Terror in Burma

"What is happening in Burma today is every bit as evil as the atrocities committed by the Bosnian war lords. Atrocities in Bosnia shocked European sensibilities because courageous reporters ensured that the story was told. Politicians reacted with international and judicial sanctions. Trials for war crimes have been established at the Hague. Compare that with our reaction to Burma or Cambodia. What is intolerable in Europe should not be any more tolerable because it is in South East Asia. Is a life in South East Asia worth less than a life in South East Europe?"

-Lord Alton of Liverpool

The genocide of the Jewish people by Nazi Germany in the 1940s was a horrific tragedy. No one will ever forget this terror. The Nazi death camps are notorious and their inhumanity is unquestioned. The rise in power of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sparked the beginning of fascism and totalitarianism. The holocaust was an event that changed the world forever. The world pledged to never allow this destruction and murder of people to never happen again. And somehow, somehow the evils of genocide have resurfaced. It has been a recurring theme in the last fifty years. The Burmese Genocide has been ignored and disregarded similarly to the Holocaust at the time it was occurring, even though it has been taking place for decades. Intolerance such as this is unacceptable. The Karen people of Burma have been persecuted and oppressed by the military junta. Thousands upon thousands of innocents have been killed due to this oppressive government. It seems that this “slow genocide” is not going to end any time soon.

Burma is considered to be Southeast Asia’s most oppressed nation. It is ruled by a repressive and murderous military regime. The history of militarized Burma is similar to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Ne Win, a popular military commander, was asked to serve as interim prime minister of Burma in 1960. He ultimately gained control of the country in 1962. His regime became totalitarian and a police state was born. Win killed anyone who was a threat, using fear to control his people. He instituted the Burma Socialist Programme Party as the only political party. Win’s police would frequently beat and attack student-led protests. The CPB was overthrown in favor of a new government: the National League for Democracy in 1990. There have been numerous insurgencies by tribal minorities that have led to intense military action and involvement. The regime continues its inhumane policies of forced labor, state-sanctioned rape and torture, as well as the use of explosives to ease outbreaks and rebellion.


Many ethnic sects are targeted for persecution and oppression. The Karen, Karenni and Shan people are the main ethnicities that are ruthlessly attacked. A number of ten thousand Karen people are hiding in the Burmese jungle hiding from the military. If civilians are found, they are shot on sight. There is resistance as the Karen guerilla group tries to counter and rebel against the tyrannous regime. With the military running the government, their efforts prove to be fruitless.

The junta also establishes labor camps where civilians are forced to work in unsanitary and inhumane conditions. A camp usually consists of construction of highways or working with military munitions. These concentration camps are very similar to the ones the Nazis employed. There are very harsh living conditions where many die in the process. If a Burmese man is too weak or too sick to work, he is killed. The bodies are disposed of in local rivers where they rot. It is remarkably similar to the concentration camps where Nazis placed the Jewish people to work. Another sad truth is that the Karen people cannot flee or evacuate to refugee camps. Neighboring countries are also suffering from inner struggles. Both China and India are overpopulated, making immigration into that country close to impossible. Much like the Holocaust workers, the country’s state development projects are solely carried out by citizens of Burma. Citizens are often beaten, tortured, raped, or killed while at these camps. The Burmese work camps are shockingly parallel to how the Nazi concentration camps functioned and operated.

The government uses lethal force against the people whenever and wherever they can. Landmines are utilized across the Thai-Burmese border to prevent any citizens from escaping. These landmines are also scattered throughout the country. The military also sets the landmines near houses, rice fields and farms in order to cripple the harvest, starving its people. Disturbingly, the explosives are also set across regional boundaries that divide ethnic groups. This is to separate the ethnic armed groups from their civilian population. Sometimes, the government charges those who step on a mine a fine for destroying state property. It is extremely sick and twisted to use starvation as a method of warfare. In 2005, there were a reported two hundred and thirty one landmine causalities. For too long, the Burmese government has used explosives to promote fear and silence the people.

Very shockingly, there has been an enormous lack of involvement by the international community. The first dictator, Ne Win, isolated Burma from the rest of the world. Foreigners were expelled and visas were discarded as no one could enter or exit the country. This isolation has disastrously led to the indifference and intolerance of the militant regime. Another sad truth is that many people have no idea what is going on in the country. It is shameful that almost no action has been done by any Non-Profit Organization. The United Kingdom does not even consider the struggle in Burma to be genocide. However, there is not much that can be done for the country. Legally, the Burmese government has broken international law. Burma is a signatory if the 1948 Genocide Convention. The United Nations could bring a case against the administration to the International Court of Justice. Unfortunately, the Burmese catastrophe has been ignored and pushed aside, like the disasters of the holocaust. Not many people are aware of the situation and this is very alarming. Guy Horton has spent five years in Burma and has written a six hundred paged report detailing his findings. He recommends through his report, Dying Alive, that a legal case should be built against the junta declaring their violations of the Geneva Convention, crimes against humanity and genocide. Through the Nuremburg Trials, international justice courts were established that would try those who are accused of crimes against humanity. It is the duty of these courts to bring justice for the oppressed and persecuted. It is very distressing that for over forty years, the Burmese government have been suppressing and maiming its citizens without any international action.

Throughout the last fifty years, millions of lives have been unjustly taken away. The holocaust took the lives of six million Jews across Europe. It was discriminate murder and it has been said to never let this sort of genocide occur again. But those are just words. Words that have been missing in action across nearly a dozen genocides over fifty years. When Saddam Hussein killed hundreds of thousands of his own people, what did people have to say? Nothing. When the people of Rwanda were killed in mass numbers what did the world have to say? Nothing. Not surprising that the genocides in Darfur and Burma have gone unnoticed. It is our obligation to look past the indifference and battle the intolerance that plagues our world today. Imagine what would have happened if France and Britain challenged Hitler years before the Munich Conference. We could have prevented the largest killing of people in modern day history. We look at history to learn about the past and how not to make the same mistakes twice. Any yet we have made the mistake of indifference again and again and again. No matter what happens, the outcome is the same: apathy and unconcern. The people of Burma have been attacked and targeted by their own government for the past forty years. What does the world have to say about this? Nothing. “The Burmese people shouldn’t have to wait another generation for the killing to end and democracy to begin”.