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Saffron Soldiers
NASA data helps pinpoint impacted populations in the aftermath of a disaster
1. NLD: Special Statement
2. HRW: Concerned Governments Should Press for Zargana's Release
3. Mizzima News: Junta shuts down pro-opposition monastery
4. Washington Post: Burma Gives 'Cronies' Slice of Storm Relief
5. East-Asia-Intel. com: Burma cyclone impacting world food supply; forced evictions make post-cyclone hell worse
6. REUTERS: Cyclone raises tuberculosis risks in Myanmar: WHO
7. AFP: Cyclone dead' wash ashore on distant Burma beach

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Saffron Soldiers
Phillipines Daily Inquirer
http://www.mysinche w.com/node/ 12771?tid= 37
2008-06-15 15:08

IT’S NOT OVER YET: These Burmese monks are among the many who fled after participating in last year’s bloody saffron revolution. (Photo courtesy: PATRICIA EVANGELISTA/ Philippines Daily Inquirer)

(Photo courtesy: PATRICIA EVANGELISTA/ Philippines Daily Inquirer)

(Photo courtesy: PATRICIA EVANGELISTA/ Philippines Daily Inquirer)

(Photo courtesy: PATRICIA EVANGELISTA/ Philippines Daily Inquirer)

The monks who have been driven out of Burma after the September 2007 revolution are not backing down just yet.

He wears a red robe and has a white scar behind his left ear. He is the oldest here—old compared to the boys who gather under a thatched roof on a Monday afternoon, robes looped over their shoulders. U O Ba Sa is 53, from Pago division in Burma. He sits on the veranda, where thin, brightly printed mats march along one side of the wooden floor. Saffron coloured robes hang on thin wires. Outside, where a young monk sings while cleaning fish, the trees are an impossible green.

On Sept 25, 2007, U O Ba Sa walked across Pago with 5,000 other Burmese monks, throwing empty water bottles at the gates of monasteries whose monks stayed behind closed doors. When darkness crept over Pago, 70 Burmese monks, led by U O Ba Sa, walked the 80km to Burma’s former capital Rangoon.

U O Ba Sa punctuates his story with waving hands and spread fingers: The sun burns high in Rangoon. The monks stop outside an elementary school, waiting as a crowd of schoolchildren spilled out of the school gates. A schoolteacher crosses the street with a 7-year-old holding on to each other’s hand. There is a rumble, and then a Burmese police truck barrels into the crossing group. The teacher and her tiny charges are killed instantly. The monks who try to pick up the bodies are shot. The orange robes turn red.

"Monks are of the people, we cannot watch them suffer."

U O Ba Sa does not know if the truck’s driver intended to kill. He only knows what happened later, when he was beaten until the blood poured out from behind his head. Many rushed out of the school when word spread about the dead students—many more were shot.

“It was all at the same time happening. They couldn’t crack down on us by beating, so they fired.”

It is Janida, a 27-year-old monk with gaunt cheeks and glasses, who translates the stories into English. Janida was working on his bachelor of arts degree in religion in a government university and one of the student leaders during the saffron revolution. Teachers threatened students who protested on the street with expulsion.

“Over 200 protested from my university. Many were afraid. I was in my final year as student. Lost my degree, but degree does not matter. More important what I do for the people.”

The September 2007 saffron revolution rose on the heels of exorbitant fuel price increases. Monks, whose living depended on donations from people, turned over their begging bowls and refused donations from the government.

“In 2007, people are starving, poor and sick. Children cannot go to school. Monks are of the people, we cannot watch them suffer.”

Burmese refugees in Thailand say that after the Burmese army enters a village and razes it to the ground, they proceed to kill off the men.

Parents send off young boys over the age of five to monasteries in the city to protect them from death at the hands of the army or recruitment as child soldiers. Burma’s military is 480,000-strong, nearly the same number as the Buddhist monks with their 500,000 saffron-clad warriors of peace. For many young men, the monastery, and eventually the army, are considered not so much vocations but means of escape. Burmese villages, especially those held by ethnic minorities, are in constant danger of military assault.

