Mar Mar Oo (aka) Ma Swe

Sentenced to 65 years in prison on 11 November 2008

http://aappb.org/bio_pdf/Mar_Mar_Oo_bio_4_June_2009.pdf

Career Background:

Mar Mar Oo is the only child of U Ohn Maung.  She lived in Mandalay until she passed the matriculation examination. She was involved in August 1988 pro-Democracy movement when she was a high school student. After the military coup, she was one of the youth members of National Unity Front (Ma-Na-Ta) and acted as a librarian.

Mar Mar Oo  had been detained twice prior to her arrest in 2008.  In 1989 while Burma was under marshal law, she was the first woman activist accused by a special Mandalay marshal law court under the section 5/j of the Emergency Provision Act and was sentenced to 3 years in prison with hard labour. At that time, she was still a high school student. After she was released, she passed the matriculation examination and moved to Rangoon. Mar Mar Oo was arrested again in Rangoon because of involvement in the 1996 students’ movement. She was accused under section 5/j of the Emergency Provision Act and17/20 of the Printers and Publishers Registration Act and sentenced to14 years in prison with hard labour by the Insein Special court. At that time she was a first year honours student majoring in Burmese in Rangoon University.

Mar Mar Oo has also worked as a private tutor for secondary school students.

After her release from prison, Mar Mar Oo became involved in the 88 Generation Students group and as a member of that group, participated in the August 2007 movement to protest against the regime’s economic mismanagement, hikes in fuel and commodity prices, and the falling standard of living. Following an overnight fuel price hike on 15 August 2007, the 88 Generation Students group, along with other opposition groups, staged peaceful walking protests throughout Rangoon, which then spread across Burma. On 19 August 2007, the group led more than 400 people, on a march, from Rangoon’s Kokine junction to Tamwe market in a protest against high fuel prices. The activists, who had attended a memorial service for late National League for Democracy (NLD) leader U Kyi Maung in Bahan township, walked to Tamwe instead of paying for bus fares pushed higher by increased gas prices. The Burmese government had raised the price of subsidised fuel by between 100 and 500 percent, causing the cost of public transport and a number of staple commodities such as rice and cooking oil to increase dramatically.

http://aappb.org/bio_pdf/Myint_Aye_bio_28_April_2009.pdf

U Myint Aye married Daw La La Win, from Tharpound Township, while he was studying at the University of Foreign Language in 1989.  In 1997,  he was made the chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Kyint Myint Tying.
U Myint Aye co-founded Human Rights Defenders and Promoters (HRDP) in February 2002. The organization was formed to raise awareness among the people of Burma about their rights under the UN Declaration on Human Rights.
After the Depayin massacre on 30 May 2003, U Myint Aye continued with NLD  party activities even when the party works had been discontinued. These activities included collecting the youth and elders to salute during National Day at Shwedagon pagoda and then  march to Tharthana Gonyang Temple, around Ngathet Gyi, where the event was held. In November 2003, U Myint Aye led a group from his house to Shwedagon pagoda for the full moon day; he donated rice and clothes in Kyoun Pyo Township (Taninthayi division), Tapin Township (Rangoon division) and Pago Township (Pago division). In 2004, on the anniversay of the Depayin massace, U Myint Aye organised young people to distribute books about human rights on the anniversary of Depayin.

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song4burma

After School 2’s Album After School 2

http://aappb.org/bio_pdf/Aung_Thu_bio_1_sept_2009.pdf

In 1988, Aung Thu was a final year chemistry student at Rangoon University. He

was arrested and detained under the section of law 10(a) of the State Protection Law because of his involvement in an incident that happened on 16 March 1988 at the White Bridge bus stop near Inya lake by Rangoon University. During that incident many students were beaten up and some even killed by police. Some drowned in the lake. After the clash with police, students and activists, including Aung Thu, staged public protests and renamed the site “Red Bridge” because of the deaths that had occurred, even though the authorities tried to stop them from changing the name.

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Min Ko Naing

Name:    Ko Ko Gyi
Age:    47 in 2008
Organisation:    88 Generation Students group
Role:    Leader
Previous Prison Term:    More than 13 years
Current Sentence:    65 years & 6 months
Detained:    Monghsat Prison, Shan State

Ko Ko Gyi is known as a gifted strategist, and clear thinker.  He is second-in-command to Min Ko Naing in the 88 Generation Students group.  In 1988, Ko Ko Gyi was a few months away from his graduation as a final year student of International Relations at the University of Rangoon when popular protests began in March.  Two students were shot dead by riot police on 13 March.  Many students from all over the country attended peaceful rallies on their campuses to protest against the brutal crackdown.  Together with his friends, Ko Ko Gyi led the peaceful rally on his campus on 15 March.  The next day he and many other students were brutally beaten by police as they tried to march to the Rangoon Institute of Technology.  Ko Ko Gyi was also closely involved in the popular uprising on 8 August that year.  He was first detained in April 1989 for about 6 weeks, then again in December 1991.  He was eventually released in March 2005, after spending more than 13 years in prison.  He established the 88 Generation Students group with Min Ko Naing and other friends in September that year. Aung Kyaw Oo, a former political prisoner and colleague of Ko Ko Gyi, stayed with him for several months after he himself was released from prison in July that year.  He remembers Ko Ko Gyi as honorable and brave.  One day Ko Ko Gyi was accompanying two women activists back to their homes by bicycle.  They were followed by an intelligence agent on motorbike.  Ko Ko Gyi asked him to stop following them, but when he persisted, he threatened him with an umbrella he was carrying.  The intelligence agent fled on his motorbike.  Ko Ko Gyi was recently sentenced to 65 years and 6 months.