Karen Internally Displaced Persons wonder when they will be able to go home

Sitting in his new bamboo hut in Ler Per Her camp for Internally Displaced Persons, located on the bank of Thailand’s Moei River near the border with Burma, Phar The Tai—a skinny, tough-looking man of 60 who used to hide in the jungles and mountains of Burma’s eastern Karen State—waits for the time when he can return home.

“We are living in fear all the time,” he says about the lives of IDPs. His words reflect the general feeling among IDPs from Karen State, which has produced the largest number of displaced people in Burma.

Since 2002 at least 100,000 ethnic Karen have been displaced because of fighting between the Burmese army and the Karen National Liberation Army, and to avoid abuses at the hands of Rangoon soldiers. The livelihoods of these people have been undermined by the “systematic use of forced labor, restrictions placed on farmers’ access to their land and the confiscation of land and property,” according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.

At least 650,000 have been displaced along Burma’s eastern border—most are living in Karen, Karenni, Mon and Shan states—because of armed conflicts and human rights abuses such as forced labor and forced relocation by the Burmese army and its proxies. The majority of IDPs were the direct result of the Tatmadaw’s (armed forces) “four cuts” counter-insurgency strategy, which involves cutting off the ethnic rebels’ access to food, revenue from taxes, recruits and information, as numerous human rights groups have noted.

Ler Per Her is a jungle camp located about 100 kilometers north of the Thai border town Mae Sot. A group of 670 people, including many children, lives in fragile bamboo huts in this small Karen National Union-controlled area. The camp operates like a well-organized and stable village situated within the mountainous border region of eastern Karen State, and contains a clinic, school, church and a water system.

The camp’s clinic is a busy place, with patients registering for healthcare, having their blood tested, and receiving a host of other treaments. Children are particularly at risk in the camp. Malaria, pneumonia and serious gastrointestinal problems like diarrhoea and dysentery are common in the rainy season to those living in the deep monsoon forest. The largest aid group working with Burmese refugees, the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, has reported that child mortality and malnutrition rates among IDPs are double Burma’s national average.

Saw Eh Nge, a 42-year-old chief medic, worries that the children will suffer greater incidents of illness as the rainy season progresses. “We can still take care of them,” he says, “but if the patient reaches a critical point, we will transfer them to the hospital in Mae La refugee camp, which is better than here.”

Access to education is also limited for IDPs. Despite the presence of a primary school in the camp, students lack textbooks, pencils and other educational materials—they even lack sufficient light to study at night. Nevertheless, the young Karen teachers are hopeful and enthusiastic, and the KNU education department has established a curriculum and examination system. “Whether or not the students continue their studies afterwards, the education they receive here provides the foundation for a better life in the future,” says 28-year-old Rainbow, who heads the school.

There may be hardships in Ler Per Her, but life across the border can be precarious.  The Burmese army continues to “target civilians in its war against ethnic insurgents, forcibly displacing large numbers of poor villagers,” New York-based Human Rights Watch has reported.

Traditionally, the Karen people—7 percent of Burma’s population and the second largest of Burma’s ethnic minorities—have lived a peacful life of cultivating rice and vegetables, hunting in the jungle and fishing in the streams to get supplementary food. However the continued aggression in Karen State by the army has prevented many Karen civilians from earning a living and compelled them to flee their villages. Their survival depends on their ability to hide safely in the jungle.

According to Phar The Tae, his family and 50 other Karen families moved frequently in the jungle until their arrival at Ler Per Her. “We had nothing to eat, but we didn’t want to meet the Burmese soldiers,” he said. “We were afraid of being conscripted as porters.”

Some displaced Karen have entered Thailand as refugees to avoid exploitation at the hands of Burmese soldiers. However, they are not always allowed to cross the border; and when they are allowed, the Thai authorities can only provide a short-term solution. “If there is fighting, they [Thai authorities] grant the civilians permission to cross the border. But when there is no fighting, they don’t,” said a local KNU commander.

The KNU has said that the resettlement of IDPs is a top priority. Since it reached a “gentlemen’s agreement” for a ceasefire with the junta in December 2003, “some parts of Karen State have begun to see less fighting and fewer incidents of human rights violations, such as extrajudicial executions and torture, than before,” says secretary of the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People, Saw Hla Henry. “But there is still widespread use of forced labor,” he adds.

Saw Hla Henry is also a member of the central executive committee of the KNU. Refering to the regime’s frequent accusation that the KNU is playing politics with refugees, Saw Hla Henry responds: “The KNU is working for the Karen people, so we are always with them.”