Downstairs, the young monk has finished cleaning his fish and is hacking it to pieces. There are white earphones shoved into his ears. He tells me he is a fan of Michael Jackson. Someone plays Top of the World by the Carpenters on a cell phone. There is laughter and voices chiming in requests for Madonna and Avril Lavigne. One monk sits on a mat with a crumpled newspaper open on the sports page, forehead creased, chin on palm. He says he is rooting for Manchester United and Robinho.

There are many monks who decide to forgo their vocation. “They want to wear regular clothes, meet girls, go to movies,” says Nai Nai, a young Burmese graduate student studying in Bangkok.

The families of these monks do not know where their sons and brothers are. There are nearly 30 monks here in Mae Sot. The youngest is 19. They are not safe, not here, too close to the border. Very soon they will have to find another home. Some have managed to secure travel to the United States.

“Maybe there is another country for us. We can’t go back,” says 29-year-old Eindaka from Rangoon.

“In our society,” says Nai Nai, “the monks stand for the people. They get offerings from the people, and if the people suffer, the monks cannot watch. We are related, them and us. That’s why they stand for us.”

Janida fled across the border to the monastery in February. They took his photograph, he says. He can be arrested at any time, of any crime, without the benefit of court or jury.

Many were killed during the September protests. Bodies wrapped in robes turned white in the sun and floated on the rivers. Monks were tied to lampposts and beaten.

And yet Janida does not believe they lost the fight against a tyrant government. The world saw what was happening to their people. For him, it was only a beginning.

“You cannot tell us we lose.” The scholarly young monk is angry, and nearly on his feet. “We win.” (By PATRICIA EVANGELISTA In MAE SOT/ The Philippines Daily Inquirer/ ANN)
This article is written under the Southeast Asian Press Alliance fellowship.

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NASA data helps pinpoint impacted populations in the aftermath of a disaster
http://www.newkeral a.com/one. php?action= fullnews&id=73237

Washington, June 15 : A set of NASA data products can describe the location of the exposed populations in the aftermath of a disaster, with prominent examples being the cyclone in Burma and the earthquake in China's Sichuan Province, where the technology was used.

When these two catastrophic natural disasters struck within days of each other in May 2008, disaster relief, humanitarian aid, and health officials, as well as members of the news media tapped into a unique set of NASA data products describing the location of the exposed populations.

What arose was a timely example of how NASA data comes to the aid of officials when such disasters occur.

"The gridded population product we produce helps officials understand the density of the population in and around a disaster area," said Robert Chen, manager of NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC).

"The data set shows where people actually live in relationship to hazardous events," he added.

Members of the news media use the data and associated maps to report on possible casualties and property destruction.

"When a major disaster hits, people want to know how many people were exposed to the disaster, in addition to how many were killed," said Chen. "For example, CNN used our map of population density in Burma to help explain how the unusual path of cyclone Nargis affected the low-lying, densely populated delta," he added.

Using the SEDAC data, media were able to report that 25 percent of Burma's 57 million people resided in coastal areas overpowered by the cyclone. They also projected that a million people would likely face homelessness, a number calculated by the United Nations (UN) also by using data made available by SEDAC.

SEDAC, a part of NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System, collects, stores, processes and distributes population, land use, and socioeconomic data.

A significant mission of NASA's Earth-observing satellite program is to enable scientists and other users to conduct analyses and make decisions based on the resulting data.

SEDAC advances this mission by developing and operating practical applications that merge social science and Earth science data to improve knowledge of how humans interact with Earth's environment.

According to Marc Levy, SEDAC's lead project scientist, "Although our information is most useful for groups needing to know how many people were in the exposure zone where a disaster occurred, it also helps when looking downstream at secondary impacts like disease, homelessness, hunger, and even conflict."

