“AS FAR as I remember, we’ve always been at war with the Burmans,” says Nya Ter, the leader of Ei Tu Hta, a camp for displaced people on the border between Myanmar and Thailand. He and the other 2,600 or so residents are Karens, one of Myanmar’s many ethnic minorities. Burmans are the country’s dominant ethnic group. Over a decade ago the camp’s residents fled the atrocities of the Burmese army, seeking refuge in territory under the Karen National Union (KNU), a militia.
Stuck between the Salween river and jungle roamed by Karen rebels and Burmese soldiers, the camp mostly relies on handouts. But in September rice from foreign donors stopped arriving. Mr Nya Ter blames the peace process between the central government and more than a dozen ethnic militias like the KNU. “The outside world believes we have peace,” he says with a resigned expression. “We don’t.”
What the Karens have is more of an armistice. Soon after independence in 1948, the country then known as Burma descended into ethnic conflict. Some observers believe that about 1m Karens have been displaced over the past 70 years. Around 100,000 still live in camps in Thailand. But in 2012 the KNU signed a truce with the army. It later joined the peace...Continue reading
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