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It’s 2010, and Aung San Suu Kyi is Free
Copyright 2010, Jessica Keralis
I did competitive acting when I was in high school. One of my performances was a duet acting piece based on the poem “1990†by Bob Holman. The refrain of the poem – the line it keeps coming back to – is
It’s 1990
& Nelson Mandela is free!
The poem is an interesting political and cultural “snapshot†of that year – it talks about everything from gay rights to tearing down the Berlin Wall to Tiananmen Square and the AIDS epidemic. Mr. Holman framed that pivotal year with Nelson Mandela’s release in his poem. It would seem that we are in a similar period of change as the world globalizes, and Aung San Suu Kyi’s release is a similarly appropriate event with which to frame it.
The question remains, however – will her release bring any relief to the Burmese refugees and IDPs?
Burma’s military junta is notorious for one of the worst human rights records in the world. Aside from the standard battery of no freedom of speech or press or assembly, no independent judiciary, forced labor, sexual violence, human trafficking, and official corruption, the government targets ethnic minority groups for “Burmisation†– a polite euphemism for a slow genocide. The military kills, rapes, and pillages: they burn down entire villages, destroy farming tools and livestock, force villagers into labor, and force the women to marry them. These minorities, which make up more than one third of Burma’s population, are constantly fleeing this military-perpetrated violence, which has created one of the worst refugee crises in the world. There are nine permanent refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border alone, with more on the borders with India and Bangladesh and in Malaysia. It is estimated that there are nearly 300,000 refugees from Burma, the majority of which are the Royingya and the Karen, and hundreds of thousands of more IDPs throughout the country.
Optimists hoped that the election on November 7, which was meant to mark the transition to civilian rule, would lay a new foundation for an improvement in the country’s situation. Unfortunately – surprise! – the election was declared a sham by pretty much everyone except for Burma’s autocratic neighbors. The elections were “cancelled†in nearly 24,000 villages along the eastern border (where the ethnic groups are focused, naturally). The UN and foreign journalists were not allowed to observe. Allegations of fraud and vote-rigging are all over the place. Dr. Suu Kyi was barred from participating, so her party, the National League for Democracy, boycotted the whole thing. The junta’s de facto party was the only one who could field candidates for all of the positions, so it naturally took 80% of the “vote,†which basically means that the junta is now wearing a civilian mask.
Despite international disappointment, however, governments and democracy advocates around the world welcomed Suu Kyi’s release as a positive step and expressed the hope that it marked the start of a change in direction for the country. Other commentators are not so cheerful, though. Some see her release as a show of confidence by the regime, or a tactic to distract the world from the country’s sad excuse for an election. Since winning her freedom, she has been walking on eggshells: she has withheld comment on most major issues, including whether or not she supports continued sanctions against the country, and her words have been “measured and careful.†Also, she has apparently not decided whether she wants to join Twitter or Facebook. The junta does not seem particularly worried.
From this point, things will undoubtedly be slow-going. After all, an election does not magically make things better (even though Thailand seems to think so). Leaders of armed ethnic groups fighting for the autonomy promised by her father before he was murdered support Suu Kyi and have welcomed her call for a multi-ethnic conference. But most Burmese refugees do not believe that anything will change. Saw Tun Wai, a Kareni who works as a teacher in the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand, firmly believes that the elections offer no hope for positive change, «neither for the Karen, nor for any of the people in Burma.»
Jessica Keralis is a public health specialist with an active interest in international health and refugee issues. She is the Communications Committee chair for the International Health section of the American Public Health Association. She blogs for the IH section and can be followed on Twitter here.
A million on coffin
In times of need
We’re referred to as beggars
Hatred at a family level; neighbours don’t see
We remain kins we don’t know its nicety
Even if a coin we need to settle debts
It will be useful to them
In that minute we’re in need
Leaving aside; millions for our funerals
Where they eat and drink to satisfaction
In the eyes of others impersonating
That they were helpful
Kins; they celebrate
Spending millions on coffins
Keep our corpses; decorated outside
And what lives inside? Gone lives
I can’t help my own self in such mazes
Relationship a maze
How can I help the world? For now
Unite with neighbours; it’s of significance
It pushes you ahead
That emotions won’t take you
Hope that; when I find one
To listen to my call
That who understands better
I will raise my two hands and eyebrows
To give you a pity
KAKUMA; A SITE FOR THE SOUTHERN SUDAN REFERENDUM
Southern Sudanese to play the harp in Kakuma;
Owing to the pending Referendum to give Southern Sudan the opportunity to vote for either unity or secession, SSRC has set up centers in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Other towns in Kenya where Sudanese should vote are: Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kitale and Daadab. Southern Sudan Referendum
Commission(SSRC) is absolutely neutral. Yesterday, registration despite its hardest layout of understanding winged its way on. The youth play the harp of unfolding the necessities of voting to the aged and the illiterates. To the literates the out-of-country registration and voting (OCV) Kenya information sheet speaks. The registration and the pending Referendum are open to voters who have registered who are above eighteen years of age. Part of the information which may suspend voters is the fact that readers may read on the information sheet as if only Dinkas are allowed to participate in the out-of-country registration and voting. It was cited in reality.
