03/13/10
The title sounds like a ball game, but unfortunately instead it is, and has been since 2006, the color of shirts Thai people decide to wear based on their differing political opinions. When I was teaching English in Chiang Mai in 2006 there was a military coups to oust the Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, due to corruption charges. When he was not in the country the military took over Thailand removing him from his PM position and placing him in exile. He hasn’t returned since, because he faces a 2 year jail term if he does, but before he was removed from office he did manage to spark an ideology among many of the poor, rural Thai people that they deserve more visibility and support. There is a lot more history that goes into this, but ultimately what the coups and removal of the PM did was help to wedge the Thai people into two groups, the red shirts-those who support the old PM and the old form of government, and tend to be more rural, poorer people and the yellow shirts-those who removed this PM and supported the Coups, and tend to be more urban elite. The government hasn’t been very stable since the 2006 coups dissolved the constitution and parliament and attempted to rebuild it. The main problem now is that the red shirts believe when the new government was established it wasn’t done completely democratically and instead of the voice of the people being heard through elections, the government was established by mostly military supporters. This all leads now to the current huge demonstration under way in Bangkok at this exact moment.
Yesterday, Friday March 12th, the Red Shirts started to roll into Bangkok and strategically place themselves all over the city to get ready for the larger mass of people to flow in over the weekend preparing for the huge demonstration on Sunday with the full intention of overthrowing the Thai Government. The timing for this protest lands less than two weeks after a trial was completed where about ¾ of Thaksin’s wealth, which was frozen since 2006, was seized by the government. It is now Saturday at 12:30pm and as I continue to look up news articles and news reports they all are consistently saying currently there are approximately 10,000 demonstrators rolling into Bangkok with groups of red shirts entering the city as big as 4 miles long. There are military stops on the way into the city which the government states is to double check that there are no weapons coming into Bangkok, but the red shirts argue the checks are to prevent as many of them from entering the city as possible. The red shirts said they anticipate hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to be in Bangkok by Sunday and that they will not leave until change is made.
Unlike the military coups in 2006, labeled as a peaceful “bloodless” coups, I am much more worried about this one since there seems to be much more unrest among the Thai people. In my opinion, when the last coups happened it felt like it came out of nowhere with very little Thai population involved. Since the government was willing to do anything to get the PM out of office they kept the plan for the coups quiet until the PM was out of country. In 2006, although tankers did fill the streets in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, the King told the military to make it as peaceful as possible by smiling at people (especially foreigners..it felt very creepy to have a man in a tank holding a loaded rifle smile at you) as they passed since they didn’t want to damage their, very lucrative, tourism industry. Ribbons were tied onto the tanks, yellow and pink, of which the yellow was to symbolize the Kings color and peace (thanks for reminding me of this Mika). This time the story is a bit different because now, if a coups were to happen, it’s because the Thai people are dissatisfied with the current government and want a major change and are willing to go to extremities to get it. This time the Thai population is much more involved and if a coups does happen it will be to control the population of protestors and hold ground with the current government, which I believe is going to make it much more dangerous. I’m sure more to follow soon.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Karen Forced Repatriation
02/22/10
In May and June of 2009, around 3,000-4,000 Karen people were forced to flee their villages and aim for the refugee camps in Thailand because of the increased warfare between the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the Burmese Military (SPDC). When they reached Thailand, for various reasons such as lack of space, they were not admitted officially into any of the 7 Karen formal refugee camps and instead were forced to establish a temporary camp closer to the border. It is now around 8 months later and the Thai government has decided they no longer want these people in their unofficial camps and have told them it is now time to go back. Problem being, not only is the warfare continuing but the land they once lived on is now covered in landmines that have been planted by those fighting in the civil war. The Thai government has assured those that the land is safe, but many do not believe this and are reluctant to return, especially after cases occurring only weeks prior where there are victims of the landmines. Karen human rights organizations, such as the Karen Women Organization, worked together to write appeal letters to the Thai gov’t pleading that they do not force these people back to a land that is unsafe. Below is the appeal letter KWO submitted to the Thai government:
Emergency appeal to the Royal Thai Government not to forcibly repatriate Karen refugees back to heavily land-mined zone
February 2nd, 2010
The Karen Women Organization is urgently appealing to the Royal Thai Government not to forcibly repatriate over 3,000 Karen refugees staying in Tha Song Yang, Tak Province, back to a heavily land-mined war-zone in Burma. The majority of the refugees are women and children.
