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HEADLINES
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Reuters - Work-shy Myanmar buffaloes add to farmers' woes
AFP - SKorea-led consortium strikes Myanmar gas deal with China
AFP - India, Myanmar to sign investment pact
IRIN - Funding crunch could ground cyclone helicopters
The New Kerala - Myanmar retires elderly junta lieutenant generals
IHT - Myanmar's new capital: Remote, lavish, off-limits
CNN News - Volunteers fill Myanmar relief void
RSI - Medical team face aid challenges in Myanmar
Bernama - Myanmar To Build Low-cost Housings For Cyclone Victims
Jakarta Post - People face bleak future under military
The Australian - Cyclone exposes Burma's sorrow
Asian Tribune - Burma Urgently Needs Serious Democratic Reforms
Irrawaddy - Than Shwe’s Grandson in Drug Scandal
Mizzima News - Burmese junta deports Korean journalist
Mizzima News - Junta's reshuffle; what lies behind?
DVB News - Voters reveal injustices in 10 May referendum
DVB News - Activists welcome UN pledge to end rape in conflict

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Work-shy Myanmar buffaloes add to farmers' woes
By Aung Hla Tun
Mon Jun 23, 4:09 AM ET

DEDAYE, Myanmar (Reuters) - With a planting deadline looming, rice farmers in cyclone-hit parts of Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta have hit a problem -- donated oxen and water buffaloes are refusing to work because they are stressed.

"Thanks to donors and arrangements by the government, we are getting buffaloes and oxen, and in some cases small tractors and tillers, almost free of charge," said Ko Hla Soe, a farmer in Dedaye, 50 km (30 miles) southwest of Yangon.

"Now, to our surprise, the problem is that most of the buffaloes and oxen will not work hard. They cannot immediately be used effectively, " he told Reuters.

As well as leaving 134,000 people dead or missing when it ripped into the delta on May 2, Cyclone Nargis killed around 200,000 farm animals, 120,000 of which were used by farmers to plough fields in the former Burma's "rice bowl."

The military government and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has identified replacing these draught animals as a priority to allow farmers in the devastated areas to start growing their own food again.

The task has not proved as simple as it sounds.

The few animals that survived the storm are understandably traumatized and reluctant to work, farmers say, and those brought in as replacements are taking a long time to settle in to their new surroundings.

"Animals can get stress too," Ohn Kyaw, a senior official at the Ministry of Livestock Breeding and Fisheries, told Reuters.

"The change of owners and environment is having a psychological impact on them. They've had to travel for days by sea or by land and they are bound to suffer from stress," he said, although he added that they should get over it.

The government had donated 1,971 draught animals as of June 22, and was working on distributing another 600 donated by the FAO as soon as possible, he said.

FAO expert Albert Lieberg said getting enough replacements into the delta was a major logistical operation, especially since working pairs of buffaloes need to be kept together.

"You have to make sure that these two animals stay together up to the very end," he told a news conference in Bangkok last week. "It is a lot of psychological stress for the animals."

Unfortunately for the farmers, who prefer buffaloes to mechanical tillers due to a lack of fuel, time is not on their side.

"Unless our rice is planted by the end of this month, it will be too late," Ko Hla Soe said. "And even if we get it in on time, we cannot expect as big a crop as before."

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SKorea-led consortium strikes Myanmar gas deal with China
Mon Jun 23, 12:19 AM ET

SEOUL (AFP) - A South Korean-led international consortium said Monday it has reached a deal to sell natural gas from Myanmar to China.

The consortium led by Daewoo International, operator of two natural gasfields in waters off Myanmar, said it signed a memorandum of understanding with China National Petroleum Corp last week.

Daewoo said in a statement it expects more than 10 billion dollars in profit in the next 25 years starting 2012, when the production of natural gas is expected to begin.

Daewoo has a 51 percent stake in the consortium, followed by India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp with 17 percent; Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise with 15 percent; India's GAIL with 8.5 percent; and South Korea's Korea Gas Corp with a 8.5 percent.

Daewoo said it is also exploring four more gasfields off the country.

Myanmar has attracted relatively little investment from the West, with Western governments denouncing the ruling junta for its poor human rights record.

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India, Myanmar to sign investment pact
AFP - Monday, June 23

NEW DELHI (AFP) - - India and Myanmar will sign an investment pact and hold talks on wider border trade as a sign of expanding ties between New Delhi and military rulers of the secretive state, officials said Sunday.

India would also offer credit totalling 84 million dollars to Myanmar during a trip to the country by junior commerce minister Jairam Ramesh, who left for Myanmar Sunday on a four-day working visit, commerce ministry officials said.

"He will also offer two million dollars for 16 power transformers that were damaged in the cyclone as well as 200,000 dollars for the repairs of a famous Buddhist pagoda also hit by the storm last month," a ministry official said.

India was one of the first countries to rush aid to Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis hit on May 2-3, leaving 134,000 people dead or missing by latest count.

A ministry official in New Delhi said the decade-long investment promotion and protection agreement will aim at "encouraging flow of funds between the two countries."

The accord comes amid criticism by the global community of Myanmar's cyclone relief efforts and longstanding international calls for India to pressure the junta-ruled nation to shift to democracy.

India was until the mid-1990s a supporter of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But it has since cultivated ties with the junta as it sees Myanmar as a key source of energy to power fast economic growth.

Bilateral trade between India and Myanmar totalled 590 million dollars in 2005-2006, the latest figures available show, according to the Indian foreign ministry.

In April, the two sides signed an accord under which New Delhi would invest 130 million dollars in Myanmar's Sittwe port on the Bay of Bengal that will give India's northeast access to a new trade route to Southeast Asia.

Last year, New Delhi also pledged to invest 150 million dollars for gas exploration in Myanmar.

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MYANMAR: Funding crunch could ground cyclone helicopters
23 Jun 2008 16:18:42 GMT

BANGKOK, 23 June 2008 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that its relief flights into Myanmar's cyclone-stricken Ayeyarwady Delta could end soon without additional money to keep its 10 helicopters in the air.

WFP operates two French-designed Puma helicopters and eight Soviet-era MI-8s, which have been carrying water purification systems, food and other relief supplies to survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

But in a 20 June appeal, the agency said it might have to cut the helicopters – which cost about US$2,000 per hour to fly – without immediate additional funding.

WFP has received only 60 percent of the estimated $50 million it needs for logistics for the first three months of the disaster's aftermath.

Of the total, about $20 million is supposed be allocated to helicopters, while other funds are spent on planes ferrying supplies from the Bangkok logistics hub in neighbouring Thailand to Yangon International Airport, and on ground transport inside Myanmar.

"The use of the helicopters remains critical to the overall humanitarian relief effort," Paul Risley, a WFP spokesman, told IRIN. "The money we have right now will keep us to the end of the month. At that point, we have to reassess what is feasible and what is possible."

