2008-06-09 Burma News Summary
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VOA-UN Expert Urges Investigation Of Prisoners Killed In Burma
Relief Web-Dalai Lama donates for Burma's cyclone victims
CSmonitor-Burma' s (Myanmar's) elite help with aid
VOA-UN Helicopters Reach Cyclone-Hit Villages in Burma
Fox News-Burmese Group Denies Rumors of Fish Feeding on Human Remains
Travel Mole-Tourism Businesses on Burma 'Dirty List'
Pre News Wire-'Burma: It Can't Wait' Campaign Extends into June in Wake of Myanmar Cyclone Tragedy
TIME-Burma Dead May Never Be Identified
IPS-BURMA: Crime for Civil Society to Provide Relief?
Digtal journal-Response of Asian Nations In Regards To Burma Are Questioned
New statesman-Burma' s forced labour
Irrawaddy-Delta Farmers Face Uncertain Future
Irrawaddy-‘No Warships Please, We’re Burmese’
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UN Expert Urges Investigation Of Prisoners Killed In Burma
By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
09 June 2008
The U.N. Special Investigator into the Human Rights situation of Burma, also known as Myanmar, is calling for an investigation into the alleged killing of prisoners during the early days of Cyclone Nargis. The expert has submitted a report on violations in Burma to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, from where Lisa Schlein reports for VOA.
Tomas Ojea Quintana,
09 Jun 2008
Argentinian lawyer Tomas Ojea Quintana assumed his post as the U.N. Special Rapporteur on May 1. This was one day before Cyclone Nargis struck, leaving an estimated 134,000 people dead or missing.
He says this catastrophic event triggered a number of events, which have serious human rights implications. He says the day of the storm on May 2, about 1,000 prisoners in the town of Insein were forced inside a hall after their jail's zinc roofs were torn off.
He says many prisoners panicked and soldiers and riot police were called in to control the situation. He says they reportedly opened fire on the prisoners and a number were allegedly killed.
"It is not that they were trying to escape," said Quintana. "Under the Cyclone circumstances, they were trying to save their lives because apparently the Cyclone was hitting the prison. So, they were trying to save their lives. And, there are some reports that there are 30 or 40 perhaps, a number of killings in the situation in Insein prison."
Quintana is urging the authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation to clarify the facts and identify the perpetrators of those arbitrary killings.
The U.N. investigator is calling for the government to free all political prisoners, starting with Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest.
Burma's military rulers deny they are holding political prisoners, but Quintana says he has received reports of people having been detained while protesting the recent constitutional referendum. He says they are among 1,900 political prisoners, including monks rounded up after protests last September.
Zarganar (file photo)
He says he is worried about the arrest of the popular Burmese comedian Zarganar, who had been leading some of the relief efforts after the Cyclone.
"I am very concerned because I do not know, so far, about his whereabouts. I do not know if he is in detention in the police station or where. So, I ask for clarification from the government on that," said Quintana.
Quintana has sharp words regarding alleged obstruction of humanitarian assistance to the victims of Cyclone Nargis. He says under international human rights law, if a country cannot provide for the needs of its people, then other means have to be found to assist them. He says aid should be allowed to flow freely to the victims.
http://www.voanews. com/english/ 2008-06-09- voa51.cfm
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Dalai Lama donates for Burma's cyclone victims
Source: Mizzima News
Relief Web-Date: 09 Jun 2008
New Delhi - Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader His Highness the Dalai Lama on Monday donated 500,000 Indian Rupees (USD 12,500) for relief and reconstruction work for victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma.
The Nobel Peace Laureate, Dalai Lama, has come forward to support the people of Burma, who are now reeling under the impact of Nargis, said Dr. Tint Swe, a minister in Burma's government in exile– the National Coalition Government of Union of Burma (NCGUB), who received the donation.
"This is an encouragement for the people of Burma," said Dr. Tint Swe, adding that the donation will be send to the All Burma Monks Alliance.
The donation by the Tibetan spiritual leader is the second since the killer cyclone struck Burma's coastal region of Irrawaddy and Rangoon division.
Immediately after the cyclone lashed Burma, Dalai Lama made a donation of 50,000 Indian rupees to help cyclone victims.
http://www.reliefwe b.int/rw/ RWB.NSF/db900SID /YSAR-7FFRCN? OpenDocument
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Aid: Burmese refugees 15 miles from Rangoon walked home after receiving cooking pots from monks on Saturday. About 1 million out of 2.4 million cyclone victims have yet to receive aid, the UN estimates, most of them in the hard-to-reach Irrawaddy Delta.
AP
Burma's (Myanmar's) elite help with aid
Business leaders, some under US sanction, are delivering relief supplies.
By a correspondent
CSmonitor-from the June 10, 2008 edition
Correspondent Simon Montlake talks about business executives helping deliver cyclone aid to Burmese residents.
How to help cyclone victims
American Red Cross 2025 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20006 800-435-7669 |
CARE |
Church World Service |
Doctors Without Borders, USA |
Habitat for Humanity International |
Mercy Corps |
Operation Blessing International |
Save the Children |
United States Fund for UNICEF |
World Vision |
Compiled by Leigh Montgomery
Rangoon, Burma - While international aid groups and world leaders have been clamoring for greater access or accusing the government of Burma (Myanmar) of neglecting cyclone victims, the junta has effectively parceled out areas of the disaster zone to the country's corporate leaders.
They are a "who's who" of Burma's business class: powerful execs with close ties to the ruling military junta, some of them under Western sanctions for that reason.
Despite those connections – indeed, because they have enabled these men to distribute badly needed relief – foreign aid workers in Burma, their own efforts inhibited by the junta, are partnering with these businessmen- turned-relief workers.
Andrew Kirkwood, Burma director for Save the Children, has been sharing boats and distribution networks in the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta with corporate-relief volunteers from Serge Pun Associates.