This group of refugees have been told by the Thai Army that they must all be returned to Burma by February 15. The refugees were told that actions to remove them will begin on February 5th, this week. They are now living in fear of imminent forced repatriation into an area which is heavily land-mined, and where active conflict can re-ignite at any moment.
On January 28, the local Authority Thai Army and his men forced 50 refugees from this group back across the border between 9 to 11 am to start cleaning up their homes in the village of Ler Per Her in preparation for their return. This included 20 women and girls, some under 16 years of age.
However, KWO would like to state clearly that this area is not safe at all and refugees groups are not willing to return at this point in time. In recent months, five refugees from the area have been either injured or killed by landmines when slipping back into Burma to look after livestock they left behind. This included a 13-year-old boy whose leg was blown off in August last year, and a woman who was 8 months pregnant had her foot blown apart on January 18, 2010.
Blooming Night Zan, Joint Secretary 1 of KWO said, "This evidence of people stepping on the landmines is a sure sign that the situation is still very dangerous. Sending refugees back against their will into such a dangerous situation violates the international law of non-refoulement. Although the Thai government is not a signatory of the Refugee Convention, the KWO is very grateful to His Majesty the Thai King, and the Thai government, for a long history of kindness to refugees. We appeal to the Thai authorities now to show your humanitarian kindness again."
The Karen refugees fled from fighting in the Ler Per Her area in Karen State, Burma, in June 2009. The refugees were granted temporary refuge in three locations, Mae U Su, Mae Salit and Nong Bua, but have not yet been allowed to move to Mae La refugee camp in Tak Province. Since their arrival, local Thai authorities have repeatedly pressured the refugees to return home despite evidence that the area is still very dangerous.
The Karen Women Organization is gravely concerned at the planned forced repatriation of these refugees into such a dangerous area and we urgently appeal to the Royal Thai Government to halt the repatriation and continue to provide these refugees with protection on Thai soil.
END
Soon after these appeal letters were written and submitted to the government, the press got a hold of them and several press releases went out. The international community, especially Burmese campaigners, acted in lightening speed to put pressure on the Thai government to not continue with the forced repatriation. The international pressure worked and they soon stopped, yet according to the staff here the Thai soldiers on the ground continue to try and verbally manipulate the Karen people to return “willingly” by telling them that the International NGOs no longer want to feed them and they should leave. Although a lot of the Karens do not believe this, they still feel like they do not belong here anymore and are considering leaving anyways.
In terms of the organization I work with, KWO, since the Joint Secretary, Blooming Night, has been a very verbal and visible advocate for these Karen refugees, the organization is fearful of a Thai police raid at the office and since Feburary 5th have had days where they lock the door from the outside to give the image there is no one here, or close the office. Other similar organizations, like the Karen Human Rights Organization, have shut down operations all together at their offices and are working out of homes instead for the last month. Most of the Karens don’t believe that this is over and instead are worried it is just a matter of time before the Thai government tries this again. I am learning that statistically Thailand is actually one of the worst places for refugees because Thailand is not a signatory of the refugee convention, which basically means they are not formally obligated to assist in offering the basic rights to refugees, which gives them full leniency to do what they want with refugees in their own country.
The whole situation is incredibly sad to watch, but even worse is learning that this is often the way it works here, I just happen to be a witness to this round. Recently I was also reading about the Rohingya refugees from southern Burma who have tried to find safety and security in Bangladesh and by boating to Malaysia and was astounded by the human rights abuses of these people. I guess being Muslim in Burma makes you subhuman and these people aren’t even allowed any form of citizenship..in their own native country..Hard to even imagine there are much worse situations happening for the Burmese refugees than with the Karen people, but there are. I won’t go into it here, but worth learning more about.
In May and June of 2009, around 3,000-4,000 Karen people were forced to flee their villages and aim for the refugee camps in Thailand because of the increased warfare between the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and the Burmese Military (SPDC). When they reached Thailand, for various reasons such as lack of space, they were not admitted officially into any of the 7 Karen formal refugee camps and instead were forced to establish a temporary camp closer to the border. It is now around 8 months later and the Thai government has decided they no longer want these people in their unofficial camps and have told them it is now time to go back. Problem being, not only is the warfare continuing but the land they once lived on is now covered in landmines that have been planted by those fighting in the civil war. The Thai government has assured those that the land is safe, but many do not believe this and are reluctant to return, especially after cases occurring only weeks prior where there are victims of the landmines. Karen human rights organizations, such as the Karen Women Organization, worked together to write appeal letters to the Thai gov’t pleading that they do not force these people back to a land that is unsafe. Below is the appeal letter KWO submitted to the Thai government:
Emergency appeal to the Royal Thai Government not to forcibly repatriate Karen refugees back to heavily land-mined zone
February 2nd, 2010
The Karen Women Organization is urgently appealing to the Royal Thai Government not to forcibly repatriate over 3,000 Karen refugees staying in Tha Song Yang, Tak Province, back to a heavily land-mined war-zone in Burma. The majority of the refugees are women and children.
