DUBLIN — Diplomacy in Ireland – European Diplomat has announced the conferral of the Diplomatic Service Medal with Honours to His Excellency Mr. Linn Thant, Ambassador of the National Unity Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (NUG). His Excellency Mr. Thant currently serves as the NUG’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic. Speaking from Dublin, Dr. Miceál O’Hurley, 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”.
Born into an Anglo-Indian Burmese family in central Myanmar in 1969, Thant studied in the government schools of Burma, as well as in the Christian mission schools founded by his grandfather, a British citizen. Having been an active participant in social and civic organisations in his youth, after graduating high school he pursued civil engineering courses.
Thant was an active participant in the Ba.Ka.Tha organization (All Burma Federation of Student Unions – ABFFSU) in the 1988 democracy movement. After the 1988 military coup, he went into hiding and became active member in the ABSDF. He was arrested during an ABSDF’s mission in Rangoon and sentenced to death by a military court on May 25, 1990. After 3-years on death row, Thant’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1993, coinciding with the National Assembly’s change of the SLORC junta’s amnesty order. In 1997, he was transferred from the notorious Insein Prison where he had been imprisoned and tortured for his democratic activities and was thereafter detained at Thayet Prison. In 2008, Thant was released and immediately began to organise a network of students and activists for educational and political activism.
Thant’s release from prison did not end his persecution. Myanmar’s military intelligence continued to pursue him causing him to flee to Thailand. Working as an English teacher at the Thinking Classroom Foundation Thant became a journalist and commentator at the Irrawaddy New Agency based in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2010. In 2011, he participated in the Forum 2000 conference at the invitation of Václav Havel and was granted political asylum in the Czech Republic where he continued his work with the Irrawaddy News Agency. Living full-time in the Czech Republic, in 2015 he began to write political and business reviews on Myanmar and Asia for the Denik Referendum newspaper based in Brno, Czech Republic. Ever civic minded, Thant also taught English and Mindfulness in the Czech Republic’s preschool and the Center for Modern Education’s elementary and secondary schools. Since 2018, Thant has been engaged with his family business.
On April 24, 2021, Linn Thant was appointed as the Representative of the Government of National Unity in the Czech Republic. Ambassador Thant’s vigorous advocacy for the National Unity Government of Myanmar in the Czech Republic and across Europe has been instrumental in improving Europe’s understanding of the plight of the people of Myanmar. Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has suffered under a cruel and repressive military junta that seized control of the country on 1 February 2021.
Speaking for the Awards Committee O’Hurley said, “We have chosen to recognise Ambassador Thant for his service to his people, to the cause of peace and in promoting Myanmar’s democratic future free of the coercion of violence. In exercising his diplomatic arts from the Czech Republic Ambassador Thant has demonstrated the power of ideas to transform the world and has done Europe a service by inviting it to participate along with the NUG in creating a renewed, stable, peaceful and prosperous democratic future”.
His Excellency, Ambassador Thant, is expected to travel to Ireland to accept the Diplomatic Service Medal with Honours shortly.