"They've been doing a lot of good things. They have a lot of assets, and they've been putting it to good use," he says. "We've been coordinating at various levels to reach as many people as possible."
Burma's power class
A week after the May 2-3 cyclone Nargis left an estimated 134,000 dead or missing and 2.4 million more affected, the government put out a call asking business leaders to volunteer for relief operations, says James Kong, a Hong Kong-based surgeon and former head of Rangoon's Pun Hlaing International Hospital, who has returned to help his native Burma.
Some of them are under Western sanctions. Others hold foreign passports, work with business leaders across Asia, and have publicly listed companies on Asian markets.
On May 12, a number of executives formed the Cape Negrais Committee, named after the site where the cyclone first slammed into southern Burma's Irrawaddy Delta.
The team has so far helped 45,000 to 75,000 people on Middle Island, one of their areas of operation in the delta, says Mark Tippetts, an Englishman and longtime Burma resident who oversees the Pun Hlaing golf course, a favorite haunt of Burma's elite.
The hard-to-reach delta is where many of the more than one million people who have yet to receive aid are located, according to the United Nations.
Htoo Trading, led by young entrepreneur Tay Za, is operating in the delta's Bogale area. Tay Za came under US economic sanctions last October when President Bush tightened restrictions on ranking members of Burma's ruling junta and associated business groups.
Another company, Max Myanmar Ltd., is running relief operations in the town of Labutta.
'He's got boats'
Save the Children, a respected international organization which has reached about 300,000 cyclone survivors in Burma, is working closely with Serge Pun, the chairman of Yoma Bank and 40 other companies, who is not under US sanctions.
"I feel absolutely comfortable with our relationship with him," says Mr. Kirkwood, adding that, before accepting Pun's offer to help, the aid agency conducted a background check and concluded there was no reason to refuse.
"He's got boats and people and warehouses, and we've got lots of aid to deliver, and together we can get stuff to people who need it," Kirkwood continues.
Pun, who is pioneering private healthcare in Burma, flew back to the country on May 11 and converted his companies' executives, as well as doctors at Pun Hlaing hospital, into volunteer aid workers.
After some quick training on how to handle emergencies and trauma, 12 doctors and a team of nurses and support staff headed deep into the delta.
They endured seven-hour boat rides amid stormy currents and rain, says Joseph Lopez, chief operating officer at Pun Hlaing hospital.
Corporate efforts: good, not enough
International aid workers and Western diplomats are quick to praise the heroic response of private groups and individuals in Burma to the disaster.
But Western diplomats say this shouldn't distract from the regime's continued obstruction of foreign aid and equipment and refusal to allow many foreign experts into the disaster zone.
"There no doubt they [the business groups] are helping people get access to aid and medicine, says a Western diplomat.
"But rather than rely on local businesspeople with no aid experience, it makes more sense for experts to be allowed to mobilize properly," the diplomat continues.
Last Wednesday, a prominent entertainer and political activist known as Zarganar, who had led private relief operations in the Delta, was arrested at his home in Rangoon.
His detention may be linked to his background and his speaking out critically against the government to foreign media, says Win Min, an exiled Burmese professor in Chiang Mai, Thailand, adding that it sends a worrying signal to other private groups.
"If Zarganar can be arrested, anyone can be arrested if the government is angered by what you're doing" in the delta, says Win Min.
Media reports have carried accounts of Burmese being prevented from driving to the delta with aid supplies and of private trucks being seized by police and soldiers.
• Simon Montlake contributed reporting from Bangkok, Thailand.
http://www.csmonito r.com/2008/ 0610/p01s05- woap.html? page=2
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UN Helicopters Reach Cyclone-Hit Villages in Burma
By VOA News
09 June 2008
A helicopters used by international aid organizations is waiting to be put to good use for the cyclone relief effort on the outskirts of Rangoon, Burma, 08 Jun 2008 |
U.N. helicopters are delivering aid to Burma's Irrawaddy Delta Monday for the first time, bringing supplies to people struggling to survive since Cyclone Nargis devastated the region May 3.
A World Food Program spokesman said boats have been delivering some aid to villages cut off by flooding, but helicopters are much more efficient. He said the U.N. is sending four more helicopters to Burma this week, bringing the total to 10.
He said aid will have reached 26 villages by the end of the day Tuesday. The United Nations estimates some one million people affected by the cyclone are still in need of aid.
Amnesty International says Burma's military government has been evicting some cyclone survivors from their temporary shelters and forcing them back to their homes, even if the dwellings were destroyed. It also has reported instances of the military forcing people to work for food aid.
Burma's official New Light of Myanmar newspaper denied those charges on Saturday. An editorial blamed foreign media for, what it called, "tarnishing the image of the nation."
On Sunday, the state-run newspaper said Prime Minister Thein Sein has ordered that tents be set up for cyclone survivors returning to their homes from refugee centers, and that the homeless be provided with a one week supply of food.
The paper said cyclone survivors are being allowed to return to their home villages voluntarily, but only if they have enough food, water and shelter to survive.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.
http://www.voanews. com/english/ 2008-06-09- voa39.cfm
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Burmese Group Denies Rumors of Fish Feeding on Human Remains
Fox News-Monday, June 09, 2008
AP
YANGON, Burma:: A Burmese government-affiliat ed group denied rumors that fish from cyclone-ravaged areas were unfit to eat after supposedly feeding on human and animals corpses, local media reported Monday.
Since Cyclone Nargis slammed into Burma, which was renamed Myanmar by the ruling military junta, some people in Yangon — the country's biggest city — have been reluctant to eat fish because of rumors they were feeding on the bodies of storm victims.
One rumor circulating was that some fish were found to have human fingers and pieces of jewelry in their stomachs.
"This is not true. We can guarantee that," Toe Nandar Tin, an executive member of the Myanmar Fisheries Federation, told the Myanmar Times newspaper. "(It) is total nonsense. The freshwater fish from delta come from fish farms, not from the rivers."
She said samples of fish were tested to prove they were safe for consumption.
