Myanmar Poets Square Off Against Junta's War on Words

BANGKOK, THAILAND - Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence.

Before he was killed, Khet Thi's poems railed eloquently against Myanmar's sudden coup, joining a deluge of protest verse celebrating democracy demonstrators and defying the military's brutal war on words. As soldiers unleashed a violent crackdown on resistance to the army takeover, he implored the public to stand firm against what he saw as an existential threat to the country's future. "We have to fight to win this battle," he wrote. "If we lose: North Korea. If we win: South Korea."