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The AAPP, which has the support of Amnesty International, provides valuable documentation about political imprisonment in Burma, and also acts as a powerful advocacy group on behalf of those whose voices have been silenced. Because its members and founders are former political prisoners themselves, AAPP’s understanding of all aspects of political imprisonment is extensive. It includes the process of arrest, interrogation—often under torture—the trial process and conditions of imprisonment. Like all human rights defenders working inside or outside Burma, they face tremendous risks, yet they have bravely continued to do what they can to help the 1,100 political prisoners there.

Donna Guest is a researcher on Burma and Thailand at London-based Amnesty International

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Zipporah Sein

Campaigning for peace

By Phil Thornton

 

Zipporah Sein

Zipporah Sein is an ordinary woman, and yet the hopes of tens of thousands of Karen women rely on her ability to persuade international politicians, government leaders, humanitarians and journalists to advocate on their behalf. Her efforts for her people and her much loved Karen Women’s Organization have not gone unnoticed.

Last year she was nominated by an international women’s organization for the Nobel Peace Prize.
She is the first woman elected to the Karen National Union central executive and is the executive secretary of the KWO and its 30,000 members, a position she has held since 1998.

She is held in high regard by men and women alike as a compassionate visionary, and a committed fighter for women’s rights. She has set up schools, safe houses and documented the horror of war and rape.