Interviews with Cheery Zahau

So with that heavy presence of the military troops, the main human rights violation is forced labor. So wherever the troops are traveling from one village to the other, forced labor is demanded. And also for building the camps – 55 military camps – the soldiers had to rely on the villagers. So building the camps, making the fence, providing the food: all of these things are demanded from the villagers.

So there are huge forced labor problems: forced portering and food extortion. Yeah, and also the other problems that we’ve seen is also sexual violence against Chin women by the military soldiers around the camps and also when they are patrolling. We have cases of rape perpetrated by the soldiers.

After the 1988 student uprising, many of the Chin students, they were taking part at demonstrations; and after that, with the military attacks, several serious attacks against the demonstrators, many Chin students fled to the border in holding arms. So they formed Chin National Front, which is comprised of the students. And later on the Chin political leaders also joined. So that’s one opposition force that we have.

And in the meanwhile, inside Burma in 1989 and the 1990s, Chin National League for Democracy was formed by the political leaders. And that will closely work with the National League for Democracy [NLD]. So we have a legitimate party and a cooperation with NLD. And still the NLD parties had office in Chin State during that time, but not any more. In Burma the one thing that we are very lacking of is the constitution that will guarantee equal participation for all ethnic groups. If that constitution is formed and established with a proper referendum then there should not be problems.

But SPDC [State Peace and Development Council, official title for the military regime in Burma at the time of this interview] denies to do that, or they do not allow another to initiate that process, that initial reconciliation process. So at the moment they, the Burmese junta, only sends their propaganda that without them the union of Burma will fall apart, which is not the case. If they really want to keep the union in a peaceful and coexisting nation then they should come up with a very good constitution, not military-centered constitution. A federal constitution. That is what needed in Burma.

Cheery Zahau is a human rights activist from Chin State, Burma, and is now based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. As a high school student, she was advised by her teachers that her independence and intellectual curiosity would get her into serious trouble if she remained in Burma. She sought refuge in India, where she became an advocate for thousands of ethnic Chin faced with forcible return to Burma.

Zahau also became a leader of the Women’s League of Chinland, an organization that works to call international attention to the situation inside Chin State, including the use of rape as an instrument of conflict by the Burmese military regime. She has spoken at the United Nations and in other venues around the world.

When Zahau relocated to Thailand, she began working as an advocacy officer at the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, focusing on the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the ASEAN human rights process. She is also a management board member of the Network for Human Rights Documentation in Burma and is pursuing an advanced degree in international relations.