Toe Nandar Tin said the rumors also resulted in the suspension of orders by some foreign buyers, but she did not elaborate. The main buyers of Burma's fish include China, Thailand and Singapore.
The Myanmar Fisheries Federation is an organization representing the private sector, but it is affiliated with the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries.
About 55 percent of the fishing sector in the country was destroyed, including 2,000 small boats and 329 offshore fishing vessels, according to the Times, a weekly English-language newspaper affiliated with the government.
Massive waves from the cyclone also devastated 37,000 acres (15,000 hectares) of shrimp farms and about 3,000 acres (1,200 hectares) of fish farms, it said.
The cyclone killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing in the impoverished country.
http://www.foxnews. com/story/ 0,2933,364601, 00.html
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Tourism Businesses on Burma 'Dirty List'
09 June, 2008
Sustainable Travel
Tourism and travel companies feature prominently in the Burma Campaign’s revised “Dirty List”- a compendium of businesses which continue to do business with the military regime.
Over forty of the 154 companies listed have links to the tourism sector, including hotels, airlines, guidebook publishers, diving companies and tour operators.
Twenty-one of the tour operators listed are based in the UK. Tourism Concern is campaigning for
UK-based tour operators doing business with Burma to pull out until democracy has been restored, as requested by Burma’s democratically- elected leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Tourism provides significant revenue and symbolic support to the regime. Much of Burma’s tourism infrastructure was built using forced labour and thousands were displaced with little or no compensation to make way for tourism developments.
BBC Worldwide, which became the majority shareholder of the Lonely Planet guidebook series last year, appears on the Dirty List for the first time. Tourism Concern, the Burma Campaign and the TUC have been pushing for the Lonely Planet guidebook on Burma to be withdrawn. Any guidebook explicitly promotes and encourages travel to a country, whilst mistakenly signifying to tourists that such travel can be done in a way that does not benefit the military dictatorship.
List of UK operators is at:
TourismConcern. org.uk/index. php
Where letters of response from affected operators may be seen
Valere Tjolle
http://www.travelmo le.com/stories/ 1129117.php? mpnlog=1
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'Burma: It Can't Wait' Campaign Extends into June in Wake of Myanmar Cyclone Tragedy
Prenews wire.com-06- 09-09
Campaign Connects the Dots Between Corrupt Military Regime and the Government's Resistance to Accept Foreign Aid for Cyclone Victims Will Ferrell, Jennifer Aniston, Ellen Page, and Sarah Silverman Part of Call-to-Action to Free Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Aung San Suu Kyi
Special Tribute Planned For Aung San Suu Kyi's Birthday - June 19th
WASHINGTON and BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- The Human Rights Action Center, the U.S. Campaign for Burma (Myanmar) and the social-shopping site Fanista are extending their campaign to free Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and raise awareness of the human rights violations against the people of Burma waged by the country's brutal military regime. The campaign entitled "Burma: It Can't Wait" and featuring provocative short films starring actors, filmmakers and musicians including Sylvester Stallone, Felicity Huffman, Tila Tequila, James Cameron, Sheryl Crow, Eva Longoria Parker, and Anjelica Houston, was to end May 31st, but in light of the tragic cyclone that ravaged the country and the junta's slow response to accept foreign aid, the campaign will continue throughout the month of June. On June 19th, Aung San Suu Kyi's 63rd birthday, "Burma: It Can't Wait" will work with social networking sites and websites to post images of Aung San Suu Kyi with the slogan "ASSK WHY IT CAN'T WAIT." Users will then be directed to information about the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner and how they and their friends can help join, and donate to the campaign promoting the idea that freedom is the best birthday present.
"'Burma: It Can't Wait' has taken on a more urgent meaning given the tragedy in Burma," said Jack Healey, founder of the Human Rights Action Center and former director of the Peace Corps in Lesotho and Amnesty International USA. "There is a direct connection between the junta's policies of censorship, imprisonment of political activists and torture to the government's recent failure to allow foreign aid to save the lives of those affected by the cyclone. The press is continuously reporting that the proper aid is not reaching the victims. But what the public may not yet understand is why. We need to continue to drive home the point that this government is the problem."
More artists continue to join the effort, including legendary television producer and activist Norman Lear and popular recording artist Matisyahu, who's known for his unique blending of Jewish stylings with reggae, hip-hop, and rock. Matisyahu is appearing in a short video featuring "I Will Be Light," an unreleased song from his upcoming album. The campaign has also caught the attention of artists Brett Dennen and Damian Marley who also showcase exclusive songs in their spots. "Burma: It Can't Wait" highlights the Burmese struggle for liberty, democracy, and human rights. In addition to the public awareness campaign, "Burma: It Can't Wait" is helping to raise funds for those affected by the cyclone.
Thus far, it has raised more than $260,000 in aid from a combination of donations and also from contributions resulting from Fanista's charitable Rewards program. Thanks to "Burma: It Can't Wait," The U.S. Campaign For Burma has had nearly 20,000 new members join the campaign during the month of May. These numbers are startling when you consider the effort has attracted 35,000 members over the past six years. At least as importantly, the campaign has far exceeded its initial goal of reaching a million people and making them aware of the situation in Burma.
According to the Burmese government, more than 134,000 people died or are missing as a result of the cyclone. The United Nations estimates that 2.4 million people were affected by the cyclone and more than 1.4 million people remain in desperate need of food, clean water, shelter and medical care. International relief agencies have complained that the junta's slow response in accepting aid has further endangered the lives of the survivors.
