Burma Update

1. Burma rates foreign media 'worst than cyclone'
2. Than Shwe 'ordered troops to execute villagers'
3. Cyclone refugees threatened with relocation
4. Cyclone victims migrating to Thailand
5. Disease spreads through Burma
6. Rights groups report post-cyclone abuses
7. Monks and students reject junta's constitution
8. Rights group: Myanmar exchanging food for labor
9. Indian cabinet approves bilateral investment promotion pact with Myanmar
10. Burma and the Bush Administration: It's time to intervene
11. Burma still blocking cyclone aid effort

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Burma rates foreign media 'worst than cyclone'
BangkokPost: 9/6/08

Rangoon (dpa) - Burmese state-controlled propaganda outlets on Sunday lashed out at foreign media that the despotic regime claims are spreading false news aboutaid efforts for victims of Cyclone Nargis in an effort to "undermine national unity."

"At present, some foreign broadcasting stations are making attempts to undermine the national unity under the pretext of Nargis," said The New Light of Myanmar, in an opinion piece under the title of "The enemy who is more destructive than Nargis."

The newspaper is an English language mouthpiece of the military dictatorship.

Cyclone Nargis swept through the central coastal region on May 2-3, leaving at least 133,000 dead or missing and 2.4 million in desperate need of humanitarian aid.

The ruling junta, whose past record of human rights abuses and dictatorial rule have won it pariah status for Western democracies, has drawn widespread criticism for hampering an international effort to get emergency aid to the regions hardest-hit by the cyclone where even now, a month after the catastrophe, up to a million people have yet to receive assistance.

There have been numerous reports of the military's attempts to monopolise aid distribution, or worse, have siphoned off international aid for their own benefit.

The New Light of Myanmar attributed such negative reports to foreign plots to undermine the government.

It cited a recent broadcast by "certain foreign radio stations" that claimed that packets of instant noodles meant for cyclone victims were being sold at public markets.

"I visited several markets to find out whether foreign-made instant noodle packets were on sale there," said the author, who identified himself as Ngar Min Swe. "I found them, but not many. The exaggerated news story was intended to destroy the generosity of donor countries and organisations.

"But we [Burmese people] were able to overcome the instigation of those broadcasting stations that are worse than Nargis," he concluded.

Burma has been under military rule since 1962, when former strongman Ne Win seized power with a coup and put the country on the disastrous "Burmese Way to Socialism."

Ne Win's nationalisation spree included all newspapers and radio stations, which have been under government control for the past 46 years. Foreign journalists are barred from working in the country and are only occasionally permitted to visit officially.

No visas have been issued to foreign journalists since Cyclone Nargis, although many have gone in as tourists.

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Than Shwe 'ordered troops to execute villagers' - Richard Lloyd Parry
VOA News: Sun 8 Jun 2008

The leader of the Burmese junta, Than Shwe, personally ordered the murder of scores of unarmed villagers and Thai fishermen, according to a senior diplomat and military intelligence officer who defected to America.

Aung Lin Htut, formerly the deputy chief of mission at the Burmese Embassy in Washington, described to a radio station how 81 people, including women and children, were shot and buried on an isolated island after straying into a remote military zone in the southeast of the country in 1998.

After one general hesitated to kill the civilians, fearing that the commander who had given the order was drunk, he was informed that it came from "Aba Gyi" or "Great Father" - the term used to refer to Senior General Than Shwe, the head of the junta.

A few days later troops from the same military base captured a Thai fishing boat that had strayed close to Christie Island in the Mergui Archipelago. The 22 fishermen on board were also shot and buried on the island. "I was a witness to the two incidents in which a total of about 81 people were killed," Mr Aung Lin Htut, formerly a major in military intelligence, told the Burmese language service of Voice of America. "All of them were unarmed civilians." In 46 years of military rule in Burma, there have been numerous reports of grave human rights violations but few have been attested by so well placed a source as Mr Aung Lin Htut. They come at a time when General Than Shwe and his regime are coming under scrutiny, after their refusal to allow a full scale relief operation for the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

The French Government has said that it comes close to being a "crime against humanity", and last week Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, called it "criminal neglect". If a tribunal like the ones established for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia is ever created for Burma, then Mr Aung Lin Htut will doubtless be called to give evidence.

He sought asylum in the US in 2005, along with six members of his family, after a purge against the country's prime minister and intelligence chief of the time by General Than Shwe destroyed the careers of a generation of intelligence officers. Given the control of information in Burma, his account is impossible to verify. But it has credibility because it is the first time since his defection that Mr Aung Lin Htut has made any public comment on his former masters.

In May 1998 he was stationed on Zadetkyi island, a frontline base close to Burma's maritime border with Thailand. The commander of the base was Colonel Zaw Min, who is now Minister for Electric Power and general secretary of the Union Solidarity and Development Association, the junta's grassroots organisation.

A unit led by the colonel landed on Christie Island and found 59 people living there to gather wood and bamboo, in violation of Burmese law. The order came back from headquarters that they were to be "eliminated".

Myint Swe, an air force general, said that he was a religious person, and that the matter should be handled delicately. He said that he was very concerned by the timing of the elimination order - just after lunch, a time when General Maung Aye, now the number two in the junta, was usually drunk.

Listen to VOA at: http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/1401487_dstus/25May2008VOA.mp3 

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Cyclone refugees threatened with relocation - Htet Yazar
Democratic Voice of Burma: Fri 6 Jun 2008

Local authorities in Rangoon division's Shwe Paukkan township are forcing cyclone victims out of makeshift refugee camps in town and threatening them with relocation to Arakan state if they refuse to leave. A refugee living in one of the camps in the township said they had been told they would be sent to Butheetaung-Maung Taw township if they did not return to their villages.

"We've been at this camp since the day after the cyclone hit our homes. So far we have received no assistance from the government and now the local authorities are forcing us to go back to our homes," the refugee said.

"They said those who refused to leave the camp would be relocated to Butheetaung-Maung Taw township in Arakan state with an allowance of 100,000 kyat," he said.

"We don't want to go and live there but we have no homes left to go to."

An aid volunteer who has been working in Shwe Paukkan said it would be impossible for the cyclone victims to return to their homes.

"These refugees have no money to rebuild their homes and the places where their houses used to be are now surrounded by water," the aid worker said.

"Now they are getting kicked out of the refugee camps, but they have nowhere to go," he said.

"The government has provided no assistance for them - they have had to rely on aid from private donors."

The United Nations has said that forced returns of cyclone refugees are unacceptable, but authorities are continuing to send victims back to their villages.

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Cyclone victims migrating to Thailand - Saw Yan Naing
Irrawaddy: Fri 6 Jun 2008

"I came to Thailand because the situation back in the Irrawaddy delta was becoming critical," said cyclone survivor Ma Win. "We had received no aid. My child was seriously sick and suffering from diarrhea. I was ill too; we only had boiled rice to eat for three days."

As soon as he heard about the disaster, Ma Win's husband left Thailand where he was working and headed home to Laputta to look for his wife and six-month-old son. They had survived the cyclone, but their house was destroyed. He immediately decided to take them back with him to Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border.

They traveled for nearly two days by bus, truck and foot and had to pay soldiers 500 kyat (US $0.43) at each army checkpoint along the road to Mae Sot. They arrived on May 7. Ma Win and her baby are now receiving care and are regaining their strength.

Ma Win is among some 100 Burmese cyclone victims who have arrived recently in Mae Sot, which borders the Burmese town of Myawaddy.

Mahn Mahn, a team leader for the Backpack Health Worker Team, a medical relief group that has been assisting the new arrivals, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday: "The cyclone victims are arriving separately - nearly 100 people so far. Some are from the Irrawaddy delta and some are from Rangoon. If they didn't lose their parents, they lost their sons or daughters."

Among the cyclone victims who have arrived recently are orphans. Some are currently sheltering at the Mae La refugee camp, at Dr Cynthia's Mae Tao clinic or in the Backpack office. Others are staying with relatives and friends in Mae Sot town, said sources.

"Some came here in the hope they would receive aid, said Mahn Mahn. "Most people have no plan. Some will stay here wherever they can. Others say they will look for jobs here in Mae Sot."

The newcomers mostly came from disaster hard-hit regions such as Kungyangone and Hlaing Tharyar in Rangoon division and Laputta, Myaung Mya and Ngapudaw in the Irrawaddy delta, according to sources in Mae Sot.

Tin Shwe, who works at the Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot, said that 49 new arrivals are now staying in the clinic and more refugees are expected.

Burmese social workers, such as Mar Mar Aye, are counseling the newcomers and providing some financial support.

Meanwhile, Thailand-based labor rights groups, Action Network for Migrants (Thailand) and the Mekong Migration Network, released a joint letter of appeal to the Thai government on June 4 saying requesting help for the cyclone victims while stressing: "The people of Burma will only migrate to Thailand if there is no other means of survival."

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, Adisorn Kerdmongkol, from the Action Network for Migrants, said, "If the survivors and the farmers cannot cultivate their land, I think most of them will migrate to Thailand."

The labor rights groups sent the joint letter of appeal to the Thai ministries of the interior, labor and social development and human security, calling for Thai authorities to allow Burmese migrants to return home to visit families who were affected by the cyclone, but then be allowed to return to Thailand.

The groups also urged the Thai government to ensure that the Burmese military authorities provide full protection to the cyclone victims in terms of shelter, food, medical care, reconstruction and restoration of livelihoods.

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Disease spreads through Burma
Agence France Presse: Fri 6 Jun 2008

Dysentery, typhoid and other diseases are spreading through Myanmar's notorious Insein Prison after Cyclone Nargis destroyed inmates' food supplies, a Thailand-based watchdog said on Friday.

The cyclone that hit five weeks ago ripped off roofs and flooded wards at Insein, which holds many of Myanmar's nearly 2 000 political prisoners, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said in a statement.

The group said in May that 40 people died in a riot in the prison during the cyclone after a fire broke out. Security forces opened fire to quell the violence, while four political prisoners were later tortured to death during interrogations, AAPP said.

The storm ripped the roof off the prison's food warehouse, leaving most of its stocks rotting. The International Committee of the Red Cross delivered fresh food, but these supplies have already run out, AAPP said.

Now prison authorities are giving inmates rotten food, which has caused outbreaks of disease, hitting female prisoners especially hard, the group said.

"The health situation of prisoners will worsen and become critical if they are fed that bad and inedible food any longer," said Tate Naing, AAPP's secretary.