The agency's financial crunch reflects the wider difficulties confronting the relief operation for survivors of Nargis, which left an estimated 133,000 people dead or missing when it struck on 2 and 3 May.

According to the UN's Financial Tracking Service, the UN and participating aid agencies have received only 65 percent of the $201 million they had sought for an emergency flash appeal for the first phase of the relief operation, amid persistent concerns among donors about international aid workers' access to the disaster-stricken area.
New assessment

A new assessment, involving the UN, Myanmar authorities and Association of South East Asian Nations, will be presented on 24 June. The UN says the assessment will form the basis of a revised humanitarian appeal for the cyclone relief effort, which will be launched in July in Geneva.

However, Risley said it could not wait that long to raise additional revenues for the helicopters, which were chartered from private companies after Myanmar authorities made clear they would not allow military helicopters from either western or regional governments to join the relief effort.

"More funding will be needed to complete the task by helicopter of providing food to all the areas that have yet to be reached," he said.

Since the helicopters were put into action on 2 June – a month after the cyclone – they have delivered more than 200 metric tonnes (MT) of supplies, including 184MT of rice, pulses, cooking oil and salt, and 32MT of non-food items, such as shelter equipment, according to WFP.

The helicopters are ferrying supplies from centres in Yangon and Pathein to three food hubs in Bogalay, Pyapon and Labutta. From there, supplies are transferred to WFP's partners, including NGOs and the Myanmar Red Cross, for distribution by boat to villages.

But the helicopters – which have the capacity to carry loads of up to 2MT either in the cargo hold or in swings underneath - have also carried relief supplies directly to 67 remote locations where no international assistance had been delivered.

"There are still villages that are so remote and so difficult to access even by water that the helicopters are providing the first-ever assistance received in these villages," Risley said. "They are flying to all these places that would take hours to get to by boat."

The choppers have also been used for the evacuation of two seriously ill children from remote areas; transporting medical teams to remote areas, and delivering heavy water purification systems.

WFP also has two large barges and smaller boats to monitor food distribution in remote areas.

However, without additional funding, Risley said, the crucial helicopters would have to be cut back. "We will not be able to maintain 10 helicopters in operation for much longer," he warned.

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Myanmar retires elderly junta lieutenant generals
The New Kerala

Yangon, June 23 : Amid signs that Myanmar's junta chief Senior General Than Shwe has tightened his grip over the military, at least five lieutenant generals have been retired from the regime for "health reasons", military sources revealed Monday.

Former senior members of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) - as the Myanmar junta styles itself - lieutenant generals Aung Htwe, Khin Maung Than, Kyaw Win, Maung Bo and Ye Myint were retired Saturday for "health reasons", said a source close to military.

The state-run Myanmar media rarely publishes news on reshuffles or dismissals within the military establishment, which has ruled the country since 1962.

All of the retired lieutenant generals, in their late 60s and 70s, were members of the Bureau of Special Operations. They were replaced by five younger military commanders.

The dismissals follow the arrest on May 29 of Aung Zaw Ye Myint, 29, the son of Lieutenant General Ye Myint, the chief of the Bureau of Special Operations, one of the retirees.

Aung Zaw Ye Myint was reportedly arrested for drug trafficking.

"Than Shwe may have just used the arrest to hasten the retirements, " said Win Min, a lecturer on Myanmar affairs in Chiang Mai University in neighbouring Thailand.

The retirements follow a small cabinet reshuffle Friday, that saw three ministers switch posts.

On Friday, Social Welfare Minister Major General Maung Maung Shwe, who has been busy with cyclone relief efforts since Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar's central coast May 2-3, lost his secondary post and more lucrative post as minister of Immigration and Resettlement, according to state radio reports.

Although the move can be seen as allowing Maung Maung Shwe to spend more time on cyclone relief, political watchers saw it as a slight for General Maung Aye, the army commander-in- chief and Number 2 man in the junta.

Than Shwe and Maung Aye have long been rivals for power within the military.

The new immigration minister is Major General Saw Lwin, the former head of the Industry 2 Ministry which is now led by Lieutenant-General Soe Thein, the former Navy commander-in- chief.

Soe Thein is known to be close to Than Shwe's favoured successor, Lieutenant General Shwe Mann.

"Than Shwe strengthened his hand in Friday's reshuffle and so one can expect more of the same from his replacements of the retired lieutenant generals," said Win Min.

Politics is primarily a military affair in Myanmar. The junta staged a general election in 1990 that handed a landslide victory to the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the military ignored the election outcome, saying a new constitution was needed before civilian rule could take place, and has kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years.

The junta has promised a general election in 2010, now that it has already pushed through a new constitution that essentially allows it full control over any future elected government.

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Myanmar's new capital: Remote, lavish, off-limits
The International Herald Tribune - Published: June 23, 2008

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar: The bamboo forests and sugarcane fields that once covered the gently sloping hills here have been replaced by hulking government buildings, roads so long and straight they resemble runways and a vast construction site marked by a sign that could be read as a metaphor for the entire project: "Parliament zone. Do not enter."

Naypyidaw is Myanmar's new capital, built in secret by the ruling generals and announced to the public two and a half years ago, when it was a fait accompli.

A nine-hour drive north from the former capital, Yangon, it looks like nothing else in this impoverished country, where one out of three children is malnourished and travelers appreciate potholed pavement because many roads are nothing more than dirt tracks.

Workers in Naypyidaw are building multi-tiered, flower-covered traffic circles. In a country of persistent power shortages and blackouts, street lamps brightly illuminate the night, like strings of pearls running up and down scrub-covered hills. On the city's outskirts there is a modern and tidy zoo complete with an air-conditioned penguin house.

Foreigners rarely travel here, and the police tried to stop a reporter from taking pictures in the city, but the zoo is ready to receive them: admission is $10 for foreigners and a tenth that for Myanmar citizens.

It would be easy to write off the move to Naypyidaw as a caprice of the paranoid and secretive generals who have been in power for 46 years. But the transfer of the entire bureaucracy to this relatively remote location, where malaria is still endemic and cellular phones do not work, has drained the country's finances and widened the gulf between the rulers and the ruled.

Even the most charitable observers of Myanmar's junta portray them as out of touch. Now they are literally out of sight: the generals live and work in a guarded zone of Naypyidaw that is off limits to all but senior officers.

When Cyclone Nargis swept through the Irrawaddy Delta last month with winds up to 250 kilometers per hour, or 155 miles per hour, it killed about 130,000 people and damaged many buildings in Yangon. But the generals and civil servants ensconced in Naypyidaw felt only a zephyr, say residents. The leader of the junta, Senior General Than Shwe, did not visit the area devastated by the cyclone until May 18, more than two weeks after the storm.

