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HEADLINES
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AP - UN to end Myanmar aid flights on Aug. 10
AP - Groups worried about end to Myanmar relief flights
AP - US says ASEAN engagement of Myanmar not successful, but praises efforts to press for change
AFP - Families hang onto hope for Myanmar's cyclone missing
AFP - Myanmar should release political detainees: SEAsian officials
AFP - ASEAN Ministers Will Discuss Rising Food and Oil Prices
Reuters - Myanmar ratifies ASEAN charter: Singapore minister
Straits Times - George Yeo gives Asean... C grade for its handling of Myanmar issues
EARTHtimes.org - Myanmar Martyrs' Day downgraded
Bloomberg - UN Triples Aid Appeal for Myanmar Farmers in Cyclone-Hit Region
ReliefWeb - Canadian Red Cross aid worker returns from Myanmar cyclone zone
Xinhua - ASEAN organization proposes to reconserve cyclone-destroyed sanctuary
guardian.co. uk - Burmese opposition ready to escalate pro-democracy fight
All Africa Global Media - Al-Bashir Case - Will the ICC Cast Its Net to Myanmar and South America? [opinion]
Irrawaddy - Japan Monitoring Aid Distribution to Burma
Mizzima News - NLD determined to observe Martyrs' Day at any cost
Mizzima News - Four NLD members arrested
DVB News - NLD warned not to celebrate Martyrs' Day
DVB News - Forced labour on road reconstruction

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UN to end Myanmar aid flights on Aug. 10
By ELIZA BATES, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jul 18, 7:31 AM ET

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - A United Nations decision to end aid flights to Myanmar next month could hurt relief efforts already struggling to reach millions of survivors with adequate food and water, humanitarian groups said Friday.

The U.N. plans to stop aid flights between Thailand's Don Muang airport and Myanmar's commercial capital, Yangon, on Aug. 10 and withdraw the last five U.N. helicopters that have been ferrying relief supplies to the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta. Five other helicopters have already stopped flying.

Without the helicopters, relief groups will be forced to depend on boats and trucks to get supplies to the delta. The cargo at Don Muang will be transported by sea.

"It is a bit of a blow not to have the helicopters guaranteed," World Vision emergency coordination specialist Ashley Clements said by telephone from Myanmar.

"We're already dealing with a load that we didn't have enough helicopters for, so now the pressure will be compounded even more," he said. "If we have to go by road it means that supplies will be delayed."

Christine Kahmann, a spokeswoman for Action Against Hunger, agreed that ending the flights would hurt the relief effort.

The U.N. World Food Program's Paul Risley said the move to end the flights is a routine step as relief efforts in Myanmar shift to reconstruction following the May 2-3 cyclone that killed 84,537 people and left 53,836 more missing, according to the government.

The U.N. helicopters have allowed relief workers to reach remote stretches of the flooded delta that were cut off when the cyclone hit.

U.N. officials and aid groups have criticized Myanmar's military junta for its slow response to the disaster and for restricting access to the delta, saying it prevented enough food, water and shelter from reaching survivors.

The U.N. says many survivors still lack adequate food and water.

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said last week that one out of two families in Myanmar have food supplies of only about one day or less and some 60,000 children are at risk of malnutrition. He said the cyclone wiped out 42 percent of the nation's overall food stocks.

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Groups worried about end to Myanmar relief flights
Fri Jul 18, 5:51 AM ET

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Humanitarian groups say the ending of United Nations aid flights in Myanmar next month could slow a relief effort that already has come under fire for leaving many of the 2.4 million survivors without adequate food and water.

The U.N. plans to end an air link between Thailand's Don Muang airport and Myanmar Aug. 10 as well as withdrawal five helicopters that have ferrying relief supplies to the hard hit Irrawaddy delta.

The U.N. claims the move is a routine step in the relief efforts as Myanmar begins to shift into reconstructing villages, schools and the agriculture sector in the delta where 84,537 were killed and 53,836 more are missing.

