Mizzima
Irish news agency, Diplomacy in Ireland – The European Diplomat, has awarded a Diplomatic Service Medal with Honours to His Excellency Mr. Linn Thant, Ambassador of the National Unity Government (NUG) Ambassador to the Czech Republic.
Speaking from Dublin, Dr. Miceál O’Hurley, the Editor-in-Chief of Diplomacy in Ireland – The European Diplomat stated, “Ambassador Linn Thant’s contribution to the advancement of democracy and upholding the dignity of the people of Myanmar as they endure more than 3-years of the latest military junta who is waging war on its own people has been exemplary. His Excellency’s contribution to bettering Europe’s understanding of the people of Myanmar and working towards the recognition and accreditation of the National Unity Government across Europe speaks to the shared values and ever-closer unity between Europeans and the democratic people of Myanmar”.
Diplomacy in Ireland – The European Diplomat was founded in 2021 to focus on the truly international aspects of the Irish role in international affairs, foreign relations and diplomacy as well as covering international diplomats accredited to Ireland and the European Union. Within the context of reporting on international events, Diplomacy in Ireland – The European Diplomat provides original interviews with newsmakers, research, writing and reporting on issues that effect the diplomatic community around the globe.
According to the NUG, U Linn Thant was born into an Anglo-Indian Burmese family in central Myanmar in the 1960s. He studied in the government schools of Burma, as well as in the Christian mission schools founded by his grandfather, a British citizen.
He actively participated in social organisations as a child. After graduating from high school in basic education he studied civil engineering. He actively participated in the 1988 democracy movement at that time in the Ba.Ka.Tha organization (The All Burma Federation of Student Unions – ABFFSU).
After the 1988 military coup, he went into hiding and became active member of the ABSDF. He was arrested at the ABSDF mission in Rangoon and sentenced to death by a military court on 25 May 1990.
After about 3 years on death row at Insein Prison. The death sentence was replaced by a life sentence of 20 years in 1993 under the SLORC junta’s amnesty order celebrating the foundation of the National Assembly.
In 1997, he was transferred from Insein Prison to Thayet Prison. He was released from Thayet prison at the end of 2008. After being released from prison, he reunited the network of 88 generation students. He also organised an educational network for political activism.
Then, after leaving Myanmar while being hunted by the military intelligence in a case related to photos being taken in a prison, he lived in Thailand and worked as an English teacher at the Thinking Classroom Foundation and started working in 2010 as a reporter and commentator at the Irrawaddy news agency based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
In 2011, he received political asylum in the Czech Republic and returned to Thailand to continue working at the Irrawaddy news agency. In 2015, he moved from Thailand to the Czech Republic and wrote weekly political and business reviews on Myanmar and Asia for the Denik Referendum newspaper based in Brno, in the Czech Republic.
In addition, he taught English and Mindfulness in the Czech Republic’s preschool and the Center for Modern Education’s elementary and secondary schools.
Since 2018, he has been engaged in the business of importing Burmese coffee from Burma and distributing it in the Czech Republic and Europe.
On 24 April 2021, he was appointed as the representative of the NUG in the Czech Republic.
As a representative, he is actively working for the NUG in the Czech Republic and European countries. He is serving as a representative of the NUG based in the Czech Republic in the implementation of NUG’s foreign policies, including the recognition of the National Unity Government to other partner countries.
