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Asian Tribune-Burma: On the Occasion of 7th July Anniversary
The SMH-Burma fair to muddling in wake of savage blow
'The WAshington Post-To Be Busy Helps Them Forget'
SF Gate-Chevron' s dilemma over its stake in Burma
Daily Telegraph-Burma charges 14 Suu Kyi supporters
ABC-Passenger boat sinks in cyclone-hit Burma region
Relief Web-USG Humanitarian Assistance to Burma (as of 2 Jul 2008)
BBC-Reporting on post-cyclone Burma
Xinhua-Doctors invited to provide free medical care to Myanmar's cyclone victims
VOA-Burmese State Media Dismiss Aung San Suu Kyi's 1990 Election Win
Irrawaddy-Security Tightened in Rangoon after Bomb Blast 
Irrawaddy-School Children and Teachers Still Finding Hard to Concentrate

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Burma: On the Occasion of 7th July Anniversary
The WAshington Post-Mon, 2008-07-07 01:56
By Ye Wai

It is now the 46th Anniversary of the occasion of 7th July when Gen.Ne Win ordered his brutal troops to shoot and kill over one hundred Rangoon University students, who were asking for their student rights. Among those who were killed included male and female students of young ages, who were still full of vigour, optimism, hopes and aspirations to start careers in the future. In the Burmese History, this is the first time it ever happened, where a ruling regime committed the brutal killing of its own citizens.

But Gen.Ne Win and the Burma Army did it, with the intention to declare that it was unchallengeable and could be ready to harm its own citizens whenever they think is necassary. This is the way the Burma Army is until now, frequently shooting at its own innocent civilians.

Since the 7th July ‘62 event, the Burma Army had committed similar crimes of killing its own citizens on many occasions. The major ones are as follows:

1. 7th July ‘62 Massacre at Rangoon University: Over 100 students were killed.

2. 4th December ‘74 Massacre in Rangoon during Funeral Ceremony of ex-UN General Secretary U Thant: Over 500 were killed.

3. December ‘74 Massacre at Sim-Ma-Lite Dock yard in Rangoon: Over 460 workers were killed.

4. 1976 Massacre in Rangoon during 100th Anniversary of famous Burma Statesman Tha-khin Ko-daw Hmaing: Over hundreds were killed.

5. Massacre in Rangoon during student uprising: Over hundreds were killed and female students were raped.

6. 8-8-88 Massacre all over Burma: thousands of innocent citizens, majority of them students were killed.

7. 30th May 2003 Massacre at De-pe-Yin town: hundreds of NLD members were killed.

8. 2007 September massacre of peacefully demonstrating Buddhist Monks and devotees, all over Burma; hundreds were killed.

All of these events were committed by the Burmese Army, and also now they are ready and willing to kill the citizens. They stole power and held it for 50 years now. But what have they done for the country?

Burma is listed as one of the poorest countries in the world. Burmese people run away from the country and are working abroad just for their survival. In the fields of Health & Education, conditions are getting worse. Social, economic and political situation are also deteriorating. But the junta’s families and their cohorts have become richer with money and resources robbed and stolen from the country. Sen. Gen.Than Shwe’s grandson goes to Singapore by plane everyday to attend the school there. Where does he get the travelling cost for it? During his daughter’s wedding in 2006, it was alleged that, members of the SPDC military regime presented the couple with over 50 million US dollars worth of wedding gifts.

Most of the businesses are owned or run by the families of army leaders and their cohorts. Now also they are trying to introduce a new Constitution, dictated by them to hold power themselves for ever. According to their new Constitution, the proportion of the members of the Parliament is such that, 25% of the descendants of the army will become ‘Permanent Masters’, who will control power forever, while the 75% of the children of the people will become ‘Permanent Slaves’, who have to obey their orders.

These events remind us especially during the Anniversary of 7th July, the people of Burma that, we cannot tolerate anymore their rule and, unless the army leaders give in to the wishes of the people and return power to the people, we the people of Burma must fight back against the military regime. What we want is democracy, freedom, Human Rights and free economy, to rebuild our country under the Rule of Law, not permanent army rule for bullying the people.

