Part 1: ‘INGOs Cannot Reach Lahu Areas and the Needs of the Lahu People’

[the lowest level of school] to grade eight. After I passed that grade I went to the city to study in number three high school in Kengtung. When I was at the school, I got a headache and fever. So I went to a clinic. Without taking a test for malaria, the doctor injected me the malaria medicine. Then I don’t remember.

After that, my body cannot move. I am paralyzed. They immediately sent me to the hospital to change my blood. My father, my mother and my sister were beside me. I don’t know when they arrived. At that time I didn’t go to school anymore.

I came back to my village and treated my leg with traditional medicine. My uncles, they have some knowledge about traditional medicine, by using leaves. But I couldn’t walk very well so I didn’t go to school anymore. I was so disappointed. I didn’t have any hope to improve my education.

In my dream at that time, I wanted to be an educated person. I was eager to learn. After school, if I had time, I read history of the country. Even though the teacher didn’t teach it in the class. I read it because I was interested to learn history, also about world history. But from 2002 June to the beginning of 2005 there was no school for me. I didn’t go to school.

At that time I didn’t have any hope for my life. I was so disappointed with my life. So I started to use any drugs. My parents are farmers so during the day they went to the farm to grow rice. I stayed alone at home with no friends. So what I did was to start to smoke. I did it to find joy, but I couldn’t find it. At the time I used to smoke and also sometimes I used opium. Sometimes amphetamine. But I could not find any joy in my life at that time.

 

The whole time I had no communication with my parents

In 2005, I had a chance to go to Mae Sot to improve my education because I didn’t pass grade ten in Burma. One of my sisters who lives in Mae Sot told me if you want to study you can come and study here.

My parents didn’t allow me to go and study in Mae Sot at the time, because they were concerned about me. There were no friends, no Lahu, none of our relatives in Mae Sot. But I requested my parents to pay for the transportation cost for one last time. My father found maybe 200,000 kyat for transportation from my village to Rangoon, and from Rangoon to Myawaddi.

From Kengtung to Rangoon it is so difficult to take transportation by car. So I flew from Kengtung to Rangoon. It took just only one hour. By car in the rainy season it is difficult because the mountain range in the Shan State is very high. We have to cross a lot of mountains. There is no railway from Kengtung to Taunggyi, to Rangoon, to Mandalay.

At that time I left in the evening. In the afternoon the next day I arrived in Mae Sot. We only had to stay in Hpa-an for one night.

My sister who called me was working in Mae Tao clinic. I stayed in her house maybe for one week. After that she sent me to the BHSOH school. So I stayed at the school for three or four years; from 2005 to 2008 until I passed grade ten. The whole time I had no communication with my parents, for three or four years.

I left my village in 2005 and I went back in 2011. When my mother saw me she cried. They hadn’t seen me and they hadn’t heard anything. They didn’t know anything about me. They thought they lost me. But after 2011 I have visited my village three or four times.

 

Last year I went to Cambodia for the ASEAN meeting

At the school I stayed with my headmaster. He is Arakanese. I stayed there and studied and also read a newspaper which is issued by the Burmese outside of Burma, especially in Mae Sot and Chiang Mai. After that I got interested to work in politics, so I participated in the movement.

After graduating grade ten in Mae Sot, I started working with Lahu Youth Organization to participate in the movement. After working two years for the Lahu Youth Organization, my headmaster invited me to help at the school where I finished grade ten, as a volunteer. So I went back to that school and taught the children English.

Then I had a chance to apply for a scholarship called Foreign Affairs Training [FAT] in Chiang Mai. Fortunately I passed the entrance of the FAT. After that, I passed the interview. So I had a chance to study in Chiang Mai for one year. I studied that training from 2010 to 2011. After I finished the FAT I had a chance to go to Malaysia for my internship, three months in Malaysia.

Then I came back and joined the LDU, Lahu Democratic Union, as an office staff member. At the same time I was also working for my Lahu Youth Organization as an advocator to support the Lahu situation in Burma.

In LDU, mostly I communicate with the UNFC [United Nationalities Federal Council], check the email and send emails about LDU. LDU is a part of the UNFC. The LDU has also appointed me to work in an office to communicate with Lahu young people inside Burma to give awareness about democracy.

