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Junta members assassinated at dinner party
Agencies seek to protect Myanmar cyclone orphans
Cyclone-hit Burma farmers unable to return to fields
'Resonant and unwavering'
After Buddhist monks, bloggers are second helpful in Burma
Return of the poppy

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Junta members assassinated at dinner party
By Hseng Khio Fah
No.09-7/2008
14 July 2008
War

Two junta officials in Kholam, Namzang township, southern Shan State, along with two other civilians were shot by unknown gunmen while they were having dinner, according to SHAN sources.

Yesterday evening, at 18:00, Major Aung Thiha and Capt Soe Min Aye from Infantry Battalion#66, based in Kholam and two teak traders (not identified) were shot while having meal at a teak trader’s house. They died instantly, said a source.

“Those unknown gunmen, 3-4 of them shot from the window. It was like they [authorities] were being trailed,” said the source. “There was no one to provide security during the time.”

There had been no other casualty.

No further details have emerged so far.

For more details please contact, 0801260064

http://www.shanland.org/war/2008/junta-members-assassinated-at-dinner-party

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Agencies seek to protect Myanmar cyclone orphans
AP
Sun Jul 13, 1:55 PM ET

Now, 12-year-old Twe Zin Win must try to play the role of mother. Every night, she lulls her little twin sisters to sleep with a soothing lullaby their mother once sang them — before the storm swept away her parents forever.

"Every night I dream about them coming back," says Twe Zin Win, huddled in a tiny thatch hut the orphans share with grandparents, who eke out a hand-to-mouth existence while she cares for her siblings rather than going to school.

The three children are among a still unknown number of orphans coping with hardships — physical and mental — more than two months after Cyclone Nargis raged through Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta, leaving a trail of flattened villages and broken lives.

In an impoverished, military-ruled country with a threadbare social safety net, aid workers are also warning that these orphans of the storm are targets of exploitation, including recruitment into Myanmar's army which has been accused by the U.N., the U.S. and human rights groups of inducting thousands of child soldiers.

"As I have seen from many other countries, including those in Asia and Africa, being orphans simply increases their vulnerability to becoming child soldiers, forced laborers, being trafficked or involved in sex work," says Ashley Clements, a spokesman for the U.S.-based aid group World Vision.

Because of such fears, agencies like World Vision working in the cyclone-devastated region are advocating placement of orphans with surviving relatives, like the grandparents in Twe Zin Win's case, rather than in orphanages.

"The goal is to put in place a mechanism to protect children from neglect, violence, abuse and exploitation," says a statement from the U.N. Children's Fund, which is supporting 51, community-based "child-friendly spaces" to provide education, recreation and other aid to children storm survivors, including orphans.

But orphans like Twe Zin Win have so far had access to neither help nor games from foreign aid groups or Myanmar government agencies.

"Every day my grandmother and I cook for them, wash their clothes, play with them, give them showers and send them to bed," she says of her tasks as a full-time keeper of the 2-year-old siblings, which have forced her to drop out of school.

A few miles away in Thome Gwe village, another 12-year-old girl, Su Myat Swe Yu, remains traumatized by the loss of her parents, a brother, sister and three close relatives on one disastrous night. She and two brothers who also were spared now struggle for survival with their grandfather, a rice farmer who lost his house and livestock — "everything we owned," he said — to the cyclone.

Both families have been approached by strangers from urban areas offering to adopt the children — and both have refused.

"I don't want to give them away. They are my son's children. I have also heard stories about children being bought and sold. My only goal in life now is taking care of my grandchildren," said Su Myat Swe Yu's grandfather, Khim Maung Than.

To deter child trafficking, the government has forbidden adoption of storm orphans. While there have been no reports of children survivors being forced into the military, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch last year detailed the recruitment of thousands of boys as young as 10 to fill shortages in army ranks.

These and similar accusations have been denied by the regime, which says it is trying to stop all human trafficking.

