SCMP-Hero not forgotten

[tinkyi@xxxxxxx]

South China Morning Post
Wednesday  March 24  1999

Hero not forgotten

BURMA by WILLIAM BARNES
He hasn't a fraction of Aung San Suu Kyi's international renown. He was
politically active for only a few short months. But to a generation of
Burmese students Min Ko Naing is their Che Guevara.

Min Ko Naing - "conqueror of kings" - was the nom de guerre adopted by a
trim, handsome, moustached zoology student in 1988's street protests.

Baw Oo Tun, 26, was an inspirational leader of the students who first
knocked the military off balance.

"There is no honour greater than the willingness to sacrifice for the
motherland," he told his supporters.

He went underground but was caught in March 1989 and sentenced to 20 years
with hard labour.

Today, the chairman of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions starts his
second decade in solitary confinement.

The Burmese military has been forced to pull its punches with Ms Aung San
Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace prize-winning daughter of independence hero Aung
San. Min Ko Naing has no such protection; there were rumours last year that
he had died.

The Bangkok-based All Burma Students' Democratic Front called yesterday for
his immediate release. It will undoubtedly be disappointed.