Poet arrested....

Chiang Mai, Thailand – Burmese authorities on Tuesday arrested a veteran poet, Saw Wai, over a Valentines Day poem carried in the Rangoon-based Burmese weekly Love Journal, according to sources in the literary community.

Sources said Saw Wai was arrested and is being interrogated for publishing a poem in this week's issue of Love Journal. When the initial letters of the lines of his poem, entitled February Fourteen, are put together, the sentence "Power Crazy Than Shwe" is spelled in Burmese.

Myat Khaing, editor of the Journal, said he innocently allowed the poem to be published as he believed it was a romantic poem exalting Valentines Day, which falls on February fourteenth.

"I believed the poem was a romantic poem," said Myat Khaing, adding that he, as editor of the weekly, has had to file a petition to authorities.

Myat Khaing, however, declined to go into further details.

Sources said officials at the Burmese Press Scrutiny and Registration Board warned Myat Khaing not to repeat his mistake in the future and threatened that severe action would be taken if he did so.

Earlier, in July 2007, the Myanmar Times, a semi-official English-language weekly journal in Burma, ran an advertisement by a bogus tour agency carrying the hidden word, 'Killer Than Shwe'.

The Press Scrutiny and Registration Board, which strictly censors all publications in Burma, overlooked the embedded message and allowed the paper to carry the ad.

The Danish artist group Surrend later claimed responsibility for the ad, which appeared to be an invitation to Scandinavian tourists to visit Burma, but instead mocked the Burmese head of state.

Meanwhile, an online advertisement for shampoo, carrying hidden words critical of Senior General Than Shwe, is being circulated among Internet users.

Source: http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/News/2008/Jan/59-Jan-2008.html

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