Following the coup d’état that overthrew the elected government in Myanmar on 1 February last year, the violence perpetrated on the Karen population in the Salween River Peace Park resumed. And bombs started falling. This means that the threat now comes from two directions. Not from the eastern or western borders, though. If the mega-mining projects, or the deliberate destruction of the Karen’s natural sanctuaries are like attacks from some underground ravenous worm, then the military planes that drop bombs on the villages these days look like so many birds of prey.
Anti-aircraft alarm sounding over Paul Sein Twa’s forest
It may seem like petty rhetoric: but this symbolic violent fauna can only be opposed by a Community, which has already gathered close around its own landscape in the Salween River Park, bonded by its own traditions. Nature and culture, once more. If the social network is dense enough to cover every inch of soil, no new mines will be able to open up at its feet. If the forest spreads a blanket of leaves over its inhabitants’ homes, not even bombs will be able to pierce it.
A wish from the Salween river.
If these poetic words seem only to find meaning within the Journal’s pages and not beyond, they may soon come to be a concrete possibility in these dramatic days now and those ahead. Paul Sein Twa’s struggle continues and the Karen people will once again flourish in the Peace Park. It is a wish for everyone.