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HEADLINES
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AP - 14 pro-democracy demonstrators go on trial in Myanmar for demanding Suu Kyi's release
AP - Myanmar court imprisons 4 protesters against new constitution for 'trespassing'
AP - 38 die as ferry sinks in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta
AP - 80 women and children victims of Myanmar cyclone rescued from human traffickers
AP - World's top legal experts unveil 'rule of law' index aimed at measuring how nations behave
IRIN - Children and teachers finding it hard to concentrate
The Buffalo News - Myanmar’s plight touches West Seneca native working for aid organization
New Kerala - Earth observation satellites helped relief workers in cyclone-ravaged Myanmar
Phayul.com - Religious leaders ask the G8 for freedom of religion for Tibet and Myanmar
Xinhua News - Doctors invited to provide free medical care to Myanmar's cyclone victims
ReliefWeb - Helicopters bring shelter, hope for Myanmar's cyclone victims
UN News Centre - Two months after deadly cyclone struck Myanmar, devastation remains
San Francisco Chronicle - Chevron's dilemma over its stake in Burma
Bkk Post - Imprisonment fails to dim love
Mizzima News - Htin Kyaw remanded without being produced before court
DVB News - NLD learns of more arrests of activists
DVB News - Analysis: Junta's information black-out

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14 pro-democracy demonstrators go on trial in Myanmar for demanding Suu Kyi's release
AP - Sunday, July 6

YANGON, Myanmar - Fourteen pro-democracy protesters have gone on trial in Myanmar for demanding the release of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on her 63rd birthday, an official said Saturday.

The group _ 13 members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party and a Buddhist monk _ were beaten by pro-government forces June 19 and detained in front of the party headquarters.

Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest, has spent more than a dozen of the last 19 years under detention. Her party swept national elections in 1990, but the ruling military junta refused to honor the results.

A government official, who refused to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, could not say Saturday what charges the defendants face.

"All 14 of them were charged under criminal law at a court in Bahan township on Friday," the official said.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for the party, said he knew that all 14 were seen in court Friday but it was not immediately clear if they were being charged or were having their detention renewed.

Earlier, the party said the arrest of its members was "illegal and against the rule of law" and called for their immediate release.

The U.N. estimated that Myanmar had some 1,100 political prisoners before pro-democracy demonstrations last September which were quashed by force. The numbers are believed to have increased by several hundred after the protests.

On Friday, four other members of Suu Kyi's party were given one-year jail sentences for campaigning against a constitution proposed by the military government. Nyan Win said a court sentenced the four "for trespassing with intent to commit offense."

The four were arrested in March in Rakhine state in the country's west for distributing leaflets urging voters to reject the draft charter in a referendum, Nyan Win said. Opposition figures say the new constitution is designed to perpetuate military rule.

 

The junta said the constitution was approved in the May referendum with 92 percent of the vote.

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Myanmar court imprisons 4 protesters against new constitution for 'trespassing'
AP - Saturday, July 5

YANGON, Myanmar - A court in Myanmar imprisoned four pro-democracy activists for one year for campaigning against a constitution promoted by the military government.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy party, said Friday the court imposed the jail sentences "for trespassing with intent to commit offense."

The NLD, which is led by detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, strongly opposed the draft constitution, which it and other critics charged will perpetuate military rule beyond a general election supposed to be held in 2010.

The four were arrested in Tounggok in Rakhine state in Myanmar's west in March for distributing leaflets urging voters to reject the draft charter, Nyan Win said.

The new constitution was adopted after it won overwhelming approval in a national referendum held in May. Critics said the referendum was conducted in an unfair manner, with opportunities to oppose it restricted and irregularities in voting.

Nyan Win said the four were sentenced on June 27 by a court in Tounggok township, and they were the first people imprisoned for opposing the constitution.

The Tounggok area is noted for opposition to Myanmar's ruling generals.

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38 die as ferry sinks in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta
AP - Friday, July 4

YANGON, Myanmar - A ferry sank in a river in Myanmar's cyclone-battered Irrawaddy delta, killing nearly 40 people, state-media reported Friday.

The motorized ship sank in the Yway river Tuesday after water entered its stern section, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported. The report did not give details on how the accident happened.

The newspaper said 38 people were killed and 44 others rescued.

The ferry, named "Myo Pa Pa Tun," was traveling from Pakeikkyi village to Myaungmya, about 94 miles west of Yangon, the newspaper said. Myaungmya was not badly affected by Cyclone Nargis, which left a swath of death and devastation in the delta when it struck in early May. More than 84,000 died in the storm.

People living in Myanmar's vast delta region often travel and transport goods by boat because of the lower cost and inaccessibility of many areas by road.

Boat accidents are common in Myanmar's river deltas and coastal regions. In May, a ferry collided with another passenger boat in Twantay canal near Yangon killing at least 6 people.

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80 women and children victims of Myanmar cyclone rescued from human traffickers
AP - Thursday, July 3

YANGON, Myanmar - More than 80 women and child victims of Myanmar's recent cyclone have been rescued from human traffickers who were 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 frontier areas, between June 11 to 14, the well-regarded biweekly journal Eleven reported, quoting 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 officials 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 wake of the cyclone, which hit Myanmar May 2 to 3, killing more than 84,500 people and leaving nearly 54,000 missing.

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World's top legal experts unveil 'rule of law' index aimed at measuring how nations behave
AP - Thursday, July 3

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Imagine slapping a government on a grocer's scale and measuring how its top leaders, officials and judges are behaving.

Prominent experts from 95 nations say their new ``Rule of Law Index'' unveiled Thursday does just that _ and could help the U.S. and others accused of abuse and compromise in the pursuit of terrorists recommit to basic principles of law and human rights.

