Beloved Myanmar comedian Par Par Lay was among 32 people freed from jail earlier this week after being arrested in late September's crackdown on anti-government protests, a spokesman for the National League of Democracy (NLD) party said Thursday.
Par Par Lay, the most outspoken of the banned comic trio the "Moustache Brothers," which is famous for its biting parodies of the ruling junta, was seized on September 25. He was arrested for joining 30,000 monks who took to the streets of Mandalay, at the same time that monks in Yangon led 100,000 people in the largest anti-government protests to hit Myanmar in 20 years.
At least 13 people were killed and officially about 3,000 detained when the junta violently suppressed the demonstrations, although the real numbers are thought to be higher.
After more than a month in Mandalay's Ohbo prison, Par Par Lay, known as Moustache Brother Number One, was released Tuesday along with 31 other NLD members, party spokesman Nyan Win told AFP. About 100 party members arrested in the crackdown remain in jails across the country, Nyan Win said.
"I hope they will be released soon," he added. The Moustache Brothers had been banned from performing for the last six years, but they persevered, performing mainly for tourists. Par Pay Lay mocked the ban by parading under a "Most Wanted" sign during his shows.
He has been imprisoned twice before - first for six months in 1990, and then again in 1996 when he and Moustache Brother Number Three, Lu Zaw, were locked up for nearly six years. Their offence then was telling anti-government jokes at a rally held at democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house to mark independence day in January 1996.
Nearly 120 people picked up in the government sweeps have been freed during the last week, but hundreds more remain behind bars, diplomats in Yangon say. These continued detentions are likely to be high on the agenda of talks between junta officials and UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who is scheduled to arrive in Myanmar on Saturday for his second visit since the unrest broke out.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.