Saw Winning and Wah Lay Ray are amongst about 100 Karens who live in Thunder Bay, Ont., because of sponsorship led by a Presbyterian church. Karen are an ethnic people from Burma, who comprise about 15 per cent of the population there. Winning and Ray happened to be in neighbouring Thailand when the devastating Cyclone Nargis tore through Burma in early May killing an estimated 100,000 people and leaving tens of thousands of others without food or water.
Winning and Ray spoke with the Record's Emily Wierenga in mid-June after their return.
WLR: When I first set down my feet on the land where I was born, I felt that I was home. But, I could still sense the fear and insecure environment. There was a joy when I realized that there were a group of my cousins waiting for us and coming to greet us on the riverbank. And I could not help myself when I saw the tears of joy in the eyes of my two aunties as we hugged each other. We only spent one night inside Burma; I had the chance to chat with all my relatives and some of my neighbouring Karen friends.
It was wonderful as we could eat one of our traditional curries called wild pig curry. On the other hand, I felt very helpless and emotional to see the extreme poverty, the pain and the calamity that the Karen people are going through after more than 50 years. And when I looked at the faces of the children, I could see the fear, their tired spirit and uncertain future behind their smiling faces.
SW: While we were there, we saw on TV that a cyclone hit southern Burma. It is really terrible what's happening with this natural disaster, but the worse thing is the military dictatorship; they don't allow the international community to help the people.
WLR: The Government of Burma rules the county with oppressiveness, selfishness and absolute authoritarianism. Obviously, I don't approve the way the government is handling things. When I heard about the tropical cyclone that hit Burma, I thought to myself, 'The people of Burma are already oppressed and their life is already miserable on account of the brutal government's lust for power, mismanagement and crime against humanity. Now they have to face the consequences of terrible natural disaster?'
But I was really happy when we learned that the international organizations are willing and ready to help the cyclone victims. Once again though, we are very frustrated to witness the incapability, weak planning, slow response and unwillingness of the military junta to respond to the needs of its own people. I mean the military leaders surely know that the foreign aid will save lives and help to rebuild the devastated areas. If they opened up the disaster areas to international aid teams, I am sure they also fear that this might undermine their credibility and it might expose their total abuse of power.
SW: I still have relatives in Burma. My wife's family members are there. They aren't doing well because there's no food. People are starving all over the country… not only where cyclone hit, but everywhere. The international community doesn't really know because Burma doesn't let people know.
WLR: Currently the living conditions inside Burma are very poor, unstable and deplorable. And again life in refugee camps is very restricted and quite parasitical.
SW: We are planning to get my wife's family out from Burma but it's very, very hard. They need to get to Thailand first, but the military won't let them because they think then they'll tell the truth about what's happening in Burma. Second thing, it's very, very expensive to apply for a visa to go to Thailand. And my wife's family members are ordinary villagers so it's almost impossible.
WLR: We spent most of life in Burma as internally displaced people. In the Karen state, life was very miserable as we lived in fear and dread. Again, life in the Thai Refugee Camp was a kind of prison. As a result, there is a generation of Karen who has no knowledge of life outside the gate of the camp. Karen children born in the camp are not granted citizenship in either Burma or Thailand which makes working or travelling especially difficult. On the other hand, life in the camp is much better than life in Burma because the international organizations are there to meet our basic needs including food, education and health care.
SW: I got out in 1988 when the pro-democracy uprising in Burma, during the student uprising. My wife left in 1987. I met a good Canadian friend in Thailand, Lloyd Willard Jones. At that time he was working for the Canadian Baptist Refugee Service in Thailand. He gave me sponsorship papers and helped me to come to Thunder Bay. My wife, Naw Irene, and I have one child, a boy. I am happy here. My wife and I work at the Valhalla Inn. Our son is starting junior kindergarten in September. I have never enjoyed such freedom as I do here.
WLR: My wife Daisy and I were sponsored by Sleeping Giant Refugee Sponsoring Group and the First Presbyterian Church in Thunder Bay five years ago. Not surprisingly, after living for many years in a remote jungle refugee camp, adjusting to life in Canada is challenging and there are frustrations and difficulties as we try to adapt to a new society including the cold weather. But these kinds of difficulties cannot be compared to the traumatic and frightening experiences that we have had in Burma.
Life in Canada including Thunder Bay is really good: great government, good education, adequate health care, solid services for the new immigrants and a variety of tasty food. The cost of living in Thunder Bay is not high; that's why 11 Karen families have already bought houses. Plus friends from the church are very hospitable, welcoming and generous. They provide clothing, household needs, furniture and helped us to begin a new life. They've allowed us to use church facility and have our own Karen service after English service (which I pastor). They've also let us to do some gardening so we can happily plant our favourite vegetables behind the church.
SW: I grew up in a Baptist family in Burma. There's no freedom of religion there because military dictatorship wants Burma to become Buddhist. We could build a church but there were lots of restrictions.
WLR: I grew up in a Christian home, and was raised by godly parents. But in the year of 1999, I developed a special relationship with Jesus. I had been sick the whole year, and there was a moment when my health condition became very critical requiring my hospitalization for 10 days in a refugee camp. In such painful and difficult time, I was really complaining at the same time struggling to find and experience peace, strength, power and the healing touch of Jesus. This came through the love and care of God through my family and friends from the Bible School who came to visit and pray for me every day. It was a serene and humble moment as I got down on my knees and asked Jesus to walk with me through the dark night of the soul.
SW: The Bible says that we don't know God's plan from beginning to end, so I have to agree with the Bible that we don't know what He's doing. I believe He has a plan for the Karen people, and also for Burma.
Even though the civil war has been going on since 1949 not many international communities know about it. But when the cyclone hit Burma and the Burmese dictator didn't allow international community to help, they realized how terrible and cruel this military dictatorship is. They know more the attitudes of the military dictatorship… so for the international community, Burma is now on the map.
We believe the Karen people will not always be scattered all over the world; like Israel, we will get our country back. In Burma, we have eight major ethnic groups so we're not going to ask for a separate country for the Karen people, but we want a general union in Burma, so all ethnic groups can live in peace and harmony.
