Just a glimpse
ADORING throngs of expatriated
Burmese nationals (and NGO staffers) lined kilometres of the airport
road to welcome Aung San Suu Kyi to the border town of Mae Sot. On the
last day of Miss Suu Kyi’s landmark visit to Thailand, her first trip
abroad in 24 years, she was escorted by tight security provided by
Thailand’s army and police. From the tarmac her convoy was whisked past
the cheering supporters to Mae La, the area’s largest refugee camp. More
than 45,000 shelter here, most of them ethnic Karen who have fled war
and repression in neighbouring Myanmar.
Inside
the Mae La camp, a maze of bamboo and thatched huts only 10 kilometres
from the border with Myanmar, Miss Suu Kyi, an icon for her country’s
democracy movement, told the cheering masses that Myanmar’s refugees are
not forgotten. She said she hopes that conditions back in Burma, as she
calls the place, will permit them to return in the not-too-distant
future.
The Thai
authorities had already decided to change Miss Suu Kyi’s schedule,
pruning it severely. She met only a few camp officials and
representatives of the Karens’ political groups. No microphones were
allowed, and no loudspeakers. The Lady, as she is popularly known, had
to stand on a plastic chair and shout to be heard. Many of the 1,000
refugees who were permitted to attend the little football-pitch assembly
could scarcely hear a thing she said. At one point a few of the
refugees were just able to make out: “It is not our country...We do not
have the opportunity to do as we planned.”
A
large crowd of Burmese migrants, NGO workers and medical staff had
gathered on the grounds of a legendary Mae Sot clinic and hospital run
by Dr Cynthia Maung. The institution has long provided free treatment
for the endless stream of the sick and wounded who arrive from Myanmar’s
war-torn Karen state, just across the Moei river. But Miss Suu Kyi was
pressured by nervous Thai officials to abandon her visit to Dr Maung’s
hospital. They claim her programme had to be changed for reasons of
security.
Over the
past several decades Karen civilians have fled fierce fighting between
the poorly-equipped rebel forces of the Karen National Union (KNU) and
Myanmar’s national army. Altogether there are around 140,000 Myanmar
refugees scattered across nine camps in Thailand.
Thailand’s defence minister, Sukumpol Suwanatat, is
keen to send the refugees back home and close the camps. His rationale
is that Myanmar is moving towards democracy. Khin Ohmar, a co-ordinator
of Burma Partnership, an NGO, expressed a common fear among the
community of exiles. “We fear that the Thai authorities will misuse Suu
Kyi’s comments over the refugees’ situation, for the purpose of speeding
up the repatriation of refugees.”
In
her meetings with migrant workers and in her brief encounter with
refugees, Miss Suu Kyi acknowledged their desire to return—and also
their anxieties about going home too soon. She seems to be taking the
measured position that the time is not ripe for their return and that it
won’t be until two conditions are fulfilled: there should be both peace
in Myanmar and the economic opportunity for them to earn a living.
Peace talks
In
spite the efforts of Myanmar’s president, Thein Sein, to bring the KNU
(and all ethnic armed groups) into peace talks and ceasefire agreements,
so far there is no military agreement between the two sides. Fighting
still rages farther north of Karen (or Kayin) state, in Kachin state.
The KNU, for its part, welcomes the notion of peace talks with the
government, but insists that it is not yet a safe time for refugees to
return home.
The KNU
and other ethnic parties were disappointed that conversations planned
between Miss Suu Kyi and the leadership of the KNU and other ethnic
groups were cancelled. Apparently the Thais scuttled them after
receiving complaints from Myanmar’s government.
Thein
Sein himself decided to skip the World Economic Forum in Bangkok. Had
he gone ahead, as planned, he would have been upstaged by the rock-star
reception given to Miss Suu Kyi, his most prominent political rival and,
as it happens, a Nobel laureate. At first he postponed his official
visit to Thailand, till June 5th and 6th, and then he cancelled it
altogether. According one Bangkok newspaper, the Nation,
Burmese diplomats had complained to Thailand’s foreign ministry about
Miss Suu Kyi’s trip to meet with rebel groups at the frontier. Another
report had it that Miss Suu Kyi’s meeting with Thailand’s deputy prime
minister was especially annoying to officials in Myanmar. They discussed
labour and refugee issues, which the two governments have failed to do
for the past 40 years.
The government in
Naypidaw knows there are hugely sensitive constitutional issues at
stake. Many of the ethnic groups in Myanmar are demanding a federal
solution along the lines of the Panglong agreement drafted
by Suu Kyi’s father, General Aung San, in 1947. It is becoming clear
that while the government is happy for Miss Suu Kyi to endorse its
reform process, buttressing its legitimacy by serving as a partner, they
do not want her to become in any way involved in a solution to the
ethnic conflicts.(Picture credit: AFP)
Posted by BCJP
on Tuesday, June 05, 2012. Filed under