--- ANI

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Read this posting online: http://www.badasf. org/2008/ cyclone-news. htm

1. NLD: Special Statement
2. HRW: Concerned Governments Should Press for Zargana's Release
3. Mizzima News: Junta shuts down pro-opposition monastery
4. Washington Post: Burma Gives 'Cronies' Slice of Storm Relief
5. East-Asia-Intel. com: Burma cyclone impacting world food supply; forced evictions make post-cyclone hell worse
6. REUTERS: Cyclone raises tuberculosis risks in Myanmar: WHO
7. AFP: Cyclone dead' wash ashore on distant Burma beach

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National League for Democracy : Special Statement 13/06/08
No. 97 (b), West Shwegondine Street
Bahan Township, Yangon
10 June 2008

 (Unofficial Translation)

1.   In accordance with the Pyithu Hluttaw Election Law and the authorities' promises after the 1990 General Election in Burma, "the Union of Myanmar Draft Constitution, " for which a referendum was conducted in Burma on 10 and 24 May 2008, was drafted illegally.As per the Pyithu Hluttaw Election Law, the Members of Parliament elected in the 1990 General Election by the people of Burma were legally responsible for drafting the constitution.Instead, "the Union of Myanmar Draft Constitution" was written solely by handpicked representatives and associates of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).  Officially and legally elected Members of Parliament, let alone citizens, were prohibited from reviewing or discussing the content of this constitution.  The drafting process did not provide any opportunities for political parties, ethnic nationality groups, or democratic organizations to review or critique the constitution.

2.   The above mentioned facts directly contradict the following laws and statements issued by the authorities:

a)   Section 3 of the Pyithu Hluttaw Election Law, issued with the Law Number 14/89 by the authorities on 31 May 1989, states that: "Hluttaw [Assembly] must be formed with the Hluttaw representatives who have been elected.

b)   Paragraph 12 of Statement 1/90, issued by the authorities on 27 July 1990, states that: "Section 3 of the Pyithu Hluttaw Election Law requires Hluttaw to be formed with the elected representatives of the Hluttaw from the respective constituencies.  According to this provision, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) will be held responsible for convening the Hluttaw."

c)   Paragraph 20 of Statement 1/90, issued by the authorities on 27 July 1990, states that: "under the present circumstances, the representatives elected by the people are those who have the responsibility to draft the constitution for the future democratic state."

3.   Prior to the referendum, the draft constitution’s content was not explained to or discussed with voters through State media sources, such as the daily newspaper or radio and television programming.  The draft constitution was not for sale or available for people to read and study it throughout many State and Division townships.  The draft constitution was issued without collecting or incorporating people's recommendations and requests and solely for approval. More importantly, the authorities held the referendum one month after releasing the draft constitution, which provided an extremely short timeframe for people to study the entire constitution.  Authorities systematically managed this process so that they could gain support for the draft constitution through injustice force. 

4.   During the fourteen (14) year National Convention period, the Chairman of the Working Committee of the National Convention determined and detailed the principles for the constitution.  This same person then became the Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee and drafted the constitution based on the principles he established.  This same person then became the Chairman of the Referendum Convening Commission, allowing him to commit unjust and biased acts.  Other members of the Referendum Convening Commission had also participated in the National Convention or in the constitution drafting. This process was not fair or acceptable for the people.  The Referendum Convening Commission was not an independent organization but instead was completely influenced by the SPDC.

5.   Authorities violated their own Referendum Law and Technical Law by using blackmail, threats, cheating, misinformation, coercion, and persuasion to obtain votes supporting the constitution.  Authorities also disregarded the principle rule of a referendum: a secret voting system.  According to reports and documents submitted to the headquarters by State, Division, Township, and Ward/Village Organizational Committees, important facts are as follows:

a)   Authorities at all administrative levels as well as their supporting organizations had the right to organize people and propagate information freely.  However, NLD members were restricted and harassed.  NLD pamphlets and statements were seized, and NLD members were interrogated, threatened, and arrested using Law Number 5/96 and Referendum Law.