State media said that in mid-June authorities rescued 80 women and children, all cyclone victims, from traffickers scheming to smuggle them into a neighboring country, apparently Thailand.

Disguised as aid workers, the traffickers reportedly took the survivors from the Irrawaddy Delta, where most of the storm's nearly 140,000 dead or missing had lived.

International aid agencies estimate about half the 84,500 officially listed as dead were youngsters but only partial information has been collected on the number of orphans as the Department of Social Welfare and foreign groups continue tracing victims.

UNICEF spokesman Zafrin Chowdhury said the agency has identified 428 separated and unaccompanied children among survivors by the end of June. Clements said that in one village, three of out 10 children he spoke to had lost their parents.

"I don't think this number represents the whole picture, but I have been to different villages in the delta, where a lot of children have lost their fathers, mothers or both," Clements said.

With one of the world's worst health care systems and few social services, Myanmar's government orphanages offer minimal care, and the regime, which exercises tight control over the population, restricts and sometimes punishes private humanitarian efforts.

The one saving grace is an abiding tradition of the closely knit, extended family in which orphans like Twe Zin Win and her sisters are lovingly taken into the homes of relatives.

"My lost daughter has left me her children and I will try to take care of them," said Twe Zin Win's grandmother. And in turn the 12-year-old sacrifices to help her sisters.

"Usually when I sing the song that my mother used to sing they fall asleep more easily," she says. "The song starts with `Oh my children, fall into sleep. Whoever you will become, you must always be brave.' At night they only sleep if I sing that song."

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Cyclone-hit Burma farmers unable to return to fields
ABC News
Posted 7 hours 21 minutes ago

The United Nations have asked for $481.8 million for the aid effort. (AFP Photo)

Kyaw Lwin and his wife stitched together thatch to make a new roof for the bamboo shack they now call home, after their farm was destroyed in the Burma cyclone more than two months ago.
They laboured beneath a plastic sheet, piecing together a roof and their lives with $45 donated by the UN Development Program and whatever resources they can scrape together on their own.

Their village of Kanyinkone in the Irrawaddy Delta, which suffered most of Cyclone Nargis's fury, is among the many farming communities where storm survivors have met their immediate needs, only to now wonder how they will make a living in the future.

Before the storm, Kyaw Lwin said he owned a small shop in addition to his poultry farm and a fishing business in Kanyinkone, a village reachable only after a one-hour boat ride from the nearest town of Labutta.

"We have nothing left. All of my business is gone. I don't know what to do now. My hope is far away," he said.

"The important thing is to get a job first. Everything will be okay after that."

More than 138,000 people are dead or missing after the cyclone struck Burma on May 2, washing away entire villages and flooding fields.

Aid agencies say that their worst fears of hunger and disease in the immediate aftermath of the storm have not materialised, thanks largely to the efforts of local volunteers and the resourcefulness of residents in feeding themselves.

Although the delta is Burma's most important rice growing area, damage to the fields is not as extensive as initially feared.

But in the hardest-hit villages, often in remote areas reachable only by boat, residents are wondering how they will eat if they do not return to work to start growing food.

"Ordinary people like us have nothing except for the assistance from aid groups," farm worker Bo Htay, 44, said.

"Whenever government officials come here, the village headman tells them the reconstruction is complete. It might be complete for him, but it's not for us."

Many rice farmers whose fields were flooded have now missed the main planting season, meaning they will have to buy rice or hope for donations at least until next year.

"Every household is starting life from zero," said 55-year-old Pan, another farmer.

"We want paddy seeds, diesel, power-tillers and draught cattle. We are ready to work. But the problem is we have nothing.

"Now farmers have to ask for rice to eat. We don't want this situation."

The United Nations have asked for $481.8 million for the aid effort, saying that 2 million people had been affected by the storm, but only 1.3 million had actually received any international help.