"Contagious diseases will spread very quickly in a crowded place like a prison, if authorities do not take appropriate actions promptly."

Myanmar is believed to have at least 1 800 political prisoners, including 700 arrested in 2007 in a deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks.

Tate Naing said at least two of them are in serious ill health, including Myo Yan Naung Thein, who was arrested in December for joining the monks' protests.

He was beaten during interrogation and now requires assistance to walk, Tate Naing said.

Ohn Than, who was arrested in August after protesting outside the US embassy in Yangon, is suffering from cerebral malaria, which is now at a severe stage, he added.

More than 133 000 people are dead or missing following the cyclone, which struck on May 2-3. The United Nations estimates that one million hungry and homeless survivors have yet to receive any aid, despite the ruling junta's promises to speed up the relief effort.

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Rights groups report post-cyclone abuses - Wai Moe
Irrawaddy: Fri 6 Jun 2008

Burmese and international human rights groups have accused Burma's ruling junta of committing serious rights violations in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, heightening concerns that the regime's refusal to allow an open and transparent international relief effort is endangering the safety of victims of the deadly storm.

In a statement released on Friday, the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP) said that inmates of Rangoon's Insein Prison were being forced to eat spoiled rice, even after the International Committee of the Red Cross replaced "moldy, foul and inedible rice" damaged by exposure to rain.

AAPP said that a few days after prison authorities received the new rice, they reverted to using rice that had been stored in a warehouse when Cyclone Nargis ripped the roof off the building.

According to the group, the spoiled rice was causing intestinal problems such as diarrhea and dysentery, as well as other symptoms, including vomiting, dizziness, rashes and stomach swelling.

Meanwhile, leading international human rights advocacy group Amnesty International (AI) claimed on Thursday that the Burmese military junta has been misusing international aid and forcing cyclone victims out of emergency shelters.

In a report titled "Myanmar Briefing: Human rights concerns a month after Cyclone Nargis," AI said that the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) began evicting homeless cyclone survivors from government and unofficial relief camps after it declared an end to the rescue and relief phase of its disaster response on May 20.

The report also details cases of local officials "obstructing or misusing aid." Despite statements against such conduct by senior leaders, corruption continues to go unpunished, according to the report.

The group said that it had received over 40 reports or accounts of aid being confiscated by government officials, diverted or withheld instead of being handed to cyclone survivors.

AI's Burma researcher, Benjamin Zawacki, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that the report aims to alert the donor community of ongoing human right abuses and "ideally, to ensure that they will stop."

The main human rights concern after the cyclone was displacement in the affected areas, he said.

Zawacki also said that claims by the United Nations that its agencies had provided relief goods to one million survivors needed to be put into context.

"Even if it is correct that one million people have been reached, that simply means that they have received some formal assistance.

"That doesn't necessarily mean that it has been comprehensive or sufficient. Some formal assistance—that could be a single bottle of water for a single person," he said.

He also noted that more than 2.4 million were affected by the cyclone.

"So even if the UN's one million figure is correct, that is still less than half of all the people who need to have assistance," he said. "That is a really huge concern, as it shows that access to the Irrawady delta is still not what it should be."

Zawacki described the arrest of Burmese comedian Maung Thura, also known as Zarganar, on Thursday as a "message of intimidation" directed at political activists.

"By detaining him, the SPDC is seeking to send the message that political dissidents and people who are politically active should not be involved," the AI researcher said.

He added that by arresting Zarganar, the junta was contradicting an announcement it made on May 27, when it declared that individual donor were free to carry out relief work.

AI also published another Burma-related report on Thursday.

"Crimes against humanity in eastern Burma" deals with the Burmese army's ongoing military offensive against ethnic Karen civilians.

The offensive, which began two years ago, has involved widespread and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, according to the report.

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Monks and students reject junta's constitution - Aye Nai
Democratic Voice of Burma: Thu 5 Jun 2008

The All-Burmese Monks' Alliance, 88 Generation Students and All Burma Federation of Student Unions issued a joint statement yesterday rejecting the state constitution adopted by the military regime last week.

The organisations also urged the people of Burma and the international community not to accept the constitution that formally creates a repressive military class and legalises prolonged military rule in Burma.

Htun Myint Aung, a leader of the 88 Generation Students, told DVB that the statement was intended to firmly express that the constitution written in favour of the military and adopted by the junta by force was not acceptable.

"The constitution drafting process didn't follow democratic principles and it was written amid injustices," said Htun Myint Aung.

"The essence of the constitution doesn't reflect the public interest or that of ethnic nationalities; it is just systematically structured to permit a long-lasting military dictatorship in the country," he went on.

"Furthermore, it was adopted by force and deception and such a constitution is impossible to accept."

The statement stressed that parliamentarians elected in the 1990 election had not been allowed to participate in the constitution drafting process and citizens had been threatened and prevented from free participation in the process by degree 5/96 which mandated a prison term for critics of the National Convention.

Proposals put forward by ceasefire organisations for a federal system in Burma were also rejected.

In conclusion, the groups emphasised that the UN and the international community should not accept the "military constitution", which they said does not represent the will of the citizens.

"We have already documented how the national referendum was held amid gross injustice and deception and we are going to submit our findings to the UN, foreign governments and the international community," Htun Myint Aung said.

"We want the UN and international governments to know that diplomatic pressure does not work on Burma's military junta," he said.

"We want them to take practical and concrete action against the generals to stop their continuous repression and bring them to the negotiating table to solve the country's deep-rooted political impasse."

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Rights group: Myanmar exchanging food for labor
Associated Press: Thu 5 Jun 2008

Myanmar's military regime has forced cyclone survivors to do menial labor in exchange for food and stepped up a campaign to evict displaced citizens from aid shelters, an international human rights group said Thursday.

London-based Amnesty International also said authorities in several cyclone-hit areas continue to divert aid despite the junta's pledge to crack down on the problem weeks ago.

"Unless human rights safeguards are observed, tens of thousands of people remain at risk," Amnesty said in a report released Thursday. "Respect for human rights must be at the center of the relief effort."

More than a month after the storm, many people in stricken areas still have not received any aid and the military regime continues to impose constraints on international rescue efforts, human rights groups say.

U.S. Navy ships laden with relief supplies steamed away from Myanmar's coast Thursday, their helicopters barred by the ruling junta even though millions of cyclone survivors need food, shelter or medical care.

The USS Essex group, which includes four ships, 22 helicopters and 5,000 U.S. military personnel, had been off the Myanmar coast for more than three weeks hoping for a green light to deliver aid to the survivors.

"The ruling military junta in Burma have done nothing to convince us that they intend to reverse their deliberate decision to deny much needed aid to the people of Burma," Lt. Denver Applehans said in an e-mail from the flotilla.

"Based on this, the decision was made to continue with previous operational commitments," Applehans said.

Adm. Timothy J. Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in a statement Wednesday that the United States had made "at least 15 attempts" to convince the generals to allow them to deliver aid directly to victims in affected areas.

The government says Cyclone Nargis killed 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing.

Amnesty's report cites 40 accounts of Myanmar soldiers or local officials having confiscated, diverted or otherwise misused aid intended for cyclone survivors since the storm hit on May 2-3.

Although the junta has granted greater access to the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta, "recent incidents of corruption and diversion of aid suggest a potentially serious threat to effective distribution of aid," the report said.

Most of the cases that were cited involved authorities confiscating aid from private donors or arresting them for refusing to hand the aid over.

A major U.N. agency on Monday, however, caught junta officials trying to divert their aid after the officials insisted on accompanying the U.N. workers who were delivering it, Amnesty spokesman Benjamin Zawacki told a news conference in Bangkok. He declined to give additional details.

The report also cites several cases of forced labor in exchange for food in the delta.

In mid-May, people near the hard-hit delta township of Bogale were forced to "break rocks and level a field" to construct a helicopter landing pad in exchange for biscuits sent by the U.N.'s World Food Program, the report said.

Others in Bogale were given rice soup and shelter on condition they cleared debris and built an official camp, the report said, adding that authorities told displaced survivors in nearby Labutta they would not receive food unless they worked.

Meanwhile, a campaign to kick homeless survivors out of temporary shelters in schools, monasteries and public buildings appears to have intensified.

"Movement has been increasingly widespread geographically," Zawacki said. "It violates the human rights of those people to food, to shelter, to health and, perhaps, the right to life."

The junta, which explicitly rejected the use of foreign military helicopters in the relief effort, still has not authorized the entry of nine civilian helicopters flying on behalf of the U.N. World Food Program, though they have been sitting in neighboring Thailand since last week.

Restrictions on visa and travel permission for foreign workers, as well as on entry of some equipment, continue to hamper the aid effort, despite a pledge made almost two weeks ago by junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe to U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon to allow foreign aid workers free access to devastated areas, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Of the 2.4 million people affected, only 1.3 million survivors have so far been reached with assistance by local and international humanitarian groups, the Red Cross and the U.N., said the U.N's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

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Indian cabinet approves bilateral investment promotion pact with Myanmar
Kuwait News Agency: Thu 5 Jun 2008

India Thursday approved Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with neighbouring Myanmar as part of efforts to boost business ties. "A meeting of the Indian Cabinet here today presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave its approval to Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with the Government of the Union of Myanmar and ratification thereof," according to an official statement issued after the meeting.

"The objective of Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements is to promote and protect the interests of investors of either country in the territory of the other country," the statement said, adding, "The Agreement will increase investment flow between India and Myanmar." The Agreement shall remain in force initially for a period of 10 years. To protect existing investments, it has been provided that in respect of investments made before the termination of the Agreement, its provisions shall continue in effect with respect to those investments for a period of 15 years after the date of termination.

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Burma and the Bush Administration: It's time to intervene - Benedict Rogers and Joseph Loconte
The Weekly Standard: Thu 5 Jun 2008

THANKS LARGELY TO THE INHUMANITY of Burma's military dictatorship, the cyclone that devastated the country a month ago has left about 133,000 people dead or missing. Delayed and obstructed by the ruling junta, international assistance has yet to reach about a quarter of a million people affected by the storm. While the hopes and livelihoods of many have been swept away, there remains a lingering delusion: the notion that the "international community" retains either the moral sensibility or political will to confront the most despotic of regimes. The crisis in Burma confirms the indispensable need for American leadership.

