Hundreds of mourners have turned out for the funeral of National League for Democracy (NLD) co-founder and veteran journalist U Win Tin, which is taking place at the Yay Way Cemetery in Rangoon on Wednesday afternoon.

Win Tin passed away at Rangoon General Hospital on Monday, 21 April, from kidney failure.

Among those in attendance for the veteran politician’s burial in North Okkalapa Township are fellow NLD party members and representatives of other political parties in Burma, and faces from the world of entertainment and media.

The funeral ceremony is scheduled to run from 12 noon until 5pm.

Win Tin, former editor of the renowned Hanthawaddy Daily newspaper, co-founded the NLD along with Aung San Suu Kyi before being imprisoned in 1989. He spent 19 years behind the bars, the majority of that time in solitary confinement. He was eventually released under an amnesty in 2008. He continued to wear his blue prison uniform after his release as a symbolic protest against the military dictatorship and in solidarity with other political prisoners who remain behind the bars.

A book published by Win Tin after his release, A Human Hell, described sobering details of the physical and psychological torture that political inmates were subjected to.

While being one of the closest-aides to party leader Suu Kyi, he was also known for his straightforwardness in expressing disagreement with her.

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