the rebel camps tells a different story. Most villages within Karen state are only accessible through a network of jungle paths. Supplies are carried in by porters, many of them young women who carry up to fifty pounds up and down steep mountain routes. Medical supplies, as well as basic necessities, are smuggled in from Thailand then trekked to remote villages (2012). This essay aptly captures how the state of war and uncertainty have made life for the Karen peoples absolutely isolated; their freedom is often restricted from living life outside of the border of refugee camps. The people generally have flimsy ways of protecting themselves from outside threats, using often recycled and vintage weapons, with really no plans in place if the Burmese army should show up or any other outside threat. Theirs is a precarious existence.

Vulnerability appears to be a documented trend in the sheer existence of the Karen and one which has been a constant for them for a long time. For instance, one scholar notes that the refusal of the Karen to grow opium, something which would no doubt give them spectacular cash gains and which would invariably change their lives, offering them untold financial stability and with it security, is reflective of the tribe as a whole (Hinton, 1983).

The precariousness of their existence absolutely cannot be underestimated: "Being forcibly displaced peoples on the move, the Karen's strategies for survival and struggles are precarious and limited. Their transversal struggles are unlike those of people with citizenship. Their ability to exploit the translocalities along the borders of Thailand and Burma, for example, has become contingent, to say the best, and at times very precarious. The fact that many struggles cannot be mentioned here, lest my Karen informants be in even more danger, demonstrates both Thailand's and Burma's sovereign power to threaten their lives, and perhaps mine too" (Tangseefa, 2006). This excerpt demonstrates without a shadow of a doubt just how scary and uncertain life is for the Karen peoples and how little leverage they have right now in deciding their own fate. It's a truly intimidating time for them, as they're being manipulated by dual forces.

Another problem that the Karen face is that those who do support them or seek to help them, often do so in an undemocratic, completely overbearing manner. Starting back in the colonial period, a range of different players have merged in and out of Burma, offering political support, though quite often in a manner which rivals the ideas of Karen ethno-nationalism (South, 2007). This has been most common with Christian elites, as they try to place an idea of "Karen-ness" on what is truly a very diverse society; the problem with this phenomenon is that their efforts are often buttressed by human rights groups and aid workers, as they all work together in imposing Karen unity from above via a truly divisive practice, thus sparking 60 years of ethnic conflict in Burma (South, 2007). Ultimately the answer lives in helping civil society networks to better thrive among individual Karen communities and to really engage in a consociational approach in treating the issue of the Karen diversity (South, 2007).

The undeniable displacement that has thus occurred to these groups of peoples is another epic struggle that the Karen are forced to confront. In this case, "the scale and intensity of forced relocations and associated displacement and migration have, in some parts, undoubtedly produced a complete transformation in the human landscape, resulting in numerous long-term consequences requiring detailed research. These include implications of displacement on land-use patterns, land ownership, cultivation and farming, natural resource management, freedom of movement, settlement and many aspects of socioeconomic development" (Grundy-War & Yin, 2002). In fact, when human movement engages in such a way across borders, it can't help but undo the view of geopolitics based on fixed territories: this is an undeniable byproduct of forced relocation that occurs as the result of political and ethnic conflict (Grundy-War & Yin, 2002). The conflict between the desires of the Burmese military to create a level of "national unity" in connection with the "national space" of Myanmar, has impacted the displacements of thousands of the Karen, thus rupturing social, economic and cultural structures; such ruptures can only be rectified by enormous and focused efforts to help rebuild communities through independent humanitarian relief and the monitoring of human rights (Grundy-War & Yin, 2002).

Another form of controversy that at least needs to be acknowledged is the fact that there is some distinction between the Karen practice of Buddhism and Burmese Buddhism along with the state-centered perspectives on Theravada Buddhism (Hayami, 2011). Furthermore, social workers and comparable experts who have reached out to members of the Karen throughout the conflict have found that the bulk of these individuals still have a need for and a manifestation of spirituality which too often gets overlooked in the bigger themes of displacement and isolation.

In fact, social workers found an overwhelming theme of spirituality that arose when the Karen were interviewed; these findings underscored "the importance of developing culturally competent, spiritually sensitive responses into social work practice when working with people who have experienced displacement and subsequent trauma in their lives" (Worland & Vaddhanaphuti, 2013). This is particularly true given the strong presence of the Christian Missionaries with the Karen; while the Christian missionaries have offered some protection and support, they have also sparked a certain level of resentment and insecurity (Brant & Khaing, 1961). This resentment and insecurity can be properly combated through culturally relevant and spiritually responsive care that engages with the Karen in a manner that is relevant to them.

Still much of the problems which are imposed on the Karen, exist through the total stagnation of the Burmese people. Burma continues to have its own style of socialism, which separate it from other socialist nations, and yet it is still dependent on the aid and trade of many western countries (Kin, 1983). This gives western nations an undeniable point of leverage in getting the Burmese nation to engage in more peaceful and civil behavior in the areas of conflict.

Political Organizations

One way that the Karen people have organized was be the formation of the Karen National Union (KNU) in 1947. This was a means of organizing politically for them, and a means of attempting to coexist in a harmonious manner with the ethnic majority in Burma, and as a means of acting as the governmental presence for these people. The KNU was also responsible for helping to form the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) a military group which offers them some security. A few decades ago a faction of the KNLA who were Buddhist-based formed the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA); this group isolated themselves from the rest of the KNLA as they were viewed as weak.

Political Tactics

The Karen need to pinpoint a way to undermine or thwart the rise to power of the State Law and order Restoration Council (SLORC), a rise to power that some say is related to greed, but in doing so, overlook the passion and cleverness which underscore their ability to excel (Badgley, 1990). "U Ne Win's karmic shadow is there, but it is faint and his demise may change the power equation less than the critics expect. With their guns as well as a moral conviction that only their vision will hold Myanmar together, it is quite conceivable that the Tatmadaw style of development will continue to accelerate, even under a civilian regime (Badgley, 1990). This demonstrates that the Karen in many respects have a formidable enemy to defeat: in order to gain a real foothold for their own safety, security and autonomy, they have to organize in a manner that allows them to meet the SLORC head on, rather than just allowing themselves to be a pawn constantly manipulated by this council.

Conclusion

The displacement of the Karen is one of the saddest human rights violations of our day. These are a vulnerable group of people who are currently being oppressed and marginalized, unable to engage in necessary autonomy and an exertion of the independence that they absolutely have a right to. The injustices that they face are the responsibility of the entire international community to rectify. The fact that the international community is not making more of a proactive effort to improve their situation, demonstrates a degree of complicity in their state. By not taking aggressive enough action to supply aid and security to these people, the international community is declaring their own complicity with the atrocities which are occurring, and that is simply an unacceptable form of action. The complicity of the international community in its own way appears to support the marginalization of the Karen people: rather, they should be supplying aid and protection.