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Dear Friends of Shan Refugees,

Here is some good and bad news about Burma, Thailand, and Shan refugees, who are caught in the middle. New migrant registration laws in Thailand require refugees from Burma to be registered in both countries: Thailand and Burma. Many are afraid to do so, knowing it will make them more traceable. Still, they do not voluntarily return to Burma to suffer renewed persecution under the military regime, to endure the rapes, torture, and imprisonment they fled from.

In Thailand, they work at difficult, dangerous jobs, for less than minimum wage, in order to send money to family members who cannot make enough to survive in Burma. Illiterate parents work ten hour days, six days per week, to send their children to school.

The good news is that even though they are studying in a foreign language, even though they live in shacks of bamboo and plastic, in areas where rutted dirt roads turn to mud holes during Thailand’s heavy rains, the children excel. And not only do they excel but they consider school a joyous event. That includes the six orphans we are providing food, clothing, and school expenses for this year.

They are the children described by their headmaster as a “little bit smart and try hard.” I am appending photos their teacher sent me of the children as they they were getting their first personal supplies with money we sent them.

We thank you for adding opportunity and joy to the lives of these innocent young people, who are subject to human trafficking and to the ever-present dangers of drugs and prostitution that tempt young people in Thailand and Burma.

Sincerely, Bernice

P.S. For more news about the political situation in those two countries, you may access the following websites:

U.S. Assistant Secretary meets with Aung San Suu Kyi. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18449

Former Thai Prime Minister accused of Terrorism in recent “Red Shirt” protests in Bangkok.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18547

Elections: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cynthia-boaz/the-burmese-elections-pro_b_628705.html

Christian Science Monitor, June 3, 2010: The “worst of the worst,” as Washington-based human rights watchdog Freedom House calls them, is comprised of nine countries and one territory: Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tibet (under Chinese jurisdiction).

http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=18788 Worst of the Worst.

Dear Friends of Shan Refugees,

Here is an update on some of my time with Shan refugees in Thailand.

1. Pi Mok, a camp for construction workers, is the first school we started for Shan refugees. Twenty families had left for other construction sites the day I visited the school, which meant the remaining children had lost their closest friends and were very sad. Between 15 and 20 children attend this bamboo hut school, which is situated in the shadow of more elegant homes their parents have built for their well-to-do Thai neighbors. Still, it is a haven of sorts, a place for the children to study English, Shan, their native language, which is not allowed in Burmese schools, and basic math. A place for them to feel special. We will be supporting the school again in 2010.

Toilets for 70 people

Housing

2. The Poon Yaing Refugee School has been located at an agricultural sharecroppers’ site, where they earned the equivalent of $75.00 to $100.00 U.S. dollars per month. But like most countries Thailand is having economic problems. Thai landowners decided to solve their problem by no longer allowing refugees to be sharecroppers; they will move them to a different work site and hire them for hourly wages. It’s hard to imagine how much lower their income will be under this new plan.

In 2009 we paid one-half of the expenses for thirty-five children in this camp, so they could attend Thai schools. In 2010, we plan to pay one-half of Thai school expenses for fifty children. Below is a photo of some of them in their school, which they had decorated for Christmas.

3. The Orphan Project: In December 2009, I traveled to a camp for displaced people from Shan State, people whom the Burmese military has driven off their land and out of their homes. Three thousand of them cluster together in the mountains just at the edge of Shan State next to the Thai border, where they are watched by Burmese soldiers on one side and Thai soldiers on the other, guarded, to the extent possible, by the Shan State Army South.

There are eighty-three orphans in this camp, the victims of The Burmese military’s undeclared war on the Shan. Because the displaced are not technically classified as refugees, they get no international aid. A charitable organization based in Thailand provides them with seeds to grow vegetables, at which they excel (see the giant radish in photo on right); they get rice from another organization.

The school principal at this camp said the people who live there are sending six of the orphans to a Thai school, a sacrifice because it is so difficult for the displaced to earn money. The reason these particular six orphans are being sent to Thai school, according to the principal, is because “they are a little bit smart and try very hard.”

In 2010, we will support the six orphans’ education in a Thai school, and some of their food and clothing needs. See their photo below right:

Although we fell short of our fund-raising goals this year, some of the donations we received came with heart-warming stories, such as that of a middle-school girl in Wyoming , who brought her Christmas money to her counselor saying she wanted to give it to Shan children. In deciding to use donors’ money as we are, we kept that young girl in mind and tried to reach as many refugee children as possible. Many thanks for your support!

I look forward to seeing you after I return to Minnesota in March.

Bernice

The Shan – Refugees Without A Camp

“I cannot go back to Burma, Teacher. They will kill me.”

A mix of memoir, travelogue, and history, The Shan: Refugees without a Camp recounts the trials and triumphs of Shan youth, who have escaped slow genocide in Burma by fleeing to Thailand. There they study English and tell stories about life in Burma, where Shan men serve as human minesweepers for Burmese soldiers searching for insurgents. They talk about the danger of death by starvation, beating, or bullets in a country where poor Shan women often become prostitutes and young Shan girls are raped by Burmese soldiers.

