Burma Lawyers Council, Mae Sot, Thailand
Ben Kates with children at the Mae Lai refugee camp |
When I began to research potential internship opportunities last fall, I had to make a preliminary decision of whether to target organizations that were small and grassroots or large and international. Ultimately I decided on the former, thinking that this summer would be an opportunity to learn about the pluses and minuses of working at a locally-run legal NGO without having to commit long-term. My time so far at the Burma Lawyers Council (BLC) has certainly not disappointed in that regard. While the internship has consisted of both frustration and accomplishment, there is no question that I am learning something at every step.
I have been working in the Legal Analysis section at the BLC, which means that I have joined a team of four exiled Burmese lawyers and legal professionals. Essentially, our group is mandated to analyse what is happening in Burma from a legal perspective. Between Cyclone Nargis and its aftermath, the May referendum on the so-called 2008 Nargis Constitution, and the extension of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest into its sixth year, there has been no shortage of issues to cover. Early on I was asked to write press releases and communiqués on these and other issues for dissemination in the local (Mae Sot) community and in Burma itself. I have also been helping to prepare legal arguments as to why the junta's activities constitute Crimes Against Humanity, pursuant to the Article 7 of the Rome Statute. My latest tasks have involved working on a comprehensive analysis of the status of Burma from the perspective of the rule of law.
Working exclusively with Burmese lawyers has presented its fair share of both rewards and challenges. I have the utmost admiration for my colleagues, who are risking any potential future inside their home country with their public opposition to the junta. That said, culture and language gaps have had an impact on communication and teamwork - both of which are essential given my dependence on others for access to Burmese resources. Patience, which on the really hot days can be in short supply, has been essential for working through the kinks.
There have also been frustrations relating to the BLC's crucial dependency upon international legal mechanisms. The town of Mae Sot, which is filled with Burma-oriented aid workers, experienced a particular malaise in the weeks following the Cyclone Nargis, when the Western media shifted its focus onto more timely issues (such as the Sichuan earthquake and the re-election of Robert Mugabe) and little change seemed likely to result from the catastrophe that was the cyclone. I have learned the important lesson that one cannot expect to see results when working at the macro-level in international law. Results-oriented expectations will almost certainly be disappointed, and one should seek to find gratification from the work itself. It seems to me that it is in more local projects, like helping refugees and migrant workers in their individual cases, that one can see the proximate results of humanitarian work.
Ben Kates speaking with the BLC guide, a refugee who is both a graduate from the BLC's law school, and an aid worker in the camp. |
I also have come to believe that the arguments being made by the BLC occupy a valuable space in the global discourse on Burma. Even if international law has no major enforcement mechanisms, I think that it is important that the arguments we are making be made, and that the junta's abuses be catalogued in a quantifiable manner. I also think that the work of the BLC is particularly important because it is truly local and organic - it is one thing for Western lawyers to demand international action in Burma, but it is quite another thing when those requests come from the Burmese people themselves.
My experiences in Mae Sot have not been restricted to the office. For instance, I have made my way a number of times down to the Burmese border, 5 km from Mae Sot, where the disparity between Burma and Thailand is quite visible, not to mention the people crossing the Moei River "unofficially" in boats and inner tubes. I was able to gain access to Mae Lai refugee camp, the largest in Thailand at 70,000 people. While there, I was able to observe the quality of life in the camp and to speak with Karen refugees, including some who had been there for as long as 24 years. Through an organization called the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPP), I was also able to interview a former political prisoner who spent nearly a decade jailed for his activities in student opposition groups. These opportunities to interact with those who have been victimized by the status quo in Burma have proven an invaluable complement to my deskwork.
Mae Sot itself is proving to be an educational environment. Comprised of Thai, Burmese and Karen communities, it has a wonderful mix of culture, with the only downside being that I have yet to decide which language I should be trying to learn. There is also a considerable aid worker presence here. Expatriates with backgrounds in medicine, public health, education, as well as law have all collected here at various organizations. This has meant that I have been surrounded by a group of incredibly impressive people, not to mention adversaries for quiz and poker nights, pick-up basketball, and ultimate frisbee.
My time here is certainly passing quickly, and with upcoming visits to Laos and Cambodia, Singapore and the Philippines, not to mention a foray across the Moei River into Burma itself, I image that I will be firmly planted back in the law school before I know it. Needless to say, this has been a challenging and valuable experience thus far, and I can only imagine what to expect in the forthcoming weeks.
