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NEWS - 2 Burmese Writers Receive Pe
- Subject: NEWS - 2 Burmese Writers Receive Pe
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 10:57:00
Subject: NEWS - 2 Burmese Writers Receive Persecution Awards from HRW
2 Burmese Writers Receive Persecution Awards from HRW
In Burma, prize-winner Aung Htun -- an activist in the Aug
1988 uprising against the military regime -- spent four years
in prison, including periods of torture and in solitary
confinement during the early 1990s.
He was arrested again in March 1998 and is currently
serving a 15-year prison term for writing a seven-volume
history of the Burmese student movement.
The other Burmese awardee, Paschal Khoo-Thwe, was a
student leader who fled Burma, emigrated to England, and
won first prize for creative writing in English, his
third
language, at Cambridge University.
He now works as a cook in London to support himself while
he continues to write, according to HRW.
----------------------------------------
African Writers Sweep Persecution Awards
Inter Press Service
15-JUL-99
WASHINGTON, (Jul. 14) IPS - Journalists from Africa and
Iran dominated special prizes awarded this year by the
New
York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) to writers
persecuted for their political beliefs.
Out of 32 writers who received the 1999 Hellman-Hammett
Awards, 14 were from African countries -- including three
from Nigeria -- five hailed from Iran, four from Vietnam
and
two from Burma.
Award-winners also included Fabio Castillo, an
investigative
journalist at "El Espectador" in Colombia; Recep Marasli,
a
prolific writer on Kurdish rights and culture in Turkey;
and
Algerian Khilida Messaoudi, a well-known feminist
activist
and essayist who has been outspoken in defense of
women's rights during the ongoing civic violence.
Eleven winners could not be named due to possible
retaliation, according to HRW. They included writers from
Belarus, Cameroon, China, Eritrea, Pakistan, Sierra
Leone,
Tanzania, Togo, and the four winners from Vietnam.
Additionally, a U.S. winner -- a lesbian author -- asked
not to
be named at this time due to difficulties she could face
in
obtaining employment, said HRW spokeswoman Marcia
Allina.
The 10-year-old grant program, funded by the combined
estates of U.S. authors Lillian Hellman and Dashiel
Hammett, provides up to $10,000 for needy writers who
have
been subject to political persecution.
Total grants this year came to $170,000. Grantees each
received between $2,000 and $8,000.
Four of the five Iranian award winners worked with
liberal
print media, which were closed down or subjected to
attack
by right-wing forces.
Hamid-Reza Jalei-Pour was the publisher of two newspapers
-- "Jameh" and "Tous" -- closed by clerical authorities
during
the past year.
Last September, Jalei-Pour, and two other staff members
who won the prize -- Seheed Ebrahim Nabvi and Masahallah
Shamss-Ol-Vaezin -- were arrested and charged by the
Iran's Revolutionary Court for
publishing articles "against security and general
interests."
Akbar Ganji, editor of the news weekly "Rah-e No," was
held
in incommunicado detention for three months after he gave
a
speech criticizing the government. Although he was
released
last year, "Rah-e No" was closed, and he could be taken
back into custody at any time, HRW said.
A fifth Iranian, Hojatolesam Mohssen Saeidzadeh, a former
judge who has published numerous newspaper articles
attacking discrimination against women as a violation of
Islamic law, was arrested last June and held for four
months
without charge.
After his release, his status as a clergyman was
rescinded
and, last October, the government's Culture and Islamic
Guidance ministry refused to allow the publication of his
latest book, "Freedom of Women During the Time of
Mohammed."
The three Nigerian recipients of the grant were all
victims of
the military regime headed by the late Gen. Sani Abacha.
Along with his colleagues from "The News" of Lagos,
Akinwumi Adesokan was first detained by the authorities
in
1993 before his release one week later. On returning from
a
fellowship abroad in late 1997, he was detained again,
interrogated and held incommunicado for two months.
Lanre Arogundade, whose outspoken opposition to military
rule in Nigeria, dated back to the early 1980s, had been
arrested three times during the past year on unsupported
allegations ranging from gun running to association with
illegal organizations.
He was arrested a fourth time last April on a murder
charge
but was freed on bail. Arogundade denied the accusation
and a trial date still remained to be set.
Niran Malaolu was arrested in Dec 1997 at the offices of
the
independent news weekly "Diet" where he worked as an
editor. Convicted of "information gathering" and
"implication
in an alleged coup plot," he was sentenced to life in
prison.
After Abacha's death in June 1998, the sentence was
reduced last July to 15 years, and he was finally
released in
April. In prison, however, he was refused medical care,
and
contracted typhoid fever and another infection that
threatens
his eyesight, according to HRW.
In Burma, prize-winner Aung Htun -- an activist in the
Aug
1988 uprising against the military regime -- spent four
years
in prison, including periods of torture and in solitary
confinement during the early 1990s.
He was arrested again in March 1998 and is currently
serving a 15-year prison term for writing a seven-volume
history of the Burmese student movement.
The other Burmese awardee, Paschal Khoo-Thwe, was a
student leader who fled Burma, emigrated to England, and
won first prize for creative writing in English, his
third
language, at Cambridge University.
He now works as a cook in London to support himself while
he continues to write, according to HRW.
Besides Nigeria, other African countries with
prize-winners,
included Niger, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Swaziland.
In Niger, Gremah Boucar, who heads the Anfani group that
includes a newspaper, a magazine, and three radio
stations,
was kidnapped from his home in mid-1998 and threatened to
death and has since been rested and detained half a dozen
times.
Radio Anfani has been ransacked or occupied by soldiers
at
least twice since 1996, the last time in May, 1998 when
Radio Anfani broadcast a petition condemning government
efforts to intimidate the press.
Goretti Mapulanga, a news anchor on state television, and
her husband Cornelius were fired from their jobs in
November 1997 after interviewing Zambian President
Frederick Chiluba. Unable to find work, the Mapulangas
have since been under constant surveillance, and Goretti
and her children have been harassed in public by
unidentified people, said HRW.
Modeste Mutina Mutuishayi, editor and managing director
of
the independent daily, "Demain L'Afrique," and also the
head
of a non-governmental organization engaged in public
education, has suffered repeated detention and harassment
by security agents under the regime of DRC President
Laurent Kabila.
In war-torn countries of West Asia, Alex Redd, who was
abducted and tortured by Liberian government security
forces in December 1997 in connection with his
investigation
of the murder of a prominent opposition politician, was
given
political asylum in the United States last year.
A winner from Sierra Leone, Alieu Sheriff, also fled here
after
repeated detention in the early 1990's in both his
homeland
and Gambia for critical reporting about the governments
of
both countries.