The urgent need for humanitarian relief in the region has pushed the other human rights violations of the Burmese government off the front pages. The government (who changed the country's name to Myanmar in 1989, against the will of the Burmese people) has been responsible for recruiting more child soldiers than any other country in the world, has coordinated programs of ethnic cleansing that rely on rape as a weapon of terror, and practiced policies of forced labor, censorship, and imprisonment of political activists. The government imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi, currently the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, after her political party won more than 82 percent of the seats in parliament in Burma's last election. Burma's military junta placed her under house arrest, where she has remained for 12 of the past 18 years. (On May 27th, the military junta chose to extend her house arrest by another year, rather than to release her, as had been scheduled.) Because of her peaceful fight for human rights and democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi has been forced from her children and family. On April 24th, the U.S. Senate awarded Aung San Suu Kyi with the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress' highest civilian honor; President Bush signed the legislation in a White House ceremony on May 6th. Suu Kyi is the first person in history to be awarded this medal while under arrest. Past winners include George Washington, Martin Luther King Jr., and
Nelson Mandela.
"Just as the world came together twenty years ago to free Nelson Mandela and South Africa, we can do so again for Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma," said Jeremy Woodrum, co-founder of U.S. Campaign for Burma. "Our goal is to mobilize people to join the U.S. Campaign for Burma and become agents for change in Burma."
"We are proud of the ground-breaking work this campaign represents," said Dan Adler, Founder & CEO of Fanista.com, which underwrote the entire campaign. "The military junta's unconscionable behavior in response to the tragic cyclone just drives home all of the issues we wanted to raise through these spots. This was one of those rare cases where many of our culture's most respected icons joined forces with some of the most talented and committed behind-the-camera talent to produce unconventional spots which have moved and inspired millions."
The short films will be available through as many video websites as possible, though the full campaign will live within Fanista at http://www.burmaitc antwait.org. Please visit http://www.uscampai gnforburma. org and http://www.fanista. com for more information.
About the Human Rights Action Center
The five primary goals of Human Rights Action Center are campaigning to include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in citizen's passports, supporting growing human rights groups all over the world, creating innovative, forceful, effective solutions to assist victims in protecting themselves, to rightfully restore Aung San Suu Kyi to power in Burma, and to create a fund to get people out of harm's way in exceptional human rights abuse cases. Jack Healey heads the Human Rights Action Center in Washington, DC. Jack has been called "Mr. Human Rights" by U.S. News & World Report. He was named Person of the Week at ABC by Peter Jennings and his music tours of 1986 and 1988 both won 'tour of the year honors' by MTV. Jack marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the March on Washington in 1963, pioneered the World Hunger Run with Dick Gregory, and was Director of the Peace Corps Lesotho in Africa for four years. Becoming the executive director of Amnesty International USA in 1981, he made Amnesty International a household name with his pioneering of four successful musical tours including the Conspiracy of Hope and Human Rights Now! Tours.
About U.S. Campaign for Burma
The United States Campaign for Burma is a U.S.-based membership organization dedicated to empowering grassroots activists around the world to bring about an end to the military dictatorship in Burma. Through public education, leadership development initiatives, conferences, and advocacy campaigns at local, national and international levels, USCB works to empower Americans and Burmese dissidents-in- exile to promote freedom, democracy, and human rights in Burma and raise awareness about the egregious human rights violations committed by Burma's military regime.
About Fanista
Social shopping site Fanista (http://www. fanista.com) is a destination where people who are passionate about entertainment can share their opinions with a community of enthusiasts and champion their favorite artists, stars, music, movies, television shows, and games. Users can also discover new products and purchase entertainment directly from the site. Fanista fuses word-of-mouth reviews about entertainment and a Rewards program that allows the proceeds from everyday entertainment purchases to fund a range of charities.
Contact:
BeBe Lerner/ Chet Mehta
ID
323.822.4800
blerner@id-pr. com; cmehta@id-pr. com
SOURCE Human Rights Action Center
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Burma Dead May Never Be Identified
TIME-Monday, Jun. 09, 2008 By AP
(RANGOON, Burma)—Tens of thousands of people killed in last month's cyclone may never be identified because their bodies have decomposed so badly and many ended up far from home, an aid organization said Sunday.
The task of burying an estimated 78,000 bodies has been overshadowed by efforts to assist Cyclone Nargis' 2.4 million survivors, many of whom are still without adequate food, water and shelter, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
As a result, bloated bodies still litter the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta more than five weeks after the storm, while other bodies have been dumped in canals or unmarked mass graves.
"Many now are in advanced stages of decay and the information we have been able to gather is that many of the bodies that were effected by the tidal surges were stripped of clothing and any identifying items," said Craig Strathern, a Red Cross spokesman in Burma.
The Red Cross has received reports that some bodies ended more than four miles from their place of origin, he said.
The organization last week began distributing kits to volunteers that include body bags, forms to list where a body is buried and any details identifying it, Strathern said. But he said he doubted there would be any large-scale effort to identify victims, mostly because Burma law allows families to declare someone dead after three weeks.
"We're certainly not aware of any initiatives that try to achieve positive identification of bodies," Strathern said. "I don't know what the reason would be. If there is not a demand from the families or legal imperative in the system, it's not going to achieve too much."
Survivors in the delta said they tried to identify bodies but were overwhelmed by the numbers of dead clogging rivers and washing up on beaches.
"Initially, the bodies were identified by relatives and we cremated them after holding religious rights," said Myint Thuang, a survivor from the delta town of Bogalay. "However, after more bodies washed up on the shore and with no one to identify them we buried them in mass graves."
Villagers sprinkled lime powder on the graves of 10 or more bodies and marked some with a wooden stick, he said.
The situation differs greatly from the tsunami that killed nearly 230,000 people in 2004. In worst-hit Banda Aceh, Indonesia, collecting and identifying bodies were top priorities, driven largely by Muslim tradition that calls for burying the dead within the first day. Corpses were dumped in mass graves as large as football fields, with aid workers, soldiers and volunteers working together to mark the graves and identity the dead.
With only six U.N. helicopters and seven from the Burma government, relief supplies for survivors are mostly being transported along dirt roads and then by boat. International aid agencies say boats able to navigate the delta's canals are scarce and efforts to import vehicles have been hampered by government red tape.
