No one, in his right mind, would welcome this "world record": In just 48 hours, soldiers bludgeoned Burma, once a country of "gentle smiles and tea shops," into a nation of eerie empty monasteries and desaparecidos.

The "disappeared," British Broadcasting Corporation reports, range from six to ten thousand. Like the Marcos dictatorship's censored press, Burma's media claimed 200 were arrested, following the largest People Power-style protests in two decades.

Today, it grudgingly admits to 2,093 arrested. No figures of those killed are available.

This outstrips Philippine martial law arrests in September 1972. Argentenian mothers stenciled the word desparecidos into today's vocabulary of terror. But Argentenians didn't vanish, in comparable numbers, in so short a time, as Burmese victims did.

In this suppressed "Saffron Revolution", Buddhist monks make up a large proportion of the desaparecidos. With thousands of civilians at their side, they sought reforms from an incompetent paranoid regime Buddhisism is Burma's majority faith. The country has about 400,000 monks - roughly the same number as the military.

As they did in 1988 and 1990, the tatmadaw (armed forces) smashed demonstrators with force Buddhist monks were brutalized - and evaporated. "All must be treated as disappeared, not arrested, until their whereabouts and conditions are confirmed," Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in Hong Kong said.

US diplomats visited 15 monasteries and found them empty. Concertina barbed wire were strung across Shwedagon Pagodas and other shrines. "The story gets hidden. It's hard to see which monks have been 'disappeared'", a diplomat said.

Filipinos will find it hard to grasp this Orwellian image. It'd resemble this province's cathedral padlocked, along with shrines, like Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Bacalaran and the Muslim mosque in Quiapo. Monasteries of Carmelites, Benedictines to Pink Sisters would be forcibly emptied

Not so, the Burmese foreign minister told the UN General Assembly "Normalcy" has returned to our cities." It is proving "normalcy of the graveyard."

In overnight curfew, arrests continue, says Shari Villarosa, who heads the US Embassy in Rangoon. Many are hauled to the notorious Insein prison, Kyaikkasan race track or old government buildings, empty since the junta uprooted the capital to Naypyidaw.

Padlocking of Internet cut media coverage drastically. "It was about as simple and uncomplicated as shooting demonstrators in the streets," New York Times reported.

"Embarrassed by smuggled video and photographs that showed their people rising up against them, the generals who run Myanmar simply switched off " Burma's only two Internet service providers.

Soldiers confiscated cameras and video-recording cellphones. Few images since have come through. "Myanmar's military seemed prepared to cut the country off from the virtual world just as it had from the world at large."

As Marcos did, the junta also cut off most telephone and fax access. "The junta turned to the oldest tactic of all to silence opposition: fear. (Those) caught transmitting information or using cameras are threatened and arrested. It is not clear how much longer the generals can hold back the future"

Outwitting censors of a repressive government is now a major game. Senator Benigno Aquino used a courier or "carrier pigeon" to smuggle his protests to Bangkok newspapers under the nose of Marcos censors. Burmese do exactly the same. Some slip their material to embassies or non-government organizations with satellite connections.

"Within hours, the images and reports broadcast back into Myanmar by foreign radio and television stations, informing and public that hears only propaganda from its government." Burmese stay glued to BBC, Voice of America, CNN, as did Filipinos during martial law. Through SMS text messages, Catholic priests in Burma plead on behalf of suppressed Buddhist monks.

Blog sites on Burma have sprang up. One lists "Ten Things You Can Do to Help Protestors." The suggestions range from a simple signing of petition to e-mailing "your country's embassy in Burma as well as "companies still in Burma".

General Than Shwe, the paranoid 74-year-old junta leader, agreed to meet the detained opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate General Than Shwe, the paranoid 74-year-old junta leader, is supposed to meet the detained opposition leader Au Saang Suu Kyi.

This is welcome. But history cautions against pinning too much hope on this meeting. "Back in 1988, many Burmese felt sure the rotten regime was ready to collapse under the unstoppable force of "people power," as the Marcos regime in the Philippines had two years earlier," the Economist noted. But (they) did not fully reckon on the ruthlessness of the people they were up against.

"(This is the) story of how the people of Myanmar rose against the regime and the regime rose against the people. The soldiers have the guns. The monks have the public's support and the courage and determination to defy the regime. But when an immovable junta meets unstoppable protests, much blood is spilled."

(E-mail: juan_mercado@boholchronicle.com)