You are not forgotten
“You are not forgotten,” said Aung San Suu Kyi. “Pass this message to those behind you and on to others.” Not permitted a microphone, the Burmese pro-democracy leader called out to the crowd of refugees and migrants at the border refugee encampment of Mae La in May on her first visit abroad in 24 years. Her clear message of hope quickly reached the hundreds of thousands of Myanmar citizens, who had waited decades in squalid jungle camps along the length of the 1,300 km Thai-Myanmar border.
On April 17, 2011, the Lahu community at Chaka in northern Thailand watched in horror as five of the seven houses in their village as well as the rice barns burned to the ground. It was a devastating loss for the 450 villagers, most of whom are farmers engaged in rotation farming of hill rice. Some tend to their cattle while some of the young engage in the seasonal picking of lychee and longgan in the orchards in Chiangmai.
Bangkok, 11 November 2010 – An estimated 20,000 people have fled to Thailand since conflict broke out between government forces and the fifth brigade of the ethnic Karen rebel group, the DKBA. Fighting began on Monday morning 8 November in the southeastern border town of Myawaddy, less than a day after election polls opened in the military controlled region.