Interviews with Charm Tong

Burma joined ASEAN [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations] in 1997, and ASEAN thought that it could bring change, you know, by bringing Burma into the association. But however, it is more than 10 years that Burma joined the association, and ASEAN doesn’t give any change, you know, for the life of the people of Burma. And in fact, Burma has become the troubles and also making shame, like for ASEAN.

So this is something that we still have to work on. And we want to see the regional grouping, you know, supporting the calls for the people of Burma, not only for the interests of the economy and the benefit of the military regime. We have always been calling for no investment in Burma at the moment because all the investments have to be dealt with the military, and people are not consulted. There’s no process to study of the environmental or social impact assessment before any of the investments or projects, especially mining, natural gas, building the hydro power projects that will generate electricity for the military to sell to the neighboring countries to make more income.

All these projects are located in the indigenous people, in the ethnic people areas mainly. And the people lost their land, lost their livelihood. And because the regime wants to protect and secure these so-called projects and investments, therefore they increased the military in the area. And more military means more rape. More human rights abuse. More forced labor. More killing for the people in the area. That’s why we would like to urge all the investors, you know, to stop their investment while especially in the conflict and in the war zones inside Burma.

I believe that the international targeted economic sanction is working very well against the Burmese military regime. We want more actors, you know, and more countries to join this effort. If we look at how the Burmese military regime can continue in their power, it’s because it’s still able to provide, you know, all the natural resources and all these minings, natural gas, natural resources, timber, and everything – they’re selling off all these natural resources.

And the targeted economic sanction against the military regime has an impact, you know, on these people: the military regime and their cronies of the military regime who are holding and involved in these investments. So we appreciate the sanction policy, and we would like to see even stronger sanctions. For example, the financial sanction. And we hope that more and more countries will join this effort to bring more effective and also stronger sanctions against the military regime.

Interviewed August 2010

Charm Tong co-founded the Shan Women’s Action Network, when she was only 17. The organization is dedicated to stopping the exploitation of and violence against women and children in 1999.

Three years later, recognizing that their lack of education leaves the Shan young people more vulnerable to being trafficked or lured into other forms of exploitation, Tong founded the School for Shan State Nationalities Youth. The school works to empower and build the capacity of students to become leaders in their communities. It is regarded as a model for human rights education and training of young people from Burma and elsewhere.

Tong has also been instrumental in launching a campaign to bring attention to the systematic use of rape of Shan women by the Burmese military. The campaign, based on a report called “License to Rape,” has received considerable international attention.

Tong has received several international awards, including the Marie Claire Women of the Year Award and the Reebok Human Rights Award. In October 2005, she met at the White House with President George W. Bush.

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.