``The so-called war on terror has brought with it subtle changes. We talk about 'coercive interrogation' instead of what it really is: torture,'' former Irish President Mary Robinson told participants at the World Justice Forum in Vienna.

``We face the new 'normal,' which must be confronted,' ' she said. ``For the majority of the world's citizens, the rules of the game are fundamentally unfair.''

Potentially, the prototype index could be used to increase pressure on nations such as Zimbabwe, thrust into international isolation after sham elections, or Myanmar, where the ruling junta's arrogant and ineffective decisions after a deadly cyclone endangered millions of lives.

But its architects insist the index is part of a broader effort to ensure everyone from farmers and fishermen to parliamentarians and prime ministers benefits from the rule of law.

``We are not in the blame and shame business,'' said William H. Neukom, president of the American Bar Association, a founding member of the World Justice Project organizing this week's conference.

Countries and communities committed to accountable governments, good laws, effective due process and ethical lawyers, prosecutors and judges ``are less vulnerable to the horrors of the human condition,'' Neukom said.

Although the U.S. is widely held up as a model of democracy and civil rights, it has been severely criticized for abuses at its detention center for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and its practice of ``extraordinary rendition'': the CIA's transfer of suspects to other countries for interrogation and _ some allege _ torture.

``The U.S. has a proud history ... but there have been failures in abiding by the rule of law,'' Neukom acknowledged.

Organizers said the Rule of Law Index is still being built, but within three years should offer profiles on 100 nations. The World Justice Project has spent $1.1 million on the initiative over the past two years.

It will not rank countries on a scale. Instead, it will offer comprehensive snapshots of how governments and court systems are performing in a number of key areas, based on numerous interviews with local experts and with 1,000 randomly selected citizens in any given nation.

Among the 13 key factors and 50 other variables used to measure a country's behavior are corruption, respect for property rights, government officials' accountability to the law, access to services and the existence _ or not_ of an impartial judiciary.

Officials dubbed Thursday's prototype ``Version 1.0'' and said it would be tweaked to improve its usefulness in helping to determine whether a nation is protecting or chipping away at basic legal concepts.

Straying from the rule of law can inflict lasting scars on a country, warned Emil Constantinescu, a former president of Romania, which shook off decades of communism under the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989.

``The rule of law was abolished for almost half a century, and instead, the terror of law was implemented, '' Constantinescu said.

Overcoming that legacy, he said, has proved to be ``a struggle not only for a day or a year, but for a lifetime.''

The new index was developed with help from justice experts from Yale University and Stanford University as well as from judges and lawyers in The Hague, Netherlands, home to the World Court, the International Criminal Court and the U.N. war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia.

Organizers conducted field tests in Argentina, Australia, Colombia, Spain, Sweden and the U.S. Independent researchers did the same in four cities: Chandigarh, India; Lagos, Nigeria; Santiago, Chile; and New York City.

They declined to rank the four, saying their findings were preliminary. Informally, New York appeared to come out on top.

But no country is perfect, experts conceded.

``No society, however advanced in other respects, has ever attained _ let alone sustained _ a perfect realization of the rule of law,'' the World Justice Project said in a 77-page report outlining the index.

The World Justice Project hopes the results will help it constructively engage rogue or lagging nations ``in a relentless and long-term way,'' Neukom said.

``We think it's time for action rather than words,'' he said.

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MYANMAR: Children and teachers finding it hard to concentrate

KUNCHANKONE, 3 July 2008 (IRIN) - A woman teacher and 10-year veteran of the profession, who did not want to be named, was clearly frustrated.

"I find it harder to control the class," she admitted outside the makeshift school of 50 primary-age children in cyclone-affected Kunchankone, one of the worst-hit townships in Myanmar's Yangon Division.

Two months after Cyclone Nargis struck, leaving more than 138,000 dead or missing, teachers are seeing first-hand the problems children face in returning to their studies. Almost half her students show signs of difficulty concentrating on their lessons.

"They don't seem to hear or respond to my questions very often in class," the teacher said.

While playing outside, some of the children rush back into the makeshift school, comprised of nothing more than bamboo and plastic sheeting, at the slightest sight of a dark cloud or hint of rain.

"I don't know how to help them," the teacher said.

Dealing with trauma

According to Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Bangkok, "One of the best ways to help children to return to normalcy is to get them back into the classrooms."

As well as helping children get back to some sort of normality, being in school protects children from further harm that may follow a natural disaster, such as the risk of trafficking or child labour.

But with many of the children severely traumatised by the disaster, it is clear they will need help – and teachers are right on the frontline.

"Physically, they [students] are sitting in the class, but spiritually they are not here. Their minds are far away," said one teacher working at the Basic Education High School of Tawkyaung, Kunchankone Township.

Students who lost family members to the storm often performed poorly compared with other students who had been less affected, he said.

But it is not just the children who are suffering. Teachers, particularly in the cyclone-affected areas of Labutta and Bogale, mostly female, were also badly traumatised by the storm that killed more than 113 of their colleagues.

Eight weeks on, some teachers complain of a lack of energy or the inability to concentrate on their work, with even a gust of wind throwing them off-track.

"I'm uncomfortable while it's raining when I see water building up around the school during my lecture," Than Win, another local teacher, who lost his wife and a three-year-old daughter in the category four storm, said.

"I simply stop. Only when I realise it's due to the rain do I resume," the 32-year-old teacher said - further evidence that before being able to support the children, the teachers will need help.

"We expect psycho-social training would be able to start soon for the teachers in the cyclone-ravaged areas," an official from UNICEF/Myanmar told IRIN in Yangon, the former Burmese capital.

The agency hopes to support the psycho-social training of approximately 3,000 primary teachers in five townships, including Bogale, Labutta, MawGyun, Kawhmu, and Kunchankone.

"This draft module is now finished and is being reviewed by the Ministry of Education," the agency official said.

