Colorado Burma Roundtable Network

The Karen are an ethnic hill tribe spreading throughout eastern Burma (Myanmar) and northwestern Thailand. In Burma, the Karen are just one of over 100 ethnic people groups. The Burmans are the largest group at an estimated 68% of the approximately 47M people. Other ethnic groups include the Shan (9%), Karen (7%), Rakhine (4%), Chinese (4%), Indian (2%) and Mon (2%).

Links to Karen History and Culture
freeburmarangers.org
tbbc.org
globalrefuge.org
uscampaignforburma.org
khrg.org
karen.org
www.stolaf.edu/people/leming/karenpage.htm

Who are the Karen and why are they coming to the USA?

For the past 50 years, civil war has left Burma one of the poorest countries in the world. Since 1962, a brutal military junta has been persecuting ethnic minorities including the Karen people, leaving over 3,000 villages destroyed and countless thousands left homeless and fleeing from their own homes.

These internally displaced peoples (IDP's) flee for their lives, often hiding in the mountainous and jungle-forest regions of Burma; living without food, shelter, or water, and in constant fear. Numerous humanitarian organizations have provided documentary evidence of the systematic abuse, torture, rape and murder of ethnic minorities, including the use of IDP's as porters and for mine-clearing. This evidence has been presented before the United Nations.

Many IDP's flee for safety into Thailand where the Thai authorities have established refugee camps such as Mae-La, on the Thai side of the border with Burma. This camp has been in existence for 25 years and houses over 50,000 ethnic minorities from Burma; most of whom wish for nothing more than to be able to return to their homes and live peaceably.

Amidst this great suffering, Christianity thrives in the Karen people, who, despite their situation, retain optimism for the future.