Speaking up for the voiceless

From the Book Festival's now annual Imprisoned Writers series to the Fringe's Stand Up for Freedom, Amnesty International's presence in Edinburgh seeks to highlight both the importance of freedom of expression and its fragility.

Peter Popham, foreign correspondent at The Independent and biographer of Aung San Suu Kyi—the iconic leader of Burma's National League for Democracy—has been an outspoken voice at this year's Book Festival. "It seems to me," he says, "that, alongside people who have been published and are to some extent known to the public, to have the works of people who have suffered indescribable abuse in prison and under vile regimes—to have their words spoken—seems very valuable. It's a way of reminding us that the power of expression is very easily silenced, very easily stamped on, and it's a right which is of huge importance and which Amnesty is always working to defend."

Popham does not have a professional association with Amnesty, but speaks of his great admiration for their work. "They have changed the climate of thinking about political issues over a very long period of time." Having witnessed the casual racism of people towards refugees in London, where he lives, he says "the resentment of asylum seekers easily becomes a habit of mind. I think events like this do help to remind us of the terrible conditions that a lot of people have to endure, and we have this among us too." 

He believes that figureheads such as Suu Kyi play a crucial role in raising awareness: she is known, he says, "for her great beauty, but the way her compatriots have suffered perhaps isn't appreciated, and her own commitment to democracy in Burma is very strongly linked to her awareness of Burmese suffering – not just over the last 20 years, but the last 50. Some people are tempted by the iconic celebrity, if you like – aspects of her and then are sucked into a greater awareness of what her life means to her and to her followers."

In Mandalay, on one of his many visits to Burma—he first visited in the early 1990s, returning in 2002 to interview Suu Kyi, who would become the subject of his book—Popham met a poet, "the sweetest man, such a gentle person," who had spent 12 years in jail simply because the authorities found a poem he had written in a private journal. "You know, it hadn't been published anywhere," Popham says, "but it had been regarded as being hostile to them. We walked down the main street in Mandalay together and I said 'Are you sure you should be seen with a foreigner?' and he said 'It's fine' – he was completely serene despite all the years he spent in prison. You meet people like that who have managed to survive the experience and who have managed to turn the experience of jail into something positive."  

Although this anecdote is shocking, for anyone who has been to any of the Imprisoned Writers events it will be nothing new. This, in a way, speaks of Amnesty's enduring influence on festival audiences. "It'd be good if Amnesty could persuade other festivals to do similar things," Popham says, although he acknowledges that, inevitably, "there's a certain amount of preaching to the converted – the people who pay attention are the people who agree already with what you're saying." Nonetheless, where better to appreciate the importance of free speech than a city teeming with performers and writers?