The founder of the Rangoon-based Free Funeral Services Society (FFSS) has defied an order to appear before a court to answer a charge that the FFSS is continuing to operate its clinic despite an official order to close.

Kyaw Thu, who founded the FFSS in 2001, was ordered by Rangoon’s North Dagon Township City Development Committee (Municipal) to appear on Thursday before a court in South Dagon Township.

Kyaw Thu, well-known actor and founder of Myanmar Funeral Service Society, with his hearse. (Photo: FFSS)

Kyaw Thu told The Irrawaddy on Friday that he had deliberately failed to appear.

“If they put me in prison, I’ll just go,” he said. 

The FFSS’s free clinic reopened in July after being ordered in February to relocate from Thingangyun Township to North Dagon Township on the outskirts of Rangoon. It treats 200 patients daily.

“The authorities told us not to open the clinic without full permission,” said Kyaw Thu. “But, if we stop our work, all our patients are going to suffer. We can’t stop our work.”

Kyaw Thu said that North Dagon Township City Development Committee (Municipal) had delayed permission for the clinic to open because it wanted the FFSS to dig a drainage canal in front of the premises.

The FFSS clinic opened in 2007 and offers free treatment, including maternity and post-natal care and pediatrics.

The FFSS is a nongovernmental, nonpolitical organization that relies on donations from inside and outside Burma. Most donations come from Burmese living in Japan, Taiwan, England and the United States.

The popularity and influence enjoyed by the FFSS is giving the regime cause for concern, according to Rangoon sources.

In September 2007, Kyaw Thu and his wife were arrested for publicly supporting the protesting monks. Media coverage of the FFSS was banned by the military government.

The junta has increasingly targeted Burma-based civil society organizations following the 2007 demonstrations.

Seven members of Rangoon civil society organizations helping relief efforts in cyclone-devastated areas of the Irrawaddy delta were recently arrested, according to Rangoon sources.