No Peace In Our Time

“Every society has the criminals it deserves.”

~Emma Goldman

 

We have reached a point where the existence of a terrorist threat from the right-wing can no more be denied. When neo-Nazis lay siege to the Capitol, only those they do not wish to kill have the privilege to pretend normality and civility can be restored. For the rest of us, the events of January 6^th were the right's announcement that they are ready and willing to attack regardless of who is president. And this country will gladly allow them the space in which to do it.

In the coming weeks we will hear Democrats shift from calls for justice as they begin talking about peace and reconciliation. They will say that we must have unity and find common ground with the same people who just told us they want us dead. Men who wore “Camp Auschwitz” and “Six Million Jews Was Not Enough" shirts are to brought back into the fold by forcing us to bow before them and the Liberal left will demand as much. There is no indignity, no amount of danger, considered too great for us to be ordered to accept in the name of peace. And when the next attack comes, there will be no amount of our blood spilled that is too much for the Democrats to consider to be an acceptable sacrifice.

The Republicans have shown their hand. They embraced a president who built larger camps in which to torture immigrants. They licked Trump’s boots while he called Nazis “good people”. They have even in the wake of the president’s treason tried to find ways to shift the blame elsewhere, with men like Hawley dog whistling the base. A party that had torch lit parades while shouting “they will not replace us", a Nazi slogan, cannot be brought back into the fold. If the Republican Party is not abolished, it will continue to be haven for genocidal factions dead set on the destruction of democracy. There can be no peace with these people.

American society has long demanded its minority populations sacrifice disproportionately for the sake of the majority. When Black church goers are gunned down, the white gunman is sanitized by the media and treated with kid gloves by the cops. When Hispanic workers go to the fields and factories to put food on the tables of all Americans, the state uses their vulnerability against them and breaks up their families while white owned corporations get a free pass. When American Jews go to temple or market and are met with the bullets of antisemites, all other Americans find ways to pretend their embrace of antisemitic rhetoric had nothing to do with it. America is a nation of cannibals, savages incapable of civilized behavior for more than a moment, yet pretends to be a bastion of liberty and democracy. It builds up an alter to itself on the backs of subjugated neighbors and former colonies while placing its most vulnerable communities upon it as a sacrifice. All promises of greatness from the American empire have always come with the price tag of the innocent blood of intentionally voiceless minorities. The American dream purchased through the deaths of those it erases from history books.

If the Democrats want peace they must first force the United States into a confrontation with its past and present behavior. They must attack the foundations of American mythology and reconcile with the beast within this country. The painful experiences of the United State’s minorities cannot be ignored any longer. The US must pay the devil for time borrowed. Institutions of oppression, the same ones the Right holds up as symbols of greatness, must be inspected and dismantled. Those who have profited off the exploitation of the lower classes must be made to pay for their transgressions as the dignity of the oppressed is restored and their quality of life elevated from the present state of virtual slavery to the system. Until the United States is ready to uproot the right-wing, level the field and offer all people the same rights and liberties; peace is a synonym for submission.

 

Savage Peace

Enduring Myanmar's "Ceasefire"
(part of The Darkness Visible series)

Praying for peace, praying to live.

When every meal is a blessing, and never guaranteed, you don't take a single grain of rice for granted. Every morsel, every last bite, is a step toward survival for the Kachin people of Burma. Their way of life was stripped from them. Their homeland laid to waste as the military of Myanmar grabbed up land and expelled the people it belongs to. Their homes were burned as the hellish minions of Myanmar's leadership trampled their fields and slaughtered their livestock. Where children once played there are now landmines and men in uniform to who the laws of war do not apply.

When every day you get to breath air free of smoke and ash is a blessing you don't take the little things in life for granted. Holidays that were once sacred may come and go without notice for many, but for those who have nothing else, they never pass without the offering of some faint sense of hope. Christmas was once a time of blessings for the Kachin people. It was celebrated in their own unique way. Now it is cherished for it's sweet, if only momentary, release from the cruel monotony of war. Celebrations that may only mirror what they once were are now the moments that Kachin children, born to this hell on earth, will remember for a lifetime. And yet these bitter sweet memories will have to be stored alongside ones that leave scars that time may never fully heal.

Peace is a lofty idea for a nation that has been at war with itself for nearly six decades. It's almost like a carrot at the end of a stick. Persistently dangling just beyond the reach of the people these wars have oppressed for so long. It is a sign of hope that they would continue to look forward towards it. Yet it is a miserable reality that the nation holding that carrot just out reach is the very reason for their suffering in the first place.

