new delhi -- Attempting to stop the flow of violent images that have galvanized international condemnation of Myanmar, the country's military government Friday tried to shut down access to the Internet and cellphone service.
On the third day of the clampdown on largely peaceful protests, authorities closed Internet cafes and suspended two key service providers, but embassies and companies linked by satellite to the Web remained online.
The protests pose the stiffest challenge to the government since 1988, when thousands of pro-democracy protesters were massacred in Yangon, the country's principal city.
Soe Myint, a longtime dissident and India-based editor of the Myanmar-focused website Mizzima News, said that though cellphone service had been disrupted, some protesters were able to communicate with text messages.
Photographs and video continued to trickle out, and this morning, Reuters news agency said, Internet service was restored briefly but failed again.
Friday's images showed protesters challenging and fleeing advancing riot police and soldiers amid dark fumes in Yangon, also known as Rangoon.
One young man ripped open his shirt and shouted angrily at the security forces ranged in front of him, as if daring them to shoot.
"Modern technology has become the generals' worst enemy. There were only rusty phones, if you could get through [in 1988]," said Bertil Lintner, a Myanmar expert and author of several books on the country.
Graphic video also emerged of what appeared to be a soldier firing point-blank at veteran Japanese photojournalist Kenji Nagai, who was killed Thursday. Nagai was shown lying on the ground, his camera still held up in his hand, as a soldier pointed his rifle at him. Tokyo has demanded an explanation from the Myanmar government.
Nagai was one of nine fatalities that were acknowledged by state media during protests Thursday in Yangon against 45 years of autocratic and brutal military rule. One death was reported Wednesday
Diplomats and activist groups in exile say the death toll is surely higher, possibly 100 to 200 people, their bodies quickly carted away by army or police trucks to prevent an accurate count.
"We really cannot know," Myint said. "We may not know for some time."
The streets of Yangon were quieter Friday as the military regime confined protesting monks to their monasteries and broke up smaller crowds of demonstrators with batons and warning shots.
