Myanmar; when a blog is your only weapon

US sanctions and ASEAN condemnations against the government of Myanmar are the only weak internatonal responses to a brutal regime that has victimized it’s population for half-a-century (Washington Times);

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, under increasing pressure from the West, ended its habitual silence on the situation in Burma yesterday, expressing “revulsion” at the ruling military junta”s killing of protesters and demanding an end to the violence.

The United States, meanwhile, imposed financial sanctions on 14 senior officials from the Burmese regime, freezing any assets they might have in U.S. banks and barring Americans from business dealings with them.

The Washington Post reports that the Burmese government is moving to shut down internet and cell phone trunklines out of the country;

Violence subsided markedly in Rangoon on Friday as armed troops sealed off key downtown streets in an attempt to halt the bloody rioting that has shaken Burma and generated broad condemnation of the military dictatorship that has ruled the country for nearly half a century.

Restrictions on Internet use imposed by the military’s State Peace and Development Council sharply reduced the flow of information. As a result, Thailand-based exile groups and outside observers had only a sketchy picture of what was going on in Rangoon, Burma’s main city, and the dozen other places where anti-government protesters led by Buddhist monks have mounted the strongest challenge to the junta since 1988.

They’re shutting off the internet because apparently, that’s the only way news, photos and videos are getting out of the country according to the Wall Street Journal;

In the age of YouTube, cellphone cameras and text messaging, technology is playing a critical role in helping news organizations and international groups follow Myanmar’s biggest protests in nearly two decades. Citizen witnesses are using cellphones and the Internet to beam out images of bloodied monks and street fires, subverting the Myanmar government’s effort to control media coverage and present a sanitized version of the uprising.

The Washington Times explains why “citizen journalists” are so intregral in this latest protest against the government;

Burma, formally known as Myanmar, is largely closed to Western journalists, who are predominantly covering the crisis from outside the isolated country. But bloggers living in the commercial port of Rangoon, where Buddhist monks, pro-democracy activists and residents have been defying security forces, are recording the events in Burmese and flawed English.

The bloggers rely on word-of-mouth, cell phones, online chat groups, instant messaging and firsthand experience in barricaded streets amid tear gas and gunfire.

The best blogs provide photos, video and text updates purportedly by eyewitnesses, which are later confirmed by news organizations or, in some cases, can’t be verified. 

The Wall Street Journal story tells why these reports from citizens inside Burma are so important;

Who produced these reports — or how the information got out of Myanmar — hasn’t been established. But that’s the point in a country where people caught protesting or writing against the government risk years in prison.

The last time there was a protest of this scale in Myanmar was 1988, when a pro-democracy uprising was crushed by the military and more than 3,000 people died. First reports of that event came from diplomats and official media. “Technology has changed everything,” says Aung Zaw, a Myanmar exile whose Thailand publication Irrawaddy has been covering events in Burma hour-by-hour, with reports gathered online. “Now in a split second, you have the story,” says the editor.

According to the AP, on Thursday Myanmar’s state-run newspaper blamed the protests in Yangon, formerly called Rangoon, on “saboteurs inside and outside the nation.” It also said that the demonstrations were much smaller than foreign media were reporting.

The government can’t tell the world that there’s nothing to see here, because the photos and videos tell a different story. As illstrated in this portion of the Post story;

Soldiers opened fire at several places around the city Thursday, killing nine people and injuring 31 according to an account read on official Burmese television. But exile groups said they had received information overnight that the toll was considerably higher, perhaps in the dozens. Bob Davis, the Australian ambassador, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio that he believed the number dead was several times the official count.

The media has, in the past, been forced to report only what they were fed by the government, now they have other alternatives where nearly every person can send proof out of the country. The Associated Press reports that crackdowns continue today;

Soldiers in Myanmar cracked down on dissenters Friday by swiftly breaking up street gatherings of die-hard activists, occupying key Buddhist monasteries and cutting public Internet access.

By sealing Buddhist monasteries, the government seemed intent on clearing the streets of monks, who have spearheaded the demonstrations and are revered by most of their Myanmar countrymen. This could embolden troops to lash out harder on remaining protesters.

Daily demonstrations drawing tens of thousands of people demanding an end to 45 years of military dictatorship have grown into the stiffest challenge to the ruling junta in decades. The crisis began Aug. 19 with rallies against a fuel price hike, then escalated dramatically when monks joined in.

PDNPulse has the video that’s been running on the Japanese news of the shooting of Kenji Nagai, the Japanese journalist the Myanmar government claims was shot accidentally yeasterday. However from the video it appears he was shot intentionally and at point blank range. Bill Toddler at Pajamas Media tells the story of the world’s amazement at “Monks and Bloggers“

From Burmanet News, the news for today;

Rangoon; Afternoon—Trucks loaded with troops raided the offices of Burma’s main Internet service provider, Myanmar Info-Tech, located at Rangoon University (Hlaing campus) around noon on Friday in an effort to cut all public access to the internet. The move is in response to the flood of photographs, videos, news reports and e-mail sent out of the country to the international media and the rest of the world by average citizens.

Downtown Rangoon; Afternoon—At least two people were hit by gunfire when military troops opened fire on demonstrators on Friday afternoon in Kyauktada Township in central Rangoon, according to a witness, who said she narrowly escaped by hiding under a vehicle. She said the demonstrators were boxed in between Anawrahta Road and Maha Bandoola Road. Dozens of protesters were arrested, bound and beaten. The troops pursued fleeing people into buildings, she said, singling out people with cameras. If they were arrested, the troops beat them while shouting, “Is it you who sends those pictures out?”

Category: Foreign Policy, Society