U Win Htein born 1941 - a current and former prisoner of conscience - being an extract from pages 187 to 193 of his autobiography dealing with Martyrs' Day and is read by his youngest child, his daughter Chit Suu.

U Win Htein is an elder politician of the National League for Democracy, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's right hand man, a former parliamentarian, army captain and businessman.

U Win Htein has spent 20 years of his life in prison for his belief in democracy.

He has written his autobiography entitled "Win Htein's story for posterity: Burma's odyssey from tyranny to quasi-democracy" which can be purchased as a ebook from many online booksellers such as https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/win-hteins-story-for-posterity-win-htein/1140822639.

It is extremely hard to believe that at the age of 79 for speaking out against the coup of 1 February, 2021 U Win Htein was sentenced in late October 2021 for sedition and received a 20 year prison sentence.  He is currently serving this sentence at a jail in Mandalay.

This Episode deals with Martyrs' Day which occurred 75 years ago today on 19 July 1947 when assassins entered a room in the Secretariat where the Governor's Executive Council was meeting and shot dead 9 prominent men, including U Aung San and a number of ethnic leaders, who would all have played a prominent role in an independent Burma.  The modern history of Burma might well have been a very different if these assassinations had not taken place.   19 July has been called "Martyrs' Day" ever since.

Please feel free to contact me with suggested interviewees at church.peter@gmail.com.

Thank you for listening .

Peter Church