Dora Than-E, the veteran Burmese singer and close friend of Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, died at her home in Oxford, England, on Sunday at age 99. Than-E was also a close friend of Burma's independence hero Gen Aung San, former UN Secretary-General U Thant and the country’s detained pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi. In 1995, Than-E accepted the Jawaharlal Nehru Award on the behalf of Suu Kyi. In her address, she read a statement by Suu Kyi that described Than-E as "the first Burmese to become a member of the United Nations Secretariat, she has been an ardent advocate and a practitioner of international understanding." |
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