FBR Report: "An Answer to Prayer - Part 1"

The Free Burma Rangers (FBR) is a multi-ethnic humanitarian service movement. They bring help, hope and love to people in the war zones of Burma. Ethnic pro-democracy groups send teams to be trained, supplied and sent into the areas under attack to provide emergency assistance and human rights documentation. Together with other groups, the teams work to serve people in need.

"An Answer to Prayer - Part 1"

"Dear friends, Thank you for all your support and help. We thank God for how He helped us (with the help of Partners) complete a training of Shan relief teams and then for an unexpected open door to the Wa people. We saw the power of God through prayer. The Wa, have been at war with the Shan people for over 10 years. The Wa military and political organization, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), have continued to expand their control into southern Shan State and once attacked our relief team while we were on a relief mission in Shan territory they had invaded. The Wa have had a ceasefire with the Burma Army since 1989 and have fought the Shan as proxies for the Burma Army and to gain territory and business concessions.

It was the Wa people themselves that first invited Karen and me to come to Burma in 1993 and it was to the Wa State in northern Burma, that we first went. We still support Wa teachers and evangelist and through Wa pastors, conduct relief missions to Wa who have been forced by the their own government (UWSA) to move into areas captured from the Shan. As we also work with the Shan people, we are then subject to attack by the Wa if we operate in areas of Shan State where the Wa has established control.

The military and political organization of the Wa , the UWSA, have their own agenda and this includes taking as much Shan territory as they can. Last month we had just completed the training of Shan FBR relief teams and our original plan was to go on a month long IDP relief mission to Shan villagers. We were initially told there was no way we could go on a mission to the area planned as the Burma Army was blocking the route and we would need an extra month that we did not have to go around them. We were also told that the areas that the Burma Army did not control were occupied by the Wa (UWSA). Close to us there were four villages that had been taken over by Wa forces of the United Wa State Army (UWDSA).

We were told that anyone who passed thru the WA territory would be attacked. (As noted above, a few years ago our relief team was attacked by the Wa in this same area and five people died.)

We prayed for an open door and to our surprise were told by the Shan commander that they had low level contact with the local Wa leaders and a relief team was welcome to their area as they needed medical help for the people there. We thanked God for this opening and prayed that we would be part of reconciliation between the Shan and the Wa. We were told that the mission would be very short and limited to the four nearby Wa controlled villages as this needed to be kept secret from higher leaders who were against any kind of reconciliation.

Our group consisted of a multi-ethnic FBR leadership and training team (Karen, Karenni and Kachin), four Shan relief teams and no security forces. Part of the condition of our visit to this Wa area was that no Shan soldiers could accompany us. We did have one guide who left us once the link up with the Wa was complete.

Once we walked into the Wa controlled area, the villagers were very excited to see us and told us that they needed medical help and also that they needed a school for their children. The four villages in this valley consisted of Shan, Wa and Lahu peoples. The Shan were the original inhabitants and now live under Wa control while the Wa and Lahu were forcibly moved from northern Wa areas to resettle this Shan area. Some of the Shan people here had lived under a succession of rulers- Chinese Nationalist in the 1950 to 1970s, Shan resistance groups such as the MTA from 1970 to 1996, Burma Army troops from 1996 to 2001 and Wa of the UWSA from 2001 to present.

The first Wa people we met were Wa villagers forced by their leaders to move into this area in 2003. They smiled at us and thanked us for coming, saying we could sleep in their homes and that they were grateful we had brought medicine. They told us that life under the rule of the Wa was much better than under the SPDC/Burma Army as the Wa did not make them do forced labor and did not steal their livestock or belongings like the Burma Army did. After introductions and prayer, we started treating patients early in the morning starting with a Wa lady that needed minor surgery. The Shan medics treated patients for malaria, dysentery, skin diseases.
As the medics were treating patients the Good Life Club (GLC), counselors on each team began the GLC program for women and children, this included instruction in anatomy, health, hygiene, Bible stories and games. One Shan lady stood up and began to do a traditional Shan dance and sang a Shan song as she danced. One of the medics followed suite and sang an old Shan song which made all the people laugh. After all the medical treatment was finished the teams handed out blankets and clothes (donated by students from CMIS) to every family, GLC shorts (from Partners) to every child as well as Legos donated by the Lego company

After the programs were completed we prayed together and then walked to the next village. This was a settlement of newly arrived Wa people. These were families of the WA soldiers stationed in the area. Here we started with prayer and the Good Life Club program and then gave medical treatment.
After we finished the Good Life Club program, The Wa villagers told us that many of them were Christians (less than 2% of the Wa are Christian, most are animist and due to the animist beliefs they were headhunters until 1979). We were surprised that there were Christians here and listened as they sang hymns in beautiful harmony. We prayed together and told them we hoped to be able to return to them."