Living in Fear of Army

Although i am living in a safe country now, i still can not get rid of the fear of Burmese soldiers.Whenever i see soldiers and/or army officers with their uniforms, i still have cold feet. I have to remind myself that these are good soldiers who fight for their people, not for the dictators.

In Burma, minorities groups are living in fear of army. Burmese troops often come into villages with messages: leave the villages or we will burn them to the ground etc, followed by brutal actions such as forced labors, rapes, tortures and killings. Due to the lack of media coverage at Burma's reomote areas, all these abuses have not yet reached the attention of the world's criminal court.

Thanks to the AP Associated Press which has sent its journalists crossed into rebel-controlled Burma to interview refugees fleeing human rights abuses allegedly committed by the army and documented photos and stories of victims who have been forcely relocated, abused and tortured by the military troops. I will continue to spread the voice and the pain of victims until the end of this dictatorship in Burma.

Following photos are from AP Associated Press.

(Phto: AP Associated Press: Shan schoolchildren chant prayers after a morning flag hoisting at a school in the Shan State Army headquarters of Loi Tai Leng in Burma's Shan state. Most of them are orphans/victims of forced relocations.)

(Reference: AP Associated Press: Aug. 21, 2011, Sai Noom Mong, a 15-year old Shan teenager, speaks during an interview with AP; as the military troop threathened his villagers to leave the village,fearful of their fate but too frail to flee themselves, the his parents made a painful decision the following night. They secretly delivered their son to sympathetic rebels from their minority Shan ethnic group and said goodbye, unsure if they'd ever see him again.)

(photo: AP Associated Press: Shan School Children at a morning flag hoisting in the Shan State Army headquarters. The school is a place where some of these children get a chance to study for the first time in their lives.)