Free Burma Rangers (FBR) is a missionary, multi-ethnic humanitarian service movement that came into being in the late 90s in response to the growing needs of Burma’s suppressed ethnic minorities. As the organization claims its vision is to “Free the Oppressed”.[1] The groups main objective is to provide medical treatment trainings and deliver humanitarian relief mainly to IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) and ethnic minorities. Obtaining evidence of military violence and human rights violations in the area of activity is their secondary task. As a result, the group constantly publishes the reports on their findings. The FBR’s presence has surpassed Burma’s borders, as the team constantly involves into other conflict hotbeds such as Iraq, Sudan and Syria. Currently, a number of Free Burma Rangers in Syria hardly exceeds 10-15 people, including its leader David Eubank and his family members. In the conflict FBR takes a side of PKK/YPG and closely cooperates with its terrorist leader Ferhat Abdi Şahin.[2] The FBR views PKK/YPG synonymous to Syrian Kurds, therefore by taking PKK’s stance the organization claims to provide assistance to “a suppressed ethnic minority”. Not surprisingly, the group never hesitates to accuse Turkey of the human rights violations and ethnic cleansing in its reports and publications.
The Free Burma Rangers, under the guise of liberating the oppressed and humanitarian aid, have the image of a group that works as a private military company which fights along the various groups in the conflictual zones and provides logistical support to them as well. The fact that the doctors employed by them provide training such as mine clearance and the use of weapons, supports these claims. Noor Nahas, Arslon Xudosi and Jett Goldsmith’s collaborated work on entitled “Are the Free Burma Rangers involved in fighting alongside the SDF?” reveals a lot of original information in this context.
David Eubank
Founder and Leader of the Free Burma Rangers (FRB)
Eubank is a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer and is the founder and leader of the Free Burma Rangers (FBR). As he personally claims, David Eubank’s mission is to release people from oppression. The FBR includes men and women of various ethnic and religious identities. Eubank is married and has three children. All of his family members work alongside the 70 ethnic FBR relief teams in the conflict areas of Burma.[3] As it is known, the FBR recently began relief missions to help the people under the ISIS attacks in Iraq, in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan and in Syria.[4]
Karen Eubank
David’s wife. Founder of the Good Life Club program
Karen Eubank has been working together with her husband David for over 25 years in missions all over the World, including Burma, Sudan, Iraq, and Syria.[5] After a relief mission to villages attacked by Burma Army, she initiated a the Good Life Club program in 1999. She envisaged a program for children that would include both a preventive health care education and spiritually encouragement.[6] The Good Life Club counsellor accompanies each of FBR relief teams. The counsellor’s duty is to concentrate on children at each site the relief team operates.
Hosannah Valentine
wFree Burma Rangers member, Spokesperson
Hosannah Valentine is a missionary aid-worker. Originally coming from Monatana, US. She spends much of her life traveling around the Southeast Asia and the Middle East. She is known as a FBR member and its spokesperson.[7]
Eliya Samson
The First Ranger, Chief Medic
Eliya (Elijah) Samson is the Chief Medic for the FBR. He is a 37 year old married Karen Christian. Samson with his wife “Cat” have four children. Eliya is a medic, trainer, champion kick boxer, artist, singer and a cook. Samson served as a medic in the Karen Army (KNLA). He is known for his ability of taking decisions in complex and lifesaving situations.[8]
Doh Say
FBR Relief Team Leader
Doh Say is a Karenni. He is a part of the headquarters team who currently serves a full-time FBR relief team leader. Doh Say is in charge of all the Karenni FBR teams. Moreover, he is responsible for the previously mentioned Good Life Club program. Huge amount of time he spends training new relief teams how to save people who have been attacked by the enemy. He also spends months in the jungle visiting the teachers that Partners support, and distributing their salaries for the next few months. Due to the harsh life conditions in the area the only way to get money to the teachers in Karen State is to hand it physically. By doing so, as they claim, Doh Say makes it possible for teachers to do their job in a war-torn country. [9]
Sai Nawng
FBR’s Shan Teams Coordinator
Nawng is the coordinator for all of FBR’s Shan teams. He first join to FBR in 2004. Soon enough he became a team leader and the coordinator for all teams in the Shan region. He has brought his team on several headquarters’ missions in Karen State, for training, and multiply helped with children’s program. He leads the Shan teams that works in some of the most difficult areas of Burma that are both dangerous and physically challenging to get to. He was a Buddhist who converted to a Christian in 2007. Nawng is married and has a child.[10]
Zau Seng
Kachin Ranger, FBR Medic and Cameraman
Zau Seng is a Kachin FBR Ranger who was born on April 20,1980 and died on November 2, 2019 while filming the FBR operation near Tel Tamer, Syria. Seng had been a Free Burma Rager for over 13 years. He took part in FBR missions in Iraq, Syria, as well as Burma itself. Seng’s funeral took place on November 7 and was attended by terrorist leader Ferhat Abdi Şahin and other PKK/YPG members. [11]
Jason Torlano
Volunteer FBR Medic
Torlano is a FBR medic that had been noticed to be firing a rifle next to a PKK/YPG fighter. The group is known to train soldiers in land mine removal and battlefield communications. Therefore, its solely humanitarian approach is very questionable.
[1] Free Burma Rangers, “Who We Are”, retrieved on December 20, 2019, from https://www.freeburmarangers.org/who-we-are/
[2] Medium, “Are the Free Burma Rangers involved in fighting alongside the SDF?”, retrieved on December 20, 2019, from https://medium.com/@offbeatresearchinfo/are-the-free-burma-rangers-involved-in-fighting-alongside-the-sdf-ceeba1639ba1
[3] ABC News, “The man who willingly takes his family to war”, retrieved on December 13, 2019, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-04/david-eubank-man-who-willingly-takes-his-family-to-war/8867792
[4] Free Burma Rangers, “Letter from the Director”, retrieved on December 12, 2019, from https://www.freeburmarangers.org/who-we-are/letter-from-the-director/
[5] Rudaw, “Karen Eubank: the woman behind a decades-long humanitarian mission”, retrieved on December 19, 2019, from https://www.rudaw.net/english/interview/30112019
[6] Free Burma Rangers, “Good Life Club”, retrieved on December 19, 2019, from https://www.freeburmarangers.org/action/good-life-club/
[7] Berighthere, “Hosannah Valentine”, retrieved on December 20, 2019, from https://berighthere.wordpress.com/author/hosannahvalentine/
[8] Free Burma Rangers, “Eliya Samson, First Ranger”, retrieved on December 13, 2019, from https://www.freeburmarangers.org/2008/09/09/eliya-samson-first-ranger/
[9] Free Burma Rangers, “FRB Profile: Doh Say”, retrieved on December 13, 2019, from https://www.freeburmarangers.org/2008/10/24/fbr-profile-doh-say/
[10] Free Burma Rangers, “Story of a Shan Ranger”, retrieved on December 13, 2019, from https://www.freeburmarangers.org/2012/09/14/fbr-report-story-of-a-shan-ranger/
[11] Free Burma Rangers, “Remembering Kachin Ranger Zau Seng who was killed by Turkish-supported Free Syrian Army attack”, retrieved on December 23, 2019, from https://www.freeburmarangers.org/2019/11/11/remembering-kachin-ranger-zau-seng-killed-turkish-supported-free-syrian-army-attack/