b)   Advanced voting ballots were distributed by each polling station, and the results were fixed and controlled to secure supporting votes.  Advanced voting ballots were collected from civil servants, workers, civilians and Cyclone Nargis victims, which violated the provision in the Referendum Law that only granted advanced voting privileges to people who had to travel, were sick, were disabled, or were elderly.

c)   People who wanted to vote against the constitution faced many threats from authorities including but not limited to: a three year prison sentence and a 300,000 kyat fine, trial, confiscation of their farms and their businesses, being fired from their jobs, being expelled from school, and being required to report how other people voted.

d)   Police officers in uniform and members of organizations supported by authorities were present at various polling stations.

e)   Police officers permitted voters who wanted to cast "Yes" votes and prevented voting by people who wanted to cast "No" votes.

f)     Voters were forced to vote using pre-marked "Yes" ballots.

g)   One family/household member was required to cast votes on behalf of the entire family/household

h)   One person representing the authorities cast votes on behalf of a large group of people formed by the authorities.

i)     Polling station and Referendum Commission staff cast "Yes" votes for some voters.
j)     Commission members cast additional "Yes" votes in the ballot boxes.

k)   Some polling stations closed early and prior to 4:00pm, which was prohibited by the Referendum Law.

l)     The people were prevented from seeing the counting of "Yes" votes, "No" votes, and invalid votes at all levels of the commissions.

m) At some polling stations, "No" votes were burned or destroyed

6.   Section 23 of Chapter 9 of the Referendum Law states that: "after the Referendum, the Commission must announce the Referendum result by combining and accounting for votes by all eligible votes at all locations."  However, the Referendum Commission declared the result on 15 May 2008 by issuing Statement Number 10/2008, which stated that: "The result of the previous referendum was 92.4 percent supportive votes."  This statement disregarded the Referendum Law, as it was announced before the referendum was held for the people living in the forty-seven (47) Townships affected by Cyclone Nargis.

7.   The record and list of eligible voters was collected before Cyclone Nargis.  However, that list was no longer valid after the storm devastated the seven (7) Irrawaddy Division Townships on 2 and 3 May 2008 and left thousands of people dead and missing.  The Cyclone also destroyed many national identity cards.  The authorities did not revise their list of eligible voters; thus, the "Yes" votes in Irrawaddy Division cannot be vindicated.

8.   The referendum does not represent the real will of the people, as it was neither free nor fair.  A constitution is a contract between the ruler and the ruled.  In this respect, because the referendum is not representative of the people's free will, its results are automatically nullified according to international law and standards.  A contract cannot be ratified based on unlawful acts.

9.   The Referendum Convening Commission issued Statement 12/2008 on 26 May 2008 and declared the referendum's result approving 'the Union of Myanmar Draft Constitution. '  The State Peace and Development Council issued Statement 7/2008 on 29 May 2008 declaring that 'the Union of Myanmar Constitution' was approved.  However, these declarations were not legal or lawful, as the referendum violated provisions in the above mentioned laws and statements.  The National League for Democracy, mandated by the people during the free and fair 1990 General Election in accordance with the Pyithu Hluttaw Election Law, does not accept 'the Union of Myanmar Constitution. '

As per the decision in the meeting of the Central Executive Committee held on 6 June 2008.
Central Executive Committee.

National League for Democracy
Yangon 
(Unofficial Translation)

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Burma: Free Celebrity Activist Critical of Aid Response
Human Rights Watch
http://hrw.org/ english/docs/ 2008/06/13/ burma19130. htm

Concerned Governments Should Press for Zargana's Release
(New York, June 13, 2008) – Burma's military government should immediately free detained activist Zargana and permit him to continue distributing aid unhindered to communities affected by Cyclone Nargis, Human Rights Watch said today.

