Military regime jails rapper

A Burmese pop star who commands a huge following among his country’s young people was today sentenced by a Rangoon court to six years imprisonment for his role in the anti-regime protest movement.

Zayar Thaw, co-founder of the hip-hop group ACID, became the latest opposition figure to appear before kangaroo courts presided over by military judges who harangue defendants in the style of Nazi show trial as they hand over sentences of up to 65 years.

Around 80 regime opponents - including several monks who led last September’s uprising - have appeared before the courts since they first went into session earlier this month. One monk was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. One defendant was sentenced in absentia while he recovered in a prison hospital from injuries sustained under interrogation.

Nobody is being spared in what many see as a ruthless attempt by Burma’s military regime to destroy all democratic opposition before the general election it is planning to hold in 2010.

Virtually every member of the country’s most effective opposition movement, the 88 Generation Students group, is now behind bars, including leader Min Ko Naing and the iconic former deputy of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi. Min Ko Naing and several other members of the group were sentenced to 65 years imprisonment — effectively a life sentence for men and women who are now in their late thirties and early forties.

Min Ko Naing’s close associate, known as Jimmy, and his wife Nilar Thein were also imprisoned for 65 years. Nilar Thein, who has an 18-month-old daughter, went into hiding after her husband’s arrest but was hunted down.

The young couple are being held in different prisons—part of a regime plan to separate the political prisoners, holding many in solitary confinement or in cells with common criminals. The condemned are also being transferred from holding cells in Rangoon to remote prisons scattered across Burma to make contact with families and friends difficult.

Two legal organizations - the Thailand-based Burmese Lawyers Council and the Global Justice Center in New York — are investigating the possibility of arraigning the Rangoon judges before the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity.

FIRST POSTED NOVEMBER 20, 2008