Burma: The evening report

The latest from Burma this evening: Significantly more violence in the cities today, and a jarring decrease in the amount of hard news coming out. Bloggers and "citizen journalists" are still getting pictures and accounts out via the miracle of foreign proxies and sites hosted in other countries. But there's less and less making its way West than in previous days.

BBC has a somewhat insightful background piece on what's next for the junta. The short version is "we don't know", as this is truly uncharted water for all involved. Do the generals soften the line and make some gesture, empty though it may be, toward reconciliation? Or do they mow down another couple of thousand civilians and beat the opposition (further) back into the Stone Age?

There's no telling.

It is nice to see the international community, from the US to ASEAN to the ridiculous UN, making major noise about Burma. The US has frozen assets of the military elite - a nice gesture, but those clowns have their money stashed in too many banking havens for that to really matter.

ASEAN has expressed "revulsion" at events in the streets of Rangoon. This is pretty strong stuff from a body which has turned its head from all sorts of atrocities in its midst over the years.

The UN has managed to get special envoy Ibrahim Gambari signed up for a visit to Pyinmana. This is a bigger step than I expected from that useless talk-shop, and a bigger concession than I expected from Than Shwe. We'll see if anything comes of it.

Still nothing helpful from China or India. Shocking.

Rumors persist about the current whereabouts of Aung San Suu Kyi. The Brit ambassador told BBC that the number of guards on University Ave, Suu Kyi's street, lead him to believe she is still in her home. But word about town is she's been taken to the Burmese Lubyanka, Insein Prison (NOTE: This is an OLD link - it says Suu Kyi is there, and she may have been when the article was posted back in 2003. And, yes, I know what an appropriate name "Insein" is).

The protests are clearly comprised of disorganized civilians now. Raids last night on monasteries seem to have backfired against the government - the population is stirred up but good now. We'll keep our ears to the BBC and blog ground, and provide another update tomorrow.

Keep praying for the Burmese people.