Another thing is that some of us people of Burma, who are fighting for democracy, are expecting that the army will readily give up power to fulfil the people’s wishes. They are wrong. Children born after 8-8-88 uprising are now 19 year old mature men or women and, we still cannot see any hint of freedom.

Another thing we would like to point out to some of those, who are fighting against the military regime is, they thought that military regime did the coup d’ tat in 1988, and anti-military regime campaign started on 8-8-88. They should realise that, military rule started since Gen.Ne Win made a coup de’ tat in 1962. This is not a short event of history fighting against the military regime, but a generation game, where their fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers fought against the military regime since after Gen.Ne Win robbed power in 1962. The event of the 7th July Massacre in 1962 is the first event of the bad legacies of the military regime’s brutality.

Since the event of 7th July Massacre, there emerged numbers of opposition movements, organised by the people of Burma, including students. The PDP founded in 1970 by Premier U Nu, is one of the earliest generations, which is until now fighting against the brutal military regime to restore democracy and freedom. Because of this, the PDP would like to invite those who are fighting against the military regime to join us, fight with us, until we get rid of the army regime from our Motherland and restore democracy. We are old peacocks, your ancestors, the same feathers, who are fighting against the murderous military regime for future generations of Burma to be able to enjoy their lives under democracy and the Rule of Law.

Dear citizens of Burma and all other opposition parties - organise ‘Children Festival for Exorcising Military Demons from Burma’.

Dear soldiers, rank and file and high ranking officers from the Burma army - Burma is now run by Military Demons. They do not apply the Rule of Law. Their mouths are the only law and that way they are abusing power. Your families our families are suffering. To safe the country in time, join the PDP. Fight together with the PDP against the murderous military regime, so that we can rebuild Burma as a peaceful, prosperous and democratic country protected by the Rule of Law.

On the occasion of the 46th Anniversary of 7th July ‘62 Massacre, we pray for the souls of those martyrs, who gave their lives during their struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma.

Courtesy: Burma Digest
http://www.asiantri bune.com/ ?q=node/12093

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Burma fair to muddling in wake of savage blow
The Sydney Morning Herald 07-07-08
July 7, 2008

Slow recovery… a woman wades through her village in the Irrawaddy Delta.
Photo: AFP

Latest related coverage
Junta nullifies Suu Kyi win

BOGALAY, Burma: Two months after a cyclone savaged the fertile Irrawaddy Delta, in Burma's south-west, the bones of drowned victims still clutter the muddy banks of waterways.

One bamboo stick at a time, survivors in hundreds of flattened villages are struggling to rebuild their homes. For shelter, they squeeze several families into a single tent. For drinking water, they collect monsoon rainwater that trickles off tarpaulin roof coverings into buckets or salvaged ceramic vases. For food, they cook communal meals with rice, beans and oil from hand-outs. Sometimes it is spoiled.

In one village, survivors kept up a steady pace of sawing and hammering at planks salvaged from the wreckage.

"To work is to be busy, and to be busy helps them forget," said Soe, the village leader.
He said 943 people used to live here. In the storm that came ashore the night of May 2, 660 of them disappeared. Across the vast, maze-like delta, an estimated 130,000 people were killed and 2.4 million affected.

Persistent obstruction by Burma's military rulers has kept aid at tragically meagre levels. International efforts to quickly dispatch emergency assistance were delayed as the xenophobic junta rebuffed offers of help, denied visas to foreign aid workers and required permits for travel within the country.

Aid workers say most survivors of tropical cyclone Nargis have received at least some help but few are even remotely equipped to make their way in coming months. Some communities have only recently been reached by aid teams, who had journeyed for hours on foot, by motorcycle and by boat.

