The Herald (Glasgow)

May 31, 2006

Teachers witness genocide of Karen refugees; Mother and daughter hear tales of junta's crackdown

BYLINE: ALISON CHIESA

HIGHLIGHT: CAROL LATIMER: 'We wanted to show the refugees that people minded what was going on.'

CHILDREN OF COURAGE: Abby Boultbee holds photographs of Karen refugees at a camp on the Burmese-Thai

border. Picture: Graham Hamilton

A MOTHER and daughter from Scotland have gathered first-hand accounts of alleged genocide in Burma.

The pair had travelled to a Karen refugee jungle camp on the Thai-Burma border to help train teachers.

But Abby Boultbee, 26, and her mother Carol Latimer, 60, from Fife, were so distressed on hearing tales from

displaced people fleeing their greatest threat for years that they documented their stories.

The Karen are the only ethnic group still fighting the Burmese military, which has waged brutal campaigns against

ethnic hill peoples for decades as part of a complex civil war.

The military has now launched its greatest offensive for more than a decade and murdered, tortured or driven

thousands of Karen civilians from their homeland.

Although the qualified teachers had visited the Mae Ra Ma Luang camp several times before, they said they found

the threat to refugees much more tangible this time.

Ms Boultbee, who became interested in Burma after she became friends with a Karen student in Britain, said: "One

old woman told us about being forced to watch the beheading of her son because he refused to be used as forced labour

for the military. First they shot him in the legs so that he couldn't walk, and then they killed him.

"But what shone through her telling was this woman's courage and immense dignity. The Karen are a very

dignified people and it is part of their culture just to tell their story straight, with no great outward show of emotion."

The personal testimony was typical of "widespread atrocities", said the teacher, who was able to document stories

at the camp, near the town of Mae Sariang, through the help of an interpreter.

She said: "We could acutely sense the immediate effects of the ongoing violence against the Karen people.

"We were deeply shocked by the stories we heard. Although I had heard reports of genocide against the Karen, to

hear firsthand accounts of torture and violence had a huge impact."

Aid groups believe that more than 16,000 civilians have staggered out of the jungle-covered mountains of Burma,

also known as Myanmar, in the past few weeks, many with tales of murder and persecution.

Ms Boultbee added: "We heard tales of incredibly courage and resilience. People are being forced to walk for

months to reach relative safety. One woman even gave birth while travelling. Another woman carried her badly disabled

young son all the way to camp."

Families fled into the jungle as the Burmese military escalated violence against them following the move of the

Burmese capital from Rangoon to Pyinmana.

There are about 170,000 Karen refugees living in camps along the Thai-Burma border and more are expected to

follow as the violence continues. In recent weeks, about 700 have been able to reach the Mae Ra Ma Luang camp which

has a population of about 30,000.

However, the monsoon season is due and as others try to reach relative safety, children are already suffering

malaria and dysentery. Meanwhile, as hungry adults forage for food, they risk treading on landmines or running into the

Burmese army patrols hunting for them.

Ms Boultbee said of the decision to record the tales: "The Karen people feel they are being forgotten by the world,

so it is really important their stories get documented. These people tell first hand what they witnessed and it is important

that the world should have access to this immediate truth."

Mrs Latimer added: "It was bad when we were at the camp previously, but it was quite tangible that the situation

had escalated.

"We got upset about the apparent hopelessness of it all and documented it to raise awareness in the wider world.

We also wanted to show the refugees that people outside their situation minded what was going on, and that they are not

alone."

LOAD-DATE: May 31, 2006

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

PUBLICATION-TYPE: NEWSPAPER

JOURNAL-CODE: GHERLD