About 39, 462 Burmese refugees call Malaysia ‘home’ as of December, 2011. However, due to their refugee status many can’t access proper education and are forced to accept jobs with no securities and no rights.
UNHCR and SOLS 24/7 are offering Burmese refugees an opportunity to receive training that could change their lives:
A FREE and comprehensive training program, educating Burmese youth in academics and life skills.
Do you know Burmese organizations or know/ seen people who could benefit from this initiative? One small gesture of sharing could change their life!
We are seeking people like you to reach out to the ‘invisible’ people in our society. Make a pledge and share this information… if only with one person!
CARRBORO - The students in Laura Campagna's ESL class have lost classmates to war, survived refugee camps and forged a home in a foreign land with a different language and customs.Hser Ku, Eh Say Paw and Baso Gay Paw have lived in the United States for only a few years. Their English is improving, but it's hard when they speak primarily Karen - an ethnic Burmese language - at home and at Carrboro High School.
The girls, who are planning for college, say education is very important, and so is family. When not in school, they study or help at home with chores or younger siblings. Friday nights are sometimes for friends, and they also do homework together, they said.
"Our parents want their children to be educated and hope our future will be beautiful," Ku said. Only about half of Campagna's 11th- and 12th-grade students - 12 are from Myanmar (formerly Burma), two from Mexico and one from Russia - have ever been to a restaurant. A class field trip for lunch this month at Panzanella gave them the experience of dining out and a short lesson from restaurant manager Paola Cisarano in local vs. corporate businesses and why organic food is important.
The students studied the restaurant's menu the day before, so they were familiar with many items. Most chose salad or soup; pizza or pasta were popular choices, too.
A few students sampled each other's plates; all were quiet, and there were few leftovers.
Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton joined them for lunch, sharing his thoughts about government and environmental and consumer issues. If they ever see a need in the community, let him know, he said.
As they became comfortable with Chilton, the students began to ask questions about his job: Does he like it? Why did he choose to be mayor? Where did he come from? They snapped group pictures with him before heading back to class.
The experience was a good one, they said. In their own countries, political leaders are not accessible. They came to this country knowing very little about democracy or the rights they have here, Campagna said.
"When you don't have rights, you don't have any idea what they are," she said.
Myanmar is run by a restrictive military government, and Campagna said those who live in the Thailand refugee camps subsist on U.N. food aid dropped from helicopters - fish paste, beans, oil and rice. They are forbidden from growing their own food, although some risk being attacked and killed to grow a few crops outside the camps.
Thwang Khoi, 21, and his family were refugees in Malaysia before coming to America. They are Chin, an ethnic group largely from western Myanmar who speak a language by the same name. He does not speak Karen and finds it hard sometimes to communicate with the other students, he said. He practices his English through writing, reading or on the job at UNC's Lenoir Dining Hall, where he makes sushi. One day, he would like to be a professional writer, maybe for a magazine, he said.
Khoi had seen Chilton before, in televised Board of Aldermen meetings. He also saw him walking down the street a few times. That would never happen in his homeland, he said.
There, people with power or authority are afraid to go out without armed bodyguards, and most people would be afraid to approach them, because they risk being thrown in jail or losing everything they have, he said.
"If you have power, you have to be careful," he said, because someone may try to kill you. "They don't like government at all."
Education also is limited in Burma to those who can afford it, Khoi said. Many of Campagna's students said they're getting a better education in Carrboro. Plus, people here are nice and seem more comfortable with them than in other places, they said.
A few have American friends with whom they spend time and do homework; it's a good way to learn about each other's culture and to practice more English, Hu said. It's hard to make American friends though, and they mostly stick together, she and the other girls said.
Campagna tells her students they may have to take the first step.
"(Other students) don't want to make you feel bad. They don't even know if you speak English. You may have to say hi first," she said. "It's as simple as that to make a connection."
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., greets Sharon Moo after speaking to several hundred Burmese refugees Saturday at Crescent Hill Baptist Church. / Sam Upshaw Jr.;The Courier-Journal/Sam Upshaw Jr.
Less than a week after returning from Myanmar, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell spoke to several hundred Burmese refugees in Louisville Saturday, praising the country’s fledgling democratic reforms but saying it was too soon to lift sanctions.
McConnell, long a leading critic of Myanmar’s military junta and a chief sponsor of sanctions aimed at halting political repression and ethnic persecution, told the mostly ethnic-Karen refugees that his first-ever visit left him cautiously hopeful that real change is imminent.
The Kentucky Republican cited the recent release of hundreds of political prisoners, a cease-fire with Karen separatist rebels, new laws allowing peaceful assembly and an upcoming election expected to bring democratic leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi into parliament after more than a decade of house arrest.
“For a long time I’m sure many of you wondered if anything would change in Burma,” he said, using the old name for the country as his words were translated. “But clearly change is in the air.”
But many of the refugees who came to hear McConnell at Crescent Hill Baptist Church — which has become a gathering place for some of the nearly 2,400 Burmese refugees resettled to Kentucky since 2006 — met his optimism with deep skepticism.
While grateful for having such a powerful ally in Congress, the refugees during a question-and-answer session questioned whether the strides toward democracy would be real or lasting and asked McConnell how the U.S. would verify changes.
Several said they did not trust the regime, which has fought for years against Karens and other ethnic groups, pushing hundreds of thousands into refugee camps on the Thai border. Some cited recent news reports that the government was again battling another ethnic group in the north of the country.
“I welcome change, but the government can say they change, and yet the people on the ground are still suffering and the people still have to live in fear,” said Ka Waw, who came to Louisville last year with his three children from the camps and now works at a factory. He said the Karens should have an autonomous state.
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Mahn Saing, a Burmese refugee who has lived in Louisville for years and runs a restaurant, said he thinks that the government is motivated by sanctions that hurt government-owned businesses — not by a desire for democracy.
Mya Zaw, who hasn’t been home to Mandalay since fleeing in the wake of a bloody crackdown on 1988 democratic protests, said much more progress is needed before he would feel safe going home.
“I’m not comfortable to return right now; I don’t trust them,” he said.
McConnell said the United States, which plans to upgrade diplomatic relations with Myanmar, would work with reformers inside the country and track whether the April 1 elections are fair and that all political prisoners were released and that the Army halts attacks on ethnic groups.
During McConnell’s trip, he met with Suu Kyi, President Thein Sein, ethnic leaders and two recently released political prisoners. He said he’s working with Suu Kyi to form a list of prisoners to be released and will rely on her advice in deciding on sanctions.
