Karen refugees from Myanmar prepare for new life in Japan

MERA REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand--Their dreams about starting a new life in Japan range from providing a future for their children to riding in a car.

Others simply want to get away from the oppression in Myanmar (Burma) that led them to the Mera refugee camp in northwest Thailand.

Twenty-seven refugees from five families--all members of minority Karen tribe--will be relocated from the camp to Japan in late September. They will be the first group to arrive under a "third-country" resettlement program adopted by Japan, which has long been criticized as closed to refugees.

The program is designed to help refugees in camps outside their home countries.

The Mera refugee camp is more like a town, dotted with houses with eucalyptus-thatched roofs.

About 39,000 Karen people who fled Myanmar's military government live in the camp, which was built in 1984. Food, wood and other supplies are provided by nonprofit organizations.

One narrow path in the camp is lined with grocery stores and bamboo houses. Children in school uniforms can be heard speaking in Burmese, Karen, Thai and English.

The camp has 22 day-care centers, 17 elementary schools, three junior high schools and seven high schools, all built by nongovernmental organizations. Special schools that teach English and economics also exist.

At one day-care building, members of a family who will resettle in Japan greeted me with "konnichiwa" (hello) and "hajimemashite (Pleased to meet you).

The 24-year-old father said he was 4 years old when he fled his home in Myanmar during a military attack. After moving from one refugee camp to another, he arrived in Mera in 1995, where he met his wife, now 23.

They have two daughters, aged 4 and 2.

"We have no worries as long as we stay here," he said in Karen, as he sat on his knees. "But I want to see our lives improve. I want my children to have goals and dreams. I will go to Japan to live a new life."

He said he wanted to farm in Japan. "I believe I will manage if I make the effort."

Since late July, those accepted under the resettlement program have been taking one-month training courses from the International Organization for Migration, which was commissioned by the Japanese government.

Initially, 32 members of six families were accepted, but a family of five decided not to move because of Japan's high prices.

A 36-year-old man in a family of seven did not hide his anxieties about living in Japan.

"Away from Myanmar, without knowing the language, how can I possibly find a job soon?" he said. "But there is no future in this camp. I will do my best trying to become a naturalized citizen."

An 8-year-old girl has also set goals for her life in a new country.

"I want to go to school and make many friends. I want to get in a car, too," she said.

Japan plans to accept about 90 refugees from Myanmar in three years from this fiscal year.