by Anton McCabe
A former resident of Omagh spoke this week of her two years living and teaching English under one of the most oppressive dictatorships in the world – the Burmese military junta.
As protests in Burma's capital Rangoon by Buddhist monks gather pace and grab world headlines, Treasa Nic Thomáis said she was unable to speak in detail about many things she had seen because she was afraid of putting in danger the Burmese people she knows.
The former local teacher lived in Omagh's Georges Street before moving abroad and settling in Burma. Last year, she visited the site of a massacre on the Burmese-Thai border within an hour of the atrocity happening. She saw dead bodies there.
"They were burnt to death when their village was burnt down," she told the UlsterHerald. "They were generally women and children. A lot of the men were not there, they were out in the fields.
"About 30 to 50 were killed in the village. The survivors fled to Thailand. We helped to get them over the border."
The former Omagh resident said that Burmese society is terrorised after years of military suppression and the house arrest of popular political leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung Sung Suu Kyi.
"A significant number of people disappear," said Treasa Nic Thomáis. "They are arrested, they go into prison, and they disappear. Torture is common in the prisons.
"You see people walking around with stooped backs; they've been beaten. The whole country has an air of unease. Insecurity pervades everywhere.
"Every town has its military intelligence people; it has informers who are paid. There are vast numbers working for Military Intelligence. You don't know who you can trust.
"There's a degree of paranoia, that's what they want – paranoia, division, distrust."
Burmese will only talk about politics with foreigners they can trust, she pointed out. And a minority has prospered under the junta, and they support it. However, 80% of the people are close to destitution.
"For a teacher, the salary is $15 (£7.40) per month," she said. "If you work for a ministry, it's $90 (£44.37). If you're a teacher in a private school, it's $100 (£49.30).
"To live in Burma comfortably, you need $500 (£246.50). Only a minority is getting that."
Meanwhile, there is no health service. Education is technically free, but most people can't afford to buy the books for their children. Only those areas where senior military officers live have a regular electricity supply. In the rest of the country, there are power cuts for 12 to 18 hours per day.
Treasa Nic Thomáis said she hopes the current protest movement will succeed in overthrowing the junta.