The Burmese regime is guilty of atrocities far worse than the "criminal neglect" Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ascribes to them. It is guilty of crimes against humanity. Prior to the cyclone, the regime received dozens of warnings from India that the storm was on its way - yet did nothing to prepare its citizens. When the cyclone struck, the government sat on its hands and refused international help. Neither material aid nor aid workers were allowed to reach the victims, causing the needless deaths of tens of thousands. A trickle of assistance has gotten in, but aid workers are still restricted and much relief has been seized and sold on the streets. The junta now declares the relief phase is over: Its military thugs are forcibly evicting thousands of people from their shelters, even though they have no homes to return to. An estimated 2.5 million people have been displaced by this crisis.

While the United Nations has mostly ignored Burma, the Bush administration has put a spotlight on the regime. Apart from some helpful actions by the European Union, though, the United States has acted virtually alone in opposing the regime and supporting democratic resistance groups. The Bush White House has applied targeted sanctions against the government and brought numerous resolutions before the U.N. Security Council. In 2005, Bush met with a Burmese democratic dissident, Charm Tong, for 40 minutes in the Oval Office, to show solidarity and discuss the human rights situation in her country. Last September, in his annual address to the United Nations, Bush announced a new round of U.S. sanctions. Last month he again called for the release of all political prisoners and negotiations with democratic leaders. Meanwhile, First Lady Laura Bush has spoken out in defense of the Burmese people. She has written op-eds, held press conferences, hosted U.N. briefings, and pressed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take a harder line. The United States has the toughest and, in reality, the only meaningful foreign policy to confront the Burmese government.

Few nations match Burma for its record of atrocities. The ruling junta has carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against its ethnic minorities, involving the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, the forcible conscription of child soldiers, human minesweepers, torture, murder, and the destruction of over 3,200 villages. More than a million people have been internally displaced by military offensives aimed almost exclusively at civilians. Hundreds of thousands have fled to camps in Thailand or into India and Bangladesh.

While U.N. human rights bodies have given lip service to the cause of democracy, the Burmese leadership has assaulted its nation's fledgling democratic movement. The National League for Democracy (NLD) won elections in 1990 with more than 82 per cent of the parliamentary seats, but the junta rejected the results and imprisoned the victors. Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Laureate and leader of NLD, has spent more than 12 years under house arrest. Last month her detention was extended yet again - a fact loudly criticized by the Bush administration. More than 1,800 Burmese languish as political prisoners.

President Bush's "democracy agenda" is widely criticized for its failings and inconsistencies: Oil-producing autocrats, for example, get little attention. Yet the White House has made a significant, and surprising, investment in Burma's struggle for democratic freedom. It is surprising because Burma represents little strategic value to the United States. Domestic political pressure for U.S. engagement is, at best, minimal. Indeed, until the "Saffron Revolution" - in which peaceful demonstrations by Buddhist monks were brutally put down - Burma seldom received media attention.

The spectacle of Burma's self-induced catastrophe may yet prod political and media elites to admit an unpleasant possibility: There may be a certain moral necessity to Bush's democracy agenda after all.

Given the unflinching paralysis of the U.N. Security Council over Burma, what should the United States do? The United States, with a democratic coalition that could include Great Britain and France, should prepare immediately to intervene in Burma to ensure humanitarian aid reaches the tens of thousands of cyclone victims whose lives are still at risk. Defense Secretary Gates recently ruled out such action, but President Bush could overturn his judgment, given the ongoing humanitarian disaster.

U.N. apologists would decry a U.S.-led intervention as a breach of international law - but only by ignoring the "responsibility to protect" doctrine adopted by U.N. member states nearly three years ago. Under the U.N. doctrine, nations agree to take all possible measures - including the use of force - to protect civilians from gross human rights abuses. If the deliberate and calculated failure to protect and assist its own population in the face of a devastating catastrophe does not invoke the U.N. mandate, what does?

An intervention of this kind, even with its humanitarian objective, would not be without its risks. Yet the costs of inaction - the deaths of thousands of people, the emboldening of a murderous regime, the perception of American weakness - must also be weighed.

"Intervention will be seen as divine intervention by the Burmese people, not only to help the cyclone victims but also to finally free the entire nation from the military yoke," wrote a coalition of Burmese democracy groups to President Bush. "Please do not compare Burma with Iraq, because Buddhist monks, students, Burmese patriots will happily assist you with whatever you need to go inside Burma and help the cyclone victims and entire nation Many concerned Burmese citizens are willing to join the intervention. Please do not waste precious time."

Burma represents an opportunity not only to save lives, but to rescue the principle of humanitarian intervention from the forces of cynicism and moral cowardice. That may not amount to a final vindication of the Bush doctrine. But it could prove to be one of the most important legacies of his administration.

Benedict Rogers is a human rights officer with the London-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide and author of A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma's Karen People. Joseph Loconte is a senior fellow at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy and a frequent contributor to The Weekly Standard.

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Burma still blocking cyclone aid effort
The Nation (Thailand): Thu 5 Jun 2008

Asean needs to force the junta into seeing reason and opening up to international relief agencies

With hundreds of thousands of suffering people waiting for food, shelter and medicine, the Burmese junta continues to play cat and mouse with the international relief agencies. Thousands of lives could be saved if General Than Shwe really does what he promised to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when the two met in mid-May. Although visas for UN-related relief officials were given, others faced delays. Journalists are unable to gain access to Burma. There are no reports from and no cameras allowed inside the affected areas. So, the outside world does not know what is going on, except from the government-run media and word from international relief officials passing through Bangkok.

After Cyclone Nargis ripped through the Irrawaddy Delta, the US, UK and France dispatched warships loaded with food, water and makeshift shelters to help the victims. But the junta leaders stopped them from coming too close to land. So the French ships had to dump the supplies in Phuket for later trans-shipment into Burma. The UK also decided to withdraw its ships, which were in position to provide for the most needy victims in the area. The US finally decided to move its ships away, knowing full well that more lives could be saved. Already, several Western countries are commenting that the junta leaders are guilty of criminal neglect.

The US ships have the capacity to deliver huge amounts of emergency relief materials, at least 800 tonnes per day, which far exceeds the junta's own capacity. The US vessels are well-equipped with helicopters that can carry food and water to inaccessible areas. But the regime fears that these military vehicles would be used to dislodge them from power. How can you overthrow a government with helicopters flying around with food supplies ready to be dropped?

Even Asean is annoyed by Burma's behaviour. Malaysia is adamant that more cooperation from Rangoon is needed. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak urged Burma to allow military helicopters from Asean to get in to help with the relief effort. So far, there has not been any answer. The 200-member Asean Assessment Team, along with international experts, is carrying out a much-needed assessment in Labutta and Pyapon that will be a basis for future recovery efforts.

If Burma continues to drag its feet, the UN Security Council must take up the issue and work out ways to save thousands of Burmese lives. A resolution that enables air drops should be considered. It is unfortunate that the responsibility to protect, which the UN agreed in 2005 as one of the principles governing international relations in the 21st century, does not explicitly include the effects of disasters. But the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis and the junta's heartless reaction should be a case study for further action or amendment to the principle. Otherwise, every time there is a crisis, no action can be taken.

Gen Than Shwe knows how to take advantage of the UN and Asean. So far, the general has been able to play the two leading organisations against each other. Of late, representatives from the UN and Asean have been working in tandem to ensure there is no misunderstanding. In press conferences, foreign relief workers have complained that in the weeks to come an operational quagmire will start and the Burmese people pay the price. Asean needs to push Burma for more access. As a regional organisation, Asean has already served as a facilitator that has won some concessions from Burma. But that is not enough to save lives. Asean has a responsibility to see to it that its rogue member cooperates fully, without discrimination. The grouping has to back its secretary-general Surin and his work with a full mandate.

The next few months will be decisive for the future of Burma and Asean. Any delay will further jeopardise the rescue operation and will destroy the goodwill that Asean needs.

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1. Junta forcibly evicts cyclone victims from shelters
2. A case for crimes against humanity
3. Burmese troops deployed to coastal, border areas
4. Soaring prices compound Myanmar's cyclone misery
5. Jakarta proposes to use cyclone in push for radical change in Burma
6. Than Shwe's days are numbered
7. Burma calls for assistance and aid with "no strings attached"
8. Burmese still suffering, says Thai medical team
9. Burma allows entry to aid workers at snail's pace
10. Help is scant in Myanmar village deep inside delta
11. Asean steps in where others may not tread
12. The misery will continue if the world just watches
13. Iron grip of junta despite cyclone
14. For Than Shwe, to hell with compromise
15. Loyalty of Burmese troops doubted after cyclone disaster

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Junta forcibly evicts cyclone victims from shelters - Mungpi
Mizzima News: Mon 2 Jun 2008

In what is a likely move to indicate that the emergency relief phase is over in cyclone hit-regions, the Burmese military junta authorities have ordered refugees to vacate several camps in the Irrawaddy and Rangoon divisions, local aid workers and refugees said.

An aid worker, who has just returned from Kun Chan Kone Township in Rangoon division said, authorities have driven away refugees from several camps in the township. They were forced to return to their villages with assurances of some aid.

"I saw refugees from two schools and a monastery in Kun Chan Kone leaving for their villages. Those who did not want to leave were being forcibly removed to an open field," said the aid worker, who requested that he and his organization not be named.

A local resident of Rangoon, who returned from Dae Da Ye township in Irrawaddy division on May 31, said several camps, which were temporarily built by the government for refugees, have been vacated with refugees being forced to return to their villages.

"I did not see anymore refugees in the camps, where they were taking shelter. All of them have been sent back to their villages," the local said.

Burma's military rulers have long declared that it had passed the phase of emergency relief for refugees and is now concentrating in re-building and re-construction.

But the United Nations, the refugees and local aid workers, who had been helping the cyclone victims, all said the emergency relief phase is far from over.

The UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon, who in May visited Burma's Irrawaddy delta, the worst hit by Cyclone Nargis, said the 'emergency relief phase' will continue for at least six months, while reconstructing and rebuilding carries on side-by-side.

The local aid worker said while aid is now moving in to places in the Irrawaddy delta, there are still several areas that aid agencies, both domestic and international, cannot reach.

"While we were there in Kun Chan Kone, a few people from the villages came and asked us to supply their village with aid. They said they have not seen any form of aid coming to their village," the aid worker said.

He added that several villages cannot be reached due to lack of routes for communication and transportation.

"It is impossible to reach these villages because there are no roads, and the only way to get in is along the water way or by aircraft," he added.

