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HEADLINES
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AP - White House criticizes Myanmar regime
AP - US says Navy ships will leave Myanmar area after failing to get OK to help in relief efforts
AP - Human rights group accuses Myanmar military of killing, torturing ethnic Karen civilians
AP - State-media: Myanmar people ready to give military a 'political leadership role'
AFP - Britain pledges £10.5m more for Myanmar cyclone victims
Reuters - Burmese stock up on rice - if they can afford it
IRIN - MYANMAR: UNDP launches early recovery package for cyclone survivors
MCOT - Relief supplies for Myanmar's cyclone victims not enough: MSF
The New Straits Times  - Soft approach best for Myanmar
The Hindu - Myanmar received 1.3 million as cyclone relief
Times of India - UN fears food shortage in Myanmar
BBC News - Aid workers tell of time in Burma
Kyodo News - Police Warn of Charity Fraud Connected To China, Myanmar Disasters
The Nation - Junta still not letting in aid
The Irrawaddy - Monks Stepped In Where the Authorities Failed
The Irrawaddy - Cyclone Kids Lead the Police a Merry Chase
Mizzima News - Rangoon water-logged due to incessant rain

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White House criticizes Myanmar regime
AP - Thursday, June 05

WASHINGTON - 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 says Navy ships will leave Myanmar area after failing to get OK to help in relief efforts
AP - Thursday, June 5

YANGON, Myanmar - The U.S. military has ordered navy ships loaded with relief aid off Myanmar's coast to leave the area after the country's xenophobic junta refused to give them permission to help survivors of last month's devastating cyclone.

Meanwhile, more than one month after Cyclone Nargis struck, the French aid agency Doctors Without Borders said Wednesday its staffers were still finding remote areas in the delta that have not received any assistance from Myanmar or international sources.

Souheil Reaiche, the group's mission chief in Myanmar, said the number of people affected is higher than U.N. estimates because among survivors found are migrants and others not officially registered by authorities.

Adm. Timothy Keating, the top U.S. commander in the Pacific, ordered the USS Essex and accompanying vessels to depart Thursday after what he said were 15 separate attempts in recent weeks to get the junta's authorization to help with relief efforts.

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

The ruling generals also barred the use of military helicopters from friendly neighboring nations, even though the aircraft are vital for rushing supplies to isolated survivors in the Irrawaddy delta. This has forced aid agencies to scour the world for civilian military-grade helicopters, and bring them in at huge expense.

The U.N. has estimated 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.

Speaking in Hawaii on Tuesday, Keating said the U.S. unsuccessfully tried to persuade Myanmar's leaders to allow ships, helicopters and landing craft in to provide additional disaster relief.

The ships were in the region for international exercises. Keating made them available to help with relief efforts for last month's cyclone, and they were deployed near Myanmar in case they obtained permission to enter the country's waters.

But Myanmar allowed only limited U.S. military aid flights to the country, and barred the ships from landing or otherwise directly dispatching their cargo.

Paul Risley, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program, said the departure of the American ships meant relief agencies wouldn't have the chance to take advantage of their fleet of helicopters.

"That is truly unfortunate because these helicopters represent immediate heavy-lift capacity in the area of the delta," Risley told reporters in Bangkok, Thailand.

Risley earlier warned that logistics, such as the chartering of helicopters, were making the operation much more expensive than anticipated.

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 meet the immediate emergency requirements, he said. Nearby Thailand and Singapore have many helicopters on hand, he said.

"For political reasons, the Myanmar government was reluctant to approve their use," Risley said. Myanmar was reportedly able to field only seven helicopters of its own.

WFP has budgeted US$70 million (�45 million) for food and on the ground operations, and another US$50 million (�32 million) for the charter of 10 civilian helicopters, he said. So far it has received contributions of about US$50 million toward the US$120 million (�77 million) total, he added.

A total of 1.3 million survivors have 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 in a situation report Monday.

It said in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, the area hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis, the proportion of people reached with assistance had increased to 49 percent from 23 percent on May 25.

However, the report warned, "There remains a serious lack of sufficient and sustained humanitarian assistance for the affected populations. "

Meanwhile, the U.N. Development Program announced it would provide 20,000 households in 250 delta villages with cash grants over the next six months to help survivors revive the farming, fisheries and poultry sectors.

The agency will employ survivors to repair damaged buildings, roads and bridges. It also will work with the Food and Agriculture Organization to provide farmers with rice seeds, fertilizer and tools to cultivate their fields.

"This will empower the survivors," said Hla Myint Hpu, who conducted the needs assessment for the project. "People want to keep their dignity. They want help to rebuild their livelihoods and get back on their feet."

