Interviews with Charm Tong

Burma military will continue to oppress and try to control the information or any action, especially the crimes that they have committed against the people, so that no other people in other international community will know what is really happening inside Burma committed by the Burmese military regime. So, any actions, you know, inside Burma or anywhere, the military regime will continue trying to intimidate in various forms.

For our organization [the Shan Women’s Action Network], after we released the report, “License to Rape,” which documented how the rape has been used systematically against women inside Shan State in 2002, when we exposed how the military committed all these crimes against women, the military regime, after the report triggered international outcry and international attention, the regime had the press conference every week in Rangoon saying that our organization is telling the world, that all the accounts are not true. And the troops never ever commit crimes or rape against any women.

But we know that that is happening. So, some friends said that, “Oh, you have to be very careful.” And also to some of the members in our organization, including myself, villagers and our friends told us that, “Oh, your price has been put on our head by a Burma army,” and that you know, we should be careful when we travel or when we go here and there; but I think this is the normal intimidation that the regime will commit anyway.

But because we are speaking the truth, and because we are speaking what is really happening, and even though the regime will try to stop any information to come out, we still have to speak and break the silence of what is happening to our people.

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.