BURMA: Bloggers declare international day for Burma

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
AHRC-PL-042-2007

(Hong Kong, October 3, 2007)

A group of bloggers has declared an international day calling for peaceful political change in Burma.

The Free Burma! bloggers group has proposed the International Bloggers' Day for Burma on October 4 to "show our sympathy for these people who are fighting their cruel regime without weapons", according to its website.

The page is calling on bloggers "to refrain from posting to their blogs on October 4 and just put up one Banner... with the words Free Burma!"

By Wednesday over 3100 bloggers had joined the campaign. Bloggers interested to join and download banners can visit: http://www2.free-burma.org/index.php.

One who had already signed up on Wednesday was Awzar Thi, whose Rule of Lords blog on Burma and Thailand can be read at http://ratchasima.net.

"Blogging was an unexpected and important part of the Saffron Revolution," Awzar Thi said.

The September uprising against military rule has been referred to as the Saffron Revolution to allude to the monks who led the biggest protests.

"I read blogs by people in Burma and around the world constantly throughout this time," he said.
"It is eerie to see many of those Burma-based blogs now disappearing or being censored," he added.

"For instance, whereas http://reporterdiary.blogspot.com carried heartfelt commentary and photographs on the uprising, a couple of days ago it was replaced by some generic computer-generated rubbish by a profile with 16 blogs, none of which have any contents," Awzar Thi noted.

"As bloggers in Burma are no longer in a position to communicate and report freely on what is going on there, it is fitting that their peers around the world keep speaking out," he said.
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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.