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Human rights group accuses Myanmar military of killing, torturing ethnic Karen civilians
By DENIS D. GRAY,Associated Press Writer
AP - Thursday, June 5

BANGKOK, Thailand - While Myanmar's ruling military fails its people suffering after a devastating cyclone, it is committing crimes against humanity in a brutal campaign against ethnic Karen civilians, an international human rights group said Wednesday.

The London-based Amnesty International said the Karen in eastern Myanmar are being killed, tortured and forced to work for the military while their villages are burned and their crops destroyed.

An estimated 147,800 Karen people remain refugees in their own land because the junta forcibly relocated them from their villages to camps, in efforts to stamp out a decades-old rebellion by a segment of the Karen community seeking autonomy from the central government.

"These violations constitute crimes against humanity ... involving a widespread and systematic violation of international human rights and humanitarian law," an Amnesty report said.

The government has repeatedly denied similar allegations in the past, saying it was only engaged in security operations in Karen State aimed at wiping out "terrorists. "

Amnesty said the continuing campaign is the fourth turbulent episode in the country's recent history.

The others include a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests last September, a recent referendum on a constitution designed to perpetuate military rule and "a humanitarian and human rights disaster in the wake of Cyclone Nargis," it said.

The international community has sharply criticized the junta for barring foreign aid workers from areas worst hit by the cyclone and itself providing little help to survivors.

Amnesty said that unlike in earlier campaigns against the Karen National Union, the key rebel group, the current one that began 2 1/2 years ago has "civilians as the primary targets."

The group said it documented cases of more than 25 Karen civilians killed by the military in Karen State in the two years since July 2005.

One farmer working in his field in Dweh Loh township was beaten and shot by soldiers after he told them the location of a rebel camp. Another farmer told of a civilian detainee being stabbed in the chest and then dropped down a mountain slope "just like an animal."

"If they found us they would kill us, because for the Burmese army the Karen and the Karen National Union are one," a 35-year-old villager in Thandaung township told Amnesty. Myanmar is also known as Burma.

Arbitrary arrests, sudden disappearances, forced labor and portering for the military continue to be widespread, Amnesty said. A woman from Tantabin township said she and other porters were forced to act as human minesweepers, and that some stepped on mines.

To purportedly separate civilians from the armed rebels, villagers have been forcibly relocated from their homes into camps where men, women and children are also forced to work for the military.

Often the villages they left behind were torched.

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State-media: Myanmar people ready to give military a 'political leadership role'
AP - Wednesday, June 4

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's people have forsaken pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and are ready instead to give the military a "political leadership role" under a new constitution, state-media said Wednesday.

The commentary in the Myanma Ahlin newspaper was another confirmation that the ruling junta has no intention of giving up power as it moves along its "road map to democracy."

The military, which has held power since 1962, has been widely condemned for suppressing democracy and committing human rights abuses.

The newspaper said people had abandoned Suu Kyi, the detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and her party because they rely on "external elements" and have been unable to serve the interests of the populace.

The recent approval by 92 percent of eligible voters of a new constitution showed "the people have become more mature and had made an intelligent choice between personality and policy."

"The entire people are determined to protect the Union and accept the national political leadership role of the Tatmadaw (military) in future Myanmar politics," the report said.

The constitution guarantees 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military and allows the president to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency.

The charter also bars anyone who enjoyed the rights and privileges of a foreign citizen from holding public office. This would keep Suu Kyi out of government because her late husband, Michael Aris, was a Briton and their two sons are British.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won 392 seats out of 485 seats in a 1990 election, the first freely contested poll in nearly three decades. However, the ruling military refused to hand over power, insisting a new constitution was needed before this could be done.

The newspaper said the referendum for the constitution was a far greater victory than the NLD's 1990 triumph. A similar commentary Tuesday said the referendum had "washed away" the 1990 results, which were no longer valid.

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Britain pledges £10.5m more for Myanmar cyclone victims
Wed Jun 4, 3:22 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - Britain has pledged an additional 10.5 million pounds in aid for cyclone victims in Myanmar, taking the total to more than 27 million pounds. 

In a statement to the House of Commons Tuesday, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander warned that the situation in the aftermath of cyclone Nargis "remains extremely grave" with "millions of people in desperate need".

"In addition to our previous commitment of 17 million pounds, I am today announcing a further 10.5 million pounds," Alexander said.

"These additional funds will be channelled through the Red Cross, NGOs and local community-based organisations, " he said, insisting that none of the aid would pass through the country's military regime.

