LER PER HER
A COMMUNITY SCATTERED
Burma Army forces and their proxies attacked Ler Per Her IDP site in June 2009, driving over 1,000 people from their homes and across the border into Thailand. Homes were burned down and the school destroyed.
With the destruction of their homes, schools, and churches, our friends are now homeless. The first time we were in Ler Per Her was in 1997 before it was an IDP site. We were on a relief mission to give assistance to IDPs further west in the Dawna Range. At that time Ler Per Her was a cluster of huts by the Moei River where all was calm and beautiful. I remember looking over my shoulder at the mountains we had just come down and thinking, ‘this place could go anytime’.
This recent loss of Ler Per Her is another in the progression of attack on and destruction of Karen communities. Ler Per Her was important as a place of Karen freedom in the midst of an oppressive country. It was also a place where others could share in their lives and taste some of that freedom that is so rare in Burma. Where boats plied the river, men fished, mothers washed clothes and children ran through the shallows. Most of all it was home for the families who lived there. The enemy came and they shot and they burned.
The families who fled need prayer, help and hope.
On March 14, 2010 take a few moments, wherever you are, whatever your beliefs, to say a prayer for the people suffering in Burma at the hands of a brutal dictatorship.
To see the full report:
Global Day of Prayer for Burma
No comments:
Post a Comment