"to be concerned"

Charm Tong, a Shan campaigner for human rights, scored something of a coup yesterday as she was invited to the White House for talks on Burma with US President George W Bush.

The 24-year-old met with Bush for 15 minutes in an attempt to press his administration to step up action against Burma’s military government, a spokesperson for her organization, Shan Women’s Action Network, told The Irrawaddy.

The human rights campaigner told Bush to “push Burma at the UN Security Council and raise the issue with neighboring countries and also Japan, as these are the countries that are dealing with the present regime, the SPDC,” the spokesperson said from Chiang Mai, Thailand, where SWAN’s headquarters is located.

Charm Tong also raised the plight of the Burmese people, about which Bush is said “to be concerned.”

Announcing the visit in a daily press briefing yesterday, spokesperson Scott McClellan told gathered media: “The president is pleased to welcome such a courageous and compassionate woman to the White House.”

McClellan described Charm Tong as a person who has “dedicated her life to helping those who suffer under the military rule in Rangoon, and to exposing the regime's abuses, particularly against women.”

She also met with other leading US administration officials including National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, as well as Burma campaign groups, SWAN confirmed, in a trip that has been extended to last more than a week.

Yesterday’s meeting is the latest event in a year in which Charm Tong has gained increasing prominence, receiving a Reebok Democracy Award in March and later featuring as one of “Asia’s Heroes” in Time magazine for her work with SWAN, helping Shan refugees along the Thai-Burma border.

The organization is best known for producing the 2002 report “License to Rape,” in which Charm Tong and her team documented 625 cases of rape against ethnic Shan women, a high percentage of which it says were incidents of gang rape in what it described as a systematic campaign of sexual violence by the Burmese Army.

The report prompted Burma’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue a rebuttal, claiming the ruling State Peace and Development Council investigated the alleged incidents without finding any wrongdoing. SWAN’s report was later corroborated by Refugees International in their document entitled “No Safe Place,” published in 2003.

my friend liz received this in an email from one of her monks. yay for burma!!!