Democracy advocates in Myanmar are operating more and more from neighboring countries such as India, where they use the Internet to campaign against the military government. The dissidents – working mainly out of India, Bangladesh and Thailand – provide one of the few independent sources of news on Myanmar, disseminating information through Web sites or e-mail, said several pro-democracy writers at a workshop at Falta, a riverside resort 30 miles south of Calcutta. “Forty years of the junta have ensured the smothering of the independent media, but we try to disseminate authentic news on the country,” said Soe Myint, editor of the New Delhi-based Mizzima Internet news site. The workshop, ending Friday, was held to train amateur reporters and chart a media policy for a democratic Myanmar, said Soe Myint. Soe Myint arrived in India in 1990 after admittedly hijacking a Thai Airways flight to Calcutta to protest the Myanmar military regime’s rejection of the May 1990 elections won overwhelmingly by pro-democracy leader Aung Sung Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party. Despite his confession, Soe Myint was acquitted of the hijacking charges by a Calcutta court last week. Full Story
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