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Former Myanmar Refugee Finds Freedom as an Army National Guard Soldier

Former Myanmar Refugee Finds Freedom as an Army National Guard Soldier












North Little Rock, Arkansas (PRWEB) June 30, 2011

As a former refugee desperately trying to become a free man, Pvt. Saw Blu celebrates his freedom this 4th of July as a solider in the United States National Guard. Each evening, Pvt. Saw Blut reads his bible and prays, thanking his God for life, freedom and asks for a chance to help others. Just three years ago, Blut was granted asylum in the United States through the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) and was resettled in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Blut, a member of the Karen ethnic group, fled Myanmar (Burma) to Malaysia to escape oppression and ethnic cleansing by the Burmese government. He lived in a refugee camp for two years until he registered with the UNHCR and paperwork was finalized.

“The soldiers would come into our villages, kill and terrorize our people and burn our houses,” Blut said.

While his parents survived past attacks, Blut said some of his extended family members didn’t make it. Coupled with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that ravaged Myanmar and southeast Asia, Blut said he and his parents are lucky to be alive. Blut grew up in a rural, poor village near Pathein, the fourth largest city in Myanmar. Modern conveniences such as plumbing, electricity and paved roads are considered luxuries. Even before the tsunami, communication was limited. Blut said he speaks with his parents several times a year on a shared line, but disconnections and interference on the line make it difficult to keep in touch. That’s where he said their common Christian faith ties them over the miles and separation. Blut said his parents miss him but are glad that he’s safe and has an opportunity to prosper as an individual.

Over the past five years more than 15,000 Burmese refugees have found asylum in the United States and Blut said he is blessed to be one of them. He received his green card from the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services in 2008, but now as a member of the Army National Guard, Blut is eligible to receive expedited citizenship. He said he looks forward to the day that he becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen.    

Blut enlisted in the Michigan Army National Guard in the spring of 2011. He earned his GED through the National Guard GED Plus program in North Little Rock on June 21, 2011 and reported for basic training at Ft. Jackson, S.C. the following day. Upon graduation, he will attend the Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic School at Ft. Jackson to learn his military occupational skill. Blut said he plans on returning to Grand Rapids, Michigan to attend college and find a full time civilian job.

“America has given me so much,” Blut said. “I just want to give back and serve my new country.”

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Posted on July 22, 2011 by , Reply

The United Nation’s Historic Failure In Myanmar

The United Nation’s has just ruled that the continued detention of Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi legally violates the country’s own laws as well as those of the international community.

Of course, the legal opinion of the United Nations means very little to the military government of Myanmar. The sad reality is that Suu Kyi, has now spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest, with the ruling junta annually extending her detention despite years of intervention of the U.N.

The failure of the United Nations in Myanmar ( Burma) is just one more example of how ineffective the international organization is in solving global political issues. The repression of Burma and the injustice of Aung San Suu Kyi by the military government of Myanmar should be seen in an historical context.

In 1991, Burma held a democratic election and the opposition party to the military won eighty two percent of the vote. An articulate women with Burmese heritage by the name of Aung San Suu Kyi led the victorious opposition party. Stunned by their defeat, the military arrested everyone in the opposition party including Suu Kyi, voided the election and changed the name of the country to Myanmar.

Every year since the overthrow of that democratically elected government the response of the United Nations has been to issue Resolutions. Resolutions that have been ignored by the country’s ruling military junta. The truth is that the United Nations can surely produce an impressive pile of words on paper but it is historically lacking in the will and skill to produce a tangible political outcome that promotes basic human rights and justice.

As the years have gone by, the sad situation in Myanmar has continued to deteriorate, with the country becoming a helpless victim to the military junta.  In 2005, former Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel and South Africa’s retired Bishop Desmond M. Tutu, wrote a report on the dubious situation in the country for United Nations Security Council.

The report outlined in detail the myriad of problems in the country. It was a report that 14 years after the overthrow of legitimate democratic rule, indirectly highlighted the United Nations total failure in changing the political and human rights conditions in Myanmar.

The 2005 Havel/Tutu report was a complete indictment of the most brutal military dictatorship in the world today. The report described a country that was the world’s leading producer of heroin and was heavily involved in drug trafficking.

In addition, over 200,000 refugees had fled the country to escape the brutality of the military regime. There were no basic human rights, children’s rights, healthcare, education, political rights or free speech. Atrocities such as murder, rape, and forced labor were common. In addition, HIV aids was a major national problem and the country was the poorest in the world. That United Nations Report from 2005 could be written about the conditions in Myanmar today.

As the United Nations produces Resolutions, Reports, Diplomatic Missions and empty Sanctions, the years have certainly not been kind to the people of Myanmar. The injustice to the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi has now reached nearly two decades.

Just last week, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described the United States as a “deadbeat” donor to the world body because it is perennially late paying its dues. However, since the United States pays 22 percent of the organization’s nearly billion operating budget, it is a major sponsor of this institution of political incompetence.

Indeed, spending nearly 5 billion dollars a year on an organization as historically corrupt and politically dysfunctional as the United Nations is not deadbeat but delusional. The stark reality is that the United Nations does not improve the human condition except as a agency of charity and disaster relief.

