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Burma Army still on search-and-destroy mission against Nargis casualties
Burma hits out at cyclone reports
Comic arrested for Burma aid runs
Cyclone destroys trees in Myanmar's main city
Myanmar attacks media's cyclone coverage
Rejected by junta, US aid ships sail from Burma
Myanmar lashes foreign media over 'despicable' cyclone reports
Southeast Asian team finally enters Myanmar cyclone zone

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Burma Army still on search-and-destroy mission against Nargis casualties
SHAN / No.06- 6/2008 / 6 June 2008 / Politics
 
A month after Cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy delta, the Prome-based Light Infantry Division (LID) 66’s 8 battalions, later reinforced by another 6 battalions from Inndaing (Rangoon)-based LID 11, are still rummaging through the whole storm-torn area for the remains of the dead and getting on with the unpleasant job of cremating them, according to a source close to the Burma Army.

“Which indicates that the death toll is much higher than the official figure (133,000),” he said.

The Bassein-based Southwest Region Command, whose units had been dispatched to Tenasserim, Mon, Karen and Shan areas to fight the rebels there, was “caught with its pants down” and there was nothing it could do to meet the catastrophe head on.

The LID 66, temporarily stationed in Rangoon to deal with anticipated public protests, being the only unit available was therefore ordered to move in.

By all accounts, the local police force and its families were also among those who had evidently borne the brunt of the cyclone. Many police officers posted in far-flung corners of Burma had applied for and were given permission to return home to look for and look after their family members. The police department has also been soliciting people to make “police only” contributions.

“In fact, there are so many groups going around the country and scrounging for Nargis donations that even ordinary people are getting suspicious, according to the reports from Kayah (Karenni) and Shan states,” he said.

He added that the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), having brought the situation under control, is still worried about another countrywide unrest, as evidenced by continuous reports on:

* Field trips by senior commanders to supervise increased acreages in areas untouched by Nargis
* Collection of statistics with regards to existing amount of rice in the hands of rice traders and farmers
* Issuing directives to inquire into daily commodity prices and what the people are saying about the economic situation in general
 
According to Reuters report, 4 June, Hiroyuki Konuma from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had said that 60% of the 1-3 million hectares (3-2 million acres) of rice paddy had been affected. Out of which some 16% or 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) were seriously damaged.

Sean Tunnel, an Australian specialist, was more serve in his comments, according to Asia Times, 2 June. He had said Burma could shift from being a rice exporter to importer.

http://shanland.org/politics/2008/burma-army-still-on-search-and-destroy-mission-against-nargis-casualties

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Burma hits out at cyclone reports
BBC News
6 June 2008

Burma's state-run media has strongly condemned media reports of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis.

An article in a state daily accused "self-seekers" of faking video footage of the destruction - and foreign media of using it to harm Burma's image.

Reports that survivors were living in dire conditions in the Irrawaddy Delta were exaggerated, it said.

Burma's leaders have been heavily criticised for their reluctance to accept help after the 2 May cyclone.

According to official figures, 78,000 people were killed and another 56,000 are missing. More than two million people have been affected, aid agencies say.

After an initial refusal, the military junta is now allowing some experts from UN agencies and South East Asian neighbours to help victims of the storm.

But earlier this week US Navy ships carrying much-needed helicopters and landing craft left Burma's coastline after 15 failed attempts to convince the regime to let them in.

'Made-up stories'

Some of the most shocking footage that has emerged from the storm-hit region has come from video shot by Burmese amateurs and circulated on DVDs.

Burmese media labelled coverage of the cyclone as "despicable"

In an article, the New Light of Myanmar condemned "self-seekers exploiting storm victims".

They were, it said, "shooting video films featuring made-up stories in the storm-affected areas... and sending the videotapes to foreign news agencies".

"Those foreign news agencies are issuing such groundless news stories with the intention of tarnishing the image of Myanmar (Burma) and misleading the international community," it said.

