Khet Thi

Before the coup, Khet Thi was a man of artistic and refined tastes, having quit his job in civil engineering to open a cake and ice cream shop in the town of Shwebo in 2012. He used the shop to support his career in poetry, which bloomed with verses all about “love and life,” according to his friend Nyein Chan. While Khet Thi had participated in protest movements before, such as in the Saffron Revolution, he truly came into prominence following the police murder of K Za Win - a fellow poet and Khet Thi’s close friend. During the funeral service of K Za Win, Khet Thi read what would come to be his most famous poem. Titled “Shin Than Chin Shindan,” the poem was not only a celebration of K Za Win, but it was also an urging of hope to the despondent people, stating “they shoot in the head, but they don’t know that the revolution is in the heart.” 

Khet Thi’s poem would go viral on social media, giving him a significant online presence that posed a potential threat to the military regime. This was amplified by the fact that Khet Thi was physically established in the central town of Shwebo, located in the Sagaing region - a locus of protest and resistance against the military coup and regime. And yet, despite this danger, Khet Thi only grew more and more determined and stalwart in his resistance as time went on, expressing frustrations through his poems, stating “my people are being shot and I can only throw back poems… but when you are sure your voice is not enough, then you need to choose a gun carefully. I will shoot.”

On May 8, 2021, both Khet Thi and his wife were taken in for “interrogation” by local police officers and soldiers. While his wife was ultimately released, Khet Thi was tortured, mutilated, and ultimately beaten to death at the age of 45, making him the 780th civilian victim of the Burmese military regime since the coup. While the army initially planned on burying his corpse, Khet Thi’s wife begged for the return of his body - which ended up being given to her with its organs removed, a common intimidation tactic utilized by the regime against celebrities and other well-known figures like Khet Thi. 

Khet Thi’s funeral was held on May 10, an event attended by thousands of protestors who came to pay their respects to him. A month later, protestors held a “black movement” to commemorate the poet’s life and death, reciting poems and praying for fallen martyrs like Khet Thi and others.