It's not easy getting through to Burma at the moment. The military dictatorship there has been doing everything it can to cut off the country's links with the outside world, including shutting down the Internet and mobile-phone networks. So I was elated when I finally managed to complete a long-distance call to Kyaw Win (not his real name). Win, whose number in Rangoon was given to me by some Burmese exiles, is a veteran of Burma's pro-democracy movement. He's a member of what's known as the "88 Generation"—activists who took part in massive protests that shook the country back in 1988.

That makes him a particularly interesting person to ask about what's happening in the country right now. Over the past two days the news for the current anti-government movement hasn't been encouraging. By most accounts the regime's soldiers and police have largely succeeded in neutralizing the Buddhist monks who gave such a powerful impetus to the opposition when they joined street protests earlier this month. The security forces have cordoned off monasteries, confining some monks inside and arresting hundreds, if not thousands, of others. Many demonstrators have been beaten and detained; dozens of people (no one knows the precise number) have been shot. And the government's success in curtailing the flow of information to the outside world has also made its work easier. Small wonder that some media accounts are making it sound as though the government has already triumphed.

If activists like Win are any indication, though, Burma's opposition isn’t dead yet. The monks may have been checked for the moment, he says, but protesters have still been taking to the streets of Rangoon in what he calls "guerilla demonstrations," with small groups melting away when challenged by the military and then reappearing elsewhere. Meanwhile, he says, the opposition is preparing for a new stage of defiance by making plans for a general strike. Just days ago, according to Win, representatives of the monks and the pro-democracy movement formed a "steering committee" to coordinate the next round of protests. They plan to call upon civil servants and technical personnel to join in a nationwide strike. That approach is designed to capitalize on widespread popular indignation over the government's brutal treatment of the monks. "Don't worry about our future," he says. "People know their duty, they know what they should do."

Continued