Isolation appears to be what the generals want. The main reason for the move may have been that the junta felt unsafe in Yangon, which is near the sea.

"They really believe, and they have believed for a long time, that we are planning an invasion, which is nuts," said Shari Villarosa, the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat in Yangon. "We are not," she added.

The military came to power in a coup four and a half decades ago, and the prospect of being deposed by force may not be an irrational fear. People in Myanmar regularly ask foreign visitors whether the United States has plans to knock out the leadership. When British, French and U.S. warships sailed to waters off of the Myanmar coast in May to offer assistance to the victims of the cyclone, at least one Western embassy in Yangon received phone calls from excited residents.

"You're coming to save us, aren't you?" a diplomat remembers the callers saying.

Steve Marshall, the representative in Myanmar for the International Labor Organization, says the army, too, feared invasion when the ships, which have since left the coast, were stationed offshore. A colonel whom Marshall described as a senior government official told him that the military sent extra personnel to prepare for a possible landing.

"He said, 'We've had to withdraw army boys from humanitarian activities to protect the coast in case the French, British and the Americans land,"' Marshall said.

Perhaps owing to their military discipline, the generals organized Naypyidaw like a living yellow pages. There is an avenue for hotels and an area dedicated to restaurants. The government offices, built with traditional Burmese influences and Soviet-style bulkiness, are in one section. Housing for bureaucrats, partitioned and color-coded according to ministry, is nearby.

It's difficult to judge the city's size, but it feels smaller than the government's claim of one million inhabitants and 7,000 square kilometers - 10 times bigger than Singapore.

A huge pagoda is being built atop a hill, matched in size only by the Parliament complex. Myanmar's military dictatorship has no sitting Parliament, so the building, once completed, may sit empty for a while. The generals have vowed to hold "multi-party, democratic elections" by 2010, but opposition groups are skeptical that the elections, if they occur at all, will be free and fair.

The junta ignored the results of the last election, held in 1990, in which their proxy party was badly defeated by the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy leader.

That is not to say Myanmar's masses are unrepresented in Naypyidaw. Thousands of workers, many of them who look like teenagers, are helping construct the place, hacking away at embankments, carrying huge stones and shoveling dirt.

Naypyidaw, which means royal capital in Burmese, is far from the country's main population centers, but it is not totally isolated. It is 16 kilometers from the small city of Pyinmana and is near the main road and railway line between Yangon and Mandalay, the former royal capital farther to the north. But it is remote enough that most people in the country were unaware that it was being built until it was officially unveiled in November 2005.

"They built in secret," said a doctor who lives in Pyinmana. Six years ago he and other residents noticed Chinese engineers in Pyinmana's coffee shops. "Only when they started coming did we know the government was building something," the doctor said. "It was never in the papers."

Engineers from China, which has a relatively close relationship with Myanmar's leadership, are also helping build a giant hydroelectric dam on the Paunglaung River that will offer a steady supply of electricity to the new capital.

The government is widely assumed to have built Naypyidaw with revenue from the sale of timber, gems and natural gas. Last year Myanmar received $2.7 billion from Thailand for natural gas, which is piped from the Andaman Sea and keeps the lights on in Bangkok.

The total cost of building Naypyidaw remains a mystery, but Sean Turnell, an expert on the Burmese economy with Macquarie University in Sydney, says the consensus estimate is around $4 billion to $5 billion.

In a country where per capita annual income is $280 - less than 80 cents a day - opposition groups say the money could have been better spent.

The contrast between the grandiose architecture of Naypyidaw's buildings and the poverty of the surrounding countryside is jarring. Civil servants have two golf courses at their disposal, and the large zoo, which would not look out of place in Singapore or Sacramento and features dozens of animals from white tigers to zebras and kangaroos.

On a recent afternoon, the animals greatly outnumbered the visitors.

Outside the zoo's gates, farmers live in flimsy thatched huts and till rice paddies with water buffaloes. From this vantage point the zoos seem as appropriate as penguins in the tropics.

The penguins, which were donated by zoos in Thailand and China, require constant air-conditioning, and they eat fish shipped in from Thailand because they could not stomach the local river fish.

"This zoo is a government fantasy," said a woman selling souvenirs and soft drinks near the empty ticket counter.

"Business is terrible," she said. "The people around here are villagers. They don't have money to spend."

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Volunteers fill Myanmar relief void
CNN News - updated 11:24 p.m. EDT, Sun June 22, 2008

LABUTTA, Myanmar (AP) -- Bloggers may find their messages blocked by Myanmar's military regime, but that hasn't stopped blogger Nyi Lynn Seck from raising tens of thousands of dollars for cyclone survivors through his Web site.

The 29-year-old IT specialist and his friends are getting their hands dirty and putting the donations to work by helping to build "Budget Huts" in the Irrawaddy delta, a region still reeling from the May 2-3 killer storm.

Days after Cyclone Nargis hit, Nyi Lynn Seck traveled from Yangon to the delta to document the survivors' stories. He posted their accounts and his photographs on his Web journal.

"I have been blogging for quite a long time and many overseas Myanmar citizens read it. They wanted me to go to the delta and help out," he said.

Nyi Lynn Seck quit his job as a manager at a software solutions company to lead six volunteers, including four other bloggers, on a mission to aid villages around Labutta. They have been here since May 9.

He is just one example of a grass-roots movement that has emerged in Myanmar. Many of those doing private relief work are highly critical of the government effort that followed the storm.

Private efforts have filled a lot of gaps in the relief effort, especially in the early weeks after the storm, when the junta turned back most foreign relief workers. After pleas from the U.N., the junta agreed to international aid, but it still limits foreigners' activities.

The United Nations warned last week that it would be forced to ground helicopters that have been ferrying critical aid to Myanmar's cyclone survivors unless the international community urgently provides more funding.  Watch a U.N. relief official describe the bleak aid situation in Myanmar »

Nyi Lynn Seck said most of the US$30,000 received by the group came from Myanmar expatriates in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, but that money had come in from as far away as Europe.

Myanmar's military government, which strictly controls all media including the Internet, blocks most blogging sites. However, they are sometimes accessible by using a server that masks the site's true origin.

Bloggers played a major role in ensuring the free flow of information during anti-government protests in Myanmar last fall and the violent crackdown that followed. At least one blogger, Nay Phone Latt, remains in prison.

Nyi Lynn Seck's blog has in the past included personal observations, advice for would-be bloggers and news items. It has not been seen as anti-government.

Nyi Lynn Seck said he became an aid worker because he felt the junta's response to the storm -- which killed 78,000 people and left 56,000 more missing -- was inefficient.

"The government doesn't rely much on a system or technology and they don't know what to do. They work only on paper, so the help was really delayed," he said.

Nyi Lynn Seck picked up his black leather laptop bag and pulled out a stack of slides he shows to would-be donors. He also has two models of wood-and-blue plastic shelters, dubbed "Budget Huts."

