Commentary

 Burma Information Blackout: The Media War

By Aung Zaw

The Irrawaddy, October 2, 2007

There was sharp contrast in The Irrawaddy newsroom between last week and this week.

Last week, reporters were busy, phone lines were jam-packed, we received endless phone calls from around the world and editors were hit by a tsunami of interview requests. Lunch was ordered in to the newsroom, and everyone continued to work.

As we chased news and reports of Buddhist monks and activists marching in Burma followed by indiscriminate gunfire and violent crackdowns, we also watched video images from BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera.

News traveled very fast, images arrived at our desks in seconds, and we were able to tell the world what was happening inside the country.

The images and still photographs were stunning, and the amount of airtime devoted to Burma by Al Jazeera, CNN and BBC was startling. My colleagues in Rangoon told me they loved watching Al Jazeera, claiming its Burma coverage was the best.

“I am installing a satellite dish to receive the Democratic Voice of Burma and Al Jazeera,” a former Burmese diplomat in Rangoon told me by telephone.
As soldiers opened fire on crowds on the street, the regime also fought an information war-to prevent the flow of news and images to the outside world. On Friday afternoon, as the crackdown intensified, military leaders cut the main Internet line and cell phone connections. The landline was still working.

I thought of the military’s successful four cuts operation against ethnic insurgents in the 1970s. They cut their food chain, their intelligence, their recruitment and their ammunition. The military succeeded in doing it, and the insurgents were defeated.

Now Rangoon was under siege, and the regime cut lines of information, recognizing they were vital to the pro-democracy movement and journalists who covered the events. People with cameras were singled out and chased down by soldiers and clubbed.

This week, the incoming news has slowed down, and images are in short supply, yet the violent crackdown continues. Burma news has slipped back, replaced by the Ukraine election, the South Korean president’s visit to the north and events in Iraq.

The regime also successfully kept a lid on information about the UN envoy’s visit as Ibrahim Gambari spent much of his time in Naypyidaw, the dusty new capital where the regime’s propaganda war machine churns out its bizarre version of events.

But the news we received from Rangoon was appalling. Pre-dawn raids on monasteries did not stop. My colleague in Rangoon told me, “Monks were hunted down by soldiers, and they are now in hiding,” some monasteries were deserted and civilians protected monks by providing them hideouts. Notorious Insein Prison and temporary detention centers were filled with monks and civilians.

Reports suggest that monks in detention centers continue to hold to the alms boycott, refusing to accept alms or food from regime supporters. Some reports say that monks went on a hunger strike.

We also learned this week about the tremendous hardships faced by average people and reporters in Rangoon.

One reporter told me by telephone, “We were constantly monitoredŠ our e-mails did not go anywhereŠ I still have so many pictures to send, and there are many untold stories on the ground.” He added, “But thanks for not cutting off this land line,” chuckled, and hung up the phone. I understood the “who” he thanked on the telephone.

Others are now afraid to speak via telephone. A colleague of mine immediately hung up when she heard my voice. She usually spoke to me whenever I called.

We often joked on the phone and teased “the wall is listening” because we felt her phone was heavily monitored. In some cases, our previous conversations were filled with codes and dry jokes, but I knew she was intimidated and threatened. But she was brave and courageous enough to speak.

Last week, the voices of the reporters and people whom we spoke to in Rangoon were filled with happiness as thousands marched in the streets. Then, suddenly, their voices were filled with anger and cries as troops fired into crowds. Reporters in my office were listening to the shooting from their telephones as our colleagues described the indiscriminate killings in Rangoon. They kept their recorders rolling, but I could see tears in their eyes and weeping.

But some brave Burmese in the country thought the week-long uprising was worth it.

In 1988, about 3,000 demonstrators were killed between March and September. Millions of Burmese took to the streets. But the international community, citizens around the world, and the media had only a dim idea where Burma was. In those days, people with a camera would be caught immediately, since they were suspected of being spies.

This time, Burma received the full attention of the international media, world leaders and people around the world. The media, the Internet, digital cameras, blogs, cell phones and e-mail invigorated the demonstrators who knew the world was watching, listening and reading about what they did and said.

Now, Burma is blacked out. How long can the regime afford to shut the country down?

But I think the fight continues between the Burmese journalists and citizen-reporters who want to remain connected to the world, and the generals who cut the line of communication to isolate Burma.

---

 Information on Dead, Arrested, Missing is Hard to Find

By Saw Yan Naing

The Irrawaddy, October 2, 2007

Family members of people who disappeared during the past 45-days since pro-democracy demonstrations began in Burma are wracked with worry about the fate of their loved ones. Are they dead, in prison or on-the-run?
Searching for answers is no easy task in Burma, where the junta tightly guards information and the basic rights that are taken for granted in most countries of the world are non-existent.

