Refugees - in memory of Kyaw Myo Thu
By attila husejnow
19 Dec 2008
It has been three years since I've been in Mae Sot. It was supposed to be my initiation, my first real reportage about refugees living on the Thai - Burma border. At that time I've met Kyaw Myo Thu, who became my guide in Mae Sot's area. He was a member of the National League for Democracy, a survivor and an eyewitness of the Depayin Massacre, but most of all He was a simple and good guy, a refugee from Mandalay dreaming for a brighter and much better future. Kyaw Myo Thu intorduced me to many people, he took me to refugee settlements, burmese schools, thai factories full of migrant workers working for the amount of 30-40 $ a month.
Kyaw Myo Thu has shown me Mae Tao Clinic, also known as dr. Cyntia's Clinic, a place that nineteen years ago was only a small wooden storeroom and now it provides medical services for Burmese migrants in Thailand and for the thousands who come from Burma each year seeking medical help. ( read more at www.maetaoclinic.org )
Mae Sot is probably more Burmese than Thai. It is also the unofficial headquarters for Burmese opposition groups ( ex. NLD-LA ) and activists. Many NGO's has their offices around. It is also the closest contact point with Karen freedom fighters concealed in the surrounding mountains.** The Karen minority have been fighting 60 years (!) against the burmese junta. It is the longest civil war in world's history.
It is very hard to wirte about everything what is happening in Burma and on the Thai border. All I can say is that I was horrified by the stories of people who have survived things, that most of us can not even imagine, things that should never happend. I saw poverty, misery, disease, but I also met people who felt happy beacause they were alive.
Kyaw Myo Thu spent almost four years in Mae Sot. Lately he was writing me about plans of getting to Norway in 2009, so we were spinnig dreams about our meeting in Poland or in Norway. Earlier both of us were excited, because I intended to make a short trip to Thailand at the end of this year. We wanted to meet each other very much.
In one of his last emails he wrote: "I hope to see you in a better world". He never told me that he was seriously sick.
I will never forget those evenings we spent together in Mae Sot and I will always remember our breaks for a thukita or our trips on a small bike that Kyaw Myo Thu used to drive like crazy!
See You in a better world brother.
** taken from Phil Thornton's "Restless Souls"
