Please Help the Karens

This page was last updated on Wednesday 05 December 2007.

Help the Karens Campaign

Background:
The Karens are a tribal people originally from eastern Burma. There are around 14 million Karens, mostly inside Burma. There are a number of Karen refugees living near the border with Thailand.

Traditionally, most Karens are farmers who farm the nutrient rich soils of southern Burma and eastern Thailand. The majority religions of the Karen are Animism and Buddhism, although about 30% of them are Christians. Karens, unlike other large ethnic groups, are made-up of smaller subgroups which very often speak in their own dialects, the Sgaws (S'waw) and the Pwos.

Karens are known for their colourful traditional clothes and their love of singing and dancing. They are famed for their hospitality and friendliness, which they readily extend to everyone.

Forced displacement.
The Burmese dictatorship began to forcibly relocate the Karens with the construction of the Yadada gas pipeline. This was followed by a massive relocation exercise in late 1996, thought to be due to the consolidation of the area by the new Coastal Regional Command.

The combination of the gas pipeline, various road projects, lignite and tin mines, oil palm plantations and the fishing and tourism opportunities in the Mergui archipelago make this region very attractive to the Rangoon generals to secure and develop for their own benefit.

In 1997 Burmese troops began an offensive against the Karen National Union's (KNU) Mergui-Tavoy District HQ on the Thai-Burmese border and soon overran it, occupying a large part of the district.

According to the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People's Mergui-Tavoy district, 122 Karen villages were destroyed, 86 were forcibly relocated while 31 villages remain unaffected by forced relocation programme or the Burmese military offensive. After 1997, 74% of Karen are in forced relocation sites, 9% are hiding in the jungle as internally displaced people while 17% become refugees or illegal immigrants on the Thai border.

Human rights abuses are systematically have been carried out by the Burmese authorities and military against the Karen and other ethnic groups civilian for decades. These include extra judicial killings, torture, forced labour, forced portering, forced relocation, extortion, rape, destruction of property, land confiscation, culture/literature oppression, etc.

Plight of Karen refugees west of Hua Hin
There are number of Karen villages in the mountain about 65km west of Hua Hin close to the border with Burma. They are located a few kilometres from the famous and much visited Pala-U waterfall. Karens in these villages are Christians. Each village has 10 - 20 families.

Most of Karens speak only their own language. They speak very little Thai despite having been in Thailand for quite some time. Because they have problems communicating with the locals, it is difficult for them to compete for the few local jobs available. The language barrier and their location high in the mountains makes them isolated from the rest of the world. They are only visited by handful of foreign tourists. The Thai government has issued them with ID cards which are only valid for Prachuap Khiri Khan District, meaning they are not allowed to travel anywhere else in Thailand.

The school in the village does not have a teacher, as few teachers want to be so isolated. The older children (10 - 16) attend a Karen boarding school down the mountains. Small children do not have any education. They just play with each other the whole day.

Each Monday morning the older children walk for about two hours down the mountains to the boarding school, crossing three streams to get there. They can only access the school when the water level in the streams is low. On Friday afternoon, they walk back to the village to their parents.

The boarding school compound has about 10 bamboo houses where the children sleep. The school compound accommodates about 30 children. There are two classrooms and a small library. A recent visitor reported that in the kitchen, there was a small place to make a fire, one clay pot with water and another metal pot for cooking meals for the children. In the store next to the kitchen were about 5 bags of rice and nothing else. Clearly, the situation at the school is not good.

The school and the villages are only supported by missionaries and the Thai travel agency taking tourist for trips to see the Karens. Khun Oy and Oh, owners of a Hua Hin travel agency that is trying to help and publicise the Karen's plight, say that they have tried to encourage the Karens to make traditional Burmese crafts for sale to foreign tourists but as the number of tourists was very small, the Karens gave up. Right now the Karens do not have any meaningful purpose in their life apart from raising their children. There is a very little chance that they will be able to go back to their villages in Burma and continue their traditional life as farmers.

What can YOU do?
Khun Oy and Khun Oh have agreed that they will take in any goods donated to the Karens when taking foreign tourist to the villages. If you'd like to help, you can donate the following items:

Household goods - washing powder, soap, tooth paste, tooth brushes, hair combs, shampoo, wind up radios, pots, cups, plates, scissors, plastic storage containers, buckets, garden tools, tools, tools for handicrafts, candles, matches, umbrellas, sandals
Food - rice, cooking oil, dry food, tinned food, biscuits, seeds
Clothes - for adults and children, plus fabrics,
For Children - toys in good condition, balls
For the school - pens, pencils, colour pencils, drawing paper, sharpeners, rulers, rubbers (erasers), abacuses, calculators, picture books, atlases, school bags, education posters, books to learn Thai, music instruments.

Please take any goods you want to donate to:
Khun Oy and Oh Hua Hin Adventure Tours
69/8 Petchakasem Rd.,
Hua Hin
Prachuap Kirikhan 77110
(Opposite the Hua Hin Temple -- Map C-5)

Thanks again for visiting. Please come back soon!

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18/4 Amnuaysin Road,
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Hua Hin, Prachuap Kirikhan
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