[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index
][Thread Index
]
Myanmar Rebels armed with Net
- Subject: Myanmar Rebels armed with Net
- From: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 09:41:00
Myanmar rebels armed with Net
By Reuters
March 11, 1998, 1:35 p.m. PT
BANGKOK, Thailand--Freedom fighters in Myanmar--formerly Burma--used to
get their message across with guns and jungle warfare.
But things have changed with the coming of the global village. Nowadays,
the most successful dissidents arm themselves with modems and have
shifted their field of operation from the jungle to the Internet.
Taking a cue from the successful use of the Net by pressure groups
worldwide, Myanmar's army of "cyberactivists" has been growing strongly
in the past few years, urging the world to help undermine the military
junta that seized power in 1988. Activists claim it has had great
success, evidenced by mounting international pressure on the regime
since the mid-1990s.
The Free Burma Coalition, which spearheads a movement to stop foreign
investment in Myanmar and undermine the junta, has become one of the
world's largest Internet-based political groups. Cofounded three years
ago by Zarni, a Burmese who went to study in the United States, it has
members in 28 countries and a large presence on university campuses
worldwide.
Its growing influence has coincided with some key measures taken against
the Myanmar government in recent years, including economic sanctions by
the United States and Canada. Selective purchasing laws, which prevent
authorities from buying from companies that do business with Myanmar,
have been approved by 17 U.S. cities, one county, and the state of
Massachusetts.
"All of these laws have been enacted in the past three years," said
Simon Billenness, a leading activist based in Massachusetts. "The
selective purchasing laws on Burma have been enacted at a much faster
rate than similar laws for any other specific country."
"I remember we began to use the Internet in 1994 and it was a dramatic
improvement in communications for us," said Aung Naing Oo, foreign
secretary of the All Burma Students Democratic Front, founded by
students fleeing the military's brutal suppression of pro-democracy
demonstrations in 1988.
"In the jungle, we started out in 1988 with typewriters. Then computers
were introduced to us a year later, which was a huge leap forward for
us," Aung Naing Oo said. "It has been through the use of the Internet
that we have achieved so much in such a short time, something we never
could have imagined."
Larry Dohrs, a trade specialist and activist for the Free Burma movement
based in Washington state, agreed. "Though we are highly dispersed...we
now can communicate and act as a real community," he told Reuters in an
email interview--the way in which all information for this article was
gathered.
"Thus our dispersion is changed from a disadvantage to an advantage
overnight, since we have local actors almost everywhere and a network of
international supporters," he said.
In addition to allowing activists to communicate with each other, the
Internet has become an easy and cheap way to spread information through
subscriber lists.
News on the country is relatively sparse, as Myanmar has strict laws
prohibiting foreign journalists from living in the country and the local
media are tightly controlled. So the activists created BurmaNet News,
funded by a branch of the Soros Foundation called the Open Society
Institute.
The BurmaNet News editor compiles news published about Myanmar and adds
other information gathered by activists and organizations inside and
outside the country and sends it all out to subscribers.
"BurmaNet has expanded from roughly 450 subscribers in mid-1995 to over
1,000 subscribers now," said a former BurmaNet editor. "Many more people
read it in newsgroups, printed out on paper, or on the Web. Almost
everyone who works actively on Burma, including the military junta, is
reading BurmaNet."
One addition to BurmaNet in the past year is the active participation of
the Myanmar government, which also has created its own subscriber list
and sends out daily propaganda sheets and summaries of its newspapers.
Most activists welcome the contribution--which is somewhat ironic given
the fact that using the Internet is technically illegal in Myanmar.
"I think it is great. One subscriber recently asked us to stop posting
messages from the military junta, but I explained to him that it is
important to listen to what they have to say," said the BurmaNet editor.
"And I think that a dialogue of sorts is emerging on the Net. What is so
exciting about BurmaNet is that such a variety of people are reading
it--diplomats, the military junta, activists, academics, journalists,
and students."
Story from Reuters