"Our priority remains to get assistance to those that need it."

Alexander added that, while Britain was focused on providing help, "this does not diminish our commitment to the restoration of accountable, democratic government in Burma," referring to the country by its former name.

He said he was "disappointed and saddened" that the regime had extended pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention further, and added that results from Myanmar's constitutional referendum "lack all credibility" as they were held in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone.

Cyclone Nargis left 133,000 people dead or missing when it ploughed across Myanmar one month ago, laying waste to vital farmlands and wiping villages off the map.

For the first three weeks after the storm, Myanmar stonewalled international efforts to deliver aid, yielding only after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon paid a personal visit there to meet with junta leader Than Shwe.

Ban left Myanmar saying he had convinced the senior general to allow a full-scale relief effort, but days later, UN agencies said access remains spotty, with only a handful of foreign aid workers actually in the worst-hit parts of the Irrawaddy Delta.

Alexander said that the regime's promises to Ban "must be turned into action".

The UN has said that about 1.3 million people out of the 2.4 million affected by the cyclone have now received some form of foreign aid.

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MYANMAR: UNDP launches early recovery package for cyclone survivors
04 Jun 2008 15:31:31 GMT

BANGKOK, 4 June 2008 (IRIN) - The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has launched a major initiative to rebuild the livelihoods of some 100,000 cyclone survivors in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Delta.

"People want to revive and restore their livelihoods as quickly as possible," UNDP's policy adviser Shafique Rahman told IRIN from Yangon, the former Burmese capital.

"The programme will last between three and six months, depending on how fast they can recover," he said.

The initial effort will be built on with a much larger early recovery plan that will be more comprehensive after assessments and a revised flash appeal is issued in June.

The programme, which will parallel the ongoing relief effort, will initially target some 20,000 households in 250 priority villages where UNDP currently operates in five townships.

UNDP has authorisation to work in nine delta townships, seven of which are cyclone-affected. Of the latter, five bore the brunt of about 80 percent of the damage, Rahman estimated.

Launched on 4 June, the early recovery basic services package comprises a combination of cash grants for immediate livelihood support and cash-for-work schemes for rehabilitating village social infrastructure, including the clearing and cleaning of ponds, along with the repair of footpaths, water and sanitation facilities, and farmland.

"If farmers can plant, they will receive small cash grants and agricultural livelihood assistance under this package. These could include tools, seeds, and other agricultural inputs," Cherie Hart, UNDP's regional communications adviser, said in Bangkok.

If farmers cannot plant, because of land degradation following the cyclone, they would receive assistance for small trades and commercial services, such as masonry, boat transport, homestead gardening and poultry, she added.

The inter-agency collaboration built into the package, including the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), expands on an earlier agreement to assist farmers for the monsoon planting season.

More than 77,000 people were killed and 55,000 others left missing when Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar on 2 and 3 May. Thousands lost their livelihoods.

"Relief is offered to save lives. Early recovery is aimed at helping rebuild those lives that have been saved," Hart said.

Asked whether the programme would be replicated elsewhere in the delta, Rahman noted the ongoing challenge of securing access to the area.

"Access is an issue in Myanmar. Wherever we work we have to have an MoU [memoradum of understanding] or authorisation by the authorities to operate in any township," he said.

Of the 250 villages being targeted, he estimated that about 85 percent would be in the three delta townships of Labutta, Bogali, and Mawlamyinegyun.

"In Bogali, 95 percent of households were affected and will require assistance," he said.

UNDP has had a strong presence in the delta, having run a community development project and micro-finance project there for over a decade.

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Burmese stock up on rice - if they can afford it

YANGON, June 4 (Reuters) - Thu Zar Nwe's rice store on a dusty street in Yangon has done roaring trade since last month's cyclone and sea surge engulfed more than one million acres of arable land in Myanmar's key food bowl.

"If they have money, people are buying for a long time," she said, as workers loaded an antiquated truck with 50 kg sacks of rice outside her "Silver Earth" bulk rice shop.

The shop has been selling up to 300 sacks a day since Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2.

Since the storm, the price of top quality rice has jumped from 28,000 kyat per bag (about $25.45), to 42,000 kyat, making life even tougher in what was already one of Asia's most impoverished nations after 46 years of military rule.

Thu Zar Nwe's store is a minor oddity in Myanmar since it is private and not linked to the ruling generals, who keep a tight rein over the market for the country's staple food.

"Next year we will have problems getting good quality rice, so I think the price can only go up," added Thu Zar Nwe, a small diamond sparkling on her front tooth.

