MYANMAR
ANDREW NACHEMSON and LUN MIN MANGSunday, May 24, 2020
Ko Zayar Lwin (centre left, with white rose) attends a court in Yangon with other Peacock Generation members on October 30, 2019. (Nyein Su Wai Kyaw Soe | Frontier)
Some prominent activists who say they stand for human rights and democracy have propagated hatred for the Rohingya, a double-standard that international watchdog groups weren’t fully aware of.
Ko Zayar Lwin, 29, has become an icon in Myanmar’s activist community since his arrest in April 2019 for a Thangyat performance mocking the military. Zayar Lwin and four of his colleagues in the Peacock Generation troupe, who performed the traditional form of satirical theatre during the annual Thingyan festival, were charged with defamation and undermining the military, and face increasingly lengthy jail sentences. The plight of the young satirists has attracted international attention, even as the civilian government led by their idol State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has remained silent.