The international community and individual human rights groups have long condemned abuses by the Burmese military government, accusing the junta of being one of the world’s most repressive regimes. Many opposition groups, at home and abroad, went further, often labeling it a “murderous regime”. We believe the regime fully and shamefully deserves that label.

We were troubled and saddened to learn the news that the former student activist Thet Win Aung died in Mandalay prison on Monday. He was only 34, a victim of severe diseases such as malaria, maltreatment-and of a criminal lack of medical attention. We were devastated to learn that prison officials have refused to hand his body over to his family, who assume that his remains were cremated secretly in prison.

The modest, soft-spoken student activist, a determined opponent of the military regime, was arrested in 1998 by Burma’s notorious military intelligence service when he reentered Burma from northern Thailand. He was consigned to Burma’s gulag, sentenced to 59 years imprisonment-at 26, one of the country’s youngest political prisoners.
His only crime was to establish and maintain contacts with exiled opposition groups in Thailand and staying with them for some months. The charge against him was “making contacts with unlawful associations”.

Among those “unlawful” contacts was The Irrawaddy. During a stay in Chiang Mai in 1997-98, Thet Win Aung met some of our editorial staff, telling them he was determined to return to Burma and stage a student pro-democracy protest there. He knew the risks and dangers awaiting him but he was determined to soldier on. But don’t get him wrong-he was convinced that peaceful protest could move the regime to political change. He believed his peaceful protest or even his arrest would draw more attention from the international community.

He told staffers of The Irrawaddy that political dialogue between the regime and the detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was possible if students built up pressure on the regime with their protests. We could not help but admire Thet Win Aung’s motivation and his strong hope for the country. Indeed, his political conviction and inspiration to see a democratic Burma cannot be compared with the generals, whose hands are tainted with the blood of such fine young people.

Thet Win Aung joined the student movement in the critical year 1988 when he was only 16 and already general secretary of the underground Basic Education Student Union. He was first arrested in 1991and imprisoned for nine months.

In prison, aside from physical and mental torture, he suffered from malaria and various health problems but received little medical attention. Pyone Cho, Thet Win Aung’s brother and a political activist who was recently arrested, once said that during a prison visit they found he could not walk.  The authorities were offering him scant medical attention.

Since last December, the International Committee of the Red Cross has suspended its prison visits because of restrictions placed on it by the regime-a major blow to political prisoners, who relied heavily on ICRC aid and medication.

In the 18 years since 1988, more than 130 political prisoners have died in Burmese prisons, five so far this year alone, some of them in interrogation centers-victims of torture, abuse and neglect. Sadly, we’ll have to accept that Thet Win Aung won’t be the last.

If any one still believes that, with the resumption of the National Convention, the regime is softening its repressive policies and constructing the road to reform and the restoration of democracy the example of Thet Win Aung proves them wrong. That is his bitter legacy.