The family of Burmese poet Khet Thi said on Sunday that Khet Thi died after only one night in military custody and that his organs had been removed after his body was returned.
According to Reuters, Khet Thi’s wife Chaw Su said she and her husband were both arrested by military police in Shwebo, Sagaing Region, on Saturday and taken to an interrogation center for questioning, but Chaw Su left first, never expecting to be separated from her husband. She said, “They called me in the morning and told me to go to the hospital to see him. I thought he had a broken hand or something, but when I arrived at the hospital, I had to go to the morgue to find him, and his organs had been removed.”
Zhaosu said she was told at the hospital that Kensi had a heart problem, but she believed that was not true, so she also did not go to the death certificate issued by the hospital. Zhaosu noted that originally the military was going to carry Kensi’s body directly to the burial site, but she pleaded with the military to get her husband’s body back. As for why her husband’s organs were removed, Zhaosu did not give a specific reason.
Kenshi, the third poet to die in the demonstrations since the military’s coup, was an engineer who quit his job in 2012 to focus on his creative work and make ends meet by selling desserts such as ice cream and cakes. Kensy had written two weeks after the coup: “I don’t want to be a hero, I don’t want to be a martyr, I don’t want to be weak, I don’t want to be a fool, I don’t want to support injustice. If I have only one minute to live, then I want my conscience to remain clean at that moment.”
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