Veteran journalist U Win Tin, a co-founder in 1988 of the National League for Democracy who subsequently served 19 years’in prison for his political beliefs, has died at the age of 85.
U Win Tin, a former newspaper editor who always wore a blue prisoner’s shirt after his release from jail in 2008 to show his opposition to military rule, died in Yangon General Hospital at 6.30am on April 21. He was being treated for kidney failure.
His body was due to lie in state at Yeyway Cemetery in Yangon’s North Okkalapa Township until his cremation on the evening of April 23.
This was despite U Win Tin’s wishes to be cremated immediately after his death, U Win Tin’s personal secretary, Ko Zaw Myo Aung, told Mizzima.
“He did not want people to gather around and look at his body,” said Ko Zaw Myo Aung.
“We want to follow his will,” said Ko Zaw Myo Aung, who said there was a difference of opinion over the issue within the NLD.
NLD leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi believed that U Win Tin’s wishes should be respected, said Ko Zaw Myo Aung, but U Tin Oo and other senior party leaders had suggested that because he was an important political figure “people will wish to pay their respects and send him off on his final journey”.
After a dialysis session on April 20, a spokesperson for the NLD, U Kyi Toe, posted on his Facebook page: "The man of steel has once again overcome the risks of renal dialysis.”
News of U Win Tin’s death was also announced by U Kyi Toe via Facebook.
