Episode #191: Resisting Until Victory
“I was born as an internally displaced person in the Fifth Brigade in Karen state, Eastern Burma,” Myra Dahgaypaw explains. “And as an internally displaced person, I’ve had to flee for my life since I was a baby, along with my parents, and my three siblings.” Myra describes how they had to escape from gunfire, airstrikes, and landmines; and whenever and wherever it seemed as though they had finally reached safety, the Burmese military would reappear, and the family would, once again, have to run for their lives.
This was a lot for a child to absorb, and more than once she asked her elders why those soldiers were always trying to kill them. Her earliest childhood memories include having to dig trenches before military attacks, and hauling rice to a faraway barn so that the army couldn’t find it and burn it. None of it made any sense to her, and she asked her parents and others why they had to live that way. But the answers she received never really satisfied her. She wondered why all this was happening to them. Had she herself, perhaps, done something bad that was causing it? Did everyone have to live this way? But there was never any opportunity to follow the threads of these questions, or deal with the trauma inflicted on them, because their physical survival itself was always in doubt.
As these experiences accumulated, so did her fear and hatred of the Burmese military, which spilled over into her feelings about the Bamar people as a whole. She remembers bristling when asked to enroll in Burmese language class, as she had no wish to speak the language of her tormentor. “When I was a child, I couldn't think anything good about the Burmese, because the Burmese troops came out to kill us,” she recalls. “They burned down our places, planted land mines, and people were brutally murdered, including even those in my own family: my relatives, my aunts, uncles, and cousins. And so when I was a child, the only thing I could visualize about the Burman is that they look like monsters with big horns and big teeth! Then I later figured, no, they are just like us, they're fleeing for lives, they are also persecuted. And that's how I developed my thinking and figuring that we all are needing each other. And that's how my life as an advocate and activist started off.”
Tragically, life on the run proved to be too much for her parents. They both died before Myra was a teenager, so she ended up being raised by her uncle’s family in a “refugee” camp in Thailand. “Refuge” is in quotes here because at that point, the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) had not yet officially recognized either the conflict or those fleeing from it, so there was no official term for those staying in that settlement.
Myra became committed to doing what she could to alleviate her people’s suffering, and so as soon as she was old enough, she began volunteering at the local clinic. “I didn't know anything about nursing, but I had to literally learn quickly how to give injections, measure the temperature and blood pressure, and to use a microscope to check out for viruses and malaria.”
Yet being on Thai soil didn’t provide any real safety, either. A regime-aligned militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), would position themselves across the river demarcating the countries, and actually fire live rounds at the refugees. “To the best of my ability, I learned how to shoot,” she explains. “I had to carry a gun along with the men in order to make sure that our people were safe. So literally, when we went out to look after different patients, we always had to carry some kind of safety with us to so that if anything happens, we can protect ourselves.” In other instances, she describes how the DKBA actually crossed into Thailand to burn down refugee huts. Myra remembers her grandmother being so traumatized that she finally turned to a soldier and said, “I cannot walk anymore because I'm too old. If you want to kill me, just kill me now!” Perhaps due to a pang of conscience or shame, the soldier let them be.
While few refugees in their situation are ever able to transcend their circumstances, Myra’s thirst for education became her ticket out. She enrolled in English language classes that the Soros Foundation was offering through their Open Society Initiative. She later became a librarian at OSI, which ultimately paved the way for work and schooling abroad.
Her work eventually landed her in Washington, DC, where she now works for the US Campaign for Burma. “We're trying to rally and educate the diaspora here in the US, and build up support in the government, in the Congress, as well as in the State Department,” she says. “We also have the grassroots support because they are our strength, so the more we can rally, the more support we will get and our voice will get louder.”
While most of her Burmese colleagues there are volunteers, Myra still recognizes the privilege that they enjoy when compared to their friends and family back home. “I live a luxurious life compared to the people who are struggling to survive on daily basis, and not knowing when they will be killed by the Burmese military. But of course, if we compare with the lives of the American people, it's just a normal life.” And for Americans, who have not experienced firsthand the brutality of life under the military regime but yet are concerned by the emerging armed resistance, Myra has a direct message: “I want to help you all understand that this is not a choice, but this is a life and death situation! You do or die. Do we like guns? I don't like guns at all! Never ever in my wildest [dreams did I] think that I would have to shoot a gun! But then, when I either had to run away or pick [a gun] up and make sure that my community was safe, then there was no choice, I just had to do it! And likewise, the people in Burma right now, the civilians who never probably have seen a real gun, let alone having to pick it up and shoot it and protect the community. So literally, it is a do or die situation.”
This only strengthens her resolve to find support on Capitol Hill, and to undermine the military’s brutal stranglehold on her country. “If you look at every corner of Burma, you look all the way from Chin state going over to Kachin, Shan, and Karen; airstrikes are happening on a regular basis. But the international community is just talking about it a bit here and a bit there! That doesn't help. You have to get down to the root cause of the problem, which is the military's brutality.”
Myra feels that the military’s past success in keeping groups divided and fearful of one another is waning; there’s more solidarity than ever before. This even includes the Rohingya community, which had long been disparaged by the country’s Buddhist majority. Myra, herself, took time to visit their refugee camps and speak out for them in years past. But equally important to uniting the country’s diverse groups is finding solidarity within ethnic communities themselves. For example, she notes the divisions growing among her own Karen people. “I do want to see the Karen community unite. Because only if we can unite, we will be stronger, and that'll be somewhat easier to fight the Burma Army. This is what the Burma Army is afraid of most, is when people are united, when people are coming together as a unified entity. That is why they're using the divide and conquer to keep us apart from each other so that we cannot conquer them, but they can conquer us!”
Yet to do this, it will take the support of all involved, and for this, Myra makes a direct appeal to the audience. “The people on the ground will do everything they can to keep the community alive! As listeners, I know some of you may be saying, ‘Oh, I can't do much.’ Yes, you can! You have the voice, you have the liberty. You have your senators, representatives, your policymakers who have so much power that can help us make a difference. We need to build up political will. We need to educate them. And then probably you might say, ‘Well, I don't know enough.’ Ok, well I understand. I don't know enough, either. I always feel like I never know enough! But remember, no matter what we say here, no matter what we advocate for, we can still go back to bed at night and sleep peacefully. I know people in Burma are not having this luxury. Next time they're killed, they're beheaded, they're put in jail… just because they are fighting for freedom, they are fighting for their rights and the rights of the people, the civilians of Burma.”