UN, Amnesty and RSF Mark 75th Birthday of Jailed Burmese Journalist U Win Tin

13 March (VOA) - The United Nations and Amnesty International have marked the 75th birthday of a jailed Burmese rights defender and journalist.

Amnesty says U Win Tin was first arrested in 1989, for his leadership role in a main Burmese opposition party, the National League for Democracy. He has since spent many years in prison and is now serving a 20-year sentence.

The U.N. special envoy for human rights in Burma (Paulo Pinheiro) called for Mr. Win Tin's release. A Paris-based media rights group, Reporters Without Borders, said Friday it gave Burma 's ambassador to France symbolic birthday presents labeled "pens," "medicine" and "newspapers."

The group says Mr. Win Tin, who turns 75 on Saturday, has been deprived of those items for the past 16 years.