Sun Sep 30, 7:19 AM ET

OSLO - Using secret material smuggled out of Myanmar, the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma's radio and TV stations are a key source of information for those inside and outside the country on the government's crackdown on protesters.

As demonstrators clash with troops in a nation with no independent media, exiled journalists and workers broadcasting from a sleek office in the Norwegian capital hope their work will help end military rule in their homeland.

Undercover local journalists secretly film and record events, risking arrest and torture to send footage and facts to the station. Material is smuggled out by airline passengers or diplomats, or sent by e-mail.

As protests grew last week, the station found itself providing film to the world's broadcasters largely unable to get their own material from inside Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

"Our station is a key factor in making a change," Khin Maung Win, a 42-year-old veteran of 1988 protests which ended in bloodshed with a military crackdown, told Reuters.

"In 1988, Burma was a completely closed country. There was no media coverage. Now everyone is watching."

With about a dozen from its staff of 100 in Oslo, the newsroom is alive with discussion about events half a world away. "Never report rumors" says a sign on the wall alongside a painting of democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Democratic Voice of Burma broadcasts by shortwave radio. It also beams satellite television for several hours a day.

Funded by the governments of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the United States and the Netherlands, the broadcaster has increased its output and most staff have almost doubled their hours since protests led by Buddhist monks began earlier this month.

TUNING IN

Myanmar's government last week blocked Internet access but people in Myanmar continued to talk to the station by mobile phone, Win said.

Before the protests, the station estimated its radio programs reached about 13 million of Myanmar's 56 million people and its satellite television about half of the estimated 10 million viewers in the country.

"Nowadays, we think everyone is tuning in," he said. "People are watching and listening publicly. People are proud when their voices are heard on the air -- they would never have that chance with state media."

Mobile and satellite phone calls are its main expense, Win said, adding that last week alone the station spent its usual annual total of nearly $100,000 on communications. Governments that support the radio have pledged more funds.

Working for the station is a crime in Myanmar, and the staff worry about the safety of their workers and family members. Some staff in Oslo avoid communication with families back home for fear of endangering them.

The broadcaster also sees a role for itself in a free Myanmar. "In the past we were effectively propaganda for the pro-democracy movement," Win said. "Now, we try to be objective so we can become the independent media of a free Burma."

There is cause for optimism, Win says. The station reported that some army units refused to fire on protesters or monks -- signs of a potential split in the military, he said.

He said a transition would have to be gradual and he hoped a U.N. envoy visiting the country would be able to persuade the military rulers to allow a step-by-step transfer of power.

A sudden collapse of central rule could be disastrous, Win said. "There are so many ethnic groups in the country," he said. "There are many people with weapons but no education. It could become another Yugoslavia... or another Iraq."

Sun Sep 30, 5:37 AM ET

YANGON - UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari met Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Sunday in the main city Yangon after he earlier held talks with junta leaders, a security official said.

"They held a meeting of about one hour and 15 minutes," the source told AFP after Gambari met the democracy icon at a government guest house in the city formerly called Rangoon, their first meeting since November 2006.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the 62-year-old head of the opposition National League for Democracy and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been under house arrest in Yangon for most of the past 18 years.

Gambari, a Nigerian-born diplomat, arrived in Yangon earlier Sunday after meetings in the secluded capital Naypyidaw, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Yangon, with junta leaders, diplomats said.

Gambari arrived in Naypyidaw on Saturday for talks, in which he was expected to convey international outrage over the regime's violent crackdown on mass demonstrations that erupted two weeks ago.

"Gambari was in Naypyidaw yesterday where he met junta leaders, including reportedly Senior General Than Shwe," a Western diplomat in Yangon told AFP, referring to the junta's number one figure.

He said there was no information yet as to the content of their talks.

Sun Sep 30, 1:43 AM ET

TOKYO - Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka left for Myanmar Sunday to probe the killing of a Japanese journalist by troops during pro-democracy protests in Yangon.

The body of video journalist Kenji Nagai bore signs that he was shot at point-blank range and died almost instantly, according to his employer who saw his remains in hospital.

Japan, one of Myanmar's leading donors, will demand the military regime punish those responsible for the killing if it was found to be deliberate, Japanese media reported on Saturday.

Yabunaka was seeking to meet with Foreign Minister Nyan Win, Home Affairs Minister Maung Oo and other Myanmar leaders during his three-day visit to Yangon, the foreign ministry said.

"I will seek a full account of the incident and demand safety guarantees for Japanese nationals," Yabunaka told reporters at Tokyo's Narita airport. "I want to tell them to hold a dialogue with pro-democracy forces and pave the way for democracy."

Tokyo is considering such actions as recalling its ambassador and reducing or suspending technical assistance to the country, Kyodo News said.

Nagai, 50, covered trouble spots around the world for the Tokyo-based video news service APF News. He was he first foreigner killed in Myanmar's bloody crackdown on anti-government protests.

APF News president Toru Yamaji, 46, met on Saturday with a doctor who carried out a post mortem examination on the journalist, according to the company.

"Mr. Nagai was shot point-blank at about one metre (three feet) range and he was in an instant-death situation," Yamaji quoted the doctor as telling him, according to APF News staff in Tokyo.

"He was presumed to have been struck by a single bullet which entered his body from the left side of his back and pierced through the right chest breaking a few ribs," he said.