People in Kanyinkone said they were surviving on rice, beans and other supplies from UN agencies and other donors, but many wondered how long the aid would continue.

"We don't dare throw away even rotten rice. Then if the aid stops, we will have that rotten rice to eat," farmer Thein Myint, 56, said.

"We are ready to grow rice, but many farms are empty."

Ayuna, a 29-year-old Buddhist monk who travelled here from central Burma to escort a group of doctors to the delta, said that worries for the future were hanging over the region.
"The villagers can't do anything now. They are just surviving," he said.

"If they could work, that would ease their mental stress."

- AFP

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'Resonant and unwavering'
Noam Chomsky talks to the 'Bangkok Post' about the Vietnam War, Burma and the future of the human race
Bangkok Post
Story by STUART ALAN BECKER

He opposed the Vietnam War long before it was fashionable to do so. He revolutionised the field of linguistics and helped spark the cognitive revolution in psychology. He changed the way scientists approach the study of the human mind.

His "Chomsky Hierarchy" is taught in basic computer science because it offers insight into the nature of how languages are structured. His theories of Generative and Universal Grammar indicate that the human mind comes hard-wired with default settings that enable infants to quickly learn any language spoken around them.

When the US dropped the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Chomsky walked off into the woods to be alone and contemplate what he later called "one of the most unspeakable crimes in history".

For the last 50 years Avram Noam Chomsky, now in his 80th year, has been a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was voted No. 1 in the 2005 Global Intellectuals Poll, a list of the 100 most important living public intellectuals, compiled in November, 2005 by Prospect Magazine of the UK and Foreign Policy of the US on the basis of a readers' ballot consisting of more than 20,000 votes.

Chomsky was followed by, in order, Unberto Eco, Richard Dawkins, Vaclav Havel, Christopher Hitchens, Paul Krugman, Jurgen Habermas, Amartya Sen, Jared Diamond and Salman Rushdie. Further evidence of the quality and resonance of his work comes from the 1992 Arts and Humanities Citation Index, which noted Chomsky was cited as a source more often than any other living scholar from the 1980 to 1992 period, and was the eighth-most cited scholar during any period.

Because of his universal appeal and academic accolades, Chomsky is highly desired as a lecturer and speaker almost everywhere in the world, giving him a unique ability like few people have to cut across all political lines and be welcome and desired everywhere, if for no other reason than you can't help but respect somebody whose convictions are resonant and unwavering, even if you disagree with them.

Chomsky took the time to answer questions for the Bangkok Post, providing some fascinating answers about the Vietnam War and the current situation in Burma.

You opposed the Vietnam War long before it was fashionable. When and why did you make that decision? Do you feel you made a difference?

I opposed the Vietnam war from the mid-1940s, when the French invaded, a few years later receiving direct US support. But I did not do much beyond signing statements and the like until 1962, when the back pages of the New York Times casually reported that the US Air Force was flying a large proportion of the bombing missions against South Vietnam, with the planes disguised with SVN markings. At that point I realised that I had better learn more about this, began to look into it more carefully, and had to make a hard decision. I had enough experience with political activism to know that if I became involved, it would soon grow to be a major undertaking, with few limits, and I would have to give up a lot that meant a great deal to me. I decided to plunge in, not without reluctance. It took years of hard and painful work of protest and resistance before a real anti-war movement developed. There is no doubt that it made a difference. One illustration comes from the Pentagon Papers, the final section, dealing with the immediate reaction to the Tet revolt; in imperial terminology, it is called the "Tet offensive", on the tacit assumption that a revolt against our military occupation is aggression. The government considered sending several hundred thousand more troops to South Vietnam, but decided not to because of concern that they would need the troops for civil disorder control at home in the likely event of a mass uprising of unprecedented proportions. We also know that by then 70 per cent of the US population felt that the war was "fundamentally wrong and immoral", not "a mistake" - while intellectual elites debated whether Washington's "bungling efforts to do good" were a "mistake" that was becoming too costly to us (Anthony Lewis of the New York Times, at the outer limits of dissidence within the mainstream).