In addition, UNICEF has developed a "Tip-for-Teachers" booklet, which was approved by the Ministry of Education, translated into the local language and is now being printed for distribution. It contains detailed instructions on psycho-social support and the recovery of affected children.

Education losses

Meanwhile, government estimates of the physical toll on education in Myanmar continue to come in.

According to the latest figures, in Yangon Division, some 1,815 or 48 percent of public school buildings were totally or partially damaged, with Kungyangon, Thongwa and Twantay townships suffering the most.

In the southern Ayeyarwady delta, just over 2,000 or 43 percent of all public school buildings were totally or partially damaged, with Bogale, Labutta and Mawlamyinegyun townships the worst affected.

Moreover, 123 monastic schools were partially damaged.

Approximately 40 government-sponsore d early childhood care, youth development centres and community learning centres were damaged.

Another 242 private early childcare establishment were also damaged or destroyed, while 80 administrative offices experienced roof and partial damage and 461 university buildings and higher education administrative offices lost their roofs.

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Myanmar’s plight touches West Seneca native working for aid organization
Mercy Corps worker bemoans slow progress
The Buffalo News
By Maki Becker NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 07/05/08 7:59 AM

When Michael Gabriel arrived in Myanmar on May 15 — less than two weeks after a killer cyclone devastated a large swath of the South Asian country — he was struck by the sight of thousands of trees broken in half and strewn all around the streets of Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

“All I see are broken trees here,” the West Seneca native said by phone in an interview. “That’s something Buffalo people can relate to.”

But the cyclone was so much more devastating that the October Surprise storm in 2006, he said.

“Imagine that Buffalo storm times 1,000,‘ Gabriel said.

Gabriel, 42, who grew up in West Seneca and graduated from West Seneca West High School, is an emergency program manager with Oregon-based Mercy Corps, one of the few foreign organizations in military-controlled Myanmar.

Over the past eight years, he has been dispatched to every corner of the world — Pakistan, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Macedonia and Kosovo — to help people recover from disasters of every kind.

His mother, who lives in Kenmore, often worries about his assignments.

“But she worries if I go down to Wegmans,” he said.

Gabriel was in Kenmore waiting to get a visa approved to go to Pakistan when Mercy Corps changed gears and decided to send him to Myanmar, he said.

In Myanmar, Gabriel heads the group’s Village Rehabilitation Program and works with village residents in rebuilding and restoring their town’s infrastructure.

With the help of interpreters and local aid workers, Gabriel gathers up villagers for a meeting to discuss what they would like done: from clearing debris and clearing out drainage to fixing the village monastery or health clinic and restoring irrigation canals and docks.

“We can help provide the tools and equipment and pay you guys,” he explains to them.

The money — even at $2 a day, the going rate for unskilled labor in Myanmar — helps the villagers save up some much needed cash to “go buy fishing nets if they were fishermen or go buy scissors to be a barber again,” he said. “Little bits of money can really help them get their lives back together.”

The people of Myanmar are still suffering terribly from the May 3 storm, he said. Fierce winds obliterated thatched homes and triggered a tidal wave that swept away thousands of men, women and children and countless houses and rice farms.

The Myanmar government recently raised the death toll to 84,000 people. More than 50,000 remain missing.

Cleanup and recovery have gone at a glacial pace. Nearly two months after the storm, debris is still piled high all across Yangon, formerly Rangoon. In the Irawaddy Delta — a rural section ravaged by the tidal wave — corpses and skeletons can still be spotted in drinking water ponds and the many waterways that connect the villages.

The junta government has been widely criticized by the international community for resisting help from outside agencies in the wake of the storm.

Gabriel said in the past few weeks, the government has eased up some of its restrictions and aid is starting to flow to people in need.

Mercy Corps teamed up with London-based Merlin, an emergency medical care organization which was already established in Myanmar, and has been given a three-month pass to work inside Myanmar’s borders.

Unlike in Indonesia, where Gabriel was sent to help people rebuild after the tsunami of 2004, accessing the hardest hit villages in the Irawaddy Delta has been incredibly challenging.

“There are no roads,” Gabriel said. Just water.

“Getting around means getting in boats to go to villages,” he said.

Relying on boats has made transporting food and supplies especially cumbersome, Gabriel said.

When he arrives at the villages, he has found that the people are eager for assistance in getting their lives back together.

The meetings often turn into cathartic sessions where the village people share their stories of survival and heartbreak.

Gabriel said he was deeply moved by the story one woman told of how she climbed a tree as the tidal wave swept through her village.

“She was grabbing children as they were floating by,” he said. She talked of how “she struggled to hold on to them in the wind and everything and how she finally was able to get them, one by one, into a boat and took care of them for the next two days.”

Then there was a man, wealthier than most, who had opened up his home to Gabriel and other aid workers.

“He had a spare house on the side of his house, a modest house, but it turned out it was there because he lost his wife and seven children,” Gabriel said. “He was left completely alone in the world.”

Gabriel urged anyone who would like to help the people of Myanmar to donate to his organization at www.mercycorps. org or to any aid group working in the region. Gabriel said the people of Myanmar are still reeling from the cyclone.

“There’s trauma out there,” he said. “But they do their best. They are noticeably sad, but they are doing their best.”

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Earth observation satellites helped relief workers in cyclone-ravaged Myanmar
New Kerala

Paris, July 4 : Earth observation satellites have provided vital information to relief workers in Myanmar throughout a particularly long crisis response window following the devastating Cyclone Nargis that hit the country on 2 and 3 May 2008.

Immediately after the disaster, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) asked the International Charter on 'Space and Major Disasters', referred to as 'the Charter', for support by providing immediate crisis mapping of the affected areas.

Following the request, rapid mapping products were created with Earth observation (EO) satellite acquisitions taken in the wake of the event to derive an estimation of the flood surge impact and other damage information to help plan emergency response operations.