The daily also accused reporters of exaggerating the conditions in which victims were living, describing the coverage as "despicable and inhuman acts of local and foreign anti-government groups".

Burma is desperate to prove that it is in control of the relief effort and that it does not need large-scale foreign help, correspondents say.

It has done its utmost to prevent journalists entering the storm-hit region, setting up police checkpoints to stop people travelling into the area.

But aid agencies say they still do not have the unrestricted access they need to fully implement the kind of relief and reconstruction operation required.

The story came a day after Burma's most prominent comedian, Zarganar, was detained after leading a private effort to deliver aid to cyclone victims.

Many Burmese volunteers have been organising their own deliveries to the delta to help people who have not received any aid.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7439222.stm

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Comic arrested for Burma aid runs
BBC News
5 June 2008

An estimated 2.4m cyclone survivors remain homeless and hungry

Burma's most famous comedian has been detained after leading a private effort to deliver aid to cyclone victims.

The family of the man, known as Zarganar, said police searched his house in Rangoon and arrested him.

The junta has been heavily criticised for obstructing foreign aid efforts and many Burmese volunteers have organised their own deliveries to survivors.

An estimated 2.4m people remain homeless and hungry following the cyclone, which struck on 2 May.

Two hundred aid experts from South-East Asian countries are now being deployed in the Irrawaddy Delta region to assess the needs of survivors.

The task force will produce a report on the humanitarian situation in the region for a meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations in Rangoon on 24 June.

'Aid diverted'

But despite recent changes to government policy, allowing aid workers more access to affected regions, the international community remains critical of the government.

US Navy ships laden with relief supplies steamed away from Burma's coast on Thursday after waiting more than three weeks for a green light from the junta.

"The [junta] has done nothing to convince us 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 to AP news agency.

Meanwhile, a human rights group accused the junta of forcing cyclone survivors to do menial labour in exchange for food, and of stepping up a campaign to evict the homeless from aid shelters.
Amnesty International also cited 40 accounts of Burmese soldiers or officials having confiscated, diverted or misused aid for survivors, despite the junta's pledge to crack down on the problem weeks ago.

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

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7437251.stm

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Cyclone destroys trees in Myanmar's main city
AP

The waiter looks down at the streets of Yangon from the panoramic rooftop restaurant. He remembers how diners used to be shielded from the noise and bustle of the city below by a thick green cushion of leaves.

When Cyclone Nargis ripped through Myanmar's largest city last month, its 120 mph winds snapped 100-year-old trees like matchsticks, wiping out much of Yangon's living link to its colonial past.

"There were green canopies covering the roads below. Now, you only see taxis and cars," said the waiter, San Myant Myant, as he stood beside a table on the 20th floor of the Thiripyitsayar Sky Lounge, atop one of the city's tallest buildings.

"There's no green anymore to soften the hues of the city," he said. "How long will it take to grow back all the trees? Perhaps a hundred years."

As Myanmar grapples with the tens of thousands of dead and many more homeless from the May 2-3 cyclone, it is coming to terms with another casualty: The loss of one of Asia's last colonial-era, leafy cities.

The Yangon Municipal Gardens Department said more than 10,000 trees were uprooted across Yangon, including at least 530 that were more than 50 years old.

"The cyclone was a terrible shock to me," said 83-year-old Khin Htway, a retired doctor who has lived her whole life in Yangon. "But to see so many trees that are older than I am uprooted in one fell swoop was devastating. They are irreplaceable."

Back when the British built this city over a century ago and named it Rangoon, they paved wide boulevards lined with stately trees and created leafy suburbs of lakes and gardens.

Towering rain trees, stately mahoganies, banyan and Burmese rosewoods were scattered around Yangon's streets and parks, providing much-needed shade from the sweltering tropical sun.

These top-heavy trees were especially vulnerable to the cyclone's fierce winds, said conservationist Aung Din, noting that many of those still standing are teak and eucalyptus, with deeper roots.

