activist Khin Ohmar was Monday named winner of the Anna Lindh Prize, a human
rights award created in memory of the murdered Swedish foreign minister.
a former student activist, has lived in exile for the past 20 years and is
currently based in
where she is active in the Burma Partnership that mobilizes people’s
organizations and promotes democracy.
Swedish foreign minister Jan Eliasson, chair of the Anna Lindh Prize committee,
said the jury was ‘very happy that Khin Ohmar has accepted to receive the Anna
Lindh Prize in this year when the people of
evident for us all.’
worth 250,000 kronor (41,000 dollars), was created as a tribute to the late
Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, who was stabbed to death in September
2003.
was to be presented June 18, the day before Lindh would have turned 51.
said in a statement that ‘humanitarian assistance should not be political, but
humanitarian assistance alone cannot solve
referring to the recent devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis and the military
regime’s slow response.
reasons for the suffering of the Burmese people is political and the solutions
have to include means for political change,’ she added.
Colombian activist Leonor Zalabata Torres won the prize for campaigning for the
rights of indigenous peoples in the South American nation.
