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Running with the Karen rebels

photos by the Karen National Union and Tom Bleming

For about 60 years, almost ever since the British forces pulled out of Burma (whose current military dictatorship has renamed the country Myanmar), the Karens have been one of several ethnic groups fighting for independence or at least a greater degree of autonomy. The Karen rebels have had their military and political defeats, including splits and desertions, massacres of supporting civilians and battlefield setbacks. Nowadays they find their movements hampered by the government forces' planting of minefields around insurgent-held territories. Nevertheless some 3,000 to 4,000 Karen rebels fight on in eastern Myanmar near the Thai border, with widespread public support and a few foreigners fighting with them and others bringing in supplies.

The dictatorship has convinced a number of ethnic rebel groups to lay down their arms, but the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Shan insurgents to the north --- with whom the Karens now coordinate military activities --- hold out.

The military regime's biggest victories have been in the field of foreign policy, which might seem strange because of its pariah status by most outward appearances. However, a US Supreme Court decision held that states can't refuse to invest their employees' pension funds in companies that do business in Myanmar. European Union rules abolishing country of origin tags make the UK the biggest importer of Myanmar goods, primarily clothing that would be boycotted by many customers if they knew its origin. Foreign subsidiaries of companies based in countries that enforce economic sanctions against the dictatorship get around the economic blockade. The Thai government, eager to do business with its neighbor, has been expelling Karen men of military age from refugee camps in its territory.

Thomas J. Bleming, who from 1979 to 1981 was imprisoned here for working with some ill-fated guerrillas trying to oust Panama's dictatorship, recently paid a visit to the Karen rebels, visiting the rebel camp run by Colonel Nerdah Mya, the son of the Karen army's legendary founder Bo Mya. While Bleming was in Myanmar the government forces obligingly pressed their offensive against the KNU, which thus resulted in the Vietnam veteran seeing combat in Southeast Asia once again in his life.

Colonel Nerdah Mya

Tom Bleming, a Wyoming resident, on a farm in Karen country

A squad of KNU rebel troops

Ready to take up a position in the trench

The colonel about to go out on patrol

Rebel camp on a hillside clearing

Lunch at the KNU officers mess

Rocket-propelled grenades to drive the enemy back

When the dictatorship is on the move, the rebels must be too