Burmese Poet, Uighur Historian to Receive 2002 PEN Award
Pen News: Burmese Poet, Uighur Historian to Receive 2002 PEN/Barbara
Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards
New York, April 11, 2002 -- PEN American Center today named Aung Myint,
a Burmese poet serving a 21-year prison term for distributing a press
release to foreign diplomats and press, and Tohti Tunyaz, an ethnic
Uighur historian and writer condemned to 11 years in prison for
researching his people's history in the People's Republic of China, as
recipients of its 2002 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards.
The awards, which honor international literary figures who have been
persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to
freedom of expression, will be presented at PEN's Annual Gala on April
24, 2002 at the Pierre Hotel in New York City.
Distinguished writer, historian, and PEN member Barbara Goldsmith
underwrites the two awards at $20,000 per year. Candidates are nominated
by International PEN and any of its 129 constituent PEN Centers around
the world and screened by PEN American Center and an Advisory Board
comprised of some of the most distinguished experts in the field. The
Advisory Board for the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards
includes Carroll Bogert, Communications Director of Human Rights Watch;
Ann Cooper, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists;
Vartan Gregorian, President of the Carnegie Corporation; Joanne
Leedom-Ackerman, Vice President of International PEN; and Aryeh Neier,
President of the Open Society Institute.
On September 14, 2000, poet Aung Myint and his assistant Kyaw Sein Oo
were arrested by members of Myanmar's Military Intelligence Service for
distributing information about persecution of National League for
Democracy figures to international press agencies and Western diplomats
based in Rangoon. The charges specifically related to a press release
he and his assistant issued a few hours after NLD leader Aung San Suu
Kyi was arrested by security forces as she was trying to leave the city
in September 2000. Mr. Aung was charged with violating the State
Protection and Emergency Provision Acts and on December 20, 2000 was
sentenced by a military court to 21 years' imprisonment. His assistant
was tried separately under the Printers and Publishers Registration Act
and sentenced to seven years in prison.
A leading representative of the so-called Second Line poets the second
generation of poets following Burmese independence Aung Myint is known
for poems illuminating the daily lives of the people. In the 1980s he
worked as a civil servant and contributed articles and poems for the
official newspaper Botahtaung, the now-banned magazine Pay-ful-lwa (The
Message), and Cherry, where he served as assistant editor beginning in
1988. He was also active in the NLD, and in 1997 was jailed for two
years for his work as the party's head in Bahan Township. Myanmar
authorities fired him from his position at Cherry and prohibited him
from returning to his post when he was released, reportedly banning his
name from all Burmese publications. He was working as an information
officer at NLD headquarters in Rangoon, where he was in charge of
literary postings, at the time of his arrest in 2000. He is married to a
successful fiction writer and has a daughter who is also a well-known
writer and actress. Mr. Aung is serving his 21-year sentence in Insein
prison and is scheduled to be released on September 13, 2021.
On February 6, 1998, historian and writer Tohti Tunyaz was arrested a
few weeks into a research trip to Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in
northwest China. Mr. Tunyaz, an ethnic Uighur who grew up in the
region, was studying for a Ph.D at Tokyo University's School of
Humanities at the time, specializing in the history of China's policy
toward minorities in the 19th and 20th centuries. His only proven
"crime" appears to be copying part of a 50-year-old document obtained
for him by an official librarian.
On November 10, 1998, Chinese authorities charged Mr. Tunyaz with
"stealing state secrets for foreign persons" and "inciting national
disunity," the latter charge allegedly for publishing a book in Japan in
1998 entitled The Inside Story of the Silk Road. According to the
Chinese government the book advocates ethnic separation; scholars in
Japan, however, insist no such book exists. He was convicted by the
Urumqi Intermediate People's Court on March 10, 1999, and following an
appeal, was sentenced by China's Supreme Court on February 15, 2000 to
11 years in prison with an additional two years' deprivation of
political rights.
Mr. Tunyaz is from Bay County, Aksu Prefecture, in the Xinjiang Uighur
Autonomous Region. He graduated from the history department of the
Central Institute of Nationalities in Beijing in 1984 and was assigned
prestigious work for the China National Standing Committee. Adopting
the name of Bay County's largest river, 'Muzart,' as his pseudonym, he
has published several papers on Uighur history under the name Tohti
Muzart in Japan as well as a book in Beijing. Mr. Tunyaz's wife and
children reside in Japan, having remained there when he traveled to
Xinjiang to carry out his research. He is serving his sentence in
Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region Prison Number Three in the provincial
capital of Urumqi. Mr. Tunyaz has reportedly exhausted his appeals, and
so is due for release on March 31, 2009.
"The shockingly long sentences imposed on Aung Myint by the military
regime in Myanmar and on Tohti Tunyaz by Chinese authorities are grim
reminders of how dangerous it can be to perform the most basic work of
being a writer: seeking, receiving, and imparting information," PEN
American Center Executive Director Michael Roberts said in announcing
the awards. "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights explicitly
guarantees the right of all people everywhere to do exactly that, and so
in recognizing Mr. Aung and Mr. Tunyaz, we wish to call attention to two
especially flagrant violations of an essential human right."
"At the same time," Roberts added, "in a year where Americans have
become even more acutely aware of the importance of protecting and
promoting a free flow of information, this year's PEN/Barbara Goldsmith
Awards honor the heroism of many of our colleagues around the world who
defy the censors, often at great personal cost, to bring critical truths
into the light."
This is the 16th year that the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write
Awards have honored international literary figures who have been
persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to
freedom of expression. The awards are an extension of PEN's year-round
advocacy on behalf of the more than 700 writers and journalists who are
currently threatened or in prison. Thirty-one women and men have
received the award since 1987; 21 of the 23 honorees who were in prison
at the time they were honored were subsequently released. Three
recipients of PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards gained their
freedom in 2001: 1993 recipient Nizar Nayouf, writer and human rights
activist, was released from prison in Syria in May; writer and
journalist Daw San San Nwe, who received the award in 1995, was released
from prison in Myanmar in July; as was Chinese poet and editor Xue
Deyun, a 2000 recipient of the prize.
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by overseas Burmese journalists, reporters and writers who practice and
advocate freedom of expression in Burma. Web: http://www.bma-online.net News: http://www.topica.com/lists/bma-news
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Last Updated:
October 6, 2004
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