Twenty-eight-year-old Charm Tong is regarded as an enemy by Myanmar’s junta but a “candle in the dark” by her fellow citizensThis vivacious woman does not fit the stereotype of a “strong political advocate” for ethnic minority rights and democracy in the military-run nation formerly called Burma. Yet, she is one of the few who can get the international community to sit uand take notice of the Southeast Asian country.
Though her formal education ended in middle school, she has since received a slew of awards and recognitions: She was one of four international activists under 30 to be given the Reebok Human Rights Awards in 2005; the same year, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and was named one of Asia’s Heroes by Time magazine. Charm Tong, a member of Myanmar’s Shan minority, is now appealing to Chinese investors to stop the construction of several hydropower dams in the country’s minority areas, which will endanger indigenous culture and for residents from their homes.
Dams threaten
minorities’ existenc
“I come from an ancient land, Yin Ta Lai, where people co-exist with nature. Our life depends on the sacred Salween River. But my father tells me soon th Burmese government will dam our river and our way of life. If the dam were to be built, all our land will be submerged, and the Yin Ta Lai will be no more,” a little Myanmar girl says in a documentary produced by the Krenni Research Development Group.
The film, shown to Beijing Today by Charm Tong, gives a rare glimpse of the remote center of Karen state in the country’s east, and the life of the Yin Ta Lai minority, of whom only 1,00 people remain. Footage depicts a distinct culture and a biodiverse rainforest that will disappear if the Salween hydropower dam is built.