The government has dismissed complaints that survivors are not being reached with aid and reports that they have been forced from camps and dumped near their devastated villages. It said survivors have a choice to remain in the camps or return home with government help.
"It is a storm of rumors designed to deal a devastating blow to our country," according to a commentary Saturday in the New Light of Burma.
"The rumors are invented and circulated by certain Western countries and internal and external ax-handlers, " it said. "In other words, it is just a scheme conspired by a crafty tiger that is desperate to eat the flesh and the fox that is waiting for leftovers."
The paper cited Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein saying the government was prepared to help people settle either in their native areas, or in the places where they took refuge in relief camps.
Burma's ruling military junta has been criticized abroad for allegedly evicting cyclone survivors from refugee camps, supposedly without adequate provisions to survive elsewhere. The government has been sensitive about such criticism, describing it as lies meant to undermine the country's stability.
Thein Sein was making an inspection trip to the Irrawaddy delta area Saturday when he said the government would provide temporary shelters at first, to be followed by permanent housing, the newspaper reported.
http://www.time. com/time/ world/article/ 0,8599,1812782, 00.html?xid= rss-world
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BURMA: Crime for Civil Society to Provide Relief?
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
 Fishermen trying to get back to normal activity near an isolated cyclone-hit village in the Irrawaddy Delta. Credit:Moe Yu May/IPS |
BANGKOK, Jun 9 (IPS) - The detention of a prominent comedian in Burma points to an ominous turn of events in the military-ruled country. It has reportedly become a ‘crime’ for individuals and civil society groups to provide emergency relief to the hundreds of thousands of cyclone victims.
The bald, bespectacled Maung Thura -- or Zargarnar, as he is widely know -- led one such group of unsung heroes, who began raising funds and supplying aid to those who survived the powerful cyclone that lashed the Irrawaddy Delta and the Rangoon Division on May 3. His group was comprised of writers, artists, actors and comedians, among others.
"We started our [volunteer] emergency relief work on May 7, and we are still working," the 47-year-old said in an interview published in ‘The Irrawaddy,’ a current affairs magazine run by Burmese journalists exiled in Thailand. "There are 420 volunteers in our group," he said.
"At the beginning, we took risks [to provide aid], and we had to move forward on our own. Sometimes we had confrontations with the authorities, " Zargarnar said, explaining the challenges placed by the notoriously oppressive Burmese regime in the post-disaster relief effort. "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."
But last week, Zargarnar’s role as a good samaritan came to an end when the police took him from his home in Rangoon, the former capital, for a still-to- be-verified period of detention. The police also seized his computer files that contained images of the cyclone victims and the relief efforts.
Zargarnar has been detained and jailed before, beginning in 1988, when he spoke in support of university students agitating for change to a military dictatorship that had been in place since a 1962 coup. In August that year, the junta crushed a peaceful, pro-democracy uprising, killing over 3,000 activists. Zargarnar was jailed for one year soon after.
The last time he was arrested by the police was in Sep. 2007. The ‘crime’ he was detained for then was delivering food and water to some of the thousands of Buddhist monks who had marched through the streets of Rangoon in protests against rising food prices and the junta’s oppression.
"What Zargarnar’s arrest has shown is that the SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] is not happy with the network of civil society groups that responded promptly to the cyclone," says David Scott Mathieson, Burma consultant for Human Rights Watch. "[The junta] wants to contain the civil society response and take all the credit for the relief effort."
Zargarnar has been one of the many prominent artists, writers and entertainers who have led the relief effort, consequently revealing "the government’s poor response," he added in an interview. "The effort Zargarnar led shows Burmese civil society trying to chart an independent course away from the regime, which only represents itself, and selected business elite."
The tireless work by ordinary Burmese citizens to help the cyclone survivors was witnessed by members of international humanitarian agencies who have flown into the South-east Asian nation since the disaster. "I saw lots of groups helping people to rebuild their homes. There were also businessmen who had come to the delta to help, but feared that they could be arrested for providing relief," said Dean Hirsch, president of World Vision International, a Christian charity that has worked for years in Burma.
Hirsch, who just returned to Bangkok after a brief visit to the cyclone- devastated areas, also praised the efforts of another group that has been in the forefront offering comfort and relief to the survivors – the monks in the predominantly Buddhist country. "There was a great response by the monks. I was impressed with the connections they had in the communities to get relief goods to the delta," he told IPS. "They were able to access areas where the government and INGOs (international non-governmental organisations) could not reach."
In fact, one famous Burmese monk who has come to symbolise this aid drive is Sitagu Sayadaw Nya Nissara, head of a highly respected monastery in the Sagaing Division in central Burma, the seat of Burmese Buddhism. He led relief teams to the Bogale Township -- one of the worst hit areas -- soon after the cyclone, which has killed between 130,000 to possibly 300,000 people, and affected between 2.5 million to 5.5 million people.
"He has been the most prominent monk to help the victims. The monks have played a very significant role, beginning with the opening up of the temples in the delta to offer refuge for the victims," says Win Min, a Burmese national security expert teaching in a university in northern Thailand. "The temples were the strongest buildings in the area, so they remained standing. Ordinary people who wanted to help came with their relief goods to the temples for distribution. "
"This has certainly brought the monks and people closer," he added during an interview. "The monks have won the hearts of the people."
And there is no surprise why. The junta not only failed to use its state machinery to help the victims, but the scale of the country’s worst natural disaster, affecting over 80,000 square km, was beyond its capacity. Moreover, the regime continued to place bureaucratic roadblocks in the way of international relief efforts, resulting in over one million people still having to get basic relief.
The bond between the monks and the people is one the regime fears. The regime’s brutal crackdown of last September’s peaceful pro-democracy protests -- led by thousands of robed monks -- reveals the discomfort. Since then, the junta has turned the heat on any moves to strengthen a beleaguered people’s increasing dependence on the clergy for help and hope.