The group, which calls itself "Handy Myanmar Youths" because it wants to lend a hand to survivors, has put up 88 huts in delta villages.

Such volunteerism is not always welcomed by the junta. A popular comedian was taken from his Yangon home by police this month after going to the delta to help survivors.

Many Myanmar volunteers and the local staff of foreign aid agencies pack their vehicles with food, water and other supplies when heading into the delta; several have reported being harassed by police or having their vehicles impounded.

Nyi Lynn Seck said the government approved his group's project after they detailed their plans to authorities in Labutta and declared that no foreigners were directly involved.

The group makes five- to six-hour boat rides to coastal villages to deliver materials and tools to build the huts and supervise the construction, which is done mostly by survivors.

Due to tides, the volunteers are unable to return to Labutta on the same day, so they usually spend at least one night sleeping on the bare ground without shelter from mosquitoes. Several have fallen ill.

The blogger said the group's most pressing concerns were about sustaining the project despite the high price of materials and transportation.

"Now the biggest problem is that we're having trouble finding wood in Labutta, and the wood is also getting very expensive," Nyi Lynn Seck said.

"As long as there are funds and donors, hopefully we can keep this up for another two to three months here," he said. "But I'm not so sure about the future."

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Medical team face aid challenges in Myanmar
Radio Singapore International
June 23, 2008

Myanmar suffered its worst and deadliest natural disaster when cyclone Nargis devastated Yangon and the nearby Irrawaddy delta on May 3. The world responded immediately by pledging aid. As part of Singapore’s contribution, a medical team was sent there to help. Amran Amir is a team leader with the Singapore Red Cross. This is his story. Welcome to The Human Spirit. I’m Saifulbahri Ismail.

Along the way what we saw was fallen trees, houses being demolished by the trees. Total devastation to the rural health centres that we saw. We saw padi fields being flooded by the cyclone itself.

Amran Amir, describing some of the things he saw traveling through ravaged areas in Myanmar. However, these scenes were not something unfamiliar to the 45 year old nurse. Throughout his six years with the Singapore Red Cross, he has witnessed various degrees of destruction, and human suffering in disaster hit areas in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, and Manila. Recently, he was sent out once again to be part of Singapore’s medical team, this time providing aid in Myanmar. Cyclone Nargis killed more than 100 000 people, and left as many as 2 million others homeless and fighting for their lives. How different was this cyclone disaster as compared with the other natural catastrophes Amran has seen before?

From my own point of view, all disasters are the same. You have devastation, you have people injured, people require help. The only difference I see in Myanmar itself is basically our limitation in providing what we can do. Like I said, we are only allowed to function in that Twante area itself. We’re not allowed to go over that district itself. So, the team could have performed better if we are given the opportunity to go to other areas.

The 23-member Singapore medical team arrived in Myanmar on 24 May, three weeks after the cyclone swept through the country. The delay was mainly due to the reluctance of the military government to allow foreign aid in, even though its people were suffering and in desperate need for help. However, the ruling junta finally accepted assistance from Asean and the Singapore medical team was among the first to be allowed in. Even though the team was permitted to enter, their movements were restricted and closely watched by government officials. They were also barred access to the worst hit Irrawaddy area. Amran tells more of his experiences there :

On our first day of the mission we were functioning from the district hospital itself and there were about 100 over patients and then we decided that the best way to maximize and utilize our team is to do mobile. So, we started going from villages to villages and as day goes by our number of patients start increasing from 100 plus to 200 to 400 and the last day we saw was 600 patients. We saw everybody, basically adults, children and there’s a group of monks who came to us seeking assistance. Because they have not really received any assistance in medical health for a long long time, so the team there was like a breath of fresh air.

During the two weeks the team was deployed in Myanmar, they provided basic health care for skin infections, gastroenteritis and chest infections. Having seen so many patients and interacting with them, Amran made this observation :

In this place what I can say is the adaptability of the people in leading back to a normal life cycle after a disaster and that is really what affects in the sense that in all disasters that I have been to the acceptance of the population that life must go on and they adapt to it as soon as possible, so that is what I always see in every disaster.

That was Amran Amri, from the Singapore Red Cross.

After nearly two months, the victims of cyclone Nargis in Myanmar are still trying to come to terms with lost properties, lost families and possibly lost generations. For these survivors, it’s a test of human resilience and the will to try and live another day.

This has been The Human Spirit. I’m Saifulbahri Ismail for Radio Singapore International. Until next week, stay well.

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Myanmar To Build Low-cost Housings For Cyclone Victims

YANGON, June 21 (Bernama) -- Myanmar is reclaiming land plots in cyclone-hit areas to build up to 100,000 low-cost housings for homeless storm victims, Xinhua news agency said quoting a report in the local weekly Voice Saturday.

These low-cost housings at 500,000 Kyats (US$450) each will be constructed free of charge by government-designat ed private companies for the survived villagers in Ayeyawaddy delta region's Laputta, Bogalay, Dedaye and Phyapon, the report said.

A total of 30 private companies have been assigned by the government's National Disaster Preparedness Central Committee to undertake reconstruction work in 17 disaster-affected areas.

The reconstruction covers 14,000 houses and 88 schools in villages in Bogalay by the Htoo company.

The Japan Platform Foundation will also help build 2,500 to 3, 000 houses for Myanmar cyclone victims in Yangon and Ayeyawaddy divisions, and the project will be implemented with the cooperation of Myanmar's biggest organization of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), earlier reports said.

Myanmar has announced that the first phase of the country's post-disaster restoration work -- rescue and relief, has finished up to a certain extent and it has now entered into the second phase of resettlement and reconstruction.

Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states -- Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on last May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructural damage.

Myanmar estimated the damages and losses caused by the storm at 10.67 billion U.S. dollars with 5.5 million people affected.

The storm has killed 77,738 people and left 55,917 missing and 19,359 injured according to official-released death toll.

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People face bleak future under military
The Jakarta Post - June 24, 2008
World News - Monday, June 23, 2008
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Kawthoung, Myanmar

More than a dozen teenagers chased after a group of foreign tourists and reporters after the group finished with Thai immigration officials in Renong, 600 kilometers south of Bangkok.

Although still inside Thailand, scores of Myanmarese teenagers aggressively offered their boats to take the foreigners, including an American, two Australians, a couple of Italians and The Jakarta Post, across the strait into the Myanmar town of Kawthoung.

The struggle was won by 13-year-old Maw Mya and his friend, 15-year-old Khyat, who both quickly made their boat ready for the foreigners. Each passenger paid 100 Thai baht (US$3) before the boat set sail.

With Khyat busily steering, Maw Mya had time to offer some merchandise to the passengers.

