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Rice embargo leaves Wa in limbo
In darkened Rangoon, Burmese get resourceful
U.S. warships to leave Myanmar after aid refused
US flotilla leaving Myanmar coast with aid aboard
White House criticizes Myanmar regime
US: 'No more time to waste' to help Myanmar victims

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Rice embargo leaves Wa in limbo
SHAN

China has imposed restrictions against rice trading along the border since the 7.9 magnitude quake hit Sichuan, the birthplace of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, on 12 May, triggering shortage of rice in the 6,000 square mile Wa region, according to sources.
 “To add to the trouble, we can no longer get rice from areas west of the Salween, except by smuggling,” said a Wa officer in Panghsang. “Now we are paying almost twice as much. One kilogram of rice used to cost 2.5 yuan ($0.4). Now we are paying nearly 5 yuan ($0.8).”

The leadership is also not certain whether or not the annual 10,000 ton of rice donation from China will be coming this year either.

The Wa region, dubbed the Wa Self Administered Region (SAR) by the draft constitution approved by Burma’s ruling junta last month, has since time immemorial existed on rice imported from neighboring areas.

Its medium of exchange until 2005 was opium, the region’s major product. However, the group was pressured both by China in that year to declare a drug free zone.

“Since then, we have strictly adhered to a ‘no poppy fields’ policy,” he said. “But I don’t know what will happen if the embargo continues.”

Some ex-poppy farmers have already petitioned for a return to poppy cultivation, according to local sources when SHAN visited the area in March.

Burma’s ruling junta has also reportedly tightened its restrictions on movements of rice from one township to another, since Cyclone Nargis ravaged the Irrawaddy delta, known traditionally as the rice bowl of Burma, on 2-3 May, ten days before the Sichuan quake, which took a death toll of 70,000.

“Our truck, carrying 200 bags of rice, was stopped at Taunggyi,” said a rice trader in Kunhing yesterday. “We had to unload and leave every bag of it there at the checkpoint. This had never happened before.”

http://www.shanland.org/drugs/2008/rice-embargo-leaves-wa-in-limbo

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In darkened Rangoon, Burmese get resourceful
Christian Science Monitor
By a correspondentTue Jun 3, 4:00 AM ET

Unable to read street signs at 8 p.m., a Burmese driver was lost in the darkness somewhere in a western township of his native Rangoon (Yangon). Ghostly figures of people emerged in the headlights, like deer on a mountain road. In the flickering light of passing cars, shoppers milled around a bustling food market, fumbling for money and buying fruit and vegetables sight unseen.

Four weeks after cyclone Nargis, electricity has not been fully restored to large areas of the largest city in Burma (Myanmar). "It hasn't been fixed, and it might not ever be fixed," says a student, reflecting an often-heard sentiment.

Power went out everywhere for three days after Nargis hit May 2 and May 3, knocking out communications across the south. Since then, government workers have gone door to door in Rangoon, demanding 50,000 kyat (about $50) to turn the lights back on in a home or office, locals say. Many families can't afford to pay that, a sum that is more than their monthly income.

For 10 days after the cyclone, one well-connected family tried to stand down what they jokingly call "the prince of darkness." They implored him to serve his country, not himself, during a time of national mourning. The official said he had no choice, given the scarcity of resources. Low on candles and flashlight batteries, the family gave in, and got enough light to remove mangled trees and repair a roof.

Overwhelmed by a disaster that would challenge authorities in any country, the state appears to lack the resources to restore full power, which has always been on-again, off-again in Rangoon. Local reports say the storm knocked out more than 70 percent of Rangoon's 2,500 factories, including many power stations. The city consumes about half the country's electricity, especially at 500 factories in the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone, which employ an estimated 120,000 workers. In another zone, one company, MGS Beverages, has been running on costly generators to produce vital drinking water.

