A shot of the Mae La refugee camp on the Thailand–Burma border, just outside of Mae Sot. With a population of roughly 11,700 people, the demographics of the camp are 99% Karen and Kayin ethnicities— the Kayin being closely related to the Karen in geographical closeness.
Colonel Ner Dah Mya poses for a portrait on the front line between Karen-controlled territory and the Burmese military. Ner Dah Mya is the son of the General Bo Mya, who famously defended Burma against the Japanese aggression during World War II. Bo Mya was the chairman of the Karen National Union (KNU, the political wing of Karen National Liberation Army) for 24 years.
Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Special Forces commandos do a weapons check before crossing back over into the Karen-controlled area. The Karen control very small pockets of land along the Thailand–Burma border, and the Burmese military has been quite successful in destroying most, if not all, KNLA strongholds. This fact has forced the KNLA to use hit and run tactics, transitioning their fight into a guerrilla warfare campaign where the ethnic army seldom stays in one place for long.
Doctor Cynthia Maung stands in the doorway of her office at The Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand. After Cynthia Maung became a doctor, the 1988 political uprisings in Burma began, with the intent to help the impoverished populations being oppressed by the military. Cynthia Maung fled her hometown, starting the Mae Tao Clinic just across the border in Thailand. The Mae Tao Clinic is funded and directed by Cynthia Maung, and gives free medical treatment to anyone who walks through its doors.
Soe My Naing feeds one of his 72-hour-old newborn twins through a feeding straw at the Mae Tao Clinic. If it were not for Cynthia Maung and the Mae Tao Clinic, tens of thousands of refugees and migrant workers would be left without the option of medical care in this very harsh region.
The caseload board displays what the Mae Tao Clinic deals with on a day-to-day basis: note the amount of land mine victims—Burma being cited as the tenth highest land mine amputee per capita ratio in the world; the Mae Tao clinic provides a much needed service to the victims of war munitions.
A patient of Doctor Somchate (general surgeon at the Mae Sot Hospital) rests in his hospital bed after his leg was amputated above the knee—a patient who stepped on a land mine while gathering firewood for his family’s dinner. Somchate’s numbers indicate that his hospital deals with roughly 60–70 land mine victims with approximately 40 amputations annually.
Farmland seen on the border of Thailand and Burma where villagers employ the slash-and-burn technique of agriculture. The KNU sees this as a detrimental use of land and renounces the practice. In response, the union imports agriculture experts to teach and train the villagers on new and less-ecologically-damaging techniques of growing crops.
Two pickup trucks filled with heavily-armed KNLA commandos snake along Karen-held territory, along the Thailand–Burma border, on their way to the village of Maw Kee.
Pe Yat poses for a portrait in the Karen-controlled village of Maw Kee. All villages in Karen-held territory contain Burmese spies that track the KNLA’s movements. It is imperative that the soldiers treat the villagers with the upmost respect and dignity when protecting and living alongside them, which is very evident in every Karen-held village.
The cut-off age for joining the KNLA is 16. At 15, Ah No is one of the youngest soldiers within the KNLA’s ranks. The KNLA have a history of using child soldiers, even though, recently, the ethnic army has sworn to the international community to recruit soldiers over the age of 16 exclusively.
A young child and his mother pick through a mountain of trash at the Mae Sot garbage dump to look for salvageable materials to sell to recyclers. The Mae Sot garbage dump is home to a small community of Karen refugees that live, eat, and sleep in the dump, and sort through the refuse.
Within the Mae Sot garbage dump, a mother and her young child pose for a portrait before their home. There are roughly 20 families who live amongst the garbage, in and around the dump, just across the Thailand–Burma border.
A Karen militia member walks through a banana plantation in the middle of the jungle. International NGOs travel to Karen state to teach and train the KNLA and Karen villages on new agriculture techniques, with the aim of providing villages with access to local food while reducing their reliance on risky cross-border trade—a trade which is strictly monitored by the Burmese military.
