ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to Burma's ethnic politics, and the Karen experience of missionization, colonization and nationalist revolution. The chapter explains the context of conflict and displacement in Southeast Burma, introducing the refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border. Burma is the original plural society, a phrase coined by Furnivall to describe its mosaic of ethnic diversity and the difficulties of building a cohesive nation from such disparate fragments. While Burma's border territories and ethnic nationalities were brought within the Union of Burma at the onset of national independence, failure to grant political autonomy to ethnic groups was and remains the primary cause of conflict between these groups and the Burmese ruling regime. The chapter considers Karen as an umbrella term for multiple sub-groups, including Sgaw, Pwo, Bwe. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the Karen National Union (KNU) controlled substantial portions of the Thailand-Burma border and money flooded in from cross-border traffic in timber and black market goods.
