Burmese blogger gets 20 years over poem that criticized dictator
A blogger and a poet from Burma (Myanmar) received
prison sentences for a poem that contained a hidden message criticizing
Burmese dictator Senior General Than Shwe.
The Times Online reports that:
The Times Online reports that:
Mr Saw Wai’s poem, entitled ‘14th February’, was ostensibly a Valentine’s Day verse published last January in a popular weekly magazine. “You have to be in love truly, madly, deeply and then you can call it real love,” it read. “Millions of people who know how to love, please clap your hands of gilded gold and laugh out loud.”But the first word of each line spelled out a pithier message about the leader of the country’s military government: “Power Crazy Senior General Than Shwe”. Mr Saw Wai was arrested the next day and charged with harming “public tranquility”.
The dissident blogger, Nay Phone Latt, 28, is one of more than a dozen dissidents who were brought before military judges in a closed court in Rangoon’s Insein Prison. Several of their lawyers joined them in the dock, after complaining of unfair treatment by the court. Three of the lawyers were subsequently charged with contempt of court and jailed for up to six months. Four others were barred from representing their clients, who were then tried without any legal representation.
I am privileged to be featured on the free Shan people site with one of my poems. http://shanrelieffoundation.org/modules/tinyd8/
OUR FLAG FLIES FREE
For the Shan People
By Larry Jaffe
Poet Laureate, Youth for Human Rights
We wear our flag
of yellow, green and red
our lives touched
by purest white.
We are the Shan
Our Flag Flies Free
To be Shan
is to be free
the shallow grave
of slavery swallows
us no more.
We are the Shan
We are Free
Our beauty lost
in revolt of righteous
monks replaced
with military precision
We are the Shan
We shine once more.
We wear the yellow
for the spirit
that bends
but never breaks.
We wear the green
for the land
forever virulent
and alive.
We wear the red
for the courage
to protect our families
and each other .
Gracing the center
of the Shan soul
live peace,
purity &
tranquility
We are the Shan
Our Flag Flies Free
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Beautiful Larry. Thanks for sharing this.
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