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Rice transport banned in Shan State
Villagers forced to buy Jatropha seeds at high price
Foreign aid agencies concerned over Myanmar
Myanmar says detention of democracy leader legal
Myanmar on defensive over cyclone aid effort
US backs UN rights expert's report on Myanmar
Cyclone-hit Myanmar rejects rice shortage fears

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Rice transport banned in Shan State
By Hseng Khio Fah
No.10-6/2008 / 11 June 2008 / Human Rights

In accordance with order from Naypyidaw, regional commanders have banned rice transportation between towns in Shan State and anyone breaking the rule will be imprisoned, according to reliable sources.

On 1June, Maj-Gen Thaung Aye, Commander of Eastern Region Command and Chairman of Shan State South Peace and Development Council announced that rice trade or transportation would not be allowed even from town to town and if anyone caught with a bag of rice will be jailed for one month, said a resident of Taunggyi.

“On 2 June, a rice trader was arrested at a checkpoint in Taunggyi with 200 bags of rice. He didn’t know the announcement of the ban on rice transport,” said a rice trader from Taunggyi.

“Before, we regularly transported rice to Namzang, Kunhing and other areas where there is less rice cultivation. Right now, people are faced with difficulties as they depend on the rice from Taunggyi,” the trader said.

Maj-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, Commander of Kengtung-based Triangle Region Command has also prohibited rice transport to Mongla, Shan State-Yunnan border where the ceasefire group, National Democratic Alliance Army Eastern Shan State (NDAA-ESS) is based. 

“Despite of his order, people are still transporting rice. If they can bribe checkpoint authorities, they can carry anything,” said a resident of Kengtung.

There has been a rumor that ban on rice transport is due to junta’s plan to cut rice supplies to areas where there are troops of Shan State Army – South before its military campaign on the group. They [junta] are afraid that civilians will help SSA, said sources from Taunggyi.

However the regional commanders have given reason that it is to reserve rice for people in the areas as there would be rice scarcity after Cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy delta which had been Burma’s rice bowl.

Prices of food supplies and rice have swelled in Burma after Nargis smashed the delta on 2-3 May.

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Villagers forced to buy Jatropha seeds at high price
By Hseng Khio Fah
No.11-6/2008 / 11 June 2008 / Human Rights

Junta’s local authorities are forcing people in Shan State to buy Jatropha curcas seeds at higher prices for plantation during rainy season, according to reliable sources.

Villages in Kengtung township, eastern Shan State have been forced to buy Jatropha seeds since April. Each village tract was ordered to buy at least 12-15 tang (tang= 54 liters). The price of the seeds is 45,000 kyat ($39) per tang. If there is any village tract does not have enough fund, village headmen must collect cash from the villagers.

“The authorities said every household must buy the seeds,” according to a local village who requested for anonymity.

“We were pressured to cultivate it [Jatropha] every year. But, they [authorities] don’t buy when the crops are ripe. We still have old crops. Again, they told us to sow it, each person from each household must join [Jatropha curcas] plantation. If we can’t go, we have to hire a person at the rate of Kyat 1,500 (US$ 1.31) per day to join plantation on behalf of us,” said another villager from Kengtung township.

“I don’t know why the government is so crazy about Jatropha plantation. We have never seen the advantages of it.”

Civilians in Lang Khurh township, southern Shan State are also being forced by local authorities to buy Jatropha seeds for cultivation. Each household must grow two cans of Jatropha seeds, according to local sources.

“We can’t complain anything. We just have to do as they [authorities] say.  They don’t care what people are saying,” said a resident in Nawng Long.

The military regime in 2005 started a massive program to grow bio-fuel crops with the direction of Sen-Gen Than Shwe in order to produce bio-diesel. But most of the bio-fuel crop plantations have failed.

“The reason that they [authorities] don’t buy Jatropha crops back from villagers is maybe the quality is poor. It is because of poor cultivation methods. If Jatropha oil is not good, the diesel fuel produced can block fuel lines and filters and even damage engines. To produce fuel not only the fruit must be good, they must also have bio-fuel refinement plants,” said Khaing Dhu Wan, director of Network for Environment and Economic Development (NEED) based in Chiang Mai.

Moreover, the ecological environments in some parts of Burma do not favor Jatropha curcas plantation, resulting in poor quality cultivation and insufficient quantity, he added.

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Foreign aid agencies concerned over Myanmar
AP
1 hour, 52 minutes ago

International aid agencies expressed concern Wednesday over new and complicated guidelines established by Myanmar's government for carrying out assistance programs to victims of last month's cyclone.

The guidelines, distributed Tuesday by the government at a meeting with U.N. agencies and private humanitarian organization, would require a large amount of paperwork and repeated contacts with national and local government agencies.

The new guidelines require most activities by the foreign agencies to be cleared with not only the relevant government ministry and local authorities concerned, but also with the so-called Tripartite Core Group, comprising representatives of the government, U.N. agencies and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nation, ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member.

ASEAN helped establish the core group last month as a way of expediting assistance, though it has no independent authority.

Foreign aid organizations have faced a series of hurdles in trying to provide help for victims of the May 2-3 storm, starting with the government's reluctance to grant anything but a handful of visas to foreign helpers.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last month traveled to Myanmar to meet with the chief of the ruling junta, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, who agreed to allow aid workers into the affected area "regardless of nationality," according to Ban. The general also agreed to allow the U.N. to bring in 10 helicopters to fly supplies to the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta.

Although the helicopters have been allowed in — with some delay — aid agencies say the government has continued dragging its feet over visa applications and allowing foreigners access to the most devastated areas.

The government's briefing paper setting out the guidelines complained that there had been a lack of coordination in aid efforts.

"Where there is no orderly and systematic distribution, it would thus lead towards duplication and uncoordinated activities should not take place in aid and assistance rendered to cyclone victims," it said.

Responding to the meeting announcing the guidelines, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the humanitarian community was expressing concerns that "additional steps for seeking approval may unnecessarily delay the relief response."

"The meeting was assured by the concerned ministries that this would not be the case and that delays would definitely not be a consequence of the approval process outlined," the IFRC said a report issued Wednesday.

The U.N. estimates that Cyclone Nargis affected 2.4 million people and that more than 1 million of them, mostly in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta, still need help. The cyclone killed at least 78,000 people, according to the government.

Although the government says the relief operations have now reached the post-emergency, recovery phase, aid agencies are concerned that many people still are lacking necessities.

"What we're concerned about is premature returns to areas where the services are not yet in a position to be used, to try and make sure we can reach people the best we can no matter where they are," said Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, at a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

France Hurtubise of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said providing shelter remains a priority. According to the organization, only 107,000 of some 341,000 households had received shelter kits, which are supposed to include two tarpaulins each.

Aid agencies project that tarpaulin supplies will fall short of demand in the coming weeks, in part because of the competing need for such supplies for victims of China's May 12 earthquake.

On Tuesday, a major operation was launched to assess the needs of storm survivors in a sign the junta is finally cooperating in international aid efforts five weeks after the cyclone buffeted the country.

Some 250 experts from the U.N., the government and Southeast Asian nations — under the leadership of the Tripartite Core Group — headed into the Irrawaddy delta Tuesday by truck, boat and helicopter for a village-by-village survey, the United Nations said.

Over 10 days, they will determine how much food, clean water and temporary shelter the 2.4 million survivors require, along with the cost of rebuilding houses and schools and reviving the agriculture-based economy.

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Myanmar says detention of democracy leader legal
AP
1 hour, 54 minutes ago

A state-controlled newspaper said Wednesday that Myanmar's military rulers were breaking no laws by holding pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for a sixth straight year.

The junta's recent decision to extend Suu Kyi's detention by one year sparked international outrage, with the Nobel Peace laureate's party and foreign defense lawyers arguing the junta could legally only hold her for five years.

But a commentary in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said detentions are permissible for as long as six years under a 1975 "Law Safeguarding the State from Dangers of Subversive Elements."

Yearly extensions must be approved by the Council of Ministers and then by the Central Body, which includes the home, defense and foreign affairs ministers, the newspaper said.

The military regime extended Suu Kyi's house arrest May 27, despite international pressure to set her free. She has been detained for more than 12 of the last 18 years at her home in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party denounced the extension as illegal and urged the regime to open a public hearing on the case.

Party spokesman Nyan Win said he usually doesn't comment on articles published in state-run newspapers, which constantly attack the country's pro-democracy movement without allowing a response.