Damage maps were able to be created quickly because the RESPOND project, which delivers satellite EO-derived topographic maps of Myanmar a month before the disaster.

This activity was part of a project to help local communities reduce exposure to disaster risks.

This enabled the RESPOND team to compare up-to-date basic maps before the disaster with satellite images acquired during or after the cyclone impact.

Thanks to the Charter more than 10 different sensors - radar and optical - from several EO missions provided more than 60 satellite images, which were used to derive 29 damage maps.

These maps were provided to the UN community in Myanmar and Bangkok for the emergency response phase, which lasted more than 40 days because of the scale of devastation caused by Nargis and the difficulties encountered by the international humanitarian community to access the country.

"It is important to differentiate map products according to the needs and, in a case like this, to firstly get an overview and then move into more detailed assessments as the relief operation progresses," explained Dr Einar Bjorgo, head of UNOSAT.

After the acute phase of the disaster had passed, the range of mapping products was extended to provide further details on the condition of roads, bridges and buildings.

For instance, UNOSAT teamed with GISCorps, a US-based non-profit association, to digitise every building pre-disaster from the available data. These maps were highly accurate, showing features of less than one metre in size.

To date, the map products have been used by over 40 organisations, including non-governmental aid organisations based in Myanmar, such as the Red Cross, and governmental organisations, such as the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) and the Myanmar Department of Forestry.

"It was important to continually produce damage assessment maps for aid workers because very severe rain events occurred in the days following Nargis," said SERTIT Director Paul de Fraipont. "Based on feedback from specialists in the field, this made the products even more useful," he added.

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Religious leaders ask the G8 for freedom of religion for Tibet and Myanmar
Phayul.com -
AsiaNews[Saturday, July 05, 2008 17:56]
by Pino Cazzaniga

The request comes in a statement written at a summit of representatives from various faiths, held in Osaka and Kyoto. Major global institutions are increasingly turning to religion to understand the world's problems.

Tokyo - About 50 visitors and 100 Japanese participated at the "summit of religious leaders for the G8", the meeting that for three years has been gathering representatives of the various faiths in view of the summit of political leaders from the major powers, and has become one of the main assemblies on the calendar of interreligious dialogue. The stated aim is that of giving a spiritual face to a summit that, although it is political, deals with topics fundamentally concerning the human heart.

From June 27-29, representatives and leaders from the main religions of the world met in Osaka and Kyoto, in view of the summit of the Group of Eight, which will be held at Lake Toyako (Hokkaido) from July 7-9, in order to send it a joint declaration.

The deputy foreign minister, the governor of Osaka, and the mayor of Kyoto welcomed the participants with cordial speeches. The conference was also supported by secular organisations like the environment ministry, the Japanese committee of UNICEF, the national federation of UNESCO, and Kyoto's chamber of commerce.

English professor Michael Shackleton, who teaches anthropology at Gakuin University in Osaka, wrote: "So much secular support confirms the conviction that many people are religious, and that the heads of the religions are obtaining more respect and support from political leaders". And he added: "As the weakness of government becomes evident, the United Nations, the World Bank, and other large representative institutions are increasingly turning to religion and religious leaders to understand and resolve the world's problems". And in fact, the main theme of the summit of religious leaders was: "Living with the Earth: Message from World Religions". The discussions focused on three areas: living with nature, living with ethnic diversity, and taking Africa's problems into consideration.

The preposition "with" recurred in the speeches and discussions like a refrain. What has led the religious leaders to meet together (through the international summit) is an awareness of their shared responsibility.

Discussions were held at the University of Osaka and at the Anglican university Doshisa (Kyoto). The latter has been engaged in interreligious dialogue for decades. The religions represented were Buddhism, Shinto, the new Japanese religions, Islam, Christianity (Protestant and Catholic), Judaism, Hinduism, and Sikhism.

Since this was a meeting of religious leaders , there were moments of prayer, especially during the visits to the Buddhist temples, like the Shitennoji temple of Osaka and the Nishi Honganji temple of Kyoto, oases of meditation amid the desert of secularism.

But almost as if to emphasise the inseparable connection between religion and life, the conference participants also visited the Airin district of Osaka, where the sad spectacle of the "day labourers" stands in sharp contrast with that of wealth and comfort, often indicated as the characteristic of Japanese society.

During the religious meeting, the most delicate moment, Shackleton observes, was when the Khambo Lama of Mongolia, who also represents the Dalai Lama in eastern Asia, asked that in the final statement the (political) leaders of the G8 be urged to condemn the oppression of religious and civil liberties in Tibet and Myanmar. The proposal was accepted. At the G8 summit on Lake Toyako, Chinese president Hu Jintao will be present alongside the other leaders.

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Doctors invited to provide free medical care to Myanmar's cyclone victims
www.chinaview. cn  2008-07-05 12:48:39

YANGON, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Local doctors are being invited to provide long-term free medical care to victims of deadly cyclone Nargis, official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Saturday.

Myanmar Medical Association (MMA) has invited doctors in the country to volunteer to provide free medical treatment to cyclone victims in Yangon and Ayeyawady divisions, the paper said.

MMA has carried out free health care services in storm-hit areas in the two divisions, it said, adding that over 585 doctors and specialists have provided treatment to 22,784 patients during their 38 trips to the cyclone-hit regions last month.

Specialists of Yangon, Shwebo, Mandalay, Taunggyi, Magway, Pyay, Mawlamyine, Pathein, Labutta and Bago participated in providing free medical services to the storm victims, it added.

In the post-Nargis period, dozens of foreign medics were allowed in Myanmar to render medical services to the cyclone victims. These medics include those from Thailand, India, Laos, China, Bangladesh, Singapore, the Philippines, France, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea.