But efforts by the World Food Programme to use helicopters for supplying aid to remote areas has been delayed by government procedures, said WFP's Executive Director Josette Sheeran, who visited the cyclone-hit areas in the weekend.

Meanwhile, the authorities have also forced farmers in the cyclone hit areas to begin work on their fields, which are still inundated with flood water, as the monsoon rain starts pouring.

A farmer in Kun Chan Kone, who lost all his cattle, said, "Authorities promised to give us two tractors per village but till now we have not got any. And we are finding it difficult to start work."

The farmer said, working in the fields has been their passion but being forced to return to work without any support and implements is meaningless and a torture after the trauma of the cyclone that killed so many families and near and dear ones.

"But we will have to get back to the fields and start working," the farmer said.

According to an Emergency Analyst in the New Delhi based UNDP's Disaster Management section, lands that have been inundated with seawater will suffer from infertility and cannot be immediately used till the salinity is reduced or washed away.

G. Padmanabham, the UNDP's Emergency Analyst, earlier told Mizzima, "Land cannot become fertile again for cultivation and it could affect productivity in that region because of the high percentage of salt having been condensed in the land."

Burma's Deputy Defence Minister Aye Myint, during an Asian security meeting in Singapore during the weekend, said the authorities have promptly provided relief to all cyclone victims and that it is concentrating now on reconstruction and rehabilitation work.

But leaders from other countries attending the forum were not convinced with French delegates threatening that they will push the French government to propose a UN resolution that could hold the Burmese government liable to be brought before the International Criminal Court.

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A case for crimes against humanity - Wai Moe [News Analysis]
Irrawaddy: Mon 2 Jun 2008

The Burmese military regime's failure to respond effectively to Cyclone Nargis, its refusal to allow foreign relief workers access to the affected areas and its forcible eviction of refugees from shelters and health facilities amounts to crimes against humanity, according to Burma's opposition and several prominent international figures.

Under international law, a "crime against humanity" is an act of persecution or any large scale atrocities against a body of people, and is the highest level of criminal offense. The term was first used in relation to the post-World War II Nuremburg Trials when Nazi leaders were tried for war crimes.

In 1996, the UN General Assembly recognized the racial persecutions of the former South African government's Apartheid system as crimes against humanity.

The terminology was broadened in 1998 when the International Criminal Court (ICC) was set up in The Hague and a treaty known as the Rome Statute was introduced.

Under the Rome Statute, "Crimes against Humanity" was described as acts "committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population."

Those acts include systematic murder, rape, enslavement and imprisonment. According to US-based rights group Human Rights First, the case against the Burmese junta would also incorporate crimes against humanity in terms of: forced displacement of ethnic minorities; forced labor; recruitment of child soldiers; extrajudicial killings; and torture.

As of June 2008, 106 member nations had ratified the Rome Statute; however, most notably, the US, China and Burma have refused to ratify the treaty.

Thein Nyunt, a member of the legal panel on Burma's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the Burmese authorities had committed a crime against humanity by ignoring the crisis caused by Cyclone Nargis.

Tropical cyclone Nargis hammered lower Burma, including the Irrawaddy delta, and the country's largest city, Rangoon, on May 2-3. The cyclone has claimed as many as 134,000 deaths and affected about 2.4 million people. Survivors claim that no immediate relief was provided by the state in the aftermath of the disaster.

"From a legal point of view, blocking aid for cyclone victims was not only breaking international law, but also Burma's own criminal code," said the NLD lawyer. "Under Burmese criminal law, failure to save lives in a disaster situation is noted under criminal laws 269 and 270."

Last week, cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta were forced to return to their villages which were totally destroyed and uninhabitable, according to numerous independent reports.

Thein Nyunt said that by forcing cyclone survivors to return to their villages is also a form of crime as it breaks the Burmese military government's agreement with the International Labor Organization (ILO) on banning forced relocation in Burma.

"The SPDC's (the State Peace and Development Council, the official title of the junta) refusal to allow more aid to the delta has contributed to a large number of fatalities," said David Mathieson, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch in Bangkok.

He said it was still too early to determine whether the junta's actions constitute a crime against humanity. However, the crisis is "suddenly, a very serious situation," Mathieson said, which "should be investigated by the UN Security Council."

Human rights advocates and legal groups in Canada and Europe also say the military regime's blocking of aid to cyclone victims has cost tens of thousands of lives.

Advocates of prosecuting the junta say that they must go through the UN Security Council first before filing a motion with the ICC.

Mathieson said that although China and Russia would probably veto any motion against Burma at the Security Council, the issue of crimes against humanity should be pursued.

Burma watchers also accuse the Burmese regime of being preoccupied with holding a national referendum on May 10 at a time when it could have been saving lives in the delta.

Meanwhile, several prominent exiled Burmese groups and international bodies lined up to condemn the Burmese junta. The words "crimes against humanity" were never far from their lips.

Bo Kyi, the joint- secretary of a Burmese human rights group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, said the Burmese military regime knew that a massive number of people had died in the wake of the cyclone. However, the top generals ignored the death and destruction and went ahead with its constitutional referendum, he said.

Robert Gates, the US Secretary of Defense, said on Sunday that the Burmese regime was guilty of "criminal neglect" for blocking large-scale international aid to cyclone victims.

And the European Parliament stated on its Web site that the Burmese military junta's behavior with regard to relief work during the cyclone disaster was a "crime against humanity," and suggested that the Burmese leadership face international justice.

"Blocking food and medicine for cyclone survivors is extermination," said Aung Htoo, the secretary of the Burma Lawyers' Council. "If this case does not go to the ICC, then many more people will die."

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Burmese troops deployed to coastal, border areas - Min Lwin
Irrawaddy: Mon 2 Jun 2008

The Burmese military has been deploying infantry battalions and air defense artillery battalions close to the Thai-Burmese border area of Mon and Karen States and Tenasserim Division since late May, according to sources in the area.

"Burmese troops are on high alert in Mon State," said Aue Mon of the Human Rights Foundation of Mon Land. "The Burmese military government has deployed additional troops along the coasts of Mon State and Tenasserim Division."

He said that he believed the reinforcements were a precaution against a possible military intervention.

"Military Operation Command 19, which consists of 10 battalions, has been stationed in Kawzar Village, in Mon State's Yee Township," he said.

Mon sources also said that an artillery battalion with radar and air defense capabilities has been stationed in Anankwin Village, about 60 km from Three Pagoda Pass, since late May. The battalion belongs to Artillery Division 606, based in Thaton Township.

Analysts say that after border tensions arose between Burma and Thailand in 2001, the Burmese military increased its deployment of air defense artillery battalions in southern Burma. There are also 12 artillery battalions in Tenasserim Division under the command of Artillery Division 505, headquartered in Mergui Township, and 11 artillery battalions in Mon and Karen States, under the command of Artillery Division 606.

Meanwhile, the Burmese military government has also increased its deployment of light infantry battalions in cyclone-affected areas of Irrawaddy Division, since late May.

A resident of Laputta Township said some 3,000 Burmese soldiers from Light Infantry Divisions 66 and 11 were sent to areas hit by Cyclone Nargis last week. LID 66 is based in Pegu Division's Prone Township, and LID 11 is based in Yemon Village, in Rangoon Division's Hlegu Township.

The resident said the light infantry battalions were stationed in at least 6 outposts in Laputta Township and were responsible for the distribution of rice and other supplies to survivors of cyclone.

Ohn Kyaing, a spokesperson for a relief team sponsored by the opposition National League for Democracy, returned from Pyinsalu, Laputta Township on Sunday and told The Irrawaddy on Monday that security forces, including riot police, are also stationed along the Rangoon-Dedaye road in Kungyangone Township.

Htay Aung, a Burmese defense researcher based in Thailand, said that the Burmese military government deployed the troops along the coastal region and in the delta because it fears humanitarian intervention by the international community.

"Another possible reason the Burmese troops are being deployed along the border is political instability in a neighboring country," he said, referring to recent rumors of a possible coup in Thailand.

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Soaring prices compound Myanmar's cyclone misery - Aung Hla Tun
Reuters: Mon 2 Jun 2008

Yangon - A large "Happy World" sign hangs above a dilapidated food market in Yangon, but on the streets shoppers are far from content.

A month after Cyclone Nargis scythed a path of destruction through Myanmar's former capital and Irrawaddy delta, leaving 134,000 dead or missing, those spared by the storm are struggling to cope with soaring prices for food and fuel.

"Of course everyone is unhappy, but nobody dares complain," stall-owner Daw Ngee Yee said as her offerings of fruit and vegetables wilted under a hot afternoon sun.

Ordinary life in Myanmar, already tough in one of Asia's most impoverished nations after 46 years of military rule, has become much harder since the cyclone devastated the country's rice bowl.

A 50 kg bag of rice now sells for 38,000 kyat, or about $34.50, up from 27,000 kyat before the storm flooded more than one million acres of arable land with seawater.

Peanut oil, used for cooking, has jumped nearly 40 percent to 5,500 kyat for a 2 kg container.

In a country where government workers earn $30 a month or less, people often spend around two thirds of their income to put meals on the table.

"The rich are okay, but while prices go up, salaries stay the same. We have to eat smaller meals," 27-year-old Ma Oo said as she inspected tied bunches of vegetable greens at the market.

But Ma Oo, who moved to Yangon two months ago in search of a better life, counts herself lucky to have some food to buy in Yangon where life is slowly getting back to what passed for normal before the cyclone.

FOOD AID APPEAL

Four weeks on, Myanmar's reclusive junta is gradually and grudgingly opening up to foreign aid and expertise. It has handed out more visas to foreign experts, but access to the delta remains restricted.

The U.N. World Food Programme said it has given 575,000 people their first ration of rice, "but many people have not been reached, and others are now due a second round of distributions."

WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said its $70 million food aid program faced a 64-percent funding shortfall, as did its logistics plan which includes boats, trucks and helicopters.

"With current contributions, we will run out of food by mid-July," Sheeran said after a weekend visit to Myanmar.

With markets back to normal in Yangon, WFP and four NGOs have begun handing out cash, about 50 U.S. cents per person/per day, to help people buy their own food.

That has allowed the WFP to focus on delivering aid to the hardest-hit delta where most food stocks were destroyed and few markets survived the storm.

Authorities have pushed ahead with a campaign, condemned by human rights groups and deemed "unacceptable" by the U.N., of evictions of displaced people from government shelters.

