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| Current
Issue: Vol. 14/2 (47) |
|
Education
and Exile:
The Story of Khin Phyn Htway
Marek
Denisiuk
Khin
Phyu Htway's beaming smile and bright disposition hardly betray her
harrowing story as a Burmese dissident or the situation in her native
Burma, where one form of military government or another has ruled since
1962 and where democratic opposition is systematically dealt with by
imprisonment, torture, and murder.
We at TCDS first met Khin at our 2003 Democracy & Diversity (D&D)
Summer Institute in Krakow, Poland, which she and her collegues were
able to attend thanks to funding provided by the Open Society Institute's
Burma Project. Not only did the Institute allow her to share her insights
and experiences with young scholars from around the world, but also
to witness first-hand the conditions of a recently democratized country.
According to Khin, "Poland is a great country to learn about democracy
-- its dreams and realities. [It] is a country that Burmese people,
people from the movement, should study." This was not the first
time that Poland had served as a model for Khin during her political
education. As a refugee in Thailand, Khin studied the experiences of
pro-democracy movements in other countries in order to inform her own
efforts to bring democracy to Burma. At that time, she found Poland's
Solidarity movement of the 1980s of particular interest.
But
above all, Khin's participation at the D&D Institute was the first
opportunity to study in a university setting. Burma has long used its
control of the educational system as a means of stifling opposition;
between 1988 and 2001, Burmese Universities had remained open for a
total of 30 months. As a response to a series of student protests against
Burma's ruling military junta, the regime shut down the country's universities
in December of 1996. When Khin graduated from high school in 1997, incapable
of pursuing her studies any further, she began working as a kindergarten
teacher and private tutor. Two years after her graduation, the country's
universities remained closed, at which point Khin recalls “I lost
my hopes and dreams in Burma.” Exasperated with the situation in
her homeland and aspiring to continue her education, Khin joined her
sister who was leaving Burma for Thailand.
"While I was still in Burma," Khin explains, "I didn't
know what was going on in the country. I was living in a small town
when the protests erupted in 1996 and I did not know what they were
about. I did not know why the universities were closed." The repression
of the regime was so pervasive that very few people would speak about
the injustices in Burma out of a fear of being informed upon. Even families
who had been directly affected by state violence would not speak to
one another about it.
Khin's ignorance concerning the Burmese regime would quickly vanish
during her trip Thailand. Upon her arrival at the Thai border town of
Mae Sot, she made the acquaintance of some family friends who were exiled
activist working for the Burmese democratic movement and who started
enlightening her about the situation in Burma. Also, witnessing the
large groups of Burmese migrants and exiles living in Thailand made
a huge impact on Khin. "It gave me a lot to think about,"
says Khin; "What's happening in my country? Why are all these people
living here when it isn't their country? And me, why am I here? After
meeting with a group of students I decided to do something for my country."
Thus Khin and her sister joined the Democratic Party for a New Society
(DPNS), a political party that was formed in Burma following the 1988
uprising and, as a result of state persecution, relocated to Thailand.
Thailand's policy towards those fleeing Burma is ambiguous at best.
Though it is not a signatory of the United Nations Convention relating
to the Status of Refugees, it has nevertheless served as a destination
for many threatened people in the region, particularly Burmese migrants
and exiles. Those fleeing Burma are capable of applying for the status
of "person of concern" at the United Nations High Commission
on Refugees (UNHCR) office operating out of Bangkok (the term "refugee"
being intentionally not used as a means of avoiding the international
legal obligations that it entails). This status however leaves political
exiles vulnerable to being relocated to border camps and detention centers
where they find themselves in deplorable conditions and cut off from
their outside contacts. Thailand has also at times violated the international
custom of non-refoulement by sending individuals back to Burma, thus
exposing them to the danger of persecution by the regime. The fate of
political dissidents returning to Burma is grim; Khin's sister, while
on a visit to Burma, was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment
(she has since been released).
Like many Burmese activists living in Thailand, Khin felt that it would
be impossible to work effectively for the Burmese democratic movement
were she to register with the UNHCR. This however left her vulnerable
to arrest and deportation. "Whatever I did," recalls Khin,
"even when I was falling asleep, I would think 'My God, if they
arrest me, I won't be able to do anything, I'll end up in jail.'"
Khin was at one point arrested and transported to the Burmese border,
managing however to escape back into Thailand safely with the help of
a group of Thai intellectuals.
