RFA
Five popular comedians who fled Myanmar’s largest city Yangon to join an anti-coup militia said Thursday that they were compelled to take up arms because of the junta’s brutality and urged the public not to become complacent in its fight to regain power from the regime.
Toe Kyaw, Wyne Kyaw, Taing Kyaw, Pyi Kyaw, and Poe Lay recently gave up cracking jokes on stage in exchange for combat training in the Yoma jungles of Bago region. The five members of the Har Ngar Kaung (Five Ha-has) Comedy Group are the latest of several high-profile entertainers and artists to join a militia since the military ousted the country’s democratically elected civilian government in a Feb. 1 coup d’état.