The last camp in Kawhmu, a district south of Yangon, was closed on Monday, witnesses said of the closures which appeared aimed at stopping the "tented" villages from becoming permanent.

"We have nowhere to go and we don't know any other life except farming and fishing," U Kyi, who fled to the camp with his wife days after the cyclone, said on Friday.

The evictions came on the heels of last week's official media criticism of foreign donors' demands for access to the delta, saying that cyclone victims could "stand by themselves."

Under fire for its slow response to the disaster, a junta general insisted on Sunday his government had acted swiftly and it remained open to foreign aid "with no strings attached."

But the patience of Western donors is wearing thin.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who accused the regime of "criminal neglect" and causing more deaths by stonewalling foreign aid, said on Sunday U.S. ships cruising near Myanmar could leave in a "matter of days."

Gates, on a regional tour after attending a security conference in Singapore, discussed Myanmar with Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej in Bangkok on Sunday.

Samak told the Pentagon chief the junta had rejected a big international aid effort partly because the generals feared it could be seen as an invasion, a senior U.S. defense official said.

"That was the clear inference," the official said. "He was not justifying it in any way, he was just saying 'this is what they tell me."'

(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray in BANGKOK)

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Jakarta proposes to use cyclone in push for radical change in Burma - Greg Sheridan
The Australian: Mon 2 Jun 2008

Indonesia is planning a bold new initiative on Burma, aiming to use the flux created by Cyclone Nargis to push through far-reaching change.

A group of think tank analysts and former senior officials have formulated a detailed plan, which is under consideration in the office of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

This would involve Indonesia commissioning a special envoy on Burma. One name mooted for this position is former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas,

Indonesia would convene a dialogue group of Burma's key Asian neighbours and partners, including China, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore.

The aim of the plan would be to find a settlement between the Burmese Government of General Than Shwe and the opposition National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who is still under house arrest.

The authors of the plan believe it would need to furnish Burma's rulers with three assurances.

The first is time. A long transition phase, perhaps as much as 15 years, would be needed for the settlement to unfold.

The second is regime and territorial security. It would be necessary to reassure Burma's paranoid rulers that no one would attempt or support any violent regime change.

The third requirement would to help Burma in dealing with its ethnic minorities, some of which are concentrated in what are effectively territorial insurgencies.

One model the Burmese would be offered is Indonesia's abandoned dwifungsi, or dual function, for the military. Under dwifungsi, the military had both a security and political role in Indonesia for years.

The Indonesian President has yet to decide on the plan, which could be called the Jakarta Initiative on Myanmar.

The acronym, JIM, would have a strong echo of the successful Cambodian peace plan of the 1990s, in which Indonesia played a central role and which was prosecuted for a time under theJakarta Informal Meetings process.

The record of failure on Burma is long, and the Indonesian administration has no desire to add to it. But Indonesian officials say the opportunity arising out of Cylcone Nargis's devastation may last only a matter of weeks.

Indonesian officials believe the experience of Aceh is instructive. The Aceh peace agreement is one of Dr Yudhoyono's proudest achievements. Indonesian officials say Jakarta's ability to act quickly after the 2004 tsunami was the key to success.

Jakarta and ASEAN have yet to receive sufficient recognition for engineering the junta's change of heart in allowing outside aid into Burma, Indonesian officials say.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hasan Wirajuda, discussed Burma last Friday with a visiting group of Australian editors.

He emphasised that Indonesia's priority was to bring immediate emergency assistance to Burma's cyclone victims.

He said France had briefly proposed bringing Burma's situation to the UN Security Council under the general humanitarian right to intervene. Indonesia, China and Vietnam had opposed this move.

Indonesia and other ASEAN nations had talks with Burma to make it open up to aid. "I myself said Myanmar should take steps like Indonesia took after the (2004) tsunami, and open its country wide to international relief efforts,'' Mr Wirajuda said.

He said he "did not believe'' Burma's claim that it would need $US11billion ($11.5billion) in international aid.

Mr Wirajuda was not asked directly about the proposed Indonesian plan for Burma, which still has no official status. However, he expressed the frustration that ASEAN feels over its most recalcitrant member. "On the political side, we must admit we are all frustrated. ASEAN thought when we admitted Myanmar (Burma) in 1997 that we could change Myanmar through constructive engagement. That was not the case. Likewise, those who favour sanctions and pressure are frustrated they could not change Myanmar either,'' he said.

"Yes, political and human rights concerns are central. But there are also Myanmar's concerns about its security and territorial integrity. We urge people to see the situation more broadly.

"Realistically, we cannot expect radical change immediately. A transitional period must be there. Perhaps the military can exercise a dual function, as we had under President Suharto. That could be useful as a transitional phase.

"Secondly, there is a greater expectation for ASEAN to play a bigger role, but when the President and I visited Myanmar we found it very comfortable with its relations with China and India.

"So when (US) President (George W.) Bush at APEC (in Sydney) asked President Yudhoyono whatto do about Myanmar, he said, `Please, Mr Bush, talk to China and India'.''

The Indonesian Foreign Minister said Jakarta was exploring at the UN a dialogue at ambassadorial level between Burma and key Asian neighbours.

"Unlike some ASEAN members, Indonesia prefers to maintain its engagement (with Burma),'' Mr Wirajuda said.

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Than Shwe's days are numbered [Editorial]
Irrawaddy: Mon 2 Jun 2008

Burma's military leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, has been accused of committing a "crime against humanity," as evidence mounts that his refusal to allow a meaningful relief effort in the cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy delta has put hundreds of thousands of lives at risk.

A month after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Burma, relief supplies are still not reaching large numbers of survivors. Meanwhile, there are reports that many of those who have received some assistance are already being told to leave their temporary shelters and return to their flattened villages. On Friday, United Nations officials confirmed that refugees were being evicted from government-run camps.

The decision to essentially abort the relief mission before it has barely had a chance to begin comes straight from Than Shwe, who rules from his distant capital, Naypyidaw.

Recently, the senior leader held a cabinet meeting and reportedly told ministers and army leaders that the Tatmadaw, or armed forces, could handle the crisis in the delta on its own. Some senior leaders who wanted to accept more international aid were said to have been disappointed by Than Shwe's stubborn resistance to the idea.

After the cabinet meeting, a rumor spread among Burmese suggesting that some of Than Shwe's loyal ministers and family members held a ceremony to pay their respects to his leadership, praising him for his decision to move the capital to Naypyidaw, far beyond the range of the cyclone.

The unexplained decision to shift the capital to central Burma in 2005 may have spared Than Shwe and his family from the deadly storm, but it won't save him from the consequences of his failure to do anything about the devastation in the delta.

Because Cyclone Nargis struck an area known as Burma's "rice bowl," the economic impact of the disaster will eventually reach every corner of the country. As poverty deepens and infectious diseases spread beyond the delta, the consequences for the country will be dire.

A month after the cyclone, it is not Than Shwe who is saving lives. Burma's monks, activists, civil society groups, local NGOs and even celebrities are reaching out to refugees with food, relief supplies and money. They are the heroes of Burma.

People from as far away as Shan and Kachin States are traveling to the delta to help. Exiled Burmese groups are raising funds to support independent relief groups. Churches and temples are working together to help refugees. Thai and Burmese medical workers coordinate their efforts to deliver relief supplies and paddy seeds to farmers.

Meanwhile, the regime's mouthpiece newspapers are telling farmers to be self-reliant by foraging on water cloves and frogs. People in the rest of the world can only shake their heads and wonder what the generals are thinking.

Listen to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates: "It's not been us that have been deaf and dumb in response to the pleas of the international community, but the government of Myanmar [Burma]. We have reached out; they have kept their hands in their pockets."

Gates, who was speaking at the Asia Security Summit, which was held in Singapore from May 30 to June 1, expressed his frustration over the regime's refusal to allow relief missions into Burma. US, French and British naval vessels were waiting near Burmese waters to deliver aid to the delta but were not allowed in.

Now France has withdrawn its ships, and the US has indicated that it will do the same soon if it cannot obtain permission to enter Burma.

Recently the international media reported that the regime had approved all pending visas for UN aid workers. But this doesn't mean that the devastated country will soon be crawling with hundreds or thousands of competent, compassionate and fully equipped aid workers. The actual number of pending visas was 45.

And here's more "good" news: Save the Children, Medecins sans Frontieres and the United Nations Children's Fund have just sent in another 14 aid workers.

Than Shwe is now clearly committing humanitarian crimes. It is time for Burma's democratic forces inside and outside the country to think of a better strategy to remove the Than Shwe regime. They have to show that there is an alternative to Than Shwe.

The international community and neighboring countries must also continue to pressure the regime and help refugees in the delta. They must speak with one united voice. The Than Shwe regime is not sustainable.

Without Than Shwe, we will be able to save many lives and rebuild a new Burma.

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Burma calls for assistance and aid with "no strings attached"
Deutsche Presse Agentur/The nation: 1/6/08

Singapore - Burma 's Deputy Defence Minister Aye Myint said Sunday that assistance and aid provided with genuine goodwill from any country or organisation would be welcomed providing there "are no strings attached" or politicization.

In contrast to criticism from many of the 27 defence ministers and officials at a forum in Singapore over Burma's three-week holdup of their donations and slow pace of getting supplies to the survivors of the May 3 cyclone, Aye Myint said assistance is being provided.

"The relief supplies from abroad via aircrafts were sent directly and continuously to the relief camps by motor vehicles, helicopters and vessels," he told the 300 participants on the last day of the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual defence forum.

Donations will be accepted by land, sea or air, Aye Myint said.

"For those groups who are interested in rehabilitation and reconstruction, we are ready to accept them in accordance with our priority and the extent of work that needs to be done," he said.

He assured the conference that the military government is fully cooperating with UN agencies and international non-government organisations (NGOs).

"Arrangements could be made for the donors and the international community to go to the cyclone-hit areas to observe the situation there," Aye Myint offered.

He also invited "experts and well-wishers" to extend their help in formulating preventive measure to minimize casualties and damages in the event of another severe cyclone in the future."

Aye Myint said 77,738 people were confirmed dead; 55,917 were still missing and 19,359 were injured. He estimated public and private property loss at 10.6 billion dollars.

Emphasis is currently on the second phase of relief, he said, involving resettlement, rebuilding of the destroyed houses and building new houses.

The first phase was emergency search and rescue, he said, while the third will be rehabilitation of businesses and productive forces.