The Kachin people seek only for themselves what any other nation of men have sought out throughout all of time. They want the right to self-determination as a people, the right to preserve their heritage and culture. They seek to be recognized as a distinct culture and not forced into assimilation into an amalgamation designed by politicians who detest them on an ethic basis. But more importantly, they seek a better life for their children and a future free from the threat of war and starvation.

No people on the this planet will ever accept for their children a life worse than the one they have already endured. No mother would wish to remain silent as she watches her children waste away from hunger and disease. No father would want to live with the reality that his wife and daughters could be taken away and raped at any moment. And though these may not characterize the politics behind the war, these are the driving fears that fuel a society to resist the heavy hand of a brutal government. These are the sorts of fears that keep militias in the field and a savage military constantly beating at the door.

However despite the natural inclination of man to resist tyranny, Myanmar continues to push for more of it as they tell the world how wonderful this "ceasefire" is for the Kachin State and it's people. Behind the fog of war, which never really left, the military continues it's campaign of rape, pillage, and ruthless slaughter. The intent to intimidate what they view as the underdog is clear once the government's lies are stripped away. No amount of propaganda can hide the scars left upon the victims of this barbarism. Missing limbs and protruding ribs don't speak to peace. Children playing in squalid camps while parents wait for rations that never come doesn't indicate peace. Only the lies coming from Burma's leadership speak of this.

This is made evident when soldiers from Burma's military invade internally displaced peoples' camps (IDPs) and use what little resources these people have for their own profit.

"The FBR (Free Burma Rangers) lists and dates the Burma Army took over a camp for displaced people. On 21 November 2013, Burma Army soldiers – from Battalion 47, 56, 240, 276, and 319 – occupied Nam Lim Pa clinic, in Nam Lim Pa IDP camp, using the building to store weapons and ammunition."

~ Burma News International 1-2-14

Organizations like the Free Burma Rangers, a front line humanitarian group, have helped strip away the lies that Myanmar attempts to portray to the world. Their people on the ground record every movement the Burmese soldiers make against the Kachin civilians. Their atrocities are recorded in detail and accounts from the victims, whose voices would otherwise be silenced, are smuggled out of Myanmar. These records show where Myanmar's official party line and reality so dramatically separate from one another.

When Burma's military sets IDP camps to the torch the world is told that there are million reasons why these squalid camps go up in flames. Myanmar blames anything from a camp fire getting out of control to the refugees themselves. Yet when Nam Lim Pa went up in flames the Free Burma Rangers provided the world with photographic evidence of Myanmar's military's involvement. Unexploded mortar shells and spent rounds proved that the camp was savagely attacked and the refugees driven off as the Burmese soldiers approached in such a manner as to flush the camp entirely.

Civilians are not mentally prepared for combat in the way that soldiers are. Attacks like these are carried out to amplify the confusion and fear that sets in as the military takes camps by surprise. Though the goal is usually to simply drive off the refugees the military takes no measures to prevent casualties amongst civilians. It rather appears that the intent is to maximize the numbers of Kachin refugees killed so as to keep refugees from returning once the soldiers have moved out.

Once the attacks are over the Burmese military takes to exploiting Kachin civilians who can't escape their advance. Taking resources the Kachin people need to live, Myanmar's military deprives desperate refugees of their basic needs. In Nam Lim Pa the soldiers took rice from villagers before opening fire to drive the civilians back as the soldiers carried off their food. Helpless, the Kachin villagers had no way of hiding their rice or keeping it from troops that are still being resupplied from central Burma.

For the outside world these sorts of actions should indicate the end goal of Myanmar's war against the Kachin people. This is not a war to bring the Kachin people into the ranks of Burma's "culturally diverse" society. This is not a war to push the Kachin rebel factions into submission. This is a war to ethnically cleanse as much of the Kachin state as Myanmar possibly can before so called peace is established. The ceasefire is Burma's way of holding up a blank sheet of paper and proclaiming to the world "peace in our time".

There can be no peace with between a government and a people it wishes didn't exist. The carrot at the end of this stick is an illusion. For the actions of the Burmese military more directly reflect the intent of it's government than the words that fall from perverse lips back in Myanmar's capitol. Every drop of blood spilled on behalf of this savage peace speaks volumes to the reason the Kachin people still suffer.

