Zarganar Arrested, Cyclone Relief Money Seized

Burma’s best-known comedian, Zarganar, who threw his energies into helping victims of Cyclone Nargis, was arrested at his Rangoon home on Wednesday night, according to a close friend.

Zarganar (second left) hands over a cash donation to residents of a cyclone-hit community in the Irrawaddy delta. His team of volunteers also brought several sacks of rice to feed hungry survivors. (Photo: Moemaka)

Nine officials—the chief of the SPDC Sanchaung Township Ward, officers of the military affairs security department and members of the Special Bureau—took him into custody at about 10.30 p.m., the friend said, requesting anonymity.

The officials searched Zarganar’s home and seized his computer and about US $1,000 (1,140,000 Kyat) in cash, which he had collected in donations for cyclone survivors.

Zarganar’s friend said the search team also confiscated three CDs, one of which contained film footage of the devastation caused by the cyclone in the Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon Division.

The other CDs showed the opulent wedding of junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s youngest daughter Thandar Shwe and the “Rambo 4” movie, in which Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone battles Burmese government soldiers to rescue kidnapped westerners.

The authorities reportedly said Zarganar would be held for two or three days for questioning about the sources of the money he collected for cyclone victims.

Friends said he also faced prosecution for mocking an article in the state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar, which said cyclone survivors could exist on what they could scavenge in the countryside rather than on “chocolate bars” from western air groups.

Zarganar organized relief missions into the cyclone-hit areas and returned with personal accounts of the terrible hardship he had encountered there.

He recruited more than 400 volunteers and divided them into groups of helpers, who took aid to 42 villages, some of which had until then received no help at all after the cyclone.

He ignored official instructions not to talk to the foreign press, who valued him as a reliable source of information about the situation in the Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon Division.

In a recent interview with The Irrawaddy, Zarganar said the authorities had tried to interfere with his relief missions.

“At the beginning, we took risks, and we had to move forward on our own. Sometimes we had confrontations with the authorities,” he said. “For example, they asked us why we were going on our own without consulting them and wanted us to negotiate with them. They said they couldn't guarantee our lives.”

One of Zarganar’s supporters said: “The regime is trying to disrupt the aid process.” By arresting Zarganar, the authorities hoped to intimidate other helpers and donors, he said.