Under British rule, Burma — as the country was then called — was one of the wealthiest in Southeast Asia and the region's biggest producer of timber and rice.

Over the years, much of Myanmar's colonial past was wiped away by the military regimes that have ruled since 1962 and transformed the country into one of the poorest in the world. The current junta renamed the country Myanmar in 1989 and changed the capital's name to Yangon. In 2005, they relocated the capital to the newly built, isolated city of Naypyitaw in the north.

The xenophobic and reclusive generals blocked the outside world's influence and modernity, leaving Yangon with the dusty tranquility of another era. Its leafy charm stood in stark contrast to the traffic-clogged concrete jungles that sprung up in neighboring Southeast Asian capitals such as Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila.

World War II-era buses still ply the streets. Peeling pastel paint hangs from the once grand facades of neglected but sturdy colonial buildings.

The old architecture survived the cyclone, unlike hundreds of the flimsy wooden homes of the poor, which were flattened.

But with the loss of the trees, Yangon is a changed city.

Many residents who visited the grounds of Yangon University after the storm came away in tears. The campus, which was full of stately old trees and was a favorite picnic spot, is now eerily bare.

"We used to sit under the big, shady trees to read and chat. I miss doing that," said Tin Moe Hlaing, 29, a masters student in international relations, while reading on a bench in the lobby of the history department.

Kandawgyi Lake, a large forest-like park across town, is similarly barren.

"There were so many big trees around the beautiful lake," said Tun Ohn, 73, who operates a tour boat that was smashed in the storm. "Now, all that's left is a lot of fallen trees and debris."

With the cyclone causing most of its death and destruction in the Irrawaddy delta to the south, life in Yangon has mostly returned to normal.

Crowds throng the city's markets and sidewalk stalls, and taxis ply the streets. Police direct cars at intersections because traffic signals are still broken.

Women scurry across busy Strand Road, dodging cars and pedicabs, with rattan trays of dried fish or fresh produce balanced on their heads.

Towering overhead, the golden domed Shwedagon Pagoda — the city's famed bell-shaped temple atop a hill — gleams in the sun and is spotlighted at night.

Electricity has been restored in the more affluent city center, although some residents still lack telephone service.

The city's trendy youth are again enjoying late nights of nocturnal fun.

Leaving their traditional sarong-like longyis at home in favor of baggy jeans and baseball caps, their weekend nights are spent dancing at the Pioneer Club, where partygoers drink beer and gyrate to techno music.

For some, returning to normal has meant restoring some of the fallen trees.

At an intersection in northeastern Yangon, residents raised a huge banyan tree that had been uprooted by the storm and pieced back together a porcelain-tiled shrine at its base.

Banyan trees are sacred to Buddhists, who believe that Buddha attained enlightenment while sitting under one. In Myanmar, the venerable trees are believed to house spirits.

"There were spirits in the trees around here," said Aye Aye San, a 45-year-old laborer who works at Yangon University. "I don't know where they are now."

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Myanmar attacks media's cyclone coverage
AP

Myanmar's military junta lashed out at its own citizens and foreign media Friday for what it called distorted coverage of the aftermath of a devastating cyclone.

The attack came after authorities detained a popular comedian who had just returned from helping survivors of the disaster and had said government aid was not reaching some victims.

Unconfirmed reports circulated Friday in Yangon that at least a dozen people involved in filming cyclone victims in the Irrawaddy delta had been arrested.

The state-run New Light of Myanmar, considered a mouthpiece for the junta, accused "self-seekers and unscrupulous elements" of working in collusion with foreigners to shoot video films featuring made-up stories in the storm-ravaged areas in the delta.

"Those foreign news agencies are issuing such groundless news stories with the intention of tarnishing the image of Myanmar and misleading the international community into believing that cyclone victims do not receive any assistance," the report said.