"You want Viagra? It's cheap. For 300 baht you get one pack containing four tablets. You can boom boom (make love) for four hours straight," he told an Australian.

The American, who seems to have tried the Viagra sold in the border areas, quickly handed over some money and said,"Give me two packs."

"Is it good?" other passengers asked the American.

"Yeah. And very cheap too. That's why I keep coming back," he said with a smile. The other passengers quickly pulled out their money and bought two or three packs.

Nobody knows where the drugs come from, but speculation is from China.

Entering Myanmar territory, the boat stopped at a military checkpoint, where troops with rifles in hand welcomed Maw Mya.

They exchanged words, and the boy handed over some money to a soldier before leaving the checkpoint for Kawthoung's small port.

The passengers filed into an immigration office at the port to get a tourist visa, paying US$10 for the 12-day visa.

Talking to the Post before heading back to Renong, Maw Mya said he had to leave school after two years to work to support his 65-year-old mother.

"My father was shot by the military, and my mother is very old now. I have to work so that I can take care of her," he said.

Maw Mya is not alone in being forced to quit school. As the foreigners left the immigration office, dozens of teenagers approached them.

In broken English, they offered their services as guides.

Some of them offered the foreigners teenage girls.

"I have a 15-year-old girl if you want," one of the boys told the Post.

Mui Mui, 21, was forced to become a sex worker in Kawthoung after her home was destroyed by Cyclone Nargis, which killed some of her family.

"We have no home now. So, our family is spread out in many places, looking for shelter. Some people I know offered me a job here, and because I have to support myself and my family, I accepted the offer. So, here I am," she said while waiting for customers at a beach in Kawthoung.

She charges 1,000 baht (about US$32) per night, but only receives half of that amount, the rest going to her pimp. With fewer tourists entering the country from Thailand, she only has one or two customers a week.

Life is getting harder for the people of Myanmar, and many of the country's 50 million people don't know how to earn a living.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, the country's unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent in 2006, from 5 percent in 2005.

Many experts, however, speculated that the unemployment rate in 2008 reached 15 to 20 percent as a result of skyrocketing oil prices.

Even if people can get a job, the pay is far from enough to cover their basic needs, with the ever-increasing prices due to rising oil prices. Shop attendants in large cities, for instance, earn only about 1,000 baht ($30) a month.

The difficulty in meeting basic needs has forced families to let their children leave school and find whatever work they can, including becoming sex workers, to support the families.

According to the UN Children's Fund (Unicef), Myanmar has one of the highest primary school dropout rates in the world, with up to half of children leaving school before finishing five years of education, due to poverty and pressure to help their parents by working.

The future of millions of Myanmarese children was put in further doubt with the coming of Nargis, which slammed the country on May 2 and 3, killing more than 130,000 people and destroying thousands of buildings, including schools.

According to Myanmar education authorities, more than 4,000 primary, middle and high schools that previously served an estimated 1.1 million children were damaged or destroyed in the cyclone.

Of the 4,000 schools affected, about 1,200 were demolished, another 800 were severely damaged and 2,000 lost their roofs in the powerful winds of the storm.

Yang, one of Myanmar's few educated young people, said his country had lost one or maybe two generations under the military regime, which has neglected education in order to serve their own interests.

The 24-year-old, who has a master's degree in international relations from Rangoon University, was forced to go abroad to work as a bartender at a club in Thailand.

"Many teenagers leave school after one or two years only. What can they do? Only working to buy food for the day, without knowing what to eat the next day. We are poor, and we have no future," he told the Post in Myeik, 200 kilometers north of Kawthoung.

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Cyclone exposes Burma's sorrow
The Australian
June 23, 2008

FIFTY years ago, this city was one of the bright spots of Asia, a glittering, proud capital of a newly independent nation rich with natural resources.

But what I saw during a recent visit was a city in shambles - a melancholy outpost of crumbling colonial architecture, economic neglect and deepening paranoia. These problems predate Cyclone Nargis, which shook the city and villages to the south early last month, and no doubt will continue long after the disaster recedes from the media glare.

Once-grand ministries and British-era mansions sit abandoned or neglected, with collapsing roofs, peeling paint and smashed windows. Unemployed youths loiter about, smoking cheap cigarettes.

Hawkers scratch out a living selling tobacco, knick-knacks and wan produce. Jury-rigged vehicles prowl the streets; one I saw was little more than an engine and fan belt attached to a wooden platform on wheels.

Soldiers are everywhere. They walk aimlessly, looking for something to do, or gather in foyers, or ride by in military vehicles.

On more than one occasion, local residents warned that some people in plainclothes were "military intelligence" .

In the absence of more reliable information, it was impossible to know if the locals were correct or deluded by suspicion.

Wandering on foot in the centre of town, I stopped at one of the more impressive colonial structures, a four-storey red-brick office with stone lions reclining along the roofline.

It looked to be abandoned. Most of the windows were cracked and open to the hot and humid air. "There's no maintenance, " said a man in street clothes acting as a guard for the building, a former high court.

Although some staff still use the offices, he said, others moved away after 2005 when Burma relocated its capital to Naypyidaw, a remote town about 280km to the north.

I was then warned by my tour guide that the man might be "military intelligence" .

Later, I walked past another British landmark with ornate latticework.

The tour guide said it was once a railway office. Now, the latticework is falling off and vines grow from cracks in the facade.

"What do they use the building for now?" I asked.

"Storage," my guide said.

"What do they store there?"

"Nothing."

I pulled out a video camera to take a shot. But I was told not to film the building, because it is a government office, and therefore "sensitive".

Most of the cars on the road date to the 1980s or early 1990s, and many appear to have been painted by hand.

Locals say the Government blocks most imports of private vehicles, so people are forced to keep dilapidated cars on the potholed roads long after they have passed their prime.

According to a recent story in the Burma Times, the hottest cars in Rangoon right now are the 1986/87 Nissan Sunny Super Saloon and the 1988 Toyota Corolla SE Limited.

I hired a newer mid-1990s Hyundai, with fading black upholstery and power windows that didn't work.

"You can keep a car in good condition for 30 years," my driver said cheerfully.

With so few vehicles to go around, he said, used cars gain value over time in Burma, instead of depreciating as they do in most other countries.

Owning a car "is the best investment there is", he said.

Cyclone Nargis has added to the woebegone air of Rangoon. Although the city was spared some of the worst destruction that occurred in areas closer to the coast, felled trees nevertheless still litter the place.

Diplomats joked that at least now it's possible to see the city's historic buildings more clearly, since so many trees were uprooted or destroyed.

Crews of soldiers were busy clearing the debris, but many seemed more interested in hanging out than working.

One group of a dozen or so uniformed young men sat glumly along the trunk of a giant dead tree, smoking cigarettes while one of the soldiers gave another a haircut.

The cyclone made a marginal economy even weaker.