These groups have respectively served in such disaster-hit townships as Laputta, Myaungmya, Bogalay, Phyapon, Kyauktan, Kungyangon and Maubin.

Meanwhile, state media reported no outbreak of other contagious and epidemic diseases in the storm-hit areas, saying that a total of 206,039 storm patients had received medical treatment during a month after the cyclone storm hit the country in early May.

 

Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states -- Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructural damage. The storm has killed 77,738 people and left 55,917 missing and 19,359 injured, according to official death toll.

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Helicopters bring shelter, hope for Myanmar's cyclone victims
ReliefWeb

DANI SEIK, Myanmar, July 3 (UNHCR) – Still shattered by the cyclone that swept away most of their relatives two months ago, the residents of Dani Seik village in southern Myanmar were stunned to see a gleaming white helicopter land unannounced this week in one of their rice paddies.

Amazement turned to gratitude when they realized the chopper was laden with just what they needed most – UNHCR shelter kits containing plastic sheets, blankets, mosquito nets to combat dengue fever, and household goods such as soap, jerry cans and kitchen utensils.

"I didn't see anyone smiling, maybe they are too traumatized, " UNHCR Logistics and Supply Officer Narayan Paudel said of his Wednesday flight here. "But it could be understood from their faces that they were glad to get our aid. Now they can make their huts more waterproof. And the whole village stayed with us for the entire two hours we were there."

This week, from Monday to Wednesday, UNHCR used helicopters from the inter-agency logistics cluster set up in the city of Yangon to deliver aid to the Irrawaddy Delta after Cyclone Nargis hit on May 2-3. The cluster, composed of UN agencies and non-governmental organizations, is headed by the World Food Programme.

"Using the helicopters enabled us to help villages that haven't received enough aid so far," said Christiane Blessing-Win, UNHCR's programme officer in Yangon.

UNHCR staff on the helicopters distributed 200 shelter kits to three remote villages. Villagers who met the helicopters cheerfully unloaded and carried away the shelter kits, packed in bright red second-hand courier bags donated by international logistics company, DHL.

Dani Seik suffered some of the worst damage in the Delta. Of 1,703 inhabitants, some 1,300 – more than 75 percent of the population – were killed by Cyclone Nargis. Only 306 people remain in the village, trying to carry on by planting rice.

In this part of Myanmar's rice-bowl, where farming is done by hand and with the aid of animal-drawn ploughs, every one of the 400 cows and buffalo perished – a devastating blow.

Villagers told the UNHCR team they had received some aid from non-governmental organizations – small amounts of rice, beans, cooking oil and canned sardines as well as tarpaulins which they used to cover tiny rickety makeshift shelters.

"They really have nothing," reported Paudel, a member of UNHCR's emergency team deployed from his usual base in Budapest, Hungary. "I peeked in some huts and they have absolutely nothing, not even any clothes hanging up. In one kitchen, their stove was three bricks with an aluminum pot on top."

Venturing into the Delta for the first time and trekking through mud up to his knees, Paudel felt privileged to be able to help people in such desperate need.

"People don't have blankets and we are giving them blankets," he said. "For a long time they haven't been able to take a proper shower and now we are giving them soap."

Paudel said he felt pround that UNHCR was giving people aid directly. "From the moment we gave it to them, we could see the impact of our help instantly."

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Two months after deadly cyclone struck Myanmar, devastation remains
UN News Centre

3 July 2008 – Two months after Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar, much of the destruction left in its wake is still evident, with flooded farmland and considerably damaged infrastructure, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today.

The storm claimed over 130,000 lives and left more than 2 million people in need of humanitarian aid, contaminating water sources and obliterating schools.

“Yet the people of Myanmar have proven resilient, picking up the pieces of their lives with a quiet determination,” WFP said in a press released issued in Rome.

In the past two months, WFP has delivered over 18,000 tons of food to nearly 700,000 in the hardest-hit Ayeyarwady delta, which is the South-East Asian nation’s granary and hosts an extensive fishery industry on the coast.

The agency, however, faces a shortfall of almost $40 million in its $69.5 million operation to provide emergency food assistance to 750,000 people in Myanmar.

Last month, WFP announced that it was critically short of funds to keep a fleet of ten helicopters in the air to deliver aid to cyclone victims.

This week, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) delivered much-need supplies – including plastic sheets, blankets, mosquito nets to combat dengue fever and household goods – via helicopter to residents of Dani Seik village in the country’s south.

 

Over three-quarters of the area’s 1,700 residents were killed by Cyclone Nargis, and only 300 people remain in Dani Seik.

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Chevron's dilemma over its stake in Burma
San Francisco Chronicle -
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Saturday, July 5, 2008

(07-05) 04:00 PDT Washington - -- Ever since Burma's leaders engaged in a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests last fall, Congress has pushed to tighten sanctions against the country's ruling generals. And that's put Chevron Corp., the largest U.S. investor in Burma, in the crosshairs.

The San Ramon-based energy giant has a 28 percent stake in the Yadana natural gas field and pipeline, which feeds Asia's growing energy appetite but also helps prop up the Burmese junta. In December, the House passed a bill by the now-deceased Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, that would have revoked a tax benefit for Chevron to pressure the company to divest from Burma.

"This legislation will turn off a huge cash spigot for the thuggish Burmese regime," Lantos said last year.

But Chevron now appears to have caught a break: As House and Senate negotiators put the final touches on the Burma Democracy Promotion Act, their aides and human rights groups say they plan to drop the provision, which was not in the Senate version of the bill. The legislation will instead focus on slashing the leadership's revenue from its trade in gemstones and timber and establishing a new position of U.S. envoy for Burma.

In place of the House-passed Chevron measure, lawmakers are pushing compromise language that would encourage Chevron to voluntarily divest from Burma. It would be a slap on the wrist from Congress, one unlikely to sway Chevron executives.