Until the world is forced to realize that genocide needs not war or conflict to be effective then the peoples whose lives it claims can never be saved. The value of their existence amongst us is no more than that of the breath we exhale while proclaiming "never again". Our promise to uphold that vague proclamation falls more rapidly to the grave than the Kachin people themselves.

As a world community we must look past our hope that peace can be achieved without pain. We must realize that as long as there are men who would sacrifice entire races of men to their insanity there will always be a reason to fight. We must realize that those words, never again, so desperately need action to make them a reality.

Putting pressure upon your own government is just a start.

The most direct way to help those who need it most, the Kachin civilians who endure this tragedy, is to put your own resources into the fight. Time, money, and your voice go further than you might realize.

Two organizations to partner with in this fight for the Kachin peoples' future, and two organizations you should research for more info on this topic, are:

The Free Burma Rangers

And...

Partners Relief and Development

When every meal you eat is just another part of your day, you have it better than most of the rest of the world. When every dollar you spend doesn't make you decide between life and death, you have something to spare. And when every breath you breathe is free from fear, you have a voice that can be used to ease the fears of others.

We here at Alder's Ledge make regular donations to Partners Relief and Development. We will never ask that you do something that we ourselves would not. When we ask you to "scream" we will always be there to help amplify your voice in any way we can. When we ask you to donate we are pleading with you to join us in our effort to put our hard earned cash behind our voice. We know that everyone of us is working hard, and those dollars probably have been dogeared for something else, yet when we ask... we ask also that you give it thought (and prayer if need be) to decide what it is you could sacrifice so that those in need don't have to.

On 22 November 2013, Burma Army soldiers from MOC 21 took 5 sacks of rice from the IDP rations at Nam Lim Pa IDP camp. While Burma Army troops were taking rice rations from IDPs, 23 villagers from Man Dau village were walking to Nam Lim Pa IDP camp. When they encountered the Burma Army troops in the area, Burma Army troops began shooting at the villagers, causing the villagers to turn and run back to Man Dau. - See more at: http://www.freeburmarangers.org/2013/12/11/rangers-help-lead-villagers-to-safety-as-burma-army-enters-nam-lim-pa-idp-camp-takes-rice-rations-and-fires-at-villagers/#sthash.JT10Wp5h.dpuf

On 22 November 2013, Burma Army soldiers from MOC 21 took 5 sacks of rice from the IDP rations at Nam Lim Pa IDP camp. While Burma Army troops were taking rice rations from IDPs, 23 villagers from Man Dau village were walking to Nam Lim Pa IDP camp. When they encountered the Burma Army troops in the area, Burma Army troops began shooting at the villagers, causing the villagers to turn and run back to Man Dau. - See more at: http://www.freeburmarangers.org/2013/12/11/rangers-help-lead-villagers-to-safety-as-burma-army-enters-nam-lim-pa-idp-camp-takes-rice-rations-and-fires-at-villagers/#sthash.JT10Wp5h.dpuf

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Contact the author on Twitter - @alders_ledge

Contact a team member on Twitter - @AL_Staff

Source Documents
(note: not all listed)

Burma News International
http://www.bnionline.net/index.php/feature/kic/16604-burma-army-looting-intimidation-displacement-in-kachin-state.html

Myanmar Times
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/travel/9175-feeling-a-little-myopic-at-the-kachin-cultural-museum.html

Burma Free Rangers
http://www.freeburmarangers.org/2013/12/11/rangers-help-lead-villagers-to-safety-as-burma-army-enters-nam-lim-pa-idp-camp-takes-rice-rations-and-fires-at-villagers/

Last Bullet In The Chamber

(A Bridge Too Far series)
(PLUCK series)

(Every Word Has The Power To Wound)

No matter how well I articulate my position on Palestine and Israel I will always be seen as a "Zionist". Of this much I'm certain.

Religion is a vile and despicable construct that has served no other purpose but to divide those G-d created so much alike. Poison from the lips of imams and scholars has taken it's toll upon the moderates' minds. Venom that drips like honey, so as to hide it's bitter ends, flows from those who claim to preach peace in the name of a G-d that has apparently turned His gaze away. Their decorated temples and houses of thieves bring in the sheep to the slaughter. Yet a devout mass makes no attempt to question their masters as they raise the axe above their bowed heads.

Yes, I will always be considered a vile and ill-mannered "Zionist". But not because I hold organized religion in such contempt. No, I am "the enemy" because of my lack of apologies for supposed sins I have never once committed.

