Burmese freedom fighters and the military junta are having a virtual dialogue on the Internet, reports Reuters’ Deborah Charles.

Freedom fighters in Burma used to get their message across with guns and jungle warfare. But things have changed with the coming of the global village. Nowadays, the most successful dissidents arm themselves with modems and have shifted their field of operation from the jungle to the Internet.

Taking a cue from the successful use of the Net by pressure groups worldwide, Burma’s army of “cyberactivists” has been growing strongly over the past few years, urging the world to help undermine the unelected military junta which seized power in 1988. Activists claim it has had great success, evidenced by mounting international pressure on the regime since the mid-1990s.

The Free Burma Coalition, which spearheaded a movement to stop foreign investment in Burma and undermine the military junta, has become one of the world’s largest Internet-based political groups. Co-founded three years ago by Zarni, a Burmese who went to study in the United States, the Coalition has members in 28 countries and a large presence on university campuses worldwide.

Its growing influence has coincided with some key measures taken against the Burmese gpvernment in recent years, induding economic sanctions passed by the US and Canada. Selective purchasing laws, which prevent authorities from buying from companies that do business with Burma, have been approved by 17 US cities, one county and the state of Massachusetts.

“All these laws have been enacted in the past three years,” said Simon Billennessy, a leading activist based in Massachusetts; "The selective purchasing laws on Burma have been enacted at a much faster rate than similar laws for any other specific country.” Aung Naiag Oo, foreign secretary of the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), recalled that the organisation began using the Internet in 1994.

“It was a dramatic improvement in communications for us,” he said.

The ABSDF was founded by students fleeing the military’s brutal suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988. ‘In the jungle, we started out with typewriters,” said Aung Naing Oo.

Activists say the Internet is the main factor behind increased global awareness of Burma. ‘It has been through the use of the Internet that we have achieved so much in such a short time – something we never could have imagined,” said Aung Naing Oo.

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Larry Dohrs, a trade specialist and activist for the Free Burma movement based in the US state of Washington, agreed.

“Though we are highly dispersed ... we now can communicate and act as a real community,” he said. Thus our dispersion is changed from a disadvantage to an advantage overnight, since we have local actors almost everywhere, and a network of international supporters.”

In addition to allowing activists to communicate among themselves, the Internet has become an easy and cheap way to spread information through list-servers, or subscriber lists.

News on the country is relatively sparse as Burma has strict laws prohibiting foreign journalists from living in the country and the local media is tightly controlled. So the activists created an entity called BurmaNet News, funded by a branch of the Soros Foundation called The Open Society Institute.

The BurmaNet News editor compiles news published about Burma and adds other information gathered by activists and organisations inside and outside the country and sends it all out to subscribers.

“BurmaNet has expanded from roughly 450 subscribers in mid-1995 to over 1,000 subscribers now,” said a former BurmaNet editor. “Many more people read it in newsgroups, printed out on paper or on the Web. Almost everyone who works actively on Burma, including the military junta, is reading BurmaNet.

One of the newer additiona to BurmaNet over the past year is the active participation of the Burmese government which has also created ita own subscriber list and sends out daily propaganda sheets and summaries of its newspapers.

Most activists welcome the contribution – somewhat ironic given the fact that using the Internet is technically illegal in Burma without permission to own and use a modem.

“I think it is great,” said the BurmaNet editor. “One subscriber recently asked us to stop posting messages from the military junta but I explained to him that it is important to listen to what they have to say.”

“And I think that a dialogue of sorts is emerging on the Net. What is so exciting about BurmaNet is that such a variety of people are reading it- diplomats, the military junta, activists, academics, journalists and students.”