Be Informed

Hello,

My son is a missionary working with the Karen refugees of Burma and Thailand, and I have personally worked with Karen refugees and orphans in southwestern Thailand, along its border with Burma.

The issues for all Burmese refugees are complex, and the political problems are so difficult to approach, that the aid organizations such as UNHCR, can do little more than begin evacuating the refugees who are currently residing in Thai refugee camps along the border to host countries which will allow them to immigrate.

Those refugees who are living outside of the camps in Thailand suffer from disease and malnutrition, and must maintain a low profile to avoid being apprehended or deported. 

The refugees still hiding in the mountainous jungles of Burma not only suffer from disease and malnutrition, they are also subject to attack by the Burmese forces.

Another huge segment of the refugees within Burma are living in the forced relocation camps, and are subject to forced labor, racial and religious persecution, torture, rape, and execution.

Most of these internally and externally displaced people live in extreme poverty without electricity, clinics, schools, or churches.

I have put together a series of blogpages which utilize multi-media, Google search pages, links to organizations working in the region, and links to reports which detail the issues faced by hundreds of thousands of Burmese refugees.

The ethnicity of the government of Burma is Burman, and the religion of the Burmans is predominantly Buddhist. While all non-Burman ethnicites in Burma are targeted for persecution, the Burmans have had a long-standing hatred of the Karen. In fact, during WWII, when the Karen fought beside the British, and the Burmans were allied with the Japanese, the Burmans committed such terrible attrocities against unarmed Karen civilians, that the Japanese commanders, who were not strangers to brutality, ordered them to cease their attacks on civilians.  Perhaps one-third of the Karen people are Christians, which places them in a position of even greater persecution. 

Much of our work has been concentrated in the southwestern area of Thailand where there are fewer aid organizations working, and the majority of the refugees there are Karen.    

The home blogpage for the series is Helping the Karen at http://helpkarenrefugees.blogspot.com , and from there, links embedded within the text will re-direct the viewer to further resources and search pages. There are also links to videos, aid and missionary organizations, and reports on refugee issues.

Please, pray for all Burmese refugees and support God's Kids and other organizations working in the region.  

Yours in Christ

Gary Mills

--- (Edited on 3/24/2008 12:22 pm [GMT-0500] by Mr. Gary Mills) ---