Karate Hailey Glover As the war in Myanmar escalates, the children and women of that country are at great risk. When the 17-year ceasefire in Myanmar ended in 2011, the military once again became powerful. The military has been using the horrible act of rape against the women and children of the country for many years. Myanmar people often run from their own homes. As the military comes, so does the malicious harassment. In the refugee village, Je Yang, though, the people are learning to fight back. Every afternoon, the children line up and learn karate to defend themselves from their own military.
The war itself started in the April of 1948, about 69 years ago. It began when the British colonial rule ended. After decades of fighting between the ethnic minority groups and the government it all resulted in large numbers of internally displaced persons and mass human rights abuses. Multi-layered conflicts broke out shortly after the political reordering of the country in 1948, and the nation has been in a continuous states of armed conflict ever since. The democracy they built is sometimes disagreed with. The KIA, the Kachin Independence Army, often fight against the government, making a safe place a rarity for it’s inhabitants.
The amount of violence in Myanmar is horribly astounding, and the inhabitants have to live through it. The Women’s League of Burma tells us there are more than 100 documented rapes and acts of sexual violence against women since 2010. The men that commit these acts are almost never prosecuted, and hardly ever successfully charged. In 2014, a soldier was charged with the rape of a seven-year old, and he was charged only 7 years in prison, while in the US, the sentence is about 25 years. A 16-year-old, Hkawn Ra, fled violence in her village. She hasn’t seen her parents in about 5 years. The violence won’t stop, so the people must learn self-defense.
The villagersthere now line up, showing the skills they have already learned and practiced. “For all the girls, we teach them how to protect themselves when someone tries to sexually assault them and how to fight back,” instructor Hkun Naw said. “ We wanted to make sure all the internally displaced children have the right to do something that gives them joy, and to be confident.” This is for more than just protection, it’s letting the kids there know that they can be safe and properly protected. The people learn to not fight against each other, but against someone who truly wants to inflictharm.
As the Myanmar war rages on, the people who’ve been abused by their government learn self defense. The children and young people learn to fight so that they will not be once again harmed by their own military. The violence and cruelty there no longer has to scare them, and the girls know that they can fight back if they’re touched in an inappropriate way. Thanks to karate, they can feel safe in a war-torn country.