Celular e protestos em Myanmar

Os Monges e grupos civis de Myanmar estão promovendo mobilizações pedindo a liberdade política no país, governado por uma Junta Militar. Os protestos de ontem reuniram milhares de pessoas que caminhando pelo centro de Yangun, gritavam "democracia, democracia".

Os manifestantes estavam usando os celulares para fazer vídeos, fotos e enviar informações sobre as manifestações. Por causa disso, o Governo birmanês bloqueou o sinal de telefonia móvel nas áreas onde estão ocorrendo as mobilizações. Alguns jornalistas estrangeiros que estão cobrindo as manifestações, como os da Agência França Press (AFP), ficaram sem poder usar o celular.

Myanmar, antiga Birmânia, é um país asiático, com mais de 42 milhões de habitantes, governado há mais de 20 anos por uma Junta Militar. Os generais birmaneses não permitem a realização de eleições legislativas desde 1990, quando Suu Kyi e a LND conseguiram uma vitória avassaladora. A Junta Militar não quis aceitar o resultado das urnas.

Abaixo trechos de uma matéria publicada no MobileActive.

"Thousands of monks have taken to the streets in Myanmar within the past month in pro-democracy demonstrations. Today the Burmese government threatened the monks with legal action.

The government has shut down mobile phone service to pro-democracy supporters, activists, and some foreign journalists, writes the Agence France-Presse. A journalist and photographer from the AFP are among those who have lost phone service, and the agency has requested that Myanmar restore service to the journalists. The National League for Democracy also reports that its landline phone has been cut off, according to this article in The Economic Times.

In an article on mobile phones in social activism, Ethan Zuckerman discusses the role that mobiles have had in previous democracy protests in the Philipines and Ukraine. As in previous protests, the Myanmar regime is certainly aware of the role that mobiles are likely to have in the conflict. As a Reuters article from today states, the military generals are "caught in a rare dilemma," exacerbated by the presence of mobile phones:

They can either come down hard on the Buddhist monks leading the protests -- and risk turning pockets of dissent into nationwide outrage as reports and grainy mobile phone images of revered, maroon-robed men and boys being beaten up leak out. Or they can give them a free rein to march round a few cities and towns -- and risk the movement spreading across the country, and into other social groups, such as the students or civil servants, the other key players in the 1988 uprising. "

Para ver a cobertura completa das manifestações clique aqui.