The refugees’ stories are interspersed with reminiscences about the author’s own life. Under the watchful eye of the military, she travels in Burma to see the persecution students experienced, but finds that “trouble” areas are off limits to tourists and that the peaceful façade of cities is maintained by polite, helpful, and poverty-stricken people. They are stories of tragedy, hope, and love.

Author’s Bio

Bernice Koehler Johnson has lived and taught English in Spain, Indonesia, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Thailand. Presently she lives in Minnesota and Thailand. She speaks to church groups, school groups, and civic groups, talking about the plight of Shan refugees and raising money for projects her former students have initiated, such as teaching the English, Shan, and Thai languages to Shan refugee children. These children have fled to Thailand with their parents, who live with the constant fear of being deported and subjected to torture, imprisonment, and death.

Please visit BerniceJohnson.com and sign up to get details about the book, which is already available.

Listen to Bernice Koehler Johnson talk about her book The Shan: Refugees without a Camp to KFAI radio in Minneapolis.

The Shan-Refugees Without A Camp

I left my home and my mother because of events I witnessed when I was 12 years old.
My mother got up early every morning because she had to draw water for the Burmese soldiers. Then she made my breakfast and some food for me to take to school.

The soldiers’ camp was near our school. The soldiers made the villagers work to extend our school fence to enclose their camp. The villagers also had to construct the building for the soldiers and they had to keep the camp clean. They got no payment for their work. If a tired villager wasn’t working, he would get kicked or hit with a long bamboo pole by the soldiers. This sad situation made the students scared all the time.

After school, the soldiers would wait at the school gate for the girls and then follow them. Every two years, new soldiers replaced old ones. At that time, the departing soldiers would try to capture a Shan girl (16 – 18 years old) and take them away. One day at 3:00 p.m. I saw three soldiers trying to take three Shan girls. The first girl was taken to the camp, the second girl ran to her home and was hidden by her parents. The third girl ran towards her home with her little brother.
When they arrived home, their parents were not there. She quickly got on a bicycle with her brother. The soldier caught up with her and threw the bike to the ground. She got up and grabbed her brother and ran, but the soldier and two other soldiers caught her and showed a knife and pointed at her. They said, “You will go with us or you will die, you have two ways to choose.”

She cried for help but no one came because the villagers were afraid of the Burmese soldiers. She had to go with the soldiers. The parents blamed the teacher for not helping their daughter. The teacher said no one could have helped.

Days later the parents found their daughter and brought her back home where she still lives. She is living a very troubled life. The villagers didn’t accept her and she could not return to school.

After I saw that case, I hated the Burmese military, but I still studied at that school. One day during school lunch break my friends and I were playing football on the field. We saw a soldier grab a young schoolgirl and was forcing her to “make love.” She didn’t want to, so she ran away and came to us yelling for help. One of my friends and I tried to stop the soldier. The soldier said, “If you do like that, you know what will happen to you.” The soldiers told my mother to take care of me that I should not “interfere with their business.” My family started to worry about my security in this village.

The commander of the Burmese Army in our village allowed people to use drugs and gamble. This is one of their ways to destroy the Shan people. One of my uncles used drugs a lot and passed away.

One morning my mother told me something I didn’t expect to hear. “My son you have to stop school and leave me. If you stay here, I don’t know what will happen to you. I don’t have any money to support you.” At that time, I was only 13 years old and didn’t know what to say. I only wanted to cry, because I wanted to live with my mother, and I needed to be close to her because I didn’t have a father.

Addendum:
One day . . ., when I was working in my office, my mobile phone range and I looked at the number. It was strange. When I answered, I heard a lady talking and she was talking in the Shan language. She said, “I’m calling from the border. Your mother now waits for your phone call at your hometown in the middle of Shan State. It makes me very excited.

It is very difficult to phone the Shan State, because the Burmese government bans it and will listen in if you call. In the other hand, I was very happy because I didn’t expect that I would have a chance to talk with my mother. During ten years that I have been away from her, that was the first time I could speak with her. I couldn’t tell her the details of my life in Thailand.

That day was the best day for me and I was very happy. It looked to me like the world was very nice and I smiled all day.

Bernice Johnson with group of Shan refugee children

Schools for Shan Refugees is a 501(c)3 charitable organization established to help Shan refugees in Thailand get an education. For several years the founder taught English to Shan refugees from Burma, who had escaped to Thailand. She became knowledgeable about and sympathetic with their need and desire for education.

When Shan families can no longer survive in Burma, where their homes are burned and rice fields confiscated, they flee to Thailand. In Thailand, they do not have official refugee status and are not the recipients of international aid, but are considered migrants and work at the worst jobs the country has to offer. They receive subsistence wages, seldom enough to allow them to feed their families and send their children to school. Without an education, the children are at great risk of being lured into the sex and drug trades in Thailand.