The military regime has been criticized by international agencies for holding up shipments of food, water and temporary shelter supplies to some 1 million desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

Well-known comedian Maung Thura — whose stage name is Zarganar — was taken from his home in Yangon by police Wednesday night after going to the Irrawaddy delta to donate relief items to survivors, his family said.

A family member said Friday that they had heard nothing from Zarganar and the regime has given no reason for his detention.

"We stopped our cyclone relief activities (Thursday), but we will have to resume our relief assistance tomorrow," the relative said.

Zarganar, 46, known both for his anti-government barbs and his work for cyclone victims, was taken into custody after police searched his house and confiscated some belongings. He and his team had made video records of their relief activities and Zarganar gave interviews to foreign media.

A representative for the human rights group Amnesty International said Zarganar's detention was indicative of the kinds of human rights concerns the group was trying to highlight in Myanmar.

"There's simply no doubt this was done for political reasons ... but has an extra element because it can presumed to be linked to the humanitarian assistance effort," Amnesty researcher Benjamin Zawacki said.

In a report, Amnesty International cited several cases of forced labor in exchange for food in the delta and accused the regime of stepping up a campaign to evict the homeless from shelters.

The London-based group also said authorities in several cyclone-hit areas continue to divert aid despite the junta's pledge to crack down on the practice.

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

The government says Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar May 2-3, killed 78,000 people and left an additional 56,000 missing. The U.N. says more than 1 million still desperately need food, shelter or medical care.

This week, Zarganar gave interviews to several overseas media outlets, including the British Broadcasting Corp., that were critical of the government relief effort.

The junta is sensitive to being embarrassed abroad and has a record of persecuting people who give interviews to foreign media.

In an interview with the Thailand-based magazine Irrawaddy, Zarganar said he and more than 400 entertainers in Myanmar had volunteered to aid cyclone victims, making many trips to the delta.

Some areas, he said, had neither been reached by the government nor international relief agencies. Zarganar and his group distributed food, blankets, mosquito nets and other aid.

Zarganar said his group sometimes had "confrontations with authorities" in the delta.

Earlier, other Myanmar entertainers had complained that authorities want all aid to be distributed through official channels rather than by private individuals and groups.

Zarganar, who works as a dentist to pay the bills, was first arrested in 1988 for his political activities and again for helping his mother — a member of the National League for Democracy — during her campaign for the 1990 general elections.

The party, led by detained Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, swept those elections, but the regime refused to yield power.

Last September, Zarganar was arrested and held for three weeks for providing food to Buddhist monks who spearheaded anti-government protests in Yangon.

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Rejected by junta, US aid ships sail from Burma
The Times Online
4 June 2008

(Chief Petty Office Ty Swartz/US Navy/AP)
The USS Essex battlegroup in the Andaman Sea
Joanna Sugden

They were anchored off the coast of Burma for almost a month waiting to deliver vital supplies to the devastated country. Now four US warships will sail away with their cargo of aid still aboard after the military junta repeatedly rejected their offers of help.

The UN says over a million people affected by Cyclone Nargis, which hit the country over four weeks ago, still have not been reached despite claims by the junta that the relief effort is over and reconstruction has begun.

The US Navy will withdraw the four vessels laden with helicopters, amphibious vehicles and water purifying equipment desperately needed by the survivors, after losing the battle with the secretive military regime to gain entry.

Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of US Pacific Command, said: “It is time for the USS Essex group to move on to its next mission. 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”.

Related Links

Cyclone victims plead for food and new roofs
Burma junta drags its feet over aid visas
Burma junta faces challenge to its isolation

According to official Burmese figures, the cyclone left more than 133,000 people dead or missing as it ploughed across Burma on May 2, laying waste to vital farmlands and wiping villages off the map. Aid agencies say the death toll could be much higher.

The UN estimates that of the 2.4 million survivors in need of food and shelter, 1.1 million have not received any foreign aid.