Many of the restrictions have been eased but relief workers say they still operate under erratic, constantly shifting constraints. The logistical challenges remain formidable as they scramble to dispatch seed, tractors and tillers to farmers before the rice-planting season ends this month.
"We have time to farm, but no tractors, no buffaloes and no seed," Mr Soe said.

Tents in the village and passing boats bore the logo of the Htoo trading company, which is owned by Tay Za, a businessman targeted by US sanctions because of his closeness to the junta.
At least 30 big Burmese companies that locals refer to as "cronies" of the junta were assigned to the reconstruction and relief efforts in the delta's townships, raising concerns the companies would collect payback in the form of land concessions.

But Western diplomats and aid workers say that so far, the companies have often proved helpful. Some aid agencies, including Save the Children, have turned to businessmen such as Serge Pun, whose holdings include Yoma Bank, to obtain boats and warehouse space and to speed deliveries to the affected areas.

Working with the company has "absolutely helped cut through the red tape," said Andrew Kirkwood, Save the Children's Burma director.

"I think all of us were frustrated with not being able to do more sooner."

But access to the delta remains a concern. In past weeks, aid agencies have had to seek approval for their activities from an ever-changing combination of ministries and local authorities. Trips into the field are systematically monitored. A World Food Program helicopter shipment was cancelled by an on-board military agent because flight co-ordinates submitted by UN workers were not clear, according to a staffer.

Last week, one ministry cancelled a program by the agency to give cash to survivors around Rangoon, even though another ministry had approved the plan days earlier.

Aid workers and diplomats say the problem at the lower levels is sometimes less wilful neglect than incompetence. But in some places, local authorities have defied their superiors to help in the relief efforts. One Western diplomat said officials in the remote rural hub of Pathein had built a road for supplies, defying senior military officers.

Aid workers praise villagers' resilience. In one village, farmers who own two to four hectares apiece said they united to buy a tractor from officials in Bogalay. They will have to pay in instalments over three years, using rice seed and funds they do not yet have, they said.

The Washington Post
http://www.smh. com.au/news/ world/burma- fair-to-muddling -in-wake- of-savage- blow/2008/ 07/06/1215282653 611.html? page=2

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'To Be Busy Helps Them Forget'
Burma's Storm Survivors Cobble Together a Meager Future
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, July 6, 2008; Page A01

Two months after the devastating cyclone wiped out their village, survivors continue to rebuild. Now, they squeeze three families to a tent or a half-built hut. (The Washington Post)

Survivors of a community that was razed by the storm greet a rare foreign visitor. Behind them, their new makeshift village was rebuilt on the edges of a river so donors would see them when they passed by boat, residents said. (The Washington Post)

BOGALAY, Burma -- Two months after a cyclone savaged the fertile Irrawaddy Delta, in Burma's southwest, the bones of drowning victims still clutter the muddy banks of waterways.

One bamboo stick at a time, survivors in hundreds of flattened villages are struggling to rebuild their lives. For shelter, they squeeze several families into a single tent. For drinking water, they collect monsoon rains that trickle off tarpaulin roof coverings into buckets or salvaged ceramic vases. For food, they cook communal meals with rice, beans and oil from handouts. Sometimes it is spoiled.

On a recent visit, one village looked as if it had been carpet-bombed, a cratered landscape of muddy pools, debris and the remains of water buffaloes. A few hundred feet away, villagers sawed and hammered at planks salvaged from the wreckage. A teenage boy in an oversize shirt donated by a Buddhist monastery picked through piles of smashed wood.

"To work is to be busy, and to be busy helps them forget," said Soe, the village leader.
Nine hundred forty-three people used to live here, he said. In the storm that came ashore the night of May 2, 660 of them disappeared. Across the vast, mazelike delta, an estimated 130,000 people were killed and 2.4 million affected.

Persistent obstruction by the country's military rulers has kept aid at tragically meager levels. International efforts to quickly dispatch emergency assistance were delayed as the country's xenophobic military rulers rebuffed offers of help, denied visas to foreign aid workers and required permits for travel within the country.