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US says ASEAN engagement of Myanmar not successful, but praises efforts to press for change
AP - Friday, July 18

WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. official says the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations recognizes that a strategy of engagement to encourage more democracy in military-led Myanmar has not been successful.

U.S. Ambassador to ASEAN Scot Marciel added Thursday that he was not being critical; other efforts to force change in Myanmar also have foundered. He says the United States welcomes ASEAN members who have been working to encourage Myanmar to open up.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travels to Singapore next week for the ASEAN Regional Forum. Myanmar is likely to be a topic of discussion.

Marciel is praising ASEAN for its forceful, ``unprecedented' ' statement of criticism of Myanmar's violent crackdown on peaceful protesters last year.

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Families hang onto hope for Myanmar's cyclone missing
by Hla Hla Htay
AFP - Saturday, July 19

OHNPINSU, Myanmar (AFP) - Khin Nyo San dashes from her tent to the nearby shack serving as a school, splashing down a muddy path in the desperate hope that a visitor from Yangon might have news of her missing child.

"Please help me find my daughter, I beg you. She is five years old and a very clever girl. She can easily tell you where she lives," the 39-year-old mother whispered to a visiting AFP reporter.

"If you write about her, people from the rescue camp would tell me if they saw my daughter. Her name is Aye Myat Thu," she said.

The missing child is just one of almost 54,000 people still unaccounted for more than two months after cyclone Nargis tore into Myanmar.

More than 84,000 are confirmed dead, but for people like Khin Nyo San, who have not been able to find the bodies of their loved ones, every passing day is a torment of dread that they may eventually have to give up hope.

When the cyclone sent floodwaters surging through their village of Ohnpinsu in the Irrawaddy Delta, their home was washed away, said Khin Nyo San, and she clung to her daughter with one arm and her three-month- old son with the other, battling against the current to keep them from drowning.

She eventually found a relative in a small boat and hoisted her daughter aboard.

The rest of her memories from that night are a swirl of darkness and fatigue. She never saw the boat or her daughter again.

"If she had stayed in my arms, she would have survived. My three-month- old son survived in my arms. Now I have no idea where she is," Khin Nyo San said in tears.

The Red Cross and the military government are using state radio to broadcast the names of children and others separated from their families.

For thousands of people these broadcasts are a beacon of hope for reuniting with their families, but in Ohnpinsu, which was nearly wiped off the map by the storm, radios are now a luxury enjoyed by few people.

Ohnpinsu is reachable only by a 30-minute boat ride from the nearest town of Labutta. While the village is only 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Myanmar's main city Yangon, reaching here takes more than a day of arduous travel.

Any visitor is a source of news, and residents gather round to ask if their loved ones' names have been heard on the radio.

"Some people said they heard my mother's name on the radio news. That's why I'm still looking for her," said vendor Khin Hlaing, 47.

"I pray to Buddha every day that I will be able to see my mother," she said.

-- Denial the only way to cope --

Khin Hlaing's father survived the storm, but when the family couldn't find her mother as they sifted through the debris, he fell into a depression and stopped eating. He died nine days later.

"I was able to hold a funeral for my father but I haven't heard anything about my mother. I didn't think she could have survived after two months, but hope came back after I heard that her name was announced on the radio," she said, weeping openly.

But even if her mother did make it into a shelter, and was identified by officials, Khin Hlaing has no money or transport to go and collect her from the emergency camp.
Others here freely admit that denial is the only way they can cope with their loss.

"I know that my mum couldn't survive after two months," said Maung Htwe, 18, as he cooked rice for the rest of the family in the shack they cobbled together from storm debris.

"My mother cannot swim and she was afraid whenever a strong wind came. But I pretend nothing happened to me because I can see others who lost their entire families. Many people suffered worse than me," he said.

"Now I just believe that she's travelling somewhere," he added.

The United Nations estimates that 22 percent of the 2.4 million severely affected by cyclone Nargis are suffering from post-traumatic stress.

"We are counselling them as much as we can. Their stress would ease if we could ensure that they will have enough food tomorrow, if we could help them re-start their businesses," said Zaw Soe Hteik, a 23-year-old medical doctor who came from the central city of Mandalay to help storm victims.

