Ventura Dentist and Lawyer Deliver Aid for Karen Refugees
from Burma in Northern Thailand
Ventura, California (May 4, 2007) – Ventura attorney and mediator Mark Kirwin is delivering thousands of dollars worth of dental supplies donated by local dentist Dr. Phillip Kroll to aid refugees and migrant workers displaced by the conflict in the Karen state of Burma (renamed “Myanmar” by the military junta) in northern Thailand this week. Both men are local business owners and feel they are just average people who can help others in dire circumstances have a better future. Kroll said, “If everybody does a little, it ends up being a lot.”
Kirwin, who pays for his own travel expenses and volunteers through his non-profit Kirwin International Relief Foundation (KIRF), is delivering donations and locally purchased items needed by several non-profit clinics and children’s safe houses that serve Karen refugees from Burma near the border town of Mae Sot in northern Thailand. An American physician who volunteers at the non-profit Mae Tao refugee clinic and Kirwin’s brother Stephen assisted Kirwin in this endeavor.
In addition to Kroll’s donation Kirwin delivered some donated Patagonia clothing for the refugees. With cash donations to KIRF, Kirwin has purchased needed supplies locally in Thailand. He purchased sleeping mats, sarongs, and mosquito nets and sports equipment for a local boarding school/safe house that serves 400 refugee children. Kirwin saw that many of the children had to sleep on concrete floors and had no protection from malarial mosquitoes. Kirwin purchased needed surgical supplies and medications for the non-profit Mae Tao clinic that serves the refugees. The clinic has treated 30 people with landmine injuries this year. Kirwin also purchased school supplies like paper, pencils and textbooks for children in refugee camps.
On Burmese side of the border with Thailand there is a no-mans land of dense forest littered with land mines and populated by roving military patrols engaged in the decades long civil war in the Karen State. Making their way through the forest are adults and children fleeing the violence to the safety of Thailand.
Kirwin said, “I saw some people who had been walking in the forest for days and all they wanted was food and a safe place to stay.” Kirwin said the scene at the Mae Tao clinic was intense when they first arrived a few days ago. “There were two abandoned babies brought into the clinic the first hour we were there.” He saw children suffering from malnutrition and adults and children with missing limbs from land mines.
Kirwin visited an impoverished Karen refugee camp of 50,000 people about two miles from the border. Refugees told Kirwin through an interpreter that they hear gunfire and explosions at night in the jungle close to the camp. They told him they are afraid that the Burmese military may cross the border into Thailand and raid and destroy their refugee camp as they have done so in the past.
The current military dictatorship of Burma wrested control of the country in a bloody coup in 1988. The military has refused to relinquish power after the 1990 election when 80% of the population voted for the pro-democracy opposition. The opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winning peace activist Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest almost continuously since the coup. The Burmese have also been battling a civil war in the Karen states in the southwestern portion of their country since 1945. The disputed territory is the homeland of the Karen hill-tribe ethnic group and is rich in teak, natural gas, gemstones, narcotics and other resources that are routinely smuggled out of the country. To gain control of the area the Burmese military have practiced ethnic cleansing with land mines, executions and torture to get rid of the Karens.
Documented incidents of human rights abuses used by the military in Burma increased significantly in 2006 according to the latest report for UNHCR (United Nations High Commission of Refugees). They include arbitrary executions, torture of detainees, political imprisonment, forced labor, trafficking in women and children, mandatory enlistment of child soldiers and rape. An estimated several hundred thousand Burmese refugees have fled to Thailand. About 500,000 more are internally displaced persons who live in IDP camps in Burma.
For this relief trip Kirwin teamed up with local medical doctors, educators and volunteer caregivers in Mae Sot to ensure relief supplies are needed, are culturally appropriate and are delivered directly to those in need.
Kirwin returns from Thailand the week of May 7. There will be a slide show presentation about this relief trip with an opportunity to purchase traditional textiles made by Karen refugee women in June. Proceeds of the sales go to supplies for future relief projects. For more information please see KIRFaid.org
Since the Kirwins’ first relief work in the field during the tsunami disaster in Thailand in 2004 they have fundraised and delivered supplies for relief projects all over the world through their 50(c)(3) non-profit Kirwin International Relief Foundation. They have worked with local humanitarians, educators and doctors in Thailand, Cambodia, India, Tanzania and the United States of America (in Mississippi for Hurricane Katrina relief). The Kirwins are volunteers and pay for their own airfare and fundraising costs.
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