Aid workers say that the majority of survivors of Tropical Cyclone Nargis have received at least some help but that few are even remotely equipped to make their way in coming months. Some communities have only recently been reached by aid teams, who had journeyed for hours on foot, by motorcycle and by boat.

Many of the restrictions have been eased, but relief workers say they still operate under erratic and constantly shifting constraints. The logistical challenges remain formidable as they scramble to dispatch seed, tractors and tillers to farmers before the rice-planting season ends this month.
"We have time to farm, but no tractors, no buffaloes and no seed," Soe said.

To reach his village required a seven-hour drive along a potholed, tire-shredding road from Rangoon to the rural hub of Bogalay, past four police checkpoints where documents were rigorously scanned. Against a backdrop of peaceful rice paddies, strange touches stood out: a patchwork of blue and red tarpaulins stretched across delicate palm-thatched huts; decapitated golden pagodas; and peaked iron roofs blown like dead leaves onto the roadside.

From Bogalay, where electricity has barely crackled back to life, the journey continued aboard a motorized boat loaded with supplies. The riverbanks form a cemetery for cyclone victims whose bodies floated for weeks along the waterways and whose remains, at low tide, now whiten in the mud.

A boatman pointed to an empty stretch of riverbank interspersed with bare-branched betel and coconut trees. "That used to be a village," he said. "There, too," he said minutes later, gesturing at the opposite bank.

In Soe's village, about four hours south of Bogalay, survivors gathered to greet a rare foreign visitor. About 30 crowded into a newly built hut to hear the headman tell their story.

During the storm, 26 entire families vanished, he said. None of their bodies has been recovered.

The rest of the villagers clutched floating wreckage or grasped at tree trunks or piled into a leaking boat and fled to a monastery in a distant village. Days later, local authorities told them to leave, handed them the equivalent of $10 per household and ferried them in military boats to another village hours upriver. Almost 300 have now made it back.

"We used to sing every day," Soe said. "We used to sing as we marched to work." They were songs filled with joy, songs to carry them to the fields and out into the yellow waters to catch shrimp and river fish.

No one was supposed to be living here. The village is located in an area marked as uninhabited, a forest reserve, on the government map used by aid agencies. But field workers have discovered about 12,000 survivors in 60 villages across the area, all of them almost entirely wiped out. An estimated 20,000 people died.

The region was among the worst-hit because it lay directly along the path of the cyclone. But environmental experts say a more significant reason for the high death toll, here and elsewhere in the delta, was the systematic destruction of mangrove forests. In the December 2004 tsunami that devastated South Asia, dense mangrove coverage in Sri Lanka was shown to have helped save lives.

According to a study published last month by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, decades of illegal encroachment and government-sanction ed neglect had seriously degraded the mangrove forests in the Irrawaddy Delta. "If there had been decent mangrove on the shorelines, the death toll would have been cut in half," said Lucas Riegger, a U.N. vulnerability analyst and mapping specialist.

One-third of survivors around Bogalay suffer from psychological stress, according to Doctors Without Borders. Field workers from other groups reported meeting survivors who refused food or wouldn't speak. One man, found on a roadside, repeatedly hugged the invisible coconut tree to which he had clung when the waters rose. Others told relief workers that they were unable to sleep or could still feel the hands of sons and daughters slipping from their grasp.

"It's like being born again every day. I am learning to live again like a child," said Hla Dwe, 36, a farmer and fisherman who lost his mother, wife and both children.

The village's five remaining water buffaloes lolled about together neck-deep in a pool of mud. Even if ownership of the animals could be sorted out, they were too sick and weak to work the fields for more than a few hours a day, villagers said. New buffaloes would take too long to train.

Local authorities in Bogalay offered to sell the people tractors under special terms, but buyers needed to prove they had owned more than 50 acres, with a photograph and a form signed by the village leader. Two farmers here were rich enough to qualify; the rest had worked plots of from five to 20 acres each.