Some in the village even said they would feel better if they had life jackets.

"I want the government to give us life boats, even life jackets. Then we could survive if there is another storm," said Kyaw Hlain, a 57-year-old fisherman.

When the floodwaters destroyed his home, he held onto his daughter for 30 minutes as they swam for their lives, he said.

"I can still hear my daughter begging, 'Dad, please save me'. She died while I carried her on my shoulder, when the third wave hit her."

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Myanmar should release political detainees: SEAsian officials
AFP - Saturday, July 19

SINGAPORE, July 18, 2008 (AFP) - Myanmar should release all political detainees, senior Southeast Asian officials said Friday in a recommendation to their foreign ministers ahead of a two-day meeting next week.

If endorsed, the recommendation would signal a toughening of the bloc's attitude and would be included in a joint statement to be issued after the meeting of ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) starting Sunday.

The proposals on Myanmar, an ASEAN member, also call on the junta "to take bolder steps in what they're doing to move along the roadmap to democracy," a senior official said.

ASEAN operates according to a longstanding policy of non-interference in its members' internal affairs and has been widely criticised for its policy of "constructive engagement" regarding Myanmar, which is under European Union and US sanctions over its human rights record.

"We felt we should say a little bit more than usual, unlike before, when we just take whatever they say," the official said.

He said the Myanmar officials did not want any political developments mentioned in the draft, but as everybody else did they had no choice.

Myanmar's detainees include democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held under house arrest for most of the past 18 years.

Myanmar was also criticised internationally for its delay in allowing foreign aid into the country after a May 2-3 cyclone that left 138,000 people dead or missing.

It subsequently allowed aid workers to enter under an arrangement with ASEAN and the United Nations.

Military-ruled Myanmar will accede next week to the ASEAN Charter, which commits Southeast Asian nations to notions of democracy and human rights, Singapore's foreign minister said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

The charter commits ASEAN members "to strengthen democracy, enhance good governance and the rule of law, and to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms."

Myanmar's foreign minister is expected to brief his peers about recent political developments in his country as well as the continuing post-cyclone efforts, a Southeast Asian diplomat told AFP.

Just seven days after the cyclone, Myanmar insisted on holding a referendum on a military-backed constitution.

It said that despite the devastation, 98 percent of voters turned out for the ballot and more than 92 percent endorsed their constitution.

The opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi dismissed the referendum outcome as a "sham."

Myanmar says the constitution will clear the way for democratic elections in two years, but critics say it will only enshrine military rule.

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ASEAN Ministers Will Discuss Rising Food and Oil Prices
AFP - Friday, July 18

Ministers from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are expected to hammer out possible solutions to rising oil and food prices amid warnings inflation could threaten political stability, officials said.

The problem, if left unchecked, could pose a challenge to the region's long-term aim of evolving into a European Union-style community where goods and services are freely traded across the region by 2015, they said.

At meetings to begin Sunday night, the ministers were to discuss "the growing challenge posed by rising oil and food prices, which pose a serious challenge to our people's welfare as well as our countries' continued economic development, " according to a draft joint communique obtained by AFP.

The ministers were expected to push for more concerted cooperation "to ensure the efficient functioning of market forces," as well as come up with a longer-term solution to help members become more independent agriculturally, the draft said.

Foreign ministers from ASEAN countries Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are to meet for ministerial talks on Sunday.

Their discussions lead up to the region's main security meeting, with dialogue partners including the United States, on Thursday.

Prices of basic commodities across the region, including the staple rice, have risen steeply amid a supply crunch coupled with surging world oil prices.

Rice-importing countries such as the Philippines have particularly felt the pressure. President Gloria Arroyo recently ordered the military's intelligence service to check on groups that may exploit the issue and create "disturbances. "

Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo, who chairs the meeting, said in an interview that there is interest in ASEAN to ensure rice is sold within the bloc first if there is a price spike or shortage.