At the Scott Market, a warren of tin-roofed storefronts that is popular with tourists, vendor after vendor said business was lousy, and had slowed even more since the storm.

One young woman proffering brightly coloured longyis, the Burmese-style sarongs, said she hadn't sold anything all day.

Only about 200,000 of Burma's 48 million people have working mobile phones. Residents say the central Government controls the issue of SIM cards, and prices them beyond most budgets.

Although there are 100 or so internet cafes in Rangoon - typically located in dark, narrow storefronts - they rely on agonisingly slow connections and require generators to offset the constant black-outs.

International aid workers continue to operate in Rangoon, although not as many as would normally be present in the aftermath of a natural disaster because the Government has refused to grant many visas.

Most of the aid workers hang out at the Traders Hotel, a bunker-like building more than 20 storeys high where many non-governmental organisations from the West now maintain offices.

During the day, the foreigners gather in the lobby; at night, they retire to the bar, which looks a bit like an airport lounge, with too much light, a dart board, and a menu that includes fish and chips, nachos and chicken burgers to cater to Westerners.

The aid workers said they were saddened by the low standard of living, the restrictions imposed by the Government, and their own lack of access to cyclone areas.

Several were convinced the hotel's rooms, and the main lobby, were bugged by the ever-present "military intelligence" .

At times, the notion of an all-powerful military with spies on every corner of the city seemed almost laughable.

One afternoon, I drove past the Shwedagon Pagoda, a majestic golden stupa that is one of the most famous sites in Burma.

On my left, two soldiers in uniform sputtered by in a ramshackle red Toyota sedan that looked as though it had been built in the early 1980s.

As they passed, I noticed two teddy bears displayed in the rear windshield.

Regardless of whether spies are in fact everywhere, it doesn't matter; the local residents believe they are being watched, and that is all that counts.

The Government continues to arrest citizens who are openly critical of the regime, and it sends messages to residents through the state media.

The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper, for example, had an article warning that "unscrupulous elements" were spreading misinformation about the Government's response to Cyclone Nargis.

Censorship boards decide what's shown in the cinemas, locals say.

Two films were advertised along Rangoon's main thoroughfare: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem and Fight Club, an Indian import bearing the same name as a Brad Pitt film.

The sanctions from the West have taken their toll.

Among other things, they prevent US banks from doing business in Burma.

As a result, it's hard to use a US credit card. The city functions primarily on cash; residents must carry fat wads of the local currency, the kyat.

Or they can use US dollars - but not just any old greenbacks. All bills must be new and free of marks, tears or other blemishes, otherwise they won't be accepted by the traders.

While browsing at a streetside bookseller one day, I picked out a laminated hardback titled The New Burma, published by the Economic and Social Board of the Government of the Union of Burma in 1954.

Written after Burma gained independence from Britain, but before the military came to power, it outlined bold goals for economic development, including a futuristic new engineering college and huge investments in electrical power, ports, railways and health care. A drawing showed tractors replacing elephants for hauling lumber.

The book proudly suggested that Rangoon would some day have as many telephones per person as Tokyo. But no one would compare Rangoon to Tokyo now.

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Burma Urgently Needs Serious Democratic Reforms
Asian Tribune- Mon, 2008-06-23 01:06
By - Zin Linn

Food security situation in cyclone-hit Burma is worsening due to food shortages and soaring food prices. Out of 2.4 million affected people, hundreds of thousands in the remote rural communities of the Irrawaddy Delta still do not have sufficient food to eat. After cyclone Nargis hit the delta, food disruption took place as the areas were inundated and communication severely cut.

As a result, sharply mounting food prices in other parts of the country are posing a risk to national food security. In Rangoon and surrounding townships, a 50 kg bag of rice – mediocre grade – which cost 12,000 Kyats before the cyclone, is now selling above Ks. 24, 000. Poor people in Myanmar spend on average 70 percent of their household budget on food, and they cannot afford to buy the same quantities of food at the present high prices.

Situation may be worst as 52,000 farmers in cyclone-hit delta have been facing difficulties to sow the new rice crop by August for they have no prospect of getting immediate aid. In the first major assessment of the damage wrought by the May 2 cyclone on Burma's rice bowl, 570,000 hectares of land was submerged in 11 badly-affected townships surveyed by the UN agency and government officials said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), on June 18, 2008 at press briefing in Bangkok.

'We are talking about 52,000 farmers and if they are not supported then they will not be in a position to resume the cultivation of paddy - the monsoon crop in 2008,' FAO specialist Albert T. Lieberg told the press.

"Although it seems to be small, it would be a fatal error if we just concentrated on figures and percent age. What is important is the number of families suffering," he said.

The farming families need immediate aid of such as providing seed paddy, draught-animals, fertilizer and other materials to help them to plant a new crop. The storm surge wiped out up to 85 per cent of seed paddy stockpiled by farmers and killed 120,000 draught animals.

"They lost their production assets, such as seeds, fertilizer, agricultural tools, draught animals," Hiroyuki Konuma, the FAO's deputy regional representative, told reporters in Bangkok. He also said, “Without external support, they will suffer from hunger and poverty for a long time ... Time is not on our side."

Burma’s junta was heavily criticized for its dawdling response to rehabilitate the agriculture sector after the cyclone razed vast area of paddy-fields. The FAO's three-week assessment of the worst-affected areas found that 32 million dollars were required for instantaneous relief, while the rehabilitation over a two-year period would cost 51 million dollars.

Khin Maung Nyo, a Burmese economist in Rangoon, has recently said that Burma will suffer rice shortages in the upcoming year in an interview with Oslo based Democratic Voice of Burma.

“In my opinion, I am concerned over whether official data from the regime are reliable and I am worried that there will not be sufficient rice,” Khin Maung Nyo responded.

He also said, “It is obvious that the regular rice imports from the Delta have disappeared. Also, the rice price has noticeably increased. So I am worried about it based on the indicators – price hike and lack of supply. I don’t think we have enough domestic capacity to make the situation better by ourselves. We must have massive effective international assistance.”

Even though, the Burmese junta is reluctant to intensify its relationship with sympathetic nations, the United Nations’ agencies, INGOs and private-donors in the relief and rehabilitation efforts. It has instead been thwarting these efforts far and wide without regard for cyclone victims.

While the state-run media are overstating propaganda about the junta's relief and reconstruction plans, the Burmese Generals have been suppressing the candid critics of the regime's irresponsible move toward cyclone relief. Ko Thura, who is nationally known as Comedian Zarganar, was the first victim of the crackdown. Then, the next victims were the amateur photo-journalists or civilian-reporters who provided informative photos and video footages of cyclone-hit towns and villages to foreign news agencies.

