The Kenji Nagai Award for Journalism was announced at the Burma Media Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand this week. The Burma Media Association created the award to honour the Japanese video journalist who was killed on the streets of Rangoon by a Burmese soldier during the saffron revolution of September, 2007. The inaugral award goes to imprisoned reporter Eint Khaing Oo, who reported the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in May, 2008 for the Eco-vision journal,

She was arrested on June 10 last year while covering a peaceful rally by Nargis victims. Police accused her of taking photos of the victims with the intention of sending those pictures to foreign media.

Eint Khaing was charged with committing a crime against public tranquility and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. According to her lawyer, Khin Maung Shein, she was merely doing her job. The news she reported was based on trustworthy sources and she did not send false news reports to other agencies. She is now in the notorious Insein Prison. link

Photograph of Eint Khaing Oo taken from Reporters without borders.

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win [a former intelligence officer for Burma’s ruling junta ], said: ‘Many more people have been killed in recent days than you’ve heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand.’ Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. He has now reached the border with Thailand. link

Meanwhile Ko htike has more eyewitness accounts and images of a dead monk floating in the Yangon river,

We saw on BBC world, saying that 200 monks were arrested. The true picture is far worse!!!!!!!!! For one instance, the monastery at an obscure neighborhood of Yangon, called Ngwe Kyar Yan (on Wei-za-yan-tar Road, Yangon) had been raided early this morning.

A troop of lone-tein (riot police comprised of paid thugs) protected by the military trucks, raided the monastery with 200 studying monks. They systematically ordered all the monks to line up and banged and crushed each one’s head against the brick wall of the monastery. One by one, the peaceful, non resisting monks, fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Then, they tore off the red robes and threw them all in the military trucks (like rice bags) and took the bodies away. link

Only the milita who surround the journalist are willing to be interviewed. When he asked them what they thought, as Buddhists, of the fact that the junta had shot monks, they replied that it was not the monks who were demonstrating, but rather people desguised as monks, paid by powerful westerners to plant the seeds of chaos in the country. "And one sees there all the effects of propaganda," states Payen. link

UPDATE: 00.08 Paris time

The junta, facing a wave of national protests against its rule, has agreed to a visit by Ibrahim Gambari, a U.N. undersecretary-general… "But then the demonstrators may come out in full force. Then there could be heightened tension as a result," Yeo told reporters after meeting British Foreign Minister David Miliband. "If he fails, then the situation can become quite dreadful," Yeo said. "He’s the best hope we have. He is trusted on both sides." link

UPDATE 09.04 Paris time. From Burma-Myanmar Genocide 2007,

29 Sep 07, 13:00 – MinZaw: An angry crowd is now gathering around Magol Road, downtown Yangon. 29 Sep 07, 11:00 – MyoThant: All internet connection are down in Myanmar. Some technicians comment that they might have tested news coverage yesterday by temporarily shutting it down. 29 Sep 07, 11:56 second man: Junta’s strategies to squash demonstrators have changed a bit. It is reported that they will be using snipers to shoot down leaders. More systematic approach to corner demonstrators from both sides like yesterday in Pansodan Street. 29 Sep 07, 11:30 – MyoThant: A group of 88-generation activists are urging UN and US & UK embassies in Rangoon to open a 1-page web service via WIFI access to general public just to submit news photos (with user name: 2007, pw: 2007). Please write to them to request this. link

From The Guardian,

A 39-year-old Burmese man who has taken part in this week’s protests in Rangoon spoke to the Guardian on condition of anonymity link

For updates throughout the weekend follow Burma-Myanmar Genocide 2007, Burmanews on Cbox, ko htike and (hopefully) newsblog. I will update as and when I can. UPDATE: 14:59 Paris time. More video out – purportedly from 27 September, 2007,

UPDATE: 15:08 Paris time. It appears naingankyatha, who is in Burma, has managed to get back online despite the internet outage to post more pics. This from 27 September, 2007, UPDATE: 15:46 Paris time from Trend

The demonstrators have been surrounded by security forces and pro-military vigilante groups, eyewitnesses said. The protesters are chanting slogans and taunting police, but no shots have so far been fired. The protest came as a United Nations special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, arrived in Rangoon. link

UPDATE: 22:29 Paris time ITN has some footage from today. The BBC has more of the same. UPDATE: 22:34 Difficult to know where this footage is from and when it was taken. The presence of soldiers would suggest it is recent,

UPDATE: 22:43 The Times has a piece on the visit of the UN rep. Ibrahim Gambari,

UN, Chinese and western diplomats are attempting to pressure the Burmese generals to allow Ibrahim Gambari, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Burma, to meet Ms Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been held under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years. "What Gambari’s got to do is be prepared to provoke a crisis," a western diplomat told The Times in Rangoon this afternoon." If the stakes are high enough, it will be difficult for [him] to avoid that. What’s essential is that the UN needs to keep alive the issues that the monks have raised." "What has happened over the last four weeks has come out of fundamental grievances and suffering. The generals are trying to say, ‘This is just a blip – we’re in control.’ We need to keep up the pressure…to go back to the normal mode of operating is just impossible." link

What appears to be footage of the Japanese photojournalist, 50 year old Kenji Nagai shot dead on the streets of Rangoon yesterday. Nagai was working for the Tokyo based APF video and photo agency. Killed for taking photos of protesters and soldiers. Here is an emailed tribute to Kenji Nagai on ko htike’s blog,

On behalf of the Burmese people I salute the courage of Mr Kenji Nagai, a Japanese journalist employed by the APF Tsushin based in Tokyo, who scarified his life whilst recording media footage of gun shots to educate the global citizens. link

UPDATE: Japan seeks the truth behind Kenji Nagai’s death,

Japan may suspend humanitarian aid to Myanmar once it has established the facts behind the killing of a Japanese photographer during anti-government protests, the top government spokesman said on Friday… …Photographer Kenji Nagai, 50, was shot dead on a Yangon street on Thursday. Pictures smuggled out of the country showed him taking photos with a small camera even as he lay dying… Quoting embassy doctors who examined the body on Thursday, Machimura said the bullet that killed Nagai had passed from the right side of his chest through the heart and back. link

UPDATE: 23:17 Paris time – more footage of what appears to be Burmese troops carrying away the body of Kenji Nagai. UPDATE 09:16 29 Sept, 2007. From The Hindustan Times,

Foreign Minister Nyan Win offered apologies, Kyodo news agency said on Saturday… The death of Nagai "was extremely regrettable and we will lodge a stern protest," Japanese officials quoted Komura as telling Nyan Win, Kyodo said. Nyan Win told Komura he was indeed sorry for the death, telling Japanese officials: "Demonstrations are beginning to calm down, and we would also like to exercise restraint," Kyodo said. link