New Delhi (Mizzima) – The New York-based Human Rights Watch on Wednesday named a Burmese human rights activist, Bo Kyi, among four winners of the 2009 Alison Des Forges Defender Award for Extraordinary Activism.
“I feel that this recognition and honour is deserved by many Burmese political prisoners still languishing in prisons across the country,” Bo Kyi, who co-founded the Thailand-based Assistant Association for Political Prisoners – Burma (AAPPB) said.
Bo Kyi along with Daniel Bekel, lawyer and activist from Ethiopia, Elena Milashina, reporter for Russia’s leading Independent newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”, Mathilde Muhindo, women’s rights activist working to stop sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo were named winners of the HRW’s award.
The award winners will be honoured at the 2009 Human Rights Watch Annual Dinners to be held in Chicago, Geneva, Hamburg, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Toronto, and Zurich in November.
“These extraordinary individuals confront tremendous challenges every day, yet they work selflessly to end human rights violations and bring abusers to justice,” said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of HRW in a statement on Wednesday.
“We hope this award, named for Alison Des Forges, will inspire and protect them as they struggle to uphold human rights in their countries,” Roth said.
Bo Kyi and his organisation, AAPPB, have extensively monitored the situation of political prisoners and advocated their release. The AAPP also provides assistance to former political prisoners and families of those that are still in detention. It also releases periodical updates of the numbers and situations of political prisoners in Burma.
As a student, Bo Kyi had been actively involved in the 1988 student-led pro-democracy uprising. He served seven years in prison, for his activism.
Bo Kyi said, “Whether I had received the award or not, I will still have to work for the people whose rights are violated, but this award is a moral support and an encouragement to the work.”
“It gives us strength to know that the world is not blind or deaf about what is happening inside Burma,” he added.
Conditions in military-ruled Burma cannot be described wholly with the term ‘human rights violation’, but it is more of a crime committed against humanity, Bo Kyi said.
“Because torture in detention centres, interrogation centres and rape against ethnic minority women in the frontiers, extra-judicial killings, and arrest are all taking place in a day to day basis in Burma,” Bo Kyi said.
According to the AAPPB, there are currently 2,119 political prisoners in jails across the country.
The HRW, as an honour to the award winners, will take Bo Kyi and the other three to Europe and USA on a campaign tour, where they will be able to meet leaders and activists working to promote human rights.
Bo Kyi was also named as one of the five winners of the 2008 Human Rights Defenders Award by Human rights Watch.
