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AP: U.S. Actors: Free Burma Comedia (r)



Subject: RE: AP: U.S. Actors: Free Burma Comedian 04/09/97

So Was he released?

At 01:43 PM 4/9/97, you wrote:
>Subject: AP: U.S. Actors: Free Burma Comedian 04/09/97
>
>U.S. Actors: Free Burma Comedian
>
>Wednesday, April 9, 1997 5:25 am EDT
>
>BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows, Carl Reiner and
seven other prominent American entertainers have appealed to Burma's
military government to free a Burmese comedian imprisoned for mocking the
regime.
>
>In a letter to Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, the head of military intelligence, the
entertainers asked for the release of Par Par Lay, whose health they say
has deteriorated.
>
>Par Par Lay was part of a musical troupe that performed Jan. 4, 1996, at
the Rangoon home of Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize
for her nonviolent campaign for democracy.
>
>A contraband videotape of the performance, widely circulated in Burma,
shows him satirizing the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council. He
was sentenced to seven years' hard labor for ``spreading false news.''
>
>The letter, dated March 15 and made public today by the U.S.-based Human
Rights Watch/Asia, also was signed by Ted Danson, Mike Farrell, Mary
Steenburgen, Paul Reiser, Bill Maher, Paul Rodriguez and Larry Gelbart.
>
>The signatories said they wanted ``to personally express our concerns and
urge you to take immediate action and unconditionally release from
detention one of our colleagues, the esteemed comedian Par Par Lay.''
>
>Human Rights Watch/Asia said Par Par Lay fell seriously ill while wearing
an iron shackle that makes sleep impossible and carrying a heavy hourly
quota of crushed rocks used to build a new airport.
>
>? Copyright 1997 The Associated Press
>
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