The missing "Burma Time"
I know, i forgot to write them. But I'm reading a really interesting book about the Karen refugees and the fighting along the Thai-Burmese border in Mae Sot. It's called "Restless Souls", by Phil Thornton, and definitely worth reading !
Burma time of Monday : the fate of the porters
The Tatmadaw is patrolling the Shan and Karen States, as well as the states of other ethnic minorities. But as an Army, it needs foods, goods, and supplies. And these supplies need to be carried. So there is nothing easier than picking up men in the villages to do this chore. For these villagers, it's like a death penalty. Everyone knows it's foolish to hope to see them again.
The porters are given no food, they have to find it themselves on the way, in the forest. No water either. Carrying packs of usually more than 40kg. Their little rest is spent sleeping or trying to find their food. When you become too tired, when you become sick, when you cannot go further... your travel finishes here. Usually one shot and the body stays there, next to the path. Or they let you die on your own, sometimes.
The loss of the porters is no big deal, as the Tatmadaw can get new ones in the next villages. They often don't last more than 2 weeks.
Burma time of Tuesday : land-mines stories
Burma country-side is covered by landmines. From the Tatmadaw, the rebels armies. Or even from the villagers themselves. Because one of the games of the Burmese army is to attack the Karen village during the harvest season. The aim is to see whether the villagers will be able to harvest the rice in time, before they attack, or if they will have to escape and hide in the jungle, letting the crop to rot. So the villagers put mines against the Tatmadaw in some places.
To avoid the landmines put by the Karen (armies and villagers alike), the Tatmadaw uses "land-mines swepers". That is, villagers put on the field to find and defuse the mines. Which usually explodes when a pression of 1kg is put on them. Lamon, a Karen, defused 30 before one of them exploded. He lost both his hands and an eye, but was left alive by the army. He then enrolled in the KNLA to get revenge.
Usually, the explosion takes off one of your leg but the fragments also get into your flesh and your eyes. The wounds are often "healed" by putting a poultice of approximately just anything, and it often get infected.
But the worse may be that the Tatmadaw ask for reparation when a land-mine exploded under your feet. For "destruction of the army materials". That is 25.000 kyats, or 15 euros.
Burma time of Wednesday : Rambo
Two actors of the last movie are Burmese. Their families, who were still in Burma, are now in jail, to punish these two guys of participating into this movie.
Burma time of Thursday : Blogger-solidarity
The difference between the fights of yesterday and the fights of today is... information. Everyone understood it well and tries to manipulate the informations, whether they are on the "good" or the "bad" side.
And thus, one of the main ennemies of the junta are... the bloggers, who denounce the problems of Burma. The crackdown began in January, when a blogger of 28 from Rangoon disappeared. It is said now that Nay Phone Latt was arrested under the 5th article "Emergency Provision Act", which can lead to up to 7 years of jail. That is... if you don't die during that time.
The other bloggers are currently hiding in the homes of their relatives or of some activists. All the blog editors, like www.blogger.com, are banned from the country, it is now impossible to get access to their platform.
Burma time of Friday : Control of Internet
Internet... Freedom, informations... Forget it. This year, the government increased the subscription from 5$ to 80$ (to be confirmed), virtually preventing everyone from gaining acces to it. Except for the people who do have enough money to afford it. But if they do have money, they are related to the junta, so it's no problem.
So everyone has to go to internet shops. Where the junta forces the owner to record every personal details of the customer, to record all the visited websites and to make a screen print every 5min. And then, obviously, to give all of these informations to some specific commitees.
Burma time of today : KNU General Secretary Mahn Sha
The KNU is the Karen National Union, of which I think the KNLA (Karen National Liberation Army) is the armed wing. Its General Secretary was shot dead on Thursday, in his home in Mae Sot. He had taken on the job after Gen. Bo Mya retired in 2000.
Mahn Sha was highly respected among both ethnic and Burman allies. The Burmese regime saw him as a strong leader in the KNU who repeatedly called for genuine political dialogue.
The killing was done by other Karen, who could be from the DKBA (the Democratic Karen Bouddhist Army, which spilt from the KNU to join the junta. As if you could have a "Buddhist Army".....), thus having been ordered by the generals in Rangoon.
The president of the KNU is Ba Thin Sein.The KNU’s No.2, Htoo Htoo Lay, 61, automatically became the group’s new leader.