The battle over the Chevron provision has been the last sticking point to passing a bill that has broad support on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers of both parties were shocked by the scenes of monks being beaten in the streets of Rangoon. The junta's refusal to accept foreign aid after a deadly cyclone in May only reinforced the efforts to put the squeeze on the leadership.

A divisive provision

But the provision affecting Chevron has split lawmakers and even divided some human rights groups. The crux of the issue: Would the action against a U.S. oil company have any impact on the junta?

The measure by Lantos, who died of esophageal cancer in February, sought to pressure Chevron by revoking its ability to deduct from its U.S. taxes the tax payments it makes to the Burmese junta as part of the Yadana project. The goal was to make it more costly for the firm to do business with Burma - or Myanmar, as its military rulers call it. Congress used the same tactic in the 1980s to battle apartheid in South Africa, and some U.S companies divested.

But Chevron is only a minority stakeholder in the Yadana project, which is managed by France's Total, which holds a 31 percent stake, along with Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, a Burmese state entity, and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand.

Chevron's position

Chevron officials have argued that if it were forced to sell its stake, China, India or another energy-hungry nation would gobble it up, with revenues flowing unimpeded to Burma's military leaders.

"It's pretty clear that this is a very attractive asset and other people would be interested," Chevron Vice Chairman Peter Robertson told The Chronicle last year.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Howard Berman, D-Los Angeles, has been pushing Lantos' bill, arguing that Chevron should not benefit from a tax deduction for its payments to a repressive government.

But Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a lead sponsor of a 2003 bill that set stiff sanctions against Burma, has taken an opposite view. In a recent interview with Politico, she warned that forcing Chevron to divest could be counterproductive. "Other countries are going to take it over and, most particularly, the Burmese government will take it over. So what is gained by doing this?" she said.

Compromise in works

Feinstein spokesman Scott Gerber said this week that the senator has not been actively involved in the negotiations, but she backs the compromise that's likely to be announced soon. The bill "will strengthen and expand existing sanctions against Burma," he said.

The issue has relevance to the presidential race. The GOP's presumptive nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, introduced an even tougher bill last fall that would have forced Chevron to divest from Burma. But the Senate coalesced around a different bill, sponsored by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., which did not include the Chevron provision.

Jennifer Quigley, who's been lobbying the bill for the U.S. Campaign for Burma, said leaving the House's Chevron tax provision in would probably have doomed chances to get a bill through the Senate this year. Her group was more worried about winning other key provisions, including a crackdown on imports of Burmese rubies and jade into the United States, which could cost the junta hundreds of millions in revenue each year.

"Some people wanted to take a stand on Chevron. Other people said let's just get this through," Quigley said. "For us, we want the bill. It's very nice to take a stand, but for us what is most important is getting rid of this regime. Priority No. 1 is how to get legislation that is most effective at targeting the regime."

Quigley said the final bill also is likely to include language to help reduce illegal imports of wood products from Burma, especially teak, another key source of income for the junta.

Main revenue source

Still, natural gas remains the Rangoon government's chief source of revenue, totaling about 45 percent of its $8.7 billion in declared exports in 2007. Despite U.S. and European Union sanctions, the junta has been able to cut lucrative energy deals with its neighbors, including Thailand, China, South Korea, Malaysia and India.

Chevron acquired its stake in the Yadana and Sein offshore gas fields in the Andaman Sea when it bought its rival Unocal in 2005. Congress banned new investments by U.S. companies in Burma starting in 1997, but Unocal's ownership stake was grandfathered in because its venture began in 1993.

Marco Simons, legal director for EarthRights International, which has been critical of Chevron over human rights abuses linked to the Yadana pipeline, said he agrees that it's unlikely that forcing Chevron to divest would hurt the junta.

"The fact of the matter is whether Chevron is there or not, those dollars are still going to flow to the generals as long as Thailand is still paying the bills (for the natural gas) and the banks are still processing the payments," Simons said. "It may send a signal that the United States is taking democracy in Burma more seriously, but it's not going deprive them of any money, which is really what these projects are all about for the regime."

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Imprisonment fails to dim love
Bangkok Post - Saturday July 05, 2008
KYAW ZWA MOE

This is the true story of two lovers who decided to put their country's affairs ahead of their love affair. As a result, they find themselves in jail and in exile. But they are still deeply in love, along with many other men and women in the pro-democracy movement who fall in love, only to be tragically separated and sent off to jail or exile in these troubled times in Burma.

But, amazingly, love still endures and runs deep in their lives.

On Aug 22, 2007, the first anniversary of their relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend, Tin Aye, a political activist, asked his girlfriend, Noble Aye, also an activist:

''Do you really love me?''

''Yes,'' she said, with a bashful smile.

At the time, the 44-year-old activist had no idea those sweet words would be among the last they would share together _ at least for now.

The next day, Noble Aye's home was ransacked by military authorities, and she was hauled off to detention.

Tin Aye stayed in Rangoon for a few months and then decided that it was too dangerous to continue his political activities inside the country and fled to neighbouring Thailand.

Tin Aye and his girlfriend, Noble Aye, 33, both share a deep commitment to democracy for their military-ruled country, perhaps, if possible, even deeper than their love for each other.

Noble Aye was first arrested in 1998 and detained in various prisons until 2005.

Her mother was arrested the same year for her own political activities as a member of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy.

Tin Aye was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment.

His imprisonment led to his first girlfriend leaving him during his first year in Insein Prison.

''Our lives are like this,'' said Tin Aye. He served nearly 16 years of his sentence.

Noble Aye and Tin Aye were both released in 2005, one year before they met for the first time in an office of a monthly magazine in Rangoon, where they worked together as editorial staffers.

Noble Aye was studying physics at Dagon University in Rangoon.

