Interviews with Wai Wai Nu

When I was released from jail [in 2012] I saw some changes in Rangoon. But what I heard from the information and the news from my family who live in Rakhine State, the situation for them became… there was no change and it even got worse. [In 2011, Burmese President Thein Sein began enacting a reform agenda that has eased government restrictions on civil liberties and opened more political space for opposition parties. Rakhine State is a region in Burma situated on the country’s west coast. Since 2012, ethnic tensions between Burmese Buddhists and Muslims (Rohingya) in Rakhine State resulted in a series of violent episodes.]

And also, when I talked with a friend from another part of Burma [I heard that] there was no change. That is one of the reasons that as soon as I was released from jail, I engaged in political activities and youth activities. And also I continued with my studies. Because I had to delay my education for seven years [after being a political prisoner].

And then, in 2012, in June, there was violence in Rakhine State. And the situation, even after one month, became even worse and worse. Many people were killed. Many were arrested. And many were forced [to camps], to relocate.

And the hatred among the two communities, Muslim and Buddhist, in Burma is rising. Because of a lot of propaganda and also because of the continuation of violence. [Since 2012, ethnic tensions between Burmese Buddhists and Muslims (Rohingya) in Rakhine State resulted in a series of violent episodes.]

So I was thinking: what I can do? How can I get involved in this to solve the problem and to have a solution?
And I decided to form a women’s organization.

I saw that women in that area were very weak, they were very vulnerable due to the situation and the education.
So I was thinking that if I empowered the women from our community and also women from the rest of the communities, [if I] put them together and made them friends and built trust, then [we could] aim to build peace in Rakhine State and the rest of Burma.
With those purposes I founded the organization: Women’s Peace Network Arakhan. And now I am doing a lot of activities to get peace in Rakhine State and to get fair holistic and constructive solutions for everyone in Rakhine State.

Mostly what we are doing is giving training, giving political education training and civil education training and peace building training. And also English [language] training.

Why are we doing training? We don’t do training for only Rohingyas or only Muslims or only a particular group. First we put them in an English [language] class to be able to have a relationship, and then we ask them if they are interested in other political classes. If they are interested in joining other political classes, then we put them in the political classes. Then they have more chances to talk about politics and the suffering and [they can] build trust.

This way I hope we can have more… we are able to build more networks and more friendships with the rest of the people.
We are also engaging in other kinds of activities. For example, interfaith activities and workshops, [things] like that. Mainly focusing on the youth, women. Like that.

Anyway, we hope that if the society builds trust, if the society is united, it could be much easier to get a solution. If the society is divided… we are made to be divided, that is why we have conflicts. We need to reconstruct the society to have unity and trust.

Wai Wai Nu is a Burmese freedom activist. She’s a former political prisoner and the co-founder of Justice for Women. She is also the founder and director of the Women Peace Network Arakan.

As a teenager, Wai Wai Nu was arrested and imprisoned by the government because of her father’s political activism. During her seven-year incarceration, she reflected frequently on the injustices she experienced as a political prisoner and the general state of freedom in Burma.

Since her release from prison in 2012, Wai Wai Nu has dedicated herself to working for democracy, human rights, and women’s rights. She has worked on behalf of marginalized women and in support of equality and justice for all women in Burma. Through her two organizations, she leads women’s empowerment trainings, women’s rights trainings, basic legal education, and peace-building activities.

Wai Wai Nu recently earned her law degree and is focusing on justice issues for women. She was also a member of the George W. Bush Institute’s inaugural Liberty and Leadership Forum.

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.