Thousands of monks have taken to the streets in Myanmar within the past month in pro-democracy demonstrations. Today the Burmese government threatened the monks with legal action.
The government has shut down mobile phone service to pro-democracy supporters, activists, and some foreign journalists, writes the Agence France-Presse. A journalist and photographer from the AFP are among those who have lost phone service, and the agency has requested that Myanmar restore service to the journalists. The National League for Democracy also reports that its landline phone has been cut off, according to this article in The Economic Times.
In an article on mobile phones in social activism -- posted here -- Ethan Zuckerman discusses the role that mobiles have had in previous democracy protests in the Philipines and Ukraine. As in previous protests, the Myanmar regime is certainly aware of the role that mobiles are likely to have in the conflict. As a Reuters article from today states, the military generals are "caught in a rare dilemma," exacerbated by the presence of mobile phones:
They can either come down hard on the Buddhist monks leading the protests -- and risk turning pockets of dissent into nationwide outrage as reports and grainy mobile phone images of revered, maroon-robed men and boys being beaten up leak out. Or they can give them a free rein to march round a few cities and towns -- and risk the movement spreading across the country, and into other social groups, such as the students or civil servants, the other key players in the 1988 uprising.
We are seeing these 'grainy' images and films on sites such as Ko Htike's blog (scroll down), and Burma Digest. They are powerful reminders of the yearning for human rights and the role mobile phones and the Internet can play in this fight.
Photo credit to WorakÂ
Post new comment