Guest contributor
Seán Barry
Free Burma Rangers (FBR) is a humanitarian group that has operated for over two decades in Myanmar’s ethnic homelands, providing front-line medical care, evacuation support, and more.
In this Q&A, FBR founder and director David Eubank discusses the shift in needs since the 2021 military coup, the response to the March 28th earthquake, and how shrinking international aid is impacting the 3.5 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Myanmar.
DVB: You set up Free Burma Rangers over 20 years ago. How did you initially define its role and mission in Myanmar?
DE: In 1993, we were invited into Burma by a tribe in the north to come and help. My background was I was a U.S. Army Special Forces officer, and a Ranger Battalion officer before that, and I grew up overseas before that. So I was very familiar with Burma.
When we went and saw the war – the longest running war in the world – we didn’t have a big plan. We just thought, I’ll help one person and they’ll be glad and I’ll be glad. And that was it. So that’s how we started.
And then people started to join us in the middle of the fighting. It was myself and my wife, and then all of a sudden an ethnic medic, a Karen, and then a Karenni, and then a Shan, and a Kachin, and we went around just doing humanitarian assistance with very little materials.
Other tribal leaders began to watch us and go, “can you make more teams like that?” We don’t have safety rules. If someone needs help, try not to get killed, but go there. And so, we grew slowly after that.
DVB: To give an idea of what the situation was like back then – what kinds of needs were you finding among communities?
DE: Our main focus was meeting people’s physical needs – and emotional and spiritual needs. Physical needs we met with whatever medicine we could carry. Very quickly I had ethnic medics joining us who actually knew what they were doing. I’m not a medic, but I would help them and we’d bring in medical supplies.
And then there’s displaced communities. For example, one of the first missions I did was over a thousand people hiding in the jungle with nothing. So we brought in tarps for shelter because the rains were starting.
We found food. We bought food. We had medical supplies. We did treatments. That’s the physical part. And that’s what we continue to this day. The emotional part is, ‘we’re with you, man – this is terrible, but we’re not going to run’.
We don’t have a lot of rules. But we have three: do this for love, because the teams aren’t paid, and we want to act out of love. You’ve got to read and write in some kind of language, to do good reporting and medicine.
And the third is, you cannot run if people can’t run. You can’t just leave people because it’s dangerous. You have to stay with them. Normally, in real life, they run and you get to run with them. That’s the three rules.
DVB: Was it a result of conflict mostly – i.e. injuries? Or was it more that people were displaced and facing shortages of necessary items? What specifically would you say were the issues facing people?
DE: The situation in Burma is not a natural disaster. It’s a political-military disaster. We’re a small little humanitarian group trying to treat the people who are shot by Burma Army, comfort the women who were raped.
Stand with people when they’re under attack. Help them pack up and move out. Now they’re hiding – they’re not going to get wounded in the jungle – they’re getting malaria. Bring in shelter. Stand with them. Help them in every way. And tell the world this is a political-military disaster.
Within Burma, there’s some natural disasters you can respond to that are simpler. They’re not easy, but they’re simpler. But generally, it’s a political-military disaster where the Burma [military] is trying to kill anyone who opposes them, and control everyone in the country, and punish anyone they think might even be against them.
This war has been going on for 75 years, and over 20 million people have been internally displaced in those 75 years.
DVB: From your perspective, what has changed since the 2021 military coup?
In the last four years alone over 4.5 million people have been displaced. Thousands [have been] killed. Seventy-five of our team members have been killed. And our job is humanitarian. We’re not there to fight. And we have 75 of our people killed already – over 200 wounded.
I’ve been wounded there, many of my friends wounded and killed. So this is a brutal situation. And our losses are just emblematic of the larger losses that are in the thousands of dead and millions of displaced.
So this context is a war with a dictator, a series of dictators, trying to crush their own people. Since the coup, two things have changed. A large majority of the Burman people, who before this were not significantly involved in resistance, joined the resistance.
They’d had it. And so for the first time in history, large scale Burman majority against the dictators publicly and joining the resistance, sometimes directly with an ethnic armed group or sometimes creating their own People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) or part of a larger civil disobedience movement (CDM).
This is brand new. It’s never happened before at this scale. The Burma military’s response to that has come with a speed and a force we’ve never seen.
There’s heavier fighting now in Burma than since World War Two. The Burma government realised that when the Burmans turned against them, they’re in trouble. They’re scared, they’re angry, and they’re scared, and they’re fighting for their political and—probably—physical lives.
China and Russia are providing, right now, unprecedented military assistance to the dictators. In the battle of Pasaung, just a couple of months ago, when we were in Karenni [State’, we had five different kinds of jets over us – [for] almost 24 hours.
Three kinds of Russian jets, two kinds of Chinese jets. The J-2000 and the Karakorum fighters that were Chinese. The Russians’ were the SU-30, Yak-130, and MiG 29s. And this was constant. Orbiting around were converted Y-12 cargo planes dropping bombs.