This group of refugees have been told by the Thai Army that they must all be returned to Burma by February 15. The refugees were told that actions to remove them will begin on February 5th, this week. They are now living in fear of imminent forced repatriation into an area which is heavily land-mined, and where active conflict can re-ignite at any moment.
On January 28, the local Authority Thai Army and his men forced 50 refugees from this group back across the border between 9 to 11 am to start cleaning up their homes in the village of Ler Per Her in preparation for their return. This included 20 women and girls, some under 16 years of age.
However, KWO would like to state clearly that this area is not safe at all and refugees groups are not willing to return at this point in time. In recent months, five refugees from the area have been either injured or killed by landmines when slipping back into Burma to look after livestock they left behind. This included a 13-year-old boy whose leg was blown off in August last year, and a woman who was 8 months pregnant had her foot blown apart on January 18, 2010.
Blooming Night Zan, Joint Secretary 1 of KWO said, "This evidence of people stepping on the landmines is a sure sign that the situation is still very dangerous. Sending refugees back against their will into such a dangerous situation violates the international law of non-refoulement. Although the Thai government is not a signatory of the Refugee Convention, the KWO is very grateful to His Majesty the Thai King, and the Thai government, for a long history of kindness to refugees. We appeal to the Thai authorities now to show your humanitarian kindness again."
The Karen refugees fled from fighting in the Ler Per Her area in Karen State, Burma, in June 2009. The refugees were granted temporary refuge in three locations, Mae U Su, Mae Salit and Nong Bua, but have not yet been allowed to move to Mae La refugee camp in Tak Province. Since their arrival, local Thai authorities have repeatedly pressured the refugees to return home despite evidence that the area is still very dangerous.
The Karen Women Organization is gravely concerned at the planned forced repatriation of these refugees into such a dangerous area and we urgently appeal to the Royal Thai Government to halt the repatriation and continue to provide these refugees with protection on Thai soil.
END
Soon after these appeal letters were written and submitted to the government, the press got a hold of them and several press releases went out. The international community, especially Burmese campaigners, acted in lightening speed to put pressure on the Thai government to not continue with the forced repatriation. The international pressure worked and they soon stopped, yet according to the staff here the Thai soldiers on the ground continue to try and verbally manipulate the Karen people to return “willingly” by telling them that the International NGOs no longer want to feed them and they should leave. Although a lot of the Karens do not believe this, they still feel like they do not belong here anymore and are considering leaving anyways.
In terms of the organization I work with, KWO, since the Joint Secretary, Blooming Night, has been a very verbal and visible advocate for these Karen refugees, the organization is fearful of a Thai police raid at the office and since Feburary 5th have had days where they lock the door from the outside to give the image there is no one here, or close the office. Other similar organizations, like the Karen Human Rights Organization, have shut down operations all together at their offices and are working out of homes instead for the last month. Most of the Karens don’t believe that this is over and instead are worried it is just a matter of time before the Thai government tries this again. I am learning that statistically Thailand is actually one of the worst places for refugees because Thailand is not a signatory of the refugee convention, which basically means they are not formally obligated to assist in offering the basic rights to refugees, which gives them full leniency to do what they want with refugees in their own country.
The whole situation is incredibly sad to watch, but even worse is learning that this is often the way it works here, I just happen to be a witness to this round. Recently I was also reading about the Rohingya refugees from southern Burma who have tried to find safety and security in Bangladesh and by boating to Malaysia and was astounded by the human rights abuses of these people. I guess being Muslim in Burma makes you subhuman and these people aren’t even allowed any form of citizenship..in their own native country..Hard to even imagine there are much worse situations happening for the Burmese refugees than with the Karen people, but there are. I won’t go into it here, but worth learning more about.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Greasing the Wheel
01/11/10
I just recently returned from the holiday break and currently entering the swing of things once again. Realizing I’ve been here for just under 5 months but I still have a ways to go for this Master’s degree. Even so, over the last 5 months I have been learning a lot and really excited about the accomplishments that have been made in this short time that have helped to “grease the wheel” here and keep things going smoothly. One major lesson I am learning while living in an atmosphere full of hardship, daily struggles and power abuses is that you really need to celebrate the little things that come into your life as they happen and just push forward for the next accomplishments; it’s the only way to keep your head above water. So here are the highlights up until this point to help remember what it's all about.
