BURMA: Villager arrested for parody of state propaganda on national development

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about a villager in Burma who has been arrested and charged for satirising state news media articles. U Thein Zan was arrested on 5 March 2007 after he stuck doctored state propaganda on his fence. His case has been opened in court and the prosecution is beginning to present its witnesses: urgent action is needed to get it stopped.

According to the information available to date, 65-year-old Thein Zan, a retired sailor who earns money by repairing radios and cassette players, was angered by government propaganda claiming that economic and social conditions in Burma are improving and that opponents to the state are a small minority of troublemakers and terrorists.

During the morning of February 23, Thein Zan cut out and stuck some headlines from news and opinion pieces along the inside of his fence in Thingankyun, Rangoon and added his own title that parodied a long-running series of propaganda articles, as well as other satirical comments.

After a short time around 100 persons had gathered to see what he had done, and around 11am local council officials and police arrived and removed the papers from the fence and took Thein Zan back to the council office.

At the office the police interrogated Thein Zan, who told them that he had nothing to do with politics but rather that he had put up the papers after his daughter-in-law had come back from the market that morning and told him about the prices of eggs. He said that the writers of the articles whom he parodied should write useful articles about the real experiences of the people, who are facing electricity shortages and sky-rocketing prices of basic commodities. He also reportedly told them that if what he had done was an offence then they should charge him.

After the interrogation, Thein Zan was allowed to go home, but around 7pm on March 5 a group of police and township council members came and arrested him at his house. Shortly thereafter he was transferred to central Insein Prison, where he has been held since. He has been charged with intent to cause public mischief, for which he could be sentenced to two years in jail.

When the court sat for the first hearing on March 8 it was full, as many persons, including Ma Su Su Nwe (http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/susunwe/) and other human rights defenders and activists, came to listen. A person who looked like a police officer (wearing police uniform trousers and a vest over his shirt) came inside the court and began taking photographs. Thein Zan’s lawyer complained to the court but it is not known at this stage what action if any has been taken as a result of the incident.

The first person to testify was the township police chief, who in reply to a question from the defence attorney that “Are you aware of the electricity outages in Rangoon?” replied that he was not. As the city is constantly plagued by power cuts, including in government buildings and relatively-wealthy suburbs, the reply was ridiculous and patently false.

The prosecution case is due to continue with two members of the local council appearing as witnesses on March 14.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

U Thein Zan’s actions on February 23 followed reporting on a small protest against rising prices and economic hardship in Rangoon the day before. The protest was reported as a “riot” in the state media “aimed at instigating external and internal anti-government groups and foreign media to fabricate news” in order that the participants might obtain “medals or cash rewards from abroad”. The reports warned that the protest was “totally against the law”. Some nine persons were detained for questioning over the protest, and subsequently released, but in March further arrests and releases were also reported.

In an earlier appeal issued by the AHRC a farmer was charged with the same offence as Thein Zan, for complaining about the destruction of his crops due to incompetent government officials (UA-155-2006). The farmer, U Tin Nyein, was released after eight months’ imprisonment, at the start of February 2007 (UP-018-2007).

Thein Zan’s case also bears a resemblance to that of U Aung Pe, a tuition teacher who was sentenced to three years’ jail for hanging a t-shirt bearing the image of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in class. In February 2007 Aung Pe reportedly went on a hunger strike to protest his continued imprisonment and poor treatment (UP-029-2007)

See also the 2006 AHRC Human Rights Report chapter on Burma, and visit the AHRC Burma homepage: http://burma.ahrchk.net.

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SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the Attorney General to demand that the charges against Thein Zan be dropped, and that under any circumstances he be granted bail.

Please note that for the purpose of the letter, the country should be referred to by its official title of Myanmar, rather than Burma, and Rangoon as Yangon.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER