Kyaw Min Yu ( my, ကျော်မင်းယု; also known as Ko Jimmy; 13 February 1969 – 23 July 2022) was a Burmese writer,

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

, and a member of the

88 Generation Students Group The 88 Generation Students ( my, ၈၈ မျိုးဆက် ကျောင်းသားများ) is a Burmese pro-democracy movement known for their activism against the country's military junta. Many of its members were imprisoned ...

. He was executed in July 2022 after being sentenced to death for activism against the junta that seized power in a coup in 2021.

Career

Activism

Kyaw Min Yu rose to prominence during the

8888 Uprising The 8888 Uprising ( my, ၈၈၈၈ အရေးအခင်း), also known as the People Power UprisingYawnghwe (1995), pp. 170 and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma (present-day Myanmar) th ...

, as a student activist. He was imprisoned for 15 years, from 1988 to 2003, for participating in the 8888 Uprising, and later spent another five years in prison after protesting fuel price hikes with the

in August 2007.

Writing

He wrote the self-help book ''Making Friendship'' (), which became a bestseller, in 2005.'''' On 6 September 2012, he published a novel, ''The Moon in Inle Lake'' (), which had been written in 2010 during a prison sentence in Taunggyi. While serving a sentence in Taunggyi, he wrote a number of political post-modern short stories, published in Japan, under the pen name Pan Pu Lwin Pyin. Ko Jimmy translated numerous novels, including ''

Angels and Demons ''Angels & Demons'' is a 2000 bestselling mystery-thriller novel written by American author Dan Brown and published by Pocket Books and then by Corgi Books. The novel introduces the character Robert Langdon, who recurs as the protagonist of B ...

'' and ''

The Da Vinci Code ''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel ''Angels & Demons''. ''The Da Vinci Code'' follows symbologist Robert Langdon ...

,'' into Burmese while in prison.''

2021 Myanmar coup d'état and execution

On 13 February 2021, in the aftermath of the

2021 Myanmar coup d'état A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw—Myanmar's military—which then veste ...

, Kyaw Min Yu and six other high profile individuals, namely

Min Ko Naing Paw Oo Tun ( my, ပေါ်ဦးထွန်း ); better known by his alias Min Ko Naing, ( , lit. "conqueror of kings") is a leading democracy activist and dissident from Myanmar. He has spent most of the years since 1988 imprisoned by the ...

Myo Yan Naung Thein Myo Yan Naung Thein ( my, မျိုးရန်နောင်သိန်း; born 31 March 1974) is a Burmese pro-democracy activist, and former chief research officer of the National League for Democracy's Central Committee for Research and S ...

, Insein Aung Soe,

Mg Mg Aye Mg Mg Aye ( my, မောင်မောင်အေး; also spelt Maung Maung Aye; born 29 June 1978) is a Burmese television host and MC. He has been the host for several Burmese TV programs and received acceptance of audience for the realit ...

Pencilo Pencilo ( my, ပန်ဆယ်လို; born Eaint Poe Ou ( my, အိမ့်ပိုးဥ), on 14 April 1990) is a Burmese writer and pro-democracy activist. She is best known for criticizing the Tatmadaw and taking up politically sensiti ...

, and Lynn Lynn were charged and issued arrest warrants under section 505 (b) of the penal code by the

State Administration Council The State Administration Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော်စီမံအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးကောင်စီ; abbreviated SAC or နစက) is the military junta currently governing Myanmar, established by Comm ...

for inciting unrest against the state and threatening "public tranquility" through their social media posts. He was arrested in

Dagon Township Dagon Township ( my, ဒဂုံ မြို့နယ် ) is located immediately north of downtown Yangon. The township comprises five wards, and shares borders with Bahan Township in the north, Ahlon Township in the west, Mingala Taungnyunt T ...

on 23 October. On 23 January 2022, the

Myanmar Military Tatmadaw (, , ) is the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include th ...

Tribunal sentenced Yu to death under the country's Counterterrorism Law for contacting the

Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော် ကိုယ်စားပြုကော်မတီ; abbreviated CRPH) is a Burmese legislative body in exile, representing a g ...

National Unity Government A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other nati ...

(NUG), and

People's Defense Force People's Defense Force may refer to: * People's Defense Force (comics), two fictional organizations appearing in comic books by Marvel Comics * People's Defence Force (Grenada), the army of Grenada prior to the U.S.-led invasion of 1983 * People's ...

(PDF). On 23 July 2022, it was announced that Yu had been executed along with

Zayar Thaw Zayar Thaw ( , also called U Phyo Zayar Thaw or Zeya Thaw; 26 March 1981 – 23 July 2022) was a Burmese politician and hip-hop artist who was detained for the perceived anti-government messages of his lyrics. Amnesty International named him a ...

and two others.

Personal life

Yu was born 13 February 1969, in

Shan State Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the Endonym and exonym, endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. ...

in eastern Myanmar. At the time of the

he was a

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

student at Rangoon Arts & Sciences University (later re-named the

University of Yangon '') , mottoeng = There's no friend like wisdom. , established = , type = Public , rector = Dr. Tin Mg Tun , undergrad = 4194 , postgrad = 5748 , city = Kamayut 11041, Yangon , state = Yangon Regio ...

) . He was married to Nilar Thein, a political activist. They met while incarcerated after the 8888 Uprising and wedded after they were both released in 2004. The couple have a daughter, Phyu Nay Kyi Min Yu.

Death

Yu was 53 years old when he was executed in July 2022. On 28 July 2022, the G7 foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and the European Union released a statement strongly condemning Kyaw Min Yu's execution by the military junta.

Publications

* ''Making Friendship'' (2005) * ''The Moon in Inle Lake'' (2012)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kyaw Min Yu 1969 births 2022 deaths Prisoners and detainees of Myanmar University of Yangon alumni People from Shan State People executed by Myanmar by hanging