For it is not Islam that I hate. It is not Judaism which I hold such abhorrent views of. It is the perverse twisting, the manipulating, of faith in the name of politicized religion. This placement of an imagined devotion to a religion rather than the G-d it allegedly is supposed to serve. This is the source of my discontent.

On the battlefield for the survival of Israel or the "reconquista" of Palestine the main line of battle forms along religion. It is across this barrier that the two sides use the propaganda they have been fed as they release volley after volley of hate filled rhetoric. Yet both claim to be after peace? Both sides claim to be hanging their hats beneath the banners of religions that preach love and yet this is where they decide to mount their attacks from?

All my life my faith has been at war with the religion to which it is supposed to belong. Under the mislead guidance of "men of G-d" I have had to bow my head. Years of internal combat finally broke the shell and released my repulsion with every pit of snakes we so elegantly call houses of G-d. No longer could I tolerate the manipulation of holy words to serve the desires of a few. No more could I tolerate the lies that come with crosses, crescents, or stars.

For years now I my faith has been signified by the kippa atop my head. My only temple to which I retreat is that of the shadows beneath the cover of my tallit. For my faith does not need a scholar, a rabbi, an imam, or a preacher. My G-d does not need a church, a temple, or a mosque in which to confine me. My brother, my akhi... my sister, my ahoti... these are not confined by those who pray to G-d by the same name as I. The world is my alter and the persistent service of my fellow man my religion.

This is faith.

Faith cannot be used to strike at another with hollow attempts at advancing ourselves. It leaves us defenseless before the world. It places us in a state of servitude to those who most need it. In faith we step out onto a battle field where everyone carries loaded guns. Yet faith offers us nothing with which to fire back.

When we use religion to attack one another we are void of the faith to which we supposedly cling. Religion provides us a series of ritualistic defenses to hide our vulnerability. It shelters us amongst a multitude so that we become faceless... nameless. We become Muslims... Jews... we however do not become unique.

Unique talents of the individual are only highlighted in organized religion if they serve the desires of those pulling the strings. These talents that would otherwise be valuable contributions to mankind as a whole are hoarded for the selfish advancement of a few. Thus creating in situations like that in Israel an arm race of sorts that utilizes man as ammunition rather than valuing us for who we are.

The most damning part of religion playing a role in Palestine and Israel's conflict is just how effective it really is.

Through the application of "the Jews" as a blanket statement a political statement implicates not just Israel but an entire religion as a whole. The interchangeable use of Zionist with that of Jew or Jewish makes this connection between politics and faith that much more difficult to break. By utilizing these words, this ammunition, the words of a few place an entire people within the cross hairs.

No matter how moderate or rebellious the individual might be these few words can trigger a reaction based on religious devotion rather than one that might arise out of faith alone. For my faith would guide me to look beyond the words alone and toward the pain from which they originate. And yet the sting of being implicated with the masses instead of being taken as an individual brings forward only hostility. And this is from where a person will draw their reaction to such blanket statements.

For every time that I take up the position to defend Palestinians' most basic of human rights there will always be this familiar sting. As long as there are those who would defend their religion in spite of those who might otherwise align with them... I'm nothing more than a supposed "Zionist". It is this familiar sting that drives many back to the trenches their religion has dug for them and off the position their faith has guided them to hold.

This is the miserable reality of religious perversion on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Entire masses so eager to die for a flag designed for them not by G-d but by the hands of perverse leaders. This is what breaks the heart of a G-d who lives not in Jerusalem but rather in the soul of every man.

A Liar's Promise

Fate Of Kachin Still Hangs In Thin Air
(The Darkness Visible series)

"A lasting solution, the possibility to begin a new life, is the only dignified solution for the refugee himself."

~ Poul Hartling

What is the value of a promise made by somebody who has lied to you time and time before? How much weight do those words carry with you? Trust is not a measure of how much that person is respected by others but by how much they have earned it from you personally. It cannot be purchased through goodwill gestures offered at the expense of someone else. It can't be manipulated by the assurances of others. It must be earned by the person who has betrayed you in the past. For history is the best indicator of future behavior. It cannot be ignored even by the most credulous of individuals. And it most certainly is never ignored in the heat of battle.

For two years the Kachin people have been fighting a brutal war against the aggressive Burmese military. In June of 2011 a 17 year old ceasefire fell apart as war returned to their lands. Children who had been born into the uneasy peace were now ripped away from the homes they once knew. Their families, their neighbors, their villages; all was put in jeopardy by the callousness of Myanmar's generals. For two years the Kachin have simply been trying to survive.