"Ordinary people are buying lower quality rice. Business is bad for most people apart from the rich, so they are buying daily, bit by bit," she added.

In a tiny room in a food and grocery market nearby, shopkeeper Khin Soe tells the same story.

"The wealthy are buying and holding the rice, and for them it is okay. The poor have to buy what they can each day," he said, sitting shirtless in the morning heat.

A U.N. official said on Wednesday that 60 percent of the 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) of rice paddy in the five disaster areas had been affected by the cyclone, which left 134,000 people dead or missing.

Some 16 percent, or 200,000 hectares, was seriously damaged.

Some land had been drained, but farmers still faced many hurdles, including a lack of shelter, rice seeds, fertiliser and ploughing animals, most of which were killed, Hiroyuki Konuma of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation said.

"About 200,000 hectares will not be able to be used for the coming production season," he told a news conference in Bangkok.

International aid workers hope that around half of the rice farmers in the delta will be able to plant at least an acre of rice for the critical monsoon crop.

The June planting, watered by the seasonal rains, produces the main rice crop in the delta, the "rice bowl of Asia" in the days when Myanmar was called Burma and administered as part of the British empire.

But with so much land still flooded, the U.N. is lobbying Myanmar's junta to accept it might need short-term rice imports.

The U.N.'s World Food Programme estimates that it will need to feed at least 750,000 people in Yangon and the delta for some time to come.

Illustrating the impact of the storm, another store owner, Lem Lem Khine, had just received a consignment of 50 sacks of rice she bought before the cyclone and could have sold for a top price.

Instead, it has been soaked through by the rain and has now turned varying shades of brown.

"Now it is good only for pigs," she said in disgust.

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Relief supplies for Myanmar's cyclone victims not enough: MSF
MCOT

BANGKOK, June 4 (TNA) - The international medical aid organisation Doctors without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said here on Wednesday relief supplies for Cyclone Nargis victims in Myanmar were not enough, but confirmed the junta was not impeding international aid agencies’ operations.

The team - which had just returned from a mission in Myanmar - held a news conference in Bangkok on Wednesday.

MSF director Dr Frank Smithuis called for more contribution from the international community to assist cyclone-struck victims in Myanmar. He said the current volume of relief supplies was still unsatisfactory and was not reaching most of the affected areas.

To address the problem, the organisation has hired 200 to 300 trucks together with 250 locals to dispatch aid supplies to the needy. 

According to the programme director, as many as 150,000 temporary shelters were erected and 43 mobile medical units set up.

The team has treated more than 300,000 people, who were mostly affected by fever, diarrhea and infectious wounds.

Dr Smithuis, however, confirmed no epidemic had been found so far.

MSF psychiatrist Kaz de Jong expressed concern over cyclone victims’ mental health, saying destitute living conditions were causing them great depression and worry about their lives. Some refused to eat for fear there would be no more food left for the following day.

Dr de Jong, however, insisted the military junta was not obstructing any form of relief operations delivered by international aid agencies.

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Soft approach best for Myanmar
The New Straits Times - 2008/06/04

KUALA LUMPUR: A five-member panel at the 22nd Asia-Pacific Roundtable yesterday agreed that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) should employ "constructive engagement" in its approach to Myanmar.

The panel, assembled to discuss "Asean and Myanmar: The way forward", concluded that the regional association was strategically positioned to actively pull Myanmar out of isolation and channel much needed help in development.

On the panel were Xavier Nuttin from the policy department of the European Parliament in Belgium, Myanmar Foreign Affairs secretary Than Than Htay, historian Dr Thant Myint-U, Thailand Institute of Security and International Studies senior fellow Kavi Chongkittavorn and Singapore Institute of International Affairs chairman Simon Tay.

The panel also agreed that much will hinge on current Asean secretary-general Dr Surin Pitsuwan's initiative to open up dialogue with Myanmar's leaders and achieve progress in international policies for the junta-led nation.

Thant, however, stressed that the scope of "engagement" must be framed clearly so as to avoid upsetting the junta.

He said the new policy should be less political, and instead focus on developing the socio-economic well-being of Myanmar's citizens, while also improving trade and international exposure.

"If we are going to go in with policies towards having a full democracy and the release of political prisoners, we will get nowhere."

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Myanmar received 1.3 million as cyclone relief
The Hindu - Wednesday, June 4, 2008

New York (PTI): About 1.3 million people affected by the deadly cyclone Nargis that battered Myanmar a month ago have so far received assistance, the humanitarian arm of the United Nations said on Wednesday.

