Win Tin obituary

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/01/win-tin

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Held in Rangoon's notorious Insein prison for nearly 20 years, Win Tin was Burma's longest-serving political prisoner, and remained an outspoken critic of the military regime until his death from kidney failure, aged 85. A journalist and editor who was self-opinionated and unbowed by authority, he was a leading figure in Burma's struggle for democracy, and co-founder with the human-rights campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo of a new political party, the National League for Democracy.

The NLD was formed in September 1988, days after the Burmese army seized power in a bloody coup which left thousands dead. But on 4 July 1989 Win Tin was arrested and jailed, along with hundreds of other political activists, because of his public criticism of military rule and his close connections to Suu Kyi. He had also been a trenchant critic of the previous socialist regime of the military ruler Ne Win. Ne Win had ruled Burma from 1962 until stepping down in July 1988 after months of pro-democracy demonstrations brought the country to a standstill.

Horrific conditions and practices at Insein prison were powerfully described in Win Tin's memoir, What's That? A Human Hell (2010). He was held in solitary confinement in a tiny cell that had been a dog kennel, was denied sleep, lost a testicle after an operation for a strangulated hernia performed in a dirty prison hospital cell, and lost his teeth in repeated beatings but was denied dentures. He had two heart attacks, was frequently refused medical treatment and Red Cross visits, and went without food and water.

He nonetheless sent a dossier to the United Nations describing practices in the prison, which included torture, bullying and inadequate medical provision. He was punished for this with a further seven years in jail.

Eventually released under a general amnesty in September 2008, Win Tin refused to accept the offer, declaring that he had always been innocent of the trumped-up charges brought against him, which included assisting an illegal abortion. The authorities, at last, released him unconditionally, whereupon he went back to publicly criticising the regime.

Even as a free man, he always wore a blue prison shirt to show solidarity with the political prisoners still being held. When he visited prisoners on their release, he took a present. "He brought a gift of a longyi [traditional Burmese dress] as a token of his support," said one former detainee. "This was a symbol of the longed-for family visits while we were in prison." Win Tin also set up a foundation to provide medical care for former political prisoners.

After his release, the country's former military rulers relinquished power and held elections in 2010, although these were far from free and fair, and were boycotted by the NLD. A new quasi-military regime led by Thein Sein, a former general and prime minister in the previous military regime, introduced economic and political reforms, but Win Tin was not impressed.

"We shouldn't be fooled by this," he said. "The military are firmly in control; it's liberalisation without democratisation. The army must go back to the barracks. That doesn't mean I want to push the military into the Bay of Bengal, or even Kandawgyi Lake, but I can never fully trust the military."

Win Tin was born in Pegu, a provincial capital some 50 miles north-east of Rangoon. He studied at the Myoma national boys' high school in Rangoon (Yangon), which had been founded by the British for the children of poor and uneducated families. He graduated from Yangon University in 1953 with a degree in English literature, modern history and political science, and quickly made a reputation as a writer, using many pseudonyms.

He was editor of the daily newspaper Hanthawathi until it was shut down in 1978 for satirising the local authorities.

Win Tin was considered by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists to have become the world's longest-jailed reporter; in 2001 he was awarded the World Press Award for defending and promoting freedom of expression, and in the same year he was given the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom award.

Win Tin adopted a young woman as his daughter; she was forced into exile in Australia during his time in prison. He left no other close family.

"We should never compromise with the army," he told me shortly before he was admitted to hospital this year. "I can forgive the military for what they did to me and other political prisoners, but I can never forget."

• Win Tin, journalist and politician, born 12 March 1929; died 21 April 2014.