July 16, 2003

Duwa Zaw Aung, NLD MP-elect from Waingmaw township, Kachin state escaped to the border today with the help of the NLD(Liberated Area) and other opposition groups.

He is the first NLD MP-elect escaped to the border after State sponsored ambush on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, NLD members and their supporter at Depayin on May 30 reportedly killing more than seventy people.

Name: Duwa Zaw Aung
Constituency: Waingmaw township, Kachin State
Date of Birth: 20 September 1933
Father: Duwa Jah

Duwa Zaw Aung was the chairman of the Kachin State Student Union from 1954-1957.

He was also the Bamaw District chairman of the Committee for the Promotion of Kachin Culture from 1956-1957 and chairman of the Kachin State Baptist Church from 1982-1987.

He was actively participated in the 1988 democracy uprising and became a NLD township local leader.

He strongly supported the NLD initiative when the CRPP was founded in 1998.

In August 1999, he was arrested by the Military Intelligence and sentenced him to 7 years imprisonment for his writings to religious leaders on the subject of solving the political deadlock between the military authorities and NLD. But, he was released on 13 August 2001.