Mao Thawka; Imprisoned Burmese Poet

Mao Thawka, 64, a Burmese poet and speech writer serving a 20-year prison sentence for a poem critical of the military. Mao Thawka, whose real name was U Bathaw and who was a former navy captain, was arrested in 1989 after writing the poem. He also wrote speeches for Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s leading dissident, who has been under house arrest since July, 1988. Suu Kyi is head of the opposition National League for Democracy, which swept the May, 1989, elections in Burma. The ruling council has refused to turn over power to the league and has jailed most of its leaders. In Rangoon on June 12 of undisclosed causes.