Soldiers entering villages and killing people on sight.
Landmines blowing pregnant women to smithereens. There's
no way this is really going on. The world would never
tolerate this. How come I haven't heard about this before?
These were the words flashing through my mind as I watched
the fourth installment of the Rambo franchise 10 weeks ago.
The film portrays the brutal ethnic cleansing campaign in
Eastern Burma targeting the Karen people, a situation that
is every bit as bad as what's happening in Darfur (Some
argue that it's worse) though frightfully few people know
that it's happening. Little did I know that in just eight
short weeks, I'd actually be standing on the same soil as
the Karen people, talking with victims of the junta's
atrocities and listening to their stories.
My wife and I are freelance Christian missionaries. In a
nutshell, we travel the world and look for ways to share
our faith and/or help people in practical ways. About a
week after I saw the Rambo movie, I met a missionary at a
conference in Texas that lives in Thailand and works among
the Karen people living in refugee camps along the
Thai/Burma border. At the conference an invitation was
given for volunteers to go to Thailand and teach an oral
communications workshop at a Karen Bible School. At the
time my wife and I were already scheduled to spend three
weeks in Brazil in November, so we didn't think we would be
able to make it. Within three weeks the door we had to
travel to Brazil was slammed shut—providentially I
think—and we were able to credit our tickets to travel to
Thailand instead.
While in Thailand we spent six days at a Bible School with
Karen pastors in training. Many of the young men and women
had been driven out of their homes when they were little
children. Some told us stories about their home villages
being burned to the ground. Others were too young to
remember life outside of the refugee camp, but longed to
return to their homeland nonetheless. The constant theme
we heard over and over was that the junta troops are
continuing to systematically drive Karen people out of
their villages and are placing landmines in the villages to
keep the people from coming back. Many of the people fear
that if the world doesn't act soon, there will be a final
campaign in 2010 that will wipe their people off the map
forever. That's the year the Burmese government has given
the Karen National Liberation Army an ultimatum to lay down
their arms—or else.
Speculation aside, here are the facts:
• In Eastern Burma, the military regime has destroyed,
burned, or relocated over 3,000 villages;
• At least one million refugees have fled the country;
• An additional million people remain inside the country as
internal refugees. They face abuse in the forms of rape,
torture, extortion, and murder. Many are also forced into
forced labor for government projects and army campaigns – a
modern form of slavery;
• The military junta in Burma has recruited more child
soldiers than any other country in the world – up to 70,000;
• Sexual violence is used as a weapon of war in Eastern
Burma, terrorizing thousands of women and their families;
• The United Nations Security Council has remained
shamefully silent in the case of Burma, even though it has
passed many resolutions on other countries in similar
situations;
• The longer the UN Security Council remains silent, the
more people will die.
Amazingly, we were able to go into Burma and visit a camp
for internally displaced people. Though the camp is
comprised of 820 people, the week before we arrived 87 new
Karen entered the camp after the junta attacked their
village and planted landmines to prevent the people from
returning to their homes. This tells me that the killing
is not only ongoing; it's worsening. History shows that
when brutal regimes are denied the money and the weapons to
carry out their atrocities, the people are able to rise up
and take back their country. The U.N. must play a crucial
role to make this happen.
You and I can make that happen. Burma's Noble Laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi has asked the international community for help.
Tell the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to pass a
resolution to stop the genocide in Burma. The clock is
ticking. God have mercy on us all if we stand by and do
nothing.
----------------------------------------------------
Aaron D. Taylor is the founder of Great Commission Society
(http://www.greatcommissionsociety.com ) and the author of
"Alone with a Jihadist", scheduled to be released in March
2009.
To sign a petition telling Ban Ki Moon to stop the genocide
in Burma, please go to http://www.uscampaignforburma.org
Aaron can be contacted at fromdeathtolife@gmail.com
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