Family Disowned Young Burmese Journalist

By NAI NAI, Irrawaddy News, January 18, 2010.

The family of Hla Hla Win, who was sentenced in December to 27-years imprisonment for attempting to smuggle information to the exiled media, had publicly disowned her because of her political beliefs.

“Hla Hla Win’s family opposes her political beliefs,” said a colleague who asked for anonymity. “She seems soft from the outside, but she is a woman of strength. It was very tough for her to decide to go ahead without her family's encouragement. She is in a very difficult battle now without moral support.

“When your family supports your beliefs, you’ve already won half of what you fight for. But if they do not support your cause, then you must hide what you are doing from them.”

Coming from a lower-middle class family with four siblings, Hla Hla Win, 25, lived in Thanlyin Township outside of Rangoon. By the time of her arrest, her family had moved to South Dagon, a satellite township.

As a young woman, her friend said Hla Hla Win searched for more knowledge from her daily experiences and learned from various groups she joined. She volunteered as a primary teacher at the Buddhist Monastic Education center in Thanlyin, which has 350 students from low-income families.

She also took part in organizing a group to help HIV/AIDS patients by contributing medicines and other items. A Muslim, she participated in various social gatherings, interacting with Buddhist and Christian colleagues.

Her friend said the 2007 Saffron Revolution awakened Hla Hla Win's political consciousness. The junta's brutality against the monks and other protesters brought about her political maturity, which led her to join the National League for Democracy (NLD Youth Wing).

Another colleague who requested anonymity said, “She believed only a dialogue between the NLD and the military government can bring about a genuine solution to the country.”

Her friend said she and a group of other young party members later grew disillusioned with the NLD and quit in 2008. She remained steadfast in her political beliefs, however.

It was at this time that her family posted an announcement in a government newspaper disowning her because of her political activities. Publicly disowning a family member is a practice in Burma.

Hla Hla Win was forced to depend on the support of her friends. She found it hard to get a job because she lacked a college degree and because of her political affiliations.

She wanted do something that fit her political beliefs, and that led to her association with the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a Burmese exile news station. As a DVB reporter, Hla Hla was taking an enormous personal risk.

On Sept. 11, 2009, she was arrested with her companion Myint Naing, in Pakokku Town, Magwe Division, after she interviewed several monks at the Pakokku Sasana Vipularama Pali Institution (West Wing Monastery).

Initially, she was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment under the Export/Import Act for using an unregistered motorbike. In December, the Pakokku Court sentenced her to 20 more years for violation of the Electronic Act, which prohibits downloading or uploading data from the Internet that is damaging to the security of the military regime.

She was not represented by a lawyer, because of the political sensitivity of her case, said her friend.

On Jan. 12, she was sentenced to Kathar Prison in Kathar Township, Sagaing Division, located 1,148 kilometers north of Rangoon.

The military regime was recently quoted in Asahi Shinbun online that fair and credible elections will be held in October 2010.

However, Hla Hla Win's draconian prison sentence seriously puts that assertion in doubt and underscores the challenges and risks faced by journalists in Burma.

"Though bringing news to the outside world is essential, we shouldn't have to lose people like Hla Hla Win, who sacrifice their personal life for the freedom of Burma, " said a journalist colleague.

Hla Hla Win's case should be taken seriously by all Burmese and serve as a warning about what can happen in the countdown to the 2010 elections.

If the polls are held without a free press, which is the fourth pillar of a democracy, then a lawless society that does not respect human rights will be the inevitable result.

Nai Nai is a freelance journalist based in Bangkok, Thailand. She works as a program assistant for the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), a non-profit, nongovernmental organization that campaigns for freedom of the press in Southeast Asia.