The sheet too doesn’t show centers where voting will take place in Kitale. This has made it possible to read information to instill awareness and mobilise Southern Sudanese around the Registration sites and on the road to let them get information for clarity. Southern Sudanese are urged to Register before possibilities last. Failures to register soil their fats.
No voting on the ninth of January, 2010 if one can’t produce a laminated registration card.
The Nuba, Blue Nile and Kordofan stand loose yet unable to fall into the registration and employment queues. Better the SSRC has dug down doubts by ensuring a Toll-free all over Kenya. Twelve hours of free call from six in the morning to six in the evening is enough to swallow the leftovers.
Eligibility and registration;
The camp, Kakuma has a number of nationalities which may tend to admire voting. Southern Sudanese have to present written certificates or documents issued by a Sudanese authority even if expired or a document issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees-UNHCR. If not an identifier should either deny or accept your identity. Articles 25 and 27 stipulated in the Southern Sudan Referendum Act 2009, classifies voters into the categories below:
a) Voters from the indigenous communities in Southern Sudan, that’s to say if Shilluk which entered Sudan on or before the first of January, 1956 are allowed to vote out of Southern Sudan.
b) Voters who trace their ancestry to one of the indigenous Southern Sudan communities but did not reside in Southern Sudan without interruption before or since January, 1956 can only vote in the South where they can be identified.
c) Finally, voters not belonging to any of the indigenous communities of Southern Sudan whose parents and grand-parents permanently resided in the south on or before January, 1956 can vote only in the South.
This information is verified at the centers to avoid misconceptions and to ensure Southern Sudanese are adequately informed. Agnes, the mobile operator for the SSRC in Nairobi encouraged me to let you register without fail. Totally if you think a goat and a leopard can share a room, you won’t say I told you. This out-of-country registration will take place in eight countries which include Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Ethiopia, Canada, U.S.A, UK and Australia, said Mapur, a registrar at Rajaf Primary School. In Kenya registration takes place in:
a) Nairobi with center at; Nairobi railway club, Uhuru Park, Haile Selasie Avenue
b) Eldoret has a center at; Rupa mills at Ken Knit, Uganda road
c) Nakuru center is at; Menengai social hall near Menengai High School
d) Kitale center is; The National Museum
e) Daadab center is at; Family centre two, Ifo Daadab
f) Kakuma centers are; Rajaf Primary School and Clinic two.
These centers are adequately secured beyond any doubt. Hands are checked before registration and you go through illegibility examination which when you are affirmed as illegible a form is filled showing your names, age, gender and address. Right thumbprint is placed on the form and registration card. The card is laminated in the center to ensure you don’t return. You will not leave without an inked index finger and you are done.
A card can be canceled;
a) If a mistake is made filling the entry or a card
b) When the details on the card are incorrect though laminated
c) If the lamination of the card is not performed correctly
Should you lose the card or fail to register you are nothing to vote. Those who had not gone back to Sudan where the documents are found and have no documents from UNHCR are assisted by the community leaders. Nobody registers on behalf of the other and voting is effective where you have registered.
The criticized delegates;
The team of Elizabeth Nyawuro which had some officials from the Government of Kenya and the international observers as put by Nyak and Mapur took a wrong foot. These delegates left the youth complaining camp wide that corruption lifted up in the nation-Sudan has been carried to a refugee camp. Wrong of the wrongs which was a mess was asking of community leaders to select qualified people in the camp. These leaders ended up selecting friends and relatives who were interviewed and found unable to work effectively.
The twist came on thirty first of October. Posters appeared on the notice boards needing forty polling staffs, eight civic educators and one outreach supervisor. The people who were discouraged who’re qualified could not complete the race. Mapur said the applicants were three hundred and seventy passed. Nyak who had wasted his energy told me before the outcome that he wasn’t expecting to succeed due to corruption he had witnessed. He accused the delegates of glaring, nodding and saying,» It’s okay» which is not a means of interviewing people. The shortlisted applicants were posted in the evening, said Jumla, those who arrived on time were all employed instantly. They kept saying that those who were late were denied interviews even if they didn’t know.
These accusations are not admitted to by the employees, trainers and the Mobile operator I talked to. The successful applicants were induced from twelve-fourteen of November. They are still being instructed by the out-of-country officers who are available in all the centers in the camp. They monitor the running of registration, said Mapur, a registrar.
The failures have gone far that the pay was deducted by UNHCR from thirty dollars to fifteen dollars per day to retain their workers but I can’t see the hand of UNHCR for this matter. Agnes herself knocked it out that a rumour as such is fake. It’s not to be depended on. Akran, the UNHCR staff whom I called by phone said the registration is not about UNHCR but the Kenyan Government and the IOM and that’s the fact. «To us if it will bring peace in Sudan, we support it,» she said. These accusations must be bygone. Southern Sudanese should keep high their heads hoping to play the harp they spearhead. A separate harp, you think it wiser, go don’t let go!
Funding for research
4 New Documentaries by Refugee Youth from Kakuma and Filmaid International
- Survival sex work,
- Disparities in girl child education,
- Illegal brewing,
- Entrepreneurship in the camp
STRESSED FOR HIS DEAR SISTER
A stressed who knows solution needs help.
