Myanmar: Blogging the
bloodshed By Richard S Ehrlich
BANGKOK - Dodging a deadly military
crackdown, bloggers in Myanmar are now on the
front lines providing news and photos of death and
insurrection.
Their weblogs, written in
Burmese and grammatically flawed English, are
mostly by people living in the commercial port of
Yangon, where Buddhist monks, pro-democracy
activists and residents have been defying security
forces during more than a
week
of protests.
The bloggers rely on word of
mouth, mobile telephones, online chat groups,
instant messaging, and first-hand experience in
barricaded streets amid tear gas and gunfire.
The
best blogs provide photos, video and text updates
purportedly
by witnesses, which are
later confirmed by news organizations or, in some
cases, can't be verified.
Myanmar's bloody
pro-democracy protests have captivated the outside
world, including US President George W Bush, the
United Nations and the public, thanks largely to
the bloggers' media.
Myanmar's military
regime refused to grant visas to foreign
correspondents, and blocked visas for many foreign
tourists, after the mass uprising worsened several
days ago.
Burmese and foreign residents in
Yangon, Mandalay and elsewhere in Myanmar - which
is mainland Southeast Asia's biggest nation -
surprised everyone by risking their lives to
document the demand for liberty.
Some of
the best blogs appear to be by people trying to
live a normal life while updating the world about
the marches and bloodshed on the streets.
One poignant blog, by a young, "sensitive"
Myanma woman who identifies herself as Dawn,
appears at www.xanga.com/dawn_1o9. "Around
1:20 or 1:30pm, I heard someone saying that the
police/army started shooting in the air," Dawn
wrote, describing Yangon on Wednesday.
"At
2:00pm, I heard that buses have stopped running on
Sule Pagoda Road. Someone from the office went out
to there, and came running back when there were
shots being fired. I heard the gunshots too, but
it sounded a lot like clapping. So I went out to
look," Dawn said.
"I was reading the news
on a blogger's Cbox, and it said that at least
five 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 said at least
one person died when security forces attacked
protesters on Wednesday, though some news reports
said up to five people may have been killed.
In gallows humor, Dawn wrote: "I'll let
you know when I've been shot. 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
"prosaic collection" of vivid text and photos at
ko-htike.blogspot.com and said, "now regime open
fire into these group, and used fire engine to
sweep the blood on the street".
Foreigners
blogging in Myanmar include
burmesedayze.blogspot.com, written by someone who
moved to Yangon in March 2006.
Before the
protests, Myanmar had a strong presence on the
Internet, created over the years by Burmese
dissidents and foreigners who established
pro-democracy websites in Thailand, Europe, North
America and elsewhere.
In 2006, Myanmar's
pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi received a MySpace.com
webpage, created by Americans to publicize her
decade under house arrest in Yangon.
Other
websites were created by non-governmental
organizations, or received funding from US
government and other international sources,
enabling additional offline publication of
magazines and radio broadcasts abroad.
These include Irrawaddy.org, which also
publishes a monthly Irrawaddy magazine in
Thailand, and DVB.no, the Democratic Voice of
Burma radio, based in Norway.
The most
respected of those websites are now mainstream,
offering reports quoted by international news
organizations.
In 1988, Burmese
journalists in exile set up Mizzima.com, promoting
democracy in Myanmar through the activists'
India-based Mizzima News Agency, which is
bilingual in Burmese and English, and now includes
online video.
Some blogs, such as
weunite-weblog.blogspot.com, collect Internet
links relating to Myanmar, and warn when the
regime blocks websites and blogs.
Graffiti
artists can now go to
saffronrevolutionworldwide.blogspot.com for
stencil images portraying Buddhist monks - to be
cut out, held against a wall, and spray-painted,
resulting in a picture of two monks walking -
similar to internationally acclaimed graffiti
artist Bansky's urban icons.
"You can help
make this image appear all over the world,
reminding people everywhere of the uprising in
Burma and showing that the struggle for freedom is
alive everywhere," said the bloggers, based in Mae
Sot, Thailand, on the Myanmar border.
"Monks make great stencil images ...
download the pattern and get your monks on the
march!"
Richard S Ehrlich is a
Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco,
California. He has reported news from Asia since
1978 and is co-author of the non-fiction book of
investigative journalism, Hello My Big Big
Honey! Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their
Revealing Interviews. His website is
www.geocities.com/asia_correspondent.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
by witnesses, which are
later confirmed by news organizations or, in some
cases, can't be verified. 
