BURMA: BOMBS INTO BELLS
In this first-hand report,
Baroness Cox
testifies to faithful discipleship under fire of the noble people of
Burma, and to miracles of grace in the midst of persecution and misery
Burma: a
land of such beauty that it should be a Paradise has been turned into hell
by man’s inhumanity to man. Scene of some of the most infamous atrocities
in the Second World War, immortalised in 'The Bridge Over the River Kwai',
it continues to be a nightmare for many of its long-suffering people. A
brutal military regime ousted a coalition government and oppresses all who
oppose it. Its Orwellian name 'The State Peace and Development Council' (SPDC)
is a sick joke. Its 'Peace' is maintained by a ruthless suppression of all
opposition: much of its ‘Development’ is achieved by the use of forced
labour in conditions so harsh that many perish.
The name ‘Myanmar’ which it
has imposed is loathed and rejected by the vast majority of people who
wish to retain their ‘Burma ‘—and who appreciate others who join them in
this symbolic act of defiance. The voice of the valiant Opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi is sometimes heard, speaking up for freedom and democracy
and paying a high price in loss of liberty for so doing. Less often heard
are the voices of the ethnic minorities trapped in the fertile jungles and
delta of Eastern Burma, including the courageous, dignified Karen and
Karenni peoples.
Forced
labour
The SPDC is carrying out
systematic policies of exploitation of their lands and their labour –
or ethnic cleansing of those who refuse to comply. Its toll of human
rights abuses include arrest and subjection to forced labour of men,
women and children—as soon as a child can carry 2kg it is liable to be
compelled to this slave labour. If workers become too weak through
illness, old age or other infirmity to carry the heavy loads forced on
them, they are beaten, tortured, often killed or left to die.
Many of the Karenni people
have been forcibly evacuated from their villages and driven into
‘relocation camps’ which are little better than death camps. SPDC
soldiers come to their villages and give them a few days in which to
leave; the message is often delivered in an envelope containing either a
bullet or a chilli bean: the former means that anyone found still in the
village when the troops return will be shot, the latter indicates that
they will be tortured. We met 2 young defectors from the SPDC troops who
had fled into Karen communities. They were just young lads, looking like
timid schoolboys. When we asked them why they had defected, one reason
they gave was that their culture teaches them to treat old people with
respect. They could not stomach being required to force old people to
work, when they were too ill or frail to do so. They said they had been
ordered to beat and kill the elderly people subjected to forced labour
when they could no longer carry their heavy 30kg loads. They were so
distraught by having to do this that they risked their lives to run away
to join the Karen people in the camps across the border. They will never
dare to return to their homes while the SPDC remain in power for fear of
reprisals against their families if they are caught.
The Karen and Karenni
civilians who flee into the jungle, to try to escape the fate of forced
labour or relocation, face a harsh existence. If caught, they will be
mercilessly slaughtered: parents have seen their babies ground to death in
rice pounders. They are so terrified of capture that they cannot light
fires lest the smoke reveal their location. They dare not risk returning
to their villages, as the SPDC troops place mines by their homes and in
their fields. So they have no access to their belongings or food
supplies. As they have no medicines; many die.
Others flee across the border
into the camps strung along the rivers of the Thai-Burmese borderlands.
Here, at best, they have a very limited quality of life, unable to leave
to obtain jobs or further education. At worst, they live in fear of
cross-border attacks: their camps have been subjected to shelling which
destroys their flimsy homes and to raids in which soldiers run through the
camps, shooting the innocent, vulnerable civilians.
Love for
enemies
I will never forget walking
through one camp soon after it had suffered a raid. Walk with me, feeling
as black as the blackened landscape around me: huts burnt, everything
destroyed. We enter the remains of a hut and encounter what I can only
call a ‘miracle of grace’. Meet Ma Su, a 38-year-old Karen lady, whose
home was destroyed by shelling and who was shot by a soldier running
rampage through the camp. She is recovering from her wounds, but still in
pain. When we asked her what she felt about the soldier who shot her so
gratuitously, her reply is simple:
‘I love him. The Bible tells
us to love our enemies—so of course I love him: he is my brother.’
What a glorious example of
Christ’s redeeming love which can transform brutality and suffering into
redemptive, forgiving love.
I will never forget another
occasion when we had walked across the border into Burma, and climbed up a
steep mountain to meet some of the internally displaced people (IDPs is
the jargon phrase) living in primitive conditions in constant fear of
bombardment. Their little camp had been bombed three times in the last few
months. As we approached them, feeling totally inadequate to begin to
address the enormity of their needs, they came running to us with tears in
their eyes crying:
 ‘Thank
God you have come. We thought the world had forgotten us. But the fact
that you are here makes all the difference: to know that we are not
forgotten gives us the strength to continue to struggle to survive, It
wouldn’t matter if you brought nothing with you - the fact that you are
here is all that matters.’
On our way down the mountain
from our encounter with this besieged, bombarded and vulnerable little
Karen community, we suddenly heard a sound which resembled a church bell.
Intrigued, we followed the sound and found a little worshipping Baptist
church. We also found that the bell which had summoned us was a Burmese
bombshell. So, in the modern day, instead of swords into ploughshares, we
have bombs into bells.
I was across the border again
not long ago and found the community of IDPs whom we visited were trying,
with great courage, to create as normal an existence as possible. They had
frequently been bombed but were determined to try not to leave their
homeland. The little school was providing an excellent education: children
at the age of 5 were already learning English and sang to us in English.
The bombs continue to fall on
innocent civilians - Christian, Buddhist, Animist and Muslim. Please pray
that soon there will be a political solution in favour of democracy, that
the bombs will cease and that the church bells will ring in celebration
for peace with justice for all the people of Burma.
Baroness Cox
travels widely for Christian Solidarity and is politically active on
behalf of the world's persecuted people.
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