Sometimes I have a meeting on behalf of the LDU or on behalf of the Lahu youth. Last year I went to Cambodia for the ASEAN meeting. In July 2012, I went to the Philippines representing the country for ASEAN youth exchange. I have travelled a lot.

 

They don’t know how to prevent pregnancy

As a part of the Lahu Youth Organization, I have conducted training inside Burma; democratic training and also training about reproductive health. I have conducted four trainings inside Burma.

When I went to conduct the training inside Burma, most Lahu people were very eager to learn about health, especially reproductive health. How to prevent HIV, how to prevent pregnancy, things like that. They didn’t know.

A few months ago I conducted a training inside Burma about reproductive health. At the time the ladies brought many children with them. I said, you have so many children. Two children are the same age. She told me, it’s because of men. Aww I was so surprised. Because sometimes they don’t know how to prevent pregnancy… I organised 30 participants in the training. But a lot of children also came to stay with their parents. That was so funny. I wanted to give training with adults, but so many children came. Aww, our Lahu people need a lot of knowledge in how to use family planning in the community because they have a lot of children.

Around the same time, there was one young boy who I organised to participate in my civil society work. He told me that if I participate with you, I am afraid to go to jail. Actually no, the situation is not the same as in the past. We have a little bit of chance now. We need to push to get our chance, our opportunity in the area. He said, I’m not ready yet to participate with you. So I just went alone to Mandalay. At that time we had a seminar, international seminar.

Actually I wanted to bring two, three or four Lahu young people to see another area of Burma. To see what other young people are doing. Because they just stay alone in eastern Salween. It is difficult to connect with Burma, I mean especially Naypyidaw, Rangoon and Mandalay. So Lahu young people cannot open their eyes to see what is happening in other parts of the country.

 

I was so surprised that they do like that after the 2010 elections

I am from eastern Salween, Kengtung. The capital city of eastern Salween. I’m from a village not so far from Kengtung, 12 kilometers. In that area we have seen some changes with the government staff and services.

In my village we have a police station. The police arrested a lady who used to do drugs in the past. The police caught her and punished her with the wooden stock, and fined her 200,000 kyat. So the lady went to the town and complained to the government officer. The government officer scolded the police man. You didn’t understand the changes of the country. You don’t have power to punish the lady with the wooden stock. Like this, you abused human rights, the officer said to the police man.

As soon as I heard this I thought actually they already understand human rights. And also the police man needed to give the 200,000 kyat back to the lady. The lady already had a certificate which shows that she stopped using drugs, but the police man didn’t know about it. The lady had been to the hospital to stop using drugs, and the hospital gave her the certificate as evidence that she has already stopped using drugs. I was very surprised when my friend told me that story. I was so surprised that they do like that after the 2010 elections.

The government staff are maybe aware that the situation is not the same as in the past. From that I know we need to give more training to the young people to report the government abuse.

Sometimes they abuse their power. Sometimes they abuse all the villagers. It still happens like that. Because the villagers don’t speak out. I want them to speak out what is happening on the ground, what is happening in the village, in their community. But they are still silent. Because most Lahu people want to live quietly, they don’t want to have a problem with the government, with any part of the government staff or services. They want to live quietly on the mountain. If they have a chance to work in a farm it is OK for them.

 

In some parts of Kengtung now they have electricity

There’s no civil war in eastern Salween for a long time, over 20 years. After 1988 the UWSA [United Wa State Army] and other armed groups made a ceasefire with the government. No civil war for over 20 years. They made a ceasefire in 1989.

There’s no civil war in the Lahu areas, but no development. Nothing has changed. Since I was a child nothing has changed, it’s the same. The town of Kengtung is very old, very dirty. No new buildings. When I was a child Tachilek was a small town, I mean the border town, now it is bigger. There has been some development. But not in Kengtung, sorry still no internet, still dark. No electricity.

When I went to school in Kengtung we had no electricity. In the past when I was ten years old, in my village, we had electricity like in Thailand, for 24 hours. Because we had the hydro power, small hydro power. At that time one of the chiefs in the military division gave the opportunity to the villagers to use electricity. Just when I was ten years old. But after changing the chief in the military division, that new person told the company and the company didn’t give us electricity anymore.

In some parts of Kengtung now they have electricity, but not enough. Sometimes the light comes, sometimes not. In my home, we use solar. Because last year my sister came back and brought solar. But the whole village is dark. They need electricity.

