Nancy and Nori
..in Thailand
A Reflection on Naw Louisa’s Life
The Irrawady
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17739
Louisa Benson Craig Dies Aged 69
| By SAW YAN NAING | Thursday, February 4, 2010 |
Louisa Benson Craig, an inspirational Karen community leader and former Miss Burma, passed away after a long battle with cancer in California on Feb. 2. She was 69.
Born in Rangoon in 1941 to a Portuguese and his Karen wife, Louisa became renowned for her beauty and won the Miss Burma contest twice––in 1956 and 1958. She also acted in a number of Burmese films.
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| Beauty queen and rebel Naw Louisa (Photo: Karen Museum) |
After studying in Boston in the USA, she returned to Burma and in 1964 married Lin Htin, the former Brigade 5 commander of the Karen National Union (KNU’s) military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army. Lin Htin was responsible for an attack in 1961 on the Thai border town of Mae Sot, but had surrendered with Saw Hunter Tha Mwe to the Burmese government in 1963.
Louisa was among the Burmese beauty queens who were once reportedly invited for a dinner with Gen Ne Win, the infamous Burmese dictator who seized power in 1962.
After her husband was killed by Burmese soldiers in 1965, she led his 5th Brigade back into revolution. In 1967, she married an American, Glen Craig, and settled in California. She was a founder member of the Burma Forum and a board member with the US Campaign for Burma. In recent years she suffered from brain cancer.
Zipporah Sein, the general secretary of the KNU, said she met with Naw Louisa three times in 2003-04, the latest meeting being in northern Karen State. She described Naw Louisa as a very active person who loved her Karen people and loved working for them.
“She encouraged us to work hard for the Karen people and was very active,” Zipporah Sein said. “I believe she worried about the Karen in Burma until the final days of her life.”
Louisa Benson Craig constantly lobbied for the Karen resistance movement, raising the profile of the plight of internally displaced Karen people in conflict zones in Karen State and encouraging unity among Burma’s ethnic peoples. She was known as a staunch supporter of federalism in Burma.
A statement by the US Campaign for Burma on Wednesday read: “It has been an honor to have Louisa Benson Craig as part of the US Campaign for Burma family. Her decades of service to the Free Burma movement and plight of the Karen people has brought much needed attention, hope and inspiration to those of us who will continue the struggle for a free and democratic Burma.”
Maung Maung Hla, a Karen pastor in Rangoon who was close to Naw Louisa during her youth, remembered her aloud: “She had a little mole on her left cheek and she had a kind heart. She was also a very good singer.”
Emergency appeal to the Royal Thai Government not to forcibly repatriate Karen refugees back to heavily land-mined zone
February 2nd, 2010
The Karen Women Organization is urgently appealing to the Royal Thai Government not to forcibly repatriate over 3,000 Karen refugees staying in Tha Song Yang, Tak Province, back to a heavily land-mined war-zone in Burma. The majority of the refugees are women and children.
This group of refugees have been told by the Thai Army that they must all be returned to Burma by February 15. The refugees were told that actions to remove them will begin on February 5th, this week. They are now living in fear of imminent forced repatriation into an area which is heavily land-mined, and where active conflict can re-ignite at any moment.
On January 28, the local Authority Thai Army and his men forced 50 refugees from this group back across the border between 9 to 11 am to start cleaning up their homes in the village of Ler Per Her in preparation for their return. This included 20 women and girls, some under 16 years of age.
However, KWO would like to state clearly that this area is not safe at all and refugees groups are not willing to return at this point in time. In recent months, five refugees from the area have been either injured or killed by landmines when slipping back into Burma to look after livestock they left behind. This included a 13-year-old boy whose leg was blown off in August last year, and a woman who was 8 months pregnant had her foot blown apart on January 18, 2010.
Blooming Night Zan, Joint Secretary 1 of KWO said, “This evidence of people stepping on the landmines is a sure sign that the situation is still very dangerous. Sending refugees back against their will into such a dangerous situation violates the international law of non-refoulement. Although the Thai government is not a signatory of the Refugee Convention, the KWO is very grateful to His Majesty the Thai King, and the Thai government, for a long history of kindness to refugees. We appeal to the Thai authorities now to show your humanitarian kindness again.”
The Karen refugees fled from fighting in the Ler Per Her area in Karen State, Burma, in June 2009. The refugees were granted temporary refuge in three locations, Mae U Su, Mae Salit and Nong Bua, but have not yet been allowed to move to Mae La refugee camp in Tak Province. Since their arrival, local Thai authorities have repeatedly pressured the refugees to return home despite evidence that the area is still very dangerous.
The Karen Women Organization is gravely concerned at the planned forced repatriation of these refugees into such a dangerous area and we urgently appeal to the Royal Thai Government to halt the repatriation and continue to provide these refugees with protection on Thai soil.
BBP JOB POSTING - PLEASE READ AND PASS ON
POSITION TITLE:
Director of Counseling Training
DESCRIPTION:
Psychological trauma expert to provide clinical training, clinical supervision, needs assessments, and program evaluation and development at the Mae Tao Clinic Counseling Center and Child Psychosocial Rehabilitation Center.