Afterward, Journalist Zaw Thet Htwe and several altruistic citizens were arrested as they supported the relief efforts in the cyclone-hit villages where the authorities failed to help. All of these detainees were actively involved in helping the cyclone victims. Zarganar and Zaw Thet Htwe were leading figures of a volunteer-group. They have been successfully doling out relief aid and they were known as outspoken interviewees to foreign media. Both were former political prisoners for their democratic ways of thinking and activities.

The most repugnant action of the junta was the arrest of seven volunteers who were members of a team known as “The Group that Buries the Dead”. According to The Irrawaddy News Magazine, they were arrested on June 14, following their efforts to bury victims of Cyclone Nargis.

Those who died, their bodies in decomposed sate, since the cyclone hit on May 2-3, were given simple cremation or burial rites. Aung Kyaw San, the chief-editor of The Myanmar Tribune weekly Journal, and his civilized volunteers carried out the depressing task of removing some of the many corpses that still lie in the rivers and fields throughout the delta.

"The authorities have not done much about those decomposed corpses. They volunteered to do the government's job on their own,” an aid worker close to the volunteer grouping told The Irrawaddy.

Moreover, the junta’s next intimidating stance took place on 19 June, on the 63rd Birthday of Burma’s Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Fourteen citizens including a Buddhist monk were brutally arrested, after a pro-junta group of thugs broke up a protest calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi in front of the head office of the National League for Democracy (NLD.

The true intention of the junta is that under the cover of Cyclone Nargis, it has propped up its political hallucination and annihilating democracy supporters. Tactics - such as extending the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi and cracking down on democracy activists - are some of its iniquitous strategies. It’s a great conspiracy to eradicate ‘the value of democracy and human rights’.

Without human rights principles, international relief agencies and INGOs cannot afford to help the victims in the disastrous areas. No relief and rehabilitation proposal should be carried out to the detriment of human rights. In addition, political volatility causes every encumbrance in respective sectors not only in cyclone-hit areas but throughout the country.

For long-term recovery of the impoverished country, there must be a transparent and accountable form of governance responsive to the needs of the populace. Democratic reform is the only way out over the challenges lying ahead.

In brief, there should be international diplomatic efforts to solve the long-lasting question of Burma. United Nations, European Union, China, India and ASEAN should distinguish their obligation to push for genuine democratic reform in Burma in regard of downtrodden population. Besides, the UN and the ASEAN have failed helping people of Burma in time, instead appeasing the generals who never follow democratic principles.

Zin Linn is a freelance Burmese journalist in exile. He spent nine years in a Burmese prison. He works as an information director at the NCGUB East Office. He is vice-president of the Burma Media Association (BMA), which is affiliated with the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF).

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Than Shwe’s Grandson in Drug Scandal
The Irrawaddy - Monday, June 23, 2008
By WAI MOE

Nay Shwe Thway Aung, until now the favorite grandson of Burmese head of state Snr-Gen Than Shwe, is reportedly at the center of a drug scandal in Rangoon.

A source close to the military elite told The Irrawaddy on Monday that two men close to Than Shwe’s grandson were arrested by police on suspicion of procuring ecstasy pills for him.

“I heard the family found some ecstasy pills on Nay Shwe Thway Aung last month,” the source said. “Then Aung Zaw Ye Myint [the son of Lt-Gen Ye Myint, a high-ranking general] and Maung Waik [a well-known business crony] were arrested in connection with the drugs.” 

While rumors of the scandal began circulating the former capital, there were no birthday celebrations for Than Shwe’s grandson on May 22, the day he turned 17.

“Normally they have a big birthday party for the grandson every year,” said the source. “But this year, there was not even a small party among relatives.”

Last year, a birthday party was reportedly held in honor of Nay Shwe Thway Aung at Rangoon’s exclusive Sedona Hotel. Among the party guests were the wives of top junta leaders Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and Gen Shwe Mann, as well as Zaw Zaw, a well-known business crony and director of Max Co, and popular rock musician Zaw Win Htut.

Two weeks ago, sources told The Irrawaddy, a family religious ceremony was held at one of Than Shwe’s houses in Rangoon, but Nay Shwe Thway Aung was conspicuously absent.

Nay Shwe Thway Aung is a familiar face in Burma because he usually accompanies his grandfather on inspection tours throughout the country and enjoys red-carpet treatment wherever he goes.

Aung Zaw Ye Myint and Maung Waik were detained in May accused of selling drugs to Rangoon’s elite. At that time, several Burmese celebrities and businessmen were reportedly interrogated by a special drugs task force.

Last year, a famous actor, Dwe, died of heart failure caused by a drugs overdose, according to various sources.

But Rangoon residents have been surprised by the amount of rumors and gossip surrounding the recent drug scandal and a crackdown which appears related to the military elite and their cronies.

Some observers in Burma have suggested the drugs arrests were a smokescreen for a fresh power struggle within the military hierarchy. They claimed that Maung Waik is close to Gen Shwe Mann, the number 3 man in the junta.

Drug use among high-society families and celebrities has been an open secret for years in Burma. Late dictator Gen Ne Win’s three favorite grandsons—Aye Ne Win, Kyaw Ne Win and Zwe Ne Win— also enjoyed considerable family perks and were constantly rumored to be addicted to ecstasy pills.

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Burmese junta deports Korean journalist
The Mizzima News - Monday, 23 June 2008 20:21
Zarni

Bangkok – A Korean journalist was deported from Burma by the ruling military junta on Sunday for visiting the office of opposition political party – the National League for Democracy.

Ms. Lee Yu Kyong, a freelance journalist from Korea, was expelled to Thailand after police searched for her at a guest house on Sunday morning for visiting the NLD office.

 She was staying in Okinawa Guest Hose in 32nd Street in Kyauktadar Township in downtown Rangoon from since June 16.

 "At about 7 am [Sunday], five guys from [police] Special Branch arrived. They asked me, 'where I was on the 18th and 19th'," said Lee.

"[They] said you came here on a tourist visa. So it's illegal. And you shouldn't have gone there with a tourist visa," Lee quoted the Burmese officers as saying.

She insisted on meeting officers in the Korean embassy but the police officers said, "No, you just have to leave this country," and an officer arranged the air-ticket for her in the Thai Airways that left Burma at 10 am on Sunday.

However, Lee was able to contact the counselor of the Korean embassy in Rangoon before leaving the country.

The Burmese officers took away four CDs that had pictures of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis from her bag but her laptop and cameras were untouched.

Lee said, the police team that included a plainclothes officer from the Special Branch, three others and one in a police uniform did not offer any reason for asking her to leave the country.

"He [the officer] just repeated that I shouldn't have gone to the NLD office. He did not give me any reason or notice or an explanation, " said Lee.

The Korean counselor later told her that the Burmese officers had assumed that she was trying to meet detained NLD leader Daw Aung San Su Kyi.

