Free Burma Rangers

The Free Burma Rangers (FBR) are a mainly Christian pro-active, pro-democracy humanitarian group who work throughout Burma (also known as Myanmar) but concentrate primarily on the heavily forested border region, delivering emergency medical assistance to sick and injured internally displaced people, or IDP's; a consequence of the long running campaign of violence by the military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, against Burma's ethnic minorities.

FBR trains teams of men and women in frontline medical treatment and reconnaissance techniques. In addition to delivering humanitarian relief, a secondary role of the teams is to obtain evidence of military violence and human rights abuse. This information is then published in the form of online reports and / or released to larger international human rights groups, inter-governmental organisations such as the UN, and news agencies.

FBR is one of a number of grass roots organisations (see Mae Tao Clinic [1] & Back Pack Health Worker Team [2]) which have emerged in response to the growing health needs of Burma’s persecuted ethnic underclass. FBR are not supported by either the Thai or Burmese authorities and their activity inside the Burmese border is clandestine.

FBR was formed in the late 1990s following an escalation of Burmese military activity against the Karen people. Villages were destroyed, people killed and more than 100,000 people forced from their homes in a program of violence which was designed to remove people from land in order to make way for developing business interests.

The history, character and on-going activity of the Rangers is closely linked to its American founder, Tha-U-Wah-A-Pah (the assumed Karen pseudonym, henceforth TUWAP of Dave Eubank): a Fuller Theological Seminary-educated Pastor and ex-member of the U.S. Special Forces. Having already spent a number of years as a missionary in Burma, in 1996, following a chance meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy, TUWAP was inspired to initiate a ‘Global Day of Prayer’ [3] and help to strengthen unity between the majority Burman population and the various minority ethnic groups. TUWAP was then in Burma during the Army Offensives of 1997, distributing medicine to those displaced by the conflict, and it was during this time that he decided to employ his broad mixture of skills to bring a unique brand of humanitarian relief to a greater number.

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