‘We Are All Accountable for Our Country’: Mu Kapaw, Organiser of November 11 Karen Demonstration at the U.S. White House

[I got politically involved] back in 2009, in the state community level, which we call Eastern Pennsylvania Karen Community. Every year we celebrate our Karen New Year and our culture and beliefs, Martyrs’ Day and all those celebrations; all those events remind us to pass the Karen history to the Karen people here in the United States, especially for the next generations.

The Karen people are born with human rights violations. Why I say that is because before you were born your parents were struggling, fleeing and that’s many, many, people who are born in the camp heard about this stories, heard about the oppression, and heard about the Burmese military doing unlawful things to the Karen people. Also, other ethnic people like Kachin, Chin, Shan and Karenni, we were born with dignity as a people to live with rights and responsibility but instead Burmese [military] people took them away when we were growing up.

It was necessary to for me to step up and share this story and make this true story be known across the countries and around the world. Why I got involved with this political situation is because we are Karen, we all are accountable. It doesn’t matter whether you are a villager, doesn’t matter if you are a farmer but you are part of the Karen and then you apart of one of the ethnic groups. And you have the KNU, which is the mother organisation Karen National Union; we have our leaders that have been doing things for change but they never succeeded, they never got to the point, to the level that the Karen people are looking for. So, if we think that ‘oh politics is only for the leaders, only the KNU leaders are responsible’ then what about the people? I feel like we are all accountable for our country, for the Karen state.

For many, many, years Karen people have been moving into the third countries, and if they don’t think about the Karen people, if they don’t think about Karen struggle, then the Burmese army is very happy, ’Wow those people are gone!’ So, now we are trying, instead of fighting back the Burmese army, we have to look for another way to speak up and to come together and tell our story and reveal the truth about what happened for so many years in Burma. Because many, many, Americans don’t know how about the Karen struggle. The Karen state is almost fully covered by the Burmese military so it’s very, very, sad. It’s also sad if there are many Karen people here in the U.S. who don’t know; if they don’t know about the struggle, if they don’t feel connected to it, then of course they will not support it either. our goal is not for these young people to go back and fight the Burmese army but to understand the Karen struggle and to find a way to support our villagers and the people who are oppressed in ethnic areas and inside the Karen state.

 

MESSAGE TO THE KAREN PEOPLE IN THIRD COUNTRIES: ‘Build your country with your enthusiasm, with your knowledge, with your skills, with your goals’

Do not forget where you came from, don’t forget over 60 years of Karen revolution; the Karen people are not up to the level that they are looking for. As Karen people living in third countries, we also have to look back and consider our life [in contrast] with the people that are left behind in the Karen state. We should sympathise with them and we have to consider, ‘If I’m a person that lives inside the Karen State what is my life going to be, each day, each hour of each day?’ And then here, in America, we have to come up with a better way to support our Karen people and what we can do to make a better Karen state.

I have dream. My dream is that in about ten years, we will have so many Karen people who have graduated from college, [educated in fields of study] like health care, doctors, education and military training; those young people are accountable. We can make so many changes back in the country. And what I want to tell them is: Living in the U.S is not that you are living in heaven. Because of the opportunity that you have here, once a year, every year you can go back and teach, and share your knowledge and educate our people. And if there are some people that are willing to go back we can build a good health care system, good clinics or good schools, or give a good military training, so that the Karen State will become a well-known state full of educated people who understand about human rights, and understand about the ethnic rights, and make the Karen people to be known around the world. That’s my message for the Karen people to keep in mind.

Also, living in the U.S. is not like you come here and, ‘Oh Karen State is not belonging to me, not belonging to us, now I speak English, now I know English, now I have a degree.’ Still, you are Karen. You have a responsibility. Build your country with your enthusiasm, with your knowledge, with your skills, with your goals so that people in Burma will grow.

 

PLANNING FOR THE DEMONSTRATION: ‘Please come together and we’ll make history’

I’m from the Eastern Pennsylvania Karen community, I am the Chairperson. It was a couple of months ago that myself and my secretary of the Eastern Pennsylvania Karen community we found that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi came to U.S. and requested for the U.S. to lift the economic sanctions on Burma. And then while she was here the fighting broke out in Karen State between BGF and DKBA and in Kachin State, so we felt like ‘wow, what is she doing here?’

We know that she doesn’t have any [power], she gained a seat but she doesn’t have power, and what she does right now is under the 2008 Constitution that was written by the military government. So, we talked on the Eastern Pennsylvania Karen community level that we have to do something. We have many, many, Karen people across the United States that are still quiet; they want to do things but no one is stepping up, so we talked and we discussed and we thought that this is the time for us to make people wake up. We made so many phone calls across the United States and we gained support and encouragement from our General Nerdah and General Baw Kyaw and also from some retired KNU leaders that been here in the U.S. for many years. They are very supportive, they said ‘ok yes we support you, we need people to do this.’ That’s how we come up with November 11, and we are requesting people that please come together and we’ll make history.

 

TARGETING US GOVERNMENT TO PRESSURE BURMA GOVERNMENT: ‘Aung San Suu Kyi, she is really accountable’

Because we are U.S. citizens so we are reporting to our president to make sure his relationship with the Burmese Government should benefit the ethnic people and not just the Burmese military or the government of Burma. we know that 25% of military is taking over seats in the parliament, so they have a lot of power there.

Since we are in a third country, we will keep shouting and representing our people, and also telling our story and bringing it up to the U.S. Government, because we know that lifting the economic sanctions will completely benefit the Burmese army right now. We know it clearly because if the Burmese army withdraw their troops from ethnic territory and start sincerely looking for truce and reconciliation and peace in Burma, then lifting the sanctions is fine.