In addition, the percentage of those reached in the Ayeyarwady Delta region had increased from 23 per cent to 49 per cent, Elisabeth Byrs of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

At the same time, she noted that assistance has not been consistent. "There remains a serious lack of sufficient and sustained humanitarian assistance. That's why the priority now is a clear analysis of needs against assistance available and planned for."

UN humanitarian officials estimate that more than 77,000 people have been killed and 55,000 others are missing since Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2. As many as 500,000 to 600,000 people, mainly in the delta, have had to be relocated.

Meanwhile, many children in the delta region returned to school yesterday after the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Ministry of Education have repaired damaged schools and distributed school materials.

UNICEF's Veronique Taveau said the agency had distributed sheet iron for roofing, as well as "school-in-a- box" kits and recreational materials. She added that the return to school had been delayed a further month for children in some of the hardest hit areas.

The Government estimates that 4,100 primary, elementary and secondary schools had been affected by the cyclone, among which 1,255 had been completely destroyed.

UNICEF teams are currently assessing the full damage, taking account of just how many children had returned to school or had not been able to as yet, so that they could adjust their assistance plans accordingly, Taveau said.

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UN fears food shortage in Myanmar
Times of India
4 Jun 2008, 1443 hrs IST,AFP

BANGKOK: Cyclone Nargis has prevented many farmers in Myanmar's rice-growing region from planting their new crop, raising fears of food shortages this year, UN agriculture officials said Wednesday.

Rice stocks and paddies were pummelled when the deadly storm hit, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has stressed that the new planting season must begin in early June to stave off further tragedy.

But early June has crept around, and still farmers are languishing without aid supplies more than one month after the cyclone hit and left more than 133,000 people dead or missing.

"Many areas are still empty and farmers haven't yet come back because of the lack of shelter and lack of food," the FAO's deputy regional representative Hiroyuki Konuma told reporters in Bangkok.

"We have to complete sowing by the end of July latest otherwise it will create tremendous damage to productivity and affect income and eventually will affect the national security of Myanmar itself."

The FAO estimates that 16 percent of the 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) of agricultural land in the Irrawaddy Delta region have been seriously damaged after the cyclone caused flooding, while sea water has poisoned the soil.

"It's likely that the harvest will not be able to take place for another year," said Paul Risley of the UN's World Food Programme.

"Due to the coincidence of (the cyclone) hitting as the monsoon was just beginning, it's a very catastrophic disaster from that point of view."

Much of the rice seed which would have been used for the monsoon harvest -- which accounts for 80 per cent of Myanmar's annual rice yield -- was lost or damaged by the cyclone, Konuma said.

"If production is affected during monsoon season, then there might be a very serious shortage of rice and Myanmar will have to depend on imported rice from abroad," he told reporters.

Global rice prices have surged in the past year, and analysts have said that if a previously self-sustaining country like Myanmar begins importing, it could push prices of the staple grain even higher.

The FAO is trying to procure more rice seed within Myanmar and wants to sow special high-yield quick-growth varieties which will enable farmers to catch up for lost time as the sowing season nears its end in late July.

The cyclone also affected areas that once housed nearly half of all the pigs and poultry for meat production in Myanmar, but 20 percent of that livestock was lost to Cyclone Nargis.

Fisheries, on which 800,000 people depended, have also been severely affected, the FAO reports.

"These affected areas are the real national food box," said Konuma. In the weeks after the May 2-3 cyclone, Myanmar's military junta blocked entry to overseas aid workers trying to reach some 2.4 million survivors.

The generals have opened access a crack after a visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, but more than one million cyclone victims remain without foreign aid.

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Aid workers tell of time in Burma
BBC News - updated at 11:04 GMT, Wednesday, 4 June 2008 12:04 UK

A month after Cyclone Nargis devastated parts of Burma, the few British aid workers allowed in by the ruling military junta have begun returning home.

Here three tell of their time there and whether the £11m so far donated by Britons is having an effect.

KATY BARNETT, CHILD PROTECTION ADVISOR, SAVE THE CHILDREN

Up to 2,000 survivors of the Burma cyclone are thought to be lost children unable to find their parents.

Child protection specialist Katy Barnett visited Burma shortly after Cyclone Nargis struck and stayed for two weeks.

"I headed up our child protection responsibility, which looked at family tracing and at the well-being of children, many of whom may have lost siblings or parents," she said.

"For children who are declared orphans we are looking at long-term care arrangements.

"We know from other emergencies that children who are separated from their families are extremely vulnerable to all kinds of exploitation and abuse.

"There's a threat of trafficking, we've heard tales of horrendous child labour.

