Saw Wai ( my, စောဝေ, ), also known as U Saw Wai,"Activists championed by rights groups have history of anti-Rohingya messaging,"
May 24, 2020, '' Frontier Myanmar,'' retrieved June 1, 2020 is a Burmese poet, performance artist, and political activist."Writers at Risk: Saw Wai - Myanmar,"

PEN America PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922 and headquartered in New York City, is a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States and worldwide through the advancement of liter ...

His poems and remarks criticizing the Myanmar military have resulted in his imprisonment, but have also led to international attention and support.

History

Saw Wai began writing poetry at 14 years of age."Photo story: 'I only have my poetry as my weapon. I will not surrender,'"
April 13, 2020, Amnesty International, retrieved June 1, 2020 In 1988, he was fired from his job at the government communication office for taking part in the

8888 Uprising The 8888 Uprising ( my, ၈၈၈၈ အရေးအခင်း), also known as the People Power UprisingYawnghwe (1995), pp. 170 and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma (present-day Myanmar) th ...

. Until the time of his 2008 arrest, he headed White Rainbow, a group of artists and writers working to raise money for AIDS orphans. On 22 January 2008, Saw Wai was arrested by Burmese authorities for publishing a poem that secretly criticized

Than Shwe Than Shwe ( my, သန်းရွှေ, ; born 2 February 1933 or 3 May 1935) is a Burmese strongman politician who was the head of state of Myanmar from 1992 to 2011 as Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). During thi ...

, the head of Burma's ruling

military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...

. The poem, titled "February the Fourteenth" was published in the Rangoon-based ''Achit Journal'' (Love Journal). If the first letters of each line of the poem were put together, they read "Power Crazy Than Shwe" in Burmese. On 28 January 2008, Saw Wai's wife, Nan San San Aye tried to see her husband in

Insein Prison Insein Prison ( my, အင်းစိန်ထောင်) is located in Yangon Division, near Yangon (Rangoon), the old capital of Myanmar (formerly Burma). From 1988 to 2011 it was run by the military junta of Myanmar, named the State Law an ...

, but was denied access. On November 11, 2008, Saw Wai was sentenced to 2 years

imprisonment Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is "false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessari ...

for "inducing crime against public tranquility" in publishing the poem mocking Than Shwe."Myanmar blogger jailed for 20 years,"
November 11, 2008, CNN retrieved June 1, 2020 On May 26, 2010, Saw Wai was released from prisonIrrawaddy: Jailed poet released – Ba Kaung
/ref>—five months after completing his two-year sentence. In 2013, when Myanmar Center was established, Saw Wai was one of the founding members. He was elected to the board at by-election in 2014, acting as a secretary until 2016. In 2018, during the height of the

Rohingya genocide The Rohingya genocide is a series of ongoing persecutions and killings of the Muslim Rohingya people by the Burmese military. The genocide has consisted of two phases to date: the first was a military crackdown that occurred from October 2016 ...

(violent atrocities against the

Rohingya The Rohingya people () are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar (previously known as Burma). Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, a ...

, western Myanmar's mainly Muslim ethnic minority), Saw Wai published an opinion that defended the government's hostile treatment of the Rohingya, urging people to "please stop blaming the military" for the conflict, blaming the Rohingya and questioning the existence of any evidence that Myanmar's military, the

Tatmadaw Tatmadaw (, , ) is the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include t ...

, had killed thousands of Muslims.Saw Wai, opinion essay
"An open letter to U2’s Bono and others,"
May 3, 2018, ''

Myanmar Times ''The Myanmar Times'' ( ), founded in 2000, is the oldest privately owned and operated English-language newspaper in Myanmar. A division of Myanmar Consolidated Media Co., Ltd. (MCM), ''The Myanmar Times'' published weekly English and Burmese-lan ...

,'' retrieved June 1, 2020 In April 2019, at a public rally, Saw Wai read a poem encouraging that amendments be made to Myanmar's Constitution, to limit the military's role in politics. In October, 2019, in response to his comments, a complaint was filed against him by the Myanmar military, in

Kawthaung Township Kawthaung Township ( my, ကော့သောင်းမြို့နယ်; th, เกาะสอง, ; meaning ''Second Island'' or ''Twice Island'') is a township of Kawthaung District in the Taninthayi Division of Myanmar. The principal ...

Court, alleging defamatory statements. As of late May, 2020, he was still facing trial for incitement—his case drawing international attention, including the headline of an Amnesty International photo essay about political prisoners."Writers at Risk: Saw Wai"
(summary update)

References

External links

"Power Crazy Senior General Than Shwe"
- A chapbook anthology of poems published February 9, 2008, in response to Saw Wai's jailing. {{DEFAULTSORT:Saw Wai Burmese writers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people