Ko htike's Prosaic Collection

Non-violent resistance is alive in the world. Now that the monks are being jailed (and who knows what) by the military government, though, I pray that the people, who will surely keep protesting, have the strength and presence of mind to continue in a non-violent manner. A modern form of peaceful resistence: information dissemination against the will of an oppressor; getting the truth out at risk of life and limb. Like Ko Htike. Evidence that it matters: the Burmese government just shut down internet access and cell phone communication.

http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/


From CNN:

By Wayne Drash and Phil Black

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Armed with a laptop, a blogger named Ko Htike has thrust himself into the middle of the violent crackdown against monks and other peaceful demonstrators in his homeland of Myanmar.

Ko Htike runs his Myanmar blog out of his London apartment and says he's trying to stop the violence.

From more than 5,500 miles away, he's one of the few people getting much needed information out to the world.

He runs the blog out of his London apartment, waking up at 3 a.m. every day to review the latest digitally smuggled photos, video and information that's sent in to him.

With few Western journalists allowed in Htike's blog is one of the main information outlets. He said he has as many as 40 people in Myanmar sending him photos or calling him with information. They often take the photos from windows from their homes, he said.

Myanmar's military junta has forbidden such images, and anyone who sends them is risking their lives.

"If they get caught, you will never know their future. Maybe just disappear or maybe life in prison or maybe dead," he told CNN.

Why would they take such risks?

"They thought that this is their duty for the country," he said. "That's why they are doing it. It's like a mission."

Htike, a 28-year-old who left Myanmar seven years ago to study in England, said about 20,000 people visit the site every day.

On Thursday, as soldiers reportedly fired into crowds and beat Buddhist monks in the nation's largest city of Yangon, Htike's site posted photographs of the violence and some messages from the region. One sent at 1500 local time said, "Right now they're using fire engines and hitting people and dragging them onto E2000 trucks and most of them are girls and people are shouting.