Burmese activist honoured with Asia’s highest award

by Nem Davies
Tuesday, 04 August 2009 14:12

New Delhi (Mizzima) - A Burmese human rights activist, who exposed the ruling junta’s human rights violations and destruction of the environment, has been named one of the recipients of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award.

Ka Hsaw Wa, tortured as a young activist by the junta but now running a human rights group, has been chosen along with five other Asian rights activists as the recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay, Asian’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the committee said in a release on Monday.

An ethnic Karen minority, Ka Hsaw Wa, began opposing the military rulers by joining the popular uprising in 1988. Subsequently, he was arrested and tortured for three days. Upon release, he fled to Thai-Burmese border.

Though initially he intended to take up arms to fight the brutal junta but witnessing widespread rights violations made him take the pen, record the abuses, and find a way out to tell the stories to the world.

For the following five years, he talked to more than a thousand victims and witnesses of human rights and environmental violations.

In 1995, he co-founded the EarthRights International (ERI), a non-profit organization focusing on human rights and the environment and combining the power of law and the power of the people in defence of these rights.

Most of the rampant abuses were connected to the building of the Yadana Gas pipeline, which was finance by US-based UNOCAL and French corporation TOTAL.

“I am extremely glad to receive this award and it is an honour for our organization and it is also a push forward of our work,” Ka Hsaw Wa told Mizzima on Monday.

The ERI in 1996, filed a case in the United States against UNOCAL with the help of public interest lawyers. The lawsuit alleged that the company was complicit in the human rights and environmental abuses committed by the Burmese military in building the Yadana gas pipeline in Southern Burma.

After nearly a decade of complicated litigation, UNOCAL agreed to compensate the eleven victim-petitioners in the case. The petitioners decided to commit substantial funds from the compensation to humanitarian relief for other victims.

Besides litigation-related works, the ERI also began a training school in Thailand’s Chiang Mai city, where young Burmese are provided awareness on environment and human rights.

“Our work is to train Burmese youths in the protection and promotion of human rights and the environment. We want to help Burmese youth in the future to be aware of the environment and human rights,” Ka Hsaw Wa said.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation’s President Carmencita T. Abella in a statement said, “The Magsaysay awardees of 2009 are true Asian Heroes, putting their advanced knowledge and skills at the service of critical needs of their people.”

Along with Ka Hsaw Wa, the RMAF has named Krisana Kraisintu of Thailand, Deep Joshi of India, Yu Xiaogang of China, Antonio Oposa, Jr. of the Philippines and Ma Jun of China as recipients of the award for 2009.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award was created in 1957, the year the Philippines lost in a plane crash their third President, Ramon Magsaysay, who was loved for his simplicity and humility, passion for justice, particularly for the poor, and his advancement of human dignity. The award includes a cash prize of 50,000 USD.

Ka Hsaw Wa joins the list of Burmese, who had also named winners of the Award. Included in the list are a humanitarian worker Dr. Cynthia Maung in 2002 for her outstanding contribution to the health care of Burmese migrants and refugees along the Thai-Burma border.

In 1959, Tee Tee Luce and the then editor of Burma based “the Nation Newspaper” Edward Micheal Law Yone was named winners of the award.