"In Burma, it seemed to be perfectly normal for children to start work under 10, and to be living far from home."

She said this was a pre-existing situation, so was a "huge threat" to those orphaned by Cyclone Nargis.

"We had second-hand reports, from community members, that traffickers had been in villages offering work for both adults and children.

"We were told of a family of six children whose mother had accepted to go to China to work."

She said their biggest challenge was still ahead. Children who had been taken in by a foster family were vulnerable when these families started to find it "much harder to sustain extra children".

"After the initial flurry of aid has gone, it can be much more dangerous for that child," she said.

"In Burma we found that children were generally being fostered by their extended family."

They were developing plans on how to best support these families. "We don't want to make it really attractive for families to take on new children unless they genuinely want to help.

"On the other hand, we don't want to leave foster families without any support at all. We have to get the support just right."

On her time in Burma and the restrictions placed on her as a foreigner, she said: "I did get to go out a little bit around Yangon [the official name for Burma's capital Rangoon] but I wasn't able to go into the Delta and that made it much harder to understand the situation, especially as the communications were quite rocky.

"You had to take a huge leap of faith - for example with family tracing - that the procedures were being followed, that interviews were being carried out in an ethical manner."

She said she had not had contact with the Burmese authorities, as this was done through Save the Children's government liaison officer.

"It was really important that we were always consistent about what we were doing and why," she said.

ALISON FERNANDES, DESK OFFICER, TEARFUND

Alison Fernandes works for Christian charity Tearfund. She visited Burma for 10 days, returning last week.

Based in Rangoon, she said she visited the charity's "partners" - the 276 churches in the affected area who were providing aid on the ground - "to make sure they had the support they needed".

"I was there meeting them to find out what they have been doing and hear their experiences and help them plan for the future," she said.

"The most wonderful thing was to see for myself that aid was getting through to the people who needed it.

"The churches are reaching out to people who are in need, so I am really, really pleased that aid is getting through.

"One of our partners is sending medical teams who are being able to give emergency aid."

She gave one example: "We were able to give one man whose eye was poked out by a tree first aid and refer him to where he would get the help he needs."

They were also providing shelter.

"It was wonderful to have a sense that things are actually happening. There was a real buzz of action, but also a sense that the needs are absolutely huge."

She said she had attempted to reach the affected area but she was stopped at a roadblock and told she would not be allowed through without the relevant permissions.
Instead, she said, she visited some of the townships just outside Rangoon.

She found people who had lost their homes and many were out of work, with many factories damaged.

The petrol price had gone up a lot so people were finding it hard to pay for bus fares to find work, she continued.

"A third of people's daily wage has been taken up just by transport."

She said trauma was going to be a "really big issue". People had told her many stories about the guilt of survivors.

"I heard so many stories of parents who tried to save their children. Some tied them to their wrists with rope, but this cyclone moved very, very slowly, so people were buffeted for about eight to 10 hours in the middle of the night.

"Many couldn't hold their children for that whole time, so many just got washed away.

"I found it very difficult emotionally because I am a mother myself, and it was hard to hear so many stories of how children had been lost.

"On the other hand I was inspired that our partners are doing a most fantastic job."

JONATHAN PEARCE, INFORMATION OFFICER, MERLIN

Jonathan Pearce, an information officer for the medical charity Merlin, visited Burma for one week two weeks' ago.

He was there to establish a picture of the environment and an idea of what people needed, he said.

"Our access was hampered considerably both by the nature of the environment - it was very remote - and by the bureaucratic and legal restrictions.

"As a foreigner in Myanmar [the official name for Burma] I could not go to certain areas freely and many of the areas that were severely affected couldn't be visited by foreigners without a permit."

Fortunately, he said, Merlin already had a project in the area at the time of Cyclone Nargis so "we had the infrastructure in place to be able to get permits".

"The main thing was we were able to get into the country without much difficulty because we had already been working there," he said.

"And most of our work was delivered by nationals. A lot of qualified medical graduates were available. They could travel there freely."

During his stay, Mr Pearce was based in Labutta, in the affected region.

"The week I was there, when we arrived in Labutta it rained solidly for 48 hours. People desperately needed better shelter," he said.

"People were... camping under sheets of plastic on bricks, to keep off the wet ground. And they were cold because the rain was so intense.

"It was two weeks after the event and there wasn't an atmosphere that this was the hub of aid co-ordination.

"You would expect to see helicopters, you would expect to see the roads choked with supplies. Nothing that came in was in the quantities that you would expect."

However, he said, they were having an impact.