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To arrest one of Burma's most famous public figures for talking to the media at the time he was distributing aid shows the Burmese government is more concerned with controlling its citizens than assisting them.
Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch

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Zargana, a famous comedian and social activist in Burma, was arrested on June 4 after giving interviews to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the exile magazine The Irrawaddy about shortcomings in the government's aid efforts and the slow response by United Nations agencies.

"To arrest one of Burma's most famous public figures for talking to the media at the time he was distributing aid shows the Burmese government is more concerned with controlling its citizens than assisting them," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Countries genuinely concerned about Burma should be pressing the government for Zargana's immediate release."

During his arrest, officials searched Zargana's house, seizing foreign currency and videos of the cyclone and the September 2007 protests in Rangoon. He is reportedly being held and questioned at an interrogation center in downtown Rangoon. Zargana's network of more than 400 volunteers had reached some villages affected by the cyclone and had been distributing urgently needed food aid.

Zargana, the performing name of Maung Thura, was previously detained for a year following the 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations in Burma. In 1990, the authorities jailed him for four years for making political speeches, and they have routinely harassed him by banning some of his movies and performances. For instance, the health ministry stopped a planned public health benefit involving Zargana and others on World AIDS Day on December 1, 2006 at a clinic for people living with HIV.

Police arrested Zargana again in September 2007 for publicly supporting the protests by monks, and detained him for 20 days. During his detention in 2007, Zargana was initially detained at the City Hall, but authorities subsequently moved him to Thanlyin, the Government Technical Institute, and then Insein Prison. Upon his release, Zargana told Human Rights Watch about the experience. He believed he was moved frequently to keep him out of contact with other prisoners. In Insein Prison, Zargana was held in solitary confinement in the so-called "War Dog" compound. The compound, which has nine cells, has been used for holding other prominent political prisoners such as activist from the '88 Generation student movement, Than Tin, and National League for Democracy member, Myint Soe.

Zargana's cell in 2007 was cramped (7 feet by 7 feet), poorly ventilated, isolated and guarded by some 30 dogs. Zargana slept on a thin mat on the floor. The iron bar door was covered with a large steel plate with only a small opening at the bottom of the cell. Zargana could not see or hear anything. A 40-watt light bulb in the room came on infrequently throughout the night, attracting mosquitoes. Burmese authorities held Zargana there for eight days, and did not permit him to bathe until the fourth day of his detention. There was no toilet or water – Zargana had to relieve himself on a tray. When it became full, he tried to urinate under the door, but the dogs tried to bite him.
Upon his release, Zargana spoke with foreign journalists and was subsequently re-detained for several days.

On October 28, 2007, the authorities compelled him to sign a pledge stating he would not talk to the media as a condition of his release. It is widely believed that authorities are holding Zargana for breaking this pledge in speaking to the BBC. Human Rights Watch expressed concern that Zargana could be subjected to the same deplorable prison conditions now, and urged governments to press the Burmese authorities to immediately release him. Zargana's family has been unable to visit him since his arrest. It is unclear if the authorities have filed any charges against him.

In 1991, Zargana received the Hellman/Hammett Prize, given by the Fund for Free Expression, a committee organized by Human Rights Watch.

Since the visit of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the international pledging conference on May 25 in Rangoon, the Burmese government has eased visa restrictions for personnel from UN agencies and international humanitarian agencies to permit them to enter Rangoon. However the government has been inconsistent in its approach to aid, allowing some aid and workers into the Irrawaddy Delta region while blocking others, including some Burmese individuals and groups.

(http://www.hrw. org/english/ docs/2008/ 06/12/burma19124 .htm).

"The outrageous arrest of Zargana, for speaking the truth about government hindrance of aid to cyclone victims, makes a mockery of the claim that handing out of a few visas is a 'breakthrough, '" said Adams.

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Junta shuts down pro-opposition monastery
Mizzima News
Saturday, 14 June 2008 18:05

The Burmese military junta authorities sealed a pro-opposition Buddhist monastery in Rangoon yesterday.

