Zargana

Full name: Maung Thura
Profession: Comedian, poet, film-maker and pro-democracy activist
Date of arrest: 25 September 2007
Date of release: 18 October 2007
Details of arrest: 'Zargana' was most recently arrested as a result of his support for the monks demonstrating in the September 2007 protests. He was among many activists who were arrested in the Government crackdown that followed.
Current situation: Despite being released, Zargana remains under heavy surveillance and suffers restrictions on his right to write or comment freely.
Details of previous arrests: Zargana was first arrested in October 1988 for opposition activities, and was freed six months later. On 19 May 1990, he impersonated General Saw Maung, former head of the military government, to a crowd of thousands in Rangoon. He was again arrested shortly afterwards and sentenced to five years in prison. He was held in solitary confinement in a tiny cell in Rangoon's Insein Prison, where he began scratching his poems on the floor of his cell before committing them to memory.
Professional Details: Zargana (whose nickname means 'tweezers') is extremely popular in Myanmar (Burma) for his political satires, having been permitted to perform the traditional Burmese role of a 'wise fool', criticising the military leadership during the 1980s. For a while, the authorities tolerated him, and even on occasion invited him to perform for them. But as the political climate deteriorated, the authorities lost patience and attempts were made to silence him. Zargana gave speeches at Rangoon General Hospital during the 1988 uprising that attracted large audiences and won rousing ovations. He quickly became a leading voice of the student pro-democracy movement although he never officially joined a political party. During his imprisonment from 1990 onwards, Zargana's case was taken up by the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN and one of his prison poems was published in the PEN anthology This Prison Where I Live. After his release in 1994, Zargana was banned from performing in public, but continued to make tapes and videos which were strictly censored by the authorities. In May 1996, after speaking out against censorship to a foreign journalist, he was banned from performing his work altogether, and stripped of his freedom to write and publish. He continues to defy the authorities, spreading his jokes by word of mouth. 
Honorary Member: English Pen