Zarganar arrested again after helping cyclone victims

Burmese authorities have again arrested the country's most popular comedian, Zarganar (right), and seized cash that he and other human rights activists had raised for victims of last month's cyclone, writes Edward Loxton for The First Post. Local government officials, supported by special branch police, raided his Rangoon home late last night and took Zarganar away for "questioning", according to friends.

The anti-regime activist, popular throughout Burma for his clandestine satirical shows, recently returned from the latest of a series of relief missions he has been leading into the cyclone-devastated depths of the Irrawaddy delta. He and other well-known Burmese showbusiness figures organised more than 400 volunteers in the days after the cyclone struck and have been taking relief supplies and cash to communities who have seen no official help at all.

In an intensive search of his Rangoon home, officials confiscated more than £500 in cash along with video film material Zarganar had brought back from the delta region illustrating the plight of cyclone survivors. Zarganar is the target of repeated harassment and arrest: he was last taken into custody while handing out food and water to monks during September's demonstrations.

Meanwhile, Irrawaddy delta residents reacted with dismay today to the news that the United States is to withdraw the four warships that have been waiting with relief supplies in international waters off the Burmese coast. The Burmese regime rejected all appeals to allow the ships to offload the supplies in the delta, either by helicopter or landing craft. American officials had invited the regime to assign military personnel to ride in the helicopters or on the landing craft, but junta leader General Than Shwe turned down even that offer.

Several French ships that also joined the 'mercy fleet' gave up their mission last week and sailed to the Thai holiday island of Phuket, where they unloaded their relief supplies. A British warship, HMS Westminster, was also sent to the area, but its whereabouts were unknown today.

Rumours had coursed through the region that Than Shwe feared that the appearance of American, French or British military personnel in uniform would encourage local people to rise up in a popular rebellion, believing they had the support of the foreign servicemen and their governments.

The few foreign aid workers in the region report that a mood of rising anger against the regime is taking hold. "It wouldn't take much more to ignite the hatred," said one. Local people are particularly angry at attempts by the police to disrupt supplies of aid to communities which haven’t seen any official help.

"They're even grabbing children begging for food at the side of the road and giving them a sound thrashing," said one angry father. "I've been told to rebuild my home, my wife has to scavenge in the fields for what food she can find, and when we send our children out to look for help they're beaten to within an inch of their lives. Am I angry? I wish that monster Than Shwe were here to put that question."

FIRST POSTED JUNE 5, 2008