By Yeni

A truck carrying a squad of police pulls up in front of a Rangoon's Internet café. The police burst into the café and shout to the customers sitting at the computer terminals: "Hands off!" Then they tour the terminals and check every screen, asking users to describe what they are looking at.

If anyone is found using G-talk, the police inquire further—"Who are you chatting with?" "Where do they live?" Customers who come up with wrong or suspicious answers can be arrested.

This scenario is a common one in Rangoon's Internet cafes nowadays—in this era where tech-savvy young Burmese chat away on G-talk, check out the social-networking sites Facebook, Hi5 and Friendster, surf exiled Burmese websites and blogs and even share information about how to slip past regime censors by using proxy servers.

Since the September 2007 uprising, the Internet has shaped the way they think, relax and communicate in their isolated, military-ruled country. The Internet has created a virtual community and a new arena for freedom of expression.

"The uprising in Burma is ultimately an example of a protest where digitally network technologies played a critical role," researcher Mridul Chowdhury reported in his paper "The Role of the Internet in Burma’s Saffron Revolution," a case study for the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

Equipped with cell phones and digital cameras, and with access to the Internet, determined young Burmese are communicating with each other and the outside world as never before.

During last year’s monk-led demonstrations, known as the Saffron Revolution, Internet users also became publishers of text, audio, and video files illustrating what was happening inside the country. Suddenly, Burma was attracting the full attention of such international media as the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera. Condemnation of the regime’s repression of the protests followed from many governments.

Burma’s IT generation had a chance to flex its muscles before the generals pulled the plug on the Internet at the height of their crackdown on the September protests.

The junta has prevented Burmese citizens from using services like Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail and to block Web sites and blogs set up by exiled Burmese critics of the regime. But Internet cafes responded by installing foreign-hosted proxy servers to circumvent the government restrictions.

Risking arrest, imprisonment and torture, young Burmese—notably journalists and bloggers—have continued to play a crucial role in informing the outside world of the true situation in Burma.

They are more likely than ever to see the Internet as a means of achieving freedom of expression with the advent of information technology. In their blogs and chat rooms, they have been demonstrating the active role they play in sharing information and debating important issues in politics and other areas of domestic concern.

This is the reason why, one year after the Saffron Revolution, Internet cafes are becoming subject to severe surveillance by the police. Cafe owners are forced to take screenshots of user activity every five minutes and deliver these images to the authorities on a regular basis.

The owner of one Internet cafe in downtown Rangoon said the local authorities and police intelligence officers had issued orders to provide ID information about customers.

According to Internet cafe owners and users in Rangoon, Internet speeds have slowed down considerably since mid-September, making it impossible to upload large files such as photos or videos.

Meanwhile, the Web sites of the exile-run, Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and New Delhi-based Mizzima News were hit in July by DDoS attacks, shutting them down for several days.

Another DDoS attacks were again in September launched against The Irrawaddy, DVB and the Bangkok-based New Era Journal. The Web site of Mizzima News was hacked on October 1 with a cross-site scripting, making it inaccessible.

According to Chiang Mai-based freelance journalist Brian McCartan, two community forums Mystery Zillion and Planet Myanmar—Web sites providing information and instruction on how to circumvent the regime's control—were also disabled and shut down by similar attacks in August.

"While any number of deaths is unacceptable, it is also possible that the government actually exercised restraint in the use of force against civilian protesters because of the Internet and international media attention," Chowdhury wrote.

He pointed out that at least 3,000 demonstrators were killed in the nationwide uprising in 1988, while the official death toll in the crackdown on the 2007 demonstrations was far lower—31.

A report says there are now at least 2,123 political prisoners in the country -- up 78 percent on the UN's figure of 1,192 in June 2007.

"The Future in the Dark: the Massive Increase in Burma's Political Prisoners," from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) and the United States Campaign for Burma (USCB), comes after UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay last week called for the release of Myanmar's political prisoners.

"By nearly doubling the number of political prisoners, the Burmese regime is directly defying the United Nations," said Bo Kyi, a former political prisoner, referring to the country by its former name.

"Yet the UN is paralysed because the Secretary General is still reluctant to call on China to work together with other members of the Security Council to secure the release of all prisoners by the end of December," the Thailand-based AAPP's Bo Kyi said.

China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, is a close ally and economic partner of Myanmar and opposes interference in its affairs.

The AAPP and the Washington-based USCB sent an open letter Sunday to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging action to secure the prisoners' release.

YANGON, Oct 5, 2008 (AFP) - With the colour fading from his hair and lines wrinkling his face, Myanmar's newly freed political prisoner, Win Tin, still manages to defy his 79 years.

Despite suffering numerous serious ailments while locked away for 19 years in Yangon's notorious Insein prison, the former journalist remains spry and said he has never regretted his move into politics.

"I never regret leaving journalism to become a politician," Win Tin told AFP in an interview at his friend's home where he is staying.