Some people have computers. And they an internet shop. But they use a generator.

 

We had computer class. But we couldn’t see the computer

In Mae Pa school in Thailand I started to learn how to use a computer. In Kengtung when I was on grade nine, in the timetable we had computer class. But we couldn’t see the computer. We could see it in the room but nobody could go there. Because no light, no electricity. We could see it from outside the window but we cannot touch it. Nobody touched it, not teachers, not anyone.

We just saw it, aaw computer looks like a TV. But now they have opened an IT university in Kengtung. Now they have a computer university.

During the computer class, we were playing in the class, talking to each other. It was like a break, no computer. When I was on grade nine there were almost 1,000 students but only ten computers. How can the students use them? Just only go and see them. But still I haven’t heard that students have a chance to learn computers at the school. But outside the school they have a computer learning center. But you need to give money, a lot.

… In Mae Pa, I also learned English. We had some Canadian volunteers and I had a chance to learn some French too. In Burma, we didn’t have a chance to learn any grammar, where is the noun, what is the subject, I didn’t know about that. We just only memorized. Teacher gave an essay and we didn’t know what is subject, what is object, what is verb, just only memorized. I didn’t know any English before I came to Thailand. We just only memorized, I didn’t know what it meant.

In Mae Pa, the first year of my grade nine, I failed, because of English. In the summer I learned by myself by reading the grammar books. And next time I understood how to write an essay and how to make sentences [NOTE: The interview with Kyar Yin Shell was conducted in English].

 

Some people have ten or fifteen children

My parents are farmers. Most Lahu people are farmers. I have seven siblings, actually ten. Three already died before I was born. Five boys and five girls. Now seven of us are still alive. My older brother, the first one, he is a teacher in a bible school on the China-Burma border. There we have a Lahu bible school. Chinese Lahu people also come to study there and after that they graduate and they go back to China. He is now also studying for a master’s degree.

My older sister is in Shanghai with her husband who is Chinese. She has had two husbands, the first person was a Burmese soldier. He left for the army, and married my sister for four or five years. After that, he broke up their family. My sister was so disappointed to live in the village, so she went to the China-Burma border, to work there with my brother. At the time she met a Chinese man, got married and went to Shanghai. Last year she came to visit the village.

Now I live in Thailand. One of my younger sisters is also doing missionary work in the red Lahu near the Thai-Burma border inside Burma. Big family… I also I asked my mother, why did you have a lot of children? She said to me, we didn’t know how to prevent it. It is normal in Lahu families. Some people have ten or fifteen children. But now some people start having only three or four. After that they come to Mae Sai and they do an operation in a Thai hospital.

There are a lot of Lahu people in Thailand from Burma. Most Lahu people in Thailand are from Burma. Even many of their leaders they can speak Burmese. Maybe 20 or 30 years ago they were born in Thailand. Some people still use the Burmese ID card if they go to visit Burma. They have two ID cards for Thailand and Burma. There is a lot of communication between Lahu people from Thailand and from Burma. Every day they travel from here to there.

 

I don’t blame them [INGOs] but they cannot reach Lahu areas

If we [Lahu people] have a chance to meet with the government, we want to request for a special region for the Lahu people. If not, my second plan is to set up one civil society organisation in my hometown, to work for the development of Lahu areas. Currently there are no organisations working for development inside. I mean which are organised by the Lahu. But also there are no local civil society organisations in Kengtung.

There are just only INGOs like World Vision, something like that. Actually I don’t blame them but they cannot reach Lahu areas and the needs of the Lahu people. They don’t know about it. Because they also cooperate with the government, they follow the laws of the government. So they cannot, event when they know, they are also afraid to work for the needs of the Lahu people.

Now I want to establish a civil society organisation in my hometown Kengtung. To work for the needs of the people, especially for development. Because some Lahu villages don’t have schools, no teachers. Even though they grew up in Burma, they don’t have ID cards. They don’t know how to make ID cards and also they don’t know important the ID card is. They just stay in the jungle, on the mountain, their whole life.

 

END NOTES

This story is based on Kyar Yin Shell’s voice as he tells Burma Link about his experiences, struggles, successes, and dreams.

At the time of publication, Kyar Yin Shell is in the United States on a 3-week study program about democracy and free market economy.

See Part 2 focusing on Lahu situation here!