KNLA sniper Cha Do Do, grandson of the revered late General Bo Mya, stares at a ten-storey Te La Soul waterfall. The Karen state is comprised of beautiful, rich jungle and stunning ancient teak trees. The KNU plans to promote ecotourism within the Karen state, when optimistically the political situation finally stabilizes.
“We have nothing,” are the words of Sea Tu, a 28-year-old KNLA soldier. He prepares himself for the last stretch of the journey along the Thailand–Burma border until he can reach the relative safety of the Karen-held village of Maw Kee. Sea Tu (which translates to Silver and Gold in Karen) has been fighting for the KNLA for 3 years. With conviction, he offers, “I don’t want my people to run.”
On a trek to the Te La Soul waterfall, a solider radios the patrol ahead to assess the route.
Vice-President of the KNU Naw Zipporah Sien poses for a portrait in the doorway of her office. For years, the KNU has been painstakingly negotiating with the Burmese government to broker a ceasefire, yet internal organizational splits have stalled efforts in the past—casting a long shadow over today’s negotiations.
A young entrepreneur carries two migrant workers across the Moei River from Burma to Thailand, one of many trips he commissions each day. Unofficial cross-border migration is rife along the Thailand–Burma border, and greatly contributes to the black market. The manufacturing/sweatshop industry is rampant across the river in Thailand, where Burmese migrants are regularly exploited for cheap and disposable labour.
A makeshift migrant worker camp on the Thai banks of the Moei River houses a Karen family. Many families avoid official paper checks with well-placed bribes. Many migrant workers live just feet from their homeland’s borders to try and eke out a living in one of the many factories that line the Moei River’s Thai banks.
Pulling out of the village of Maw Kee is a carriage full of farmers travelling to their fields in the early morning. Farmers’ fields are sometimes multiple kilometers away from their villages—daily travels to distant locations are necessary. Some choose to build temporary shelters next to their crops, living by their side during the harvest season.
A young solider navigates the dense jungle on a trek to the Te La Soul waterfall.
“Lucky,” the Special Forces medic, shows off his back tattoo. The Karen have been fighting an ongoing war with Burma’s military for over 65 years, and their level of dedication and pride to maintain their autonomy, voice, and culture seems to be unmatched. With dwindling numbers and resources, the once mighty and feared, yet completely ardent KNLA refuse to bow down and surrender their land and their people to the Burmese military.
Five years ago, at the age of 63, Thoo Goo decided to take up arms with the KNLA and fight for his people’s freedom. Because of the KNLA’s dwindling numbers, their ranks have quite an assortment of soldiers in age, strength, and ability, yet each one’s dedication to their people is just as powerful and strong as the ranks of any military on Earth.
Two soldiers survey their surroundings while on a trek to the Tu La Soul waterfall.
The slash and burn technique of agriculture is in full effect as a Karen farmer and his son wait in their field and watch the remainder of last season’s crops burn away. Most Karen farmers grow corn due to its high sugar content, eliminating the need to grow larger fields and mitigating the risk of seizure by the roving Burmese military patrols in the area.
A young girl listens to the band play during a sermon in the Christian Baptist church in the village of Maw Kee. Burma, a country that was once predominantly Buddhist across the map, was heavily influenced by Christian missionaries centuries ago. The Karen is one of many ethnic minorities within Burma who were taken by Christian influence. As a group, these ethnic minorities represent the even smaller Christian minority within the still-Buddhist Burma.
In the Mae La refugee camp on the Thailand–Burma border, a woman places her fingerprint on a form to acknowledge that she has received her monthly rations of oil and flour. There are ten main refugee camps across the border in Thailand that house thousands of ethnic minorities, all of whom have fled the violent ethnic cleansing campaign raging within Burma.
An American-made, government-issue M-16 assault rifle in the hands of a KNLA solider in Burma. There have been rumors and speculations that either the Thai or the American government (or both) have supplied the KNLA with arms as a last line of defense against drug smugglers—those who are trying to bring yaba and heroin into Thailand.
Nah Na, a KNLA soldier, poses for a portrait with his RPG launcher on the front lines between the KNLA and the Burmese military.