"We are victims. So how can we buy this?" said Chau, 32, a stone-faced farmer who said his sister, mother and nephew had died in the storm.

Tents in the village and passing boats bore the logo of the Htoo trading company, which is owned by Tay Za, a businessman targeted by U.S. sanctions because of his closeness to the ruling junta.

At least 30 big Burmese companies that locals refer to as "cronies" of the junta were assigned to the reconstruction and relief efforts in the delta's townships. This has raised concerns in Rangoon, the largest city, that the companies will eventually collect payback in the form of land concessions in the delta or elsewhere in the country.

But Western diplomats and aid workers say that so far, the companies have often proved helpful. Some aid agencies, including Save the Children, have turned to businessmen such as Serge Pun, whose holdings include Yoma Bank, to obtain boats and warehouse space and to speed deliveries to the affected areas.

Working with the company has "absolutely helped cut through the red tape," said Andrew Kirkwood, Save the Children's Burma director. "I think all of us were frustrated with not being able to do more sooner."

His agency's deal with the company came at a time when U.N. officials were still locked in negotiations with military authorities to allow in 10 helicopters. Now those aircraft are flying. And visa applications for foreign staffers can be turned around in 24 hours, while before they took 10 days or more.

But access to the delta remains a concern. In past weeks, aid agencies have had to seek approval for their activities from an ever-changing combination of ministries and local authorities. Trips into the field are systematically monitored. A World Food Program helicopter shipment was canceled by an onboard military agent because flight coordinates submitted by U.N. workers weren't clear, according to a staffer.

Last week, one ministry canceled a program by the agency to give cash to survivors around Rangoon, even though another ministry had approved the plan days earlier. "It seems like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing," said Hakan Tongul, the World Food Program's deputy country director.

Workers with a Burmese aid agency in Bogalay said they were repeatedly prevented from reaching the devastated villages of the distant natural reserve by military boats that were patrolling the area. Troops told them they were taking care of the villagers. The area has at least three military bases, according to three agencies that have worked there.

"Everywhere we went, we were met by soldiers or navy," said an aid worker with the Noble Compassionate Volunteer Group, which has partnered with UNICEF in the area.

Aid workers and diplomats say the problem at the lower levels is sometimes less willful neglect than incompetence. According to several U.N. officials, there is only one fax machine in the Ministry of Social Welfare, which at times has been largely responsible for processing applications for visits to the delta. But in some places, local authorities have defied their superiors to help in the relief efforts. One Western diplomat said officials in the remote rural hub of Pathein had built a road for supplies, defying senior military officers.

Aid workers praise villagers' resilience, which they said had helped stave off further deaths and disease.

In one village, farmers who own five to 10 acres apiece said they joined together to buy a tractor from officials in Bogalay. They will have to pay in installments over three years, using rice seed and funds they don't yet have, they said.

Still, said village elder Tan as he leaned on a bamboo cane, going into debt to grow their own food seemed a better option to the villagers than sitting idle and eating the rotten yellow rice they received as aid.

They have to rely on themselves, he said. "Everyone else has their problems, too."

http://www.washingt onpost.com/ wp-dyn/content/ article/2008/ 07/05/AR20080705 01923_3.html

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Chevron's dilemma over its stake in Burma
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
SF Chronicle-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."

E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle. com.
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate. com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi? file=/c/a/ 2008/07/05/ MNS311I24I. DTL

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Burma charges 14 Suu Kyi supporters
Article from: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Rangoon
Daily Telegraph-July 05, 2008 06:25pm

BURMESE authorities have charged 14 supporters of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for protesting against the extension of her house arrest, police said today.

They were arrested on Suu Kyi's 63rd birthday on June 19 as they shouted for her release outside the party headquarters of her National League for Democracy (NLD).

“They were charged at the township court on Friday afternoon for causing public unrest that day by shouting slogans,” a police source said today.

The NLD said it was working for their release.

“I was told 14 people appeared at Bahan township court yesterday afternoon. We are hoping for the best for them,” party spokesman Nyan Win said.

