Interviews with Khin Ohmar

Well, our movement is quite broad and, I would say also, quite diverse. And there is this strong commitment and richness in that diversity, I would say. I mean, how broad and diverse and why is because it has to do with the history of our country.

Burma is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society. And the history itself, for many decades, already put us in the situation where many ethnic groups have been fighting for self-determination, for the political equality, for so long. But then, if you look at those different ethnic groups, or different ethnic communities, fighting for this political equality, their history also varied.

And they are resistance, or they are equality movement. Also, the time when they start, how they start, are also varied. So you have different groups involved at different times, whereas you can see, like those ethnic equality movements started like 60, 40 years back. 60 or 40 years ago, you know? Depending on what ethnic groups we are talking about. If you talk about the Karen, like Karen people have been fighting for at least 60 years ago.

But then if you look at that, these ethnic groups’ struggle, being more confined in their own struggle, in a way; until the time in 1976, those ethnic groups come together. But again, that’s very confined on the border. It doesn’t connect with the larger population in the country. But then only in 1988, the time when I was involved as a student, that is the time when the whole nation – no matter what ethnicity, what religion, and what class – people joined together as a country, first time ever, to fight against this military dictator, General Ne Win.

So then you have another time of the struggle come and of the movement. Then those of us who fled across the border and joined with those armed groups, they’re the ethnic groups. And then you started to see some national reconciliation, I would say. Because we are a country where all the groups are quite segmented.

There is a deep-rooted mistrust and distrust between and among the different ethnic groups, or the different religious groups, particularly between the Burman majority and non-Burman smaller ethnic minorities, or the larger ethnic minorities. So in that case, we have a long history of this mistrust and distrust already being deep rooted under the successive regimes for so long.

So in that case, you are having a movement that is quite diverse. But in that diversity, are we unified? Our objective, our goal, our approach, and our vision is unified. What we want to achieve is a democratic federal union where democracy is the basic foundation where all the ethnic peoples, no matter what religion and what ethnicity, are also able to enjoy the equal rights.

So in that vision, we are all unified. But if you ask me do we have a different approach? Yes, we still do. You know? Like inside the country, if you look at our movement, whether inside or outside the country, is led by Daw Aung Saw Suu Kyi, and then the other ethnic leaders in the country who are looking for the political dialogue. Whereas it’s supported by all the groups, whether ahm or an ahm.

My point is people need a chance. And if we are given the chance, we will prove that we will coexist very peacefully, and then we will work for democracy, you know, democracy development peacefully. I mean the NLD, like back in 1990, you know, during the election time, National League for Democracy, led by Daw Aung Saw Suu Kyi, won overwhelmingly. But if you look into the NLD, even though, yes, there were political parties who are ethnic-based. But the NLD itself is not ethnic based.

I come from a mix of three major ethnic groups: Burman, Shan, and Mon. And when I approach to any of them is, you know, like if I approach to the Mon, or if I approach to the Shan, I am not accepted as one of them. At the individual personal level, it was very sad for me. You know? Knowing who I am. But at the very head level, I would say I have to really come to understand.

So between my head and my heart, I have to really come to understand of this, like, decades-long deep suffering of the ethnic people under the successive military regimes, which is, in the eyes of the non-Burma ethnic people, are the Burman. So if you are a Karen villager, living in a Karen village, you have a Burmese Army coming and raiding your village, burn down the whole village and rape your women.

In that case, yes, those soldiers are, in your eyes, are Burmans. And of course you hate the Burmans. And this is something I come to really understand, both with my head and also with my heart. And therefore, I am able to react with my head in a very understandable way, very humbly, into that situation.

And there are, you know, as you probably will hear, some people say that, it’s true the successive regimes oppress the ethnic people all along. But we didn’t do it individually. It’s true. I didn’t do anything. But then I have to look to myself of how I lived in my whole life. Even though I come from three major ethnic groups, I am known as the majority Burman. My ethnic identity in Burma is Burman. And therefore, in my whole life, there were no prejudice or no discrimination or oppression against me for being a Burman. I didn’t have that.

On the contrary, I have to understand for the other ethnic people, that is not the case for them. You see? So I realize that when I come to know, I become responsible. Even though I am not the one who commits those atrocities, I come to know, and I have the responsibility to stop those atrocities against the ethnic people.

Khin Ohmar is a Burmese democracy activist who lives and works in Mae Sot, Thailand. She is a leader of the Women’s League of Burma, the main umbrella organization for women’s organizations in exile and inside Burma.

Khin has served as a spokesperson for the Burmese democracy movement in the United Nations General Assembly and in other international forums. She also serves as coordinator of the Burma Partnership, a regional coalition of civil society groups supporting democracy in Burma, and she is an organizer of the ASEAN civil society and human rights consultation processes.

Admitted to the United States as a refugee after being persecuted for her participation in the 1988 student demonstrations, Khin became a United States citizen and worked for refugee and human rights organizations in Washington, D.C., before moving back to the Thai-Burma border area in the late 1990s.

Burma, a Southeast Asian country with about 57 million people, is ruled by a military regime that seized power in 1962. Although the reformist National League for Democracy (NLD) won overwhelmingly in a 1990 election, the country’s military rulers ignored the results and arrested NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 “for her nonviolent struggle for democracy and human rights.” The military government held a referendum on a new constitution in 2008 and a parliamentary election in 2010, neither of which was regarded by international observers as free or fair, and both of which resulted in overwhelming majorities for pro-government positions and candidates. The military regime has committed widespread and systematic human rights violations, including extrajudicial killing, torture, rape, and denial of freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion.

Throughout its existence, the regime has been at war with a number of Burma’s ethnic minority groups. Ethnic minority voters overwhelmingly supported the NLD in the 1990 election, and after the suppression of the democracy movement several of these groups continued or resumed armed resistance to the de facto government. Although the government signed cease-fire agreements with several of these groups ostensibly granting them autonomy within their respective regions, the Burmese military has used a range of brutal techniques, including the killing of civilians, forced labor, rape, and the destruction of homes, crops, and villages, in cease-fire zones as well as in areas where there is still armed resistance.

In 2007, as on several previous occasions, there were mass demonstrations throughout the country demanding freedom and democracy. The 2007 demonstrations were led by Buddhist monks and eventually became known as the “Saffron Revolution” after the color of the monks’ robes. The armed forces brutally suppressed these demonstrations—estimates of the number of protestors killed range from 31 to several thousand—and intensified popular dissatisfaction with the government by the killing, beating, and public humiliation of monks.

The nominally civilian government resulting from the 2010 election has been widely regarded as a façade for continuing military rule. However, in October 2011, the government released 206 of Burma’s estimated 2,000 prisoners of conscience. The next month, the government announced that it would soon release all remaining political prisoners. The NLD, which had declined to participate in the 2010 election, registered to participate in the next election and announced that Aung San Suu Kyi would be among the NLD candidates.

Although the military regime announced in 1989 that it had changed the English name of the country from Burma to “Myanmar,” the United States government and other international supporters of democracy in Burma have generally continued to call the country Burma because this is the name preferred by Aung San Suu Kyi and other democracy advocates who won the 1990 election.