Ko Bo Kyi, joint secretary and a founder of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, will present "Please Use Your Liberty to Promote Ours: Burma's Human Rights Crisis" during an Area Focus Lecture on Friday, Feb . 24, at 2 p.m. in 238 Herald R. Clark Building on the Brigham Young University campus.
Bo Kyi testified this month before the U.S. Congress regarding the human rights crisis in Burma.
His organization was set up in 2000 by former political prisoners to support political prisoners with food and medicines. They monitor jails and work camps throughout the country, track the political prisoners—estimated to be 1,500—and campaign for their release. They are only one of several Burmese organizations in exile that are promoting political change in Burma. Many of them are based in neighboring countries, mainly in Thailand. Their focus is on international advocacy and lobby activities directed toward democratization and human rights.
He left Burma in 1999, one year following his release in October 1998 from Tharawaddy prison. Bo Kyi spent seven years (1990–93, 1994–1998) in the infamous Insein jail and Mandalay and Tharawaddy prisons for his political activities. He became involved in politics during the 1988 uprising in Burma and is a former executive committee member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions.
This lecture will be archived online. For more information on David M. Kennedy Center
events, see the calendar and News online at http://kennedy.byu.edu.
Writer: Lee Simons
