Rangoon Releases Comedian

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Rangoon Releases Comedian
March 27, 1994
Agence France Presse

Burma's best-known comedian, Zargana, has been released after four
years in prison as a political dissident, neighbours of his family
said yesterday.

Zargana, 33, who trained as a dentist but turned to comedy, gained
promience for his satirical jokes aimed at the former socialist
regime.

First arrested briefly as a political dissident late in 1988, he
went to jail for the second time in 1990 while helping his mother
in her campaign for the May general elections that year.

Neighbours who spoke to Zargana on Friday said he had been
delivered to his parant's home by military intelligence personnel
just before noon.

He was the latest political prisoner released by the military junta
knowns as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC),
which has set free more than 2,000 dissidents in the past two
years.