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Daw Suu's Letter from Burma #20



Mainichi Daily News, Monday, April 8, 1996

THE WORLD OF LETTERS WAS U WIN TIN'S DOMAIN

"A Special Introduction"

Letter from Burma (No. 20) by Aung San Suu Kyi

	Four leading members of the Executive Committee of the National League for
Democracy have already been introduced to readers of "Letter from Burma."
This week I would like to make a special introduction, to make known to the
people of Japan the only member of the original Executive Committee of the
NLD who still remains in prison today: U Win Tin.
	Unlike U Aung Shwe, U Kyi Maung, U Tin U and U Lwin, U Win Tin, born in
1930, was never a member of the armed forces.  The world of letters was his
domain.  Even before graduation from university he had begun to work for the
Burma Translation Society in the capacity of assistant editor.  In 1954 he
became advisory editor to a Dutch newspaper company.  This was the beginning
of a long career in journalism which culminated in his appointment of the
Hanthawaddy, one of the leading dailies of Burma.
	The years during which U Win Tin was chief editor of the Hanthawaddy were
years which saw the consolidation of the Burmese Way to Socialism.
Progressive restrictions were placed on free speech and expression but a
handful of writers and journalists quietly persisted in preserving their
right to intellectual freedom.  In 1978, a paper critical of the Burmese Way
to Socialism was read at the "Saturday Reading Circle"of which U Win Tin was
a leading member.  As a consequence he was dismissed from his job and the
Hanthawaddy newspaper was shut down by the authorities.  For the next decade
U Win Tin earned his living as a freelance writer and translator.
	It was only natural that those who believed in intellectual freedom and
justices should have been at the vanguard of the democracy movement which
began in 1988.  From the beginning U Win Tin played an active role in the
Writers' Union that emerged during the early days of the movement.  In
September 1988, he became one of the secretaries of the executive committee
of the NLD.
	His undoubted ability and his strength of purpose made U Win Tin a prime
target of those who opposed the democratic cause and in June 1989 he became
one of the very first leaders of the NLD to be arrested.  The charge against
him involved an unproven telephone conversation with the father of an
individual who had been declared a fugitive from the law.  Telephone
conversations are, in any case, inadmissable as evidence under the law but
the law offers scant protection for those who challenge military rule in
Burma.  Immediately after his arrest, U Win Tin was kept without food and
interrogated about his activities in the democracy movement.  It appeared
that the interrogators wished to force him to admit that he was my adviser
on political tactics, in other words, that he was my puppet master.  A man
of courage and integrity, U Win Tin would not be intimidated into making
false confessions.  In October 1989, he was sentenced to three years
imprisonment.  In June 1992, a few month before his prison terms was due to
expire, he was submitted to another farcical trial and sentenced to an
additional 11 years in jail.
	U Win Tin is little given to talking about himself.  As secretary and
general secretary he and I worked together on an almost daily basis from the
time the NLD was founded but it was several months before I discovered,
quite by chance, that he was a bachelor who lived alone and managed his own
household chores.  Soon after he was sentenced in 1989, the lease on the
state-owned flat where he had been living for many years was canceled and
friends had to move his possessions out of the apartment.
	U Win Tin's whole demeanor conveys such an impression of firmness, few
people are aware that he suffers from a heart condition that requires
constant medication.  The long period spent in prison where medical care is
inadequate and living conditions abysmal have aggravated his health
problems.  When U.S. Congressman Bill Richardson saw him in February 1994 U
Win Tin was wearing a neck support: spondylosis has been added to his
afflictions.  He was also in need of dental treatment.  But his mind was as
clear as ever and his spirit upright and unwavering.  In the full knowledge
that his every world would be reported to the authorities, he commented on
the National Convention that had been arranged by the SLORC with his
customary incisiveness and sent me a message of strong, unequivocal support.
	Now U Win Tin is facing the serious possibility of a third sentence
superimposed on the two that have already been slapped on him.  Since
November 1995, he and 27 other political prisoners have been charged with
breaking prison regulations and their trials are taking place within the
jail precincts.  The families of the defendants have asked senior members of
the government, the Chief Justice and the Attorney General to be allowed to
provide the legal assistance entitled under the law.  An answer is not yet
forthcoming.

* * *

This article is one of yearlong series of letters, the Japanese translation
of which appears in the Mainichi Shimbun the same day, or the previous day
in some areas.