"Return is Struggle, Not Resignation"
 Men and women from exiled Burmese civil society organizations discuss the future. |
During the two weeks when the Guatemalan women travelled along the Thai-Burma border and met with Burmese refugee organizations, two themes remained constant: returning to one's country and women's organizing. The indigenous Guatemalan women represented three women's organizations, Ixmucané, Madre Tierra and Mamá Maquín, all formed while the women were refugees in Mexico. Their host in Thailand was the Women's League of Burma, an umbrella organization of 11 different ethnic women's organizations.
Together, the Burmese and Guatemalan women traced their histories, their personal experiences, their struggles for democracy, and for respect and recognition by men in their own movement. The Burmese and Guatemalans quickly related to each other's stories of violence and resistance, and the arduous journey to make their voices heard as women. They offered each other tangible advice and shared strategies as well as gifts less tangible but just as important: hope, strength, encouragement, and inspiration.
Many women spoke about how, paradoxically, being in refuge was "like a school," and how much they learned, and were changed by the experience. Burmese and Guatemalan women were both explicit targets of military violence. They sought asylum in neighbouring countries. They struggled to survive in exile, and organized as women to access services and participate in political organizations. Though uncertain when they will return to Burma, the Burmese women were interested in the experience of Guatemalan women's organizations in the return to Guatemala. They wanted to begin to plan and prepare for such an eventuality.
In most refugee situations, it is governments and international bodies who determine the conditions and logistics of refugee repatriation. The Guatemalan situation was unique in that the refugees themselves, through a coordination body called the Permanent Commissions, negotiated directly with the Guatemalan government to determine the terms of their return. For the Guatemalan refugees, this was a central achievement; they were not passively "repatriated"; rather their "return" was a voluntary, organized, political act, witnessed by the world.
As Vicenta, Ana and María shared the experience of their return, Burmese refugees analyzed these experiences and extracted lessons relevant to their own context. They heard about the historic "October 8th" Accords, the result of five years of negotiations between the Permanent Commission and the Guatemalan government. These Accords included the right of voluntary return, freedom of association and organization, international accompaniment, freedom of movement, the right to land and life and to verification that the Accords were being honoured. Guatemalan women underscored that though much was achieved during the negotiation process, there was not a single woman present when these Accords were signed, and the specific needs of women such as the right to co-ownership of land were effectively left out.
"Return is struggle, not resignation" was the official slogan of the organized Guatemalan refugee movement for return. Guatemalan women vowed to continue the struggle for human rights, and for women's rights. Returning to Guatemala changed their struggle, and in many ways set it back. The material conditions upon return were poor, and maintaining women's organizations was difficult. Women were geographically dispersed, making it complicated to organize meetings. And they suffered a backlash from some men in their return communities who believed that there was no longer a need for women's organizations and that a woman's place was within the home.
The Guatemalan women also learned much from their Burmese sisters. Silence still prevails in Guatemala about sexual violence against women and the Guatemalan participants in the exchange were impressed with the meticulous documentation work and successful public awareness campaign by Burmese women's groups on state-sponsored sexual violence in Burma. Last year, the Shan Women's Action Network and the Shan Human Rights Foundation released a pivotal report focusing world attention on the use of rape as a weapon of war in the ethnic states of Burma. During the exchange, one Burmese woman, Naang Ying, adamantly stated that during negotiations for return, she would advocate that the military perpetrators of sexual violence be punished.
"We have learned a lot from our sisters in Guatemala about the preparation for return," said one Burmese refugee woman. "Their suffering provided us with a real lesson," said another. Another woman stated simply, "I can feel their experiences."
We would like to thank the Canadian International Development Agency and the Open Society Institute for their financial contribution to this initiative.
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