Karen people The
Karen are a group of Indo-Chinese tribes living principally in Burma in the Indo-Chinese Peninsula. The greater part of this territory they occupy in connection with the other peoples of the country, namely, the Burmese, Shan, Siamese, and Chin. The only exclusively Karen country is the hilly region of the Toungoo district and the Karenni subdivision. The Karen languages, members of the Tibeto-Burman group of the Sino-Tibetan language family, consist of three mutually unintelligible branches: Sgaw, Pwo, and Pa'o.[20] [21] Karenni (Red Karen) and Kayan belong to the Sgaw branch. Karens were
Animists originally, but today the majority is
Buddhist in conjunction with
Animism. The Buddhist influence came from the
Mon who were dominant in
Lower Burma until the middle of the 18th century.
Tha Byu, the first convert to
Christianity in 1828. Persecution of Christians by the Burmese authorities has continued to this day, fuelled by the belief that Western
imperialists have sought to divide the country not only on
ethnic but on religious grounds.
Background on Burma Burma is a country of ethnic diversity, its estimated population of 48–50 million being divided between 15 major ethnic groups, many of them with distinct subgroups. These groups come from very different origins. The extent of differences is visible in their cultures and languages. According to the Karen, their people "arrived in Burma, a region at the time was virtually unpopulated jungle, approximately 2,500 years ago after a migration in several stages from the region of what is now Mongolia, and settled in what is now
the Irrawaddy and Sittaung basin of central Burma." This began the movement of peoples like the Karen from the central lowlands out into the hills. The British took over what is now Burma in 3 wars: 1824–26, 1852–53, and finally in 1886, when ‘Burma’ became part of the British Empire as a province of British India. Under the rule of the SPDC, farming villages have to deal with several Army battalions moving into the area, restricting the movements of villagers and demanding food, labour, and building materials. Karen families operate on a subsistence level, growing enough rice and vegetables for their own use. Their system has no safety net in hard times, therefore there is no built-in capacity to deal with this situation. Their forced relocation under the SPDC military is for the purpose of using them as a convenient source of unpaid labour at local Army camps and along the roads. After a few months, many people find they have little option but to starve or flee. The Burmese army carries out massive forced relocation of rural villages, with the intention of eliminating civilian support for opposition groups or clearing ground for infrastructural projects. These days most people know what is happening at the relocation sites, so when they are ordered to move they simply flee into hiding in the forests surrounding their farmlands. Tens of thousands of people are presently living in this way "under the constant risk of being captured or shot by passing SPDC patrols who also seek out and destroy their food supplies and crops in the fields. Eventually, they can no longer survive this way and try to make their way to the border [between Burma and] Thailand to become refugees." == KHRG’s Vision and Mission ==