A report last week by Amnesty International pointed to the junta’s strategy, since the cyclone, to break the growing dependency cyclone victims have on the clergy. Hundreds of cyclone victims who had found shelter in four monasteries in Bogale were evicted by the regime, revealed the global rights lobby.
"The SPDC doesn’t want monks to have close connections with the people," says Win Min. "This bond will be seen as a threat to the military regime."
(END/2008)
http://www.ipsnews. net/news. asp?idnews= 42710
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Response of Asian Nations In Regards To Burma Are Questioned
Posted by Can Tran (TFactor) in World Digital Jornal : 06-09-08
In the wake of Cyclone Nargis that ravaged Burma, and the junta’s inadequate response, many have questioned the response of the Southeast Asian nations.
After Burma was ravaged by Cyclone Nargis, the international community was quick to respond as it offered aid in food, medicine, and shelter. However, the aid provided has yet to get the two-million Cyclone victims due to actions taken by Burma’s junta. Still, the junta has dismissed all accusations and criticisms from the international community.
There have been talks about a possible unilateral operation in Burma by the United Nations. The US House of Representatives had urged US President Bush to back unilateral intervention into Burma. Four US Naval warships part of the USS Essex group have recently left after constantly being denied entry by Burma’s junta.
Warships from the US and European countries are off the coast of Burma. However, warships from other Asian countries were not present. One could question what happened to the Chinese warships? It is known that Burma and China are allies. The events that have unraveled in Burma could be counted as an issue to be added to a list of others that can prove nightmarish to China as it hosts the 2008 Summer Olympics.
However, it is understandable as China is recovering from being rocked by a 7.9 magnitude earthquake. Coincidentally, it was caused by the shift in tectonic plates around the Tibetan plateau. Before the earthquake happened, China was under international criticism for its treatment to the Tibetan protesters. Hollywood actress Sharon Stone said that the earthquake was karma. It did not bode well for Stone as a result.
Rama Yade, the junior Human Rights Minister of France, said that the UN principle of the “responsibility to protect” should be applied to the case of Burma. Recently, the junta has started evicting the victims from aid camps. The victims were placed back at their devastated villages. They were even given spoiled food. Recent reports say that the junta has forced the victims to do labor in exchange for food.
Also, the country of Zimbabwe is slowly sharing the same political and humanitarian fate of Burma.
Lim Kit Siang, the leader of the party opposite to the Malaysian government said that the inaction of the Asian countries reflects badly on the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). This gives off the indication that Europeans and Americans seem to have more compassion and sympathy than Asians. But, many say that is unlikely due to an interesting history.
It seems a bit ironic since many Southeast Asian countries practice Buddhism. Buddhism is one faith that stresses compassion and mercy. The Tibetan community of New Zealand did not protest. Instead, they used prayers. Also, they also prayed for the victims of the earthquake.
While China was rocked by the earthquake, the government was more than eager to accept international help. It even made the effort to try to help pay for its own reconstruction. Progress has been made in China; but, Burma is a different story.
In the case of Burma, there has not been a response from ASEAN’s governments. There is the sheer irony as none of them opposed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) back in 1948.
In a nutshell, the actions taken by other Asian countries look to be questionable at best.
http://www.digitalj ournal.com/ article/255880
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Burma's forced labour
Carole Reckinger
New Statesman-Published 09 June 2008
The brutal Burmese government has for years forced citizens to work for free. Twenty per cent of those sentenced to prison with hard labour perish. Meanwhile, just who will rebuild the cyclone-hit country?
The Burmese military government has come under huge international pressure and criticism since cyclone Nargis destroyed large parts of Burma, killing at least 78,000 and leaving 56,000 more missing.
A month on, the UN estimates that 2.4 million people are in need of food, shelter or medical care, and more than a million have yet to receive foreign aid. Huge numbers of people are surviving in appalling conditions, with little or no help.
In the month since the disaster, only a small number of international aid workers have been granted access into the affected regions, and there is growing concern that the reconstruction effort will depend on forced labour - be it from children or migrant adult workers.
The International Labour Organisation' s (ILO) liason officer in Rangoon, Steve Marshall, said there had not been any verified reports of forced labour linked to the disaster. But he added: "We're not saying it isn't happening."
Burma is well known for its use of forced labour. The Tatmadaw (Burmese military) routinely forces civilians to work on state infrastructure projects, such as the building of roads, bridges, military bases or even towns.
The military will typically demand labour from local villages, with the threat of fines if households are unable to supply the required amount of people. The ruling State Peace and Development Council's (SPDC) search for labourers is made easier by the existence of registration documents with details of the exact number of inhabitants, property and livestock within any given village.
Inhabitants have no choice but to apply for national identity cards and register their details or risk fines or arrest.
The military is increasingly relying on SPDC-appointed village chairpersons as intermediaries through whom to disseminate their demands.
One particularly brutal example of forced labour is SPDC’s use of villagers as human minesweepers to clear the way for the safe passage of soldiers.
Projects vary in length and intensity, but they always mean that people are taken away from their land and livelihoods without any remuneration in return.
Military personnel operate under blanket impunity, and know that they will not be held accountable for any mistreatment of civilians. Furthermore, low level officers and soldiers in charge of forced labour projects are under pressure to meet demands, quotas and timetables ordered by their superiors.
Threats, harassment, beatings and even killings are not uncommon, and women risk rape and other sexual abuses. Forced labour often means that villagers are unable to work on their own agricultural work for days or even weeks on end. Regular forced labour in Mon State (South-eastern Burma), for example, has been a primary factor leading to increasing food insecurity.
Prison Labourers
Human rights organisations have reported the continuous use of forced prison labour in Burma, and it is estimated that as many as 20 percent of prisoners sentenced to ‘prison with hard labour’ die as a consequence of the conditions of their detention. It has been reported that at least 91 labour camps operate in areas across the country and the thousands of prisoners in these camps are used to build highways, dams, irrigation canals, and to work on special agricultural projects. Prisoners are reportedly being forced to work 12 hours a day without rest, and the sick and weak are not exempted from work. Inmates who cannot afford bribes are condemned to the harshest labour.