Getting even the most common information from authorities is oftentimes impossible.

For example, the official government figure for dead and injured demonstrators in Rangoon is 10 dead and 11 injured. No figure was given for cities outside of the former capital. No figure has been given for the number of arrests.

However, exile groups, opposition parties and others say the number of dead nationwide is probably between 140 to 200. People imprisoned during the course of the protests could exceed 2,000, say informed sources.

In Rangoon alone, it’s believed that as many as 1,000 monks are imprisoned in Insein Prison and its clear many hundreds of civilians were arrested.
But, embassies and other watch-dog groups are starting the difficult task of making some sense of the unknown.

“We do believe the death toll is higher than acknowledged by the government,” Shari Villarosa, the top US diplomat in Burma, told The Associated Press on Monday. “We are doing our best to get more precise, more detailed information, not only in terms of deaths but also arrests.”
Villarosa said her staff had visited up to 15 monasteries around Rangoon and every single one was empty. She put the number of arrested demonstrators-monks and civilians-in the thousands.

“I know the monks are not in their monasteries,” she said. “Where are they? How many are dead? How many are arrested?”

She said the true death toll may never be known in a Buddhist country where bodies are cremated.

“We’re not going to find graves like they did in Yugoslavia. We have seen few dead bodies. The bodies are removed promptly. We don’t know where they are being taken,” Villarosa said.

Finding missing relatives or friends in murky Burma is a daunting task, made even worse since the International Red Cross has been denied access to Burma’s prisons for most of 2007.

Rumors that the junta has secretly disposed of bodies on military facilities compound the families’ worse fears.

The sister of Kay Khine Zaw who went missing September 28 told The Irrawaddy, “We are worried about her very much. She disappeared five days ago. Her baby cries all the time. We don’t know how to get information about her.”

Her family said she was walking home from work at a hotel when she passed through an area where demonstrators had gathered. She was picked up by police, an eyewitness told family members.

A family member received a letter from a detainee who is at Kyaikkasan Stadium in eastern Rangoon said 11 bodies were sent to the Rangoon General Hospital and dozens of protesters are currently being detained. Many detainees were beaten and injured, he said. More people will die in the future if they do not receive medical treatment urgently, he said.

Two hundred monks in Myitkyina and Bamaw townships in Kachin State in northern Burma were arrested by the local authorities in a nighttime raid. Their condition and whereabouts are unknown.

The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma has put the death toll at 138, based on a list compiled by the 88 Student Generation, a pro-democracy group operating in Burma, said AP.

“This 138 figure is quite credible because it’s based on names of victims,” Aye Chan Naing, the chief editor. “I also think the figure is accurate because of the pictures coming from inside Burma. The way they were shooting into the crowds with machine guns means dozens of people could have died.”
The Democratic Voice of Burma estimates that about 6,000 demonstrators- including at least 1,400 monks from seven now-empty monasteries-are detained at makeshift locations in universities, old factories and a race track in Rangoon. There are already an estimated 1,100 political prisoners languishing in Burma’s jails.

Meanwhile, dozens of leaders and members of the National League for Democracy and various opposition groups, including veteran politicians and ethnic leaders, are being detained by authorities in unknown locations, and their conditions are unknown.

When the military government put down the countrywide protest in Burma in 1988, an estimated 3000 people were killed and many were secretly buried.

---

 UN Envoy Meets Top Generals amid More Arrests by Soldiers

By Wai Moe

The Irrawaddy, October 2, 2007

The UN’s special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, met separately with the junta’s top generals in the remote capital of Naypyidaw on Tuesday in a bid to help solve the current political crisis. On the way back to Rangoon, Gambari held a second meeting with the detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

In Naypyidaw, nearly 400 km northwest of Rangoon, the former capital, Gambari met Snr-Gen Than Shwe, his deputy, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and the junta’s No. 3 Gen Thura Shwe Mann. Also present was acting Prime Minister Lt-Gen Thein Sein. Details of the meeting were not available.

On Sunday, one day after he arrived at Burma, Gambari talked with Suu Kyi for 90 minutes at a government guest house. It’s believed that the topic of discussion focused on how to create reconciliation in the country.

The majority of the Burmese people expect little from Gambari’s meetings. A leading monk in the recent protests said the junta has always tricked UN special envoys. The monk, who asked not to be named, said by telephone from Rangoon that he wondered if Gambari knows about the generals’ tricks.
“Even if Gambari knows the junta’s tricks, what can the UN Security Council do for us Burmese people?” the monk asked.

