WEDNESDAY, 20 JUNE 2012 00:00MIZZIMA NEWS<\/p>\n
In preparation for World Refugee Day \u2013 held on June 20 each year\u2013 the Karen Women\u2019s Organization (KWO) held a workshop on \u201cRefugee Rights and Repatriation\u201dthis month.<\/p>\n
It said today is \u201ca day to give thanks to those countries, like Thailand, that host Burmese refugees,\u201d who now number up to 140,000 people in camps along the Thailand-Burma border.<\/p>\n
At a time when Burma and others, including nongovernmental organizations, are talking about refugee repatriation, the KWO said it \u201cwants to be sure that even refugees are listened to.\u201d<\/p>\n
It noted that on Aung San Suu Kyi in her acceptance speech last week in Oslo for the Nobel peace prize talked about cuts in funding for Burmese refugees and \u201cdonor fatigue,\u201d while also calling on the international community to do more.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonor fatigue expresses itself precisely in the reduction of funding. \u2018Compassion fatigue\u2019 expresses itself less obviously in the reduction of concern. One is the consequence of the other. Can we afford to indulge in compassion fatigue?\u201d asked Suu Kyi. \u201cIs the cost of meeting the needs of refugees greater than the cost that would be consequent on turning an indifferent, if not a blind, eye on their suffering?\u201d<\/p>\n
KWO Secretary Eh Kler said, \u201cIf we have a choice, no body wants to become a refugee. I still remember the day when I was forced to leave my village. I did not plan to do it but the Burmese army entered our village and started shooting, so we all had to run for our lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us planned to leave our country and become refugees in another country. So now if there is a possibility for us to return to our homes, we want to have a real test of freedom and to be fully included in planning our return.\u201d<\/p>\n
She noted that in the past, she had said, \u201cNothing about us, without us. But today, I want to say \u2018Nothing about refugees without refugees.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She said there is a lot of media attention on the current peace process in Burma, but there is little change on the ground for ethnic people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, we have seen more human rights violations, land confiscations, increased Burmese military presence, forced labor, killing and continued fighting in some areas,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is not safe for refugees to return to Burma. It is not safe for refugees to be excluded from discussions and planning about their return. There is a lot of fear and not enough freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
The KWO said it would like to \u201ccall on all those sitting at the tables and making decisions about the lives of refugees to listen to our voices, and to genuinely include us. We want to see refugee representatives at every table.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to see women representatives at every table. Refugee return will not be safe unless we are listened to every step of the way,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
photo : courtesy free burma rangers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WEDNESDAY, 20 JUNE 2012 00:00MIZZIMA NEWS In preparation for World Refugee Day \u2013 held on June 20 each year\u2013 the Karen Women\u2019s Organization (KWO) held a workshop on \u201cRefugee Rights and Repatriation\u201dthis month. It said today is \u201ca day to give thanks to those countries, like Thailand, that host Burmese refugees,\u201d who now number up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4947,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4945\/revisions\/4947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}