Burma’s Christian Karen Refugees Mourn Assassinated Leader

The secretary general of the Karen National Union (KNU) Mahn Sha Lar Phan was gunned down in his home in the border town of Mae Sot, Thailand, on Valentines Day, apparently by assailants linked to the military junta of Burma, also known as Myanmar.

"A black-colored vehicle parked in front of his house at about 4:00 pm and one man came out with a bouquet of flowers," said Blooming Night Zan, secretary for the Karen Women’s Organization. "He greeted Mahn Sha in Karen, saying "Good evening uncle," and then shot him," Zan told German news agency DPA from Mae Sot, some 380 kilometers (237 miles) north of Bangkok.

A second assassin from the car, which had a Thai license plate, then shot Mahn Sha twice in the body, leaving him dead, she said. Thai police found the car parked near the Moi River, which defines the Thai-Burma border, but have yet to identify the assailants, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported. He is survived by four children, two sons and two daughters; Saw Say Say, Nant Bwa Bwa Phan, Nant Zoya Phan, Slone Phan. His wife died in 2004. 

REGIME INVOLVED?

Karen sources suspect the gunmen were members of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a Karen splinter group that broke with the KNU’s rebel group, the Karen National Liberation Army, in 1995 and is now allied with the Burmese military.

The slaying of Mahn Sha was seen as a great blow for the Karens’ insurgency that has been fighting for the autonomy of the Karen State, more democracy and religious rights since Burma’s independence from Britain in 1948 – one of the longest conflicts for independence in the world. In October last year he said in an interview people would not "run away from Rangoon," the soft spoken history graduate said. "The answer is to fight more to abolish the military regime."

Saw Say Say, the son of Mahn Sha, told the Al Jazeera television network that "they killed my father, but they can never kill his spirit," adding that the struggle would continue. "Our father may be dead, but we will remember him. He taught us that it was our duty to work for the Karen people, and as his children we will continue his dedicated work towards true freedom for our people and peace in our country," his children said in another Internet statement monitored by BosNewsLife.
 
"His determination for freedom and democracy lives on within us and within the Karen people. He did not live to see freedom for our people, but his dream will be fulfilled." Although the Burmese military has not admitted responsibility for the murder on February 14, Karens claim they have been circulating a hit-list around Thailand’s refugee camps, and that Mahn Sha’s name was on it.

SPECIAL FUNERAL

The funeral took place last week, with over 500 Karen, who live in exile in Thailand, making the journey across the Moi river, television footage showed.  Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a leading Christian rights group which spoke with Mahn Sha just days before he died, said the murder was the latest incident in a series of abuses faced by Karens in Thailand and Malaysia.

In a new report, CSW said it is especially concerned about Burmese refugees in Malaysia, who "are living in severe and desperate poverty and deprivation", and allegedly face exploitation, abuse and "the widespread risk of arrest, detention, severe mistreatment including caning, and subsequent deportation by the Malaysian authorities."

CSW’s Advocacy Officer for South Asia, Benedict Rogers, said: "This report documents yet more evidence of the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the military regime in Burma against its own people. It also draws much-needed attention to the long-forgotten desperate plight of Burmese refugees who have fled to Malaysia in search of sanctuary and freedom, and have found yet more abuse, poverty and misery."

CSW investigators returned last week from a fact-finding visit to Malaysia and the Thailand-Burma border "with first-hand testimonies of forced labor, rape, torture, land confiscation and religious persecution," the group told BosNewsLife. The delegation also interviewed Kachin civil society groups and Burmese Buddhist monks who had fled Burma’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests in September last year.

UN INTERVENTION

The CSW report said the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should visit Burma “as a matter of urgency”, and echoes calls made by nine Nobel Peace Prize Recipients last week for a universal arms embargo on Burma. CSW has also demanded that the International Criminal Court launches an investigation into crimes against humanity, and international "targeted banking sanctions on members of the military regime."

In addition, CSW said it is crucial that Malaysia’s government improves the situation for Burmese refugees within its borders "by stopping authorities from detaining, caning and deporting Burmese asylum-seekers and refugees" and disbanding an "officially-sponsored" force "often used to raid refugees’ camps, homes and workplaces." There were no comments from Malaysian officials Wednesday, February 27.

CSW said the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) should register all Burmese asylum-seekers in Malaysia, "to provide better protection for them" and urged more countries to offer opportunities for resettlement for Burmese refugees in Malaysia. "The international community cannot continue to allow the terrible suffering of Burmese people to go on. How many more cries for help do we need before the world unites in meaningful action to end the reign of terror in Burma, ?” said Rogers.

Rights watchers say there are over 1.5 million internally displaced persons and refugees as a result of Burmese military attacks. Burma’s junta has been carrying out a large-scale offensive against Karen rebels for the past two years, forcing at least 30,000 Karens to flee their homes and seek shelter in camps for "displaced persons" along the Thai border, while thousands of others continue to lead a precarious existence in their homeland, according to several investigators and reports.

REFERENDUM PLANS 

Burma’s military government said Tuesday, February 26, it had enacted a law laying out the procedures for a May referendum on a new constitution. However it did not set a date for the vote.  "They will face many difficulties with this referendum, because people know this referendum will make them slaves,", Mahn Sha told Reuters agency, apparently sitting in the same wooden seat where he would be shot dead three days later.

On February 9, the government announced plans for the referendum, the first time the junta has set specific dates for steps in a so-called "roadmap to democracy." The plans have been widely criticized for failing to include any input from opponents of military rule.

The government also said a 45-member Referendum Convening Commission has been established to oversee the process. The announcement was broadcast on state TV and radio evening news, news reports said. News of the plans came amid reports that a huge fire raged for 13 hours through a big market building in Mandalay, Burma’s second city, injuring at least 21 people and destroying more than 1,500 shops, official media and witnesses said.

Four Buddhist monks and three women were reportedly among those injured in the fire which took 78 fire engines and more than 4,000 people to put out on Monday, February 25, they said. Altogether, 1,558 shops, including computer training schools, in the four-storey Yadanabon Market Building were destroyed in a fire started by an electrical fault on the ground floor, state-run media reported.

There was reportedly also a major fire on Monday, February 25,  on the western outskirts of Yangon, the former capital of the military-ruled country, which left nearly 3,000 people homeless after destroying 200 houses. State-run media said the fire in Hlaingthayar Township began with a kitchen accident. The destruction comes as a major blow for people in Burma, many of whom live in poverty. (With reporting from Thailand and Burma).