"There was a huge need, but there was a sense that we were being successful in helping people every day. We felt we were doing what we could do.

"As an organisation we just pushed and tried to get things done."

He said that steadily they were able to reach more and more people, some of whom did complain not enough was being done.

"When someone goes through a disaster like this most are in a state of shock and have no idea what to expect. People didn't feel safe and didn't know when they were going back to their villages. Many of these villages were literally washed away."

Since Mr Pearce's visit more Merlin workers have been allowed to Labutta and more aid has arrived, the charity said.

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Police Warn of Charity Fraud Connected To China, Myanmar Disasters

Fukushima, Japan, June 4 Kyodo -- Police on Wednesday warned the general public to be aware of a swindling group allegedly soliciting donations for the victims of the earthquake in China and cyclone in Myanmar using leaflets delivered with newspapers in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture.

No financial damage connected to the alleged fraud has been reported so far and the police have frozen the group's designated bank account during the investigation, the police said.

They also believe it is the first Japanese case of attempted charity fraud aimed at taking advantage of the massive earthquake that hit China's Sichuan Province on May 12.

The powerful cyclone devastated Myanmar on May 2 and 3. The police said a reader of the newspaper thought the leaflet suspicious and reported it to them.

According to the investigation, the leaflets were delivered with about 15,000 editions of six morning newspapers Wednesday and asked for donations to a postal bank account held in the name of Hiroshi Sato, representative of the charity group in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. The leaflet said, "Donated money will be evenly distributed to the affiliated organizations through NHK."

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Junta still not letting in aid
The Nation
Published on Jun 5, 2008

Despite the promises of millions of US dollars worth of humanitarian aid for the cyclone victims in Burma, only a few small organisations are actually working at the scene.

"We saw a lot of people in the coordination meeting [hosted by the UN and Asean on May 25], but we've not seen many organisations on the ground," Frank Smithuis, head of mission for Medicins sans Frontieres (MSF) in Burma, said yesterday.

Inaccessibility can be blamed, because Burma's xenophobic junta is reluctant to open the door wider for international aid workers.

The US has ordered its ships loaded with relief aid waiting off Burma's coast to leave the area after the junta refused to grant permission for them to help survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which hit Burma on May 2-3 and left 134,000 dead or missing.

Admiral Timothy Keating, the top US commander in the Pacific, said the USS Essex and accompanying vessels would leave after what he described as 15 separate attempts in recent weeks to get the junta's authorisation for the ships to help.

However, Smithuis said those who received permission still had not started working.

MSF began its fieldwork after the cyclone hit the country just over a month ago. Its 43 medical teams have joined 250 local staff in areas of the Irrawaddy Delta, including Bogale, Laputta, Ngaputa and Pyapon.

In these areas are about six or seven other small organisations, he said.

"The plans were large, with hundreds of people and millions of dollars promised, but they are not fully operational yet," he said.

Given the situation, the international community has not shown adequate generosity towards the victims compared with those in other disasters, such as the 2004 tsunami, he said.

An international conference in Rangoon on May 25 hosted by the United Nations and Asean agreed to set up a tripartite core group consisting of senior officials from the UN, Asean and the junta to implement the relief plan.

But things are moving too slowly, and the second pledging conference is set for next Thursday.

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Monks Stepped In Where the Authorities Failed
The Irrawaddy - Wednesday, June 4, 2008
By SAW YAN NAING

More than 800 monks prayed for the victims of Cyclone Nargis on Tuesday at a Rangoon ceremony in which one senior cleric criticized the regime’s response to the catastrophe.

Pyinya Thiha, a senior monk at Thardu monastery in Rangoon’s Kyeemyindine Township, accused the junta of exacerbating the plight of the cyclone survivors by thinking only of its own interests and placing restrictions on the delivery of aid. He called on the regime to allow international aid workers access to the cyclone-devastated areas.

About 100 nuns and more than 500 members of the general public attended the prayer ceremony, in Thardu monastery.

Pyinya Thiha said the junta was guilty of a “double injustice” in its approach to the catastrophe. “The current situation is not important for them [but] it is very important for the survival of the people now in trouble.

“It is necessary to see human beings with the eyes of a human being. They [the junta] should not see human beings as animals.”

Aid for the cyclone survivors should take priority over everything else, Pyinya Thiha told The Irrawaddy.

Monks would do “whatever we can for the victims,” he promised. The monks of the Thardu monastery distributed relief supplies daily in Rangoon Division’s Hlaing Tharyar and Kyeemyindine Townships, and prayed every evening for the cyclone victims.