In addition to that, there were drones. And then, of course, there’s mortars, and in some places, artillery, and heavy weapon systems—all supporting the dictators.
DVB: Access is a huge issue for humanitarians. How did the earthquake – almost 6 months ago now – display the limitations or the positives of the international humanitarian system in Myanmar?
DE: When the earthquake happened, I was actually in southern Shan State – in the very southern part. The trees were moving. We were out in the trees because we couldn’t be in any towns, because the Burma army controlled the towns and would shoot at you. And in most of the towns in the area – Moebye, Pekon area of southern Shan State – many of the buildings were already destroyed by Burma Army airstrikes, artillery, and mortars.
The Burma Army in those towns shooting at you if you came near. So we were actually in the jungle with displaced people when the earthquake hit. There’s over 350,000 displaced people, for example, in Karenni alone. They weren’t hurt. They’re not in those towns.
When the earthquake quieted down, when it stopped, we realized, okay, nobody’s hurt. We’re on the radio. We’re calling – because we have teams all over Karenni for example – and everybody’s okay. Three hours after the earthquake, the first Burma Air Force jets came in, went right over us and hit targets – Nawnghkio up in northern Shan State, near Mandalay, many places, Karenni State.
Every single day from the earthquake on, for the next ten days – multiple airstrikes in different parts of Burma. I was in between two of them, and I thought, wow, what country has a major earthquake and starts doing airstrikes everywhere? So that was one response.
The second was – we have friends in the underground, in the resistance, and we’re trying to find out how we can get supplies up into the earthquake affected area, especially Mandalay and Naypyidaw.
There really wasn’t a very effective way. The [routes] were blocked by the Burma military. And as you saw, they blocked humanitarian assistance in Mandalay and to Mandalay.
It took many days before international groups – that were ready to go the first day – were allowed even close to the earthquake zones. The Burma military arrested rescue workers in Mandalay. Delayed searches of buildings for 3 to 5 days. People die of thirst by then, if they’re still alive. And so it was an evil response.
The military kept a tight control over it, and it was a disaster. There were other areas affected by the earthquake. For example, south of Naypyidaw, the capital, down the Sittang River valley, the earthquake damaged hundreds of wells, but there was no way to get in there easily with funds and help fix the wells.
We ended up helping fix maybe 50 wells or something, by sending funds here and there in areas where the resistance could control. But if the resistance couldn’t get in there, you couldn’t do anything. It wasn’t just Mandalay and Napyidaw. Those were the worst hit, but it affected many people in the countryside.
So what I saw from the regime was exactly who they are. When they’re not killing people directly, they’re stopping people from getting help.
DVB: Would it be fair to say that you seek to circumvent that situation because the larger groups come across blocks? How do you see your role in Myanmar compared to these bigger groups?
DE: Free Burma Rangers’ main role is in that humanitarian gap that exists from the very front line – where the fighting is active back to the big large relief organizations, refugee camps and hospitals. That gap could be ten miles long – it could be 100 miles long – where you’re not going to get help because it’s too dangerous.
We go wherever we’re invited and we pray about and feel we can be useful. We don’t want to be controlled, but we know that there’s nowhere in the world that’s neutral. You’re going to be under somebody’s authority. We’ve been under many people’s authorities, but as long as we’re allowed to help people, not constrained, we’re happy to be under any authority.
We have to find ways to get into the areas where people have needs. And we always want to follow countries’ laws. We respect every country’s laws. We want to follow human laws. But – a little girl is shot, raped. Because of this law, you can’t cross the border to help her – but nobody’s going to help her. At that point we pray and we carefully go into those areas wherever we can.
Some of our team, a minority, have weapons. We don’t have a fund to buy weapons – that’s not in our charter. But if someone has their own weapon, they’re welcome to carry it.
They just can’t use it to initiate an attack against the Burma Army. They can use it to defend themselves, or others – a fundamental human right. We’re not an offensive force. We’re always under the authority of whoever’s in charge.
We try to keep humanitarian values of love, doing no harm, and helping people when needed. But we’re not neutral. Neutrality always favors the oppressor.
But I believe the pro-democracy groups in Burma, and the Free Burma Rangers, have a different goal than the dictators. We’re not better than them. But our goal is freedom, justice, reconciliation, self-determination. These are in contrast to the dictator’s goal. That’s why there’s a fight in there.
I think what we do need, though, is more people in the areas under attack. We need more funding. We need more groups helping. There’s many wonderful groups helping, but we’re all small and we’re all limited and resources, the needs are much greater.
And so one of the appeals I make to anyone who listens. Number one, please pray for the people of Burma.
Number two, please provide direct humanitarian assistance to the ethnic groups, or groups like ours. Every ethnic group has their own health and welfare department that’s easy to report on, good for accountability, very transparent, very efficient.