The United States should insist on real reform from the U.N. but to begin to reform anything the United Nations needs first to look back to the principles of its original Charter.  A Charter that; “reaffirms faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small”.

The historic failure of the U.N. in Myanmar shows how far it has lost its way. The United States should withhold its annual dues until the U.N. Charter becomes its guiding force not the deadbeat document of empty words that it has become today.

James William Smith has worked in Senior management positions for some of the largest Financial Services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. Visit his website at http://www.eWorldvu.com or his daily blog at http://www.eworldvublog.blogspot.com

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Posted on June 29, 2011 by , Reply

The United Nations and the Junta in Myanmar

Albert Einstein was quoted as saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. Unfortunately, Einstein’s definition of insanity fits the United Nations handling of the sad situation in Myanmar (Burma) for the last seventeen years.


Consider that since the overthrow of the legally elected government by Myanmar’s military junta in 1991, the U.N. General Assembly and Human Rights Commission have passed a total of twenty nine separate Resolutions aimed at stopping the Junta’s atrocities. For its part, Myanmar’s leadership has completely ignored every single United Nations Resolution.


In addition to all these United Nations Resolutions, there have been twelve calls during the last fifteen years by the United Nations Secretary General in an attempt to secure the release of imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi, the legitimately elected leader of the country. Sadly, to this day, Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest by Myanmar’s military junta.


In 2005, former Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel and South Africa’s retired Bishop Desmond M. Tutu, wrote a report on Myanmar for the United Nations Security Council. The 2005 Havel/Tutu report was a complete indictment of the most brutal military dictatorship in the world today. The report indicated that the military kidnaps male children at an early age and trains them in the use of weapons by age eleven. It is estimated that nearly 70,000 children have been forced to join the military in this manner. The country is also the world’s leading producer of heroin and is heavily involved in drug trafficking.


In addition to the drugs and rampant child abuse, thousands of Myanmar villages have been systematically destroyed by the military Junta. Over 200,000 refugees have fled the country to escape the brutality of the regime. In Myanmar, there are no basic human rights, healthcare, education, political rights, or free speech. Atrocities are common with murder, rape, and forced labor common.


In addition, HIV aids is a major problem in the country as well. In effect, the military’s corrupt ruling Junta has succeeded in making Myanmar one of the poorest countries in the world. The 2005 report also found that Myanmar met all the criteria necessary for United Nations Security Council intervention.


The truth is that the Havel/Tutu report was largely ignored by the United Nations because both Russia and China are significant arms suppliers to the Myanmar regime. Also, both of these United Nations Security Council members are actively seeking future investment opportunities with the Junta because of the country’s large gas reserves.


Last year, Myanmar’s military was attracting dubious international publicity for killing innocent monks. The monks were protesting the intolerable conditions in the country, even as construction of a palatial inland city for the Junta’s leadership called Naypyitaw was well underway. The United Nations quickly responded to last year’s tragic events in Myanmar by appointing a “special envoy”, Ibrahim Gambarito, as a liaison to improve the situation. A series of meetings between Gambarito and the military Junta would not, in the words of the U.N. special envoy, produce any “tangible outcome”.


Today, the sad story of the United Nations and Myanmar continues to get even worse. The wind and rain of Hurricane Nargis have recently devastated much of the country. More than 100,000 people are feared dead and millions more are starving and homeless. The International Community and the United Nations have tried to provide relief aid to the hurricane victims. However, the paranoid Myanmar Junta has refused to let most of the aid enter the country, fearful of a foreign military invasion.


The Junta’s continued refusal to accept foreign aid led to the recent meeting between Myanmar Senior General Than Shwe and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at General Shwe’s newly constructed palace compound in Naypyitaw. Shortly after the meeting, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon left Myanmar praising General Shwe’s “flexibility.”


It was certainly ironic that only several hours after meeting with the United Nations Secretary General , Than Shwe’s government announced that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be held for yet another year under house arrest. At least the U.N. Secretary General will not have to make that historically futile telephone call to try and secure her release for the next twelve months.


Then, a government controlled newspaper called, “The New Light of Myanmar” concluded that the country’s hurricane crisis was over as it announced; “The government and the people are like parents and children. We, all the people, were pleased with the efforts of the government.” As for the millions of starving and homeless from the recent hurricane, the government reasoned that it does not need any international aid because the Myanmar people can now eat “large frogs” that are plentiful during the rainy season.


So, the process goes on and on and on. Myanmar atrocities followed by the same sad diplomatic dance between the U.N. and Myanmar’s corrupt military leadership. A lack of any diplomatic progress is eventually followed by empty U.N. Resolution after Resolution, over and over again, year after year. However, there has never been a single, positive, tangible outcome to any of the country’s many vast problems.


This entire process is defined by Albert Einstein as insanity and it is the only real term that accurately describes the response of the United Nations to the actions of the world’s worst regime of despots in Myanmar for the last seventeen years.

James William Smith has worked in Senior management positions for some of the largest Financial Services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. Visit his website at http://www.eWorldvu.com

Posted on November 2, 2010 by , Reply