“We have an American saying that talk is cheap, and I understand that,” McConnell said. “They say all the right things. Our job is to verify.”
He also said more efforts toward a comprehensive reconciliation between ethnic groups and the government are needed before the changes benefit refugees. As a result, it will take time “before large numbers of Karen are dumped out of refugee camps and go home,” he told reporters afterward.
Jason Abbott, director of the University of Louisville’s Center for Asian Democracy, who attended Saturday’s talk, agreed that it’s “way too early to expect a direct effect on the refugee problem.”
McConnell said he came to speak because he’s sensitive to the plight of the refugees, who spent years fleeing the government or in camps before being resettled. Many have little education and face struggles finding jobs and adjusting to the culture, according to resettlement officials.
At the end of his talk, he took time to shake hands with several hundred of the refugees.
Things are moving fast with Burma. Today it was reported that 651 high-ranking political dissidents had been released by the Burmese government, a move that comes after the government struck a rare ceasefire with the ethnic minority group, the Karen, after 60 years of civil war.
The government in Burma appears to be making some progress on human rights. Hillary Clinton should take the chance to press it over the country’s forgotten minority children.
Since U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to Burma, the civilian government there has clearly taken its first significant steps on human rights with certain ethnic minorities. However, just last month, thousands Burmese ethnic minorities fled to neighboring countries including Thailand because the Burmese government continues military abuses and persecution of ethnic minorities. Of these refugees, many are Burmese ethnic minority children – orphaned, separated from their parents, or hidden with their families in neighboring countries hostile to Burmese refugees. Clinton therefore needs to not only press the Burmese government, but also the neighboring Thai and Malaysian governments to help lost generations of Burmese ethnic minority children.
Minority Burmese children aren’t allowed access to free, good quality government schools in either Burma or neighboring countries, making it imperative that Secretary Clinton push the new Burmese government to open its door wider to non-governmental organizations eager to help educate ethnic Burmese children.
For years, NGOs have been blocked by the Burmese military government from offering much-needed development of the minority education system in Burma. The new Burmese civilian government has undoubtedly made some incremental progress on this, such as allowing World Vision to support the creation of a limited number of preschool programs. But the government didn’t give World Vision a much-coveted “Memo of Understanding” to help any elementary school students, much less those from ethnic minorities. In the Burmese schools I saw this past summer, it was clear that the education of ethnic minority children ranges from mediocre to nonexistent, and their education system is in desperate need of outside help.
Given that an etimated over 500,000 Burmese ethnic minorities are internally displaced due to military attacks, and all their children go uneducated, a call has been made by human rights groups for the new Burmese government to improve access to isolated ethnic minority areas to help those internally displaced. In a hopeful sign, the government has recently allowed unprecedented access for a small group of U.N. workers to help internally displaced Kachin ethnic minorities in areas controlled by the rebel Kachin Independence Army, but those displaced need more substantive help from organizations like UNICEF. However, UNICEFs wings have been clipped by the Burmese government, and it was not able to set up temporary schools and health systems for these minority groups. Not only does the Burmese government need to allow international NGOs to help rebuild minority education systems, but it also needs to allow domestic NGO’s to be created, after years suppressing internal NGO development.
As part of my Fulbright research in Burma, Malaysia, and Thailand, a Burmese ethnic minority boy told me how he held on tight to his father’s back, as his father carried him through Burmese mountainous war zones to Thailand, leaving him alone in a refugee camp across the border. Why? Because the boy’s father saw how the Burmese government military had repeatedly torched his ethnic villages, schools, and never built them new schools. The only help any minority students have gotten in Burma has been from illegal forays by the Free Burma Rangers into Burma, risking their lives to take ethnic minority educators safely through dangerous conflict zones to be trained to start schools. Burmese minority educators shouldn’t have to risk their lives trying to educate their children.
Endless detention ... the mother of Atputha, 7, and Abinayan Rahavan, 4, is considered a security risk by ASIO.
Legitimate refugees, including toddlers, are imprisoned indefinitely. Only ASIO knows why and it will tell no one, writes Kirsty Needham.
'I live like a dead man walking,'' says Suvenran Kathirdamathambi, or ''Sutha'', 32. ''This is supposed to be the golden period in anyone's life - your 20s and 30s. But I can't even say when the day starts.''
Sutha is married, but his wife lives alone in Sri Lanka, unable to tell anyone she has a husband who has spent 30 months locked up in Australia. The former paramedic sleeps in short spurts, sharing a room at Villawood detention centre with men who sporadically wake at different times, miss breakfast, smoke heavily, shun exercise and mope around under trees.
''No one is in their right mindset,'' he says by telephone. ''To pass one day is a massive effort. Sutha has been homeless since his father and two brothers were killed by the Sri Lankan army. His mother had to keep moving with her son, disrupting Sutha's education but surviving.
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During the civil war, he worked for an international non-government organisation then fled with a huge wave of Tamil asylum seekers when the conflict ended. ''I thought this country would give me protection.''
A year ago, the Immigration Department did indeed tell Sutha it accepted he was a refugee. The same day, he was also told ASIO had labelled him an ''adverse security risk'', for reasons the agency has refused to explain.
''It was agonising,'' Sutha recalls, still unable to believe such a profound decision could be made after just one interview. The secretive ASIO ruling blocks him from setting foot in the suburban Sydney streets outside. ''OK, we are safe, but it is a terrible life,'' he says.
Mirnalini Sasikumar, 27, travels daily by public transport to Villawood to see her husband, another Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka's bloody civil war. The separation is devastating for their five-year-old son, Sharthi. When the boy is at home, he continually runs to the door and cries, ''Daddy is here''. But he is not. His father, labelled an adverse security risk by ASIO, faces indefinite detention, yet the entire family are approved refugees.
A Tamil widow and her four-year-old child joined the ranks of Villawood's dispossessed ''security risks'' before Christmas. She was plucked from a community house in Melbourne when the dreaded ASIO decision arrived - an adverse finding and she wasn't told why. She cries continually.
Her neighbours at Villawood, the Rahavan family, have seen it all. But the government is doing its best to make the Tamil family of five, and the problem created by ASIO's verdict that the mother, Sumathi, is a security risk, disappear. One-year-old Vaheson may be the only infant in Australia to grow up without constantly being photographed by proud parents - no photographs of detainees are allowed, even toddlers, under department rules. His brother Abinajan, 4, was forced off the stage at his preschool graduation by guards keen to enforce the photo ban.