How much any one individual contributed to the radical change of consciousness and understanding, and the willingness to do something about state crimes, it is hard to say.

You have said the US played a significant role in actions that led to the installation of the Burmese junta back in 1962. What's the subtext, the background we're not understanding: What are the consequences of the enormous UK investment in Burma, of earlier US weapons sales, of recent Israeli weapons sales to the junta - and of Chevron Oil's continued supply of millions and millions of dollars in oil money to the junta?

Burma had one of the few elected governments in the region in the 1950s, and was intent on pursuing a neutralist course. The Eisenhower administration was carrying out vigorous efforts to enlist the governments in the region into its Cold War crusades. As part of this broad campaign of subversion and violence, Washington installed thousands of heavily armed Chinese Nationalist troops in northern Burma to carry out cross-border operations into China. Burma vigorously objected, but in vain. The China forces began arming and supporting insurgent minorities in that turbulent region. In reaction, power within Burma began to shift to the military, leading finally to the 1962 coup. The matter is discussed by Audrey and George Kahin, Subversion as Foreign Policy. George Kahin was one of the leading Southeast Asian scholars, virtually the founder of the academic discipline in the US. The consequences of the US-UK-Israeli operations you describe are, of course, to strengthen the military junta. These matters are unreported and unknown in the US, apart from specialists and activists, because they interfere too dramatically with the doctrine that "we are good" and "they are evil", the foundation of virtually every state propaganda system.

Do you think there's any chance of a popular uprising being successful in Burma, or do you think those who rise up will only be slaughtered because there's no advantage for the generals to give up their power?

I do not know enough to be able to answer with any confidence, but I suspect that now it would be a slaughter. On the other hand, the military leaders are ageing, and there may be popular forces developing that can erode their power from within.

Was the Kingdom of Thailand morally justified to host US military bases during the Vietnam War? What lasting effects did the Vietnam War have for Thailand and the region? Is that part of why Thailand is an island of relative easy life, compared to neighbours with more severe problems?

Thailand's involvement in the US wars in Indochina was a disgrace. I presume Thais, at least some of them, made profit from their participation in the destruction of Indochina. I know that Japan and particularly South Korea gained very substantially. It helped spur their "economic miracles". To evaluate the lasting effects we have to imagine what Southeast Asia would have been without the sadistic Western (mostly US) interventions of the postwar period - not to speak of what happened before. That's a topic for a carefully researched book, not a brief discussion - and it would still be highly speculative, by necessity.

Do you find George W. Bush and his wife Laura calling for change in Burma insincere? Do you think the US president's action on behalf of the suffering and the marginalised in Burma in the wake of Cyclone Nargis would be more justifiable on moral grounds than the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan?

Bush likes to posture as a deeply religious Christian. Perhaps he has even looked at the Gospels. If so, he knows that the famous definition of the hypocrite in the Gospels could have been written with him in mind. One can think of all kinds of ways in which the Bush couple could show their sincerity, were it to exist.

If Saddam Hussein had given some money to hungry children it would have been more justifiable on moral grounds than his gassing of Kurds in Halabja. The same principles hold in the case of Negris vs Iraq-Afghanistan.

What do you think China's reaction would be if an internal uprising in Burma was successful?

China would likely tolerate, maybe even welcome, the overthrowing of the junta. There was, of course, a significant US role in actions that elicited the military coup that installed the still-ruling tyranny. But I don't know how much that bears on the present situation either.

Can you offer any insight into the behaviour of the Burmese generals, their motivations and how things are likely to work out for the people of Burma?

The rulers have a good thing going for themselves, nothing to gain by yielding power and no major risks in using it violently. So that's what they'll probably do, until the military erodes from within. Mass non-violent protest is predicated on the humanity of the oppressor. Quite often it doesn't work. Sometimes it does, in unexpected ways. But judgements about that would have to be based on intimate knowledge of the society and its various strands.

