Life on the Line

2006

This is the introduction to Life on the Line: Stories from the Thai-Burma Border. Download the zine

I came to teach in Thailand. I didn’t realize that Sangklaburi is only technically in Thailand. I didn’t realize that culture, language and custom do not always conform neatly to the boundaries drawn on maps, that sometimes the stroke of history colors outside the lines. Arriving in Thailand, I found myself, essentially, in Burma.

Land-borders are a mysterious thing. The land rolls out in a continuous swath and yet it is divided. A blade of grass, which stands in the sun on the Thai side, sinks its roots into the deep earth of Burma. Unseen, under the surface, no one suspects this subterranean transgression. If the wind blows the right way, that blade of grass might bend, its tip crossing over into Burmese airspace. Things slam right up against each other here. Different places converge on the spot. An unsuspecting blade of grass is caught in the middle. And so are people. Just like so many blades of grass, their roots are on one side, their lives play out on the other and the wind keeps blowing their thoughts home.

Sangklaburi has a large Mon community. The Mon ethnic minority has lived throughout South East Asia for centuries, settling in recent history within the boundaries of what contemporary maps call Myanmar (what I call Burma). Like other ethnic minorities, the Mon suffer gross human rights violations and economic hardship at the hand of the Burmese military government. An end to active, armed resistance came in 1995 when the Mon New State Party (MNSP) entered a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Since that time, however, SPDC’s oppression of Mon communities has only increased. Abuses include forced relocation of whole villages, seizure of land without compensation, conscription of forced labor and systematic rape of women and girls. SPDC has also instituted a policy of cultural genocide, banning publication of texts in Mon language and closing Mon schools. These conditions and the complete disintegration of the Burmese economy under SPDC’s leadership have led many people to cross the border into Thailand - in search of safer living conditions and better employment opportunities. For journalists, human rights workers and political activists, whose work puts them at even higher risk, leaving Burma is more a matter of necessity than choice.

These are people for whom home inevitably exists as a thing frozen in the past, because they cannot go back. True, they have established a coherent community on this side of the border – they speak Mon language, eat Mon food, wear Mon sarongs. Still something is missing. There is a tangible longing. To an outsider, such as myself, all evidence would indicate that this place may just as well be Burma and yet, for a displaced people, even the closest facsimile is not close enough.

The truth about home is that it means something different to everyone. But perhaps a deciding factor in how each of use defines home is how much choice we have in the matter. When you’re disconnected from your native landscape and have no option of going back, it becomes painfully obvious: place is important.

There are estimated to be about 19 million refugees worldwide. Like the Mon, the vast majority are from minority ethnic groups who have lived off the land for generations. The unfortunate stepchildren of the global nation-state system, these groups don’t deal in deeds and titles. The land has remained theirs because they’ve put their blood, sweat and tears into it. For traditional agrarian cultures, home is more than just a spot on the map, land more than just earth under foot.

One Mon organization based in Sangklaburi documents human rights abuse in Burma. They print a T-Shirt that pictures trees floating in mid-air; their roots dangle. The Mon language text translates to English as “the land is our future, to farm is our life, without land . . .” Without land the Mon people, like so many other refugee groups, are torn in two. Deprived of the livelihood that has formed their identity for centuries, the Mon people are split from their very selves. It’s a fissure that affects not only those who’ve experienced the immediate displacement. It has been passed on to succeeding generations as well. In Sangklaburi there are adults who have lived their entire lives in Thailand and still they long for Burma. Many families maintain language and customs to actively resist assimilation. However this choice is not the only thing keeping new generations of Mon people from identifying Thailand as home.

The policies of the Royal Thai Government (RTG) toward Burmese people make it clear that from a legislative standpoint, Thailand is in fact NOT their home. Children born to Burmese nationals inside Thailand have no right to Thai citizenship. Since they also lack documentation of Burmese citizenship, these children grow up stateless. As such they lack representation in any kind of political process, they cannot own land, they have no right to health care and they cannot move freely about the country in which they reside.

Reluctant to jeopardize an economically beneficial relationship with its neighbor, RTG has been unwilling to pressure SPDC to bring an end to its obvious persecution of ethnic minorities. While it must cope with the influx of refugees, rather than working toward a real solution to the problem RTG has preferred simply to contain it. Remember, the problem here is displaced people. When I say contain it, I mean contain them. Unable to return to Burma, immigrants, refugees and their stateless children are also unable to travel beyond Sangklaburi.

Only one road connects Sangklaburi to the rest of Thailand and it is lined with military checkpoints. On a daily basis the immigration office in Sangklaburi detains people found to be without documentation. These people are sometimes held for days without food. In many cases they are forcibly returned to Burma and the life threatening conditions that brought them to Thailand in the first place. Thailand is a party to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states “everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” By forcibly returning refugees to Burma, Thailand is violating international standards against refoulement - or expulsion to a home country where life or freedom are threatened.

In addition to its deportation policies, RTG actively suppresses political activism and advocacy for Burma within Thailand. The Thai military has harassed and shut down activist organizations run by Burmese people, Thai citizens and foreigners alike. As if SPDC weren’t doing enough to eradicate dissent and suppress political expression, RTG works hard to silence any activism that might bring focus to the actions of its neighboring government and economic partner. It’s no wonder that the rest of the world knows so little about this real life manifestation of an Orwellian nightmare.

As I learn more about Burma, I encounter the writings of others who suddenly awoke to the situation as I have, as if it was something new – despite the fact that the military junta illegitimately seized control of the country over forty years ago. This zine is just one small addition to the body of literature narrating Burma’s plight. In the face of such a seemingly intractable struggle, one inevitably wonders how they could possibly have an impact. And yet so many of us are compelled to write about the tragedy we’ve observed because having met these people and heard their stories it becomes impossible to return home and do nothing. We write out of the hope that if we each awaken just a few more people to the reality of Burma maybe, one day, we will achieve a critical mass to speak out on an international scale.

If there is a way to bring about an end to the illegitimate domination of Burma, I believe it will be through the combined efforts of Burmese people and a concerned international community. We must work toward awareness building and education on both fronts. And those of us in developed, western countries must impress upon our governments that we are more interested in the human rights and well-being of the Burmese people than we are in the economic benefits of doing business with the Burmese government or for that matter, the Thai government which supports it.

All that being said, please read more. These are the stories of those who’ve experienced the oppression firsthand. And when you’re done, if you’d like to learn more or find out how you can help, please, be in touch.

-Robin