Who are the Karen People of Burma

The Karens are generally thought to be one of the Mongolian tribes that traversed the central Asian plains, some moving further east into the vast lands of China, others turned south into South Western China and Burma and further down south into Northern Thailand.

They were simple and peaceful, and were thought to be the first Mongolian tribe that entered Burma - even before the Mon, Talaing and the Burman. As they migrated to what is called Burma today they were pushed further and further south by the later tribes until they got separated into different areas of Burma and Thailand, namely the Pegu Yoma, the Deltas, Tenasserim and later into the hills of Tenasserim and into the hills of Thailand.

After the British conquered Burma in the early 18th century, they found that the Karens made very good and loyal soldiers and were very disciplined. In time the bulk of the British army recruited from the different tribes were the Karen. It should be noted that for obvious reason, the Burman were not recruited into the British armies. When in the early 1930s, there were rebellion against the British rule, the British used the Karen Battalions to successfully crush the up rising. Many later uprisings or riots were quelled by the Karen Battalions. Thus the Karen earned the hatred and distrust of the Burman It seemed that the Karen did not have any king but lived cordially within a communal villages led by a village chief. This by no means meant that the Karen were communists - in fact the Karen were totally anti  Communist. When the Karen shared their possession or food with other members of the community, it was out of love their people and not communistic. Karen houses were open as there were no theft or robbery or murder. However, their villages were guarded and protected by bamboo groves or fences as protection against other tribes who bully them into sharing their possession. Many times they were outright robbed by neighboring villagers of other tribes -mostly Burman tribe, and  Burman kings who would take many men back to the north as slaves.

When the British evacuated Burma during WW2, the Burman took advantage of the situation by attacking hundreds of Karen villages, burning their churches - a large percentage of the Karens were Christians - their granaries and paddy fields, slaughtering women and children and  plundering. The Karen had hardly any defense because the bulk of the Karen military evacuated with the British. Nevertheless, the karen retaliated and the communal riot had to be stopped by the invading Japanese army.

However, the Karen today are ready to acknowledge that the Burman is also a fellow human being and a fellow member of the nation and try to live in harmony with their Burman neighbor. Today, it is the politicians that will instigate any animosity between between the two peoples. The Karen are fighting today under the banner of KNU, the Karen National Union. But the Karen are not fighting for their survival alone, but for the entire country - including the Burman opposition party, the National League for Democracy under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, presently under house arrest.

Article written by Saw Spenzen

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