![]() ![]() If a biological sketch is about you, then the same rule applies. When written about someone else’s life, the sketch must explain who the person is and highlight their achievements. It can be written about your own life or someone else’s. About 20,000 opponents are still locked up. A biographical sketch is supposed to paint the abbreviated picture of an individual’s life. On the occasion of a Buddhist festival on May 3, the junta announced the release of 2,000 prisoners incarcerated for dissent. Today, Phoe's drawings form a rare and valuable testimony, a chronicle of the arduous prison conditions endured by those who have defied the Myanmarese junta. ![]() The many fragile and forbidden drawings echo the scenes of what forced him to flee his country in the spring of 2022. LUCIEN LUNG / RIVA PRESS FOR « M LE MAGAZINE DU MONDE » Burmese artist Maung Phoe at home in the outskirts of Mae Sot, Thailand, where he took refuge after being locked up in Insein prison, Burma, from April to October 2021. Portraits and everyday scenes sketched on the smallest pieces of paper – a coffee packet or an instant noodle wrapper, a piece of cardboard, or the back of the prison administration's draft report. Inside were the drawings, notes and tiny sketches drawn in blue ballpoint pen, which he made in secret during his detention. Sitting on the floor upstairs in the only empty room in their house, Phoe slowly turned the plastic sleeves of the green binder in which he keeps the treasures he snuck out of his cell. Arrested and accused by the junta of carrying out revolutionary political activities, the 50-year-old and his wife spent six months in the dreaded Insein prison in Yangon. They live today in anonymity, far from the civil war in Myanmar, torn apart since the military coup that swept over the country a little over two years ago. It was here, in a wooden house on stilts nestled behind a few coconut trees, that self-taught artist Maung Phoe – his painter's name – his wife, Zar, and their 16-year-old son found a bit of respite. Stray dogs were asleep in the street, overcome by the heat and undisturbed by the backfiring mopeds that zigzagged along the asphalt road that crosses the district. It was a sunny day on the outskirts of Mae Sot, Thailand, a few miles from the Myanmar border. Below are the priceless drawings that he managed to sneak out despite the risks. Long ReadArrested and incarcerated in the harsh Insein prison north of Yangon when the Myanmarese junta returned to power in 2021, Maung Phoe secretly sketched his fellow prisoners. The drawings that escaped a Yangon prison By Lucien Lung Published on June 16, 2023, at 5:30 pm (Paris), updated on June 16, 2023, at 8:35 pm ![]()
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