Our Prisoner of Conscience: Thet Win AungCambridge City Amnesty International Group sponsors a Burmese Prisoner of Conscience named Thet Win Aung. We campaign relentlessly for his release and are greatly concerned for his health and well being. Over the last few years we have mounted many petitions, written letters, run a marathon and two half marathons, demonstrated outside the Myanmar Embassy, demonstrated outside the UK Parliament, written to our MP and send postcards to ASEAN leaders.
Thet Win Aung has also been the focus of Cambridge University's 'cage week protest' and petitions. He has had football matches played in his honour by the Scottish Football Supporters Club, featuring MSPs and Burmese exiles. Nationally Thet Win Aung has become one of the new 'Individualy at Risk' focused on my Amnesty International (UK). An enormous effort is underway to press for his release from students and group members across the country.
AAPP(B) biography of Thet Win Aung.
Background
Thet Win Aung is currently serving a 59-year prison sentence for organizing peaceful student protests. He is reported to have been tortured immediately following his arrest, and there are concerns for his health.
Since 1988, when he was a high-school student, he has taken part in organizing student protests against the government in Myanmar. Although students are not officially allowed to form unions, he became Vice-General Secretary of the unauthorized Basic Education Student Union (BESU) in 1989.
He was dismissed from school and imprisoned in September 1991 for nine months because of his BESU activities. During this period of detention he was reportedly severely tortured.
Following his release he became a leading member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, the unauthorized umbrella organization for student unions in Myanmar. He again became involved in publishing leaflets and organizing demonstrations, and was forced to go into hiding after the authorities tried to arrest him in 1994. He nevertheless took part in student demonstrations in December 1996 and, in 1998, helped to organize student protests against the poor quality of education and denial of human rights.
Thet Win Aung was finally arrested in October 1998. In January 1999 he was sentenced to 52 years’ imprisonment, which was increased to 59 years after further interrogation. He is currently detained in the hospital wing of Mandalay Prison. Reports suggest that his health is very poor as he suffers from cerebral malaria, depression and malnutrition. There is great fear for his health and safety.
Links
Reading University Students' Union has elected Thet Win Aung as its Honorary Vice President. (See also the story on DVB)
The Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (Burma) AAPP(B) has been a good source of information on Thet Win Aung.
The Irrawaddy is an English Language on-line magazine that focuses on Burma.
The Democratic Voice of Burma is an English Language on-line news site (an off-shoot of their Burmese language radio station based in Norway.
