The sad fact is that repressive regeimes repress their citizens.  While I had followed the events in Burma with the quiet hope that perhaps their could be an Asian velvet revolution that is obviously not to be.  The Chinese backed Regeime in Burma has obviously taken to heart the methods its master in Beijing prefers in dealing with peaceful dissent.  The world at large has expressed outrage, and rightly so.  What needs to happen next is that the civilised nations of the world need to take real, meaningful actions to punish the Burmese government.  Sanctions against Burma are all well and good but to be truly effective they should be aimed at the country that keeps the military Juanta in power, China.  Only China has the clout to force Burma to change it behavior, and by making China hurt they will put the screws to Burma and put a stop to the violence.

From Fox News: Myanmar Security Forces Open Fire on Protesters, Killing 9.

     YANGON, Myanmar  —  Security forces fired automatic weapons into thousands of pro-democracy protesters for a second day Thursday, and the military government said nine people were killed and 11 wounded.

     Tens of thousands defied the ruling military junta's crackdown with a 10th straight day of demonstrations. Security forces also raided several monasteries overnight, beating monks and arresting more than 100, according to a monk at one monastery.

      The protests were the stiffest challenge to the generals in two decades, a crisis that began Aug. 19 with protests over a fuel price hike and has drawn increasing international pressure on the isolated regime.

     Rather more uplifting is proof that the people of Burma are not going to simply sit idly by while these events unfold.  The mass media may yet be the undoing of the brutal and illegitimate regieme in Burma.

From the China Post: Internet, mobile phones aid Myanmar pro-democracy activists spread news.

     OSLO, Norway -- Cell phones and the Internet are playing a crucial role in telling the world about Myanmar's pro-democracy protests, with video footage sometimes transmitted one frame at a time. Reporters Without Borders said the junta has cut some cell phone service.

     On the other side of the world in Oslo, a shoestring radio and television network called the Democratic Voice of Burma has been at the forefront of receiving and broadcasting such cyber dispatches by satellite TV and shortwave radio.

     Chief editor Aye Chan Naing said the station, founded in 1992 by exiled Myanmar students, is able to pass on nearly real-time images and information about anti-government protests - unlike in 1988, when a similar uprising was shut down in a bloodbath that left more than 3,000 dead.

     On Wednesday, the military opened fire after a month of mostly peaceful demonstrations by tens of thousands led by Buddhist monks, and the government confirmed at least one demonstrator killed and three wounded. Activists reported the death toll was five.

     This time, the world has been watching through television and still images smuggled out of Myanmar over the Internet - sometimes, Naing said, one frame at a time. Dramatic images arrive via e-mails to exiled activists and via mobile phone calls to journalists outside the country, also known as Burma. Hundreds of images are simply posted on the Internet for anyone to see.

     Those inside Myanmar receive information about the protests on shortwave radio broadcasts.

    "This time, compared to 1988, there are lots of new technologies to get the news out of Burma ... People are able to take pictures, videos to evidence what is going on. It is quite amazing for Burma, which is a very poor country," said Vincent Brossel, director of the Asia desk for Reporters Without Borders. "Technology is the most useful weapon you can use in such types of pacifist struggles."

     Aung Zaw, editor of the independent Irrawaddy Magazine in Thailand, said that in 1988, "it took days, sometimes weeks, even months" to get images out. "Now, it's so fast."

All Photos Copyright Associated Press, 2007.

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