Assist News Service (ANS) is reporting that there are more than 70 Burmese children, mostly Christian, who had fled into Thailand for safety in June after a major Buddhist militia offensive in June.  They are now being pressured to return to Burma where the war atrocities continue against their people daily.  

According to International Christian Concern (ICC), Thailand’s Border Police “stormed the Shekinah (Glory to God) orphanage in Mae Hong Son Province near the Burma border, put the names of all the residents on a register and asked them to prepare for deportation,” said a wounded caretaker.

“If the children go back, they will be killed.  This should never happen,” she cried out, adding that she had informed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) about the possibility of the move by the Thai government.

ICC reports that one week earlier 76 children, aged six to sixteen, were temporarily moved to the new location in northern Thailand.  They live in thatched structures built on a privately owned patch of land on a hill covered with dense forest.

“Last week, I attended the funeral of an eight-year-old girl, Poh Poh, a resident of our orphanage, who died of Malaria,” said the caretaker, adding that following her death, the volunteers and the residents stepped up the work at the new site and made temporary stairs leading downhill from the main road.

ICC went on to say that the land belongs to a Christian couple and that they serve as the principals of the school at the orphanage.  “We have six teachers, but we are yet to build classrooms.  We are currently teaching under the tree,” said the female principal.

Many of the children at the orphanage are orphans whose parents were killed either by the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) or died from sickness.  Others of the children do not even know whether their parents are alive or dead.

“According to the news reaching us, these children may not see their parents again,” said a volunteer of the orphanage with tears in her eyes.

“Though at tender ages, when the children gather in one of the huts made of bamboo sticks and wooden planks for prayer every morning, they raise hands to heaven or fold them in front of their chests, asking God to save the lives of their friends and family in Burma,” ICC said in a web posting.

ICC also shared that the residents are among the over 4,000 Karen people, mostly Christian, who crossed over the River Moei in boats after DKBA soldiers fired mortars and captured their villages in early June.  Moei forms the natural border between Burma and Thailand.

The Karen ethnic people, who are both Christian and Buddhist, have been involved in a struggle against the repression and brutality by Burma’s military junta since 1949.  They want a federal Burma as opposed to the central military rule, and are sympathetic to the pro-democracy movement in the country.

Originally, the Karen people led their struggle under one banner called the Karen National Union (KNU).  In 1994, some Buddhists from KNU’s Christian-majority resistance force, the Karen National Liberation Army, splintered off and formed the DKBA.

It is believed that the DKBA is now a proxy force of the military junta and carries out its “ethnic cleansing” policy.

ICC says that approximately 90 percent of the population of Burma is Buddhist.  The four-percent Christian minority faces persecution on a regular basis.  ICC also states the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has designated Burma, officially known as Myanmar, as a “Country of Particular Concern” since 1999.

“The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the military junta governing Burma, has one of the world’s worst human rights records,” notes the USCIRF annual report of 2009.

Thailand has over 140,000 Karen refugees, many of them Christians, living along the 300-mile Burma border.  Since the government of Thailand does not officially recognize them as refugees, many are confined to the border area with no job opportunities or the option of mobility.

Many of the Karen refugees live in one of the seven Karen refugee camps that dot the border.  They are overseen by Thailand’s Interior Ministry and jointly funded by non-profit groups of which SWI is one.

In 2002, Strategic World Impact began a college level engineering school at one of the largest refugee camps, Mae La.   Mae La has a reported population of about 40,000, but the reality remains that there could be up to 80,000 because the “reported” numbers are only for those who have gained official refugee status.  For most this status has not been granted.

This school provides many opportunities for the students for higher levels of education.  If you are interested in learning more about Mae La camp itself, we invite you to visit http://unseenmaela.blogspot.com.  Here you can hear some of the testimonies of the young people and see many photos they have taken of their home and their people.  Some of those photos are included in this article.

May the God of all protection, peace and comfort surround these children.  At SWI, we continue to pray for them.  If you are interested in supporting this work, please feel free to CLICK HERE to reach our secure donation page.  You are also most welcome to call into our Home Office, toll free at 1-877-TEAM-SWI.