Maung Saungkha | |
|---|---|
မောင်ဆောင်းခ | |
 Maung Saunghkha in 2018 | |
| Born | January 5, 1993 [1] |
| Occupation(s) | Army commander, poet, activist |
| Organization | Bamar People's Liberation Army |
Maung Saungkha, alternatively romanized as Maung Saung Kha, is a Burmese poet, human rights activist and chief commander of the Bamar People's Liberation Army. [2] [3]
From 2010 to 2012, Saungkha studied chemical engineering in university. [4]
At university, Saungkha founded a club called the Poetry Lovers’ Association. The club soon attracted the attention of military surveillance, and the members were refused the right to wear the club's symbol on their graduation caps. [4]
In 2016, he was sentenced to six months in prison for publishing "a poem about having a tattoo of [President Thein Sein] on his penis." [5]
In 2012, Maung Saungkha joined the National League for Democracy as a youth working group representative. [6]
On 15 January 2018 Maung Saungkha founded Athan ('voice'), an activist organisation to "promote freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Myanmar." In December 2018, this organisation received an award from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands for their contribution to "the promotion of freedom of expression in Myanmar." [7] He also resigned from the National League for Democracy citing disagreement with Aung San Suu Kyi about the government's actions on protecting the freedom of press and treatment of minorities. [6]
After the 2021 coup d'état, he became a leader of the nationwide protests. [8]
On 17 April 2022, he co-founded the Bamar People's Liberation Army, an ethnic armed organisation that strives for ethnic federalism in Myanmar, in which he serves as a commander. [9]
Sungkha has expressed support for federalism in Myanmar. He has also spoken against the Rohingya genocide. [4]
Myanmar operates de jure as a unitary assembly-independent presidential republic under its 2008 constitution. On 1 February 2021, Myanmar's military took over the government in a coup, causing ongoing anti-coup protests.
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