BACKGROUND:
Burma is home to one of the most oppressive governments in our world today. Severe human rights abuses, including extra-judicial killings, torture, slave labor, forced relocation, rape, political imprisonment, and lack of access to health care, are commonplace.
This brutality has forced hundreds of thousands of Burmese people to flee their homes and take cover in the country’s dense jungles or escape to neighboring countries. Currently in Eastern Burma alone there are more than 450,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), many living in forests close to the Thai-Burma border who remain vulnerable to forced labor, army-imposed relocation and forced recruitment, and more recently, what many international human rights organizations are calling genocide. Of those fleeing Burma, approximately 150,000 now live in refugee camps along the Thai border, where life offers little stability, hope or self-determination, further proliferating the suffering brought on by the human rights abuses they have endured.
Additionally, over 2 million undocumented Burmese live in Thailand as externally displaced individuals or as migrant workers, surviving without the basic services provided in the refugee camps. Many seek jobs in factories, commercial farms, the food industry and the domestic sector to support their families. They have little legal protection and redress under Thai law and remain vulnerable to human rights violations, sexual violence, physical violence and exploitation. Female adolescents are particularly vulnerable to rape, trafficking, and unwanted pregnancy. Many of these refugees, IDPs and migrants have suffered psychological trauma.
Since 1999, Burma Border Projects, a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation, has provided an increasing number of vital humanitarian services to these Burmese individuals and families forced to live in or seek services in Thailand. One of Burma Border Projects’ primary goals is to address the mental health and psychosocial consequences of trauma resulting from displacement and other human rights abuses.
BBP works collaboratively with local organizations that support and provide assistance to Burmese refugees, migrants and internally and externally displaced individuals and families. Through providing culturally responsive education and training, BBP instructs indigenous trainers, medics, community and religious leaders and teachers how to provide counseling services, conduct mental health assessments and manage crises. Since 2008, BBP has had a full-time Director of Counseling Training position at the Mae Tao Clinic, in Mae Sot, Thailand.
THE WORK SITE:
Mae Tao Clinic (MTC), founded and directed by Dr. Cynthia Maung and located along the Thai-Burma border in Mae Sot, Thailand, has been providing free health care to Burmese individuals and families, primarily ethnic minorities, since 1989. With an initial emphasis on providing emergency medical care to individuals crossing the border following the 1988 pro-democracy protests, MTC has grown to provide comprehensive health care services, including some of the first mental health counseling services for Burmese in the region. In 1999, Burma Border Projects, was founded to begin addressing mental health needs at Mae Tao Clinic, and in 2006, the MTC Counseling Center (CC) was established as a clinic department to address the broad psychosocial needs of both MTC staff and patients.
Nearly half of the patients seen at the Counseling Center are diagnosed with psychological stress and nearly half present with either family problems or loss. The needs of the Counseling Center patients are broad, ranging from financial stress to severe PTSD and psychosis, and the challenges of the Counseling Center staff are great, ranging from severely limited resources to vicarious trauma. All of Counseling Center staff are from Burma, and they receive their mental health and counseling training at Mae Tao Clinic.
TIME-FRAME:
This is a 12-month (minimum) position beginning in early-mid April 2010. There may be some flexibility in the start-date and a longer-term commitment is preferred.
COMPENSATION:
Airfare, Thai visa, a living stipend, and reimbursement for work-related materials and travel will be provided. The individual will be responsible for room/board, in-country transportation, immunizations, and health/travel insurance.
RESPONSIBILITIES include, but are not limited to:
- Working closely with and providing psychological and supervisory support to the MTC Counseling Center and Child Psychosocial Rehabilitation Center staff
- Collaborating with Dr. Cynthia Maung, founder of Mae Tao Clinic
- Collaborating with MTC staff and other volunteers in culturally competent ways
- Collaborating with other agencies and programs doing mental health work along the Thai-Burma border in order to enhance and standardize mental health services both at MTC and in the larger Burmese community
- Conducting needs assessments and program evaluation and development
- Collecting, collating, and reporting data
- Submitting monthly reports to the BBP executive director
DESIRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS:
- Alliance with the mission and goals of Burma Border Projects
- Professional experience in the fields of social work, psychology or psychiatry
- Knowledge of and experience in training on prevention and treatment of psychological trauma and other mental illnesses
- Experience in conducting needs assessments, program evaluation and program development
- Experience in working with refugees or other displaced individuals, families and communities
- Knowledge about human rights issues in Burma preferred
- Knowledge about prescribing and managing psychotropic medication preferred
- Language: Burmese or Karen preferred but not required
If you are interested, please visit www.burmaborderprojects.org and submit your resume and a statement of interest to Michael Forhan, Burma Border Projects Executive Director, at Michael@burma-projects.org. Please write MTC Director of Counseling Training Position in the subject line.
Identifying disorders or spreading them?
