Tham Hin, 10 January 2005--Despite many restrictions by local Thai authorities responsible for the camp, thousands of Karen refugees in Tham Hin, celebrated the Karen New Year with the theme of "How we will rebuild our people's destiny"

In the early morning at the first sunrise of the month of Thalay, 2744, of the Karen calendar (which fall in 10 of January, 2005), in over a thousand over crowded bamboo houses in Tham Hin, people were awaken from the sleep by the sound of blowing horn, echoed in the valley through loudspeaker.

Outside it was still dark, and a bit cold. A man speaking with loudspeaker said, "It is time to wake up and get ready" to celebrate the Karen New Year.

Tham Hin, population over 9000 Karen refugees, in Ratchaburi province in the west of Bangkok is one the of the nine refugees camps along the Thai-Burma border including Karenni refugee camps.

The day break, children, women, men wearing different colour of Karen dresses gathered and marched on the dusty road to a small ground in front the high school.

The ground was filled with hundreds people in the colorful Karen dresses from red, blue, white, pink to gray in different patterns and design.

The front row was occupied by children, and people holding the banner of their sections, and Karen flags. In the middle, there was a Karen flag, which was lifted at 5:00. In front of the crowd some elders and some refugee leaders sat on a bamboo platform with a "Kloh" (Karen Drum) displayed.

Just in front of the stage, there were some blue plastic chairs for guests like NGO workers and Thai authorities, but none of them was present. The theme of this New Year "How we will rebuild our people's destiny", clearly shows that the Karen people should rebuild their destiny by themselves.

During the ceremony, different speeches submitted from different groups were read out including KNU chairman P'Doh Ba Thin Sein and KNU Mergui-Tavoy District Chairman P'Doh Kwe Htoo Win.

Speeches and other activities encouraged and motivated the people to work together and find the way and work for the people.

Te P'Doh Seik, Tham Hin camp leader, in his speech that was read out, mentioned some social problems in the camps. He stated that," Now we can see that in our camp, there are more adulteries, and many among them are young people. Our Karen culture is normally one husband has one wife. We must think where our truthfulness and honesty disappears". He was not present at the ceremony.

"The value of a person depends on his/her behavior. Individual behavior could not be corrected by others, he/she should take responsibility. " said Te Seik.

Te Seik also encouraged the people to take any education opportunity, which is available in the camp including vocational training, and to preserve and promote the Karen traditional dress and culture.

"Our destiny is in our hand. Our people obligation is in our hand. So, we will firmly decide we will work together for this year to restore the social stability of our Karen," said Te Seik.

P'Doh Kwe Htoo Win, Chairman of KNU Mergui-Tavoy District, in his New Year speech statement said, "In this new year I would like to remind you and encourage our Karen people to think and analyse our Karen people's life and dignity nowadays and build new ways of thinking, idea, vision, and conviction which will benefit ourselves and our people for the future."

After the speeches, they continued with the Karen "Don" dance and the blew of the Karen horn and beat Kloh.

The celebration of the Karen New Year in Tham Hin this year didn't seem that organized like the one last year. Last year the stage was well decorated and different culture shows could be seen and some NGO workers and camp leaders were present.

No one talked about the problem openly. Disappointed Thera Daniel Zu, vice chairman of Tham Hin, who was not present while the ceremony said that he was upset because of the restrictions on the camp.

Other Karen New Year activities such as the signing contest, the drama shows competition that were planned to take place in the open ground at night were restricted and later were conducted inside the church hall.

The problem started last December, the people were restricted to celebrate Christmas and other activities at night after there was a fight between Thai security guarding the camp and young people.

Even many restrictions are put on, the refugees themselves do not give up easily but take every space that is given to celebrate the Karen New Year. The New Year activities at night in the church hall, the place was over crowded with people and at New Year's Day hundreds gathered and showed that they are standing for their national day, for which their former leaders struggled and gained recognition years before.