Last Monday the NLD accused the government of illegal detention.

“The arrest was not in accordance with the law,” the statement said.

Yesterday, four NLD members were each sentenced to a year in jail for urging people to vote “No” in a nationwide constitutional referendum, which was held and passed by the ruling junta in May.

The NLD said another senior party member had been arrested on Wednesday in Shwe Pyitha township in northern Rangoon without reason.

Burma has been ruled by the military since 1962.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the world's only Nobel Peace Prize winner currently in detention, has spent most of the last 18 years confined to her home. The junta extended her house arrest by another year in May.

She led her party to a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but has never been allowed to govern.

http://www.news. com.au/dailytele graph/story/ 0,22049,23974217 -5001028, 00.html

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Passenger boat sinks in cyclone-hit Burma region
ABC Radio Australia-Updated Fri Jul 4, 2008 9:16pm AEST

More Burma Stories:
Public unrest charges for 14 Burmese protestors
Groups fear for health of Burmese journalist
Burma's opposition calls for the release of activists

A passenger boat has sank in Burma's southwest delta region, killing dozens of people.

State media reports, the boat was travelling on a river in the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy Delta when it was swamped early Tuesday morning.

A total of 44 passengers were rescued, but 38 drowned.

The incident brings further grief to a region still mourning the 138,000 dead or missing, after cyclone Nargis hit in early May.

http://www.radioaus tralia.net. au/news/stories/ 200807/s2295016. htm?tab=latest

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USG Humanitarian Assistance to Burma (as of 2 Jul 2008)
Relief Web-07-02-08

Date: 02 Jul 2008

Type: Natural Disaster
Keyword(s): Operations; Cyclone; Natural Disaster; Agriculture; Transportation; Economic Activities; Health; Logistics; Protection; Shelter and Non-food Assistance; Water and Sanitation

Format:
PDF *, 591 Kb
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/JOPA-7G794B

(*)Get Adobe Acrobat Viewer (free) 

Source(s):
- United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Related Document:
- Burma: Cyclone Fact Sheet #23 (FY) 2008
http://www.reliefwe b.int/rw/ rwb.nsf/db900SID /JOPA-7G794B

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Reporting on post-cyclone Burma
BBC, July 01-08

It is exactly two months since Cyclone Nargis hit Burma, causing widespread death and devastation.

In a country that has been under military rule since 1962 and controls almost all aspects of the media, it was a huge challenge to report on the aftermath of this disaster.

BBC journalists who managed to get into Burma either had to enter secretly, or pretend to be tourists and report undercover.

They shared their experiences of reporting in such difficult conditions for the BBC World Service's Assignment programme.

PAUL DANAHAR

The BBC's Paul Danahar was one of the first journalists to enter the country, arriving three days after the cyclone hit.

"We had our visas because there was supposed to be a referendum on the Saturday after the cyclone, so we had applied for tourist visas," he said.

The cyclone left thousands dependent on aid

“As long as you keep moving, you stand a better chance of not getting caught”

“All along the way, people that we met were extremely helpful and definitely wanted their story to get out”

Ban Ki-moon met the Burmese leader two weeks after the cyclone

"We had to go through the rigmarole of travelling around the region finding embassies that were less aware that journalists were trying to get themselves in. We made up fake business cards to present to the visa offices.

"We had some kit that we stashed somewhere inside Burma after the demonstrations that happened the previous year, so we knew what we had to work with when we got in.

Paul and his crew had to remove anything that identified them as BBC and travel with hand luggage so that they could get past immigration controls more easily.

They also found it was most effective to keep moving, as foreigners quickly attract the attention of the security apparatus.

"The one thing the Burmese government doesn't have is a huge amount of communications infrastructure - so as long as you keep moving, you stand a better chance of not getting caught.

"Where that doesn't really work is the hotels in the capital city and that's where you have to be more careful."

Paul decided to not to hide his identity when he reported, and ended up being deported.

