Valentine poem makes hidden swipe at Myanmar junta

AFP - Straits Time
January 24, 2008

YANGON - MILITARY censors in Myanmar have launched an investigation after a Valentine poem in a newspaper contained a hidden message criticising the nation's junta leader, officials at the paper said on Thursday.

The weekly Love Journal, a private paper seen as close to the information ministry, published the brief poem in its latest issue, under a picture of heart-shaped balloons reading 'I Love You.'

The Myanmar-language poem, titled 'February Fourteenth,' reads like a love letter, but the first character in each word spells 'Senior General Than Shwe is power crazy.'

Officials at the paper, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the military's censors had questioned the poet Saw Wai and top editors at the newspaper over the poem, which had apparently slipped past them.

Newspaper vendors said the poem had sparked a rush to buy the paper.

'Many people have been asking for the Love Journal. Normally we are left with many extra copies of the journal to return to the publishing house, but this time it was sold out,' one vendor said in downtown Yangon.

The poem follows a similar stunt in August, when a group of Danish street artists published an advertisement in the Myanmar Times weekly containing a hidden message calling Than Shwe a 'killer.'

Myanmar has been called a 'paradise for censors' by media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders. All newspapers must be reviewed by censors before going to press, while the airwaves are under complete military control.

Last week the Myanmar Times was ordered to suspend publication for a week for running a story in its Myanmar-language edition about a massive hike in fees for satellite TV licenses. --