The township chairman and security forces arrived at the Sasana Theikpan monastery compound of Chauk Htut Gyi pagoda, Bahan Township on Friday morning and told monks they would close the monastery until an official announcement by the new head of monastery was made.

Security forces told the monks that they had come with an order from the Rangoon military commander Brigadier General Hla Htay Win.

"They locked the door of the monastery with a lock they brought with them at 5 p.m. yesterday," a monk from Sasana Theikpan told Mizzima.

The monk believed that it was a ruse and he did not expect the monastery to be reopened. Three monks of Sansana Theikpan are taking temporary shelter in two nearby monasteries.

The former head of the Sasana Theikpan monastery died recently and dozens of pro-democracy opposition activists attended the funeral service on June 7 even as the authorities monitored the funeral service.

About a hundred pro-government civil militia of the Swan Arr Shin and members of Union Solidarity Development Association were standing by to crackdown, activists told Mizzima.
Buddhist monasteries were raided and some were sealed during and after monks led a mass uprising against the government in September 2007.

Sasana Theikpan and Sasana Gonye were among the monasteries raided by security forces in Bahan Township. The latter has been shut down since the raid.

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Burma Gives 'Cronies' Slice of Storm Relief
On Magazine's List of Junta's Chosen Tycoons Are Some Facing U.S. Sanctions
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 13, 2008; A16

Just seven days after Cyclone Nargis devastated Burma last month, the ruling military junta parceled out key sections of the affected Irrawaddy Delta to favored tycoons and companies, including several facing sanctions from the U.S. Treasury, according to a Burmese magazine with close ties to the government.

Some of the most notorious business executives in Burma, including Tay Za and Steven Law, also known as Tun Myint Naing, were given control of "reconstruction and relief" in critical townships, under the leadership of top generals. Tay Za was identified by Treasury as a "regime henchman" this year when it slapped economic sanctions on hotel enterprises and other businesses he owns.

All told, more than 30 companies and 30 executives are to divide up the business in 11 townships in areas affected by Nargis, according to the report.

The document in the magazine is dated May 9, a time when the United Nations, aid groups and many countries were pleading with the Burmese government to allow access to affected areas in the aftermath of the storm, which killed as many as 130,000 people and left 2.5 million without homes. Despite promises of greater openness, the Burmese rulers have continued to impose restrictions on aid relief, including new and onerous identification requirements for aid workers, according to reports from the region.

The document, which includes the cellphone numbers for many of the executives, was published in the Voice, a weekly journal published by Nay Win Maung. A translation was provided by BIT Team, a group of India-based Burmese who try to promote information technology in the xenophobic country.

Nay Win Maung is a son of a military officer and was brought up among Burma's military elites, giving him good connections to military insiders. His magazines can access government-related news and exclusive information.

"The Treasury is targeting the regime's cronies, and the regime wants its cronies to get the money," said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "They see it as an opportunity to profit from the international community's compassion. But these are not experts in providing relief; they are experts in running guns and drugs and making a lot of money."

Efforts to reach Burmese representatives in Washington last night were unsuccessful. The cellphone number listed for Steven Law in the Voice was answered by an associate who said he was not available.

While some of the executives awarded contracts are well known to human rights activists and financial-crime experts, others are less prominent, potentially making the document a guide to the individuals currently in favor with the military leadership.

The government estimated it needed more than $11 billion in reconstruction aid shortly after the May 2-3 cyclone, a figure that met with a cool reception at an international donors conference in Rangoon three weeks ago. Burma, also known as Myanmar, is rich in natural resources, but much of the country is desperately poor. The junta has enriched itself with natural gas fields that bring in about $2 billion in annual revenue, as well as trade in jewels, heroin, amphetamines, timber and small arms.

Some of the conglomerates given business in the delta, such as Law's Asia World and Tay Za's Htoo Trading, were also tasked with building the country's new capital at Naypyidaw, more than 200 miles from the old capital of Rangoon. With little notice three years ago, the junta uprooted the capital to a remote area, requiring massive construction of new government buildings, hotels and housing for civil servants.

