Voice of Witness sheds light on Burmese police state

Last November, hundreds took to the streets of San Francisco to protest the Burmese election. According to the U.S. Census, there are more than 9,000 Burmese refugees in the Bay Area, many of whom consider the election a fraud. President Barack Obama weighed in, saying that the pro-democracy groups in Burma were not allowed to participate. The Burmese censorship board responded by issuing an announcement that the media may not publish any reports about voting rigging. And, sure enough, President Obama's press release was blocked.  

But one thing the Burmese military regime hasn’t blocked is an oral history series based in San Francisco called Voice of Witness. This nonprofit, founded by Dave Eggers and Lola Vollen, sent authors Maggie Lemere and Zoe West on a mission to find survivors of Burma’s military regime and hear their stories. The result was a book called Nowhere to be Home: Narratives from Survivor's of Burma's Military Regime. KALW’s Holly McDede has more.  

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HOLLY MCDEDE: The journey began in Burma’s neighboring countries: Bangladesh and Laos, and especially Thailand, where most Burmese refugees live. That’s where editors Zoe West and Maggie Lemere met Ma Su Mon, who was 22 when she was arrested for her role in Burma’s democratic movement.

MA SU MON (translated from Burmese): The Military Intelligence officers said, “If you sign this paper, you can go back home right now.” The paper said, “I will not be involved in any political movement.” After I said I would not sign, they divided us all into two groups. They put hoods over our heads, like people getting the death sentence. There were so many people we couldn’t even breathe. I thought, I am the daughter in prison. But I hoped maybe my father would still be proud of me.

Lemere and West recognized that their narrators would only share their most personal stories if they got to know them, so they took the time to earn their trust.

ZOE WEST: For Maggie and I, it was important to give people time and to give them space. So if they didn't want to talk about anything, I was fine. If they started to cry, to just be there, and let them take the time they needed and let them do what they needed to do. The interviews were about them having the agency to create the direction and choose what they want to talk about.

Burma is often cited as having the most child soldiers in the world. Hla Min, a narrator in this book, was forced to join the Burmese military when he was only nine years old. He told his story to Lemere and West until 1am, knowing it would be his only chance to meet with them before returning to work on a tobacco farm in Bangladesh the next day.

HLA MIN (translated from Burmese): I’d like to tell you the story of how I joined the army as a child. I was nine years old. One of my friends and I went out to buy some chicken. At that moment, an army truck came and took us. Every morning we had to declare loyalty to the army. By the time I completed my training, I started to believe in the army. I was like an animal. I never got to study in the army. I was only taught about guns.

Some of the narrators wanted to include their names in the book, but Lemere says she and West urged them to remain anonymous.

MAGGIE LEMERE: We worked very closely with all of the narrators to disguise them in every single case. Details like village name, name of their family members – which would be crucial in a human rights report – could not be identified. It was also crucial to us that everyone we interviewed understood the risk. It was their agenda pushing to tell the story. While they were aware of the risks, it was something they felt was extremely important to do, for themselves, for their communities.

Lemere and West may be the official editors, but each narrator in this book – every monk, child soldier, photojournalist, and protesting student – had control over his or her own story.

WEST: Part of the editing process was to submit it to them to review. So they could say to us, “Actually, I don't feel comfortable with that paragraph in there, so could you please take it out?” Or, “I'd rather if you don't say the name of this.” So, we gave them opportunities at different stages to rethink their security concerns.

One speaker, Yun, spoke about sex slavery in Burma. She was only able to speak to Lemere and West because her boss thought she had been hired as a prostitute for the day.

YUN: If I could, I would rewind my life and start over from the beginning. My mother had been working as a sex worker. Early one morning, I went to wake my mother up so she could take her medicine. I thought she was just sleeping at the time, but a few minutes passed and she still didn’t wake up. My great aunt didn’t want me to stay at her house without doing anything, so she made me a sex worker. This job caused my mother’s death.

The word for prostitute in Burma is nya-hmwe-pan, which means "flagrant flower of the night.” Many of these so-called “flagrant flowers” in Burma have HIV. It's a crisis, but Lemere says the personal stories are where the emotional connections come in.

LEMERE: This is unique for Burma because it tackles such a range of people in Burma who've gone through different abuses and different countries. So we really hope this project will sort of bring that very human element to this crisis, which many people are aware of but not have the first hand intimacy.

One population the project has resonated with is American high school students.

After receiving feedback from schools who said they were using the program, Voice of Witness directors started a pilot program to train teachers on using the oral history texts. That allows the voices of people like Khine Kyaw, a former prisoner and forced soldier for the Burmese military, into the classroom.

KHINE KYAW: Sometimes the Burmese government does good things when they can be seen. But when they're behind a screen, they do whatever they want. So if we make it known to people what is happening behind the screen, then the government will become afraid. This book will do so many good things for the people of Burma. This is what I hope.

For Crosscurrents, I’m Holly McDede.

Voice of Witness’ next book, Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post 9/11 Injustice, is now available for pre-order. It’s a collection of narratives from Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian communities that experienced backlash following 9/11.