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Burma beefs up troop levels
UN to Take Up Burma Issue Again
Cyclone-ravaged Burma `still in the life-saving phase'
Cyclone victims saved from traffickers
Anger Against Burma Junta Rises
Why one girl refuses to remember

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Burma beefs up troop levels
The Bangkok Post
DISPUTED NORTHERN BORDER
03 July 2008
SUBIN KHEUNKAEW

CHIANG MAI : Burma has reinforced its troops in the disputed area of Doi Lang mountain, which an army source said might result from its ''misunderstanding'' over a Thai military exercise in the border area. Since last week, more Burmese soldiers with heavy weapons have been deployed to the Doi Lang area, opposite Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district. A 32-sq km area of land has sparked a row between Burma and Thailand, which have their own versions of border demarcation maps.

A source at the Third Army, which oversees northern Thailand, insisted Thai soldiers had only carried out a routine drill near the border without any move to touch on the controversial issue.

''It's probably a misunderstanding by Burma. But so far the situation remains normal,'' said the officer who asked not to be named.

Thai villagers who live near the area, viewed the Burmese move as unusual. More food supplies have been sent to the Burmese army base at Doi Lang while troops beefed up security, replacing bamboo fences with barbed wire.

The villagers became aware of the stepped-up security after two Thais were arrested by Burmese soldiers in late-June after they allegedly farmed on a Burmese area. Burmese authorities later sent them back to Thailand after negotiations with Thai military officers of the Pa Muang task force.

Pa Muang task force's deputy commander Col Pichet Sukpongpisit did not believe the recent Burmese military build-up would lead to a serious problem

http://www.bangkokpost.com/020708_News/02Jul2008_news10.php

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UN to Take Up Burma Issue Again
The Irrawaddy
By LALIT K JHA / NEW YORK
Thursday, July 3, 2008

The UN Security Council will take up the political impasse in Burma this month, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said on Wednesday. No agreement on the date of the discussion could be reached.

Briefing UN correspondents after a closed meeting of the Security Council on the agenda for July, Khalilzad, who serves as council president last month, said the current crisis in Zimbabwe and a resolution on the Burmese political crisis were two issues raised by member countries during the meeting.

"There was a discussion that there should be a briefing with regard to Burma this month,” said Khalilzad, noting the Burmese political issue has been overshadowed by the humanitarian disaster that occurred in early May.

"We do not have a date yet agreed to with regards to the briefing on Burma,” he said.

The Vietnamese Ambassador to the UN, Le Luong Ming, told reporters that members could not reach a consensus on when to discuss the Burma issue. He said there were proposals for the president to keep the members informed on the humanitarian situation in both Burma and Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, the White House said Burma would be a top priority when US President George W Bush meets with world leaders in Japan on the sidelines of the G-8 Summit.

As announced earlier, Special UN Envoy on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, is expected to visit Burma this month to continue his political dialogue with the military government and pro-democracy leaders such as Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest. No date of the visit has been announced.

Meanwhile, in Beijing, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon took up the issue of Burma and sought the support of Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jinbao and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article1.php?art_id=13113

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Cyclone-ravaged Burma `still in the life-saving phase'
 TheStar.com - World
Two months after storm struck, thousands of isolated victims have yet to receive assistance
July 03, 2008
Olivia Ward
FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER

Two months after Cyclone Nargis struck Burma with deadly force, thousands of isolated victims have received no help, says a Canadian UNICEF worker who was among the first to enter the authoritarian country after the storm.

And, says Michael Bociurkiw, Burma – also known as Myanmar – is still in a humanitarian crisis.

"The (Irrawaddy) delta is a patchwork quilt of rivers and streams and it's very difficult to get around.

"The other day we discovered a pocket of 20,000 to 25,000 people who haven't been reached yet, in the southwest part of Bogalay township."

Government restrictions have eased, but lashing monsoon rains and the delta's mud-and-water-logged surface have made access difficult for aid workers. Getting clean water and purification gear into remote areas is a challenge.