ANONYMOUS REPORTER

The next BBC reporter to arrive in Burma - a week after the cyclone - worked anonymously for the 10 days that he was there.

He retains his anonymity even now, to give him a better chance of returning to the country.

"One of the dramatic things that we encountered, having been in Burma before and seen how reticent and afraid people are to speak up against the government, was just how this cyclone had made people angry enough and brave enough to come up to strangers with microphones and cameras and vent their anger against the Burmese government," he said.

NATALIA ANTELAVA

Natalia Antelava was the next BBC journalist to arrive from her base in central Asia.
She landed in Rangoon 10 days after the cyclone, at a time when journalists and aid workers were trying to get into the worst-hit areas.

"Although the Irrawaddy Delta was blocked off, we were actually very lucky to get in," she said.

"We drove and it took about 13 hours to get to one of the furthest towns in the delta, called Laputta. Along the bumpy road, past the checkpoints - for most of the time, I was the only foreigner in the car.

"The soldiers never actually saw me because I was hiding under the back seat," she added.

"All along the way, people that we met were extremely helpful and definitely wanted their story to get out, and that's what helped us more than anything else."

Natalia met a young boy in the town of Laputta who lost all his family in the cyclone.

"He managed to cling on to a tree for almost 14 hours and was eventually saved by a local fisherman who got him out.

"I remember sitting in a boat across from him as we were going towards his village and passing all the bodies and destruction on the way and trying to imagine what could possibly be going on in his mind.

"Around 400 people once lived in the village that we visited and we only found about 20 survivors," said Natalia Antelava.

LAURA TREVELYAN

As the days wore on, the news coming from Burma was of people stranded, bodies left uncollected and very little disaster relief by the authorities.

International frustration was growing and pressure was mounting on the General Than Shwe to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He finally he agreed almost two weeks after the cyclone.

Laura Trevelyan, the BBC's UN correspondent, managed to get a place on Mr Ban's plane out of New York.

"What was really fascinating about being part of Ban Ki-moon's official delegation, yet also being a journalist, was that there were absolutely no restrictions at all on what I was able to do."

She had a portable satellite to allow her send her reports back. This equipment was shown to the Burmese authorities and just waved through.

The Burmese government organised a helicopter trip for the UN General Secretary and his delegation to the Irrawaddy Delta.

"We didn't see people suffering. We saw from the air the devastation that the cyclone had caused, but the helicopter landed at what one UN official described furiously as a 'show camp'.

"There were very few people in this camp and the people looked in really reasonably good condition, the camp was completely spick and span."

MATT PRODGER

The BBC's Matt Prodger went to Burma almost a month after the cyclone hit.

A ring of steel surrounded the capital, preventing both aid workers and journalists getting to the disaster areas.

"Although it was very difficult to get to the affected areas, we were able to find out what was happening because on the streets of Rangoon there were pirate DVD stores selling amateur footage from the affected areas.

"There was very little evidence on those DVDs of any organised distribution of aid by the Burmese military or other authorities."

http://news. bbc.co.uk/ 2/hi/asia- pacific/7475059. stm

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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

Editor: Sun Yunlong
http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/ 2008-07/05/ content_8494230. htm

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Burmese State Media Dismiss Aung San Suu Kyi's 1990 Election Win
By VOA News
06 July 2008
 Aung San Suu Kyi (file photo)

Burmese state media have dismissed the 1990 election victory by the opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi, describing it as invalid.

An official newspaper ran a commentary Sunday, saying the recent passage of a military-drafted constitution in a referendum shows that people no longer care about the 1990 results.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper says Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy should prepare for new elections in 2010 instead of clinging to the results of the 1990 vote.

The NLD party won Burma's 1990 election in a landslide, but the country's military leaders refused to recognize the outcome.

The Burmese military says 92 percent of voters endorsed a new constitution that reinforced its hold on power in a May referendum. The NLD rejected that result, accusing the military of vote rigging.