This article is a valuable reminder to us of the importance of mindfully moving forward on mental health efforts around the world. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10psyche-t.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
Mae Tao Clinic Counseling Center
The Counseling Center now has a brief write-up on Mae Tao Clinic’s website. Updated stats should be there soon. http://www.maetaoclinic.org/health_edu.html
Helping heal the hearts of others when one’s own heart needs a little healing
I’m back at work after taking holiday with Nori and his family. It was wonderful to spend time with them again and to spend every day, all day with Nori. Hours of rock climbing and SCUBA diving were just what my mind needed. It is amazing how quickly the mind can be silenced when it focuses on things that the body normally does not do - like breathing underwater and clinging to a high cliff with just the fingertips. We did a Superday of diving, which included 3 dives near Koh Pi Pi. I am still surprised by how tired i get from just floating and doing a little kicking. Highlights were the 1995 Koh Pi Pi - Phuket shipwreck and 6 leopard sharks. After enjoying the beaches we celebrated New Year’s Eve in Bangkok then moved on to Chiang Mai for a few days, where we met up with Nori’s friends and continued our climbing at CMRCA and Crazy Horse. Already my calluses are softening and my tan is fading. Back to the grind.
Thailand Begins Repatriation of Hmong to Laos
NY TIMES December 28, 2009
BANGKOK — Armed with riot shields and batons, Thai military officers began early on Monday to forcibly return 4,000 Hmong asylum seekers to Laos in a lingering echo of the Vietnam War. A government spokesman, Panitan Wattanayagorn, said in a telephone interview that the repatriation had started and would be completed within days.
Members of a mountain tribe that aided the United States in its secret war in Laos, the asylum seekers have said they fear retribution by the Laotian government, which continues to battle a ragged insurgency of several hundred Hmong fighters.
Thailand moved ahead with the repatriation despite complaints from the United States, the United Nations, and human rights and aid groups. It was doing so although it has determined that some asylum seekers were eligible for refugee status, human rights groups said. “This forced repatriation would place the refugees in serious danger of persecution at the hands of the Lao authorities, who to this day have not forgiven the Hmong for being dedicated allies of the United States during the Vietnam War,” Joel R. Charny, acting president of Refugees International, an advocacy group in Washington, said in a statement.
Close to 5,000 troops and security officers entered the Hmong camp at 5:30 a.m. and opened the operation by rounding up “potential troublemakers,” said Sunai Pasuk, the Thailand representative of Human Rights Watch. Reporters were not allowed inside, but there were no reports of resistance. They were to be processed at a military headquarters, then bused across the Mekong River into Laos.
In advance of the eviction, the military removed residents’ mobile telephones and halted medical services and food provided by aid groups, apparently “to physically and mentally break their resistance to their deportation,” Mr. Sunai said. “Such coercive, intimidating and brutal measures are clearly the opposite of the concept of ‘voluntary repatriation,’ ” he said.
The remote Hmong encampment in Phetchabun Province, about 200 miles north of Bangkok, is a remnant of an Indochinese refugee population that once numbered 1.5 million. That included boat people from Vietnam, survivors of the brutal Khmer Rouge government in Cambodia and hundreds of thousands of Hmong who crossed the Mekong River from Laos. Since the war ended in 1975, the United States has processed and accepted about 150,000 Hmong refugees in Thailand for resettlement in the United States. But in the past three years Thailand has not allowed foreign governments or international agencies to interview the Hmong.
Refugee experts say the camp residents are a mix of refugees who fear persecution and economic migrants who have left Laos over the past few years. They have included dozens who display what appear to be battle scars, as well as some older refugees who fought on the American side during the war.
A separate group of 158 asylum seekers has been interviewed by the United Nations, which has labeled them “people of concern” who could face persecution if returned. But the Thai government says these asylum seekers will be forcibly repatriated eventually. The government has said that the deportations will be completed by Thursday, under an agreement with Laos.
Mr. Panitan said Laos had said that the returnees would be treated well and that the United Nations could interview them within 30 days of arrival to determine if any were eligible for resettlement elsewhere. “There is no reason to believe that they will be harmed,” he said. “We have been repatriating Laotian Hmong in the past few years,” he said. “I think this is the 19th time, and they seem to be fine. Their living conditions seem to be better when they return.”
Reporters have not been permitted into Hmong camps since 2007, and last May the main aid group assisting the Hmong in Phetchabun, Médecins Sans Frontières, withdrew from the camp in protest of the conditions there. “We can no longer work in a camp where the military uses arbitrary imprisonment of influential leaders to pressure refugees into a ‘voluntary’ return to Laos, and forces our patients to pass through military checkpoints to access our clinic,” the group said.
Speaking by telephone from Washington on Sunday, Eric P. Schwartz, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, said that he had met with officials in Thailand last week and that the United States was prepared to assist both with questions of third-country asylum and with the return to Laos of economic migrants. He said Thailand had rejected this offer. “We recognize the challenge of irregular migration that the government of Thailand faces, but there is absolutely no need to resort to these kinds of measures,” he said.
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