"Looking down at that massive area from a helicopter, you can see the problem right away," said Bociurkiw, who was in Toronto yesterday.

"The helicopters have to land very carefully, making sure they aren't stuck in the mud. Everything is unloaded right away, by hand."

UNICEF aid is delivered by helicopter, boat and local donkeys. And, Bociurkiw said, the ruling junta has not confiscated the agency's supplies, or held up deliveries to needy storm victims. Early reports told of international aid goods being sold in markets, and low-quality products handed out to the victims instead.

But after weeks of regular aid deliveries, and the entry of dozens of foreign workers, the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta area is still a humanitarian emergency.

"It's amazing that we are still in the life-saving phase," Bociurkiw said. Little more than half of about 2.4 million storm-affected people have been reached by international aid. One-third of the survivors are still in need of clean water and in danger of developing infections.

However, the catastrophic wave of disease and starvation that humanitarian experts predicted in the first days after the storm – when the military rulers blocked aid efforts – has not materialized.

A survey completed last month by the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations found people's survival instincts helped them avoid the worst effects.

"These are extremely resilient people. Many of them are farmers and they're used to living with very little help," Bociurkiw said, adding that restarting immunization programs rapidly also helped ward off the worst diseases. And distribution of thousands of mosquito nets by UNICEF and other agencies has kept the threat of malaria from exploding during the mosquito-breeding monsoon season.

Nevertheless, many people are suffering from respiratory problems, and reports say that some 22,000 storm victims are infected with tuberculosis.

About 84,000 people died in the May 2-3 storm.

After two months of steady local and international efforts, Bociurkiw said, progress on the enormous damage done by the storm is only beginning to be made.

Thousands of schools, hospitals and homes have been wrecked beyond repair. Hundreds of children have been separated from parents, some of whom may be dead.

A recent pledging conference to raise money for Burma's relief and reconstruction netted more than $200 million (U.S.) in aid, but larger sums were withheld by countries reluctant to help the vicious military rulers, who have killed, tortured and imprisoned monks and pro-democracy demonstrators.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said relief work would continue for about four more months. But with farmers unable to plant crops on salt-soaked land, Bociurkiw said, it will be much longer before they can live without aid.

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Cyclone victims saved from traffickers
AP
28 minutes ago

More than 80 women and children who were victims of Myanmar's recent cyclone have been rescued from human traffickers scheming to smuggle them to neighboring countries, a media report said Thursday.

Border police caught the traffickers, who had taken victims of Cyclone Nargis from the Irrawaddy delta to border areas, between June 11 and 14, the well-regarded biweekly journal Eleven reported, citing police.

Police Lt. Col. Rahlyan Mone, from the force's human trafficking division, told the Yangon-based journal that victims facing hardship are being enticed with job offers abroad by traffickers disguised as aid workers.

Police and other authorities who deal with human trafficking could not immediately be reached for comment.

Cross-border trafficking, especially to Thailand, has grown in recent years as people in one of the world's poorest nations seek opportunities elsewhere but are often tricked or coerced into prostitution or sweatshops.

The ruling junta has warned against exploitation of cyclone victims and urged the public to report any evidence of human trafficking.

Myanmar introduced an anti-human trafficking law in September 2005 that imposes a maximum penalty of death.

Local and foreign aid officials fear that trafficking could increase in the wake of the cyclone, which hit Myanmar May 2 to 3, killing more than 84,500 people and leaving nearly 54,000 missing, according to the government.

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Anger Against Burma Junta Rises
Wednesday, Jul. 02, 2008 By AP/DENIS D. GRAY

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1819605,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

(BANGKOK, Thailand) — The cyclone that devastated Burma's heartland has also roiled a political landscape dominated by the military for more than four decades.

Buddhist monks are regrouping after the battering they took nine months ago, civil society groups are emerging and foreign aid workers — often agents of political change in the wake of humanitarian crises — are present in unprecedented numbers.