A few months earlier, the children's playmate ''Shooty'' Vikadan, a friendly 27-year-old neighbour, killed himself by taking poison. Refused permission to leave Villawood for a day to celebrate the Diwali Hindu festival with friends - an interim ASIO security assessment was cited - the uncertainty of endless detention became too much for Vikadan.
Lawyers are now fighting in the federal court to save a suicidal Kuwaiti Bedouin teenager, locked up for a year and repeatedly taken to hospital, from the same fate. Just before Christmas, Ali Abbas was the first minor deemed a security risk by ASIO. It means the boy, who arrived by boat as an unaccompanied 16-year-old, will never be released.
What is happening to these refugees is an aberration internationally. Fifty-four refugees, mostly Sri Lankan and Burmese, have been blocked from permanent visas since January 2010 because ASIO has labelled them a security risk. Another 463 await security assessment, often living for years behind wire in uncertainty. And the boats keep coming.
Subjects cannot challenge ASIO decisions or even be given an explanation. A standard letter outlines five broad possible grounds: suspicion of espionage, sabotage, threats to defence, promotion of communal violence and border integrity. Their lawyers have no idea what they are charged with, let alone the federal politicians now examining the issue. Only once has the Immigration Department asked ASIO to rethink a verdict, and ASIO upheld its decision.
The refugees cannot be sent home, because this would be a breach of the United Nations Refugee Convention, which Australia has signed. But no other country, so far, has offered to take them, largely because of the ASIO security insinuation.
The Australian office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says it simply does not believe the ASIO decisions are warranted, and its own assessment has found the refugees don't reach ''that serious level of threshold'' that would exclude a person from refugee protection on security grounds under the refugee convention.
The UNHCR is urging the federal government to introduce some oversight to ASIO's decisions on refugees. It has provided details on how New Zealand, Canada and Britain allow a court or special advocate to review security assessments and give the subject a summary of the case against them. This is basic fairness, which can be balanced with national security and the need to protect classified information, says the UNHCR's regional representative, Richard Towle. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal could act in this role, UNHCR has suggested.
The push to rein in ASIO appears to be gathering political weight.
The Labor MP Daryl Melham, the chairman of the parliamentary inquiry into immigration detention, recently told the department head, Andrew Metcalfe: ''I have a philosophical problem with 'who guards the guard while the guard guards you' … I am not comfortable with people remaining in detention without charge, technically for the term of their natural life, and saying, 'There is not one person in the whole of Australia who can safely review an initial assessment from ASIO.'''
Labor's national conference passed a resolution calling for the National Security Monitor, a position within the Prime Minister's office held by Bret Walker, SC, to investigate ways to provide an independent review mechanism for refugees with an adverse security findings. The federal government has said it will make a statement soon on the matter.
But a spokesman for the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Stephen Blanks, who is also the Rahavans' lawyer, is concerned such a review will only delay action. He argues it will take too long to set up an independent monitor and says the existing system available for Australian citizens to seek review of ASIO decisions through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal could instead be expanded quickly to include asylum seekers.
ASIO is resistant to any independent scrutiny of its refugee decisions, with its director-general, David Irvine, arguing not only national security but also ASIO's ''sources and methods'' could be at risk. The system was last reviewed in 1977, the agency argues, and it was decided then that appeal rights shouldn't be given to non-citizens.
But this was before the modern era of asylum seekers arriving by boat facing prolonged mandatory detention. And the problem isn't solved by the federal government's recent policy shift to release new boat arrivals into the community on bridging visas. Those failing ASIO security checks are excluded from community release, the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, has said.
Blanks has called for the Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon, to sack Irvine, claiming his evidence to the parliamentary inquiry showed a failure to appreciate basic democratic principles.
If there is no change, the judiciary, which last year scuttled the government's Malaysia refugee swap, is likely to make its own challenge. The law firm Slater & Gordon has been approached by several refugees in detention and the legal community is considering a class action.
''We are dealing with a government agency woefully under-resourced, required to conduct complex assessments of large numbers of people held in detention, where the length of detention is creating mental illness,'' the firm's Ben Phi said.
No one knows exactly what ASIO looks at when it ''checks'' a refugee, and Irvine refused to tell the parliamentary inquiry when asked, saying if he divulged to the politicians the criteria for security checks, refugees would find ways to evade them.
But he gave a hint, saying ''the particularly relevant'' issue is politically motivated violence, specifically the potential to support terrorism from Australia and ''the financing of terrorism overseas''.
Many Tamils fled to Australia by boat after the Tamil Tigers (or LTTE) were crushed by the Sri Lankan army, fearing persecution after thousands of displaced Tamils were herded into huge military camps by the Sri Lankan government.
The Tamil Tigers are listed as a terrorist group in Australia. But Bala Vigneswaran, the refugee co-ordinator for the Australian community group the National Tamil Congress, says the LTTE ran a ''shadow government'' in the north of Sri Lanka during the war. ''If you were there and you worked, you had some involvement,'' says Vigneswaran.
Sumathi Rahavan was a clerk in the LTTE court. Other refugees in Villawood are believed to have known people in the LTTE or were said to be ''open sympathisers''.
''But we are open people. We talk,'' protests Vigneswaran. ''If someone says, 'These people are always talking about Tamils needing freedom', well, so do I. Does it make me a terrorist?''
He says ASIO needs to have actual proof of terrorism, not an opinion.
Rohingya Burmese, an ethnic Muslim group persecuted by the Burmese junta, are another cohort being held for years in detention on security grounds, with at least four Rohingya given an adverse ASIO finding.
Sayed Kasim spent 14 months in detention waiting for ASIO. Unable to work, he couldn't send money to his wife stuck in Malaysia to support their four children. She became suicidal after she was forced to put their eldest son in an orphanage.
Kasim fled Burma after being bound and threatened with execution by soldiers. Living in Malaysia as an illegal immigrant, he established a school for Rohingya refugee children and became politically active. Harassed by Islamic religious extremists, he was again forced to run.
His story has a happy ending. Kasim was finally cleared by ASIO late last year, and now works at a coffee cart in Liverpool. ''I didn't know what freedom meant until the day I was released from detention,'' he says. Kasim counts himself lucky, and is trying to bring his family to Australia.
But he puzzles over why ASIO took so long. It was only after Kasim took the initiative to write to ASIO and invited them to visit him that officers interviewed him. ''They asked me about terrorism. I said, 'We are simple people in Burma, we can't do anything. We are Muslim but I have never heard of a Rohingya involved in terrorism.'''