Four weeks after the disaster, the United Nations says less than half of the 2.4 million people affected have received any form of help from the government, international or local aid groups.

"When the needs of a population exceed the national capacity to respond, governments should take advantage of the help offered by international actors," said Dr Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"When they are reluctant or tardy in accepting assistance, on the grounds that they are preserving their sovereignty and want no interference in their domestic affairs, the results may well be many preventable deaths among their people," he told the conference.

"As far as France is concerned, the commercial ship we sent with food and water stayed offshore for eight days and ended up in Thailand," said French Defence Minister Herve Morin. "NGOs are conveying the goods."

"This is happening rather late," he told a news conference. Morin said he had not talked with the conference participants from Burma. "A dialogue with Myanmar has a tendency to chill goodwill," he said.

A team from the Association of South-East Asian Nations is scheduled to spend two weeks in Burma assessing how best to help the survivors.

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Burmese still suffering, says Thai medical team
BangkokPost:1/6/08

Stress, disease and infections rampant

The Burmese are still suffering from stress and diseases in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, a doctor who led the first Thai medical team dispatched to the country said yesterday. Pichit Siriwan, of Chulalongkorn Hospital and the Thai Red Cross Society, said people living in lowland areas were the hardest hit, made homeless by the cyclone.

They lived under stress and most suffered from respiratory diseases and food-borne and water-borne infections, he told reporters.

About 200 camps were set up, accommodating about 1,000, according to Dr Pichit, the team leader of the unit of 18 doctors and 12 nurses. He added that the Thai team treated 3,700 sick people from those camps and surrounding areas. About 1,900 of the patients were children whose parents were killed in the disaster.

The unit returned to Bangkok yesterday after leaving on May 17 to assist the victims. The Thai doctors also organised activities to help the mental health of the victims.

''The Burmese appreciated the kindness of the Thai doctors,'' Dr Pichit said, adding that Burmese doctors wanted more Thai medical teams to help them look after victims.

More doctors from Thailand were willing to go if the Burmese leaders allow future missions.

Dr Pichit said Thai businessmen in Burma also helped arrange for translators to overcome the language barrier during the relief operation.

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Burma allows entry to aid workers at snail's pace - Solomon
Mizzima News: Sat 31 May 2008

The Burmese military junta is allowing entry to aid workers into the cyclone devastated areas at snail's pace. As a result a huge number of survivors continue to be deprived off any kind of support. This despite the regime's recent permission allowing access to aid workers in to cyclone hit regions, officials of Medicines Sans Frontiers said.

"We are aware that some villages have not received any kind of help yet," said Dr. Frank Smithius, chief of the MSF team in Burma.

This is a fall out of lack of communication and difficulties in transportation and slow distribution of aid, Dr. Smithius added.

Following Burma's military supremo Senior General Than Shwe's meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, aid agencies said a few international aid workers have been provided access into the Irrawaddy delta, where the cyclone wreaked the worst havoc.

"Four weeks have elapsed after the storm and I think it is quite sad that many villages have not yet received aid," Dr. Smithius said.

Domestic volunteers and national aid workers in Rangoon said, access to the delta area has recently been made possible for both international and domestic aid agencies.

But with communication problems and difficulties in transportation, aid has not reached many places in the remote areas.

"There are many more areas yet to be accessed," an aid worker in Rangoon told Mizzima.

The aid worker said, though access has been granted to aid workers with few supplies, it is not enough for all the affected people.

"Emergency supply is not over yet, I think that all organisations should make serious efforts to reach all the villages," Dr. Smithius, head of MSF said.

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Help is scant in Myanmar village deep inside delta
Associated Press: Sat 31 May 2008

Pyinmagon, Myanmar — Peering out from under the hood of his raincoat, the boat skipper squinted as he tried to steer his small wooden boat through the narrow, twisting channel leading to a village deep in Myanmar's cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta.

Pyinmagon's location is typical of the delta, and cause of the region's still unfolding tragedy: The rice-farming village can only be reached by boat, a trip of up to two hours, depending on the tide, from the nearest town of Bogalay.

Most of the journey requires slow maneuvering in shallow waters known to be inhabited by crocodiles. So, a month after Cyclone Nargis struck, Pyinmagon's 801 survivors have been left to basically fend for themselves.

"I don't know why nobody came, maybe they were discussing it for a long time, maybe they had problems trying to deliver the help," said Myint Oo, 55, the village chief, standing Thursday outside the Buddhist monastery where most of the survivors are being housed.

The village, which sits in the middle of an almond-shaped island that splits the Bogalay River, lost a quarter of its people, and all but three houses and the monastery were destroyed. Its livestock, rice supply and crops were wiped out, and its only drinking water source was polluted by salt water and debris.

The military regime's response to the crisis has been slow and inadequate everywhere, but never more so than in places such as Pyinmagon.

The stream connecting the village to Bogalay River is only 4- to 6-feet deep, making it impassable to most vessels carrying big shipments of aid. Only narrow wooden rowboats or those powered by a small diesel engine with a propeller attached to the end of a long shaft can make the trip.

Short palm trees, patches of mangrove and thick long grass grow on the tall muddy embankments along the channel, blocking view of the route ahead. The monsoon season's daily heavy downpours have also hindered travel.

When no help came in the first week after the storm, the survivors lived on what little rice they could salvage, although much of it was damaged by sea water carried by the cyclone's 12-foot storm surge. They scavenged for vegetable scraps and caught rats, but still many went hungry.

By the second week, only 50 sacks of rice from local authorities had reached them, but that was depleted almost immediately, Myint Oo said.

The headman said an international aid group told the villagers it would provide rice for them for the next six months, but he was not hopeful the pledge could be fulfilled. Pyinmagon is a more than seven-hour journey by car and boat from Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city.

"We are worried it's not going to happen because everything has been uncertain," he said. "I'm afraid our rice will run out soon."

On Thursday, nearly a month after the cyclone hit, the village received its first private donation, a local trading company that brought clothes, he said.

Other basics are sorely lacking.

The small reservoir the villagers once used for drinking water was muddy with silt and sea water carried from the river during the storm, and a large fallen tree still lay in it. Villagers have been taking boats to fetch water from a lake in Bogalay and have collected rainwater in a few large ceramic pots, using broken pieces of corrugated roofing as makeshift funnels.

Villagers pointed to a large wooden box that used to store feed for their animals, emptied by the storm. But that was of little significance since their herd of 1,000 water buffaloes, 80 pigs and 400 chickens had all perished.

Though donations of food would be welcome, the survivors said they want to quickly regain self-sufficiency.

"What we need is buffaloes and seeds to grow rice again," Myint Oo said.

Shelter is also an urgent issue. Villagers worked outside in the rain, tying bamboo poles together to make temporary huts, but the headman said they could not be used unless they received tarpaulins or plastic sheets to waterproof the roofs.

In the meantime, the survivors have been sleeping on mats on the wooden floor of the monastery. Short, round wooden tables, cabinets, kitchen utensils and other salvaged pieces of furniture were also stored there.

Without mosquito nets or blankets, the survivors were defenseless against mosquitoes, which thrive in the rainy season and carry diseases like dengue fever, which is endemic in many Southeast Asian countries.

A Myanmar Red Cross team visited the village last week for the first time, survivors said, but it was too late for three of the villagers — a man and two children — who they said died from diarrhea and food poisoning.

One of Mar Mar Oo's twin daughters has been running a fever and coughing for 15 days.

"The medical workers gave her medicine, but I don't know whether it will last until the next doctor comes," the young mother said, frowning as she tucked the 3-year-old girls under a pale blue cloth for an afternoon nap in the monastery.

The monastery's corrugated metal roof was riddled with holes that let rain drip in, forming puddles on the floor.

For farmers, rain is usually a blessing, but these days, it's also a curse that haunts many survivors.

Curled into a tight ball in a corner of the monastery, Kyin Mya jumped as raindrops fell from the leaking roof.

"Is the wind strong? Is the wind strong?" the 59-year-old woman asked, her eyes wide with fear, her hand trembling as she tried to eat a biscuit.

Her husband and 5-year-old granddaughter drowned as they were carried away in the storm surge.

Echoing a common fear that speaks of the trauma experienced by the survivors, Kyin Mya asked: "Do you know if another storm is coming?"

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Asean steps in where others may not tread - Marwaan Macan-Marker
Inter Press Service: Sat 31 May 2008

Four weeks after Cyclone Nargis swept through the populous Irrawaddy delta in Burma, a regional effort to help the victims is slowly grinding into shape.

On Friday, Burma's military regime announced that Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu would be its main representative in a tripartite core group, based in the former capital Rangoon, to coordinate the international aid effort. It marked another shift by the notoriously secretive junta, which had placed hurdles in the way of any outside intervention during the first three weeks after the cyclone struck in the early hours of May 3.

The humanitarian task force is being led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), a 10-member regional bloc, of which Burma is a member. The United Nations will be the third party in this tripartite initiative, which was agreed upon during an international conference to raise funds for the cyclone victims held in Rangoon on May 25.

"A Herculean task has been thrust upon us, the UN and Asean, to bring humanitarian assistance for the cyclone victims," Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of Asean, told journalists this week. "Asean and the UN and our co-partners will not fail the victims of cyclone Nargis."

"We have been able to establish a space, a humanitarian space, however small to engage with the Myanmar [Burmese] authorities," he added. "That humanitarian space needs to be sustained through political decisions, through political flexibility."

These are brave words, indeed, for Surin, a former Thai foreign minister, given the way Asean has had to endure the troubles brought on it since Burma joined the bloc over a decade ago. Asean had stood by its troublesome member in the interest of regional solidarity, throwing a cloak to shield it from international condemnation and sanctions stemming from the junta's growing list of human rights violations.

Yet at times, even Asean's protective policy, driven by the principles of "non-interference" in the domestic affairs of a member-nation, appeared to have its limits. There have been calls in recent years by some of Asean's outspoken leaders to throw Burma out of the group when the abuse of the local population by the junta went too far.

Asean's members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, in addition to Burma. It was formed in 1967, during the height of the Cold War, to stop the spread of communism in the region and to advance a free-market economic agenda. But its relevance on the international stage has waned after the end of the Cold War and the financial crisis that swept through the region in the 1990s.

No wonder some critics of the junta in the region worry that the military regime will try to abuse the goodwill Asean has extended to Burma in the same way that it has done before.

