huridocs-tech AOL removes link to Junta Homepage

Edited/Distributed by HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network
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## author     : apowell@freedomforum.org
## date       : 18.08.99
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AOL removes link to Junta Homepage

Free Burma Coalition                www.freeburmacoalition.org

Contact: Dr. Zarni, Free Burma Coalition,
zarni@essential.org, 202-777-6009

For Immediate Release:

America Online Chooses, Then Deletes Burma Junta Web Page

Dulles, Virginia -- August 18, 1999 -- America Online, the
leading internet Service provider in the United States, has
made an abrupt about-face.

On Friday August 13th, AOL chose the site www.myanmar.com to
be linked to AOL's Asia Forum.  The problem?  The site is
operated by the ruling military junta of Burma (also known
as Myanmar), identified by Reporters Sans Frontieres as one
of the world's "real enemies" of the internet.

The Burmese junta jails citizens for "unauthorized" use of
fax, photocopiers and computers with modems.  Internet
service, including AOL, is unavailable to all of Burma's 46
million citizens, save a few "authorized" friends of the
regime.

Ironically, an email message from Burma's Office of
Strategic Services (the secret police) alerted exiled
Burmese democrats to AOL's gaffe.  The message copied AOL's
announcement, which gushed "We think you'll notice
dramatically increased usage because of this exposure."

Though an international pariah, the junta makes extensive
use of the internet to distribute its propaganda.  The
website in question, www.myanmar.com, is mostly used to lure
hard-currency-carrying tourists. But elsewhere the page
compiles vituperative articles from the junta-controlled
press. Burmese democracy leader and Nobel Peace Laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi comes in for particular scorn, often called
a "sorceress" or a "lackey of colonialists."  The more than
100,000 Burmese refugees huddled in Thailand are labelled
"terrorists," though groups such as Amnesty International
say they are vicitms of rape, torture, forced labor and
murder.

"We informed AOL of the fact that the junta operates this
page, and gave them some information about pervasive human
rights violations in Burma," says Dr. Zarni, Burmese founder
of the Free Burma Coalition. "It looked bad for an
'information technology' company to be leading its users to
the propaganda page of a regime that has closed the
universities and restricted all kinds of information,
including the internet.  To their credit, AOL reacted
quickly," he adds.

AOL informed the Free Burma Coalition on Tuesday, August 17
that "we have removed the website in question from the
International Country Pages."

END





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