Dodging the Myanmar junta via the web
Posted: Thursday, September 27, 2007 8:28 AM
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Bangkok, Thailand
By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent
BANGKOK, Thailand –
Here's a paradox: Myanmar's ruling generals are trying very hard to keep us, professional journalists, out of the country, yet news and images of the pro-democracy protests and the bloody crackdown are firmly in the global spotlight.
That's thanks largely to two factors: a large and active exile community on the outside, together with cyber dissidents inside the country with access to technology that wasn't available the last time they rose up against the generals.
In the YouTube era, it' has revolutionized the way the story is being covered.
Citizen journalism
In 1988, when the military last crushed an uprising, at least 3,000 people were killed. But that was the pre-Internet age, and most of the repression took place away from the world's view. In those days Burma, the name of the country before it was officially changed by the military regime to Myanmar in 1989, was effectively sealed from the world.
(The United Nations recognizes the name Myanmar, but others nations, including Britain and the United States, continue to use the name Burma, as do many dissidents, under the rationale that the ruling junta has no democratic mandate.)
The rulers are no longer able to avoid the world’s gaze. This time around, the Internet, mobile phones and digital cameras have proved powerful weapons in the hands of ordinary people witnessing the events.
International television news channels are actively soliciting material from citizen journalists.
Some of the most powerful images and eyewitness reports have been posted on the Web. Check out Mizzima.com, Irrawaddy, The Democratic Voice of Burma, or The Bloggers from Burma.
‘Little Myanmar’ in Thailand
Many of these are run by one of the big, well-organized and active group of exiles from Myanmar, many living in Thailand, and in touch with their friends and other activists still on the inside.
There are also 150,000 refugees in a string of camps near the Thai-Burma border, and some two million migrant workers, many illegal, escaping the poverty of Myanmar.
Among those living in Thailand are hundreds of former student activists and political dissidents who have been campaigning in exile for democratic change in Myanmar. Thailand saw the influx of about 20,000 Burmese students in 1988, after the last uprising was bloodily suppressed.
There are at least 10 major groups of student activist in exile, many based along the border. Mae Sot has become a sort of "little Myanmar," and recently inspired Australian journalist Phil Thornton to write a book he called "Restless Souls. Rebels, Refugees, Medics And Misfits On The Thai-Burma border." He described it as one of the wildest places in Asia.
There are at least 18 Burmese and ethnic Burmese media in exile in Thailand, including the Democratic Voice of Burma, which beams television programs into Myanmar, where there has been an explosion in the ownership of satellite dishes, most smuggled from China.
In addition, there are some 200 Internet cafes in Yangon and most have continued to operate, enabling students to transmit pictures and video clips taken on mobile phones and digital cameras.
None of this will guarantee the success of the uprising, but it will ensure the actions of the generals can no longer be hidden from the world.
