WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY:
BURMA - MYANMAR

UNIFEM WOMEN, WAR AND PEACE WEB PORTAL: MYANMAR

'It was five years ago when our village Na Yoak was ordered to move. The whole family including my mother aged 60 had to walk to a village called Ton Hong in Keng Tong District. It took us all day. In Ton Hong village we stayed at the back yard of my husband's relative where my mother died not long after. Her legs and arms swelled badly before she died.'

A Shan woman in her mid 30, who arrived in Thailand from central Shan State in January 2002

"[At the beginning]... I thought that it was enough to work for human rights in general. But now I have realized that as we work for human rights in general, we also have to work for the particular rights of women and children. Women and children are always the ones who suffer most in times of crisis. Women and children are the ones who suffer most from violence and from poverty."

Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate. March 8, 2000