(WNN/RI) Burma/Myanmar: Traveling in Burma last month, it wasn’t hard to see that things really are changing in this beautiful but troubled country.
Posters of Aung San Suu Kyi filled market stalls and hung proudly in the offices of local civil society groups – a remarkable change from the past, when possessing just one was a cause for arrest. Activists of all backgrounds spoke openly about politics, even in public spaces, without the usual hushed tones and glances over the shoulder.
Sadly, however, human rights abuses and corruption also continue in this “new Burma”. In the ethnic areas we visited – Kachin in the north, and Karen and Mon in the east – the optimism we heard in Yangon was muted.
In Kachin, we visited church compounds where women and children sheltered in crowded assembly halls after military attacks destroyed their homes. In the east, we met a Baptist pastor running aid programs for displaced communities, who had been ordered by authorities to give up part of the church’s land to a private company.
These contradictions reflect the continuing tension between those who are leading Burma’s reforms, like President Thein Sein, and hardliners who see rapid change as a threat to national security. This struggle within the country’s ruling class will take time to resolve, and it will take decades before high-level reforms reach the people. But that doesn’t mean the U.S. can sit back and wait for change to be realized; quite the opposite is true.
Unlike in Burma’s previous regime, progressive voices are now emerging from within the government, ranging from parliamentarians to ministers to regional leaders. More importantly, there is a nascent, but growing, civil society in Burma – from groups providing humanitarian assistance in conflict areas, to human rights advocates pressing the government on military abuses and environmental threats.
To capitalize on this opening, and lend support to these progressive voices, the U.S. must engage the Burmese government at all levels. High-level diplomacy will be important, but meeting Burma’s humanitarian needs will also be vital. In 50 years of isolation, Burma has been wracked by conflict, hit by devastating natural disasters, and plagued by underdevelopment. USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance must, therefore, expand its humanitarian aid program to meet the needs of Burma’s half a million internally-displaced people and 800,000 stateless.
For the Burmese government to succeed with any reforms, it will also need significant technical assistance from the international community. The U.S. must loosen aid restrictions on Burma, which prohibit any aid to the government, to engage reform-minded leaders and civil servants – particularly teachers and health workers. Decades of “brain drain,” coupled with an archaic and inadequate education system, has left local capacity extremely low.
All of this is not to say that longstanding U.S. sanctions on Burma should be completely lifted. Indeed, the country’s continuing rights violations and unresolved civil conflicts show that reform will not happen overnight, and the U.S. should not withdraw pressure prematurely. But the steps outlined above show that there are other ways to meet the immediate needs of Burma’s people, and make reform real at last.
Lynn Yoshikawa is a staff writer for Refugees International.
Under current immigration policy, U.S. citizens and their undocumented family members can face long separations – often years – while their immigration applications are being processed. The Department of Homeland Security announced Friday a proposal to reduce the amount of separation time currently faced by families. The U.S. Committee for Refugee and Immigrants (USCRI) supports this reform which will diminish the hardship experienced by citizens and their spouses and children.
"The purpose of the new process is to reduce the time that U.S. families remain separated while their relative proceeds through the immigrant visa process," U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in its announcement. Presently, many children and spouses of U.S. citizens who qualify for immigration status but who have been unlawfully present in the U.S., are required to travel abroad to complete the immigration application process. This process can last years and it often results in U.S. citizens being separated from their family members for an extended period of time. The proposed regulation would allow eligible spouses and children of U.S. citizens to apply for a provisional family unity waiver before going abroad to complete their legal immigration process, significantly reducing the amount of familial separation.
“This is a common-sense, practical solution to a process that previously often kept children from their U.S. citizen parents” said Tricia Swartz, director of USCRI’s National Center for Refugee & Immigrant Children.
USCRI’s President and CEO, Lavinia Limón, commended the intended policy reform saying “The reform is a humane, sensible approach. USCRI and its partners are hopeful of additional future practical improvements to the immigration system.”
USCRI is a Washington, D.C. area-based nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing the needs and rights of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide by advancing fair and humane public policy, facilitating and providing direct professional services, and promoting the full participation of refugees and immigrants in community life. Its program, the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children, is the only program providing pro bono legal and social services to immigrant children nationwide.
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 2231 Crystal Drive Suite 350
Arlington, VA 22202-3794, (703) 310-1130
www.Refugees.org
(Mizzima) – The Karen National Union (KNU) and ethnic Karen refugees worldwide will hold traditional peace ceremonies outside Burmese embassies and other venues on Thursday, coinciding with renewed cease-fire negotiations with Burma’s military-backed government.
Karen refugees who have fled the fighting between government forces and the Karen Independence Army. Photo: Mizzima
Events will take place in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Norway and Netherlands, according to a press statement.
The peace ceremonies are being held to call on the military-backed government to agree to a cease-fire and to engage in dialogue to solve the political problems behind the decades-old conflict.
The current cease-fire talks are the sixth effort in the past 63 years that official talks have taken place. There have also been many informal discussions. Past negotiations have failed because the Burmese government has always effectively demanded surrender, and has refused to seriously discuss the political problems that are the cause of the conflict, according to the statement.
A cease-fire alone tackles the symptoms, not the causes, said a Karen spokesperson, who added that the military backed government says it wants to talk peace but it is still attacking Karen villages, still executing unarmed villagers, and recently jailed Mahn Nyein Maung, a senior KNU leader.
A traditional peace ceremony involves Karen standing or sitting in a circle. A village head pours a drink, usually a traditional wine made from rice, makes a wish for peace on whatever issue is important, and then passes the wine to the person on their right, who then does the same. They then pass on the drink until everyone in the circle has drunk from the cup.
For information about the ceremonies and events, contact Mahn Denis Saw Htoo +60197778303 (Malaysia); Saw Lat Thein +66816204486 (Thailand); Mahn Thaung Tin +1315368 4315 (USA); or Saw Lwin Oo +614123 44009 (Australia)
On the island of Borneo in Malaysia, tens of thousands of undocumented immigrant children are not allowed to go to school. But efforts to change this are underway and a school just for these children has been built.
Visiting the refugee village of Kampung Numbak, in the Malaysian state of Sabah, is a gut-churning experience. The tin-roofed wooden houses in this fishing community are built on stilts to prevent them from being submerged by water. When the waters recede during low tide, a muddy bed covered in garbage is revealed. Wooden bridges, some with rotten or missing planks, connect the village streets.
