FREE BURMA RANGERS: PROVIDING HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; NOT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000188 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/20/2017 TAGS: PREF PHUM MOPS BM TH SUBJECT: FREE BURMA RANGERS: PROVIDING HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; NOT ARMING INSURGENTS CHIANG MAI 00000188 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: Alex Barrasso, Chief, Pol/Econ, CG Chiang Mai. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) The Free Burma Rangers (FBR) provide humanitarian assistance and do not funnel weapons to armed groups that oppose the Burmese regime, FBR contacts told us in separate meetings on November 6 and 7. FBR's main mission is to provide assistance to civilians in conflict areas, they emphasized, through relief teams that offer medical care and counseling. FBR is also trying to improve communication between villages so they can warn each other of impending attacks, and to enhance its own ability to disseminate timely information about atrocities committed by the Burma Army. Despite an incident several years ago that led us to limit USG contact with the FBR, the group remains a good source of information about events in Burma's ethnic states, primarily along the Thai-Burma border, and post intends to maintain appropriate contact with the group. End Summary. The Mission and Omission -------------- ¶2. (C) The Free Burma Rangers was founded in 1997 by AmCit David Eubank and his wife Karen. Their main mission is to assist civilians under attack by the Burma Army (BA) in Burma's ethnic states, primarily along the Thai-Burma border. FBR contacts told officers from CG Chiang Mai and Embassy Rangoon on November 7 that they have approximately 40 relief teams on the ground in Burma's ethnic states, with the vast majority (roughly 24) deployed to Karen State. The rest of the teams are in Karenni, Kachin, Shan, and Rakhine States. Each team, they said, is composed of four to six members, including one to two medics, one or two reporters/videographers/photographers, a pastor, and a security officer. ¶3. (C) The Eubank family itself often spends weeks or months at a time inside Burma. While David travels with relief teams, Karen runs educational programs for school children in ethnic areas that are not currently under attack. David told us on October 12 that he was heading into Burma over the October 13-14 weekend, and that he did not expect to return to Thailand until sometime early next year. While we were at the FBR's offices on November 7, David spoke to us by satellite phone from Burma. At the office, which is provided free of charge by an NGO called Partners World, we observed two full-time American staff. FBR does not appear to employ any Thai nationals. The relief teams are composed mostly of Burmese from the ethnic states to which they deploy. David told us on October 12 that the organization has good relations with Thai authorities. ¶4. (C) In response to questions about security for the teams and how they cross the Burma-Thai border, Laurie Dawson, David Eubank's sister and the U.S.-based representative of the FBR, told us on November 6 that FBR relies primarily on the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA--the military wing of the Karen National Union) to provide security for the teams and to escort them across the border. She said the KNLA sometimes also provides security during actual relief operations, something KNLA leaders confirmed in a separate meeting with Chiang Mai and Rangoon officers on November 9 in Mae Sot. (Comment: Rangoon's Defense Attache notes that he has observed Eubank in Shan State during several of Eubank's most recent trips to Burma, which means that FBR would have been operating under the auspices of the Shan State Army (SSA),which is suspected of involvement in the drug trade. When we saw Eubank on October 12, he said he had recently returned from Shan State.) ¶5. (C) According to Dawson, FBR provides training to each team's security officer, but does not provide them with weapons. Some, she said, procure and carry their own weapons, but others serve as security officers without any arms. Security officers primarily rely on gathering and sharing intelligence on the location and activity of the BA to protect their teams, according to Dawson. Dawson also stated that FBR's mandate does not include arming or providing any military equipment to the KNLA or any other ethnic group, and that FBR does not engage in any such activity. Ethnic groups often ask for weapons, she added, but FBR refuses all such requests. (Comment: We believe there are other individuals who do help armed ethnic groups in Burma procure weapons, some of whom are former U.S. military. Due to the nature of his work, Eubank is probably aware of who they are and precisely what activities they are engaged in.) ¶6. (C) FBR's relief teams endeavor to give medical care to wounded civilians, provide counseling by members of the clergy CHIANG MAI 00000188 002.2 OF 002 to those in need of it, and document atrocities committed by the BA. The medics on the relief teams are trained by western doctors or members of the Karen Health Workers Association, while the pastors are often trained by ethnic organizations. The training for each team as a whole, Dawson said, is designed by her brother to prepare them to work in "war zones," and is based on David's experience with the U.S. Special Forces. The role of the photographers is to document the BA's abuse of the civilian population and to transmit the information to FBR's U.S.