Ithaca College senior Tayza Yeelin was homeschooled, but not in any traditional sense.

    His mother was forced to teach him and his siblings while they were hiding in the  Burmese jungle, knowing the government army could find and kill her family at any moment.

    Yeelin and his father, Han Lin, a facilities attendant at the college, participated in a panel discussion with other Burmese refugees Nov. 29 as part of IC Tzedek: Social Justice at Hillel’s Week of Action for Burma. The panel discussion, paired with the screening of the documentary “Our Cause,” was the first of three events last week to raise awareness about the current situation in Burma.

    Located in southeast Asia between China, India, Laos and Thailand, Burma has been ruled a military regime since 1962 by the State Law and Order Restoration Council. On Aug. 8, 1988, students protested for democracy in the capital city of Rangoon. In response, the military opened fire on the crowd, wounding and killing thousands.

    Burma has since been in a state of disrepair, with the army attempting to exterminate minorities from the country, forcing citizens into labor and military service, raping women and burning villages to the ground. According to the documentary, “Our Cause,” many people in Burma have either retreated to camps along Burmese borders, or fled the country all together.

    Besides Lin and Yeelin, Defano, a local activist; refugees Minn Htwe and Aung Kyaw Myint; and junior Kayla Percy, who spent a month abroad in Burma, shared their stories about the Burmese cause.

    “It’s not about politics” Yeelin said. “It’s about what’s right.”

    Han Lin’s political activism for Burma’s National League for Democracy forced him and his family to leave their village and live in the Burmese jungle about 100 miles away from their home. There, Yeelin said the family faced malnutrition, diseases like malaria and the constant fear that the regime would discover where the family was hiding.

    Since finding refuge in Ithaca, Han Lin has worked as an activist for Burmese democracy and the release of elected leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Following the 1988 riots, the Burmese government dismissed election results and have retained power by placing Suu Kyi under house arrest.

    In September 2005, Han Lin joined activists from the International Campaign for Freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma in a nearly 200-mile walk from Albany to New York City. There, they participated in an 18-day hunger strike which ended when a U.N. representative said Burma would be discussed in upcoming meetings.

Seniors Jeffrey Hellman, a member of Hillel, and Julie Berger, co-chair of IC Tzedek, organized the week’s events.

    “The story breaks down the generation gap,” Hellman said. “It made me realize [Han Lin] is an example of an extraordinary human being.”

    Berger said Burmese student activists received 500,000 signatures on a petition for democracy in Burma within the last few months. Recently, the military regime forced out the Red Cross because it feared its influence over the Burmese people.

    Like his father, Yeelin has become passionate about bringing peace to Burma. He said he believes the best way for the U.N. to go about solving the crisis in Burma is to send in U.N. peacekeepers.

    “Right now, the U.N. is basically doing nothing,” he said. “We need to protect the people.”