At the end of the main road is the Kampung Numbak Education Center. Earlier this year it was opened for some 300 children who previously had been barred from attending school because they lacked the proper papers. The community built the school, with support from the United Nation's Children's Fund, UNICEF, and the participation of the Malaysian government. Officials hope to replicate this model in other communities throughout Sabah. Teachers hope to educate children of the Kampung Numbak refugee village"In this school, there are only children that are undocumented. There were parents who wanted to have their children here in this school, which happened to be in the middle of the community, but they were not admitted if they had documents," said UNICEF's representative to Malaysia, Hans Olsen.
Kampung Numbak's population of some 8,000 people is a mix of Malay nationals, refugees and undocumented migrant workers, mainly from the Philippines. Malay children can go to government-run schools, Olsen said, where children without birth certificates or other proof of legal residency are not allowed to attend.
"The children that are here had not been to school before. They were left behind when the other children went to the government schools." No official status
Malaysia has achieved near universal primary education for its children, while tens of thousands of refugee and immigrant children who lack birth certificates have been left behind. They have no official status and are denied the most basic services, including education.
Nearly 2.5 million legal and illegal immigrants, mainly from the Philippines and Indonesia live in Malaysia. Families that fled the Moro Islamic rebellion in the southern Philippines in the 1960s and 1970s are still categorized as "refugees," despite having lived in Malaysia for decades. Officials likely underestimate the number of undocumented children out of schoolNur Anuar Muthalib, a UNICEF monitoring and educational officer, says refugee children born in Malaysia with no documents are marginalized - even later in life.
"When they grow up, they cannot even open a bank account. They are basically nonexistent in a way."
A 2009 study by the country's ministry of education found nearly 44,000 undocumented children aged seven to 17 not enrolled in school. This figure is believed to be grossly underestimated. Children who do not go to school are easily exploited. Many are prone to child labor. Others wind up on the streets, get into drugs, petty crime and are exposed to abuse.
Anuar says education may not be a panacea, but it can help children avoid many of these pitfalls.
"From our view, children are children. Their place is in school. It is not the children's fault that they are in our country and not able to attend schooling. It is their right," said Anuar.
The teachers here are young, generally inexperienced and poorly paid. But they take their jobs seriously and are committed to helping their pupils learn. One teacher, Amira Binti Asen Abdullah, says she's proud of the progress her students have made in such a short time.
"Before this, the children were just hanging around and playing," she said. "After this, because they have this school, they come here every day and study." Activists say education is key to keep children from exploitation"They sometimes come in the evening and study in the library," she added. She said her students very much love to come to school.
And that's not a teacher's wishful thinking. Before coming to this school, 11-year-old Normida says she couldn't read or count. Now, she says, she likes going to school. She especially likes Islamic studies and wants to be a teacher when she grows up.
Azali, who is 13, had never attended school before. He's excited to be in class. He says he's learning a lot and wants to be a soldier. A model for other communities
UNICEF officials say their aim is to replicate the Kampung Numbak model in other disadvantaged communities in Sabah. They say they have a project ready to go in another refugee village near the city of Sandakhan on the east coast of the island.
Kampung Bahagia, as it is called, bears many similarities to Kampung Numbak. But the school is in a horrible state. The flimsy structure is falling apart, with floorboards missing. The children sit on plastic chairs and have no desks. Classes have as many as 80 pupils. The teachers are few and school supplies and money are short.
UNICEF officials say the new school will accommodate about 1,000 undocumented children. This will be a vast improvement over what currently exists. They note, however, that it will provide no solution for some 2,000 other children in the community who would like to go to school. There's just no room for them.
Author: Lisa Schlein, Sabah, Borneo
Editor: Sarah Steffen
Kachin dancers perform during a benefit concert in Singapore on Jan 2. The Singapore concert and a similar event held in Malaysia on Dec 26 raised $20,000 to aid refugees affected by fighting in Kachin and northern Shan state.
Overseas Kachin living in Singapore and Malaysia raised more than $20,000 to support Kachin refugees in northern Burma, by holding two special charity concerts over the Christmas season.
The donations will be split, with half going to help internally displaced people (IDPs) sheltering in government controlled areas and the other half going to help those who have fled to territory controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), according to Tangbau Awng Di, secretary of the Singapore Kachin Culture and Literature Body.
“The shows were organized by Kachin people in each country and other people from Burma also joined the concerts’, said Awng Di during a phone interview Saturday.
18 popular Kachin singers including members of the newly formed “Yak Tim Pyaw Tim Rau” group, traveled from Burma to take part in the shows. On December 26 a fund raising concert was held in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. According to concert organizer Nhkum La Seng, the Malaysian concert had an attendance of more than 1,000 people.
The second concert was held in Singapore on January 2 and was attended by approximately 300 people. A Chin organization in Singapore also donated funds for the Kachin relief effort.
Both Malaysia and Singapore are home to large numbers of refugee and migrant workers from Burma.
The majority of workers from Burma living in Malaysia work in farm plantations, factories, fishing or construction. Burmese labour activists in Malaysia estimate that more than half a dozen workers from Burma were killed in industrial accidents during the construction of Kuala Lumpur's famed twin towers, the headquarters of Malaysia's national oil firm Petronas.
[B]More refugees expected[/B]
Doi Pyi Sa, who heads the KIO’s IDP and Refugee Relief Committee told the Kachin News Group that his organization had a list of more than 50,000 refugees in both government and KIO-controlled areas as well as inside China. He believes however that the total number of people displaced by the fighting could be as high as 70,000. More refugees are expected as the fighting continues.
There are an estimated 40,000 refugees sheltering in KIO run camps along the China border. According to volunteers working on the ground refugees in the KIO area are in dire need of vital supplies. On December 12 the UN sent five Burmese staff and a small aid convoy to visit refugee camps located at Laiza, the KIO's headquarters. Nearly one month later the UN has yet to make good on its promise to return with more aid.
More than 15,000 people are thought to have taken shelter in government controlled areas like Manmaw (Bhamo), N’Mawk (Momauk), Manje (Mansi), Myitkyina, Waimaw (Waingmaw), Putau (Putao) and Hkawnglanghpu, according to Kachin relief groups. Most of these people are staying in Kachin churches or with relatives.
Traveling in Burma last month, it wasn’t hard to see that things really are changing in this beautiful but troubled country. Posters of Aung San Suu Kyi filled market stalls and hung proudly in the offices of local civil society groups – a remarkable change from the past, when possessing just one was a cause for arrest. Activists of all backgrounds spoke openly about politics, even in public spaces, without the usual hushed tones and glances over the shoulder.
