Me, I'm scared to go back. That's why I fled. But I believe he'll never leave. He wants to, but he never would. This is someone who could change the country.
They just came round, picked him up and threw him in prison. It's how they do it. But it wasn't a surprise. They don't like him because he does a very noble job. The people love him very much, and they hate the government. He's a very courageous person. He's been tortured every time he's been in prison — this is the fourth time.
I myself have spent four months in a military interrogation centre. I was blindfolded with my hands tied, put in a small room and hit by many people. Sometimes I became the football on a soccer field. And I couldn't do anything because I was tied up. Then there was being hung upside down from a ceiling. Water torture, too. And the standing up for many hours. Sometimes we would be told to kneel down on the floor, but the floor was made of pieces of glass. Then they'd tell you to crawl and shout and beat you. After all this you'd be left in an empty room with no food for seven days. It was the routine.
U Aung Din was arrested by the Burmese government in 1988 for student activism and spent four years in jail. He fled the country in 1995 but remains in contact with Zarganar. Read more Burmese comedian Zarganar paying a high price for straight talk