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Aung San Suu Kyi, who for the past twelve years has also been attempting to rewrite Burmese history, was a visiting scholar at Kyoto University in 1985-6, where she researched the role of her father, Gen Aung San, in Burma’s independence struggle against British colonial rule.

 Student Leader Sentenced in Thailand

A Thai court has sentenced Moe Thee Zun, a well-known student leader during Burma’s 1988 pro-democracy uprising, to 8 months in prison for travelling on a false passport. The 38-year-old former deputy chairman of the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), who had earlier been held for ten days following his arrest at Bangkok’s Don Muang International Airport in March this year, was released on bail shortly after sentencing. His lawyer said that he would appeal the decision and hoped to have the sentence reduced to probation.

Sources close to Moe Thee Zun said that the October court decision and the March arrest en route to a conference in North America came as a surprise, as many dissidents are known to travel on false Burmese passports. Some observers have noted, however, that the student leader may have irked Thai authorities by attending a memorial service for ten anti-Rangoon rebels killed by Thai commandos in January. He also reportedly gave a speech in honor of the dead gunmen, who had seized a hospital in the border province of Ratchaburi to demand medical assistance for casualties of a conflict with Burmese troops.

Moe Thee Zun, along with other senior leaders, recently resigned from the ABSDF and was said to be planning to rejoin the Democratic Party for New Society, a party he founded shortly after the Burmese military coup in 1988.