Myanmar Crackdown - People Mobilizing Via the Net
Update 7 (Oct 18, 2007 @ 9:32am)
The news on Myanmar is slowing to just a few snippets. However, those are worth posting. My fear is after this surge interest our ADD/quick cut media culture will forget.
United Press International: Myanmar said to be still making arrests
Agence France-Presse: Defiant Myanmar junta says it won't back down
International Herald Tribune: Japan cancels large aid grant to Myanmar
Update 6 (Oct 10, 2007 @ 1:21pm)
Some new articles from the BBC: What Burma wants from the world and Burmese junta appoints go-between.
Update 5 (Oct. 6, 2007 @ 5:46am)
Maybe some hope that the information lines are opening up, not likely, or the Myanmar fuzz is checking to see what's out there on the crackdown, more likely. Anyway, I was checking the traffic on my blog. I noticed I got a hit from Myanmar that chose to stay on the page for awhile. That person found my page via this Google search "myanmar crackdown pics". Interesting.
Update 4 (Oct. 3, 2007 @ 2;44pm)
Videos are now being submitted to CNN by people who fled Myanmar after the crackdown. It's shows what happened to protestors who got caught by the junta. There are a series of these.
CNN: Video of brutal crackdown - Exclusive video smuggled out of Myanmar shows protesters arrested and beaten by police. CNN's Dan Rivers reports. (note: I couldn't view it in Netscape, but Internet Explorer worked fine.)
Update 3 (Oct. 2, 2007 @ 10:56pm)
The UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari has been in Myanmar for a few days and has met with Aung Sang Suu Kyi twice. I'm not really updating that because the mainstream news is covering that.
However, here is a good BBC article: Burmese monks 'to be sent away'. It has some good links.
Also, it's disturbing but it's really easy to ignore what's going on without visuals too. Here is a disturbing photo of the dead body of a monk floating in a riven in Rangoon that I saw on CNN International. It's in the BBC article too.
I found it at on the Democratic Voice of Burma website. This needs to be seen, so that the government in Myanmar will be held accountable.
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Update 2 (Oct. 1, 2007 @ 11:44am)
An article fromt he Times Online: Bloggers who risked all to reveal the junta’s brutal crackdown in Burma
They provide some great multimedia, background and other related links.
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Update 1 (Oct. 1, 2007 @ 8:10am)
These are some videos from Mizzima News website that I discovered today.
No title
Protest in Rangoon: Flag of Fighting Peacock Flying High (1)
There are quite a few other videos and I won't link them all. You can just go to their main video site and click around: Mizzima TV
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You know, I feel really bad about myself as I spent Chuseok sitting here watching the reports on the protests and escalating tensions in Myanmar (aka Burma). I don't really care that George W. Bush talked about it a couple of days ago at the UN considering he's spent the almost all of his two terms in office blasting the wrong nations, sometimes literally. However, this is something that needs to be watched, so I'm doing my part by organizing some links in one spot.
As a blogged earlier this year, Kim Dae Jung's request to visit fellow Nobel Peace Prize receipent Aung San Suu Kyi was denied. The protesters did make it to Suu Kyi's door at the start of the protests, but now they're blocked.
For some reason, I really thought the government wouldn't resort to violence - what was I thinking?
I got home tonight and saw an interesting report on CNN International.
They were talking about how the government is cracking down. In spite of this crack down there are some brave people getting pictures out and blogging on Myanmar who are trying to get the word out. I linked both Israel and Lebanon blogs during last year's conflict.
I think it's good to link to these blogs reporting what's going on in Myanmar right now because they really need the world to watch what's going on there.
Here are some links and video:
Ko Htike's Prosaic Collection
MoeMaKa Media
Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma (Myanmar) Blog
On Facebook: Support the Monks' protest in Burma and Myanmar (Burma) Uprising: Worldwide support
The Nightwatchman: Myanmar Will Be You Tubed
Myanmar Blogs All Over the World - I haven't clicked on most of these links, so I'm not sure what's live and what's not. However, I figure it doesn't hurt to link to the list. This way YOU can click around if you're so inclined.
AP article: Cell Phones, Web Spread News of Myanmar
Interesting blog on "hacktivism" in Myanmar: Empowering Myanmar, one blog at a time
Wear Red on September 28th to Show Your Support
Find Companies Doing Business with Myanmar and Lobby Them to Stop: The Dirty List - The Burma Campaign UK
Help support Burma Issues - Their mission is here BI Ideology
Some YouTube videos:
Life under Myanmar's military government - 18 Sept 07
Monks Revolution Continue in Burma
BUDDHIST MONKS LEADING PROTEST IN RANGOON BURMA
Monks' Revolution in Rangoon
I was hoping that the government wouldn't resort to violence as well. Considering that the core of the protests were Buddhist monks, I thought maybe they'd be smart about it and just do stuff like the curfew. I was shocked to find out they started shooting yesterday.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think it was the fact it was monks leading the protests. But I guess those in power realized that the monks were gaining some serious momentum and decided to shut it down, damn the consequences.
ReplyDeleteThis surely doesn't help my already cynical view of human nature and my deep dislike of those in power.
I hope the powers that be, Myanmar's neighbors, lay on the pressure. A Japanese reporter was shot and killed, so maybe other countries will put more pressure on the government to stop.
They didn't expect the press and the bloggers, cell phones and camcorders have caught them by surprise.
"They didn't expect the press and the bloggers, cell phones and camcorders have caught them by surprise."
ReplyDeleteTrue, and this is a good thing. At the moment, it seems like they're trying to catch up to the activists who have circumvented their firewalls and blocks. Of course, if the hackers are a step ahead, the chances of catching up are slim. Plus I was reading that a bunch of the activists had acquired satellite phones yesterday, and those can't be blocked, can they?
I think it's probably going to be touch and go to see what the junta does next, though. This time, everyone is watching in real time.
Well, I'm doing what little I can. It's hard to see these images where just a few days ago it was images of monks protesting peacefully.
ReplyDeleteIt's really a shame.