But at this moment there’s no truce; we [Karen and other ethnic] are not going and attacking them and trying to get something from them, but they come to us. They come to the ethnic people and now they use ethnic against ethnic to kill each other. They use Karen and Karen to kill each other. But who is to blame? The Burmese military because they have power. And Aung San Suu Kyi, she is really accountable and she has to do things; she has to stop these human rights violations, she has to stop this ethnic cleansing, and she has to stop and withdraw troops from ethnic territories because she is accountable.

Before, when she talked and when she shared her political opinion to the world, she gained people’s support, she gained support worldwide and other countries’ support. But now, if she follows the military constitution from 2008, then she will lose support. We clearly know that if she continues in this way, if she doesn’t speak out for the truth, then she will not [earn] any support from international community I think. And then, we also know that she doesn’t have power, and she’s doing things that [Burma Army Commander in Chief] Min Aung Hlaing is asking her to do; this is the sad story. But she has a seat in the parliament so she can do things.

The US. Government, the U.S. is a very strong country and a powerful country, and our U.S president is our president, some of our Karen people’s president. […] The Karen National Liberation Army, KNLA, and the KNU have been fighting with the Burmese military for many, many, years; over sixty years but the door is always closed.  Going to the Burmese embassy is, you go but they don’t care, they don’t listen because we fought them, we faced them, but they don’t care. So, we thought that going to the [Burmese] embassy in a third country, in another country probably does make any sense, so we thought to go directly to the U.S. president and the White House as it will bring more impact. We are relying on the U.S. Government and also relying on our people to step up. And we also relying on every single person of the U.S. Government to know that they are accountable for peace in Burma, and especially the president. After we meet at the White House, however, some people will continue to the Burmese embassy.

 

DEMONSTRATION DAY: ‘We will continue to do things in a peaceful way for our people in Burma, and for other ethnic people’

We chose November 11 because after Aung San Suu Kyi came here, it made us think a lot about the people of Burma, especially the ethnic people, and then we said that we can’t wait any longer. We know it [the demonstration] may not have a direct effect on change in Burma but we can’t wait any longer. […] November 11 is the Veterans’ Day in the U.S. so we have the president there and the former presidents coming together for this day so I think that is a great day for us.

We are trying to make a connection and tell the U.S. President and the Government of the United States that continuing to support Burmese government is something that the Karen people in the U.S. are also watching. We know that the U.S. has a strong relationship with the Burmese government right now and we want especially the current President [Obama] to know how we feel and that the Karen people are watching and listening and the newly elected president to know that, ‘Before I take the seat this is an issue that already came up so I should be aware of it’. And this demonstration is not the first time and last time. We will continue to do things in a peaceful way for our people in Burma, and for other ethnic people too. This is very first time that we are come up with this event, this is the very first time. so many people are excited.

 

STANDING UP FOR RIGHTS: ‘Every person in Burma is born with dignity and inherit this country to live a free life’

This political involvement is not against any activity that our leaders in the KNU are doing; we support them, but we also have to do things to support our people, and also we also have a right to seek if something they are doing is not right. They have to listen to us and they have to listen to the people; you don’t build a country from the decisions that the leaders are making, you have to build a country based on decision that the people are supporting, that the people are looking for, and then you will have a piece of mind and can bring prosperity and peace in the country.

We know that the KNU is very sincerely looking and trying for peace, also signing the ‘nationwide’ ceasefire with the Burmese government. We support them but we are worried because the Burmese military government have lied to us so many, many, times; they are not true in what they say. So, we support them [KNU] but as a people we also have to do activities to support the peace process in Burma, that’s our goal, to support the ethnic minorities and to support Kachin and Shan, and the people that are struggling.

We clearly see that the Burmese military, the government, they don’t care about the people, they don’t care about the poor, they don’t care about the minority and they don’t care about the ethnic groups. They just care about money, they care about their power, and they only care about how to control and how to maintain their power. But this kind of power doesn’t make them happy. they should know that, and this kind of power doesn’t make any single one of the Burmese citizens happy, they should know that. They also should understand that each and every person in Burma is born with dignity and inherit this country to live a free life and to support themselves, to support their family, and should be given the right to exercise their freedom in this country. But the Burmese government, Burmese military are taking these rights away from them.

Instead, they are doing things that the people do not agree with, and especially now, the Burmese government own so much money to China now it seems like they are trying to sell ethnic territory into China; look in the Kachin State about the mining and in Karen State they are going to build a dam, the Hat Gyi dam; they want to sell the ethnic territory, ethnic resources to other countries and make them to look like they do things for the people but nothing will benefit the people.

 

HOPES FOR CHANGE: ‘We should come together and do things for our country’

[For this demonstration], it may not directly have much change, but it is the first step, the first step [towards justice] for our people that are raped, people that are persecuted, people that are tortured, people that are oppressed back in our country. This is our first step. If we don’t step up and take the first step then we’ll never reach our goal, right?

This is not the first and the last time, and we will continue to speak for the people that don’t have chance to speak and stand up for the people that don’t have a chance to stand up. As we are in a country where they respect human rights and they also respect every single individual, we feel like living in a third country is giving us so many chances, so we have a lot of responsibility to do things in the right way, to change in the right direction.

What we are doing right now is for the people that are not able to speak, not able to stand up, not able to raise a voice, not able to write a word for freedom, for peace. This is how we ethnic people across the United States including Kachin, Shan, Karen, we should come together and do things for our country.

[/fusion_separator]

Burma Link interviewed Mu Kapaw on November 8, 2016.