If a regime is so terrible that its generals loot the wealth of the country's resources for their personal gain, carry out murders, political imprisonment and forced labour, is there a moral justification for an armed uprising of the suffering people?

There certainly is, in my view, with one qualification: An armed uprising would have to evaluate with care the likely consequences for the people who are suffering. I think it's appropriate for people to rise up, but it's not for me to tell people to risk mass murder. As for assassinating leaders, the question is very much like asking whether it is appropriate to kill murderers. They should be apprehended by non-violent means, if possible. If they pull a gun and start shooting, it's legitimate to kill them in self-defence, if there is no lesser option.

Would you give any examples of what could happen if the principle of universality were applied in the world today, between nations that are in conflict?

One example is that Bush, Cheney, Blair, and a host of others would be facing Nuremberg-style tribunals. And the observation generalises very broadly.

What are the greatest dangers facing our human species in the world today and what can we most effectively do about them?

There are two dangers that could reach as far as survival of the species: Nuclear war and environmental disaster.

About nuclear war, we know exactly what to do. In fact, the World Court has ruled that it is a legal obligation of the signers of the non-proliferation treaty to live up to their obligation to eliminate all nuclear weapons. And the non-signers can be brought in as well. To give an example that is highly relevant right now, the US population is overwhelmingly in favour of establishing a nuclear-weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East, including Iran and Israel. The US and the UK are formally committed to this policy. When they tried to construct a thin legal cover for their invasion of Iraq, they appealed to Security Council resolution 687, which calls upon Iraq to eliminate weapons of mass destruction. The US-UK invaders claimed that it had not done so. Resolution 687 also commits the signers to establish an NWFZ in the region. If the US were a functioning democracy, in which public opinion influenced policy, the exceedingly hazardous confrontation between the US and Iran could be mitigated, perhaps terminated.

Naturally, none of this can be reported or discussed, and it is inconceivable that any viable political candidate would even hint at the stand of the overwhelming majority of the population. One may recall a remark of Gandhi's when he was asked what he thought of Western civilisation. His response was that it might be a good idea. The same is true of "democracy promotion", which, if sincere, would begin at home.

How to stave off the threat of severe environmental catastrophe is less clear, though some measures are obvious: Conservation, research and development of renewable energy, measures to cut back emissions sharply, and others. What is eminently clear is that the longer we delay in addressing these problems, the more grave will be the consequences for future generations.

Stuart Alan Becker, author and a longtime journalist in Asia, is working on a history of US foreign policy since World War Two, and a book containing a lively exchange of correspondence with Professor Chomsky, called 'Letters to Chomsky'.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/140708_Outlook/14Jul2008_out47.php

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After Buddhist monks, bloggers are second helpful in Burma
Diary Entry by Ashin Mettacara

Shelters in Kanyintabin village built by bloggers

buiding the new houses in Seik Kan Thar Laygone village

Buddhist monks have given food and shelter to the cyclone survivors and have raised money, medicine and aid by preaching Dhamma in public to help the people in need. Like the Buddhist monks, some bloggers are also helping the victims by raising money from blogs.

Some bloggers are reporting news to the world and some are helping the people. My friend blogger Ko Soe Zayya and four other bloggers have recently organized a Private Volunteer Group for Nargis Cyclone Victims under the name of Handy. They have been to the Irrawaddy delta and are building there shelters and houses for the survivors. " They will build 29 houses in Seik Kan Thar Laygone village and 15 houses are completed" said Soe zayya, a burmese blogger.

