Jack Picone

1,200 MILES OF LIFE & DEATH ALONG THE THAI BURMA BORDER

Hundreds of thousands of displaced Burmese and ethnic minorities live precarious lives on the Thai/Burma border. They have fled persecution by Burma’s brutal military government – soldiers have burned their villages, razed their crops and destroyed their livelihoods. Their communities crushed, survivors attempt the long dangerous journey through jungle, across rivers and mountains in their flight from oppression to cross the border into Thailand.

With no official ‘State of Place’, their existence is suffused with fear and hardship – some in sweat shops, on building sites or in grimy brothels. Others like Panyuk maimed and blinded by a landmine, posing proudly with an umbrella – his weapon against tropical downpours.

They are also waging a private war against the drug traffickers of the Golden Triangle – the ‘Warrior Monks of the Golden Horse Monastery’ not only try to keep the traffickers at bay but rescue orphaned and abandoned children who are victims of the drug trade. They take them in as novices and train them in riding bareback on wild horses.

My aim was to portray the struggle of their situation, their resilience, their dignity and their hope in a world that has largely forgotten them.

JACK PICONE
Bangkok 2k6