Mediaboss Marketing

(2nd UPDATE) The veteran campaigner who formed the NLD with Aung San Suu Kyi in 1988 had suffered worsening ill health in recent weeks

DEMOCRACY. Win Tin, who served nearly 20 years in prison and the country's longest-serving political prisoner after challenging the military rule by co-founding the NLD, dies at age 85 on April 21, 2014, his family said. File photo by Nyein Chan Naing/EPA

YANGON, Myanmar (2nd UPDATE) Win Tin, one of the founders of Myanmar's pro-democracy opposition and the nation's longest-serving political prisoner, died Monday, April 21, at the age of 84 after battling for decades to bring freedom to a nation that suffered under military rule.

A former journalist and veteran campaigner, whose near two decades in jail failed to dull his commitment to the democratic cause, had suffered worsening ill health in recent weeks.

He died in hospital in Yangon early Monday, National League for Democracy party spokesman Nyan Win told Agence France-Presse (AFP). A funeral service will be held on Wednesday, April 23.

A towering figure within the democracy movement, Win Tin formed the NLD with Aung San Suu Kyi in 1988 and was imprisoned the following year in the wake of a student-led pro-democracy uprising.

He reiterated his support for party leader Suu Kyi in the days before he died, according to his long-time assistant Yar Zar.

"We are so sad to have lost him it is like the world has been lost," he told AFP.

"But we have many things to do. We will continue as he asked and will follow his way to democracy," he added. (READ: Suu Kyi cautions Myanmar 'not yet a democracy')

Myanmar began its emergence from nearly half a century of military rule in 2011, under a quasi-civilian government that has won international plaudits for reforms including the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

See the rest here:
Veteran Myanmar pro-democracy campaigner Win Tin dies party