ASEAN members Thailand and Vietnam are the world's top two rice exporters.

"There's no reason why, as Southeast Asia, we should be exporting our rice to the world when there are parts of the region that are short of rice," Yeo said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

ASEAN secretary general Surin Pitsuwan told reporters during a visit to Manila recently that trade and finance ministers from the region have separately been working on a food security plan.

"(The ministers) have deliberated on this, and how to make this relevant because of the oil price," he said, noting that stocks of rice remain sound at the moment.

"The panic gear is over and the (price of) rice has gone down," he stressed. "The issue of food security is being revisited, recalibrated and analysed."

Another senior Southeast Asian official separately said ASEAN has agreed in principle to hold a food summit proposed by Indonesia for later this year.

Military-ruled Myanmar will officially accede next week to the ASEAN Charter, which commits Southeast Asian nations to notions of democracy and human rights, Yeo said.

Myanmar's accession means just three of ASEAN's 10 members still need to ratify the deal.

"That leaves Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, " Yeo said.

ASEAN ministers were also expected to reiterate commitments to "push ahead" with free trade agreements with dialogue partners Australia and New Zealand, the EU and India, the draft said.

ASEAN was also "looking forward" to the early entry into force of a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with Japan, it said.

"Besides economic benefits, the FTAs between ASEAN and its dialogue partners are also strategic linkages that will bind our regions even closer together," it said.

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Myanmar ratifies ASEAN charter: Singapore minister
Fri Jul 18, 5:05 AM ET

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar has ratified a charter by Southeast Asian nations that aims to create an economic bloc of half a billion people, Singapore's foreign minister said in remarks published on Friday.

"Myanmar has recently ratified it and will be announcing it next week officially," Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview published on the ministry's website http://www.mfa. gov.sg.

Representatives from ASEAN's 10-member countries will meet in Singapore next week to discuss the early ratification of the charter and the creation of a human rights body.

Often dismissed as a talking shop, ASEAN signed the charter last November with the aim of creating an economically, socially and politically integrated bloc by 2015.

Only Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia have not ratified the charter, whose soft deadline is in December. Some members of the Philippines senate have threatened to block the ratification of the charter unless Myanmar releases democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

But Yeo said he was confident the charter would be fully ratified by the end of the year.

"I'm not pessimistic about the Philippines, I fully expect that the charter would be fully ratified by the time of the next summit at the end of the year."

ASEAN's members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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George Yeo gives Asean... C grade for its handling of Myanmar issues
The Straits Times - July 18, 2008
By Leslie Koh

IF ASEAN were a class in school, it would probably get a C for a crucial test of its abilities: handling Myanmar in the wake of the cyclone disaster.

The grading comes from the class leader, Singapore, which has chaired the regional grouping for the past year.

Despite what some saw as a slow response at first, the 10-nation grouping acquitted itself well, eventually persuading Myanmar's junta to allow foreign aid in.

It helped facilitate the creation of independent assessment teams, which spread out across the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta to check the extent of the damage. They found that villagers were recovering better than initially thought.

'We feared the worst initially but it turned out not to be an F grading,' Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo told reporters this week.

'Certainly not an A or B, but I would say on the whole, with Asean's assistance, and Asean taking the lead in bringing humanitarian assistance into Myanmar, we could give ourselves a C grading.'

Mr Yeo did not grade Asean's overall performance under Singapore's chairmanship, but Myanmar-related issues loomed large in the past year.

When the Republic took over the rotating Asean chair last August, the biggest goals then were speeding up integration, ratifying a charter to establish the grouping as a legal body, and laying out common rules and goals on issues such as security and human rights.

Ultimately, however, one country came to dominate the agenda.

Myanmar's crackdown on street protests last September and the cyclone in May put Asean through the hardest test: How to keep that fine balance between a longstanding principle of non-interference in member nations' domestic affairs, and yet not come across as a pushover.

Myanmar promises to continue to top the agenda over the next few days, as Asean leaders meet for the 41st Asean Ministerial Meeting at the Shangri-La hotel here and discuss post-cyclone recovery efforts, among other things.

