ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

By SAW YAN NAING | Detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and Karen physician Cynthia Maung, who runs a grassroots medical clinic at the Thai-Burmese border, will receive the Catalonia International Prize in honor of their commitment and struggle on behalf of the people of Burma on Tuesday.

As recipients of the 20th Catalonia International Prize, the two women will share 100,000 euros (US $128,000) and each receive a sculpture titled La clau i la lletra (The key and the letter) by Antoni Tàpies. The award is presented annually to persons who have made a remarkable contribution to the development of cultural, scientific or human values anywhere in the world.

Cynthia Maung, the founder of the Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand, will receive the prize on Tuesday evening in Palau de la Generalitat in the Catalonian capital Barcelona, while Burmese democracy campaigner Zoya Phan who is the international coordinator of Burma Campaign UK, will accept the award on behalf of Suu Kyi.

Zoya Phan told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that Suu Kyi and Cynthia Maung received the awards because of their long-term efforts in fighting for freedom in Burma and promoting the health of the Burmese people respectively.

Cynthia Maung founded the Mae Tao clinic in 1988 on the Thai side of the border opposite the Burmese town of Myawaddy. The clinic now provides medical treatment to Burmese migrant workers as well as many Burmese people living inside and outside Burma.

Suu Kyi—who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991—has struggled for democratic reform in Burma for 20 years. She is the leader of Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, which won a landslide victory in multi-party elections in 1990.

Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest at her lakeside home in Rangoon. Her latest detention started in May 2003 after her convoy of vehicles was attacked by Burmese junta-backed thugs.

Cynthia Maung and Zoya Phan also met with José Montill, president of the government of Catalonia, and held a press conference on Monday.

Zoya Phan said that she used the meeting to lobby the government of Catalonia to pressure the Burmese military government on its human rights record.