But he said the article's explanation of how it was not illegal to hold Suu Kyi for another year "is legally wrong. The law says that detention period should be a total of five years."

Nyan Win declined to elaborate because the party will submit an appeal and fight the case in court if allowed to.

An American lawyer hired by Suu Kyi's family to push for her release also condemned her continued detention as illegal.

"The Burmese junta's extension of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest in clear violation of its own law comes as no surprise," Jared Genser, the lawyer, said at the time. "Adherence to the rule of law is not their forte, and the junta remains deeply concerned about her appeal to the Burmese people."

How the opposing sides interpreted the same 1975 law differently could not be immediately explained.

The junta also came under fire from the international community for initially refusing to allow urgently needed foreign aid workers to enter areas of Myanmar to assist in relief and recovery in areas devastated by Cyclone Nargis.

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Myanmar on defensive over cyclone aid effort
AFP
by Hla Hla HtayWed Jun 11, 9:46 AM ET

Myanmar insisted Wednesday that visas were being granted to aid workers and no food shortages were imminent in an apparent bid to deflect criticism that it has not done enough after Cyclone Nargis.

In the crucial weeks after the storm hit in early May, the reclusive military regime stalled on issuing visas to foreign aid workers, provoking the ire of the United Nations, western governments and aid agencies.

After a personal visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the junta slowly started to open up access to the country, especially the badly-hit Irrawaddy Delta region, where more than two million storm survivors were in need of aid.

The official New Light of Myanmar said Wednesday that 911 foreigners had been granted visas since the cyclone -- 458 UN staff and foreign aid workers, 357 Southeast Asian nationals and 96 participants in a May 25 donor conference.

"The government has granted visas to members of aid groups to render humanitarian assistance, to enable international experts to assess damages, to carry out relief work and to provide medical care to storm victims," it said.

Of those granted permission to enter military-run Myanmar, 569 remained in the country, the government mouthpiece said.

The United Nations has said its staff are getting visas with greater ease but cautioned in a report this week that independent aid groups were still having trouble, with some visas pending for three weeks.

Aid workers have also complained that visas are only being issued for short visits to the country, while getting permission to travel to the delta remains difficult.

"Clearly international staff do require much more sustained access to the delta areas, particularly for key skilled technical staff so they can really establish more systematic operations," said Amanda Pitt, spokeswoman from the UN's emergency relief arm.

 

Pitt also warned that aid agencies were facing shortages of emergency food and shelter for cyclone victims, with the UN appeal only 40 percent funded and China's May 12 earthquake sapping shelter supplies.

"They (aid agencies) need half a million tarpaulins, and food funding is needed to sustain the pipeline of assistance," Pitt told reporters in Bangkok.

Cyclone Nargis destroyed food stocks and swathes of rice paddies, which have yet to be replanted due to the difficult living conditions for the delta's farmers.

Planting was meant to start in early June, but some farmers could not work as they lacked clothes to wear, while animal carcasses still littered the salt-logged fields, AFP reporters in the ravaged region witnessed.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that food security could be compromised unless the rice planting season urgently begins.

But a Myanmar government minister denied in state media Wednesday that food shortages would be a problem.

"Some organisations were spreading groundless information such as there was or would be shortage of rice in Myanmar," national planning and economic development minister Soe Tha said in the New Light of Myanmar.

"The rice output in the storm-affected areas in Ayeyawaddy (Irrawaddy) and Yangon divisions made up only 2.3 percent of the nation's total rice output. The uncultivable acreage is barely one percent of that of the whole nation."

These figures contradict the official view of the FAO, which released a statement last month saying the five states hit by the cyclone produce 65 percent of the country's rice.

It estimated that 16 percent of the 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) of agricultural land in the delta has been seriously damaged.

More than 133,000 people were left dead or missing when the cyclone pounded into Myanmar nearly six weeks ago.

The UN estimates that 2.4 million people need emergency aid, but that about one million have not yet received any foreign assistance.

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US backs UN rights expert's report on Myanmar
AFP
Wed Jun 11, 9:42 AM ET

The United States gave its backing Tuesday to a UN expert's report raising concerns about Myanmar's recent referendum and called on the military rulers to release all political prisoners.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack also called on the country's military rulers to uphold their pledge to give international aid access to victims of last month's Cyclone Nargis, which left 133,000 dead or missing.

