2011 marked the release of Aung San Su Kyi, one of the most visible women resisting the authoritarian Burmese government. As Aung San Su Kyi registers the NLD and prepares to fight in an upcoming by-election, numerous other stories of oppression, abuse, torture and arbitrary executions continue to be unsung in Burma.
One of those hidden, near-invisible, stories is the ongoing oppression of the Karen community, a large ethnic group in Burma, which has persistently been discriminated against and persecuted by the Burmese military. As Karen women take on positions of authority as village chiefs in response to the high number of male chiefs being killed, Burmese soldiers spare them none of the humiliation and torture of their male counterparts.
In a report by the Karen Women’s Organisation, “Walking Amongst Sharp Knives”, women village chiefs give testimony to the war crimes that have been perpetrated against their communities. Villagers are buried up to their heads and beaten to death. Villagers are crucified, tortured and then executed. Villagers are forced into slave labour. Female village chiefs have often been raped, and gang-raped.
In spite of immense personal suffering, many female village chiefs continue to serve their villages with unwavering responsibility and strength. One village chief relates, “I have no words to express my feelings about the horrible condition of those dead bodies of the innocent people going about their livelihood.” Another details the impossibility of her situation: “Even when we provided everything the soldiers asked for we were still beaten, tortured and killed.”
These testimonies, of course, are rarely voiced, let alone heard. In a country where journalists are routinely oppressed and vital NGO work has to be carried out along the Thai-Burmese border, these war crimes rarely make it to mainstream media outlets. Journalism in Burma is notoriously difficult; just earlier this month, two Indian journalists were detained.
In a year where citizen journalism via new media has dominated the reporting of international events, how does the Karen community make its voice heard? The testimonies in “Walking Amongst Sharp Knives” are not tweetable in less than 140 characters. And there are few, if any, photographs to document the Karen communities’ suffering.
Like so many instances of ‘invisible’ violence, how do we bring these stories to the senses? How do we get to even know the word ‘Karen’ (as well the numerous other ethnic groups in Burma)? And how to do we value these lives, and they are surely lives, that are being extinguished by the day by the boot stamp of oppression?
