BURMESE POET ARRESTED AND JAILED FOR LOVE POEM
Burmese poet accused of hiding anti-junta message in love poem
The Love Journal isn’t the first place we’d look for hidden messages railing against the Burmese government, but that’s where poet Saw Wai is accused of secreting a sentence that criticizes the junta’s top general.
BBC News reports that the government was none too pleased to discover that the first words of each line in his latest love poem said: “General Than Shwe is crazy with power.” (The hidden message is being reported as “Power Crazy Than Shwe” in one publication, and “Megalomaniac Than Shwe” in another.)
Saw Wai has been taken into custody, and BBC News says no one knows what will happen to the dissident writer. Editor Myat Khaing tells Mizzima News that he thought it was a romantic poem.
See article in its original context at USA Today
Burma poet held for secret insult BBC
Poet arrested after coded protest Irrawaddy: Covering Burma and Southeast Asia
NPR’s All Things Considered coverage of banned writers