Many of those people live in the remote and isolated Irawaddy delta, which is inaccessible by road.
For the first three weeks after the storm, the ruling generals stonewalled international efforts to deliver aid, yielding only after Ban Ki Moon, the UN chief, visited Senior General Than Shwe in person.

Even after this personal appeal, foreign relief groups which had struggled for weeks to even get staff into the country, let alone into the worst-hit areas, have only seen small gains.

France Hurtubise of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said that six of the group's foreign staff would enter the Irrawaddy Delta area for the first time today.

”For the tsunami we had 300 expats in within the first month -- compare 300 to six,” she said, referring to the 2004 disaster which killed 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean.

Aid agencies also say that staff are only being given permission to travel to the hard-to-reach delta for one week at a time, while getting that permission in the first place is a lengthy process.

“We’re happy that we’re seeing people getting into the field, but we’re not overly joyful,” Ms Hurtubise said.

“People are in very remote islands. If we don’t have enough boats, those people will remain without any help,” she added.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has said that helicopters are also now needed to reach the final survivors in the remotest regions.

But the one WFP helicopter in the country was only given permission to leave Rangoon on Monday, despite having been ready to fly for eight days.

Nine more helicopters are sitting on the tarmac in Thai airports. They are due to fly into Burma later this week, but it remains unclear if and when they will be allowed into the delta.

Paul Risley, the WFP’s regional spokesman, said it was “truly unfortunate” that the US ships and helicopters had to leave.

“Important heavy-lifting capability in the delta would have been a standard operating procedure for relief agencies in the response,” he said.

Robert Gates, US Defence Secretary, warned on Sunday that more people would die unless the junta changed tack, and aid workers say all aspects of the relief operation need to be scaled up to reach the needy.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article4064609.ece

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Myanmar lashes foreign media over 'despicable' cyclone reports
AFP

Myanmar on Friday accused foreign media of fabricating "despicable and inhuman" stories about the cyclone, as new delays hampered efforts to reach one million hungry and homeless survivors.

The latest tirade in the government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar newspaper came as the junta tries to convince the world that it has the relief effort under control, without major international assistance.

The official newspaper denounced "self-seekers exploiting storm victims," who they said were "shooting video films featuring made-up stories in the storm-affected areas ... and sending the videotapes to foreign news agencies."

"Those foreign news agencies are issuing such groundless news stories with the intention of tarnishing the image of Myanmar and misleading the international community," it said.

Most of the video footage showing the destruction wrought by Cyclone Nargis has been filmed by amateurs and shown on VCDs sold on Yangon's sidewalks. The images are difficult to watch, with corpses rotting in fields and families huddled under makeshift shelters in the daily monsoon rains.

The paper accused foreign media of exaggerating the cyclone damage, denouncing the reports as "despicable and inhuman acts."

Cyclone Nargis left 133,000 people dead or missing. The United Nations says 2.4 million people need emergency aid in the wake of the storm, but five weeks after the storm hit, one million of them have yet to receive any.

Junta leader Than Shwe agreed two weeks ago to allow a full-scale international relief effort, assuring UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during a visit here that foreign experts would have access to the hardest-hit regions of the Irrawadday Delta.

While aid agencies as well as Southeast Asian and UN experts have been allowed into the region, they say access remains patchy -- especially for remote villages hidden in the maze of rivers that laces the delta.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) won permission more than two weeks ago to bring 10 helicopters into Myanmar, but so far only one is actually flying between Yangon and the delta.

Seven others that had been due to leave Bangkok for Yangon, Myanmar's former capital, remain stranded in Thailand. The WFP blamed the latest delay on bad weather, but some of the choppers have been waiting for a week to enter Myanmar.

The junta has flatly refused aid from American, British and French warships laden with emergency supplies. The United States has offered military helicopters to help deliver food, but so far the regime has not responded.

Local volunteers have tried to fill the gap and deliver aid themselves, but they increasingly say that security forces are turning them away.

