Episode #75: David Eubank, A Man of Faith and Action Fights for Burma
David Eubank didn't know that a single chance encounter on a jungle path would prove to be so eventful, for not only for his own life, but now, for an entire nation as well.
In 1997. David was living in Thailand, and growing distressed about a Burmese military operation that was displacing over half a million people near the border. So loading up four backpacks with medicine, he decided to travel there to see if he could find anyone who needed help. The first man he would ultimately meet was someone he could have never imagined in his wildest dreams. “He had this big ruby earring,” David tells. “And his mouth was full of betel nut. He's laughing all the time, he had a hand grenade in the harness on his chest, and an M-16 in his hand. He looked like a pirate, but like a pirate-angel, and I found out later he was the champion kickboxer in Burma, as well as being a phenomenal medic.” Introducing himself as Ilya, he informed David that 10,000 refugees would soon be streaming down the road, many of whom were in need of urgent medical attention.
It’s funny how life can turn out, as that seemingly chance encounter was the seed that would ultimately give birth the the Free Burma Rangers (FBR). The FBR is currently comprised of over 100 relief teams, from thirteen ethnic groups across Myanmar. Their work has inspired a book, Do This For Love, and a movie, Free Burma Rangers, and they have also expanded operations to such far flung places as Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria, including direct conflict with ISIS.
If there was ever a moment when FBR’s mission would have the opportunity to inscribe more lines in the pages of history, it is now. While David has served Myanmar’s non-Bamar, ethnic communities for years, the majority Bamar had little conception of the reality of the struggles that ethnic minorities had to wage against the brutal Burmese military. But not now. Since the February 1st coup, the entire country has had to face the terror of the Tatmadaw, and many Bamar have issued heartfelt apologies to ethnic minorities for not having realized their oppression. “There's a unity now that I've never seen in Burma, nor had I ever even heard of before,” David notes. As detailed in our earlier interview with Doh Say, a Karenni freedom fighter who has been associated with FBR for decades, their camp has been playing a key role in hosting and training many young Bamar who are ready to protect their communities from the brutal Tatmadaw.
In this episode’s wide-ranging interview, David goes into his background of 25 years living and supporting those many ethnic communities, sharing what he’s learned from the different groups, the various hardships they’ve faced, and even the strange and exotic foods he’s sampled. David grew up in Thailand, his parents settling there as Christian missionaries, so even from a young age was never far from Burma, and his love and admiration for the country and its people has only grown.
It is one thing for an adventurous young American to spend his time backpacking through these diverse regions, but another entirely for a family to settle there, which is exactly the decision that David and his wife, Karen, made when their children were born. David notes that there is certainly a wonderful upside to this, as they “have hundreds of aunts and uncles from different ethnic groups that love and care for them.” Still, the choice to bring them into this life was not an easy one, as David and his wife talked openly about the dire consequences that such a decision might bring. In the end, they decided they couldn’t not bring their own children to a place where the children of those they’d grown to love were born and raised. Moreover, David realized this was a chance to, in his words, “live by the opportunities God gives you, and here's an opportunity to raise our kids, in a wild place… to learn from the native people there how to live and love each other, and where there's no locks on the doors where we are, because there are no doors!”
As a Christian, this faith in a higher power was a major factor in their decision, and continues to animate all of his work to this day. To this day, his faith animates all of his humanitarian work. “That's the heart of why I do it,” he says, “it is my belief that there is a creator God that made all people and gives us all freedom.”
In the most difficult of times, he has also searched for answers by going back to the reservoir of his faith… and 25 years of Tatmadaw cruelty has certainly given him much to reflect on, as he has chosen to confront this dark evil directly. First and foremost is the question of how and when force might be needed against a violent aggressor with little conscience. As David notes, “The bullet never changes the human heart. You never reconcile with someone by shooting them, you don't change their minds by shooting them.” To David, this also means not being overcome by negative emotions. As he says, simply, addressing the Burmese military, “We will not hate you, no matter what you do to us, we don't want to be bound by that. We love you.”
Still, this does not mean allowing entire populations to be victimized without recourse, and David acknowledges that self-defense, whether on an individual or communal level, is a basic human right everywhere in the world. And as much as David hopes for a non-violent resolution to the current conflict, he also feels context is critically important. He notes, “The Imperial Japanese Army was not about to compromise at the end of the [World War II],” nor were the Nazis, nor would North Korea today. In contrast, he reasons that the Civil Rights movement in the US, as well as the Indian independence movement under the British, occurred with countries that at least espoused certain core social values that could be pointed to in the struggle for social change, something impossible under a totalitarian dictatorship that is not above allowing the streets to run with blood.
Compounding the Myanmar military’s brutal tactics used has been the almost total lack of response or engagement by any international actor, a fact which has surprised and greatly distressed David, especially given the extent of the unfolding humanitarian disaster and Myanmar’s geopolitical importance. He believes there is so much good that other nations and foreign entities could still do now, if only they chose to. “I think this is a good time for the international community to take concrete steps: direct assistance in the ethnic areas, as well as the cities and plains; recognition and hold host meetings between the ethnic pro-democracy groups and the Burmans.”
Despite today’s dark the times, David sees signs for optimism, and is doing all he can within his capacity to support the people, who he thinks stand to win if they continue their struggle—and if foreign allies do what they can. “This is the best opportunity that I've ever seen in my life, because this standing against the coup is standing against the regime, by people of all walks of life, from all ethnicities, and is more united and sustained than I've ever seen! Despite crackdowns and slaughters by the Burma military, shooting and rifle grenades into crowds, striking with airplanes, attacking with helicopters, heavy artillery… in spite all that, the people haven't given up at all!”