Thomas Van Dyke, executive director of Heroes Serving Humanity, spoke to OU students Tuesday night about the human rights struggle in Burma.

He said Burma army implements systematic genocide to kill off the several ethnic groups in Eastern Burma using several different methods such as relocation, rape, torture and the use of land mines.

Taking a quote from the Amnesty Council, Van Dyke said, “The entire country of Burma is like a prison without bars.”

Girls are usually raped or taken into the sex trade, the homes of the Burmese people are being burned down, villagers are forced to relocate, and hardly anyone knows about it, Van Dyke said.

He talked about how relocated villagers must build the fences around the concentration camp areas to which the Burma army ordered them.

“Villagers are forced to make their own prison. Normally, people go to camps because they don’t want to be shot at,” Van Dyke said

While showing slides of pictures of children, women and men native to Burma who have been affected by the various methods used by the Burma army, Van Dyke talked about the relief effort his organization is doing now to help and how difficult it is due to denial of aid by the Burmese government.

“We have to operate underground. We have to break the law and enter illegally,” Van Dyke said.

Van Dyke left the University of North Carolina in 2008 after 12 years as professor. He said he realized that he was no longer satisfied with his work knowing there were people in the world willing to sacrifice their comfort to help others. In 2009 he started the Heroes Serving Humanity, which focuses on creating awareness of human rights abuse in Burma and providing humanitarian relief to Burma.

Melody Hollifield, international and area studies junior, said she knew about Van Dyke’s efforts in Burma due to a conference she attended in Washington D.C and she was able to meet Van Dyke and get his contact info.

“We asked him if he would love to come to Oklahoma and talk about Burma, and he said that he would love to come, Hollified said.

Jessica Disteelhorst, international and area studies and zoology sophomore, said that she thinks what Van Dyke does is amazing.