Burmese people have the right to be treated as human beings too

Blogger’s thought

Exhausted and hungry looking males and females, in their 20s and 30s were pushed inside a lorry by strangers.The lorry that normally transports frozen fish, was about to leave with human sardines,who were barely able to stand inside the smelly compartment of the lorry.

However, they have their dream destination. Phuket, a tourist resort of Thailand. Human traffickers, to whom they have paid money earlier promised them good salary, once they were in Phuket, as General workers, cleaners,and so on.

They have left their loved ones, with the hope of earning Thai Bahts which will help their parents, and children back home in poverty stricken Burma.

The lorry was starting on its journey, when suddenly the air condition went off. The heat and smell inside the lorry’s soon to be coffin was unbearable. Some young ladies started coughing, choking and gasping. Someone with a hand phone tried to call the driver to tell him to switch on the air conditioner.

There was an argument, some banging the metal wall of the lorry, while most of them desperately tried to breath air into their lungs. Instead they were breathing carbondioxide into their lungs as there was no more fresh air coming into the sealed compartment of the lorry.

A young lady fainted in darkness. Then one after the other collapsed, while stronger men and women still conscious were crying, shouting and pleading in the darkness. However the lorry driver continued his journey, ignoring the bangs and thuds of desperate people inside the container .

For him, these people were no more than the fish he used to transport. The only difference was, by transporting these people from Burma, he would get instant fat cash! Drive fast, avoid being arrested by police, dump your load at Phuket and get money. That’s it.

The sound of the banging became stronger. He noticed that air conditioner was not working in the 97′ Celsius heat. Finally, there was a strange silence. The driver decided to have a look at his cargo.

When he opened the hatch, nobody was standing anymore. He found a pile of bodies, some are barely conscious and groaning. Most of them were motionless. He decided to run into the nearby jungle before the police arrived.

Thai police arrived later. Those who are fully conscious were sent to jail. Those who were semi conscious or unconscious were sent to the hospital with police escorts.

They are illegal immigrants. So they should have been dealt according to international laws.

Those who were lucky enough to survive the ordeal found out that they were in police custody.The body of the victims were laid in rows, and later buried hastily. There were no space for them in Mortuary to keep them well maintained- like the bodies of rich tourists, that Thai authorities kept for several months during the Tsunami disaster a few years ago!

This is this blogger’s imagination of what had happened to the 54 poor souls(mostly women), that perished while Burmese Generals were preparing to do “National Referendum” on the way to ” Modern Disciplined Democratic Burma”.

Why did these people leave their homes ? In history mass exodus of people to new lands had been recorded when calamities fell upon the people of these nations. Again, these calamities were mostly famine, drought, and sometimes because of wars.

Burma, which it’s Military leaders claim is a prosperous country, where CCTV cameras are mushrooming in cities, with armed people patrolling round the clock to monitor the movement of it’s people. Therefore, Generals seem to be bothered by the movement of the people who are staying in cities and who are willing to continue staying inside Burma as they are afraid of rebellion within. Once they decide to leave the country, their lives become much cheaper than commodity. Frozen fish seem to have more value than human lives.

Who are the culprits?

Sit Mone