Miemie Winn Byrd, a retired U.S. Army officer and professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, received a recognition award from The East-West Center “for her contributions to promote better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia and the Pacific” in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Sept. 8. 

“Receiving this award will give me more opportunity to interact with international organizations for the revolution against the military dictatorship,” said Miemie Winn Byrd, who has been traveling and speaking to Myanmar diaspora communities in the U.S. and around the world to explain the progress made by resistance groups during the nationwide uprising to the 2021 military coup, known as the Spring Revolution.

Winn Byrd criticized Min Aung Hlaing and his regime in Naypyidaw for its attempt to organize an election tentatively scheduled for November next year. “The election that the military is promising to hold in 2025 [will not] be free or fair,” she said at an event in Texas in June. 

Winn Byrd called for increased participation from Myanmar’s diaspora communities to assist those inside the country fighting to stop the military from reestablishing its rule over the people. Burmese-Americans from Maryland, San Francisco and Texas attended the award ceremony in Hawaii.

The East-West Center is an educational and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 as a national educational institution to foster better relations and understanding among the peoples of the U.S., Asia, and the Pacific islands through programs of study, training, and research.