Forced to Flee: Burmese Refugee's Story

LONDON, Sept. 25, 2007 — -- At just 14 years old, Zoya Phan was forced to flee her village in eastern Burma. Arriving at the Thai-Burma border, she was imprisoned in a camp. With little food and medicine most of her family did what they could to survive.

They endured life in the camps, but Zoya's mother did not. She suffered a heart attack, and because of the lack of provisions, she died.

Zoya managed to seek asylum here three years ago. Today Zoya is a campaign officer at the Burma Campaign U.K. She sat down with us to talk about the recent protests taking place in her country.

Why are the monks taking part in the protests?

Zoya Phan: "These protests have been going on for more than a month and they are so significant because this time the monks are leading the demonstration. Under the monks' leadership, people, civilians and celebrities, artists and different parts of societies in Burma all joined together with one voice in solidarity, demanding change against the military dictatorship in Burma."

Civilians are protected by the monks?

Zoya Phan: "Yeah, well, in Burma, monks are considered respectful people. They have moral high authority over civilians and also to some extent influence on the military generals and because this time the monks have principles when they lead a demonstration like it must be peaceful protest, it must not break the law and demanding for the goal that will aim to change in Burma. They are calling for peace; they are calling for national reconciliation. They are calling for the release of political prisoners."

So far the protests have been peaceful. We've just heard that riot police have moved in. Are we expecting scenes like we saw in 1988?

Zoya Phan: "Like we just said, so far we have seen peaceful protests. There are some crackdowns by the regimes. They've been arresting more than 150 people and we don't know where these people are kept but we can imagine how badly they would be tortured. And this protest, the regime, has not started any violence in response yet but this is likely to happen in the near future, because as the number of the civilians joining the protest increases and as it gets bigger and bigger the chance of a violent response from the regime is also getting bigger.

"So, history repeats itself like in 1988 uprising. The regime could brutally crack down on these peaceful protesters anytime because they control everything, they know what they're doing and they have systematic plan to oppress civilians in Burma. So far, the protesters have not broken any laws yet.

"Now, the regime is allocating their troops to position themselves in the area. It is likely that they are finding an excuse to bloodily crack down on these peaceful protests. So far, they don't have the excuse yet so they are still waiting for this. People in Burma fearing that the regime could use their civilian front or plainclothes police as an excuse to join the protest and start to act violently so that they can respond violently this protest."

Tell us about Burma, we know that it has been ruled by the military for decades. What else can you tell us?

Zoya Phan: "Yes, Burma is ruled by one of the worlds' most brutal dictatorships since 1962. It has more than a thousand political prisoners. It has 70,000 child soldiers. The regime has overthrown the elected, the democratically elected government like Aung San Suu Kyi in the 1990 election.

This party won the election but the regime did not allow it them to get into the government. She has been under house arrest for more than 12 years and she is completely isolated. Her communication lines have been cut, she is not allowed any visitors, even her own family members. People support her, she is for the people. This is the part of Burma that people normally hear about. But there are also other parts in Burma where ethnic nationalities are like myself.

"I am from ethnic Karen in the eastern part of Burma. In this area, the regime used rape as a weapon of war. There are soldiers that rape girls as young as 5 years old and they have the policy of ethnic cleansing. They destroyed villages and they kill people. They kidnapped people for forced labor to force them to work for them: carry their military equipment, build the military barracks and doing other construction work.

"At the same time, as they have the policy of ethnic cleansing, they wipe out these people like myself. In 1995, when I was just 14 years old, my village was attacked by the Burmese regime troops and we were attacked with air bombs and air strikes. We hid underground and the ground would shake when the bombs were dropped. We couldn't live in the village anymore.

"We fled into the jungle and we didn't have any proper food because we could only carry a few things on our back. We just had to eat anything we could find in the jungle. We couldn't survive in the jungle anymore so we fled into Thailand into refugee camps. Since then I grew up in refugee camps on the Thailand/Burma border. Life in the refugee camp is not safe either because we were chased by the Burmese troops."

Why was the military doing that, why was it wiping out tribes?

Zoya Phan: "Simply because, in the ethnic areas we have lots of natural resources like gold and mining. So they wanted to control those natural resources, oil and anything that we have. They want to rule the whole country, they have this military dictatorship.

"Continuing about my life in Thailand -- we were put into a prison camp. People there, we were not allowed to leave the prison camp and every day we had to live with the basic food and basic medical supply from the NGOs.

"We became identity-less people, stateless people. As a result we are not considered residents of Burma or Thailand or any country in the world. No documentation, we couldn't go to school or university or hospital in Thailand or any other country. As a result many young people end up in slave labor in neighboring countries and young girls of my age end up in sex industry, prostitutes."

What is your role in the campaign?

Zoya Phan: "I am a campaign officer for the Burma campaign U.K. And what we've been doing is lobbying the government, lobbying the U.N., EU and international organizations to put maximum pressure, politically and economically to force the regime to enter into a serious political dialogue with opposition parties and ethnic nationalities in Burma."

Is the international community doing enough?

Zoya Phan: "Not at all. We want to see the U.N. Security Council to pass a binding resolution on Burma, urgently. The longer it takes, the more people will die and suffer. Now we have internal pressure from within the country but, because of the lack of response from the international community, people in Burma are still suffering and we really really need help from the international community."

President Bush enforcing sanctions on Burma, is that enough?

Zoya Phan: "Oh, we welcome it so much. This is what we've been asking for years. And we want, not only the U.S. but also the EU and other countries, especially the neighboring Asian countries to follow this and impose more and more economic and political pressure on the regime. This regime won't change overnight. We have to force them to change."

Will the protests enforce these changes?

A: "We really have hope in this. That's why thousands and thousands of people in Burma join the protest and we in exile join together in our hearts in our prayers and our solidarity."