Burmese refugees speak

Two women discuss democracy, human rights

Brian Coker / contributing photographer Mra Raza Linn (left) and Zipporah Sein discuss human rights and women's issues with a global geography class Thursday.

Discussing the fight for human rights, democracy and government oppression, two Burmese refugees spoke to a global geography class Thursday evening.

Mra Raza Linn, current chairperson of the Rakhaing Women's Union, and Zipporah Sein, secretary of the Karen's Women's Organization, spoke to Professor Mary B. Kimsey's GGEOG class. Linn and Sein were accompanied by Catherine Rogers, an alumna and former professor at JMU, who was escorting the two around campus.

Also known as Myanmar, Burma is a country in southeast Asia which has been under military rule since 1962.

Both Linn and Sein presented the class of about 190 students with a presentation outlining the political and ethnic conflicts between the eight Burmese ethnic groups and the military regime which is running the current government. They said there's a harsh and sometimes brutal environment within the numerous refugee camps, which contain as many as 150,000 refugees in Burma.

Rogers described a 21-year-old woman who left her camp while risking prison, rape, deportation and even death in order to spend one week in a woman's training and education camp in Sri Lanka. "These people do what they do for a great price," Rogers said.

They discussed major issues within the camps including overpopulation and poor living conditions in terms of a lack of food and water. According to Linn, non-governmental organizations provided the bare minimum of rations to refugees. Both speakers, who said they represent women's rights organizations, said that within the refugee camps in Burma, women have little to no rights. They said men occupy roughly 90 percent of the camp's leadership.

Linn and Sein discussed the Karen's Women's Organization and what it provides for women within Burma's refugee camps. Founded in 1949, the organization has about 30,000 members and works toward employment, equality and freedom for women within these camps, according to Sein.

"Your life and my life is quite different," Linn said as she discussed her background. Linn, who has been a member of the Rakhaing Women's Union for 14 years, described the difficulties growing up as an only child in a poor farming family.

Linn also mentioned the lack of education for many, including herself, in the form of primary schools as well as universities. "In the primary schools they only speak Burmese language and taught from the Burmese history books," Linn said. As a result, 85 percent of the Burmese ethnic groups have forgotten their native language or their original dialect.

The Women's League of Burma, which was founded in December 1999, acts as an umbrella organization to other women's rights groups, according to Linn. According to a women's league pamphlet, "By working together and encouraging cooperation between the different groups the Women's League of Burma hopes to build trust, solidarity and mutual understanding among women of all nationalities in Burma."

Rogers, who taught English at JMU from 1986 to 1988, traveled to Thailand, residing there for four years working with nursery schools in the refugee camps.

The three women have been in Harrisonburg for roughly a week, attending a Trauma and Awareness Recovery Workshop at Eastern Mennonite University and will leave on Sept. 27. Prior to coming to Harrisonburg, the three were in Guatemala, participating in a Guatemalan/Burmese refugee exchange program.

"Democracy and the freedoms we have are so easily taken for granted," Kimsey said. "I could stand here in front of the class and talk about the situation in Burma, but I feel that someone with the living experience means so much more."