Much more efficient than most aid groups in terms of how much money you give and what’s actually spent on the people. Humanitarian assistance directly to people in need, not through the government of Burma.
Number three is political recognition of the ethnic groups and the People’s Defence Forces and the [National Unity Government] and every group that’s standing for freedom in Burma – not just recognizing the dictators.
And then the next is – help defend these people. They have no way to stop the drones that attack us, no way to stop the jet aircraft. At least help us find a way to block the drones or stop the aircraft. And so those are different tasks that we have whenever we appeal to our governments.
DVB: Globally there’s a scaling back – even a dismantling – of the aid system. USAID is one example of that. You work not just in Myanmar, but also in Iraq, Ukraine, and other places. Have you noticed how that’s affecting people on the ground already? How are Free Burma Rangers coping with that?
DE: Yes, we’ve seen a measurable decrease of foreign assistance. And we see it very clearly in Burma.
For example, in Karenni state, over $3 million [USD], I think, was helping support different projects that are very important. The money that that actually made it in, I think it was maybe 1.6 million that I know about, 1.68 million, I can see how that money was all spent. It’s very good, mostly for food, shelter for IDPs.
The only kind of outside costs were transportation – but you need that. Stipends for teachers – that’s $25 a month. It’s almost nothing. But they’re not going to get the money otherwise. And so I felt the money that USAID sent that actually made it into Burma – very effective, very needed. That’s gone. Karen state is the same – over $1 million, as far as I know.
Those aren’t huge numbers, but if that’s all you had, that’s a lot. And $1 million can buy a lot of tarps and schoolbooks and medicine.
People can generally feed themselves. They can grow their own crops and survive. But that loss of USAID money, plus other groups, has made a negative difference in Burma.
The way I’ve seen it spent on the ground, I’ve not seen waste or abuse – and I’ve been doing this 32 years – especially in Burma. We have never received anything from USAID or the U.S. government, so that did not affect us directly, but it affects all the people who are trying to serve. Which means now we’re asked to try to meet those needs.
So we’re stretched very thin, and we have to try to meet needs we never had to meet before. And so that means we’re able to help less in other ways.
DVB: FBR is active in other countries. Are there trends that you see across the board? What makes Myanmar unique among these countries?
DE: Well, everybody is made in the image of God. I believe that. But also the right to believe whatever we want, including not believing in God. And we want to defend those rights. Everybody counts.
One war is not more important than the other, and there’s many of them in the world, and we are involved in helping people in a few of them: Burma, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Nuba mountains of Sudan and Tajikistan, Afghanistan. Those are the areas that we work. But our biggest effort is in Burma.
I think what makes Burma unique is that it’s the longest running war in the world. It also sits at a very strategic position in the whole world. It’s right under China and right on the Indian Ocean. And so it is a link between China and the Indian Ocean.
And it sits between India, Bangladesh on one side and Thailand, Laos on the other. It is very strategically important, especially if Burma becomes a democracy that is very strategically and militarily – crucial for national security for the whole world, because you don’t have to fight China.
But having a Western friendly or democracy friendly country sitting right below China means it’s very difficult for China’s communist and dictatorial reign to expand.
I’d hope the people of Burma and a new government would be friends with China. We don’t want to fight China, but it’s very important for the whole world that Burma becomes a democracy that’s better for everybody.
That is a real limit on how far China can push and use the resources of Burma, use Burma as a platform and also access to the Indian Ocean, the Straits of Malacca.
So I think geopolitically, strategically, Burma is one of the most important countries in the world right now that we would hope become a democracy and friends for all of us.
The second reason that Burma is unique is that the people have been struggling all these years for freedom – 75 years – and most of those come from ethnic groups that were our allies in World War Two. They helped us.
And they died fighting the Japanese Imperial Army, fighting the axis for freedom. And they’ve been left out in the cold. That’s also unique. They’re friends, they want Western or Democratic help. Not just Western, but anyone who wants freedom.
Another unique thing is Burma has large resources of rare earths and oil, natural gas, some of the world’s largest reserves, some of the world’s largest jade and ruby reserves.
All of these things can be properly shared for the good of the people, rather than some dictators having it like this and shared throughout the world, which is not the way it’s happening now.
The other thing is the environment. Because of displacement, people forced to the jungle have to clear jungle that was never cleared before to make rice fields to eat.
Well, that deforestation causes erosion, eventually causes less rainfall, causes more fires when they’re burning it off. And that pollution doesn’t just stay in Burma, it goes to the surrounding countries. So that becomes an international issue.
So those are, to me, reasons that make Burma unique and why we should help bring change to Burma.
DVB: Thank you for your time.
*This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Seán Barry is a Chiang Mai-based freelance journalist and audio producer, with a focus on authoritarianism, human rights, and humanitarian aid. He first visited Myanmar in 2015.
