Rangoon poet Saw Wai, 50, was imprisoned for 28 months after mocking regime chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe with his poem “14th February,” which was published in Love Journal in 2008.
“After I had been in prison for seven months, I told the prison authorities that I wanted to open a library,” he told The Irrawaddy. “After I got permission, I managed to set up a library with about 1,000 books in Insein Prison hospital.” Some months later, he went on to found a similar library in Yamethin Prison in Mandalay Division. Now, he said, the prison libraries continue to receive donations of books, magazines and publications from private donors and organizations. But although prisoners are now permitted to read in their cells, some publications, especially those with political content, are strictly forbidden. “Most of the criminals who are assigned positions as librarians are not interested in politics anyway, so they tear the books up and use them as toilet paper,” U Javana added.
By law, prisoners should have the chance to read and write. They can read certain books and magazines, but they still don't have the right to sit an exam in prison.”
Of the more than 2,000 political prisoners in Burma, at least 42 are poets, writers, journalists, bloggers and musicians, according to the Association of Assistance for Political Prisoners—Burma.