Five weeks spent in Cambodia and two months on the Thai-Burma border have resulted in the implementation of the Muskoka School project in the village of Onndong bei 3 Well, in the impoverished region of northern Cambodia, one of the last strongholds of the Khmer Rouge as of 10 years ago.

So far, over $3,500 has been raised by Muskoka residents toward this school-building project which will benefit over 170 rural village children. This large, one-room cement school will be built to Cambodian Department of Education specifications, which ensures that the school is supplied with accredited teachers funded by the government. It also ensures that the certificates received by the pupils will be recognized by the Department of Education.

In contrasting, the situation on the Thai-Burma border is desperate, to say the least, as hundreds of Burmese daily flee the vicious rule of the military junta within Burma. They risk their lives escaping from Burma into Thailand through mine-riddled jungles patrolled by Burmese military gunmen. If they are “lucky”, they join the hundreds of thousands of Burmese presently housed in nine huge refugee camps strung along the border. The unlucky ones are rounded up by Thai police and briefly crammed into prisons before being shipped back to Burma.

My volunteer efforts in Mae Sot saw me teaching English seven days a week to Burmese refugees and migrant workers, Burmese IT students at ABITSU, and newly released political prisoners who escaped Burma. I also taught English to a class of NLD-LA (National League for Democracy) members, which included an MP from the 1990 democratic party-elect of Burma, and to a former bodyguard of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, honourary citizen of Canada, U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi won the 1990 general election in Burma by 82 per cent. She was immediately arrested by the present military regime (recently renamed the SPDC (the State Peace and Development Council), and has been under house arrest for 12 of the 19 years since then.

The military dictatorship continues to kill its civilians, and has taken complete control of the country’s economy and resources. Burma is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world, and the poorest outside Africa. The UN reports that five million people in the country do not have enough food to eat, yet the military spends 60 per cent of the national budget on the military. The regime does not allow press or foreign aid workers into the country. Disease is rampant. Burma is the only country where beri-beri exists, a disease caused by a deficiency of thiamine.

The military still refuses to release the 1,862 reported current political prisoners, many of them monks. They are tortured and deprived of proper food and medical aid.

I have witnessed life in the refugee camps, heard first-hand the horrendous prison accounts of former released prisoners, and have heard the horrors that families living inside Burma are currently experiencing.

Over 30 years ago, Cambodia suffered a loss of a third of its population under the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. It will take many decades for Cambodia to heal from this tragedy. The present military rule inside Burma cannot be allowed to continue, or Burma will suffer a similar fate.

Along with continued fundraising for the Muskoka School in Cambodia, I am also compelled to help bring awareness and support for the current crisis of the Burmese population. Awareness and international pressure needs to be created to bring this country back to its just democratic rule.

I will be returning to Cambodia in December to continue the school project, and I will be volunteering for two months in a remote border Burmese refugee camp teaching English.

Currently, I have three informative presentations I will be giving in Muskoka in aid of the Burmese, and with updates on the Muskoka School project. Any group or organization wishing a presentation can contact me at 687-8538, or e-mail mccoy@vianet.ca.