The nation's most famous comedian, Zaganar, who had been leading deliveries of aid to cyclone survivors, was arrested late Wednesday, according to his family.

Zaganar recently told The Irrawaddy, a magazine run by dissidents based in Thailand, that he had organised 400 volunteers to deliver supplies to 42 villages.

"At the beginning, we took risks, and we had to move forward on our own. Sometimes we had confrontations with the authorities," he told the magazine before his arrest.

"For example, they asked us why we were going on our own without consulting them and wanted us to negotiate with them. They said they couldn't guarantee our lives."

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Southeast Asian team finally enters Myanmar cyclone zone
AFP

Southeast Asian aid experts flew into Myanmar's devastated Irrawaddy Delta on Thursday for a mission to assess cyclone damage, but US navy ships sailed away -- laden with supplies rejected by the junta.

Nearly five weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit, leaving 133,000 dead or missing, the first members of the joint ASEAN-UN "Emergency Rapid Assessment Team" flew by helicopter into the shattered towns of Labutta and Pyapon.

The 200-strong team of aid experts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the United Nations will later move into more remote areas of the delta, where entire villages were washed away in the storm, ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan said in a statement.

Their final findings will not be reported until mid-July, even as the United Nations estimates that one million hungry and homeless survivors have yet to receive any international assistance.

Myanmar's regime sparked international outrage by sealing off the delta for three weeks after the cyclone hit on May 2-3.

Now the military leadership has allowed some foreign aid workers into the region, a maze of swollen rivers and swamps that even in the best of times is inaccessible by road.

One ASEAN official here said the new team "will try to get full access, and all efforts are being made to reach the victims."

But when asked if Myanmar's military authorities were cooperating fully with the aid effort, the official said: "How can I fully answer that without hurting the mission?"

Myanmar has agreed in theory for 10 helicopters from the World Food Programme to ferry supplies into the region, but so far only one is actually flying.

The junta has rejected help from US, French and British warships. Four US ships left the area on Thursday, after three weeks of trying to convince the regime to accept their aid.

The United States said it remained ready to offer Myanmar helicopters and landing craft from amphibious ships, even though the USS Essex group has left.

Junta leader Than Shwe agreed nearly two weeks ago to allow foreign aid workers into the delta, but international agencies say access remains patchy.

The regime has agreed for ASEAN to coordinate the relief effort, and Surin said the next two weeks would be "crucial for building international confidence in this joint mission" between ASEAN, the UN and the Myanmar government.

On the ground, hundreds of thousands of desperate survivors have been left to fend for themselves, cobbling together whatever shelter they can find to survive the daily monsoon rains while scavenging for food.

Amnesty International accused the regime of forcing thousands of weak and hungry survivors to move back to flattened villages and in some cases refusing aid unless rebuilding work is done.

The junta "has ordered increasing numbers of victims to return to their villages while still traumatised and with no food, shelter or other aid to help them once they return," Amnesty's Southeast Asia researcher Benjamin Zawacki told reporters.

Jon Mitchell, Myanmar director of the charity CARE, said he recently visited the remote delta village of Kan Phar, where 4,000 people once lived. Only 800 remain, he said.

"We asked them what they had been eating before aid arrived. All of their rice stocks had been destroyed. They told us they were either collecting coconuts or eating spoiled rice to survive," Mitchell said.

Private donors from Yangon and other towns have tried to fill the gap by delivering aid themselves, but some say security forces have turned them away.

A top figure in the local aid effort, Myanmar comedian Zaganar, was arrested late Wednesday at his Yangon home, a relative said Thursday.

Zaganar had been briefly detained during anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks last year. Those ended with a junta crackdown which left at least 31 people dead, the United Nations has said.

Myanmar analyst Aung Naing Oo said in Thailand that Zaganar was likely arrested for producing videos showing the true extent of the devastation, with graphic images of dead bodies still lying in fields.

"The situation is pretty grim everywhere," Aung Naing Oo said.

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