Sadly, however, human rights abuses and corruption also continue in this “new Burma”. In the ethnic areas we visited – Kachin in the north, and Karen and Mon in the east – the optimism we heard in Yangon was muted. In Kachin, we visited church compounds where women and children sheltered in crowded assembly halls after military attacks destroyed their homes. In the east, we met a Baptist pastor running aid programs for displaced communities, who had been ordered by authorities to give up part of the church’s land to a private company.
These contradictions reflect the continuing tension between those who are leading Burma’s reforms, like President Thein Sein, and hardliners who see rapid change as a threat to national security. This struggle within the country’s ruling class will take time to resolve, and it will take decades before high-level reforms reach the people. But that doesn’t mean the U.S. can sit back and wait for change to be realized; quite the opposite is true.
Unlike in Burma’s previous regime, progressive voices are now emerging from within the government, ranging from parliamentarians to ministers to regional leaders. More importantly, there is a nascent, but growing, civil society in Burma – from groups providing humanitarian assistance in conflict areas, to human rights advocates pressing the government on military abuses and environmental threats.
To capitalize on this opening, and lend support to these progressive voices, the U.S. must engage the Burmese government at all levels. High-level diplomacy will be important, but meeting Burma’s humanitarian needs will also be vital. In 50 years of isolation, Burma has been wracked by conflict, hit by devastating natural disasters, and plagued by underdevelopment. USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance must, therefore, expand its humanitarian aid program to meet the needs of Burma’s half a million internally-displaced people and 800,000 stateless.
For the Burmese government to succeed with any reforms, it will also need significant technical assistance from the international community. The U.S. must loosen aid restrictions on Burma, which prohibit any aid to the government, to engage reform-minded leaders and civil servants – particularly teachers and health workers. Decades of “brain drain,” coupled with an archaic and inadequate education system, has left local capacity extremely low.
All of this is not to say that longstanding U.S. sanctions on Burma should be completely lifted. Indeed, the country’s continuing rights violations and unresolved civil conflicts show that reform will not happen overnight, and the U.S. should not withdraw pressure prematurely. But the steps outlined above show that there are other ways to meet the immediate needs of Burma’s people, and make reform real at last.
Colombo: The number of Sri Lankan refugees, mostly from India, returning home has seen a marked drop in 2011 when compared with the previous year, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.
The latest UNHCR statistics has shown that a total of 1,728 Sri Lankan refugees had returned under UNHCR?s facilitated voluntary repatriation programme in 2011.
In 2010 UNHCR helped some 2,054 Sri Lankan refugees come home. In 2009, UNHCR facilitated the voluntary return of some 818 individuals.
In October 2011, UNHCR opened up the return of Sri Lankan refugees from India to Colombo by ferry, adding a new dimension to its voluntary repatriation programme.
Until then, all returns took place by air.
However the ferry service was suspended one month later. Apart from those who returned from India, a small numbers have also returned from Malaysia, Georgia and the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia.
A majority of the returns are taking place to eastern district of Trincomalee. A substantial number is also going back to the Mannar and Vavuniya districts in the country’s north while small groups are returning to Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Batticaloa, Colombo, Ampara, Puttalam and Kandy.
UNHCR's most recent statistics show that as of end-2010 there are some 141,063 Sri Lankan refugees in 65 countries, with a majority -some 69,000 in 112 refugee camps and another 32,000 living outside camps in Tamil Nadu, India.
The other main countries with Sri Lankan refugees are France, Canada, Germany, UK, Switzerland, Australia, Malaysia, the United States and Italy.
IT IS past 8am and the sun is slowly rising with a lazy drawl, waking up Malaysians from their slumber but walking under the heat with glee is a group of young children with shovels and a wagon eager to begin the day’s work.
The children are young refugees who once wreaked havoc in their community since they had no other activities to occupy their time.
In Malaysia, a large concentration of refugees live in the Klang Valley.
Leaving behind their home, friends and family, these refugees come to Malaysia, seeking asylum, a job and a life. However, most of the time they are shunned by society.
“Often in an area where locals, refugees and immigrants live together, it is easy to blame the foreigners,” said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) external relations officer Yante Ismail.
Chipping in: A group of children carting away the rubbish they have collected.
In Loke Yew, Kuala Lumpur, where a large number of refugees reside, littering was a common problem.
Residents then decided to discuss the issues they faced with the refugees, hoping to find a solution.
“The refugees care about Malaysia and wanted to be a part of the solution. They decided to have a gotong-royong to get rid of the mess,” said Yante.
They also set up night watch groups to help curb loitering, being mindful of the local population.
Enthused from the success of Loke Yew, the UNHCR decided to hold similar gotong-royong in other refugee areas in the Klang Valley and came up with the Jom Gotong Royong contest.
Yante said they decided to have a contest as an incentive for refugees.
Each group is given a small amount of seed money and so far they have succeeded in recruiting 23 community groups in three months.
Lending a hand: Kachin community cleaning up their neighbourhood.
The winners will be decided by a panel of judges and the first prize winners will receive RM3,000, followed by RM2,000 and RM1,000 for the second and third place respectively.
“The money will be put back into the society for other projects they can undertake,” added Yante.
One of the groups involved is the Kachin Refugee committee which is based in Genting Klang.
They plan to meet three times a month for four hours with 40 volunteers for each session.
Another group is the Tedim Community Malaysia which has made Segambut their home.
They planned to meet once a week for a clean-up session.
Each session so far has 10 volunteers.
“They have noted that between each consecutive session there has been less rubbish compared with the previous week,” added Yante.
The third community, which has entered the contest, is the Zomi Innkuan Malaysia from the Hang Tuah area. They meet twice a week with about 20 refugee volunteers per session.
One of the more laudable communities is the Chin community in Taman Mewah, Koperasi Quepecs in Kajang.
The refugees have come under the Chin Diamond Learning Centre umbrella, where the children are studying under head teacher John.
“Our residents’ association had always engaged us in their discussions.
“The school is important because the children used to cause a lot of problems before,” said John who has been with the centre for two years.
Having solved the children’s issues, the residents’ association turned to John as a spokesman and mediator.
John said the community had already started their own clean-up session before the contest started.
“We feel like we are in our country so we feel responsible for it,” he said.
John has managed to recruit more than 40 people for each clean-up session that has been conducted regularly almost every week.
