Zipporah Sein is the first woman to serve as
the Karen National Union's general secretary.
She assumed the role last year, 
after her predecessor was assassinated outside his home. 
Sein is used to living with fear.
She was born in Myanmar's Karen state
and spent her early years on the run,
evading attacks by government forces
while her father served in the Karen army.
The ethnic Karen make up about seven 
percent of the Myanmar population, 
and have fought for independence for 50 years.
Thai authorities have not officially recognized Sein,
but have allowed her to live 
on their border since 1995.
From there, she has helped document the atrocities 
committed by Myanmar against the Karen population
in reports by the Karen Woman's Organization,
a group that promotes awareness of
women's rights in Myanmar.
In two reports, titled Shattering
Silences and State of Terror,
Sein gathered testimony from female
victims of rape and torture
perpetrated by the Myanmar military, 
known as the
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
Sein's dedication to women's rights
earned her the prestigious
Perdita Huston Human Rights
Award in 2007.
But she remains on guard.
Thai security recently searched key Karen offices,
and tension is expected to increase
ahead of the Myanmar 2010 election.
Can you first tell us a little about
your childhood living in Myanmar?
I was born in Karen state and grew up 
in Karen state. I didn't grow up
 in the big cities, but in the rural
areas because my family was
involved in the Karen struggle, particularly
my father, since it started in 1949. 
We did not own any properties and we
did not own any land or a proper house.
We were just living in one place and
 after two or three years we would
move to another place.
What are some of the dangers that some
of the young boys and girls face 
when they are under
attack from the junta?
Many of the schools when the military
attacks the schools have to stop
 and all the students and the teachers
have to move to the jungle.
When I was with standard grade seven
it was a time when we were at school,
and I lived in the dormitory and when
the Burmese soldiers came
too close to our village and the school 
so all the schools and the teachers
 and the students ran away and
were hiding in the jungle.
At that the time it was the
time when our exams were near. 
We had to find some time to study in
the jungle but we did not feel secure 
because we didn't know whether the
army will come and attack our place.
After I finished the standard grade 
there and then I went to another school
and my friend stayed in the village 
and she was a teacher and she married
 and became pregnant.
At that time the army came to the
village and they started shooting
villagers and tried to arrest them all.
My friend and her husband hid
 but the soldiers found them and they
shot the husband dead in front of her 
and took her into the village and
stripped her naked and then they
pulled out her eyes and left her to die,
tied up in the middle of the village. 
Can you tell us a little bit about the
human rights reports,
"Shattering Silences" 
and "State of Terror"?
For the first report that we documented particularly for the rape cases
of the women, so the international 
community will know what the
Karen women suffer by the SPDC.
They want to wipe away the ethnic
people, particularly the Karen people,
and many women were raped. They were
raped when they carried the ammunition
for them, and they were raped when they
were asked to go work in the camps 
because they order the women to go work 
and then the women were raped.
The women have to face gang rape
and rape by the officials.
And sometimes by the soldiers.
It is not only in our Karen ethnic
area, but also in other areas.
 So the Burmese army use the women who became a weapon of war and they also
have it systematic and widespread. Rape 
has become their strategy of war.
The people who are living in the city
and inside Burma, not in
the Karen controlled area they don't
have access to learn their own language
so they are forbidden to learn
the Karen language.
So people only have the
opportunity to learn the language 
when they go to church and study at the
Sunday school. It's the same for some 
who go to the Buddhist monastery and
they study some Karen there. 
How would you like to see the
international community join together
to help bring about peace
in this conflict? 
We need the international community
to look very closely and be involved
in the cases in Burma, and we would
like to see the international community
put more pressure on Burma like
economic sanctions and embargos
and other investment in Burma.
And we also want the United Nations
Security Council to also be stronger
about Burma issues and abide their
resolution on issues in their agenda.
