(SEAPA/IFEX) – An officer with the Burmese army’s aviation unit was fired by the Burmese military junta for writing satirical articles about the military’s recent relocation and the National Convention in a local weekly journal, “Yangon Times”. A Burmese on-line news publication, Mizzima.com (http://www.mizzima.com), reported on 3 January 2006 that the sacked officer, identified only […]
(SEAPA/IFEX) – An officer with the Burmese army’s aviation unit was fired by the Burmese military junta for writing satirical articles about the military’s recent relocation and the National Convention in a local weekly journal, “Yangon Times”.
A Burmese on-line news publication, Mizzima.com (http://www.mizzima.com), reported on 3 January 2006 that the sacked officer, identified only as Major Wunna, was chief of the military’s aviation maintenance department and a columnist under the pseudonym “Mar j”.
He was fired after the two satirical articles entitled, “The Tiger Which Wishes to Die Shifts to Another Forest” and “Angels Convention”, which were earlier banned by the government censors, appeared in the November issue of the “Yangon Times”, Mizzima.com’s sources in Rangoon’s literary circles revealed.
The military believed the first article was taking a swipe at the military’s recent relocation to the remote Pyinmana province as part of the government’s plan to turn the jungles into an administrative center.
The second article was thought to be targeting the National Convention, which was reconvened by the junta in December 2005 to draft the Constitution. The convention has been criticised by the international community and exiled Burmese opponents as lacking legitimacy as it provided neither a credible political process leading toward more representative government nor a means for a genuine national reconciliation. It started in 1993 and has been boycotted by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) since 1995.
According to reports from Mizzima News, Major Wunna was sacked a week after the articles were banned, with authorities telling the “Yangon Times” they had already warned him.
In a statement sent to Mizzima News, May Nyein, a well-known writer and former university lecturer who fled to the Thai-Burma border in March 2004, said the move by the military showed that writers were not safe in Burma.
“In Burma, censors are a terrible nuisance for writers. Previously they simply tore out the unwanted articles and warned the writers. Now they fire the writers from their posts . . . If it can happen to a military major, they will imprison other ordinary writers,” May Nyein said in her statement.
“Mar j” who started writing in 1995 and became popular in late 2000, was already considered an influential writer and was a high-ranking officer in the military, according to Mizzima.com.