This month a rickety agreement was reached and for the time the Burmese government seems willing to hold back it's old military rulers. In the meantime the Kachin people are forced to hold out on the other side of battle line. 100,000 internally displaced peoples remain under the fog of war. Food remains scarce and water is still a daily struggle for most. Despite agreements, these internally displaced peoples cannot return home.

Two years of war has meant that Kachin children have had no real access to an education. Some 40,000 estimated Kachin children have not received a formal education since the fighting broke out two years ago. Those who have received any form of schooling have received only minor support from NGOs and charity organizations who work around Myanmar's restrictions on the Kachin people. And yet even with the peace plan still holding, these 40,000 (est.) children are still suffering from a lack of teachers and schools in the Kachin region.

The outbreak of war in the Kachin region has led to increased vulnerability of Kachin women and children to the crime of human trafficking. With a price tag running up to $6,500 USD for each victim, the traffickers that operate along the Burmese-China border have stepped up their operations since June of 2011. Utilizing illegal trade routes the criminals transport Kachin women and girls as far as the eastern shores of China, selling them into slavery or forced marriages. Those who manage to escape are at times assisted by Chinese authorities in their attempt to return home to the Kachin region. Myanmar on the other hand does nothing to help Kachin victims, the Burmese anti-trafficking liaison office along the border does not even appear to be manned. Thus not one case of a Kachin trafficking victim contacting Myanmar authorities has yet to be reported.

Continued occupation of Kachin lands has led to confiscation of Kachin farms and villages by the Burmese authorities. These plots of valuable land have been turned into state sponsored mass agricultural projects (plantations), unregistered and unregulated gold mining operations, and foreign investment projects. One NGO even managed to document cases that have led to around 3,500 Kachin people being evicted forcibly by the Burmese military in the past few years alone. These villagers now have very limited options on how to provide for their families and future. All as a result of the seemingly lawlessness of the Kachin region under Burmese military occupation.

All of these things are promised to end soon. That is if we are to believe the government of Myanmar. This would mean that we are to believe a government that has continuously lied when talking about the Kachin region and it's people. Where the Burmese government has promised peace it has delivered unmitigated brutality and aggression. When the government promised to combat the exploitation of minorities, especially when dealing with human trafficking, it has created the "perfect storm" for criminal enterprise. To those Burma promised protection, education, and social services it has offered only homelessness, helplessness, and neglect in the worst degree.

The only token of goodwill that Myanmar has given the people of the Kachin in two years was the small gesture of allowing a UN convoy to pass through the front lines of the Kachin conflict zone. This week members from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, and World Food Programme managed to break the siege for the first time in over a year. Delivering food, water, medical aid, humanitarian supplies, and urgent care the United Nations convoy pushed into the Kachin region unmolested. This was the first sign that Myanmar could tolerate some form of compassion being shown to it's enemies. It was the first token of goodwill shown by Burma in two miserable years of fighting in the Kachin.

But once again, what is the value of a promise when it comes from a liar? How much weight can one put to the words of a bitter enemy? Can trust be earned by flimsy documents and cheapened promises? Or will only time be capable of telling whether or not the government of Myanmar is lying once again?

"It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath."

~Aeschylus

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Source Documents
(note: not all sources listed)

Democratic Voice of Burma
http://www.dvb.no/news/aid-push-to-stem-kachin-refugee-crisis/19035
-
http://www.dvb.no/news/un-convoy-delivers-aid-to-idp-camps-in-rebel-territory/28809

United Nations OCHA
http://www.unocha.org/top-stories/all-stories/myanmar-un-aid-convoy-crosses-kachin-frontlines

Mizzima News
http://www.mizzima.com/news/ethnic-issues/9511-kachin-refugee-children-in-desperate-need-of-schools

Thomson Reuters Foundation
http://www.trust.org/item/20130605081951-jpk6z/

Kachin Women's Association Thailand
http://www.kachinwomen.com/advocacy/press-release/37-press-release/110-burmas-war-against-kachin-creating-perfect-storm-for-human-trafficking-.html
-
http://www.kachinwomen.com/images/stories/publication/pushed_to_the_brink.pdf

Irrawaddy News
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/35684

Open Society Foundations 
http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/women-violence-and-burma-reporting-frontlines-kachin-state