"I came fact to face with Mr. Nagai and the reality of his death sank in again. I stared into his face for some time before telling him, 'Let's call it a day and come home together,'" Yamaji was quoted as saying.

Japan in 2003 suspended low-interest loans for major projects, such as infrastructure, to protest against the continued detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But Japan says aid continues for emergencies and humanitarian purposes.

Sun Sep 30, 1:28 AM ET

BANGKOK - Despite global outrage over Myanmar's bloody crackdown on dissent, multinational firms are still vying for the country's rich natural resources, throwing an economic lifeline to the military regime.

US energy giant Chevron, French oil group Total and China's top oil producer China National Petroleum Corporation are among companies giving much-needed income to Myanmar, defying activists' calls to pull out.

"All these profits go to the regime. These companies don't care about human rights and what is going on in Yangon," said Debbie Stothard, a coordinator of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Myanmar, a regional pro-democracy body.

Myanmar's junta has been condemned worldwide for launching an offensive against protesters in its main city Yangon, killing at least 13 people, including a Japanese journalist, and jailing hundreds more.

US President George W. Bush last week unveiled new sanctions on the country's ruling generals in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy also urged his country's businesses, including Total, to freeze their investments in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, which has been ruled by the military since 1962.

Total has a 31 percent stake in Myanmar's major Yadana project, which would carry gas from fields in the Andaman Sea to power plants in Thailand.

The project is jointly run by the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, Thailand's top oil exploration firm PTTEP, and US firm Unocal, which has been bought by Chevron. Chevron owns a 28-percent stake in the Yadana fields.

Japan's Nippon Oil Corp., South Korean's Daewoo International, Malaysia's state-run energy firm Petronas, as well as two Indian power giants, Gail India and Oil and Natural Gas Corp., are also jockeying for billion-dollar contracts.

Nippon Oil said there would be no change in its Myanmar operations following the bloody crackdown on demonstrations, which had steadily grown since August 19 following a massive hike in fuel prices for ordinary people.

"We see the political situation and energy business as separate matters," said a company spokesman in Tokyo. He declined to say how much Nippon Oil has invested in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

A spokesman for Daewoo, which recently discovered record gas reserves in Myanmar, declined to comment on the clampdown but said: "If South Korea decided to impose sanctions against Myanmar, we would have counterplans for that."

Apart from natural gas, global companies are also seeking Myanmar's teak, forest products, jade, gems, beans and textiles.

"China and Thailand are the major buyers of teak and jade. They just want short-term business interests. They don't care about the lives of Burmese people," said Aung Thu Nyein, a Thai-based Myanmar analyst.

Neighbouring Thailand is the biggest buyer of Myanmar's exports, and Thai firms have also heavily invested in the agriculture and tourism sectors in the military-run country.

Another big neighbour, India, is also flexing its economic muscle. Major state-run infrastructure firm RITES has committed to spending 130 million dollars to develop a port in Sittwe, 560 kilometres (350 miles) west of Yangon.

Indian telecom firm TCIL and pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila are among Indian firms operating in Myanmar.

Russia, which has called the crackdown an "internal matter," also announced in May it would help build a nuclear research centre in Myanmar.

Aung Thu Nyein praised Bush's tough measures against the junta and urged the world to follow the lead of the United States, a vocal critic of Myanmar, in an effort to pressure the military government.

"The world must be united in terms of imposing sanctions against Burma. Otherwise, sanctions remain useless against the junta," he said.

The US has imposed sanctions due to Myanmar's human rights abuses, including the detention of 62-year-old pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past 18 years under house arrest in Yangon.

In the wake of Myanmar's crackdown, the US government ordered a freeze on the assets of junta leader General Than Shwe and 13 other senior officials.

Sun Sep 30, 1:24 AM ET

RYE, N.H. - Sen. John McCain said Saturday that the United States and Myanmar's neighbors need to be tougher on the military junta responsible for this week's brutal crackdown on demonstrators.

The Republican presidential hopeful said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations should be told to "kick these guys out."

"We should be putting every sanction on them that we can think of," said McCain. "We should have every place in the world talking about how this kind of thing doesn't work anymore."

McCain, speaking outside a supporter's oceanfront home, described his meeting 10 years ago with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been under house arrest for years. He called her the most impressive person he has ever met and noted that she refused to leave Myanmar to see her dying husband in England because she would have been banned from returning.

"She is a woman that's so remarkable, it's hard for me to describe to you," he said.

McCain said later that he was not trying to conjure up the more than five years he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

McCain does highlight his war-hero biography in new ads being aired in New Hampshire that show him as a wounded Navy pilot answering questions from his prison bed and returning to the United States from Vietnam.

Such heavy advertising would not have been possible a few months ago, before McCain's broke campaign underwent major political, financial and organizational upheaval. A day before the end of the third financial quarter, McCain said he is satisfied with his fundraising levels.

The demonstrations in Myanmar, also known as Burma, began last month, sparked by anger over massive fuel price hikes. The government admits to 10 deaths in the crackdown that began Wednesday, though opposition groups say up to 200 people were killed.

President Bush has imposed sanctions on key leaders in the Myanmar regime. The Southeast Asian organization to which McCain referred issued its sharpest-ever condemnation of the regime, calling the crackdown "repulsive."