Background Info On Kyaw Zaw Lwin Aka Nyi Nyi Aung

Background info on Kyaw Zaw Lwin aka Nyi Nyi Aung: Mr. Kyaw Zaw Lwin has been a member of Free Burmese Political Prisoners Now campaign, working from Thailand since 2005. With other delegation members, he traveled to New York in June of this year to deliver the global petition calling upon the UN for the release of all political prisoners. During this trip he met with the UN Special Envoy Mr. Gambari as well as Ambassadors and diplomats of the EU missions. Prior to working with the Free Burmese Political Prisoners Now campaign, he participated in several democratic activist activities in the United States in support of the peaceful movement toward national reconciliation in Burma. As one of the ‘1988 Students’ who had to flee the military government’s oppression, he continued his support of the 88 Generation Students’ Group under the leadership of his colleagues Ko Min Zeya and Ko Htay Kywe, now incarcerated in Burma. For peaceful participation in the September 2007 Saffron Revolution, Kyaw Zaw Lwin’s mother and cousins were arrested. To this day they remain in prison under very harsh conditions. Kyaw Zaw Lwin was granted refugee status to the United States in October 1993 after which he worked as a Research Assistant at Refugees International, an advocacy organization. He also served as an intern with the Burma Debate magazine. While he was in exile in Thailand, Lwin was arrested by the Thai authorities and held in the Immigration jail for his role in protesting the Thai government’s deals with Burma’s military junta. In May 1992 after his release, he assisted in a Public Health project sponsored by the Harvard School of Public Health. This public health survey was an investigation on the impact in the health of the exile Burmese students living in Thailand. In 1989 and 1990 he co-founded the Burmese Students Committee for Social Affairs under the Jesuit Refugee Service in Thailand. The committee provided humanitarian and medical assistance to not only Burmese students living in exile but also to the illegal immigrants. During the 1988 popular uprising in Burma, Kyaw Zaw Lwin suffered arrest and torture for his active participation in the nation-wide demonstrations. However, he continued his participation in the democratic movement organizing high school students for boycotts and subsequently helped form the “Four Eights” (8-8-88) general strike committee. The country under martial law staged a coup and declared a new government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SPDC) in September 1988.