IndiaPost.com - Junta steps up propaganda; UN says envoy's trip not a success

YANGON: Myanmar's military government stepped up its propaganda machine, calling foreign critics "liars" and filling state-controlled media with positive spin of the crushing blow it dealt to pro-democracy advocates.

Soldiers maintained a visible presence on the streets of Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, where an eerie quiet has returned after last week's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

The lakeside home of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi remained heavily guarded with about 200 riot police posted near her home, two dozen inside her compound and two patrol boats watching from the water.

Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest. With Internet access to the outside world blocked, state-controlled newspapers churned out the government's version of the country's crisis and filled pages with propaganda slogans, such as "We favor stability.

We favor peace," and "We oppose unrest and violence." Critics from the international community and foreign media were dismissed as "liars attempting to destroy the nation" - one of many bold-faced slogans covering The New Light of Myanmar newspaper's back page. Newspapers made no mention of Buddhist monks being detained for their role in protests or of soldiers dragging people from their homes in night time raids.

Instead, coverage was devoted to pro-government rallies that have been held in stadiums around the country in recent days, such as one in the southeastern town of Myiek that New Light of Myanmar said was attended by 36,000 people. Critics say the rallies are shams filled with people ordered to attend by authorities. Analysts suggest the junta's grip may be transient. "Maybe the government can control this for the next weeks, months, maybe a year or so" David Steinberg, a Myanmar expert at Georgetown University in Washington, told The Associated Press.

"But eventually there will be some spark that will set things off and they (the people) will become more and more violent over time" he said in an interview in Singapore. "The frustration will come out with even more violence." UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in New York that his special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, had delivered "the strongest possible message" to Myanmar's military leaders about their bloody crackdown on democracy activists, but added that he couldn't call his four-day trip "a success."

Anti-junta demonstrations broke out in mid-August over a fuel price hike, then ballooned when monks took the lead last month. But the military crushed the protests a week ago with bullets, tear gas and clubs. The government said 10 people were killed, but dissident groups put the death toll at up to 200 and say 6,000 people were detained, including thousands of monks.