"The Burmese regime is well aware that Asean's leaders will be softer on them than other governments in the international community. The junta has hoodwinked Asean before and it could happen again," says Roshan Jason, spokesman for the Asean Inter-parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, a group of South-east Asian parliamentarians championing political reform in Burma.

"Asean's credibility is now on the line by stepping into this role," he added during a telephone interview from Kuala Lumpur. "The regional leaders have to show political will and to act tough with the Burmese regime to achieve results. They cannot let the junta manipulate the situation by taking cover behind the policy of non-interference."

For now, Surin wants to give the Burmese regime, led by the reclusive strongman, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the benefit of the doubt. It is necessary to help build confidence and trust for the Asean Humanitarian Task Force to make headway. "We have detected a difference, we have detected a positive difference, and we hope this can be sustained," he said.

A significant achievement in this regard is Asean convincing the regime that the relief phase since the cyclone is far from over. It put an end to the junta's claims by the third week since Nargis that relief efforts for the cyclone-victims had ended and what was needed was financial assistance for the recovery and rehabilitation phase. The junta stated that Burma needed US $10.7 billion for the rehabilitation phase.

According to Asean's plans, a rapid assessment team will survey the terrain in South-western Burma that was devastated by the country's worst natural disaster to spell out the shape of relief efforts to aid the victims. That report is due in mid-June.

Yet even such an effort is revealing of the neglect the cyclone's victims have had to endure when set against the normal response to natural disasters in other parts of the world. "By now there should have been distribution hubs up and running for relief goods," John Sparrow, spokesman for the Asia-Pacific division of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told IPS. "Clean water should have been distributed. But there still is a huge shortage of clean water."

But for that, proper assessments of the disaster areas have to be done soon after the disaster. That was the case when the IFRC responded to post-disaster situations such as the December 2004 tsunami. "Proper assessments have not been done to help figure out the needs, unlike the tsunami," Sparrow added. "There are still areas where we have no access."

The human toll from Cyclone Nargis ranges from 130,000 to as high as 300,000 deaths. The people affected and in need of relief in the Irrawaddy Delta range from 2.5 million to four million.

Such high numbers stem from the force of the storm, whipping up wind speeds of 190 km per hour and a wall of sea water that rose 3.5 meters high. It affected an 82,000 square km area that has the highest population density in the country.

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The misery will continue if the world just watches - Yeni
Irrawaddy: Sat 31 May 2008

Burma's cyclone survivors have endured a seemingly endless series of heartbreaks and hazards over the past month.

The Burmese junta's so-called "rehabilitation and rebuilding" plan has resulted in the forcible eviction from shelters of tens of thousands of refugees—people who have already suffered from the trauma of losing their families and friends, their homes, property, possessions and livelihoods during the devastation of Cyclone Nargis on May 2–3.

Four weeks after the disaster, the United Nations says less than half of the 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone have received any form of help from either the government or aid organizations.

In its latest report, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization says food shortages along with escalating prices "posed a risk to national security." Rice prices in Rangoon have doubled while prices of staples, such as salt, have tripled in price.

So it is not surprised to learn that starving cyclone survivors have lined the highways to beg for food from passing cars and trucks. Private donors, emotionally affected by the sight of such human suffering, have loaded their vehicles with food and supplies and driven out to the rural delta areas to deliver the aid by themselves.

However, tending to the sick, injured and malnourished is not one of the Burmese government's priorities.

The cynical regime even announced that the impoverished cyclone victims could "stand by themselves."

The newspaper Kyemon lashed out at foreign aid in a Burmese-language editorial: "The people from Irrawaddy can survive on self-reliance without chocolate bars donated by foreign countries."

Military strongman Snr-Gen Than Shwe has a well-earned reputation for ruthlessness and callousness. This time, though, he has left most people speechless with his total lack of humanity.

Police, soldiers and immigration officers have staged roadblocks to question donors on the main routes from Rangoon into the devastated towns of the Irrawaddy Delta, and warned volunteers against making "disorderly" donations, threatening to suspend their driving licenses.

The merciless generals are proving to the world how much they look down on the cyclone survivors.

"The people should learn to feed themselves," an official told donors. "We do not want foreigners to think we are a country of beggars."

In the meantime, Asean and the UN—official partners with Burma in coordinating the international aid effort—could only sit and watch from the comfort of their offices as the Burmese authorities mismanaged the resettlement program for cyclone survivors just a few days after having approved all pending visas for UN relief workers to enter the country.

Burma's cyclone survivors are doomed. The Burmese regime has dumped them in the approximate location of the flattened villages, with no food, no water, no livelihood and no future. They face more hunger, disease and suffering.

On Friday, in a remarkable show of pomposity, the regime announced to the media that starvation was not an issue, because "farmers can gather water clover or go out with lamps at night and catch plump frogs."

The international community has sat back in its collective armchair and allowed the Burmese military junta to commit murder with impunity.

If the cyclone survivors can eat frogs, then surely the UN can eat humble pie and admit to its failings. If the world organs do not force their will over the Burmese regime, the people of the Irrawaddy delta will have to suffer a second catastrophe—a wholly preventable manmade disaster.

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Iron grip of junta despite cyclone - May Ng
Mizzima News: Sat 31 May 2008

Cyclone Nargis lashed Burma almost four weeks ago and it is already too late for some survivors. Some have died from lack of emergency aid. With the monsoons approaching, the United Nations' relief experts are racing against time to save the rest of the cyclone victims in the hardest hit areas of Irrawaddy delta. But until a few days ago the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-ASEAN were unable to convince the military in Burma to open up the country for a full fledged humanitarian rescue mission.

On May 25 the United Nations and the ASEAN launched a flash appeal to raise funds for the cyclone victims in Burma. Fifty one countries pledged sixty percent of the $200 million dollar appeal. At the same time the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and the secretary general of the ASEAN, Surin Pitsuwan, asked for and were promised unhindered access into the areas hit hard by Cyclone Nargis.

Since then, the Burmese military began granting visas to the United Nations emergency relief workers. But the visa applications are processed one at a time, and each worker must give two days notice before entering the delta area for a 24-hour stay. But other non-governmental organizations are finding that there has been no improvement in getting access into the delta areas as they still need permission from the government ministries and the military, and must be escorted by government personnel.

Activities of relief workers are hindered by the government's bureaucracy that requires official approval for all actions; and many other aid workers and foreign journalists are still barred from the Irrawaddy delta. So far, only 23 percent of the areas hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis has been accessed by aid workers according to the UN.

Interestingly, 10 days after the cyclone slammed into Burma, China was also hit by a devastating earthquake; and in both countries, disasters struck in areas where recent monks' unrest and government crackdowns have taken place. Even though both countries were facing criticism for attacking Buddhist monks and protesters, within days after the earthquake, China began accepting help from foreign countries. But the Burmese military refused to allow most foreign experts into the country during the first three weeks.

Burmese government's strict rule against foreign reporters has also resulted in limited press coverage of the cyclone and subsequently impoverished Burma has received much less aid pledges than China. The backlash against the Burmese governments' indifference to its people's suffering has also contributed to a much smaller than the expected international aid.

While the Burmese junta continues to rebuff the offer of essential aid from the Americans and French Navy—China has been cooperating with the United States and other countries for earthquake relief efforts. After China changed its mind and quickly began accepting foreign assistance, additional financial aid from governments and businesses firms have been flowing in and various diplomatic channels have been opened up for China.

China is also using the occasion to mend its relationship with important neighbours like Japan and Taiwan. Even China's relationship with the Tibetan leaders seems to have eased for the moment, with mutual commitment to help the earthquake victims. Like China, a tremendous window of opportunity was opened for the Burmese military to gracefully end the political quagmire in Burma through diplomatic and economic channels, after the cyclone. But the Burmese generals have not proven themselves to be equal to the task.

Even as China is trying to improve its global image in the run up to the Olympics; China National Petroleum Corporation and Korea's Daewoo International Corp are signing an agreement with the Burmese junta to explore oil and gas in Burma, in the wake of the cyclone disaster. It is estimated that Burma has at least 90 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves and 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves in 19 onshore and three major offshore fields. Sean Turnell, a professor at Macquarie University in Australia and a specialist on Burma's economy has estimated that the annual income of up to 17 billion dollars from the oil and gas sale will be channeled into the pockets of the ruling junta.

But the Burmese military is still hoping for another round of UN flash appeal to raise funds for the cyclone victim on June 12, and a follow-up reconstruction aid under the aegis of nine members from the UN, ASEAN, and the Burmese junta. In the mean time official newspapers in Burma are making it clear that while financial aid packages through the government are welcome direct assistance to the cyclone victims are not. In a crueler scenario, soldiers are believed to be evicting cyclone victims from little shelters available to them.

There have been reports of roadblocks and seizing of vehicles and aid supplies heading into the delta; but in the latest reports the government may be taking action to diffuse the tension. Meanwhile the World Health Organization warns of potential outbreak of diseases among cyclone refugees still out of reach in the remote delta region.

Burma in the aftermath of cyclone is in dire straits. Since, Irrawaddy delta and seaside areas affected by the cyclone are major producers of rice, fish, and salt for the rest of Burma, the government's mishandling of the relief and recovery from the cyclone may create serious countrywide food shortages and further political unrest. The soaring global rice and oil prices are also cutting into the budget of humanitarian agencies already on the ground, such as the Thai Burma Border Consortium, a primary provider of food for the border refugees and displaced ethnic minorities. Unless alternative funding can be found to meet the price increase, the border refugees like the cyclone victims will be going hungry soon.

Only months after the violent assault on the country's spiritual leaders, Burma's iron bowl has been cracked by unseen forces. And the cyclone has also disrupted the junta's constitutional referendum, and legitimacy of the military government still remains in doubt, in the wake of the disaster.

While the UN is still struggling with the exact number of dead and injured people after the cyclone, the military junta proceeded to claim an overwhelming 92.48 percent votes for its new constitution. Further testing the credibility of Burmese regime, the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won the 1990 landslide election in Burma, expired on May 24. But the military has decided to extend her house arrest by violating its own law which only allows the government to detain Aung San Suu Kyi for a maximum of five years.

Until now, the Irrawaddy delta has been Burma's lifeblood and a major stabilizing factor for the army's hold on political power. Impact from the cyclone in Burma is staggering and the movement of aid workers inside the disaster zone will no doubt have a lasting political impact on the military's iron grip on power.

