Getting into Burma

I would if i wasn’t being forced to go back to the land of free and sunshine (london). As for getting in, arrive as a tourist and put away the loads of equipment and act like a tourist.

You can cross from Mea Sot in Thailand in the Burma other wise try to contact the KNU Karin Liberate Army they can bring you cross the border in Mea Sot or Mae Sariang

They are imposing curfews…things are heating up.

I was able to get in through Mea Sot

Don’t say you are a journalist unless you want to get delayed or refused all together. They are a couple overland routes from Thailand but you still need a visa to go further than border towns afaik.

Absolutely. There were a few posts on LS earlier that mentioned journalists traveling to the area by name and those posting were contacted privately and asked to remove all names. No one is taking any chances on being identified.

I got in under tourists…but then again it was also last year at this time. Not AS sensitive.

I think that with the current situation the best thing would be to cross over the boarder with a tourist visa. Usaually you can talk your way through more at border corssing rather then airports. Again like everyone else said, go in as a tourist nad try to keep the gear low profile. I am thinking about going the Mea Sot route if I go.

I’d say head to mae sot and try from there, the sleepy border places often work better.

Getting a visa in Bangkok seems to have got harder. I went around a few visa agents (i thoought playing the tourist card and not show my face at the embassy was better): some say 3 days, some 5, some can’t guarantee a visa, some say you can’t get one now. I’ll try the embassy tomorrow… As for the overland route, as someone pointed out, you still need a visa, and no, they are not available at border crossings.

I went to Embassy in Philippines today, and while you can get it….it will take close to 5 days. Make sure you do not have any journalist stamps in your passport or its a no for sure it is looking like.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070926/ts_afp/myanmarprotesttoll_12

Myanmar officials said at least three monks were killed, including one who was shot as he tried to wrestle a gun away from a soldier. Two other monks were beaten to death, they told AFP.

A fourth person, who was not a monk, was dead on arrival at Yangon General Hospital with gunshot wounds, a hospital source said.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/09/26/regional/regional_30050318.php

I have been to Burma three times in the past with the Canadian military on various missions and ceremonies, but I would think the Burmese authorities/embassys would be seriously reluctant to issue ANY visas at this time.

Meanwhile, there are some very good images of the protests here from the Democratic Voice of Burma: http://english.dvb.no/photo1.php The page takes a while to load. There are many, many photos here which give an up-close look at the violence and the sheer size of the protests over there.

Sgt Frank Hudec

Photographer/Canadian Forces Combat Camera Reserve Team

www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca

www.frankhudec.ca

I hope someone is there not only with their camera but also their Microtrack (or whichever sound recorder you may use):
“Suddenly there was what sounded like an enormous explosion: a clap of thunder. Monks and people cheer and applaud. A sign of cosmic solidarity.” http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1665607,00.html

"Yogmaya, who could be called Nepal’s first woman poet, gives us some indication of how widespread anti-Rana sentiment was at the time. She was a Bahun-caste girl from the Arun valley in East Nepal who was married, and also widowed, while still a child. She then left home to remarry and have a child in nearby Darjeeling, India. Later she returned – with no husband or child to show for herself, and having discarded her caste – to set up a hermitage near her birthplace. There she railed against sanaatan dharma and Juddha Sumshere Jung Bahadur Rana’s rule – the ‘rule of evil’ – in her politically charged poems and prayers:

Going on pilgrimages to cleanse their sins,
Tyrants and cheaters rush there to die.
Earlier they plundered the belongings of the poor,
Now they pay their expenses with that loot.
[…]

Criticizing the caste system, opposing taxes levied on the poor and arguing for the end of child marriage and for the rights of widows to remarry, she issued a moral challenge to the maharaja. Her demand was for ‘darma raj’, a divine rule free of the power abuses of religion. In 1940 she and scores of her followers threatened to immolate themselves if the maharaja did not heed their call for darma raj. Many of her followers were of the priestly Bahun caste; their deaths could shatter the maharaja’s moral credibility. He dispatched army troops to arrest them, hoping to prevent their deaths. But when they were released, Yogmaya led 69 of her followers to the fast-flowing waters of the Arun river, where they drowned themselves in protest."
Manjushree Thapa, “Forget Kathmandu”

“Yangon Hospital sources earlier said that a photographer believed to be Japanese had been killed. Two Japanese reporters, meanwhile, were expelled from Yangon on Wednesday, an official at Japan’s Kyodo news agency said. " "—reuters”:http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1382559

Bangkok Post: Burmese kill foreign photographers

http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=122094

As confirmed by the Embassy of Japan, the Japanese who was believed to have been killed in the recent incident is Kenji Nagai of APF, a broadband TV news agency in Tokyo. He had reported from Israel for many years, and this was the first time he ever entered Burma according to Asahi Shimbun in Japanese. He was not identified as a photographer, but as a journalist. According to the article Nagai had also reported from Southeast Asia. I note that APF has a branch in Bangkok.