Saw Hsar O Phla (Star Appeal)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is “a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nation”. The moral force of this Declaration is such that is has gained the status of customary international law. It stipulates that all persons “Without distinction of any kind”. These rights include “the right to life, freedom and security for the person”.

Right now, all over the world, there is an awakening about human rights, especially for children and women. Million of children in our world have no time to play or to go to school. They have to go to work. Also we heard the news from the radio that millions of children are being sold in to slavery and servitude. Too many children are innocent victims. Boys and girls step on landmines and are homeless. In these days this situation is happening in Burma too. The military forces the children to learn how to fight the enemy in a war. Sometimes they also use children to carry heavy loads as potter.

We also know that some nations are stubborn. They don’t give permission for women to go to the church or to have the same rights as with men. Through this segregation, difficulties become more and more.

Karen women’s rights in Burma, are bad and they also have to come across cruel circumstance. Why? Because the government of State Peace and Development Council used them like materials. For example, the S.P.D.C. use women as porters, during the daytime but at the nighttime, they rape them too, knowing this is too painful and cause bitterness for us. So the questions come out from us, where are human rights? Or what are human rights?

We also have to ask, what is freedom? Freedom means not being controlled of by fate or through necessity. Freedom is the power of self-determination and it is attributed to individual will.

According to the Biblical view, freedom is the ability of a person or group to be and do what they want instead of being controlled by another. It is popular today to believe that the individual is or should be in full control of him or herself. In one sense the scriptures do affirm that we are in control of ourselves. We are able to choose our actions and attitudes, our responses to others and to God. The Bible constantly affirms that the kind of freedom persons are entitled to is the kind of freedom that slaves are released from.

“We are thirsty for freedom”. We want to drink from a cool stream; a peaceful place. But freedom for our Karen is in a Refugee camp. Families had to flee and live in a refugee camp. Families lost space, lost homes, lost jobs and lost dignity. We have the full right to stay in the camp. We have no citizenship and there are no guarantees for us.

Similarly, in Burma, most of the ethnic groups have no freedom, because of the constitution of the government. The government has made the pursuit of freedom a bad thing. For example, they force people to make highways without payment and force them to move from villages to other places. Village people have no security at all. So the question rises up, “ What is freedom?” Does freedom exist only in the human mouth? We need real freedom, both physical and spiritual now!

Security is the foundation of being protected from and not exposed to danger. It is safety. The Biblical view of assurance or security is rooted in the conviction that when Jesus departed from the disciples, the Lord did not orphan them and leave them without support.

Sometimes we think that our future is too dark because we have to struggle a lot. We have to face a very bitter experience. Sometimes we are uncertain for our future. As human beings, we need security for the dark forces which confront us. All the people in this world need security for living. The Karen are no different.

Right now Karen people in Burma, are suffering a lot. They do not have any right or freedom to choose. They hide themselves in the forest like wild animals; from the Burmese army’s oppressive ways. They don’t have enough food, clothes and security for their life. As human beings the flesh is weak and when they become sick, they have no medical facilities to treat sickness or ailments. This is the current situation in Burma.

The S.P.D.C. runs the government system. Instead of providing security to people, they oppress the citizens. Those who are in Burma, hope security will come soon. When, no one knows. Only time can tell. But who can say where? And who can say how?

I still have hope that one day, as Martin Luther King says “one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the tough places shall be made plain”. For us we still hope that one day, everything will come back to normal in God’s tune. There will be no rich or no poor any more. At that time, we will find the real and true freedom in our Kaw Thoo Lei there. To conclude in Biblical terms, the security of the belief is not merely focused upon this life on earth. It has a dynamic focus on the life-to-come. One Karen proverb says, “Our Nation will become great, by the grace of God.”