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Following are some headlines from the English-language New Light of Myanmar, a newspaper that functions as the regime’s mouthpiece (the headlines describe September’s peaceful protests after which thousands of people were arrested and hundreds are feared dead at the hands of government soldiers):

"Internal, External Destructionists Applying Various Means to Cause Unrest, Instability"

"People and Security Forces Grapple with Violent Protestors who Attack them with Weapons in Yangon"

"11 Violent Protestors Arrested Together with their Weapons"

"Inquiry Under Way to Expose Manipulators from Behind the Scenes"

The “inquiry” is in fact a manhunt on a massive scale. Each night, when the streets fell silent after the military-imposed curfew, I sat at the window of my hotel room and watched police cars and army trucks drive past on their way to track down and arrest anyone who had been involved in the protests.

In an environment where reality is malleable and the local media is distorted by propaganda and censorship, rumours offer an alternative source of information. Among the rumours I heard while I was in Burma are the following:

Some 300 monks escaped to the Thai border and they are now armed with weapons and marching towards Rangoon to fight back against the junta...

The regime’s soldiers wept after they killed monks on the streets, and hundreds were imprisoned for refusing to follow orders and shoot their own clergy...