The living conditions and the general treatment of forced prison labourers are widely reported to be far worse than for civilian forced labourers. The work is more dangerous, they have to work even longer hours and health provisions are non-existent. The prisoners are viewed as expendable labour and there are countless reports of their torture, beatings and killings. A constant supply of prison labour is ensured by the continuing arbitrary arrests, as well as the imposition of lengthy sentences for minor misdemeanours. Those arrested often do not receive due legal process and are told that they will be released on payment of a bribe. Those who are unable to bribe the police or the judiciary are automatically sent to prison, whether there is evidence against them or not.
Forced conscription and child soldiers
Human rights groups, meanwhile, believe boys as young as 12 are recruited to fight against ethnic minority rebels. Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimated that there may be more than 70,000 child soldiers in the SPDC Army.
The children are often kidnapped without their parents' knowledge while on their way home from school. They are then brutalised and physically abused during their induction and basic training before being shipped off to fight in the country’s ethnic states. “Child soldiers are sometimes forced to participate in human rights abuses, such as burning villages and using civilians for forced labour," said HRW. "Those who attempt to escape or desert are beaten, forcibly re-recruited or imprisoned."
Following the suppression in 1988 of the nationwide pro democracy demonstrations, the ruling military council initiated a dramatic effort to modernize and expand the armed forces. To tighten its control over its population, the SPDC Army instituted a dramatic expansion of military personnel throughout the country.
Service in the armed forces is for many a dangerous and gruelling experience, and soldiers are often subjected to mistreatment by senior officers. According to the junta’s military meeting minutes, there were about 9,000 desertions during 2006, whereas the army was only able to recruit 6,000. This trend continued in 2007, and the army is facing an acute shortage of trained personnel as a result.
Burma continues to have one of the highest numbers of child soldiers in the world - despite an official age of enlistment of 18.
According to Thein Sein, it is under-18s that are to blame for the problem because they lie about their true age or did not inform their parents that they had enlisted in the army.
Though, in a tacit admission that there remained underage soldiers in the armed forces, he further stated that soldiers with stunted growth were not sent to forward areas but were instead given light work duties at military bases, and that illiterate youth were sent to army schools to be educated.
With forced labour being such a common occurrence in the country, it is expected Burma will make use of it for the reconstruction process. Burma has a long history of ignoring the advice of International Organisations and actively hampering their freedom of movement and investment in the country, and is not about to change its stance.
Once again, the military junta will throw a spanner in the works and prevent ILO from monitoring the reconstruction process properly, adding further suffering to the devastated area and a population that has been through so much already.
http://www.newstate sman.com/ asia/2008/ 06/forced- labour-burma- work
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A rice mill in Pyapon Township, with its roof torn off by the force of Cyclone Nargis. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)
Delta Farmers Face Uncertain Future
By TINT LWIN
Irrawaddy-Monday, June 9, 2008
PYAPON, THE IRRAWADDY DELTA — Farmers in one of the hardest-hit parts of the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta say they still don’t know if they will be able to resume paddy farming this year, as the wait for seeds and farming equipment promised by the government continues to drag on.
More than a month after Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2-3, some local farmers in Pyapon Township said that they had already plowed their fields in preparation for planting, but were unable to proceed because they still hadn’t received seeds or seedlings.
“Our work is seasonal by nature, so it is useless to plant if we are too late,” said one farmer who was ready to start planting. “If they are going to provide some assistance, they should do it now.
“We keep hearing news that aid is coming, but we haven’t seen it yet,” he added.
Farmers said local Township Peace and Development Council authorities had collected information about property that was lost or destroyed in the cyclone, but so far none of it has been replaced.
“They made lists of damage, but we still haven’t received anything. I lost all of my farming equipment. The other day, I heard that we should resume our work by self-reliance,” said a woman from Tha Mein Htaw, a village in Pyapon.
Many farmers also worry that the equipment, if it does finally arrive, will be substandard and essentially useless to them. Some specifically said that they didn’t want machines from state-run manufacturers, as they often prove to be defective. They also said that it would be pointless for the government to send machines without diesel to run them.
“Last year, I bought 12 mechanical plows from the state agricultural industry, and all of them broke down. I spent a lot of time dragging them out of the fields and repairing them. It was waste of time and energy for me,” said one farmer.
Meanwhile, many farmers are looking at their options.
“If I can’t plant rice this year, I will have to struggle to survive by doing other odd jobs,” said one farmer from the village of Tha Mein Htaw-Thein Gone village in Pyapon, adding that his fields were contaminated with salt-water and his cows were sick.
Normally, farmers would turn to rice mill owners for help in hard times. But now the rice millers are also struggling to cope with damage inflicted by the cyclone.
“Our mills and rice storage facilities were damaged in the cyclone,” said one rice mill owner. “In the past, [farmers and rice mill owners] could help each other, but now there’s nothing we can do.”
“In this place, paddy is money,” said another rice miller who lost 20,000 baskets of paddy, or threshed rice still in the husk. (One basket is a standard measurement equal to 40.91 liters.)
“Now my entire store of paddy is gone, so I have no money to do anything. I can’t go back to business until I get paddy from the farmers. Now the whole industry has stopped. Nobody can do anything.”
The owners of some small rice mills also complained that a rice miller close to the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a pro-government organization, was unfairly controlling the distribution of materials provided to assist local millers.
They said that the well-connected miller was keeping most of the corrugated zinc sheeting he received from the government for himself, and sharing the rest with close relatives and friends.
“That man took leadership positions in several organizations and abuses his privileges for his own self interest,” said the own of a small manually operated rice mill. “All assistance passes though him and nothing reaches the bottom.”
According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, Cyclone Nargis inflicted damage to 60 percent of the 3.2 million acres of agricultural land in the five districts most affected by the cyclone. Sixteen percent of this area was severely damaged.