Lights equal powerThe ability to light up the night shows who has power and money in Rangoon. Near the Rangoon River port, the triple-diamond logo of Mitsubishi oozes red into a working-class neighborhood, where mongrels stalk people in the dark and snap at their heels. In the city center, strings of festive lights emanate from upscale restaurants and hotels, serving a new influx of aid workers.

Above all else, Shwedagon Pagoda, perhaps the most magnificent site in southeast Asia, shines gold upon the blackened city below.

Undaunted, Rangoon residents have invented ways to overcome their powerlessness. Lacking working elevators, residents on upper floors of apartment blocks use ropes to drop down money to street vendors and pull up newspapers and water bottles.

Outside a pagoda, a street vendor uses a jury-rigged car battery to illuminate a tray of peanuts for sale from his bicycle cart. Car batteries are everywhere, lighting up tea stalls and snack joints. Streets are dotted with red boxes, in some cases containing auto engines converted into local power generators.

Since Burma doesn't produce generators, consumers have to pay around $100 for Chinese models, says the manager of an electronics store. But since diesel prices have doubled or tripled in the past month, others are waiting in the dark, hoping prices will come down.

Searching for TV signalsThose who have power are desperate for TV. The store manager says satellite dishes are a popular item. Technicians can be seen throughout the downtown core, carrying black panels on their backs or installing them on rooftops. Watching television, from home or abroad, at least offers respite from a month of national anguish.

In areas with electricity, locals are flocking to Internet cafes tucked away in the side-streets of bustling residential areas. Often run by long-haired rockers or young cyber-punks in longyis (sarongs), they're doing a good business, charging 500 kyat (about 50 cents) or more for an hour of surfing, accompanied by rock, rap, or religious music. But the surfing is often slow, and access comes in waves that crash throughout the day.

Some locals say they look to the Internet to fill the void of Western-style news in the local TV, radio, and print media. Most Burmese Web-surfers in the public Internet cafes, however, seem more interested in uploading family photos or chatting with friends than reading news sites, such as Google or Yahoo, that are sometimes blocked. Communicating by Internet is often cheaper and safer than paying 50 to 100 kyat per minute for local calls on patchy phone lines.

Many people doubt that authorities, who control the country's only server, have the time or energy to read through every individual e-mail. Already overloaded, the narrow Internet highway has been further jammed by the arrival of foreign aid workers, who are forced to rely on Internet communications because satellite phones are banned and cellphone SIM cards cost a whopping $2,000.

After the cafes close around 9 p.m., surfers wander home in the dark, avoiding potholes and stepping around puddles and prowling dogs.

"We can survive anything because we have to," says a Burmese netizen. "We are the toughest people in the world. When the apocalypse comes, we will be the last people to survive, because we are already near it."

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U.S. warships to leave Myanmar after aid refused
Reuters
4 June 2008

U.S. warships will soon leave waters near Myanmar after the ruling military junta refused permission for the delivery of aid supplies to the cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy delta, a top U.S. commander said on Wednesday.

Adm. Timothy Keating said the USS Essex group will sail away from the former Burma on Thursday but leave several heavy-lift helicopters in neighboring Thailand to help in the relief effort.

"Should the Burmese rulers have a change of heart and request our full assistance for their suffering we are prepared to help," Keating, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said in a statement.

Myanmar has been promised millions of dollars in aid from the United States, other governments and aid organizations. Cyclone Nargis, which hit a month ago, is believed to have left 134,000 people dead or missing and 2.4 million destitute.

But the junta has refused to allow the U.S. military to help distribute aid to affected areas, apparently fearing that a large-scale international relief effort would loosen the grip the generals have held since a 1962 coup.

In Washington, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino again pressed the Myanmar government to allow in aid workers.

"The Burmese regime must permit all international aid workers the access necessary to provide the urgently-needed assistance," she said in a statement. "There is no more time to waste."

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej told visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Bangkok on Sunday that the junta had rejected foreign military help in delivering cyclone aid because it feared it could be seen as an invasion.