Solomon Seyoum is an Eritrean who served as an Eritrean soldier before he parted with his family fifteen years ago. He left his family in Adisababa where he finished his Secondary Education. After he became a refugee in Kakuma, his parents were deported to Eritrea. This man is stressed to an extent of not knowing how to help himself only to put hope into getting his sister’s contact. «My sister Rozina Seyoum is in Holland,» he said. «She doesn’t know how I suffer.» He complained urging me to tell it that he needs her bitterly or his nierce whom he said grew up in his family, by the name; Nigistilougi. His sister went to Holland ten years ago leaving a child in Nairobi. However, she was married to a man he doesn’t know. Had he been himself he would have rescued the child abandoned. This fifteen years of anxiety were spent begging on roads by him and selling his ration to get only two hundred Kenyan shillings he waste on bread and tap water which he sometimes pay. He claims to be under insecurity because some men go about looking to kill him because he was their rival as a soldier. He said he spends nights in different places of the camp so that his place won’t be known. His appearance even if he can be qualified will even let any organization not allow him work. I peered on his card exchange slip today, second of November while interviewing him to find that he had lost the card thus was given that slip on first to cover only a single round of receiving ration before he could be given a new ration card. Not surprising that he cannot tell how he lost it. «I am stressed,» he said.» Have you ever seen me begging on the road?» He said he gets coins from friends to live it. Even where to eat he may not know. «God will decide on what to eat,» he humbled himself. He is bitterly looking for a way to get his sisters or mother if his life may change. He said,» I will be glad if my sister gives me her contact.» He has set his own goals. If you hear him speaking English, you will rather cry. He’s perfect like you can be surprised. The main assistance he needs is to find his sisters and brothers he could not tell or mother. Mainly phone numbers of Rozina in Holland and Nigistilougi in U.S.A as he said and their addresses. He has put his hope into this article to let him get his sisters. «I will use land line to call them,» he confided. «When do we meet,Tomorrow…..?» he asked. He wanted me to let the meeting be tomorrow to see if he would be glad by getting any of these people he needs. Fifteen years under no care of his own, God must be having a purpose him, I suppose and for this I have to sacrifice to tell his story.
K-A-K-U-M-A-
Kakuma’s uncountable threats
Alive amidst dreads
Killings for money and honey
Unbearable wind knocks heads, a day
Malnutrition, babies cry foul
Absurd_dismay
Khanga covers heads, a day
Any veil, cap or eye glass
Keeping dust not accumulated in ears, under eye balls
Ugly Tarach vomits
Many luggage and buildings lost
Antipathy_repugnance
Kicks and a run, donkeys enjoy themselves
Active cold, night unfolds
Kakuma home of jackals and parrots it should be
Useful pens oh! under oppressive sun
May comes, rains I can’t tell
Aversion_distaste
Child Labour
«The bitter tears»
Under this shade
Heat is showered
Only in the forest not a living place
I wish my parents emerge here
Am no good to walk with my peer
If I will ever have minutes of rest
To sleep with rats
Must I return at long last
For the left overs
Rats will spend night on me
Biting my thumbs and feet
Then emptying the plates
The eloquent public speech
Turns to oppression
Child, sufuria and clothes
All for me to observe
School is behind the kitchen
No short cut unless that tedious road
Breakfast before I brush and wash
I wash crockery
Day scholars dot for their lessons
The brush and washing before breakfast usually
Before taking breakfast I do
This sleeping maniac throws basket
That’s the lunch beginning
Big words thrown on me
My friends get rid of the breakfast
On my walk to the market
Lunch will be ready
And I must be sent somewhere in a while
On my return supper should be prepared
By the time I see those uniforms I admire
Along the road
I will be busy in my bedroom
Stirring competing with darkness
They later go to dinner me dressing beds
God you have seen all these
Sweet daddy you left me here
Mummy with you as well
Whom shall I call next?
Oh doves you are said to be kind!
Bear mercy on me
I am twenty years, young
I can’t weigh the beauty I possess
Boys see me and walk on all fours
Admiring me in my daily dress
My bare feet and smile broadly
I can’t write a single letter of love
You love me I get it
But I admire sufuria more than you
For I am used to it
That’s why I always turn my face aside
Then you beckon on my back
I will marry knowledge
Worse I still fear
That in a day or two
I’ll get good clothes and shoes
Heading for a villager’s home
Before getting my dreams true
I’ll rather marry rats if not a Penn
Violation of Human Rights of Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Refugees – Victims of Xenophobic Attacks in South Africa
Abstract:
This paper published in the OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development, Vol. 01, No. 05, pp. 67-83, 2010 discusses violations of the civil and political, social and economic, and cultural rights of refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa during and after the xenophobic violence of May 2008 and analyzes the response of the South African government in light of its obligations under national and international law. This paper focuses primarily on the impact of the violence and its aftermath on refugees and asylum seekers in and around Cape Town, particularly those housed in the Youngsfield and Blue Waters safety sites established in response to the xenophobic attacks and finally evacuated in April and May 2010.