Do you have a plan to make a foreign visit ? Your entire family is abroad; do you have a plan to visit them ? Zarganar. I don’t have a passport. Every time I applied for a passport to the previous government, it was turned down. So I don’t have a passport. I must a have passport for a foreign visit. So I will apply for a passport. Meeting with my family is my second priority. My first priority is to study for about 2-3 months. I have asked my writer friends living in foreign countries what I should study. For instance, I want to study subjects related to the media. This is my hobby. And then I want to study public relation subjects. My friends replied that I could study what I want for about 2-3 months in workshops and trainings. Another reason for this is to visit the countries that I have never been to. I want to attend training that will last only 2-3 months, not for a long time, which can benefit our country.
You were given a prison sentence based on charges of communicating with people in exile by using the Internet and e-mail. What’s your opinion on these Internet laws ? Zarganar. I must use this tool again. Even though I was given a prison term on these charges, I must use them again. This is an essential tool for communicating with my friends and people living in foreign countries. I must use them.
Now social media like Facebook are well developed. The domestic activists use these sites for dissemination of information about their activities. Do you have any plan to use these social network sites too ? Zarganar. I’ve just seen Facebook this morning so I need to learn more about it. I can’t say if I will use it or not as I haven’t studied it well. As for G-mail, I will have no difficulties because I used this e-mail all the time. And I saw the film “The Social Network" (about the founding of Facebook) in prison. After seeing this film, I’m very interested in this site, but I have not yet studied the pros and cons of it. So I cannot say yet definitely if I will use it. I went through this site and found some obscene, profane and gallows humour. Some people use profane language in attacking each other. So I realized that there were such things on this site too. But I have not yet studied it.
Does the government ban your artistic works ? Zarganar. They have banned my performances and artistic works since 2006 officially by sending a letter to me. They banned even my name from appearing in journals and media. They ordered me not to use my voice too. Now the news of my release appeared as front-page news in almost all journals with my picture. So I don’t know whether this ban is lifted now or not. I have not yet asked them. They have not yet informed me about this ban order so I don’t know yet about this matter. But I think my art will not be affected by their ban. My art will live forever with me until my death.