News from Jerri

Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Posts: 593

Jerri toold me a few things in his letter which I've not noticed in the British news, regarding Burma. He's currently helping out on the Thai border which has an ongoing refugee crisis. Apparently, the Burmese government are persecuting anyone they think may be opposed to them, or in any way connected with opposition parties. They are even sending troops to villages to beat up or shoot farmers who are under suspicion. That's why so many are escaping across into Thailand. The Thai army on the border has had to be strengthened as Burmese troops occasionally pursue the refugees into Thailand.

Jerri is assisting with the organisation of billeting and supplies for the refugees, as are many other Thai volunteers. He also says that there is still tension in the Bangkok region, over politics, although not quite as much as before.

Where he is based it's not always easy to get good internet access, but he asks how everyone at Freebritannia is, and he says Hi to everyone. He's enjoying reading about the trouble Nu-Labour keep finding themselves in and wonders how Brown has remained in power "despite proving himself so continuously incompetent".

So that's an update on Jerri.
Thought some of you would like to know how he's doing.

Posted: Thu 18 Jun 2009 9 43 am

Glad to hear he's okay.

Thanks for keeping us informed Sandman.

Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Posts: 593

Just googled and found this Times report.

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1018895

and this one has a video
http://www.france24.com/en/20090617-burma-thailand-ethnic-karens-rebels-refugees-insurrection

Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 2902

Good to hear that he's well, I'd heard of the refugee crisis on the Burmese-Thai border - the government's treatment of the Karen is even worse than its treatment of the rest of the country (which is certainly saying something)...so he's doing some very worth while work out there.