BURMA: With Internet still disconnected, concern mounts about fate of monks | Burma |
(RSF/IFEX) - Although fixed-line phones and some mobiles are still
working,
the complete absence of Internet in Burma is making it harder and harder
to
send photos and video footage about the situation in Rangoon and the
rest
of the country. Nothing is being reported about what is happening to
the
thousands of prisoners of conscience.
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association call on the
international media to use every possible means to try to break
through
this news blackout, especially about the fate of the detainees, who
risk
being tortured. The two organisations also urge the United Nations
envoy
Ibrahim Gambari to publicly condemn the measures taken by the
military
junta to block the free flow of news and information.
After restoring the Internet for a few hours on 29 September 2007,
the
authorities have again disconnected it. In the afternoon of the same
day,
troops took up position around the headquarters of the leading ISP,
Myanmar
Infotech, whose website ( http://www.myanmarinfotech.com.mm ), like all
websites with the .mm country domain suffix, is currently down.
It seems that government officials are able to send email messages,
after
verification of their content, from inside the department of posts
and
telecommunications building, which is controlled by troops.
"Military prior censorship, long applied to the print media, is now
being
applied to the Internet," Reporters Without Borders and the BMA said.
"This
case of prior control of all information sent by Internet is unique in
the
world."
As a result, no photos or video footage have been published about the
fate
of the 700 monks held by the military, about the hundreds of
civilians,
including Generation 88 leaders, who have been imprisoned, about the
fate
of Aung San Suu Kyi and others National League for Democracy leaders,
about
the situation inside the monasteries now controlled by the army, or
about
Insein prison, north of the former capital, where hundreds of prisoners
of
conscience are held.
Because Rangoon is now under tight military control, no journalist has
been
able to verify whether hundreds of monks are indeed being held inside
the
Rangoon Technological Institute or in a disused race course known as
the
Kyeikkasan Interrogation Center. The news website http://www.Irrawaddy.com
quoted a monastery official as saying monks had been forced to take
off
their robes and wear prisoner uniforms.
On 30 September, some peaceful demonstrations were reported in
Pakokku,
Sittwe and Taung Goke with thousands of participants, but no images
emerged
because of the Internet blackout.
The news blackout is fueling rumours about the number of victims and
about
divisions within the regime. "One should not believe either the
regime's
propaganda or the crazy rumours going around the country," a journalist
in
Rangoon said.
For further information, contact Vincent Brossel at RSF, 5, rue
Geoffroy
Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 70, fax: +33 1 45 23 11
51,
e-mail: asie@rsf.org, Internet: http://www.rsf.org
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RSF.
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RSF.
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