Many more people will die in the aftermath of the cyclone from the government's neglect. The damage from lack of humanitarian assistance has been enormous and the repercussion against the junta will be felt long into the future. As more people in Burma and all over the world are waking up to the reality that Burma is much better off without such a ruthless regime the final days of the ruling generals will be numbered.

May Ng is from the Southern Shan State of Burma and NY Regional Director of Justice for Human Rights in Burma.

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For Than Shwe, to hell with compromise
ARRY JAGAN
BangkokPost: 31/5/08

This week marks the fifth anniversary of Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention, after pro-government thugs tried to assassinate her while she was travelling in a motorcade through the north of the country.

She has spent more than 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest in her lakeside residence in Rangoon. For the last four years, she has been in virtual solitary confinement, apart from occasional visits by her doctor to check on her health, and a few meetings with the UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari over the last three years.

On the other hand, Burma's military rulers remain adamant that this diminutive woman is a threat to national security and must be isolated for fear that she will cause disruption to the country. The Burmese strongman, Senior General Than Shwe, told his Chinese counterpart last year that she would continue to be detained until after the elections, planned in two years' time.

As Burma continues to reel from the worse-ever natural disaster to hit the country, which has probably left more than a quarter of a million people dead and at least another three million homeless, there is a stark contrast between the two figures and their vision of Burma's political future, and more importantly, how the country could rebuild after such devastation: Aung San Suu Kyi and Than Shwe.

Already the regime is taking a side-swipe at Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, accusing them of using the cyclone to stir up unrest. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many NLD doctors and volunteers are working selflessly in the outskirts of Rangoon and in the Irrawaddy delta, where the cyclone has wreaked untold damage. Completely exhausted, they have been running mobile medical clinics in the affected areas nonstop for four weeks now.

The NLD has also mobilised relief supplies and tried to deliver them to the thousands of desperate refugees that line the roads for kilometres outside Rangoon and the main towns in the delta. Instead of the government welcoming these charitable efforts, soldiers have barred them from passing the roadblocks and confiscated their supplies.

In a time when national unity should be the watch word, Gen Than Shwe wants the army and government to have exclusive control of the relief effort, even if it means risking the lives of millions of survivors who are still in danger of dying from disease and starvation in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.

For the Burmese people, trampled on for more than 40 years by a repressive military regime, Aung San Suu Kyi still represents their aspirations and, above all, their desire for freedom and democracy. They know she would be down in the delta with them if she was not locked up, whereas Gen Than Shwe has made only one cursory visit to the worst-affected areas in the last four weeks.

Aung San Suu Kyi's people-first policy would certainly be evident now if she was able to travel freely.

"I draw inspiration from the courage and sacrifice of the ordinary Burmese people," she often said to me in interviews on the phone during the few years she was freed from house arrest, for the first time on July 10, 1995, after being detained for nearly six years.

The NLD has offered to put aside their differences in the interests of working together to provide relief to more than three million victims, many of whom are still waiting to receive fresh water and food, and after that help with the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase.

Instead, Gen Than Shwe and his fellow generals remain steadfast in believing they can do it alone. The horrible irony of course is that their secretive approach to ruling the country in part resulted in the damage being greater than it might have been. Warnings were not broadcast to the Irrawaddy delta or Rangoon before the cyclone hit, though the regime knew for days that the storm was brewing.

On the eve of the cyclone, government officials were ordered not say anything publicly - instructions from Gen Than Shwe himself, according to government sources. One civil servant - U Tun Lwin, director-general of the Meteorology Department - when told directly by a government minister not to issue a public warning because it would cause people to panic, sent a warning SMS to as many of his friends in Rangoon as possible after midnight.

Air force fighters and private passenger planes from Bagan Air - believed to be a joint venture between Gen Than Shwe's family and the Burmese business tycoon Tay Za - and Air Mandalay were moved the evening before the storm from Rangoon airport to Mandalay for safety.

"This is symptomatic of the military leaders' total disregard for the safety of ordinary citizens and placing the protection of the military's interests above all else," a Burmese government official said.

But for Burma's top general, there are no grounds for compromise. Just when any other national leader would be looking to promote national reconciliation and reconsolidation, the junta remains interested only in its own survival and holds on to political power, no matter how petty this is when Burma is facing such a mammoth catastrophe.

Gen Than Shwe cannot even abide hearing Aung San Suu Kyi's name. He even walked out of his only ever meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan when after 15 minutes of a Than Shwe lecture, the UN chief dared to mention her name.

This remains one of the key obstacles to resolving Burma's political deadlock and will now exacerbate the country's chances of recovering from the devastating damage caused by the cyclone. Burma 's top generals are not interested in a concrete dialogue with the pro-democracy leader. "We've been trying to get them to the negotiating table for 14 years but they have never been keen on the idea," she told me the last time we met in March 2003.

Aung San Suu Kyi, on the other hand, has repeatedly offered to discuss the country's political future with the generals. Everything is negotiable if they start meaningful talks, she told me weeks before she was detained for the third time in 2003, following an attack on her and her entourage by pro-government thugs in Depayin in what is now called Black Friday.

"We are in opposition to each other at the moment but we should work together for the sake of the country. We certainly bear no grudges against them. We are not out for vengeance. We want to reach the kind of settlement which will be beneficial to everybody, including the members of the military," she said to me in one of her last interviews before her fateful trip in 2003.

Now more than ever the Burmese military regime should take heed of her continual offer to work together and solve Burma 's problems. In the midst of perhaps the worse horror to have befallen Burma, it is time for Gen Than Shwe to listen.

Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly made conciliatory gestures towards the regime. As the daughter of the independence hero and founder of modern Burma, General Aung San, she understands the military mentality and is prepared to work with them.

"We have genuine goodwill towards the Burmese military. I personally look upon it with a certain amount of affection because of my father and I want it to have an honourable position in the country," she told me as we sat together talking at the NLD headquarters, weeks before the regime showed its true colours.

Now Burma's top general should at least talk directly to Aung San Suu Kyi and see how she could help the reconstruction effort.

They would of course need to put genuine political dialogue with the NLD on the table in the future. But the opposition leaders' commitment to improving the lives of the Burmese people would no doubt mean she was prepared to compromise in the interests of getting the whole international aid effort into full swing.

As she sits alone in her Rangoon residence now, I am certain she is continuing to draw inspiration from her father and the sacrifices of the Burmese people. She would be keen to help and is probably fretting that she cannot.

It is the intransigence of the generals that is now not only delaying the return of democracy to Burma, but is perhaps putting millions of lives at risk.

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Loyalty of Burmese troops doubted after cyclone disaster
Singapore - Burma's military junta has relented, slightly, and will allow foreign aid workers from Asian countries in, Foreign Minister Nyan Win said at the meeting of Asean foreign ministers in Singapore.

The Nation: 19/5/-8

When this might happen remains unclear. At the same time, some of the world's most experienced non-Asian relief workers are on standby only 30 minutes from the country's borders.

They are aboard warships from the United States, France and Great Britain, whose cargo holds are stacked up to the ceiling with relief goods.

The question is: can they supersede the junta's orders and move in to assist Burma's desperate people?

France's helicopter carrier ship Mistral has been navigating off Burma's coast since last Saturday.

The crew of the United States battle cruiser USS Essex has been in eyesight of the Irrawaddy River Delta for several days, just like the British frigate HMS Westminster.

The Mistral carries 1,000 tonnes of relief goods on board, enough to sustain 100,000 people in the disaster zone for a full two weeks.

"We can produce 20,000 litres of drinking water an hour," said Commander John Mayer of the USS Essex.

"We have the equipment to help clear obstructed roads, and we have medical teams who could treat hundreds of patients a day," he added.

But the decision of Myanmar's military regime to reject outside help is, in the words of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, "inhuman."

To admit foreign troops into the country is, in the eyes of the junta, inconceivable.

The junta has for years been paranoid of foreign intervention. It has painted an invasion as a real threat and used the necessity to prepare against that to justify its continuing rule.

Few doubt that the junta hardliners would order an assault if the American marines or French soldiers came ashore, armed with medicines, tents and food.

"But who in the Tatmadaw (armed forces) could be loyal to the top generals who have failed to help millions of people?" a former Myanmar army major told the online Myanmar-exile magazine Irrawaddy.

The army, said Htay Aung of the exile group Network for Democracy and Development, was far from remaining as loyal to Myanmar's rulers as it used to be.

"The Burmese military officers are very corrupt, and they all are looking out for their own business interests," he said.

Morale among Myanmar's armed forces seems to have declined steadily over the last couple of years, according to military magazine Jane's Defence Weekly, quoting a leaked internal army document in 2006.

"Battalion commanders are chastised for drinking excessively and for being fixated on profit making and womanizing," the document alleged.

It claimed almost 10,000 troops deserted within one four-month period.

The junta's brutal deployment of troops in September 2007 also left some emotional residue.

"The beating of Buddhist monks has left an indent on the psyche of many young military officers," former BBC correspondent Larry Jagan told a forum in Bangkok, Thailand.

Burma's armed forces, called the Tatmadaw, has been the regime's main pillar of strength since it took power in 1962.

According to a study conducted by the "International Institute of Strategic Studies" in 2007, the country's military has a strength of 350,000 men.

The army's main experience is based on pogroms and suppression against its own people, most notably against ethnic minorities such as the Karen. Burma is a state comprising numerous ethnic minorities. It is dominated by the Burmans, the biggest ethnic group.

The Karen are mercilessly persecuted, their villages are overrun and burned to the ground. Males are commonly forced to work as army porters and women and children are reportedly sent into suspected minefields to clear them.

The army's brutality knows no bounds.

The Burmese government has sometimes charged people who have stepped on landmines a "fine" for destroying state property. If they die, their family must pay the levy, which amounts to approximately 10 dollars, a large sum in Burma, according to the non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch.

Last September, troops aimed their rifles at their own people just like in 1988 during the popular student uprising.

This time they had to shoot at red-robed Buddhist monks and civilians who demonstrated against rising prices for consumer goods and, subsequently, for more freedom. Dozens were shot dead.

The regime's henchmen regularly patrol villages and requisition "volunteers" to fight against the Karen and other minorities. Teenagers are apparently the most sought-after.

Teenager Maung Zaw Oo told Human Rights Watch he was forced into service at age 14 by an army officer who received a sack of rice, a canister of cooking oil and some cash for each "recruit."//Christiane Oelrich//DPA - May 19, 2008

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