They soon found that their political beliefs and their common experiences in the movement and in prison, made them close.

It was probably inevitable that they fell deeply in love, a love entwined with respect and admiration.

The only thing that could separate them was the junta. They each continued in their political opposition to the military regime.

Tin Aye recalled, ''I told her once that I didn't want to disturb her politics because of my love. I told her, 'For me, you would be second when it comes to the country's affairs'.''
And then it came, the knock on the door, the arrest, her detention in Insein Prison. The lovers' separation _ for how long no one knows. She has yet to be sentenced.

Tin Aye says simply that he is proud of Noble Aye and her sacrifice to try to bring democracy to the country. She is a member of the influential 88 Generation Students Group, led by prominent former student leader Min Ko Naing, who is also in Insein. Members of the student group marched against the military government's hike in fuel prices in August 2007, activities that led to the monk-led demonstrations in September.

Many members of the student group were jailed in August and many others have been in hiding since then, continuing their clandestine political activities.

In fact, the love story of Tin Aye and Noble Aye is typical among activists under the military dictatorship. Many married activists and couples have suffered romantic separations since the current regime took power in 1988.

During the past 20 years, of the thousands of political prisoners, almost all have stories of separation: lovers, parents, sons, daughters, husbands and wives.

Here's one more story of an activist father and his daughter who grew up without him, separated for years by his sentence to prison.

Ne Win, a veterinarian, was arrested in 1989 along with Tin Aye in a group of 200 activists and politicians. When he was arrested, he left behind his eight-month- old baby daughter. He spent 15 years in various prisons on a 20-year sentence before his release in 2005.

When Ne Win was again arrested in June 2008, he was with his daughter, Hnin Pwint Wai, now a 20-year-old student at Government Technical College in Rangoon.

Like father, like daughter Hnin Pwint Wai had become involved in the historic student organisation, All Burma Federation of Student Unions, which was secretly reformed in August 2007. She was a spokesperson during the monk-led uprising in September 2007, and she had been in hiding since then. Both father and daughter are now in Insein Prison.

These are just two of the heart-breaking stories of love and loss in Burma.

Love of country. Loss of country. Love for a woman or a man. Loss of the woman or the man.

Through it all run many tears of joy and sadness.

''I don't know when I can meet Noble again,'' said Tin Aye. ''But I'm certain of one thing. It doesn't matter how long she is detained. I will wait. This is my iron rule.''

Kyaw Zwa Moe is Managing Editor of The Irrawaddy Magazine, based in Chiang Mai.

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Htin Kyaw remanded without being produced before court
Mizzima News - Friday, 04 July 2008 18:42
Phanida

Chiang Mai – Htin Kyaw, arrested for protesting against the fuel price hike, was remanded again yesterday without being produced in court though the court fixed yesterday for hearing his case for the fifth time.

The Rangoon Western District court hearing his case was transferred and the new judge is yet to take charge. So, he was remanded till July 16 for the next hearing. Htin Kyaw is a member of Burma Development Committee.

"The court didn't hear his case yesterday. The judge was transferred and the new judge has not yet arrived. The court remanded him again," Khin Maung Shein, the defence lawyer said.

Htin Kyaw was charged with three cases, protesting for letting him being ordained on 22nd March 2007 at Thamaing junction in Rangoon, staging demonstrations for rising essential commodity prices on 22nd April 2007 at Sanpya market Thingangyun and staging demonstrations in Rangoon Theingyi market in August 2007. He has been charged under section 124(a) of the Criminal Code for inciting disaffection towards the State, for each case.

These cases are being heard at the Western District Court. Examination of witnesses on the Theingyi market demonstration in Pabedan Township case is not yet completed.

Htin Kyaw urged the people on August 22 to protest against the government's decision on fuel price hike announced on August 15. He was arrested while he was staging a protest against the fuel price hike on August 25 in Theingyi market.

"The expression of a citizen, disliking something, is not violation of section 124(a) of the Criminal Code. This is not about inciting disaffection towards the State. This is just an expression of his will and desire based on true facts. So we pleaded with the court that this was not the case of 'disaffection towards the State," defence lawyer Khin Maung Shein said.

If convicted, he will face up to 20 years in prison for each case under section 124 (a) and up to two year's imprisonment under section 505(b) – disturbing public tranquility. So he faces a maximum of 60 years and a minimum of six years in prison.

Htin Kyaw staged protest demonstrations in prison calling for the release of all political prisoners including monks and students. For the second time, he staged demonstrations for being provided the right to stroll inside the prison compound and then finally for the third time, he shouted slogans like 'Down with dictatorship' . After which, he was sent to solitary confinement at the Dogs' cell for the third time.

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NLD learns of more arrests of activists

Jul 4, 2008 (DVB)–National League for Democracy members have said the number of activists detained by authorities on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday was more than the 14 previously reported.

An organising member of the NLD youth wing said about 25 people were feared to have been arrested on 19 June.

"We were informed that some other party members are missing by their families; so far we have managed to confirm that two of our members in South Okkalapa township and a youth coordinator are missing,” he said.

“We haven't got all the details yet – but we assume these people were arrested on the same day on their way back home."

The NLD youth member said there had been an increase in government harassment of NLD members since after the 19 June incident in which NLD members and supporters were beaten and arrested as they celebrated Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday.

"The government special police branch and local authorities have been directly and indirectly harassing NLD youth members," he said.

"Some party members were forced to leave their houses as the authorities pressured their landlords to kick them out, while others lost their jobs due to similar pressure on their employers."

NLD information officer U Nyan Win criticised the actions of the local authorities.

"This is a deliberate act of discrimination against NLD members. These people and their families did not break any laws," Nyan Win said.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

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Analysis: Junta's information black-out
Tai Kyaw

Jul 4, 2008 (DVB)–Burma’s military regime is still keeping quiet about an incident following Cyclone Nargis. It is a minor incident, but one that would surprise the people of Burma and the international community.