Much of the country, in fact, is a forced labor camp, with more than 60 prisons, labor camps and detention centers, according to a report this year by the Burma Fund, an anti-government activist group. People forced into construction are paid minimal wages, if at all.

Hlaing Sein, an officer with the London-based Burma Campaign UK, said that Htoo Trading, which was given control of Heingigyum and Ngaopudaw townships, forced cyclone victims to work for 800 kyat a day, roughly 70 cents, in order to meet a government order to reopen schools by June 2. But a quart of water in the delta now costs the equivalent of $1.50, she said.

The Treasury sanctions against Tay Za, Law and other junta cronies -- and some of their companies -- freezes their assets and prohibits all financial and commercial transactions by U.S. entities with the designated companies and individuals, as part of an effort to break up their financial networks. The Treasury has released detailed charts about the financial links among the junta and Tay Za, Law and related associates.

Tay Za, whose businesses include timber, palm oil and aviation, is said to be close to Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the junta leader, in part because of his habit of hiring the children of powerful generals. The Bangkok Post recently reported that though no public warnings were made about the approaching cyclone, air force fighters and private passenger planes from Bagan Air -- believed to be a joint venture between Tay Za and Than Shwe's family -- were moved the evening before the storm from Rangoon airport to Mandalay, which was not in its path.

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Burma cyclone impacting world food supply; forced evictions make post-cyclone hell worse
Friday, June 13, 2008 East-Asia-Intel. com

The military officers who have run the Burmese (Myanmar) economy for the past half century has little to show for their efforts. Endowed with vast raw materials and agricultural resources — the latter made Burma in colonial times the world's No. 1 rice exporter — the economy has fallen to almost subsistence levels.

The effects of Cyclone Nargis in early May have not only added new misery for the country's 50 million people but have negated rice exports needed by neighboring countries and contributing to the global food crisis. The storm hit hardest in Burma's main rice-growing region in the isolated Irrawaddy Delta, where some 2 million people were driven from their homes and farmland.

Locals gather in front of a damaged monastery in Laputta, Burma, on June 9, 2008. AP
Now comes word from human rights organizations that the military is driving displaced villagers from temporary camps set up in the continuing heavy monsoon rains, and is attempting to get them back on their salt water-logged fields to begin the recuperation of the paddy.

Human rights groups say that forced evictions — involving churches, monasteries, schools and other public buildings — are putting lives at risk and flouting international principles of humanitarian relief. Amnesty International reports 30 cases since May 19 of forcible removals of thousands of people who sought temporary shelter.

The force of the storm was so great that local stocks of food were destroyed. The few foreign refugee workers the regime has permitted to enter have described heart-rending stories of many displaced villagers trying to capture a few grains of rice out of inundated areas filled with decaying human corpses and animal carcasses.

The regime has permitted only minimal outside aid. And much of that, apparently, has been diverted to the military itself. Four American naval vessels that happened to be in the region on exercises when the storm struck waited for several weeks before gaining permission to enter the Delta area with small boats carrying water, emergency food and emergency items. The generals apparently fear exposure to foreign aid would strengthen opposition forces and their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of a founding father of the post-colonial nation and political prisoner for more than a decade.

Humanitarian organizations, including the UN World Food Program, were operating in Burma before the cyclone struck, providing food aid to half a million people in the country where one in three children are chronically malnourished. The fear now is that the damage to the area known as the country's "rice bowl" will make a bad situation a lot worse.

Burma's plight is already impacting world food supplies. The World Food program said that it was not yet known whether Burma would be able to meet its commitments to supply Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. If Burmese exports disappear — as now seems possible — the domino effect on Asia neighbors would be fierce. The International Rice Research Institute warned that, with the year's second harvest imminent, weather patterns in Asia would come under unprecedented scrutiny: the freak damage caused by the cyclone will now exacerbate that.