They have already built many shelter houses for survivors in Kanyintabin village and Kammalartabin Chaung village.

http://ashinmettacara-eng.blogspot.com/ 

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Save Burma

I was born in Wun Tho, Sagaing Division, Burma in 16/04/1982. I was ordained a novice in 1994 and a monk in 2000. I studied Buddhism at Khanti Pariyatti Monastery (Wun Tho, Sagaing Division, Burma), Wayalet Pariyatti Monastery (Rangoon, Burma) and Man Aung Monastery (Rangoon, Burma). I passed Buddhist examinations known as Pathamange, Pathamalatt, Pathamagyi in Burma. I arrived Colombo, Sri Lanka on 9th May, 2004. I studied B.A and M.A programme in Colombo, Sri Lanka and has successfully completed B.A and M.A from the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka. While I was studying in the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka, in September 2007, there was a Saffron Revolution in Burma. The military regime cracked down the peaceful protestors who mostly are Buddhist monks. As I could not reconcile myself with the current military regime's brutal crackdown to our Buddhist monks, peaceful protestors and human rights abuses, I became involved in the Burmese politics as an exile.

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Return of the poppy
By Subin Khuenkaew

Contrary to the popular belief that the illegal growing of opium has dwindled in Thailand, the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) reports the opposite is true for this source of heroin.

Authorities are having a tough time suppressing narcotics in the North, with illegal opium poppy fields increasing but being better hidden and a new breed of high-yield poppy being grown.

Pitaya Jinawat, the deputy secretary-general of the ONCB, told a recent workshop on opium control in Chiang Mai that in the past two years the poppy growing areas in Southeast Asia had decreased, except in Burma and Thailand, where more is being grown.

Although Burma has 100 times more land planted with poppy, the problem in Thailand is no less serious, he said, citing statistics from other Southeast Asian nations and the European Union.

Mr Pitaya said the area planted with poppies in Thailand jumped from 700 rai in 2004 to 1,200 rai this year. Opium poppies are grown in 125 villages in 35 districts of 11 provinces, mostly in the North. Chiang Mai's Omkoi district is the largest poppy growing area.

Between 1984 and 1985, opium poppies were planted on more than 54,000 rai of land in the country. But the area shrank to less than 7,000 rai by 2000 due to persistent crackdowns by the military and the promotion of substitution crops.

With limited poppy output, most of the production was consumed by the growers, who were hilltribe people. There was a shortage of opium inside the country and for export.

Poppy growing continued declining in Thailand until last year, when the cultivated area rose to 1,200 rai from 700 rai nationwide in 2004.

The first poppy crops are harvested between October and December. Poppies grow to a height of about 100cm and their flowers are mostly violet.

Highlanders grow this species of poppy not too far from their houses and collect the opium for household consumption.

The second crop, which is for sale, is planted and harvested between November and February. This crop produces large amounts of opium.

Experts agree that people are growing more opium poppy because of the slowing economy.

In parts of Shan state in Burma, drug barons support the poppy growers and even promise to buy the opium at guaranteed prices.

In the North of Thailand, some highlanders evade crackdowns by planting their poppies in small patches instead of over large areas of land, as was the tradition.

Poppy growers in 11 northern provinces are preparing to secretly plant their crops on the mountains and opium cultivation is expected to start in October.

Highlanders in some border areas in Thailand have received seeds for a new breed of opium poppy which delivers higher yields and is more weather resistant.

Burmese businessmen and drug barons supplied the seeds.

The ONCB relies on aerial photos to find poppy crops in the mountains and the army is then set in on foot to destroy the plants.

Third Army chief Samroeng Siwadamrong said soldiers were asked to trek into remote mountains to search for poppy crops.

He admits the crops are hard to detect in these areas because the growers keep moving to new locations.

The Third Army will start destroying next season's crops in November.

The ONCB assists the military by pinpointing the spots which are hidden in difficult terrain and valleys.

"Sometimes the ONCB informs us of five crops of five rai each. But when we get there, we find many more crops," Lt-Gen Samroeng said.

Officials said growers used sprinklers and fertiliser to improve productivity, reflecting a greater sophistication in their growing methods.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=128855

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