Keating said they had made 15 attempts over the past three weeks to convince the regime to allow in U.S. helicopters and landing craft, "but they have refused us each and every time."

The United States had delivered more than 2 million pounds of relief supplies on 106 airlifts to Myanmar since the first U.S. military aid flight on May 12, Keating said.

(Reporting by Darren Schuettler in Bangkok, Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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US flotilla leaving Myanmar coast with aid aboard
AP
49 minutes ago

U.S. Navy ships laden with relief supplies will steam 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.

More than a month after the storm, many people in stricken areas still have received no aid at all and the military regime continued to impose constraints on international rescue efforts, humanitarian groups said Wednesday.

"I am both saddened and frustrated to know that we have been in a position to help ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people and help mitigate further loss of life, but have been unable to do so because of the unrelenting position of the Burma military junta," said Adm. Timothy J. Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Command. Myanmar is also known as Burma.

The USS Essex and three other amphibious assault ships, which have been in international waters off Myanmar since May 13, will continue with their previously scheduled missions, Keating said in a statement issued by his headquarters in Hawaii.

But Keating added that "should the Burmese rulers have a change of heart and request our full assistance for their suffering people, we are prepared to help."

He said the U.S. had made "at least 15 attempts" to persuade the junta to allow the ships, which carry 22 medium and heavy helicopters, four landing craft and 5,000 sailors and Marines, to deliver aid directly to victims in Myanmar's most badly damaged areas.

The junta also refused help from French and British warships that broke off from scheduled missions to stand by off Myanmar.

U.S. military C-130 transport planes hare being allowed to fly in relief supplies to Yangon, the country's biggest city, from a temporary base in Thailand.

Some 1.3 million survivors have been reached with assistance by local and international aid groups, the Red Cross or U.N. agencies, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

But U.N. officials estimated 1.1 million more still needed help. "There remains a serious lack of sufficient and sustained humanitarian assistance for the affected populations," the agency warned.

The government says 78,000 people were killed by the May 2-3 cyclone and 56,000 more are unaccounted for.

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

Only one helicopter chartered by the WFP was allowed in more than a week ago and it didn't begin flying supply missions from Yangon to the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta until Monday.

Restrictions on visa and travel permission for foreign workers, as well as on entry of some equipment, are hampering the aid effort, despite a pledge made almost two weeks ago by the junta's leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, to U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon to allow foreign aid workers free access to devastated areas.

"The small number of visas and the short duration of travel permits for access" into the delta area "continue to impose serious constraints on the effectiveness of overall operations," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Wednesday.

In Washington, White House secretary Dana Perino criticized Myanmar's ruling generals for hindering aid efforts.

"The Burmese regime must permit all international aid workers the access necessary to provide the urgently needed assistance," Perino said. "There is no more time to waste."

Myanmar, meanwhile, reportedly has been able to field only seven helicopters of its own.

Paul Risley, a spokesman for the World Food Program, said the junta's refusal to let military helicopters work in the country meant the U.N. had to charter large civilian aircraft, adding greatly to his agency's costs.

The WFP has budgeted $70 million for food and ground operations and nearly as much — $50 million — to charter the 10 helicopters, he said. It has received contributions of about $50 million toward the total, he added.

In previous large-scale disasters — such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Pakistan's 2005 earthquake — helicopters on loan from friendly nations' militaries were used to rush in emergency supplies, he said.

"For political reasons, the Myanmar government was reluctant to approve their use," Risley said.

The isolationist regime is extremely suspicious of outsiders, particularly of the U.S. and other Western nations that have criticized its harsh treatment of democracy advocates.

Despite the problems, the World Health Organization reported some cause for optimism.

In a report circulated Wednesday, it cited an assessment by the U.N. Children's Fund of conditions in hard-to-reach areas outside the town of Bogalay, one of the areas worst affected by the storm.

It quoted the assessment as saying that "there were no post-cyclone deaths in any of the villages assessed" as well as no signs of acute malnutrition. It also said suitable sources were found for clean water, assuming the use of some form of treatment.

