The independent voice

For anyone that needs any reason to see why blogs are important, you need not look any further than Burma.

While twiddle thumbs like myself are just blogging away about an arts scene in a small frontier like Sydney, there is some major events going down in a country not far from here.

Protests by monks and the local population are now in their tenth consecutive day. Initially the protests started in mid-August and were against the military dictatorship putting up the price of fuel. This has quickly turned into a pro-democracy rally when the monks joined the protests in the middle of last week. The sighting of Aung Sung Suu Kyi at one of the meetings has fueled many to continue the demonstrations.

The Age reported last night that "international concern over the situation rose sharply after witnesses and diplomats in Burma's biggest city Rangoon said four people were killed and 100 injured today as security forces fired on protesters, and used tear-gas and baton charges to disperse the crowds."

But such is the threat of the independent voice through blogs, the military junta have blocked access to blogger from anywhere inside Burma. Thankfully through the work of major dissenters, the word is still spilling out with comrades in nearby Bangkok and other western nations. I think the junta might find that trying to suppress independent voices might be like trying to cover a sieve.

Alison Croggon provides a poignant parallel with the fight of apartheid, explaining that a South African journalist once explained to her that "when stories were suppressed by the authorities, they began to leave the front page blank. This, he told me, became a resistance in itself, a sign of censorship. In the end, the regime banned blank front pages."

So despite the censorship, the new media will ensure that the news will get out and as the protests now go into their eleventh day the violence is sure to continue.

If you want to keep on top of what's happening in Burma, there are a number of good independent sources around:

- The Burma Blog by Richard Bacon
Richard is acting as a voice for someone in Burma who is writing a diary about what is happening there on a domestic level.

- The Dathana Blog of Nyein Chan Yar
Nyein is on the ground in Rangoon is providing some pretty phenomenal photo essays about the daily protests. He is unable to post from Burma, but is using a friend outside to upload. He also has a good list of other local blogs that are all mainly in Burmese.

- Ko Htike's Prosaic Collection
This is an extremely interesting blog written, from what I can gather, by someone that works in the Emergency section of the main hospital in Rangoon. Most of it is in Burmese but again, the photo's speak a thousand words.

- Justice and Injustice Blog
This is a blog in Burmese, but the photographs are a compelling enough reason to have a look.

There are other sources for news and updates including the Asian Human Rights Commission and MMedWatch.

Pressure must be put on the UN and the Security Council to do something about this. George W Bush yesterday announced further economics sanctions against the country. It is interesting to note that the Australian Government does not support this tactic.

It would be a huge tragedy if this round of protests ends up being ignored by just like Darfur has been ignored. Or indeed if it mirrors the events of 1988 when soldiers killed an estimated 3,000 people.

Images:

Top - from http://dathana.blogspot.com/

Bottom - Asian Human Rights Commission