Despite her precarious situation, Khin became an active member of the
DPNS, heading up the women's branch of their foreign affairs office
in Bangkok. There Khin would organize capacity building programs, where
newly arrived Burmese migrant women were taught Thai and
English,
and were given basic human and labor rights training, so as to prevent
their exploitation in Thailand. Khin would collect and disseminate information
on the political situation in Burma, and speak at various events. At
the same time, she felt the need to further her education, especially
within the social and political sciences. This is when she learned about
the possibility of applying to the Democracy & Diversity Summer
Institute organized by the New School University in Krakow, Poland.
At the time of Khin's visit to Poland, Thailand's treatment of its Burmese
residents was in a period of transition. Increasingly hostile policies
towards Burmese dissidents living in Thailand were being developed as
a means of improving relations between Thailand and Burma, largely for
economic reasons. Many of the offices of pro-democracy groups have been
shut down, and a greater effort has been made to deport illegal Burmese
residents. In 2002 the Thai Security Council adopted a strategy whereby
its immigration laws became the "principal measure" of controling
Burmese activism in Thailand. What this meant in practical terms was
that, unlike before, Burmese citizens were now required to posses a
visa prior to entering Thailand. Furthermore, Thai embassies outside
of Burma were instructed not to grant visas to Burmese passport holders,
telling applicants to return to Burma in order to apply for a visa there.
Nearing the end of the D&D Institute, and with her Polish visa nearing
expiration, Khin was indeed told by the Thai embassy in Warsaw that
she would not receive a visa to re-enter Thailand. Many conversations
with the Thai Embassy and various written affadavits provided by the
Institute organizers did not help. Clearly returning to Burma as not
an option. At first she thought about the possibility of reaching Thailand
via India, as the Institute organizers had been informed it might be
easier. With the assistance of TCDS she was even able to obtain both
an Indian visa and a plane ticket. Khin, however, soon realized that
she faced the possibility of being stranded in India with no friends
or contacts, whereas in Poland she was developing a growing network
of people committed to helping her. Among them was Grzegorz Sokol, a
fellow student at the D&D Institute and a journalist working for
Poland's largest newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza. Grzegorz first became an
acquaintance of Khin's following a presentation she gave at the Institute
on the situation in Burma. Once the Institute was over, and throughout
her visa ordeal, Khin stayed at Grzegorz's Warsaw apartment and he assisted
her in any way he could. "There were so many people willing to
help," explains Grzegorz. "First there was Elzbieta Matynia
and her contacts, then through my work at Gazeta Wyborcza there was
Adam Michnik and [Gazeta columnist] Konstanty Gebert, who's wife also
worked at the Helsinki Foundation." Khin therefore decided that
it would be in her best interest to remain in Poland. She applied for,
and was eventually granted, political asylum.
With the continuing support of Grzegorz and his friends, Khin was able
to both feel more at home in Warsaw and continue her work for democratic
Burma. She was in continuous communication with her fellow activists
in Thailand and was featured in various Polish media sources, including
Gazeta Wyborcza, in an effort to raise awareness in Poland about the
situation in Burma. Towards this same end, some friends of Grzegorz's
helped organize a Burmese evening in Warsaw's House of Culture where
Khin gave an extensive presentation. Grzegorz speculates that the fee
she received for speaking at the House of Culture was more than their
usual honorarium. "The president of the House of Culture,"
recalls Grzegorz, "said he very much saw Khin's situation as similar
to that of Polish refugees in the 1980s and the help they received when
they spoke at universities in the United States and Western Europe."
Currently Khin is in the United States working for the US Campaign for
Burma. She is 22 and her biggest dream is to study here. She would like
to be able to return periodically to Poland where she wants to found
The Association of Polish Burmese Solidarity along with Gebert and the
small Burmese community in Warsaw. "I have a responsibility to
speak about Burma whenever and wherever I can" says Khin, "for
those people from Burma who cannot." Looking back on her time spent
in Poland, Khin says, “it was very interesting for me because I
met so many people willing to help me and the Burmese democratic movement.”
The troubles that Khin has faced, though remarkable, are sadly not uncommon
in today’s world. Her story does however testify to both her courageous
optimism and to the importance of civic networks of learning, which
are also networks of friendship.
Marek Denisiuk is a second-year
Liberal Studies M.A. candidate at the Graduate Faculty
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