Taman Mewah Cheras Management Corporation treasurer Muhammad Basir said they took their hats off to the refugees.
Initially there used to be a lot of fights, drinking and trouble in the neighbourhood when the refugees get together in the evening.
“We could not blame them because they were frustrated and didn’t know what to do or where to work.
“However, after talking to John and engaging in this gotong-royong, things have changed,” he said.
He added that it was great to see so many of the refugees taking part in the clean-up.
“Even the children are eager to help their parents and we have not had many locals doing the same let alone the children.
“We respect them for this hard work they have put in,” added Basir.
Those interested in seeking information on ways to help the refugees can email infomalaysia@unhcr.org
With elections and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, Burma's brutal military regime seems to be loosening its grip. But can the generals be trusted?
A supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi holds up a card with her picture. Photograph: Soe Than Win
At around 10am one morning earlier this week, a dazed and haggard man in surprisingly clean blue convict's fatigues walked out of Insein jail on the outksirts of the Burmese city of Rangoon. Tang Naing Oo had been in prison – held for the most part in a cell measuring 30ft x 50ft that he shared with 110 other inmates – for 14 months. He had originally been sentenced to three years in jail, back in September 2010, for distributing pictures of Aung San Suu Kyi, the famous Burmese pro-democracy campaigner and Nobel prize laureate, on a Rangoon pavement. Now, he was walking past the noodle sellers, the watermelon hawker, a crowd of waiting passengers at the ramshackle bus stop, to a form of freedom.
Tang Naing Oo had learned he was to be released only a few hours earlier. When he woke in the fetid cell at 5am, he saw "hope" on the faces of his fellow inmates, he says. His release came the day before the national celebrations commemorating the independence of Burma from Britain 64 years ago, and some kind of amnesty had long been expected from the government. However, the hopes of most inmates in Insein, and the vast network of other prisons and interrogation camps around the country, were disappointed. Of the between 600 and 2,000 political prisoners estimated to be in detention, only a couple of dozen were released. None were senior figures.
"If the government are serious they will release all the other detainees," Tang Naing Oo says, slumped against the grubby wall of a nearby shop-cum-home-cum-cafe. "This is just for getting more interest from the international community. It is not real change."
The international community arrived in Burma today (thurs)today in the shape of William Hague, the British foreign secretary. He is the first UK official of such seniority to come to the country since the army took over in 1962. In December Hillary Clinton, the first American secretary of state to visit for a similar period, flew in and Hague is following her exact itinerary. He arrived in Naypyidaw, the new capital hacked at huge expense out of swamps and scrub in the centre of the country, where he met Thein Sein, the retired general who was named president and head of the new, nominally civilian government last year by the dictator Than Shwe, following the latter's supposed retirement from public life. Hague then flew to Rangoon, the bustling city on the Irrawaddy delta, where he met representatives of civil society and ethnic minorities before having a private dinner with Aung San Suu Kyi herself. Tomorrow, as per Clinton's itinerary, there will be further meetings, some photo calls, a walk around a pagoda, and then it will be home in time for the weekend.
Prisoners are released from Insein prison in May 2011. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun The visit, British officials in Rangoon say, has been prompted by the reforms recently made by Burmese rulers and the desire of Her Majesty's government to encourage further progress on the path to democracy, stability and prosperity. Even 18 months ago such an ambition would have been laughable. Successive military regimes have won deserved reputations for brutality, corruption and human rights abuses. Burma, renamed Myanmar by one of those regimes, has been repeatedly shaken by uprisings, most recently in 2007. One of the world's longest running civil wars has pitted ethnic groups against the national army, creating a vast refugee crisis and reports of forced labour as well as systematic rape and torture. The nation is, despite considerable resources and a prize strategic position on the Indian ocean seaboard, currently one of the poorest in the world. A clique clustered around the top generals and their relatives live in great luxury, while only one in 10 villages has electricity. The government response to the catastrophic Cyclone Nargis in 2008 was a toxic mixture of cynical disregard for human suffering, secrecy and incompetence. Aung Sang Suu Kyi, who assumed the leadership of a popular pro-democracy revolt in 1988, has spent most of the subsequent 23 years in prison or under house arrest.
Things started to change in March 2010 with the appointment of the civilian government. Few analysts can say exactly why the notorious Than Shwe decided on this move. Some argue that the motivation was purely economic, as only improved relations with the west will allow Burma to join the ranks of the Asian tiger economies. Others point to a resentment at China's growing role in the country. Nay Zin Latt, the political adviser to the president, says that the decision was simply the result of a realisation that "for capitalism and the free market to flourish, democracy was necessary".
"We need western investment, technical knowledge, the art of management. If the country doesn't grow economically then there will be big problems, big unrest. The people with Mercedes cars won't be able to drive them around the streets!" Latt explained.
Aung San Suu Kyi, or "The Lady" as she is known locally, was released from house arrest in November 2010 and elections that she and her party, the National League for Democracy, boycotted, were held the same month. These were deeply flawed but many were surprised that they were held at all. The release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel peace prize in 1991 after the regime cancelled elections that her party had won, was seen as extraordinary.
Since then there have been other reforms. Many, such as new labour laws or legislation allowing protests, have had little practical effect on the ground. Others have had more impact. A handful of foreign journalists have been allowed in, surveillance of democratic activists is marginally lighter and work on a very unpopular Chinese-funded dam project, which would have generated huge amounts of cash for the regime while displacing tens of thousands of locals, has been suspended.
Local journalists have tracked the reforms through the degree of censorship to which they are subjected. "Before, printing any image of Aung San Suu Kyi was unthinkable. Then we could use pictures of her on the inside pages no bigger than 5 x 7in. Then suddenly we could put them on the front page," said Thi Ha Saw, editor of the Myanma Dana magazine.
It is not just the press. As all visiting reporters have remarked, there are posters of the Lady now on sale on street corners and her picture on mobile phones, walls and cars. The latest development is that Aung San Suu Kyi herself will lead her party in contesting byelections in the late spring. This is a risky and controversial decision that risks fracturing the fragile unity of the democratic campaigners in Burma. It will almost certainly result in the NLD entering parliament in some numbers – even if they will still be heavily outnumbered by soldiers in the assembly.
The government is considerably more enthusiastic about the prospect of the Lady in parliament than many of her supporters. "We need an opposition here. We need a strong NLD. The reforms will continue. Sometimes they will go slowly. Sometimes quickly. But they will continue. This is democratisation and that is the mission of the government," insists Latt, the presidential adviser.
