The Prize Dedicated to U Gambira

November 2. 2011

The 70th anniversary dinner of the Washinton based “Freedom House” Group was held on October 26, 2011. At the dinner, the Group gave the “Awareness Raising Award” to the board of editors of The Washinton Post, and Fred Hyatt, editor of The Washinton Post, accepted this award on behalf of the editors’ board, and addressed a speech. In his address, he made some honorific comments on U Gambira, a monk who led the Saffron Revolution in Burma in September, 2007. And Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was also given “Freedom Award” prize at the dinneer.

Below’s the comments on U Gambira expressed in the ending part of his speech.

Finally, and most of all, I would like to thank the many dissidents and freedom fighters who have written op-eds for us over the years, often at great risk to themselves. Four years ago, for example, we published an oped by U Gambira, a monk who had helped lead the unfinished Saffron Revolution in Burma. “We adhere to nonviolence, but our spine is made of steel,” he wrote. “There is no turning back. It matters little if my life or the lives of colleagues should be sacrificed on this journey. Others will fill our sandals, and more will join and follow.”

By coincidence, on the day his op-ed appeared, U Gambira, who had been living in hiding inside his country, was found and arrested. Things in Burma, as we will no doubt hear more of later in this program, may be stirring for the better. But U Gambira remains in jail, and just this week we saw reports that his health may be in jeopardy. I would like to dedicate this award to him, and to the day when we can print his next op-ed in the Washington Post.

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