The findings appeared to counteract fears there could be a "second wave" of deaths after the cyclone due to the lack of immediate large-scale assistance.

However, Doctors Without Borders warned that as monsoon rains become heavier, there will be more challenges supplying aid and keeping survivors healthy.

Sailing open boats with relief workers and supplies is becoming more difficult "because of the speed of the wind, because of the current, the storm," said Souheil Reaiche, the group's mission chief in Myanmar. "So they have to be careful."

Mobile clinics are filling in for the delta's wrecked medical facilities, but they can only do basic health care, Reaiche said.

People will develop more respiratory infections because they don't have proper shelter, he said. With mosquitoes beginning to recover from the cyclone's inundation, there are worries about dengue fever and malaria, he said.

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White House criticizes Myanmar regime
AP
Wed Jun 4, 10:51 AM ET

The White House criticized Myanmar's ruling junta on Wednesday for refusing to allow U.S. Navy ships to help their country deal with last month's devastating cyclone.

The U.S. military ordered the USS Essex and accompanying vessels, loaded with aid and a fleet of helicopters to fly it in, to depart Myanmar's coast after 15 attempts in recent weeks to get the junta's permission to let them help with relief efforts. The ships were already in the region for international exercises when the cyclone hit and were sent to waters near Myanmar, also known as Burma, in case authorization could be obtained.

"These assets were immediately deployed to Burma in the spirit of goodwill to offer extensive and life-saving assistance to the victims of Cyclone Nargis," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "Tragically, the Burmese authorities refused to accept this assistance."

The U.N. has estimated that 2.4 million people are in need of food, shelter or medical care as a result of the storm, which the government said killed 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing.

But Myanmar's ruling generals have allowed only limited U.S. military aid flights to the country, and have barred the ships from approaching. It also has forbidden the use of military helicopters from friendly neighboring nations, which are vital in rushing supplies to isolated survivors in the Irrawaddy delta, the area hardest hit by the cyclone. This has forced aid agencies to scour for civilian aircraft around the world and bring them in at dramatically increasing costs.

Myanmar's state media has said it feared a U.S. invasion aimed at seizing the country's oil deposits.

Perino said the United States so far has provided more than $26 million in humanitarian assistance to the people of Myanmar. The U.S. has completed a total of 106 airlifts of emergency relief commodities that will benefit at least 417,000 people, she said.

But, she added, "the generosity and compassion of the United States and the wider international community are impeded by the unwillingness of the Burmese authorities to provide full access to the cyclone-affected areas, despite their commitments to do so."

"The Burmese regime must permit all international aid workers the access necessary to provide the urgently-needed assistance," Perino said. "There is no more time to waste."

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US: 'No more time to waste' to help Myanmar victims
AFP
Wed Jun 4, 10:05 AM ET

The White House charged Wednesday that more than one million of Myanmar's cyclone victims have yet to see any international aid and urged the country's ruling junta to allow in all relief workers.

"The Burmese regime must permit all international aid workers the access necessary to provide the urgently-needed assistance. There is no more time to waste," spokeswoman Dana Perino said. Washington calls the country Burma.

Her comments came in a statement confirming that US warships laden with supplies for Myanmar's cyclone victims will sail away after the junta refused their help.

The ships "were immediately deployed to Burma in the spirit of goodwill to offer extensive and life-saving assistance to the victims of Cyclone Nargis. Tragically, the Burmese authorities refused to accept this assistance," she said.

"The generosity and compassion of the United States and the wider international community are impeded by the unwillingness of the Burmese authorities to provide full access to the cyclone-affected areas, despite their commitments to do so," said Perino.

"Over a month after the cyclone hit the shores of the Burmese Delta, tens of thousands have died and over a million victims have yet to receive any assistance," she charged.

US assistance to date for Myanmar's people totals more than 26 million dollars, said Perino, who estimated that 106 US airlifts of emergency relief commodities will help at least 417,000 people.

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