Interviews with Cheery Zahau

Some international media are being very helpful. During the Cyclone Nargis and the Saffron Revolution, they were a great asset for us or for the world to see what’s happening down there. And also in order to do that, the Burmese young people have sacrificed a lot to get the information out from what’s happening inside Burma and to international media. So to some extent, yes, we do have a good relationship with the international media; but in terms of the issues, we still have a lot more to improve. Burma is being oppressed by its own country, its own elite military people.

So human rights violations, justice, and the stories of the people are very, very important in a country like Burma; which a lot of the international community or media are not so interested unless it becomes development projects or, you know, some other news. So I think we still need to get international media to write the stories of people almost every day. Every day. That’s how the policy makers will be able to hear what’s happening. You know, a lot more effective way. The international media – the bigger media like the most obvious media, CNN, BBC, are not officially allowed in Burma.

There are small printed newspaper, appear if they’re allowed. But in terms of access to information: no, they cannot write, especially something that is critical to the military regime’s policy. They cannot write about it. Or the people cannot talk to the international media freely, because after they’ve talked they’re arrested again. So although the international media people or the reporters are not being targeted, the Burmese people who talk to the international media are being targeted for telling the truth. So yeah, there’s still problems.

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.