The nationwide protests against the military junta, lead by thousands of Burmese monks and joined in by numerous civilians, ended with a crackdown by the military regime, leaving hundreds of people arrested, beaten, or dead. The junta also tightened the security further by cutting down access to the Internet and mobile phones.

Burma's peaceful demonstrations against the military regime and worsening living conditions has recently turned into a violent crackdown that left a number of people, including monks, imprisoned, beaten, or even killed. The protests led by Buddhist monks and participated in by tens of thousands of people are the largest uprisings in the country since the student- and monk-led rebellion in 1988.

On September 25, the military junta put an end to the peaceful protests as they announced a 60-day curfew and ban on public gatherings of more than five people. According to press freedom advocate, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), authorities have raided monasteries to beat and arrest the monks, students, and young children who have been leading protest marches since September 19.

Junta’s increasing violence

“The crackdowns this week are more serious. They are going around with individual photographs of people they want to target. They are threatening many people who they suspect are involved in the protests,’’ said Soe Aung, foreign affairs spokesman for the National Council of the Union of Burma, an umbrella body of Burmese political groups.

Even shopkeepers who run businesses along the roads where protesters marched “are being threatened against speaking or talking about what they witnessed last week,” said Zin Linn, information director of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, the country’s democratically-elected government forced into exile.

About 700 monks and civilians were reportedly arrested from protest sites. Those arrested and detained have been classified into three groups: the protestors and protest leaders; the people who supported the demonstrations, including the sections of the public who clapped as the monks marched by; and bystanders who were witnesses to the protests and the crackdowns. Detainees are

Denying the right to information kept in Mingalardon, an area with a large military camp on the outskirts of Rangoon, and at the General Technology Institute (GTI), a vocational training centre in northern Rangoon.

The Internet, which serves as tool for citizens and media in getting information and giving the world access to images and reports about the protests, has been cut off in the country on September 28. Internet cafes have been closed and popular websites and blogs that post photos and reports of the protests were also banned.

Furthermore, mobile and landline phones of local and foreign media reporters and pro-democracy activists were either tapped or disconnected. Foreign journalists were also not given tourist visas by the Burmese embassy in Bangkok.

As a result, verifying the actual number of dead, detained, or missing people has been extremely difficult, almost impossible.

At present, refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries have become one of the few sources of information and news. “With Burma isolated and cut off from the rest of the world, the refugees are crucial to providing eyewitness accounts of the latest atrocities the junta is committing against unarmed civilians,” said the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA).

Related articles:
“Burma: Buddhist monks lead peaceful protest against junta” from we! September 2007, No. 2
“Burma: Bloggers provide protest stories despite censorship” from we! September 2007, No. 2

Sources:
“BURMA: Fear Over the Country” from Inter Press Service, posted on October 4, 2007, <http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39524>.
“Burma: Hope fading as military stamps out protests, communications” from International Freedom of Expression eXchange, posted on October 2, 2007, <http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/86727/>.