NEW YORK, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Thirty-seven writers have received Hellman/Hammett awards recognizing their courage in the face of political persecution, a U.S. human rights group says.
Human Rights Watch said in a release Monday all 37 of them are writers and activists whose work and activities have been suppressed. The group hands out the Hellman/Hammett grants to writers around the world who have been targets of political persecution.
HRW says the grant program began in 1989 when the American playwright Lillian Hellman stipulated in her will that her estate should be used to assist writers in financial need as a result of expressing their views.
Among the writers receiving the grants are Saw Wei of Myanmar, a romantic poet and a performance artist who is currently in Mandalay prison. At the time of his arrest, he headed the "White Rainbow" poetry recital group, which raised money for AIDS orphans
Also cited was Chinese commentator and human rights activist Hu Jia, convicted of "inciting subversion of state power" and sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison; and China's Shi Tao, and poet and journalist is best known as the victim of the U.S. Internet search engine Yahoo's cooperation with Chinese police.
