Write a letter to the authorities in Myanmar, urging them to release Saw Wei, who has been imprisoned in violation of his right to freedom of expression.

[Date]

Senior General Than Shwe
Chairman, State Peace and Development Council
c/o Ministry of Defense
Naypyitaw
Union of Myanmar

Your Excellency:

I am writing to express my serious concern over the imprisonment of poet and performance artist Saw Wei.

I understand that Saw Wei was arrested on January 2, 2008, after his poem “February the Fourteenth,” an eight-line verse about Valentine’s Day, was published in the Rangoon-based weekly magazine Love Journal. An acrostic poem, when the first letters of each line are put together, they read “General Than Shwe is crazy with power” in Burmese. On November 10, 2008, Saw Wei was sentenced to a two-year prison term for “inducing crime against public tranquility.”

I believe Saw Wei’s imprisonment and the charges against him violate Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of expression, and I therefore respectfully request his immediate and unconditional release.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

Sincerely,

[Your Name and Signature]


CC: His Excellency U Myint Lwin
Chargé d’Affaires
Embassy of the Union of Myanmar to the United States
2300 S St. NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: (202) 332-4351

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