"The passion for informing people, for wanting their prosperity and to free them of problems is the same. Both require sacrifice. So I have no sorrow at all," he said with a smile.

Win Tin was Myanmar's longest serving political prisoner when the military junta released more than 9,000 inmates from its jails on September 23 in an amnesty ahead of elections promised for 2010.

He became a newsman in 1949, aged 19, working as a reporter and sub-editor for national and international newspapers, and turned to politics during the 1988 pro-democracy uprising against the ruling military that has governed the country since 1962.

Win Tin was one of the founders of the pro-democracy opposition National League for Democracy party together with Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains detained at her lakeside home.

But he never witnessed the party's landslide victory in 1990 elections -- a win never recognised by the junta -- because he was imprisoned in July 1989 for his role as Aung San Suu Kyi's advisor, and for his letters to the then-United Nations envoy to Myanmar.

Nineteen years locked away have taken their toll on Win Tin's health. He now suffers from heart disease, a hernia, and has lung and eye problems, yet he said he will continue to work for the NLD.

"I have no health problems recently. I have to keep my spirits strong," he said.

He said he was tortured in prison -- hooded during long interrogations, deprived of sleep and subjected to beatings. He had been kept in solitary confinement since 1996, only seeing his family for 15 minutes every fortnight.

On his release last month the NLD welcomed him to their 20th anniversary meeting, chanting "Long Live U Win Tin" as he arrived.

The NLD ruling committee invited him to rejoin the board, and while he has not yet decided to accept, he said he will stay in politics.

"I'm now a politician. I have to continue my duties inevitably," he said. "I have my duty as I founded a political party, I cannot leave it. I had to apply my beliefs and spirit during my 19 years in prison."

Campaigners say around 2,000 dissidents remain in Myanmar's prisons and Win Tin now wants to focus on their release.

"Many people have sacrificed their lives. Many people are still in prisons. I can not tolerate my sorrow for these people," Win Tin said.

"We have to continue our mission. We have to acknowledge their gratitude, sacrifice and fighting," he said.

"I have told the authorities they can re-arrest me if they do not like what I am saying."

But Win Tin believes dialogue between the authorities and the pro-democracy group is the best way to secure the prisoners' release and pursue democratic reforms ahead of 2010 elections.

The junta won a widely-criticized national referendum in May, allowing the government to change the constitution and paving the way for 2010 elections that bar Aung San Suu Kyi from standing. She has been under house arrest for most of the past two decades.

Win Tin said he would seek the help of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon in pushing for the prisoners' release and securing talks with the junta, when he visits Myanmar in December.

They said the ruling junta's censorship board withdrew licences for The Action Times and True News in a first warning to both publications.

"The suspension will start from October 8 for one month for the Action Times journal and two months for True News journal.

"The censor board said it was because of violation of the rules and regulations without elaborating," a news editor said on condition of anonymity.

Exiled media reported The Action Times had received the suspension for its reporting of the release of former journalist and democracy activist Win Tin from a Myanmar prison.

New Delhi-based Mizzima news agency said the journal had referred to Win Tin as "Sayagyi" or "Great Master" in contravention of censorship laws.

It also reported an editor saying the True News may have received its temporary ban for writing an unapproved caption alongside a photograph of a child working on a construction site in the Thai resort Phuket.

Media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders has referred to Myanmar as a "paradise for censors".

All in-country publications are controlled by the military or subject to massive censorship, and most people do not have access to international news outlets.

Media watchdogs estimate at least 10 journalists and one blogger are imprisoned in Myanmar.

In June two editors were arrested for travelling to the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy Delta to help deliver relief supplies and bury the dead.

Authorities suspended the True News weekly for two months and The Action Times for one month, the weekly Myanmar-language Kumudra reported.

It said both weeklies had violated the country's Press Scrutiny Board rules, but did not elaborate.

Myint San, a senior editor at The Action Times, said officials at the weekly were not given any reason for the suspension but it was widely believed to have stemmed from an article about the Sept. 23 release of several political prisoners, including the country's longest-serving political prisoner, Win Tin.

The article was given prominent play on a color page of the weekly, Myint San said. Other newspapers buried the story.

Management at True News could not be reached for comment, but several editors at major news publications who were informed of the ban said it was because of a recently published photograph showing Myanmar children working at a construction site in neighboring Thailand _ a sensitive subject that highlights poverty in Myanmar. The editors spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from the junta.

The junta made no public comment but posted a notice of the ban outside the Press Scrutiny Board.

Myanmar has about 140 weekly publications and more than 100 monthly magazines. All articles must go through a censorship process prior to publication.

Press Scrutiny authorities can also order publications to change the size of photographs and the placement of articles to increase or decrease attention to them.

"Despite last month's release of about 9,000 detainees, including a handful of political prisoners, the military regime continues to arrest opposition members," the two organisations said. "Once again, a journalist and government opponent has been detained for no apparent reason. It will be an outrage if he is sent back to prison for helping Cyclone Nargis victims, as it would be punishing humanitarian activity."