Burma and New Media: Aung San Suu Kyi to Join Twitter? (Siddique)

Haroon Siddique writes for The Guardian of London:

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi intends to start tweeting once she is released from house arrest in order to communicate with the younger generation, her lawyer said today.

The Nobel laureate has been in prison or under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years but her current detention is due to end on 13 November. Analysts believe her sentence was designed to keep the 65-year-old locked away during Burma's first election in 20 years, scheduled for 7 November.

Burmese electoral officials said today that foreign media would not be allowed into the country to report on the vote. The election commission also reiterated that it would not allow foreign observers to monitor the polls, which have been widely condemned as a sham designed to cement nearly 50 years of military rule.

Aung San Suu Kyi's detention was extended in August last year after she was convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest by briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside residence. There has been no official announcement from the ruling junta about whether she will be freed on 13 November.

Her lawyer, Nyan Win, who has visited her twice in the past week, said: "She told me she wants to use Twitter to get in touch with the younger generation inside and outside the country. She wishes to be able to tweet every day and keep in touch."

Aung San Suu Kyi has no phone line or any access to the internet, although she has a laptop computer, added her lawyer, who described her as technology savvy.

Her National League for Democracy party (NLD) has denounced the forthcoming elections as unfair and undemocratic, and is boycotting them, leaving the race without a strong opposition.

The chairman of the election commission, Thein Soe, said diplomats would be given a tour on polling day so there was "no need to invite foreign observers".

"Representatives in Rangoon who are working for foreign media can cover the elections and no foreign journalists will be allowed," he said.

The main junta-backed party is the only party strong enough to field candidates in almost every constituency.

Burma's last election was in 1990. Foreign journalists were allowed into the country to cover the vote, which resulted in a landslide win for the NLD.

Thein Soe said that next month's election would see 40,000 polling stations and more than 29 million eligible voters.

There are 400,000 internet users in Burma, a country of about 60 million people, with the vast majority in the former capital Rangoon and the second largest city of Mandalay, according to July statistics from the state-run post and telecommunication ministry.