Mizzima-Dec 3
“Every new ranger we interviewed told us that his or her village is currently under attack by the SAC (Myanmar junta),” said David Eubank, head of the Free Burma Rangers (FBR). During the three-month program for new rangers, he takes time every day to interview one of the 28 basic and six advanced teams going through training. He wants to learn as much as he can about them as individuals, about their motivations, and about their hopes and desires. When possible, FBR tries to help them achieve those dreams by providing the appropriate training and service opportunities. Several times per day, including before meals, the rangers must stand at attention and shout the ranger motto: “Love each other, unite and work for freedom, justice, and peace.” One of the messages the motto is meant to communicate is that, to prevail against the dictators, all of Burma’s ethnic groups must work together. The current corps of trainees includes members of the Lahu, Karen, Karenni, Arakan, Myeik, Tavoy, Shan, Mon, Pa-O, Bamar, Pegu, and Inle ethnic groups. Eubank sits in the ranger office, a bamboo building in the training camp where more than 200 basic and advanced rangers are training in medical care, security, reporting, the Good Life Club children’s program, video, and photography. As each team comes in for their interview, he explains that one of the questions he asks is why they volunteered for the training. “The usual answer is ‘to serve my country,’” Eubank said. Then he added, “But sometimes they say ‘because the Burma army killed my family.’” Across Burma there are 150 active teams from 18 different ethnic groups. Over the three decades they have been in operation, he estimates they have trained about 10,000 rangers in roughly 1,000 teams. He explained that FBR is a humanitarian organization that usually operates at the front lines of the war, treating the wounded and evacuating people, but also caring for internally displaced people and villagers in the back, behind the lines. By Antonio Graceffo, an economist and China expert who has reported extensively on Burma. Read more at: https://eng.mizzima.com/2025/12/03/28763
