Dr Khin Zaw Win, a dentist by training, once worked with the ministries of health in Myanmar and Malaysia, and with UNICEF in Yangon. He was imprisoned in July 1994 by the military regime for peacefully criticising the regime. Amnesty International considered him a prisoner of conscience, and his case was one of only two in which UNESCO issued a public appeal for a political prisoner. Dr Zaw was one of more than 200 political prisoners released from jail in Myanmar on 6 July 2005. Since then, he has been active in civil society on a range of issues as the Director of the Tampadipa Insititute and is a well-known analyst of political trends.