Monks had already delivered relief supplies—from food to mosquito nets—to about 200 villages in the Irrawaddy delta, he said.

Monasteries throughout the Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon division had taken in refugees from cyclone-hit areas. Monks had also helped clear up the cyclone damage.

One Hlaing Tharyar Township resident, Tin Yu, said the authorities didn’t dare prevent the monks from helping cyclone survivors, some of whom were still sheltering in monasteries, despite official pressure to leave. The assistance provided by the monks had been “very encouraging.”

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Cyclone Kids Lead the Police a Merry Chase
The Irrawaddy - Wednesday, June 4, 2008
By MIN KHET MAUNG / KAWT HMU, RANGOON

"Run! Run! The police are after us," a teenage boy calls to his pals, taking to his heels and running through the rain, clutching a sack of food on his head.

The youngsters’ misdemeanor? Begging for food on the motorway near Kawt Hmu Township in Rangoon Division, one of the areas devastated by Cyclone Nargis.

"We have to be careful not to be noticed by the police while begging for food,” said one of the boys, Maung Maung. “If they catch us they beat us.”

Local people say the police routinely beat anybody they catch begging for food at the roadside. Fines of 3,000 kyat (US $2.7) are also handed out.

The beggars, neglected cyclone survivors who have few other means of finding food, are accused by local authorities of damaging Burma’s image in the eyes of the outside world.

Official media reports also suggest that handing out food and other relief supplies to cyclone survivors reduced to begging at the roadside could encourage them to become lazy and reliant on outside aid.

The reports ignore the true reasons why people have to resort to begging for food: the lack of official relief and the cyclone’s destruction of livelihoods in a region where most of the inhabitants rely on agriculture, wrecked by the disastrous storm and a tidal wave that inundated rice paddies and farm land with ruinous seawater.

Mi Nge, a teenage girl from Dedaye in the Irrawaddy delta, said the rice being handed out by the local authority was insufficient to feed her household of six and other families in the area.  

Mi Nge is also forced to beg for food at the roadside, but she has to keep a special eye open for the police—"I can't run as fast as the boys.”

Intimidated survivors like Maung Maung and Mi Nge no longer hold their hands out for food, but wait solemnly as the vehicles pass. Donors are aware of their need and give them food.

A Rangoon resident said that during a visit to the Irrawaddy delta he had witnessed the police soundly beating three or four children they had caught begging for food.

"I couldn't believe my eyes; I asked myself if this was real," he said.

One young boy said he and some friends were caught by the police as they carried food back to the temporary shelters they now called home. Despite their assurances that they had not obtained the food by begging, the police beat them badly.

The risk of getting a good hiding from the police is all in a day’s fun, however, for these youngsters, whose lives don’t bring much light relief.

“It’s like a catch-and-run game,” smiled the young fellow. “We can run faster than the police. And we know the area better. It’s fun."

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Rangoon water-logged due to incessant rain
Mizzima News - Wednesday, 04 June 2008 16:25
Zarni   

Chiang Mai - Incessant monsoon rain has left Burma's former capital and commercial hub Rangoon water-logged, causing life to come to a standstill, local residents said.

The main commercial districts of Rangoon's downtown area such as Sule Pagoda, Seikkantha street, Tarmwe 50th street and Bothathaung Township, have been waterlogged due to incessant rain that started at 2 AM (local time) on Wednesday.

"The rain has not stopped since this morning. Everywhere is flooded with water almost knee high," a resident of Kandawkalay ward in Minglar Taungnyunt Township of Rangoon told Mizzima.

In some parts of the city's suburbs such as South Okklapa Township, water has risen above knee-height, residents said.  Moreover, water has also covered areas such as Thingakyun Township, which is relatively higher and has never been affected by floods.

"In Thingan Kyun Township, we have never faced floods, but now we can see water everywhere," a local resident said.

Residents said the floods had brought the city to a near standstill as no vehicles could ply on the roads, which are filled with water.

However, with the rain stopping in the afternoon, the water level is going down, though the roads are still to surface, residents said.

"The flood waters have blocked the traffic and it has become a problem as we cannot use the roads. But, now with the rain stopping, the water level is going down. However, in the morning the rain had covered most of the area," a local resident in Siekkanthar street said.

Similarly, several other townships including Hlaing Tharyar, Shwepyithar, and Hlathar were also waterlogged by the continuous rain.

Rangoon, in early May, was severely damaged by Cyclone Nargis, which lashed the city with a wind speed of 120 kilometres per hour. However, so far there have been no reports of damage caused by the rain and flood on Wednesday.

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