Pe Thein Zar

Pe Thein Zar (8 January 1943 – 30 July 2018) was an ethnic Mon opposition leader in Myanmar (Burma) who was imprisoned for seven years for his activism. He was a lawyer by profession and a prolific writer after his retirement.

Early life Pe Thein Zar was born in Kamawet Village (town), Mudon Township, in Mon State, Burma on 8 January 1943. He attended No. 1 Moulmein (now Mawlamyaing) State High School for his secondary education and was a member of the Moulmein District Mon Student Union.

Student life and political activity Pe Thein Zar graduated in 1960. For further study he went to Moulmein College in 1961, and became an executive member of the Moulmein College Mon Students’ Association and an executive member of the Moulmein College Students’ Union.

In January 1990, as a representative of the NMSP, he took up duties at the National Democratic Front (NDF) office at Mannerplaw, located in the headquarters building of the Karen National Union (KNU). In that year, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) organised a free and fair general election. As had been expected, the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory. The SLORC refused to transfer the power to the NLD and many elected members of the parliament went underground to join up with various armed resistance groups. Some arrived at NMSP and some at KNU areas. On 18 December 1990, with the support of the NMSP, the KNU, the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and other ethnic groups, the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), led by Dr. Sein Win, a cousin of Aung San Suu Kyi, was established at Mannerplaw.

In 1992, the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) was founded by representatives of the NDF, NCGUB, and the Democratic Alliance of Burma (DAB). He was a member of the NCUB. When the Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC) was formed in Mannerplaw, he became a member of it as well. At the Third Congress of the NDF that was held at Mannerplaw in 1992, he was elected as a committee member responsible for foreign affairs, while Nai Shwe Kyin (the President of NMSP) was elected as its President. Also in 1992, when the NDF decided to establish the Federal University, in order to provide education for those students who were involved in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising and who had fled to the armed resistance group areas, he was assigned to take charge of that university. In February 1993, he attended a diplomacy training course, organised by Jose Ramos Hota who was later to become the second president of East Timor), at the University of New South Wales.

In October 1993, under a programme of the UN International Indigenous Year, he led a delegation of NDF representatives to several European countries, to draw attention to the plight of the ethnic minorities of Burma under the Burmese military regime – to the gross human rights abuses, forced labour, rapes, murder and arbitrary arrests committed by the Burmese armed forces in the ethnic minority areas. In November 1993, he attended a UN Human Rights Commission seminar in Geneva, Switzerland where he met many representatives from various countries around the world.

Resettlement in Australia In protest against the ceasefire agreement reached between the NMSP and the SLORC on 29 June 1995, he resigned from the party, went to Bangkok with his wife, Nyo Nyo Win, and applied for refugee status at the UNHCR office. About five months later, both were recognised as persons-of-concern, that is, refugees, by the UNHCR. After staying at the Maneeloi Refugee Camp in Thailand for about six months, on 26 November 1996, they migrated to Australia.

Writer After his retirement he wrote books on Mon politics and history in Burmese or English. He had written six books and was completing a seventh when died.