-based webmaster, where the organization's reports are then posted on its website (www.freeburmarangers.org) and distributed by e-mail. Dawson and Nathan Collins, who coordinates logistics and communications for the relief teams, also stated that FBR is in the process of equipping villagers with handheld radios so they can communicate with each other and with FBR to pass on information about the BA's whereabouts. FBR also provides leadership, human rights, and computer training through its partnerships with ethnic groups such as the Karen Human Rights Group, Karenni Youth Organization, and the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen. FBR's objective, Dawson stated, is to staff relief teams that bridge ethnic divides. ¶7. (C) According to Dawson and Collins, the FBR obtains most of its funding from donations by individuals and churches in the U.S. and Europe. Both said that FBR has a relatively loyal base of supporters, many of whom make regular, sizable gifts to the organization. The NGO Partners World also provides substantial funding. According to Partners' Steve Gumaer, 60 percent of his organization's funds are used to purchase medicine and other medical supplies for FBR's relief teams. (Note: According to Gumaer, Partners' budget in 2006 was roughly $600,000. He said he expects that figure to be closer to $1 million this year.) This month alone, Partners spent $150,000 on handheld radios for villagers. According to Dawson, FBR's annual budget averages around $400,000, with most of the money spent on training relief teams. Observations on Karen State -------------- ¶8. (C) Due to the nature of its work, FBR is well-placed to provide insight into events in Karen State, which Dawson and Collins openly shared with us. Faced with a depleted KNLA, they said, villagers have devised their own tactics in an effort to protect themselves. They cited the planting of landmines at entry and exit points to villages by villagers themselves as one example. When the mines go off, the villagers know that Burma Army troops are not far behind, and they try to flee as quickly as they can. Though Dawson observed that the geographic area under attack by the BA in Karen State is decreasing, she emphasized that the human suffering and displacement caused by the BA is worse than ever. Over 30,000 have been displaced since February 2006, she said, adding that more would be displaced due to the BA's on-going attacks on rice fields villagers are attempting to harvest. Collins observed that the BA and Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA - a KNU splinter group allied with the ruling military regime) are coordinating their attacks more closely than they previously did. He said FBR estimates one to two battalions of BA and DKBA soldiers, each with 120 men, carry out the attacks. Villagers, he said, have a harder time fleeing now, because there are several roads under construction, and the BA patrols them constantly. Comment -------------- ¶9. (C) David Eubank allowing himself to be caught on camera several years ago at a Shan National Day Rally at SSA headquarters wearing part of a U.S. Army uniform was clearly a mistake--one from which he and FBR learned. This incident created a perception that FBR was providing weapons to the SSA, and perhaps to other ethnic groups as well. It, along with some stark disagreements between Eubank and the Department over Thai refugee policy, also prompted the Department to instruct Eubank to resign from the Army Reserves and to limit contact with the FBR. The Burmese regime claimed the photo was evidence that the U.S. military was working with Shan terrorists, and called in the Defense Attache in Rangoon over the issue. FBR now understands that it conducts its activities entirely independent of the USG, and that the USG will not come to FBR's aid in the event some of its members are captured or otherwise directly attacked by the Burma Army. FBR's work does not appear to conflict with USG interests in Burma, and the group remains a good source of information about the situation in Burma's conflict areas near the Thai-Burma border. Post intends to continue cultivating its relationship with FBR to augment Burma reporting. ¶10. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassies Rangoon and Bangkok. MORROW