Bloggers in Burma keep world informed during military crackdown

(09-28) 04:00 PDT Bangkok -- Dodging a deadly military crackdown that has killed at least nine protesters, Burmese bloggers are on the front lines, providing news and photos of death and insurrection.

Their Internet blogs, written in Burmese and grammatically flawed English, are posted mostly by residents of Rangoon, the commercial port also known as Yangon, where Buddhist monks, pro-democracy activists and residents have been defying security forces for more than a week.
The bloggers rely on word-of-mouth, cell phones, online chat groups, instant messaging, and firsthand accounts of protesters facing barricaded streets, tear gas and gunfire from Burmese security forces. 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 nation's military regime has refused to grant visas to foreign correspondents, and has even blocked visa requests for many foreign tourists after the mass uprising worsened this week.

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Burmese and foreign bloggers in Rangoon, Mandalay, the nation's second-largest city, and elsewhere have risked their lives to document the pro-democracy demonstrations, which began over a fuel price hike in August.

One poignant blog, by a young Burmese woman who identifies herself as Dawn, appears at www.xanga.com/dawn_1o9.

"Around 1:20 or 1:30 p.m., I heard someone saying that the police/army started shooting in the air," Dawn wrote, describing Rangoon on Wednesday.

"At 2:00 p.m., I heard that buses have stopped running on Sule Pagoda Road. Someone from the office went out there, and came running back when there were shots being fired.

"I heard the gun shots too, but it sounded a lot like clapping. So I went out to look.

"I was reading the news on a blogger's Cbox, and it said that at least 5 monks were dead at Shwedagon Pagoda. My sis had already called home and told my brother not to go to work. I called home too, and also to my father. He told me to stay at work and not to go out."

International media reports said at least one person died when security forces attacked protesters Wednesday, though some reports said as many as five people may have been killed that day.

"I'll let you know when I've been shot," Dawn continued. "I'll ask someone before I die to blog about it. If it was an instant death, I'll come to my sister in my dream and tell her to blog about it, or I won't rest in peace."

Another popular blogger created a collection of vivid text and photos at ko-htike.blogspot.com and noted that "now the regime open fire into these group, and used fire engine to sweep the blood on the street."

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The Burmese government apparently cut internet access today in an attempt to staunch the flow of pictures and messages from protesters reaching the outside world.

An official told the Agence France-Presse news agency that the internet "is not working because the underwater cable is damaged".

In Bangkok, in neighbouring Thailand, an official at a telecommunications firm that provides satellite services to Burma said some internet service inside the country had been cut.

The London-based blogger Ko Htike said: "I sadly announce that the Burmese military junta has cut off the internet connection throughout the country. I therefore would not be able to feed in pictures of the brutality by the brutal Burmese military junta."

Mr Htike said he would try his best to feed the Burmese junta's "demonic appetite of fear and paranoia by posting any pictures that I receive though other means ... I will continue to live with the motto that 'if there is a will there is a way'."

The US criticised the junta's move, with the White House spokesman, Scott Stanzel, saying: "They don't want the world to see what is going on there."

Only 1% of the population in Burma has internet access, but protesters have managed to send out videos, photographs and messages to keep the outside world abreast of the dramatic events unfolding in Burma for the past week.

Many images have been picked up by mainstream news organisations, because protesters have captured pictures that no one else has been able to, helping to fuel public outrage at the government's crackdown.


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