U.S. President George Bush repeated a call Sunday for Burma's military rulers to free NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

Mr. Bush also criticized Burma's response to Cyclone Nargis as "unwarranted. " The Burmese military waited weeks before accepting help from international relief workers to deal with the storm, which left more than 130,000 Burmese dead or missing in May and more than two million others homeless.

The U.S. president was speaking in Japan where he is attending a summit of the Group of Eight major powers that starts Monday.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP. 
http://voanews. com/english/ 2008-07-06- voa34.cfm

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Security Tightened in Rangoon after Bomb Blast
By SAW YAN NAING
Irrawaddy-Friday, July 4, 2008

Burmese authorities have begun deploying security guards around-the-clock at government buildings and at the offices of junta-backed groups following Tuesday’s bomb blast at a Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) office in Rangoon, according to sources close to authorities.

Since Tuesday’s incident at the USDA office in Shwe Pyi Thar Township in the northern outskirts of Rangoon—in which no one was killed—military authorities have increased nighttime patrols in army trucks and have set up checkpoints around the city, as well as urging the public through state-run media to remain alert and to report any suspicious activity, said the sources.

File photo shows members of Burma's special police force on guard in Rangoon. Burmese junta has deploying security guards around-the-clock at government buildings and at the offices of junta-backed groups following Tuesday’s bomb blast in Rangoon. (Photo: AFP)

The chairman of Rangoon City Development Committee, Brig-Gen Aung Thein Linn, who is also an official with junta-backed civic organization USDA, told reporters in Rangoon that members of the USDA will be deployed as security guards around assigned offices and buildings.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, an official from Rangoon City Development Committee who requested anonymity said: “Aung Thein Linn said that he will increase security patrols. All USDA offices will be guarded 24 hours. And members of the USDA will be deployed as security troops.”

A USDA member in Kyauktada Township said that security guards recruited from his organization would undergo security training.

“The Authorities in townships and wards around Rangoon are calling meetings at the moment,” said a member of the Township Peace and Development Council. “They also asked residents to become involved in the security guard training, which will be led by USDA officials.”

Members of the Township Peace and Development Council in Rangoon have been pressuring local authorities in every ward in Rangoon division to form security groups within the next few days, said residents in Hlaing Thayar, Yankin and Pabedan townships.

An armed students’ group in exile, the Vigorous Burma Student Warriors, later claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Irrawaddy correspondent Aung Thet Wine contributed to this report from Rangoon.

http://www.irrawadd y.org/highlight. php?art_id= 13140

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School Children and Teachers Still Finding Hard to Concentrate
By IRIN / KUNGYANGONE
Irrawaddy-Friday, July 4, 2008

A woman teacher, who is 10-year veteran of the profession, 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 Kungyangone, one of the worst-hit townships in Burma's Rangoon 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.

Schoolboys stand in a house damaged by cyclone Nargis and now serving as a temporary school in Mawin village in the Irrawaddy delta. The village's brick schoolhouse was destroyed by Nargis, and a broken blackboard and a tiny Buddha statue are the only reminders that the rubble was once classrooms. (Photo: AFP)

"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 labor.
But with many of the children severely traumatized 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, Kungyangone 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 Laputta and Bogalay, mostly female, were also badly traumatized 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 realize 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 Rangoon, the former capital.

The agency hopes to support the psycho-social training of approximately 3,000 primary teachers in five townships, including Bogalay, Laputta, Mawlamyinegyune, Kawhmu, and Kungyangone.

"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 Burma continue to come in.

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

In the southern Irrawaddy delta, just over 2,000 or 43 percent of all public school buildings were totally or partially damaged, with Bogalay, Laputta and Mawlamyinegyune townships the worst affected.

Moreover, 123 monastic schools were partially damaged.

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

The Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) is a news service that forms part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). But this report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.

http://www.irrawadd y.org/article. php?art_id= 13133&page=2

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The future is about compromising and sharing”

—Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Chulalongkorn University, commenting on the current Thai political crisis

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