The Military spokesperson Captain Phyo Wei Lin “accused the defendants of sending news and facts to the foreign media”, according to Mizzima News.

U Tint, one of the accused has said: “We don't know about this Electronic Law and also don't know about the Video Law, as we cannot see movies regularly in our rural area,” adding “we are in trouble now and we are on the run.”

Three villagers arrested on the 20th October were later prosecuted under the Electronic Law after the initial case was brought under the Official Secrets Act. This was later changed after the Military realised the preposterous nature of charging the farmers for “making a photograph of an Army establishment.”

The Electronic Law has been used by the Junta to prosecute and persecute activists, bloggers and politicians who are critical of the regime.

The ILO has long cited Burma as a country using forced labour and murdering workers unwilling to work.

Burma has clamped down on all forms of electronic activities since the ‘Saffron Revolution” last year when Monks all over the country protested against the Military Regime. The protests and the subsequent brutal suppression was broadcast all over the world via the internet, bringing international condemnation and great scrutiny on the activities of the Junta.

Judge Daw Soe recently sentenced Nay Phone Latt to a total of twenty years and six months for possession of a banned video and having a blog to express his concerns about the increasingly difficulty of Burmese people to voice their opinions since the protests last year.

Nay was first arrested in January but was released, along with a handful of National League for Democracy (NLD) politicians, a few hours later but was arrested again a few days later. Since then he has been held at Insein Prison, infamous for grotesque treatment of its political prisoners.

Nay Latt’s mother wasn’t allowed into the courtroom to see her son get sentenced for a crime that she expected him to get ten to twelve years.
When he was sentenced to twenty years and six months it served as a shock to not just her but Nay’s lawyer as well.

“The blogger's lawyer was himself jailed for criticising the special court's procedures,” reports Reporters without Borders, who have also published that the celebrated poet Saw Wai has been sentenced to two years in prison for a poem that stated that Dictator Than Shwe is power crazy.

What does this mean for the Constitution that was rushed through regardless of Cyclone Nargis’ devastating impact on the country?
Well, a document that secures 110 out of the 440 seats for the military illustrates that the Junta are firmly in control and do planning to cave into the international pressure put on the country and the shuttle diplomacy of UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari.

The seemingly liberal and enlightened Constitution guarantees basic rights, such as freedom to form political parties and unions; the freedom of press; religion and the rights of minorities is a far cry from the laws used to sentence Nay Latt and Saw Wai.

With the long awaited visit of UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, pending, it is hoped that he can make some headway with a Junta determined to stonewall any progress to free Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from her twenty years’ house arrest, let alone grant the rights enshrined in the Constitution.

With the international media and public moving onto the cause de jour, the pressure has eased off of the secretive Junta. With the first anniversary of Nargis looming it seems as though the country has been in stasis with the Military not even wishing to pay lip service to their masterpiece (the Constitution), which took nearly twenty years to compete!