Fundraiser tonight in Etobicoke aids Burma relief efforts

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For the Karen people, Burma's largest ethnic minority, the wrath of cyclone Nargis in May pales in comparison to the violence suffered at the hands of their own government.

In Karen state, it has been reported that more than 40,000 villagers have been internally displaced, 10 villagers killed and thousands rendered homeless due to an increased army presence in past months, United Nations Special Rapporteur Paulo S�©rgio Pinheiro wrote in a March 2008 report on the human rights situation in Burma, now known as Myanmar.

Pinheiro received "reports of widespread and systematic human rights violations, including summary executions, torture, forced labour practices, sexual violence and the recruitment of child soldiers," in Myanmar throughout his eight-year mandate that ended in March, he wrote.

Mie Tha Lah has lived it.

Lah, 31, is one of 800 Karen that Ottawa began relocating to Canada in 2006, most settled as a community in an apartment complex on Jane Street near Steeles Avenue West. At least 200 more are expected to arrive this year.

"We are orphans," Lah said of the Karen people. "We have no culture, no identity, no state. It is easy to adopt us."

There are between six to seven million Karen in Burma and about 400,000 in Thailand, www.karenpeople.org indicates. Thousands have fled into the jungle and as many as 140,000 have relocated to nine refugee camps on the Thai-Burmese border.

"We've been so much under persecution under Burmese rule," Lah said. "It got worse in 1962 under military dictatorship. It came to the point they tried to eliminate all ethnic people and 'Burmanize' the country."

Like Lah, many lived, were even born, in the refugee camps. Lah left his camp thanks to a visiting Filipino professor from Ateneo De Davao University. Lah studied education, with a major in English at the university where he also met his wife, Jocelyn.

Lah's relatives in Myanmar report as many as one million casualties of cyclone Nargis, 10 times official government reports, Lah said.

"My relatives report tides are carrying corpses all the way to south Burma," Lah said Friday. "There's starvation, deep poverty, cholera. In Rangoon, there's no electricity, no water, no phone lines. The government says, 'if you want it, pay for it.' But most can't afford it."

Tonight, a fund-raising barbecue and choral concert at Mimico Baptist Church (Hillside Avenue and George Street) in south Etobicoke starts at 6 p.m., with all proceeds directed to relief efforts in Myanmar through Canadian Baptist Ministries-Sharing Way.

The Toronto Karen Choir is joined by a youth choir from Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia and the Mandarin Choir from Mimico Baptist Church.

"They've come really from no country, and come to a country (Canada) that loved and cared for them," said Walter McIntyre, outreach pastor at Kipling Avenue Baptist Church, who helped organize the event, and is working to connect Karen people with jobs in Canada.

McIntyre dedicated four Karen infants into the Baptist faith Sunday at John Booth Arena in the Jane Street-Steeles Avenue West area. One of the infants is Lau's five-month-old son, Mehj.

"They're made in Canada, dedicated in a hockey arena," McIntyre said. "If they're not Canadians, I don't know who is."

Many Karen are Baptist, the influence of early missionaries 200 years ago, McIntyre said.

McIntyre has also arranged for Karen children to attend Camp Kwasind in the Muskokas for a week this summer, funded by the Geoffrey H. Wood Foundation.

Today, Lah is helping other Karen people, and other new immigrants, settle in North York as a host project worker with the integration and settlement assistance program at Jane Finch Community and Family Centre.

"There's no Karen organization here, and many don't speak English so they can't communicate," Lah said of his clients. "They're very much vulnerable and isolated."

Mie Tha Lah

Q: What has been your experience in Canada?

A: "There are language barriers, culture shock, the weather, the food. But in general, life so far is beautiful. My family has English and education and that helps us a lot to get information and knowledge. I've been really impressed with the system and the way government and a lot of agencies can help you. All you have to do is ask."