Observers warn that Burma could face a food shortage if farming does not resume in time for this year’s growing season. The farmers—many of whom have been left homeless by the disaster—need food and shelter, as well as seeds, fertilizer and farming equipment, in order to resume farming.
http://www.irrawadd y.org/highlight. php?art_id= 12607
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‘No Warships Please, We’re Burmese’
By AUNG ZAW
Irrawaddy-Tuesday, June 3, 2008
US Pentagon chief Robert Gates was wrong to accuse Burma’s military rulers of being deaf and dumb of not allowing US warships with aid to Burma’s delta region.
Burma’s feudal warlords are not deaf and dumb—although these politically traumatized generals are paranoid, self–important and live under the illusion that once they relinquish power, the country will disintegrate.
Indeed, as some observers suggest, the regime’s refusal to allow US warships to assist the cyclone relief effort has little to do with Burma’s colonial past and apparent xenophobia.
What the generals truly fear is that if they allow US warships and foreign forces to come to the aid of cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta, people will soon rise up and the regime would be overthrown. That fear prevented the Than Shwe regime from allowing the US to come in and help.
The generals may, in fact, believe the humanitarian nature of a US intervention, while distrusting their own people—believing that were foreign forces to land Burma, it would spell the end of the regime.
Imagine a scenario where US marines and other servicemen land in the Irrawaddy delta, to be greeted by desperate Burmese urging them to overthrow the hated regime in Naypyidaw. The relief mission could quickly turn into one of regime-change and support for an anti-Than Shwe uprising.
But the regime has nothing to fear—the US warships, led by the USS Essex, will be leaving in a matter of days, according to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who traveled to Southeast Asia recently. Last week, French warship Mistral with 1,000 ton of aid had left near Burmese water expressing “shock” as the Burma had not permitted the Mistral to unload its aid cargo directly for distribution in the Irrawaddy Delta — the worst-hit area.
The US naval presence includes three amphibious ships, led by the Essex, carrying 22 heavy-lift helicopters and a small fleet of landing craft. The American helicopters were banned from Burmese air space, although the regime allowed several C-130 relief flights to Rangoon airport from Thailand’s Utapao airport—illustrating the regime’s selective policy in accepting US aid.
The regime leaders also insisted that only civilian aid workers will be allowed in the affected area. Even this promise has not yet been fully honored.
Calling the regime's behavior “criminal neglect,” Gates said the US had made more than 15 overtures to the regime to allow the use of the Essex's helicopters to deliver aid, but all had been rejected. Thousands of villagers would die because of the regime’s obduracy, Gates said.
It is safer for an impassive Than Shwe to allow hundreds of thousands of villagers in the Irrawaddy delta region to die rather than permitting a US relief mission to save them—a deadly decision indeed.
Than Shwe knows full well that millions of Burmese wait in hope for the arrival of US warships, and not only for the relief supplies they would bring.
At the time of the 1988 democracy uprising, Burma’s military leaders lodged a complaint with the US embassy after sighting a US naval fleet of five warships, including the aircraft carrier Coral Sea, within Burmese territorial waters on the morning of 12 September, six days before the army staged a bloody coup.
The sighting caused “major concern” among Burmese leaders including Ne Win, who in the 1970s had secured US military assistance, including helicopters, in fighting communists and drug warlords.
In those years, Burma sent its officers to the US General Staff College for training and study. Burma’s official policy was, and remains: Americans are welcome, except in times of political crisis.
Applying this policy, the military leaders even refused permission for a US C-130 plane to land in Rangoon in 1988 in order to evacuate US embassy staff during the anti-government uprising.
There were rumors that US warships were on their way to help democratic forces in the uprising in 1988, prompting thousands of young Burmese to leave the jungle and take up arms shortly after the September 18 coup. But the rumors were just wishful thinking—the US warships never materialized.
Twenty years later, the Burmese are still waiting for those warships, which this time carry humanitarian aid. And, by a bitter irony, the ships remain as illusory as ever.
When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, a joke shared among Burmese was ‘After diamonds, it will be the turn of gold’– referring to the Burmese words for diamonds (sein) and gold (shwe), meaning Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and Burma’s junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
Now, a new rumor is spreading throughout Burma.
While looking skywards in vain for relief supply airlifts, people are saying that astrologers told Than Shwe that as soon as white men in uniforms landed in Burma, the regime would immediately collapse. For that reason, Than Shwe, supported by his equally superstitious wife, refused assistance from the US fleet.
US soldiers landing from amphibious ships and helicopters with relief supplies could be mistaken for “liberation forces” and would no doubt ignite a popular uprising beyond the Irrawaddy delta. Foreign forces would meet appeals for help from survivors and the refugees who are now being forcibly ejected from temporary shelters. Armed clashes could occur between Burmese government and foreign forces, and the Irrawaddy delta could become a battlefield.
But the battle wouldn’t be confined to the delta region. There would be a national uprising against the oppressive regime in Naypyidaw.
US soldiers would be asked to attack Than Shwe’s stronghold and remove the regime. Observers and dissidents say it would take no more than 30 minutes to topple Than Shwe and his coterie of no more than two dozen.
There’s popular agreement that members of Burma’s armed forces would join the endeavor.
But that’s all wishful thinking now. Than Shwe has again escaped justice, saving his own life by sacrificing the lives of his countrymen and women by refusing humanitarian aid from the warships.
Perhaps the US knew from the start that its ships would not be allowed into Burmese waters, conscious that its forces might end up dislodging the world’s most hated regime instead of delivering relief of another kind. And that mission could prove to be open-ended, resolving a political mess no less complicated than the task of clearing up after Cyclone Nargis.
http://www.irrawadd y.org/opinion_ story.php? art_id=12466&page=2
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“At such a time, if the western big nations generously extend a helping hand to Myanmar out of good will, the nation will surely be in a position of getting rid of its bitterness toward them.”
—The New Light of Myanmar, Burma’s state-run newspaper
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