News and Features

The Karen guerrilla in Burma by Alvaro Ybarra Zavala
 
   

The Karen National Liberation Army is the biggest rebel group inside the Karen territory. Alvaro Ybarra Zavala could photograph the daily lives of its members, and inside the refugee camps in Thailand.

L'Armée Nationale de Libération Karen est le plus important groupe rebelle du territoire Karen. Alvaro Ybarra Zavala a photographié la vie quotidienne de ses membres, ainsi que celle dans les camps de réfugiés en Thailande.

 

KNLA guerrillas. Almost 60% of their members are minors
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KNLA guerrillas in training
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KNLA guerrillas patrolling through a maize plantation
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KNLA guerrillas climbing on board their patrol launches on the Mae Man Moei River.  They often use the river to dodge certain SPDC check points.
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Two child soldiers who are members of the supply battalion of the KNLA which feeds the combat units at the front.  Not one of them is older than 16.
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Squadron of the KNLA second brigade patrolling between the combat lines of the SPDC, a forbidden region of the state of Karen. No foreigner is allowed to visit this part of the Karen territory.
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a member of the KNLA second brigade resting during a patrol between SPDC combat lines, a forbidden region of the state of Karen.  No foreigner is allowed to visit this part of the Karen territory.
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Members of the supply battalion of the KNLA second brigade walking towards the position of the KNLA second combat squadron.
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A KNLA guerrilla sleeping in the base camp of the KNLA second brigade
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Myo win is the second commander of the KNLA supply unit.  He is barely 17 years old and has been fighting in the KNLA lines for over five years.  Being a member passes from father to son, it is a matter of national and family honour, a blood debt.
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Bo Kya lost both legs an arm and his sight to a land mine.  He lives prostrate on an old hammock in the most extreme poverty.  He is a refugee.
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Mya Win lost both legs to a land mine while she fled an SPDC attack on her hamlet.  She lost her entire family in this attack.  She barely made it to the Mae To clinic where they saved her life.  It is six years since the attack and she has not moved from the clinic.
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A patient of the Mae To clinic
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Many of the woman who cross the borders arrive at the Mae to Clinic very sick.  They usually bring their children with them for fear they might be kidnapped by the SPDC and forced to enlist in the Burmese army in the future.  The majority of these women die in the clinic leaving their children alone and at the mercy of the Mae Sot mafias.  This photograph is of a secret orphanage.
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&quotThe bridge of Friendship" forms a border and trade route for legal and illegal merchandise between Burma and Thailand.
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Burmese families who traffic merchandise in Thailand usually shelter underneath of the Bridge of Friendship which joins Burma and Thailand
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The Mae Sot rubbish tip is occupied by hundreds of refugee families from Karen who have been resettled on the tip and forced to work.
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Hundreds of thousands of refugees have been resettled inside the factories of the industrial areas near Mae Sot.   The situation of these families is extremely difficult.  Photograph of the exterior of one of factories in the riverside factory area.
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Hundreds of thousands of refugees have been resettled inside the factories of the industrial areas near Mae Sot.   The situation of these families is extremely difficult.  Photograph of the interior of one of factories in the riverside factory area.
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Yin Yin Maw is a refugee and she lives inside one of the factories in the industrial areas near Mae Sot.  She and her entire family work inside the factory but she works extra hours as a prostitute in the areas around the factory.  She is HIV positive
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