Mizzima News

New Delhi (mizzima) – The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who reached Bangkok on Tuesday to attend a regional security conference, will meet humanitarian workers in Thailand, including Burmese humanitarian worker Dr. Cynthia Maung on Wednesday.

Clinton, who flew into Thailand following a five-day visit to India, will meet  humanitarian workers on Wednesday in Bangkok before leaving for Thailand’s resort Island of Phuket to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (ARF).

During their meeting, Dr. Cynthia Maung is likely to raise the issue of democracy and human rights in her homeland besides expounding on the situation of humanitarian work along the Thai-Burmese border.

Dr. Cynthia Maung, an ethnic Karen doctor heads the Mea Tao clinic in Thailand’s Measot town, opposite Burma’s Myawaddy town. She is a renowned humanitarian worker contributing her expertise in medicine for Burmese people including migrant workers, refugees and orphans.

She left her homeland, Burma, in 1989 a year after the brutal military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Since then she has run the Mea Tao clinic, which has expanded from a small clinic to a full-fledged hospital with over 100 paramedics.

Dr. Cynthia Maung received Southeast Asia’s Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership and was listed as one of 2003 Time Magazine’s Asian Heroes. She has received six international awards for her work. In 1999, she was the first recipient of the Jonathan Mann Award, sponsored by US and Swiss health organizations.

Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State, who was received by Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Tuesday, is expected to raise the issue of Burma and North Korea at the ARF meeting.