Saw Kweh
Htoo
(Golden Horn, the symbol of the Karen
Nation)
I was born in the land where human rights are violated and abused by the
military regime. I was born during the period when the regime imposed
“The Four Cuts Operation.” The inhuman abuse of human rights and the
cruel operation had been the nightmares that haunted me since I was a
child. The nightmares robbed me of my happiness, sound sleep, appetite,
and of sound mind.
In
the early 1970s the military regime of Burma started their four cuts
operation to suppress the Karen mass. The four cuts were:
- To
cut line of supplying provisions to the Karen;
- To
cut the line of contact between the Karen and the revolutionists;
- To
cut financial sources to the Karen;
- To
cut the heads of any revolutionaries. (This is a literal cutting off
of heads).
These
were the days when my life began. My family had to leave our village and
leave behind all our property to hide in the jungle moving from place to
place trying to find our refuge. Sometimes we have to sleep on the ground
under the tree using banana leaves as mats before we could make a
temporary shelter. We could not make a permanent home because the
situation was not stable and we had to move all the time. Sometimes we had
no food and we could not get it anywhere because the line of communication
was blocked by the Burmese troops. Once when we ran out of food, we had to
cook vegetables and fruit with a handful of rice for the family for two
weeks. It was even worse when we had to eat bamboo shoots without any rice
for almost a month.
During
this period of hardship when I was about four or five years of age the
Lord gave me a kind of enlightenment. I received the sixth sense. I could
predict what would happen in the future. Knowing things ahead of time
before it really happens to me is a dream or vision. But everything I
foresaw was not dream because it was not something good that was going to
happen. There were nightmares that frightened me. They were all about
death and suffering.
There
was a time when I was playing with my brother and sister when I had a
nightmare. In a vision I saw that my father was dead. Then I started to
predict my father’s death and I told my brother and my sister that our
father was dead. It was the time when my father was in the front line as a
Karen freedom fighter. A few days later we got the message that my father
had died in that battle.
Whenever
the Burmese troops were coming to our place I had a nightmare. I predicted
about their coming and we moved to a safe place before they could reach
our place. When we ate our meal we had to eat very quickly pack our things
to get ready and be prepared for another living nightmare could happen.
The
nightmare that I had has affected my life even today. It has become my
habit to eat in a hurry when there need no hurry. Sometimes often I hide
in the jungle like wild chicken because of the nightmare affect me even
today. That I do not feel comfortable in the presence of so many people
and of strangers. Sometimes I am still very afraid.
When
I read The Universal Declaration of Human Rights it seems that almost all
our rights are being violated and abused. I hope for positive change to
take place and change my nightmares into sweet dreams. I hope to see the
beautiful rainbow beyond the thick dark cloud and sunshine after rain. I
hope this is the darkest hour before dawn and soon it will be a bright
shining day for our Karen people. Although the past was so dark the future
is as bright as the promises of God. Our God never changes but He can
change everything, and very soon it will be an incredible change. The
promises of God however long delayed are certain of fulfillment. As our
song of encouragement cries, “We shall overcome, we shall overcome, and
we shall overcome some day. Oh deep in my heart I do believe. We shall
overcome some day.”
