Some thirty years earlier, this is where she and my mother, also seeking refuge from the repressive Burmese military government, settled upon arrival in the States. As anyone in D.C. can tell you, Washington is a small town, and it is especially so if you are part of the community of Burmese exiles clustered in and around the Beltway. There is the local monastery where everyone pays his respects to the monks, there is the Asian grocery store where you can buy imported pickled tea leaves and smelly durian fruit, and the Burmese restaurant downtown that makes a decent noodle soup. There is also an activist exile network, populated by Burmese who have watched, helplessly for the most part, as their country and its people have been stomped into the ground by a regime intent on maintaining control of the country's rich natural resources at all costs.
The Arrest and Torture of an American in Burma (And Why You Never Heard of Him) -- Politics Daily