"The US shares the conclusions of the UN human rights monitor in his sobering report that the referendum on the regime's draft constitution was far from credible," McCormack said in a statement.

Washington also agrees that the continuing detention of political prisoners, including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, and the condition under which they are held is "appalling," he said.

"The United States continues to urge the Burmese regime to release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to begin a genuine dialogue with democratic and ethnic minority leaders on a transition to democracy," he said.

McCormack added that Washington shares the conclusions that Myanmar "must respect the human rights principles of non-discrimination and accountability in the international effort to assist the victims of Cyclone Nargis."

The US government remains committed to helping cyclone victims and calls on Myanmar's regime "to uphold its pledge to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to allow international humanitarian workers and supplies unhindered access to cyclone-affected areas," he said.

"We are concerned that forced relocation of storm victims, absent adequate access to assistance, will put them at even greater risk."

In a report last week, the UN special rapporteur for Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, raised "significant concerns" over the referendum held in the wake of the devastating cyclone, and called for a public report on the event.

Myanmar's military rulers had claimed that despite the cyclone devastation, 98 percent of voters turned out and more than 92 percent endorsed their charter.

They also claimed that the constitution would clear the way for democratic elections in two years, but critics believe it would only enshrine military rule.

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Cyclone-hit Myanmar rejects rice shortage fears
Reuters
By Aung Hla Tun / Wed Jun 11, 8:42 AM ET

Cyclone-hit Myanmar has enough rice to feed its people, the ruling junta said on Wednesday, accusing foreign aid agencies of presenting a false picture of the devastation in the Irrawaddy delta rice bowl.

In remarks reported by official media, National Planning Minister Soe Tha rejected warnings that the former Burma's food security could be "jeopardized" if delta farmers cannot plant a new rice crop by the end of July.

"Some organizations were spreading groundless information such as there is or will be a shortage of rice in Myanmar," Soe Tha was quoted as saying at a meeting with international relief agencies on Tuesday.

"We have enough rice and we can distribute sufficiently," he said, although the newspaper reports did not give a detailed picture of the country's rice supplies.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Tuesday Myanmar's rice crop will be smaller than expected after the May 2 cyclone, which flooded paddy fields with seawater, damaged irrigation systems and destroyed supplies of rice seed.

The USDA cut its previous crop forecast by 600,000 tones to 9.4 million tonnes to reflect "a reduction in area and an expected decline in average yield due to the effects of the storm damage from Cyclone Nargis in early May."

Last week, the U.N. food agency said of the 1.3 million ha (3.2 million acres) of paddy in the cyclone-hit areas, 60 percent was affected by the storm.

About 200,000 ha (500,000 acres) were too damaged for planting, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.

Nearly six weeks since the storm left 134,000 dead or missing and another 2.4 million people destitute, some paddy land has been drained of seawater.

But farmers still faced many hurdles to planting the monsoon crop, including a lack of shelter, rice seed, fertilizer and ploughing animals, most of which were killed.

"If this is not done in a timely manner, poor farmers, who have already lost their assets, will suffer from hunger and poverty for a long time, while national food security will be seriously jeopardized," the FAO said.

RICE IMPORTS

Myanmar was the world's largest rice exporter when it won independence from Britain in 1948, but lost that title to neighboring Thailand after four decades of military rule and disastrous economic policies.

With little money to buy other food, people in Myanmar consume an average 44 lbs (20 kg) of rice per month, compared to 35 lbs in Vietnam and 15 lbs in Asia as a whole, the FAO said.

The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), which was feeding 2 million people in Myanmar before the cyclone, has sought to buy food locally to feed a minimum of 750,000 people in the delta.

"We may have to continue assistance in the delta for six months or until the next harvest," WFP spokesman Paul Risley told Reuters.

"We will continue to purchase food locally but we will likely have to seek imports of food stocks, especially rice to replace rice that was lost in the delta," he said.

The WFP recently signed a local contract for 10,000 tonnes of rice, corn, beans, lentils and other pulses -- roughly six weeks of food assistance.

It also received 400 tonnes of rice from a French naval ship that was not allowed to deliver aid directly to Myanmar.

(Additional reporting and writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Ed Cropley and Jeremy Laurence)

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