It probably comes as no surprise that as far as internet censorship goes, the Burmese junta is one of the most restrictive in the world. Current figures put internet usage within the country at .6%, which is primarily dial-up. The vast majority of people must access the internet through cafes, which are also obliged to report on their clients' usage - as they also do in China.

The Open Net Initiative has released a detailed report on internet censorship in the country. You can read the full report here: http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/burma

There are primarily two ISP's within the country, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and Bagan Cybertech, which is a semi-private company. The report indicates that the country has begun switching over to a 'Fortiguard', a filter and firewall product from Fortinet - a US company. Fortinet's spokesperson says that the company only sells to resalers, and therefore was unaware that they're product had been purchased by the Junta. However, the ONI researchers had this to say on the matter:
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Exploration is well under way by Daewoo of the natural gas feilds off the coast of Arakan State in western Burma. Arakan State borders Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal, and is home to the Arakanese (Rakhine) and the Rohingya, Burma's muslim minority. Read about it here: History of Arakan State.

For the last several months, I've been editing stories via email every day for Narinjara News, covering Arakan State. The stories are brief, and come plainly stating news that should all rights be shocking. Its been through bits and peices in these articles that I've learned about this place and the people there. Its only been with today's article on the Shwe Gas project, and my subsequent decision to finally google something, that the sequence of news events as they've been coming to me have seemed to coalesced into a disturbing pattern.

Daewoo stands to earn an annual profit of $100 million from the project. Here's what the people of Arakan state have gotten lately:   more »