This then is the process Hague has come to reinforce. If his visit is largely welcomed by pro-democracy campaigners – and Aung San Suu Kyi was sounded out first, as she was before Clinton's trip – others are more wary. There are many in the country who are concerned that the very adulation lavished on Aung San Suu Kyi, particularly in the west, could be something of a trap. These people know to what extent the Lady incarnates Burma's struggle for democracy for the international community, especially with a biopic about her on release, and they see her cult status as a potential danger. The worry is that the sight of their leader taking a seat in the Burmese parliament will be taken to mean that the problems in the country have been solved.
Aung San Suu Kyi with Hillary Clinton, December 2011. Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images Normal relations will be established – not least because Burma is an important element in the ongoing effort to roll back Chinese influence in the region. Trade will follow the flag. The current American and European Union sanctions on Burma will be lifted and businesses will begin to move in to exploit an untapped market and a country with fantastic natural resources. As long as Aung San Suu Kyi remains in parliament, the argument goes, the authorities will have the figleaf they need. Shyan Saran, a former Indian foreign secretary and ambassador to Burma, puts it bluntly: "Aung San Suu Kyi is the regime's passport to legimitacy in the international community."
Yuza Maw Htoon, a Rangoon-based activist, politician and head of an NGO who stood as an independent in the 2010 elections, is more delicate. "The international community gives recognition only to the Lady and that makes the government happy," she says. "There is a need for other interlocutors too, both for the authorities here and for our friends overseas."
Even within the senior ranks of the NLD, there are those who fear that the focus on their leader could backfire. U Win Tin, 82, is one of the founders of the party. He remembers the dark days of the Japanese occupation of Burma during the second world war, as well as the freedom struggle against the British. He is deeply sceptical of the government's desire for "democratisation" and concerned that the west might let itself be deceived.
Speaking in the crowded, untidy offices of the party, he said he could "not accept this so-called change" on the part of the government. "I cannot trust it. There are still two motorbikes from military intelligence outside my home, like there have been for decades. There are still many friends in prison," he says. "If the west put the whole focus on [Aung San Suu Kyi] that could be very misleading. We trust in her and her intuition but this is all happening very quickly."
Another common fear, voiced by U Win Tin, is that strategic considerations will blind the international community to the problems that continue in Burma. "I have lived through periods when there was a real struggle in the region between the west and its enemies. There was the cold war, when Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia were under communist rule and anyone who was the communist's enemy was the west's friend. Now I am concerned that Burma will become a pawn in the effort against the Chinese," he says.
Aung San Suu Kyi appeared this week at the NLD headquarters for the celebration of the country's independence. Looking tired and drawn, she called for further efforts on the road to freedom. She smiled very little, though stood patiently to be photographed with group after group of party workers and spoke briefly with the half dozen low-level foreign diplomats who were present. Songs were sung about the political prisoners still in jail but the Lady did not mention them directly in her short speech. This disappointed some. Others spoke of "necessary compromises".
U Win Tin had a message for the British foreign secretary. "Hague should keep in mind that, yes, we have found a light in the tunnel here in Burma," he says. "But we are still in the tunnel. Maybe we can reach the light, maybe we can make it brighter, maybe we can even leave the tunnel. But we don't know yet. And meanwhile, we are still in the dark."
Source : www.guardian.co.uk
WATERLOO, Iowa --- As the ethnic makeup of Black Hawk County changes, so does the diversity of the business climate.
About a year-and-a-half after the first Burmese refugees came to Waterloo for work, the first Burmese business has opened its doors.
Zaw Min Thant, 28, owner of Lucky Brothers Asian Food Market in downtown Waterloo, first arrived in the U.S. in May 2010 from a Burmese refugee camp in Malaysia. Around the same time, the first Burmese refugees arrived in Waterloo to take jobs at Tyson Fresh Meats plant.
Thant went to Marshalltown to work at JBS Swift & Co., a meat processor there. In Marshalltown, Thant befriended, Win Kyaw the owner of a Golden Land, an Asian food store that served the growing Burmese population there. The two saw other business opportunities with the continuing influx of Burmese workers into Iowa.
"He had the idea," Thant said.
Kyaw loaned Thant some inventory, helped him apply for a license to sell food and with other details. He opened the business in November.
"This is my first business," Thant said.
Since the 1990s, thousands political dissidents and Karen and Chin ethnic minorities have fled Myanmar, as Burma is now called by its military government.
Since 2010, hundreds of refugee Burmese workers have moved to the Waterloo area to take jobs at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant. Thant said he anticipates the Burmese workers will want a taste of home. He also plans to carry items for Filipino, Vietnamese and Thai customers.
"They say every week they go to Cedar Rapids (to shop)," Thant said, adding he wants to stock the items people leave town to find.
"Let me know; I'll order it," he said.
Thant faces some obstacles in getting established. He admits he has a limited English skills right now and doesn't have money to advertise.
"A lot of people come in, they don't know I'm here," Thant said.
In the last three years, other businesses in the location, at the corner of Sycamore Street and Fourth Street have not lasted beyond a few months.
Business is slow during most weekdays with most of his customers coming on Sundays, he said.
Burmese refugees have been resettled into Iowa since 2007 with 128 arriving in the Des Moines metro area that year. A couple years later, Burmese businesses opened there.
"It really doesn't take that long for the need to be met," said Valerie Stubbs, director of the U.S. Committee on Refugees and Immigrants Des Moines field office.
Chin residents have established a pair of restaurants in the Des Moines area and Karen residents have opened a couple of food stores, Stubbs said.
She said such businesses help create a cohesive community for the immigrant population.
"It's a challenge for them," she said, adding the new businesses show their resilience.
"You can really see and appreciate their survivor attitude," Stubbs said.
That attitude isn't new to Waterloo. The city has a long history of immigrants settling here. Thousands of Bosnian refugees came to the area in the 1990's. Since then, Bosnian restaurants, stores and bakeries have opened and been successful over the last decade.
Thant said he hopes to duplicate that success. Stubbs said that success would benefit everyone in the community.
"Burmese food is tasty," she said.
About 39, 462 Burmese refugees call Malaysia ‘home’ as of December, 2011. However, due to their refugee status many can’t access proper education and are forced to accept jobs with no securities and no rights.
A FREE and comprehensive training program, educating Burmese youth in academics and life skills.
Things are moving fast with Burma. Today it was reported that 
Endless detention ... the mother of Atputha, 7, and Abinayan Rahavan, 4, is considered a security risk by ASIO. 
