Two internet users detained in Myitkyina for the first time
(KNG) - For the first time in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state, the police detained two local internet users on February 17, for surfing websites banned by the ruling military junta, said local sources.
The two internet users are local Kachin youths from Yuzana quarter. They were arrested from their homes by policemen soon after they came back from the internet café --- the "Empire" in Ayeya quarter, opposite No. (1) Police Station, said local sources.
They were arrested for browsing overseas-based Burmese websites ranged against the ruling junta in keeping with the junta's internet rules and regulations. They have been put in a prison cell in the No. (1) Police Station, said sources close to the duo.
At the moment, the personal details and activities of the two Kachin internet users are not known but the Empire internet café is owned by a Burmese national (Burman) and was opened last year, said sources close to the two.
Another local internet user who was in the same internet café at that time, told KNG, that they seemed to be under surveillance by the police, who were monitoring whether they were visiting websites against the ruling junta. Soon after the two Kachin internet users went back home from the café, policemen quizzed the owner of the Empire internet café and asked "Who had used the internet at that point of time and where they were from?"
He added that the policemen went and arrested the two youths from Yuzana quarter after finding out from the owner of the internet café where they lived.
In Burma, sending emails and browsing any website critical of the ruling junta is banned and a notice to this effect is pasted in every internet café, said local internet users. The junta has blocked all independent websites related to Burma based outside the country including the Kachin News Group (www.kachinnews.com) which covers news from Kachin state and Burma in English and Kachin versions.
There are less than 10 internet cafes in Myitkyina downtown unlike Mandalay and Rangoon where internet users are always under surveillance by the secret police in plainclothes, said regular internet users.
On November 10, 2008, a court in Rangoon sentenced a Burmese internet blogger Nay Myo Kyaw (28), who wrote blogs under the name Nay Phone Latt, to 20 years and six months in jail. He was also arrested for being involved in the monk-led protests in September 2007.
