Interviews with Khin Ohmar

Back in 2007, that was another time the large-scale demonstrations took place, led by the monks, joined by the students and the youth activists. There were, even on one day, I remember there were more than 100,000 people gathered in more than 26 cities across the country.

In which I would say, back in 2007, we had a situation where the Buddhist monks were leading peacefully; where people actually thought, because the Buddhist monks in Burma, the son of Buddha, or known as the Sangha, they are taken the highest in the society. And therefore, the general public didn’t think, or didn’t doubt much, that the military will actually do the shooting and killing on the street like they actually did.

So I think what happened was at that time, I think the shooting and killing came sooner than people expected; and also, people didn’t expect that the monks will be shot and killed. So I think that it hit the heart of the people to a very deep level, where I would say both more fear is further entrenched among the people but also more of this outrage and hatred towards the military regime. And that’s one thing I can say.

Khin Ohmar is a Burmese democracy activist who lives and works in Mae Sot, Thailand. She is a leader of the Women’s League of Burma, the main umbrella organization for women’s organizations in exile and inside Burma.

Khin has served as a spokesperson for the Burmese democracy movement in the United Nations General Assembly and in other international forums. She also serves as coordinator of the Burma Partnership, a regional coalition of civil society groups supporting democracy in Burma, and she is an organizer of the ASEAN civil society and human rights consultation processes.

Admitted to the United States as a refugee after being persecuted for her participation in the 1988 student demonstrations, Khin became a United States citizen and worked for refugee and human rights organizations in Washington, D.C., before moving back to the Thai-Burma border area in the late 1990s.