“At every night, we monks are waiting when the junta’s troops raid our monastery,” he said. In recent weeks, soldiers violently raided several monasteries in Rangoon and arrested hundreds of monks. As many as 2,000 monks are being detained at detention centers and confined in their monasteries.

Tun Myint Aung, a leader of the 88 Generation Students group, said the UN envoy’s trip was “still hopeless” because the junta didn’t give up its violent repression of peaceful protesters, including monks.

Rangoon residents say people are being pulled out of buses by security forces and hired thugs on the streets of Rangoon while people walking along the streets are sometimes stopped and searched by soldiers.

The residents say there are many checkpoints on Rangoon streets. Security forces pull passengers from bus or taxi and they are arrested, if they look suspicious to authorities.

The security forces singles out people with MP3 players, recorders and cameras, especially young people.

Tun Myint Aung said many people believe that only interventions from international communities, such as the UN or NATO, can help the Burmese people and stop the violent crackdowns.

A Burmese scholar at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok noted that international pressure on the Burmese junta was stronger, but most Burmese do not see any effective actions from the international community so far.

A National League for Democracy spokeperson, Nyan Win, said Gambari’s trip was different from previous trips. On his last trip, he met Suu Kyi and the generals and then returned to New York, but this time he met Suu Kyi, talked to Than Shwe, and then returned again to talk to Suu Kyi.

But Nyan Win said Gambari or even Ban Ki Moon do not have real power to take effective actions on behalf of the Burmese people.

Meanwhile arrests and raids continue.

During Gambari’s visit, the junta held pro-government mass rallies across Burma. Observers say people were forced to join the rallies. During Gambari’s trip, thousands of monks remained virtual prisoners in their monasteries. Monks are now restricted from going out on daily alms rounds among the people.

On September 29 when Gambari arrived in Burma, residents, including children, on Anawrahta Road in downtown Rangoon were pulled out from their apartments and arrested during overnight operations by troops, said a woman who witnessed the arrests.

Reports on October 1 say three people were arrested during protests at Sanchaung Township in Rangoon. At least five people were arrested near the University of Rangoon after protesters staged a guerrilla-style demonstration. In Kyeemyindaing Township, a man, Aung Thein, was arrested at his home in connection with the protests.

A human rights group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), estimates that up to 400 people were arrested during the UN special envoy’s visit to the country.

---

 Rangoon’s Journals are Paralyzed

By Violet Cho

The Irrawaddy, October 2, 2007

Most of the weekly journals based in Rangoon have stopped publishing due to a lack of news to attract readers, difficulties with acquiring news on the streets and limited Internet access.

Several Rangoon-based journalists told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the business will not survive much longer because “the readers are not interested in the journals and periodicals here.”

Residents in Rangoon are “giving their attention and interest to the protests, but we can not report the story and provide the information the public wants, so we know that they won’t buy our news journals,” an editor said.
Another problem is a lack of Internet access. Most of the publications in Burma have relied on the Internet to track international news. The media businesses in Burma can no longer search for photos and information on the Internet as the military authorities cut access to it on September 28.

“News reporters cannot use the Internet, so they have been using satellite television as their main source for international news,” explained another editor.

In addition, photojournalists and reporters face danger while armed troops are deployed on the streets. Sources said soldiers are searching whoever they suspect of carrying a camera. If they find one, the soldiers confiscate the camera and sometimes arrest the person carrying it.

Weekly Eleven News Journal told The Irrawaddy on Monday that one of their reporters has been missing since September 27.

The editor said that they have checked for his name on the death list at Rangoon General Hospital, but his name was not there. The reporter was carrying a camera when the security forces opened fire on the demonstrators.

During this past week only sports journals and a semi-official newspaper The Myanmar Time have appeared on the market.

Ross Dunkley, former owner of Myanmar Time, boasted that the newspaper is working to cover Burma’s fresh news “on the frontline.” However, the newspaper is only printing trivial articles.

Instead of providing people with information, the official mouthpiece The New Light of Myanmar, published on Monday, show photos of 11 people described as violent protesters, holding such weapons as knives, iron rods, scissors, catapults and marbles, while confronting security forces on a main road near the Sule Pagoda on Saturday. The 11 arrested by the security forces include five university students, said the report.

According to a Rangoon resident, leading weekly news journals such as The Voice, Flower News, Yangon Time and Weekly Eleven did not appear this week.

According to The Flower and Yangon Time, the publishers are hoping to print their next issue, but they still cannot be sure.