In April 2011 we commenced a new work amongst the Wa tribal people. We have five boys living with us within a Burmese city. Two of our five boys had to run away from their village because they were being “persuaded” to join either the Burmese government army or the Wa army. Boys around the age of 15 years are conscripted. Both armies were trying to get them.
Discretion does not allow us to show the boys’ faces so we have done the next best thing….
Recently in May 2011 the Burmese army moved in and raped many Wa women. In response ten Burmese schoolteachers were either shot or beheaded by the Wa army. It is not uncommon for boys to simply be picked up by the army and immediately conscripted. The parents having no idea where their sons have gone, only to learn a couple of years later that they were forced to become soldiers.
CASE STUDY: One particular boy is 11 years old but only studies in grade one. This is because he was off labouring to help his parents rather than enjoying the luxury of attending school. If he is smart enough he will be accelerated through the grades. Even though he lives in Burma he cannot speak Burmese. He had nine siblings but seven have died. Two years ago his father also died from an infected leg. His mum is a farm worker. She earns $1/day, enough to buy low grade rice for her family for just two meals per day. This case scenario is a little more extreme than the other boys in the home. For security reasons we cannot display a photograph.
You may not know that much about Wa people. They live in Burma’s mountainous Shan State. Neighboring tribes have long loathed and feared the Wa because of their fierce and warlike traits. Until the 1970s, many Wa strayed from their hilltop redoubts only to chop off human heads, which they believed to be powerful totems against disease and bad harvests.
Wa Tribesmen. Photo Taken in the 1970's
The United Wa State Army has 20,000 conscripts which were dubbed by the U.S. State Department as the worlds “most heavily armed narco-traffickers.” This army is filled with young men whose task is to serve their commanders so that their drug trade can carry on unhindered. Combined with their opium business the elite army commanders and their associates earn more than half a billion USD (tax free) per year. Of course little of this profit filters down to the masses.
Have you heard of the Wa? Maybe not. But they do affect you who reside in the South Pacific. According to TIME Asia magazine they control some 80% of the world’s lucrative trade in methamphetamine. When you hear how drugs have been smuggled into your country from Thailand you should know that strictly speaking the media is wrong. Actually those drugs most likely came from the Wa of Burma and were simply smuggled through Thailand.
A fairly detailed and interesting article was written on them by TIME Asia Magazine
There are two categories of Wa. The tame Wa and the wild Wa. Well, who wants the tame ones when you can go for the jugular and get the wild ones right? Among the Shan, a mother anxious to hush her restless child might still whisper, “Shhh! A Wa is coming!” You should try it with one of your young ones sometime ….
If you would like to look at an excellent photo -journo expose on the Wa people then click on to Thierry Falise work
