Mae Sot

Last Thursday, the IPSL class took a trip to Mae Sot, on the border of Thailand and Burma. During our trip, we visited several organizations working with people from Burma either inside Burma or in Thailand.

Because the subject is so delicate, some of the organizations had no knowledge that other organizations were only a block away or that certain groups that they worked with had recently moved.

As we were leaving Mae Sot, we went to the border.



Here, we saw people crossing back and forth between the two countries both legally and illegally. Those crossing legally went over the large bridge, while those crossing illegally walked, swam, or floated across the river.

The Bridge/Crossing Legally:




Crossing Illegally:






We stood on a ledge looking out on to the water. The land between the ledge and the water was disputed land, so some people who were illegally crossing stayed on this land, less likely to be arrested than if they stepped up on to the platform. This fear of going into the town was heightened by the presence of soldiers.



We were told that there were not normally soldiers when groups had previously visited this spot, but we saw several sitting on the platform overlooking the river. When we asked why they did not arrest everyone who was crossing illegally (right in front of them in broad day light), we were told that there were just too many people going across the border, and that usually, arrests happened during crackdowns. Eventually, one soldier told us why they were posted on the platform. He said that there had been cases of people coming over the border, supposedly on drugs, and stealing possessions from the tourists. With the soldiers on the ledge, people were afraid to cross into the town. We even had vendors trying to sell us cigarettes from right next to the platform while we spoke to the soldiers, afraid to step up onto the cement ledge.



We could somewhat see the Burmese police sitting on the other side of the river. They were acting much like the soldiers, just watching people cross with little reaction.



Overall, I really enjoyed this trip. This was enjoyment much in a more experiential and knowledge gaining way than in a just having fun way, which I think was necessary to help us understand the situation to the best of our ability.