The junta's grip on power remains absolute. But anger against the regime has probably never run so high.

"Perhaps incremental change will emerge from engagement on humanitarian problems," said Joel Charny, vice president of U.S.-based Refugees International who visited Burma just before the cyclone struck.

People were already incensed by the brutal suppression last September of anti-government demonstrators, including the country's revered, saffron-robed Buddhist monks.

Then came Cyclone Nargis, exposing the junta as inept and heartless, initially blocking international aid efforts and even now still hampering them.

"The people are blaming the government. They are responsible for many deaths. They don't care about right or wrong and they let people die just to hold onto power," said Aung Myoe, a 32-year-old driver in a comment typical of the mood in Rangoon, Burma's largest city.

"In the `Saffron Revolution' they lost their Buddhist legitimacy; with the cyclone they lost whatever concept of efficacy they had with the public," said David Steinberg, a Burma expert at Georgetown.

Steinberg said the junta constantly trumpet achievements in modernizing the isolated and impoverished Southeast Asian nation formerly named Burma.

Analysts say these passions and emerging trends may in the longer term loosen the junta's grip on power. But for now it's business as usual: dissidents are arrested, a brutal campaign against ethnic minorities rages on and the military strides toward elections guaranteed to perpetuate its control.

But the 500,000-strong Buddhist monkhood, the only viable national institution after the army, is regaining strength and cohesion by assuming a leading role in helping cyclone survivors.

Their work is seconded by quietly burgeoning civil society groups, which Steinberg said could foster pluralism and democracy in the future. These groups include professional guilds, including those of actors and singers, charity organizations and loose associations of like-minded citizens.

So could the influx of foreign aid workers and agencies in what may be the most intense interaction Burma has experienced with the outside world since gaining independence from Great Britain in 1948.

The operative word is "incremental. " Analysts don't foresee meaningful political changes in the short run, discounting a dramatic turn of events, such as social upheaval in face of cyclone-induced rice shortages, or a split within the military.

The regime will be hard-pressed to provide enough rice to keep its 400,000 troops and their families loyal and ensure that shortages, which could last several years, don't trigger major popular unrest as they have in the past, said Donald Seekins, a Burma watcher at Japan's Meio University.

Meanwhile, the junta marches forward along its so-called "road map to democracy." Elections are scheduled in 2010, based on a referendum-approved Constitution which guarantees the military 25 percent of parliamentary seats and power to run the country in event of a national emergency.

The cyclone response, the referendum and the extension of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention for a sixth year all sparked international outcry, but the absence of U.N. or other foreign action reassured the junta it needn't fear outside intervention.

"The people of Burma would have been happy if the United States or France invaded," said Ye Htun, a 30-year-old English teacher. "In Burma, the government is too strong and people are too scared. We can't do it alone."

Denis Gray, AP bureau chief in Bangkok, has covered Burma since the mid-1970s.

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Why one girl refuses to remember
By John Blake
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/26/wounded.children/index.html
(CNN) -- Nway pretends that it never happened.

Nway walks the ruins of her village school, which was destoryed by Cyclone Nargis.

The storm didn't come. The wind didn't tear her home to pieces. The cyclone didn't sweep her mother and father away.

In those brief moments, when she tunes out the questions, the 7-year-girl from Myanmar can step back in time -- before May's Cyclone Nargis took everything away.

That's the girl aid workers from World Vision International, a Christian humanitarian group, found when they met Nway in her demolished village a month after the cyclone.

"When she was asked about the cyclone, she turned away and said she didn't remember anything about it, and left," says Ashley Clements, a World Vision worker who met Nway.

International relief groups know how to rebuild devastated countries like Myanmar. But how do they rebuild the lives of children like Nway? That's the challenge faced by groups trying to help child survivors of natural and manmade disasters.