The price of rice had already trebled across Asia this year, hitting a record $25.07 per 100 pounds on April 24. Some local market prices have risen tenfold in the past year. Several governments — including those of China and India — responded by imposing export bans. Rice is currently trading around $20.96 per 100 pounds.

If the worst conditions prevail, Burma, with a rickety food economy and impoverished population, could become a net importer of rice.

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Cyclone raises tuberculosis risks in Myanmar: WHO 
A family look for traces of their house, on a marooned embankment, in the village of Pay Kunhnasay in the Kawhmu township May 30, 2008. (REUTERS/Aung Hla Tung)
June 10, 2008

GENEVA (Reuters) - The cyclone that devastated Myanmar last month forced many tuberculosis sufferers to stop their treatment, triggering fears of drug-resistant strains spreading, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Myanmar had 83,000 cases of the highly contagious disease in 2006 causing 6,000 deaths, according to the WHO's most recent figures for the diplomatically isolated country whose army rulers were initially reluctant to let in foreign aid workers after Cyclone Nargis hit on May 2.
The storm killed up to 134,000 people, left 2.4 million destitute, and destroyed many of the health centers which handed out antibiotics.

WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said experts from the United Nations agency would travel to cyclone-affected areas this week to track down tuberculosis patients who lost access to their drugs since the May 2 storm.

"They will go to the hospitals and health centers, look at the records, look how many people were on treatment, and then try to trace them in villages and camps," Chaib said, calling the hiatus resulting from the storm "a serious issue."

"Tuberculosis is a life-threatening disease. Interrupting a course of six-month treatment can have an effect on creating resistance to tuberculosis drugs," she said.

Any pause in a course of antibiotics can give the bacterium causing tuberculosis a chance to mutate and build up immunity to standard medicines. Drug-resistant strains can require patients to take an expensive and arduous course of pills and injections, and some types are virtually untreatable.

Even before the cyclone, the weak health system and pervasiveness of fake drugs in Myanmar were seen as potential triggers for drug-resistant tuberculosis.

While no cases of "extensively drug-resistant" or "XDR" tuberculosis have been confirmed by the WHO in Myanmar, aid workers from Medicins Sans Frontieres last year reported cases among migrants from Myanmar in neighboring Thailand, raising concerns that it may already exist in the secretive state.

Chaib said authorities in Myanmar had worked hard with the WHO in recent years to fight the respiratory disease, which spreads through the air and kills about 1.5 million people worldwide every year.

In addition to tracking patients and helping them resume treatment, WHO staff deployed to Myanmar's cyclone-affected region will also seek to bolster general health services for those displaced by the storm.

The WHO is appealing for clean water and sanitation supplies to help reduce the risks of water-borne diseases among cyclone survivors. With the monsoon season coming, the U.N. agency said it was also critical for Myanmar to take steps to prevent malaria and other diseases spread by mosquitoes.

(Editing by Caroline Drees)

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'Cyclone dead' wash ashore on distant Burma beach
Posted Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:27pm AEST

About 300 bloated and decaying corpses, apparently victims of Cyclone Nargis, have washed up on a beach in eastern Burma more than one month after the storm, a local official said.

The bodies had been found in the last week on the beach near Mawlamyine, across the Gulf of Martaban, more than 160 kilometres east of the devastated Irrawaddy delta, the official said.

More than 133,000 people were killed or are missing after the cyclone struck six weeks ago. Many were washed out to sea as a tidal surge wiped out their villages.

"About 300 dead bodies have been cremated in the last week, after they floated into Kyaikkhami and Setse beaches. They were all decomposing. Most of them appeared to be women," the official said.
"Some fishermen saw these dead bodies on the beaches and informed the authorities.
"We decided to cremate them for the sake of the environment. "

Residents said that many people had moved away to avoid the grim scenes of bodies washing onto the beaches.

The descriptions recalled the devastation in the delta last month, when victims' bodies were left rotting on roadsides and floating in rice fields, where in many cases they laid for weeks.

- AFP

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