Washington Post:

To: The World
From: Burma

By Hanna Ingber Win
Monday, October 1, 2007; 7:10 PM

They tried to erase Burma from the Internet last week. In an attempt to weaken the opposition and shield itself from international opprobrium, the military junta that runs the country tried to cut off access to the Web.

It did not succeed. Already, damning e-mail, photographs, video clips and instant messages had made their way around the world. And, although new reports and images slowed after the Internet crackdown Friday, they didn't stop. They continue to make their way onto news sites -- such as expat-run Irrawaddy magazine, Mizzima News and the Democratic Voice of Burma -- and blogs -- including Ko Htike's Prosaic Collection, Burmese Bloggers Without Borders and Burma-Myanmar Genocide 2007.

These photographs, depicting protests in downtown Rangoon, arrived in my inbox Thursday from an American living in Burma. In one, people are running from soldiers who have started shooting at the crowd. They are running along Sule Pagoda Road, the street where I lived in 2003 while working for the weekly Myanmar Times.

In a separate e-mail, a friend in Rangoon told me that she and many others have stored up staples like rice, onions and cooking oil. She said she stays at home all day, glued to the radio (which the junta hasn't blocked). And she worried that, if she left her apartment, she could get caught in the crossfire. She could also be jailed or executed if caught sharing information with outsiders. Still, the e-mails come.

When I lived in Burma, the junta controlled the news so completely that even weather reports were censored. A terrible storm struck western Burma when I was living in Rangoon, but I learned of it from my aunt in Westchester, New York. Apparently the generals who then ran the country, and still do, are superstitious. They believe natural disasters are omens of change. Perhaps they also want to maintain the idea that Burma is a peaceful place, with no disruptions.

That myth was shattered last week, and continues to erode with each new image and report that finds its way to the Web.