When I first arrived to KWO it was apparent my assistance was most needed in grant and report writing as well as with their daily communications with native English speakers through e-mails and visits to the office. The timing of my arrival hit the exact time many of the KWO Program Managers were hunting down funding for their programs for the 2010 calendar year, so my focus became mostly grant writing and donor relations. I’ve never helped to head grant writing before and it was something I was eager to do, yes for the experience, but also to have a deeper understanding of the process behind organizational fundraising initiatives, something that is a backbone to all service orgs. The first grant I worked on, for the Safe House program, was an arduous one. About 30 pages detailing all aspects of the program, 11 safe houses in 7 camps, and itemizing every element for budgeting purposes, took lots of patience and plenty of time. About one and a half months later, the grant and budget requesting around $79,000 was complete and not soon after a foundation that was aware of the program, and had offered emergency assistance in the past, took the whole program under its wings on a more permanent basis. I think I was more excited than most in the office when securing funding, which probably was due to the amount of personal time I put into the proposal combined with it being the first time I had helped on such a large scale. It just amazed me that we had managed to get funding for a year that now was going to cover 35 people’s stipends, reconstruction of 9 buildings, numerous trainings, food and everything else in-between. In this process I’ve also learned that in a location like Mae Sot, this is the exact way my assistance should be utilized, helping with international relations. As much as I love programming, the best people to take on those initiatives are the people who have “been there/done that”; the refugees themselves. Who better to run the safe houses on the ground level, speak up at community meetings and figure out the exact requirements of those in need than those who are part of the same system? My experience here has really opened my eyes to see, if I really want to help continue to make change in this world, the “ground level” isn’t the most effective place for me, at least internationally.
After this grant, we quickly moved on to work on the grant for the Dormitory program. This program, very similar to an orphanage program, was really struggling in one particular camp at one particular dorm. This proposal took a lot less time, since it was only aimed for one dormitory, and there was already a private donor interested in possibly funding the program once we had completed the proposal. A short time later the $18,000 proposal was completed and the donor secured. We are still working on partial funding for the other dorm in this particular camp, but the leads for donors this time are a bit shakier.
Besides the grant writing I have been holding (irregular) English classes for the staff and attending community staff meetings. A few days ago I attended my first UN community meeting, with the UNHCR, where the meeting was focused on how to give a 13 year old girl with Cerebral Palsy, that was abandoned by her family, proper care. It was an interesting meeting, if anything it showed how different organizations collaborate with each other and where some tensions may arise. In this case the girl has been in the camps for nearly 10 years but as time progressed, she seemed to have been “forgotten” in the larger system and her services began to lessen. This meeting was a reminder to everyone involved where exactly she still needed the most help. This meeting also showed how many organizations, and stakeholders, thrive in the Mae Sot area and therefore the importance of this organizations to work well together to keep things running smoothly. Lots of factors go into why organizations work well, or don’t work well together, and it can become even more difficult when there is a constant flux of new employees flowing in and out of these organizations combined with constant shift of the number and type of people who need assistance due to resettlement and migration.
Outside of this work, I have to remind myself I am also here to complete my Master’s degree. It’s tough to constantly try and pull myself back to the work, but my experiences here are too rich to allow them to pass by without using some of the content for the degree. To help with the degree, and also help build the capacity of the staff, I will be holding a training on January 25th for the staff that focuses on helping the staff increase their grant writing abilities as well as their own training skills, since a lot of the staff are trainers themselves. The first portion of the training will be on grant writing and the second portion will be dissecting the training techniques I used in the grant writing training they then could also use in their future trainings. Lots of planning still to do for this training, but I intend to use the training as the heart of my thesis, everything from what led me to decide to do this particular training, how the training went and the aftermath of whether or not the training was useful for the staff. I still have plenty of other work to do for school (such as these Thai language classes I have been, reluctantly and begrudgingly avoiding) so I will be doing everything to focus more and making this last 5-6 months here more academically useful, while still helping the programs at KWO to the best of my ability.
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