"I was [later] taken to the immigration office at the airport and on my passport they stamped "Deportee" and a big star. And the special branch guy, took a lot of photographs of me from various directions," Lee said.

Lee had tried to get an entry visa into Burma soon after Cyclone Nargis lashed Burma but could not get permission as she applied with her old passport that had journalistic visas to many countries she had visited.

Finally, she was able to get a new passport and was given permission to enter Burma as a tourist.

She was trying to go to the Irrawaddy delta, which was the worst affected to cover the devastation by the killer cyclone.

Lee said she had gone to the NLD office in Bahan Township in Rangoon on June 18 to get information regarding cyclone victims.  And on June 19, she attended the birthday celebration of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and witnessed the arrest of several members of the NLD.

"I took some photographs of the incident and may be they [authorities] noticed me at that time," Lee said.

Burma's military junta for the second time has deported foreign journalists from the country since Cyclone Nargis struck.

Earlier in May, a British Broadcasting Corporation reporter was deported from the Rangoon international airport when the journalist tried to enter the country.

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Junta's reshuffle; what lies behind?
The Mizzima News - Monday, 23 June 2008 22:51
Mungpi   

New Delhi - In an unusual and sudden move, Burma's military junta has reshuffled several key army officers and promoted young officers to the important rank of regional military commanders.

The reshuffle, which included promoting at least four young officers to regional commanders, is seen as a significant move by observers who think the junta may be gearing up for its planned general elections in 2010.

While the secretive junta is known to reshuffle its officers from time to time, shifting around about 200 officers from their ranks could be a move especially designed for the post 2010 general elections, a Burmese military analyst based in China said.

Mya Maung, the Sino-Burmese border based analyst said, "This time it is significant as at least 200 of them have been reshuffled."

While it is obvious that the junta is infusing 'Young Blood' into its control mechanism, it is more than apparent that the junta is preparing for a new form of governance that is likely to surface after the 2010 general elections, the fifth step of the junta's planned roadmap to democracy.

"It is possible that the junta is making way for the younger generation to come up but the junta could also have different plans. It could also be a preparation, " Mya Maung added.

Sources in the military establishment said the junta has ordered the transfer of four of its key military commanders to positions in the Bureau of Special Operations (BSO).

The source added that four officers of the BSO were made to retire in order to make way for the newly transferred officers, while five young officers were promoted to commanders of Triangle, Eastern, Southern, Northern and Rangoon division commands.

"While it means pumping new blood into the junta's ruling mechanism, it is significant for even the BSO officers have been moved," Win Min, a Burmese analyst based in Thailand said.

Win Min, also suggested that the reshuffle may be the result of power struggle between the junta's top generals – Snr. Gen. than Shwe and Vice Snr. Gen. Maung Aye.

"But this reshuffle will further strengthen Than Shwe's power, as most of the officers who have been given control of strategic commands are his loyalists," Win Min said.

Win Min, however, does not rule out the possibility that the junta's reshuffle may indicate its plan for a new form of governance post general elections.

According to the ruling junta's planned roadmap to democracy, the approval of a draft constitution will be followed by a general election, after which the winning party will govern the country in keeping with the constitution.

The junta in February announced that it will hold general elections in 2010, though it has not set any specific date.

Critics have slammed the junta's roadmap to democracy, declared its draft constitution as non inclusive and called the process of referendum approving the constitution -- 'rigged'.

"It seems the junta is slowly planning its new administration after the elections," Win Min said.

Mya Maung, from the Sino-Burmese border said, the junta's plan is to switch from direct military dictatorship to a new civilian dictatorship, which was effectively implemented by its predecessor General Ne Win from 1962 to 1988.

"So, it is likely that the junta is retiring some of its key people to form a civilian cabinet that will actually rule the country," Mya Maung said.

Bo Bo Kyaw Nyien, a veteran Burmese political observer, however, said it might be too early to jump to any kind of conclusion and it requires observation of the junta's next move.

"The reshuffle is definitely a significant move, but in politics it will be too early to jump to conclusions before observing their [the junta] next move," Bo Bo Kyaw Nyien said.

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Voters reveal injustices in 10 May referendum

Jun 23, 2008 (DVB)–Voters in Burma’s national referendum on 10 May testified about official violations of referendum regulations at a hearing session held at the National League for Democracy headquarters on Friday afternoon.

Khin Htun, the NLD youth leader for Lower Burma, told DVB that the two-hour hearing was organised by the decision of the June 6 NLD youth meeting.

“The military regime issued referendum rules and regulations and promised that it would hold the referendum fairly,” said Khin Htun.

“However, when the referendum was held, officials at different levels violated their own rules and rigged the votes,” he said.

“Voters came to us today to testify about who violated referendum rules and regulations and what they had experienced when they cast their vote so we will be able to appeal to the authorities to take action against those responsible.”

The hearing was attended by about 60 township NLD youth members, Organising Committee members and referendum voters.

Voters explained how lower-level regime authorities had used different methods including persuasion, threats and intimidation and complicated voting systems to manipulate ballots and gain support for the constitutional referendum.

On 29 May, the regime’s leader senior general Than Shwe announced that the state constitution had been adopted by 92.48 percent of eligible voters.

“We are going document the testimonies. When we take action against violators in accordance with the law, we will hand over the documents to a legal organisation,” added Khin Htun.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

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Activists welcome UN pledge to end rape in conflict

Jun 23, 2008 (DVB)–Following the adoption last week of a United Nations Security Council resolution on sexual violence as a weapon of war, women’s rights activists hope it can afford some protection to women in Burma.

In adopting the resolution unanimously on 19 June, members of the Council condemned the use of sexual violence in conflict “as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcible relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group”.

The resolution called on all parties to armed conflicts to bring an immediate end to sexual violence and introduce positive measures to protect women and girls, including training troops and strengthening judicial procedures to bring an end to impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said the problem of sexual violence during armed conflict had reached “unspeakable and pandemic proportions” in some countries, and announced that he would appoint a UN envoy on the issue of violence against women.

Thin Thin Aung, joint general secretary of the Women's League for Burma, welcomed the resolution.

"This is a huge support and an encouragement for women across the world who have been victims of sexual violations," she said.

Thin Thin Aung said her organisation hope that the Security Council resolution would result in stronger action against sexual violence by the military in Burma.

"The WLB hopes this resolution will also take full effect in Burma as a number of reports have emerged on Burma saying that the military government was using systematic rape as a tactic of war – these reports have been on the desk of the UNSC for a while,” Thin Thin Aung said.

“But the issue has never been brought to a conclusion as the member countries of the UNSC never managed to come up with an agreement," she went on.

"But now the UNSC has adopted this resolution it will make it difficult for other UN member countries to disobey the regulations.

“We will collect strong evidence of the rape crimes committed against ethnic women across Burma in order to bring the culprits before the criminal courts."

Reporting by Aye Nai

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