Interview with Zoya Phan, Burma Campaign UK

by Admin
December 19, 2024

What is your background/back story?

I am ethnic Karen from eastern Burma, from a place called Karen State which we call Kawthoolei, which means a land without evil. When I was 14 years old the Burmese military attacked my village with air strikes, bombs and artillery and we fled to Thailand. Once there, I went to Mae Ra Ma refugee comp.

We went back to go to Burma to rebuild our lives, but on Karen National Day, the Burmese military attacked again and we had to flee for our lives. If we hadn’t done so, we could have been killed or captured and raped. My mother was very worried about this. We returned to Thailand then to Mae La camp. There was no proper education in the refugee camps. I was so lucky because I got a scholarship and I studied for a BA in Business Administration at a university in Bangkok. I got a further scholarship and in the UK I did a Masters in Politics and Development.

I joined the Burma Campaign as a volunteer activist and was involved in a number of activities. I was on the Burmese military blacklist and could not go back to Burma, so I applied for asylum here and was granted refugee status. I now have British citizenship so I can call Britain my new home. For the first time in my life, I felt safe, I felt like I was a human, not a ghost citizen like I did in Thailand and Burma where I have no official documents. Now I could obtain academic certificates, go to hospital etc and open a bank account. I finally had my basic freedoms.

Why should people be concerned about what is happening in Burma?

Burma has been ruled by dictatorships for many years and there was a military coup in 2021. Before that there was a civilian lead government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The military government is so brutal and it is one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world. They attack people and abuse their rights. Over 20,000 have been arrested since the coup, and there are over 3,000,000 displaced people in Burma, and thousands have been killed.

There are so many human rights violations. The military attack civilians through air strikes, use civilians as human shields and plant landmines so there are so many human rights violations. The Burmese military have been doing this for decades, attacking Karens and other ethnic minorities. The world knows very little about what is happening in Burma and there is no concrete action against the Burmese military. The impunity they enjoyed for decades led them to commit genocide against the Rohingyas and further impunity after that led them to carry out the coup in 2021.

There is now a strong resistance to the military from young people, as many young people were killed or arrested so many others fled to ethnic areas. There they got experience and training from resistance groups. They are setting up groups fighting against the military and many of them go back to the cities to continue the resistance. The Burmese military is now facing real challenges for the first time and is struggling for survival. However, even though people in Burma are doing all they can through boycotts and peaceful protests, the international community is not doing enough to get sympathy and support from people across the world.

How long have you worked to raise awareness about what is happening in Burma? What do you do?

I have been involved since I was 16 when I was living in the refugee camp. I’ve got involved in refugee issues and then even more after I came to the UK from 2004 onwards. In 2005 I got involved with Burma Campaign UK and we try to expose human rights violations in Burma. We are getting more international action through political work, domestically and internationally.

Can you tell me about successes?

Sometimes it can be very depressing to see the situation in Burma and receive bad news about people killed injured or displaced. But there is also hope which keeps us going forward. We try to work with journalists and MPs to get the British government on track. We are working with other organisations to get more international action trying to impose more pressures on the Burmese military to stop their human rights violations against the people.

More countries are joining the arms embargo on the Burmese military, such as Turkey and Ukraine, although there’s still China, Russia, India and others supplying arms to the Burmese military. Many countries have stopped supplying arms which saves lives. We have stopped businesses engaging with the Burmese military and won some sanctions from the UK government and others which limits the ability of the Burmese military to operate. We’re trying to limit the amount of aviation fuel the Burmese military has.

We also have had some political prisoners released and provided lifesaving support for activists and community workers. We have ensured and campaigned for life-saving aid has reached displaced civilians. However, we still have to do more as there is a major humanitarian crisis in Burma so we need more aid to go there but it must go to communities and ethnic based organisations not through the military who would use it in the wrong way.

Can you tell me about your plans for the future?

I want to go back to live in Burma and see my people and relatives. We had to cut off all communications with family and my uncle was arrested because the military could not arrest my mother. For decades we’ve been cut off from our family and one of my biggest dreams is that I can see people we love, our relatives and help to develop schools, hospitals and deal with climate change in Burma. I would like to go back to Burma.

What other initiatives are you involved in? Which other organisations do you work with?

I’m involved in community work with other Karen organisations in Europe and in the UK to help Karens in Burma and in Europe as well we work to raise awareness.

I’m also involved with the Phan Foundation. My father was assassinated in 2008 and we set up a charity to continue the work he was doing. There are four main areas:

Promoting education
Promoting human rights
Fighting poverty and helping displaced civilians
Preserving Karen culture

We help fight against the poverty our people are feeling. Many of our people could never overcome poverty, so we would like to help them to do so.

I am also involved with Advance Myanmar, with Burma Campaign UK to provide support for grassroots organisations in Burma to help provide a voice and raise aspirations and supporting the work that they do in ways that they don’t get from any other big organisations. It is also involved in tackling climate change and promoting human rights and democracy around the world, working with others in other countries.

Why is your work important?

When I was in Burma and in the refugee camps on the Thai border, I didn’t think I could do much to help people. However here in the UK there is so much more I can do to help people which is very motivating and I can do a lot more to help then in refugee camps. We expose human rights abuses that the Burmese military try to keep secret. We generate worldwide media coverage, ensuring the world does not forget about Burma. We mobilise international action to cut money and arms going to the Burmese military. We are making a real difference campaigning for more international action including humanitarian aid. We’ve got the British government on board to support Internally Displaced Persons in Burma, although the need is still huge. Having provided lifesaving support, I can see how our work is important.

What would be your vision of a better future for people in the North East and the country and the world as a whole?

There are two things I would like to say here. My main concern is about Burma and I know that people in the North East do care about human rights in Burma and around the world. Their support is really important and I appreciate it.

I’m amazed to see so many people in the UK, including the North East, caring about human rights in Burma.

I also think local people in the North East and across the country should be listened to in the same way as people in Burma should also be listened to and be respected by central government. Marginalised voices everywhere are very important. Your lives are valuable to people in Burma as you have the power to help us and can help us,

What could people in the North East do to help the people of Burma?

The best thing to do would be to write to MPs to raise the issue of Burma in parliament, so that the British government can put more pressure on the Burmese military with sanctions and things like stopping the Burmese military from having more aviation fuel, arms and money, and helping to get more aid for people in Burma. The government in Britain have to listen to you and the British government do help, when asked to do so.