IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, May 11, 2009
BANGKOK – The two of us were detained in Mandalay on the evening of Wednesday, May 6, and
deported to Bangkok the following night. The arrest came within hours after we had finished a series of
feature writing and photography workshops, organized by the American Center in Yangon and
approved by the country’s Scrutiny Board (censors).
All of the 20+ government authorities we encountered during the ordeal said they were acting on orders
from Naypyidaw. They did not give a reason for the arrest. Many said they did not know why we were
arrested. They asked us nothing, told us nothing, searched nothing, took nothing. We were not
mistreated or manhandled.
We were arrested at our hotel after dinner on May 6. Immigration authorities came to the hotel lobby
and ordered us to pack for an evening train to Yangon. They said they had received the arrest order
from Naypyidaw half an hour after our last class and lecture had ended.
We spent the following 16 hours under the escort of two officials who shared our cabin. When we
arrived in Yangon, we were taken to the airport, then Immigration offices downtown, then back to the
airport for several hours before an evening flight to Bangkok.
We had been in Burma to teach and lecture about creative nonfiction feature writing and photography.
The programs were follow-ups to similar work we did in January, all of which had been approved and
acknowledged by the Scrutiny Board and the Special Branch (police). In fact, Special Branch officers
briefly visited Jerry on the first day of his class in Yangon, on April 27. All of our classes and lectures
proceeded without incident or further visits from the authorities.
We have no idea why we were arrested, though we have since heard many rumors. Perhaps it was
fallout after another American – whom we do not know nor have any connection to – allegedly swam
across a lake to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon. We have heard people say we are CIA agents
in disguise as teachers – that is not true. We have heard people say we met with monks in monasteries
and other politically sensitive sources – that is not true. We have heard rumors that we met with the
Moustache Brothers comedy troupe in Mandalay – that is not true. In fact, we met very few people
outside of the classroom, mostly because we wanted to avoid any run-ins with the government for just
this reason.
Other rumors allege that we were working on sensitive stories. That is not true. The only story we had
in mind was a small piece on laphet thote, (pickled tea leaf salad) explaining the flavors, history and
cultural significance of the dish. This would have run on the food page of a travel magazine. In
Mandalay, a colleague introduced us to the owner of a longstanding laphet thote business. That man
invited us to see his place, which we did. He then invited us to visit a trade center where people buy
and sell beans and pulses, key ingredients for laphet thote. He was very excited about the invitation; we
thought little of it. We accepted and planned to meet on Thursday morning, – but we never had that
chance. This might be all, or part, of the reason we were deported.
What happened to us does not compare to what happens to Burmese who run afoul of their own
government. We were spooked, and the train trip was uncomfortable and unnecessary (we already had
plane tickets back to Yangon that could have been switched to Thursday morning). But we were fairly
certain we were not going to jail for years – or decades.
We are heartbroken to think we might not be able to return to Burma. But that is trivial to how we
worry about the safety of the people who helped us on these trips. We worked hard to avoid
government scrutiny, or any “journalistic” appearance. In the end, we cannot say why we were arrested.
That mystery rests with the Burmese government.
Jerry Redfern
Karen Coates
Bangkok
May 11, 2009
theramblingspoon@gmail.com
redcoates@hotmail.com