Still Fighting for Freedom in Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand

Sylvester Stallone, who has just filming the sequel to “Rambo” on the Thai/Myanmar border describes the situation as a “full-scale genocide”


By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

October 2007


“While international attention has focused on the protests for democracy in Myanmar's cities, a hidden war has decimated generations of the country's powerless ethnic minorities, who have faced brutality for decades,” wrote Mick Elmore in a recent story for AP

“The Karen, the Shan and other minority groups who live along the Myanmar-Thai border have been attacked, raped and killed by government soldiers. Their thatched-roofed, bamboo homes have been torched. Men have been seized into forced labor for the army, while women, children and the elderly either hide out in nearby jungles until the soldiers leave or flee over the mountains to crowded, makeshift refugee camps.”

“Many, many thousands of Karen have died in those 60 years,” Karen National Union secretary general Mahn Sha was quoted by Elmore as saying this week of his people's struggle for autonomy since 1947.

The military junta has denied reports of atrocities and says the ethnic rebels are “terrorists” trying to overthrow the government.

The Southeast Asian nation, formerly known as Burma, has more than 100 sub tribes. Myanmar's diverse minority groups make up nearly a third of the country's 54 million population.

“About two-thirds of the country belong to the Burman ethnic majority, which is also known as the Myanmar. The other ethnic groups include the Shan, the Karen, the Chin, the Mon, the Arakan or Rakhine, and the Kachin,” he wrote.

“Thousand of refugees, mostly from a Muslim ethnic minority known as Rohingyas, have fled over Myanmar's western border with Bangladesh over the years because of persecution by the military junta and economic hardship. The Kachin in the far north, along the border with China, have clashed with the central government, as have the Chin in the central western region bordering India, and the Mon in the south along the Andaman Sea.

“But the military is most aggressive in the eastern states along Myanmar's 1,300-mile border with Thailand, a frontier longer than the Texas-Mexico border.”

When I read this story, it brought back memories of some years ago when I was in the border region of Thailand with Brother David, an American ex-marine who had spearheaded “Project Pearl” which had smuggled by sea some one million Bibles into China back in June of 1981.

“Risky Rendezvous in Swatow”

Time magazine called Project Pearl “the largest operation of its kind in the history of China.” The article was titled “Risky Rendezvous in Swatow” and a Time Beijing bureau chief later described it as one of the most unusual and successful smuggling operations of the 20th century. June 18 1981 was the delivery date for Open Doors’ Project Pearl: one million complete Chinese Bibles transported to Christians in China in one night. That load of Bibles weighed 232 tons. Very soon, the Bibles began to spread across China and have had a lasting impact in the world’s most populous nation.

I had the privilege of working with Brother David (Doug Sutphen, who has since passed away) and Australian writer, Sara Bruce in writing David’s life-story in a book called God’s Smuggler to China (Hodder & Stoughton) which gives more details on this daring project.

Karen believers reading the Bible

He had suggested that we might try and get into see the Karens and so we found some of the leaders who radioed across to a military camp and they sent a boat for us to cross the Salween River which meanders through Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand on its way to emptying in the Andaman Sea by Mawlamyine (Moulmien).

Sylvester Stallone, who just finished filming his “Rambo” sequel on the Salween River separating Thailand and Myanmar's Karen state, drew attention to the violence along the border.

He said his movie crew was shocked by the border situation, calling it a “full-scale genocide.”

“I witnessed the aftermath — survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of land mine injuries, maggot-infested wounds and ears cut off. We saw many elephants with blown off legs,” he told The Associated Press on Monday.

“We hear about Vietnam and Cambodia — and this was more horrific,” he said.

But, back to my trip: When we got to the river bank, we both clambered into the boat and then we were met by a Karen soldier on the other side who then took us into the camp. There, we were surprised to see that the soldiers all had New Testaments tucked into their uniforms and had were clasping their rifles.

Karen Christian women

We learned that the Karen aided the British during World War II, when the Japanese occupied the region.

After the war ended, Burma was granted independence in 1948, and the Karen, led by the Karen National Union (KNU), soon became the largest of 20 minority groups participating in an insurgency against the military dictatorship in Yangon. During the 1980s, the KNU fighting force numbered approximately 20,000; in 2006, that number has shrank to less than 4,000, opposing what's grown to a 400,000-member army.

The conflict – the longest running civil war in the world -- continues and today the refugees are living in some nine camps housing over 150,000 Karen and Karenni people who have fled Burma. At least 100,000 Burmese refugees from other ethnic groups live in Malaysia and India. The camps were formed when the current military rulers took power in 1988, after killing more than 3,000 protestors in a pro-democracy movement.

Ethnic cleansing

Many Karen accuse the government of Myanmar of ethnic cleansing. The U.S. State Department has also cited the Burmese government for suppression of religious freedom, a source of particular trouble to the Karen as between thirty and forty percent of them are Christians and among the Burmese religious minority.

We learned that the Gospel was brought to the Karen by American missionary, Adoniram Judson who went to Burma in the early 1800s and was translated the Bible into the Burmese language.

The legacy of Adoniram Judson

Adoniram Judson

The legacy of this brave man is chronicled in an article by Robert I Bradshaw called The Life and Work of Adoniram Judson, Missionary To Burma in which he wrote, “After recovering from the loss of [his wife] Nancy, Judson continued with his translation of the Burmese Bible. It was at this time that he and a colleague George Boardman were instrumental in the conversion of a member of the Karen People, Ko Tha Byu. Ko Tha Byu has come to be known as the Karen Apostle, the virtual founder of Karen Christianity. Recognizing that Christianity was the fulfillment of his people's own legends his ministry resulted in the conversion of thousands. Within 25 years there were 878 baptized Karen believers.

“Adoniram Judson died on 11th April 1850. He had not seen vast numbers saved directly through his ministry, but he will be remembered for his role in the establishment of US missions, his outstanding translation of the Bible into Burmese and his foundational work among the Burmese people. I do not think that it was merely coincidence that a book called An Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava fell into his hands while at Bible College. For Adoniram Judson was indirectly responsible for the fulfillment of the Karen legends and provided for them their lost book, the Bible.”

Pray for the Karen people. They are still fighting for their freedom and they need to know that they are not forgotten.

Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. danjuma1@aol.com.