'The Survival Project'

Stories of children at risk around the world. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta and UNICEF tell you how to make a difference. / July 6, 8 p.m. ET

Aid workers who deal with these children say the experience can drain their souls. They try to comfort children in Darfur, Sudan, who have seen their mothers raped; children in China who have seen their parents buried under rubble; children in Louisiana who watched their homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

No matter where they encounter these children, these aid workers face the same question: How can a child remain a child after experiencing a tragedy?

Rose Kimeu, a disaster response specialist for World Vision in African and Latin America, says many children don't know how.

"They don't laugh. They don't smile," Kimeu says. "They have this look in their eyes that's very sad... It's something that breaks my heart over and over."

How they become a child again

World Vision tries to help children like Nway by establishing "child-friendly spaces." The concept is simple: give children a place to be children.

Aid workers secure a place where children can play with toys, sing, and plays sports. In between the fun, the group offers professional counseling, healthcare and classes.

Other aid groups employ the same approach. Mercy Corps, an international aid group established two programs -- "Comfort for Kids" and "Moving Forward" -- to protect child survivors from the recent earthquake in China from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Save the Children, another international aid group, created "safe spaces" for children during the 1993 Balkans War and for American children displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Sometimes these traumatized children end up helping their helpers, says Kate Conradt, a Save the Children spokesperson.

"One of the bright spots in grim situations is the sight of children happily playing," she says. "Despite the chaos and debris that may be around them, they can totally get down to what is important: simply being a child. It's often the best part of our day -- to see them laugh."

Some of the bright spots can be dramatic.

Deb Barry, a child protection advisor for Save the Children, recalls meeting a boy who had not spoken to his grandparents for nine days after the recent China earthquake.

"He had not been able to really express himself," Barry says. "But on this first day in the child-friendly space, he sat down and began drawing pictures. And he started talking again within 20 minutes."

The boy's grandmother was so happy that she hugged the staff. She called it a miracle.
What Nway wants for her future

But some of the memories aid workers carry around with them are more painful to recall.

Dean Hirsch, president of World Vision International, just returned from visiting some of the child-friendly spaces. He was struck by the children's body language.

"A lot of the children were holding onto to each other," he says. "If their mother was there, they would hold onto her, or if she wasn't, they'd hold onto the workers."

The children spent a lot of time drawing pictures of their homes, toys and pets.

"They were trying to restore through their memories what they had," Hirsch says.

A child who loses a parent faces plenty of dangers, Hirsch says. They could suffer brain damage or stunted growth if they don't eat enough.

"If they lost their father, the income source is gone," he says. 'If it's the mother, it's that person who did the food and supplied the love."

The children face other risks as well. They become easy targets for human traffickers. Some girls are exploited sexually by men.

When World Vision established child-friendly spaces in Darfur, Kimeu, the group's disaster response specialist, says her staffers noticed something odd. No girls would visit.

They later found out why. Many of them had been raped or seen their mothers raped. World Vision had male workers in the child-friendly spaces.

"They will not go near a man," says. "They will simply not show up."

The healing process varies with each child, Kimeu says. She says there was one girl who was raped in Darfur who took a year to play with other children.

Some never heal. In Uganda, some former child soldiers introduced to the child-friendly spaces never learned to be children again.

"Former child soldiers are very difficult," Kimeu says. "Some of them have killed not one but several people."

Today, Nway is being helped toward her own recovery. She lives in a village with her aunt. She plays with her friends during the day in child-friendly spaces and looks after her little cousin.

At times, Nway returns to her old village with the adults. She walks over the ruins of her old school.

She proudly wears a yellow silk blouse that was donated to her. But she and the other villagers have a difficult time ahead. The cyclone blew away rice, utensils, farming tools -- even the village's cows and buffalos were swept away.

Nway may no longer talk about her past but she will talk about her future. Clements, the World Vision staffer who visited her, once asked Nway what she wanted to be when she grew up.

She talked that time. Her answer revealed that though she might not be ready to talk about her own wounds, she's already becoming more sensitive to the pain of others.

"I want," she answered after hesitating, "to be a doctor."
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