Relief supplies provided for Burma’s cyclone victims from China included 2000 radios. They were handed over to the junta authorities. Low-ranking officials were in a difficult situation when they received those cheap radios because they were not sure if they should give them to refugees or hold them back, so they asked their superiors what to do.

The information about the radios pushed high-ranking officials into a tight corner. They seemed to be worried about affecting the relationship with China if they did not give the radios out. On the other hand, if they distributed the radios, the 2000 people who received them would be able to listen to foreign broadcasting services such as BBC, VOA, DVB and RFA, which they did not want their citizens to be able to access. Finally, an order came through that radios should be distributed to cyclone victims only after they had been adapted so that they could not be used to listen to foreign broadcasting services.

As a consequence, engineers and officials at the Communication Department faced a heavy workload. They had to remove the short wave tuning system used by foreign broadcasting services to air their programmes from each radio. Engineers working for the Communication Department in Rangoon Division spent a lot of time on these radios worth US$ 5 each. After the radios had been adapted, the authorities gave them out in Irrawaddy division for people to listen to weather news, took photos of their donations and then sent the photos back to donors in China.

When village headmen and others received the radios, they were unable to tune into foreign radio broadcasts because the short wave system had been disabled. They were also unable to listen to City FM since they were far away from Rangoon. As a result, they all ended up only being able to listen to programmes from Myanmar Radio and Television Department, the state-controlled radio station transmitted on medium wave.

The way the military regime dealt with the donated radio shoes the lengths to which it will go to black out information and stop its citizens listening to news broadcasts.

The military regime was able to take preventive action because those radios were given to them directly. However, they could not do anything about aid directly provided to UN agencies and INGOs inside Burma by international governments and organisations.

In an attempt to limit and control the movements of UN agencies and INGOs working on relief efforts for cyclone victims, the junta issued 10 operating guidelines on 10 June. According to the guidelines, detailed lists of the type and quantity of aid donated from overseas must be submitted to the relevant government ministry, permission must be requested prior to aid distribution and relief supplies must be stockpiled in Rangoon. When permission to distribute aid is granted by the junta another request must be made to township authorities where the aid will be given out and supplies can only be distributed when permission from local officials has been granted.

The regime still keeps imported communication apparatuses that are meant for UN agencies and INGOs. None of those organisations have been allowed to use satellite phones donated by the Thai government. This indicates that the regime is trying to obstruct smooth communication and information flow between the UN, NGOs and the people. Despite the restrictions, private donors including comedian Zarganar distributed radios among cyclone victims in Irrawaddy divisions, infuriating the junta, who later arrested them.

Irrawaddy division had never been a restricted area for tourists until it was devastated by the cyclone. Bassein, Ngwe Hsaung and Chaung Thar were regular tourist destinations. Even a week after the storm stuck the delta the military regime had not taken any special measures to restrict tourism in the region. The junta only stopped allowing any foreigners to visit Irrawaddy division when the international media carried news items about the cyclone and displayed pictures of corpses.

The reason was simply to black out information. When the regime shut down the area, they treated it as if it was a military zone. They placed many more checkpoints on the Rangoon-Bassein road to check if there were any foreigners in the passing vehicles. When foreigners were found, they were questioned and sent back to Rangoon. As a result, international experts and aid workers were unable to reach the affected areas to carry out relief operations and the difficulties for cyclone victims were doubled.

Foreign journalists looked for alternative ways to reach the delta when they were not allowed to use the main route, the Rangoon-Bassein road. They tried instead to enter the region on the Rangoon-Kaw Hmoo-Kongyankone- Daydaye-Pyarpon road. In response, the military regime deployed thousands of riot police along the way, in addition to the numerous checkpoints. In Rangoon, foreign journalists were under constant surveillance. According to a special police officer from Rangoon airport, at least 10 foreigners were sent to the airport from their hotels or the streets and deported within the month after the cyclone ravaged the country.

The junta not only restricts and keeps an eye on foreign journalists in the country but also prevents them from coming in. It has even imposed restrictions on the issuing of tourist visas. As a result, the number of foreigners visiting the country in post-cyclone period noticeably decreased. As a consequence, hotels in Rangoon received fewer tourists and those dependent on foreign guests in Ngwe Hsaung and Chaung Thar had to close down. Air Mandalay and Air Bagan also had to stop all their overseas flights.

The military regime was still focusing on its mission to black out information even after UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon visited Rangoon. The regime issued visas for some UN and INGO officials but continued to restrict their visits to Irrawaddy division. Those who were permitted to go there were only able to visit a limited area. For instance, a Japanese medical team could only stay in refugee camps in Latputta and was not allowed to visit the surrounding areas. The team was told to leave within 10 days on the pretext that their visas had run out.

The military regime also cut cyclone-related information out of imported newspapers and magazines on a large scale. They distributed the Times, Newsweek, the Economist, the Straits Times, the Bangkok Post and others only after they had torn out news about Burma’s cyclone.

One of the latest attempts by the military regime to restrict the flow of information was its raids on satellite stores in Rangoon. Some store owners were forced to sign papers promising to stop selling satellite dishes. As a result, the reinstallation of satellite dishes in post-cyclone Rangoon was temporarily halted.

The military regime in Burma has been seriously trying not to let the people of Burma and the international community become aware of what is happening in Irrawaddy division and the rest of the country. As for news that is already in media, the regime tries its best to suppress it so its own citizens, and particularly soldiers in the army, will not hear about it.

It seems that the generals believe they can cling on power for a long time by stopping the flow of information. However, as recent incidents have shown, the military will not succeed in its endeavour to black out information as long as journalists and citizens are brave enough and able to use modern digital equipment to disseminate news and information.

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