On the eve of the first anniversary of the week-long Saffron
Revolution, the websites of three leading Burmese news agencies in
exile have come under attack, rendering them inaccessible since the
afternoon of September 17.

Distributed Denial of Services (DdoS) attacks overwhelmed the
websites of the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), "The Irrawaddy"
and the "New Era Journal". Under DDOS attacks, websites are flooded
with so much automated requests for data that their respective
systems effectively get jammed.

The websites of the three Burmese news agencies have not been
responding to their requests since Wednesday afternoon.

"It is pretty certain that we are under attack. We were  attacked
at about 11 a.m. today," Toe Zaw Latt, chief of DVB Thailand bureau
told Mizzima.com, an Alerts partner of the Southeast Asian Press
Alliance (SEAPA). Mizzima, which is also an independent news
service run by exiled Burmese in New Delhi, India, itself
experienced a similar DDOS attack last July.

"The Irrawaddy" magazine, an independent news provider run by
Burmese journalists exiled in Chiang Mai, Thailand, said its
website has been facing problems since Tuesday evening.  "We can
confirm today (18 September 2008) that we are being attacked," Aung
Zaw, editor-in-chief of "The Irrawaddy" told Mizzima.

The Bangkok-based "New Era Journal" also confirmed that its website
is also under attack.

This is the second attack against the Oslo-based DVB in the past
three months.
The webmaster of the DVB said it is difficult to determine the
level of the attack, adding that they could not predict when the
sites will be accessible again.
"We do not know who is behind all this, but it is certain that
these are deliberate attacks," Toe Zaw Latt said.

Mizzima noted, meanwhile, that Internet speed has also been down in
Rangoon since Wednesday morning between 10 am to 3 pm. As a result,
several Internet cafes in downtown Yangon reportedly had to close.
Sources said Internet connection only resumed at its regular speed
at 6 pm.

September 18 marks the anniversary of the start of street protests
in Yangon which built up to a violent military crackdown in Burma
last year. Burmese journalists--both inside and outside the
country--have been worried about how Burma's junta might deal with
the anniversary of what has come to be known as the "Saffron
Revolution".