One of the biggest events in Asean's annual diary, it started yesterday with meetings of Asean senior officials, and ends next Thursday with the Asean Regional Forum.

Singapore will hand the chair to Thailand, as foreign ministers and top officials from the region and beyond thrash out outstanding issues, such as the ratifying of the Asean Charter, and grab the opportunity to work out bilateral deals.

Amid continuing criticism of Asean's validity and doubts cast about its aim to form a single market by 2015, Mr Yeo defended the bloc's lofty goals when he spoke to reporters ahead of the summit earlier this week.

All the member countries benefited from a strong Asean, he said. Even Myanmar had shown that it wanted to remain a member of the 'Asean family' - despite being condemned by the bloc last year for its violent crackdown on anti-government street protests in Yangon.

Said Mr Yeo: 'Even though they know that whenever they come, they get an earful from the other family members, they still turn up and they do not want to be excluded. That itself is a good sign.'

While some countries want Asean to take a stronger line on Myanmar, many back the bloc's softer stance of continuing engagement.

Senior research fellow Yeo Lay Hwee at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs believes Asean had managed to keep the fine balance in handling the Yangon crackdown and cyclone disaster, despite wide criticism.

'Singapore has done fairly well as the chair of Asean under rather difficult circumstances, ' she said.

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EARTHtimes.org - Myanmar Martyrs' Day downgraded
Posted : Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:18:01 GMT

Yangon - Myanmar's Martyr's Day, commemorating the deaths of nine independence heroes including Aung San - the father of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, will be downgraded this year from a national to a city-level ceremony, sources said Friday. Martyr's Day is a national holiday commemorating the assassination of Aung San, his brother Ba Win, six cabinet ministers and three others on July 19, 1947, on the orders of rival politician U Saw.

In the past a ceremony marking the assassination was held at the Martyr's Mausoleum in Yangon presided over by the Minister of Culture, but on Saturday for the first time the event will be only hosted by Yangon Mayor Brigadier General Aung Thein Linn, said an official at the Yangon City Authority, who asked to remain anonymous.

Invitations to foreign diplomats to attend the ceremony have been cancelled, an Asian diplomat confirmed.

No official reason for the downgrading of the ceremony has been announced.

Aung San, who was only 32 when he died in a hail of bullets, is still a revered figure in Myanmar, as the founder of the military and one of the key players in winning Myanmar independence from the British, which was granted months after his death in 1948.

Myanmar's current military leaders, who have ruled the country since 1988 under the equivalent of martial law, are known to have mixed feelings about Aung San and his family.

Aung San's daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, returned to Myanmar in 1988 after years studying abroad to tend her ailing mother and got swept up in nationwide anti-military demonstrations that year that forced former strongman General Ne Win to resign.

Ne Win put an end to Myanmar's brief fling with democracy in 1962, when he toppled Myanmar's first elected Prime Minister U Nu with a coup and launched the country along the economically disastrous Burmese Way to Socialism.

Although Aung San is remembered as the founder of the Myanmar military, which became a separate force in 1942, Ne Win is seen as the father of the military dictatorship that has lorded over the country since 1962.

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UN Triples Aid Appeal for Myanmar Farmers in Cyclone-Hit Region
By Paul Tighe

July 18 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations food agency tripled its aid appeal for farmers in Myanmar's rice-producing region devastated by Cyclone Nargis, saying three-quarters of them are short of seeds needed for the planting season.

The Food and Agriculture Organization wants $33.5 million to help farmers in the delta where food production may be reduced by almost one-third this year. The agency originally asked for $10 million in aid.

``With a reduced harvest unlikely to meet the needs of the affected population, food security will depend on providing support to farming households in alternative crop strategies,' ' said Ann Bauer, director of the FAO's Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division.

Nargis struck the southern Irrawaddy River Delta in May, causing a tidal surge that left more than 138,000 people dead or missing and 2.4 million requiring assistance.

Myanmar needs aid to ensure that farmers are able to plant crops by the end of the season in August, the UN said last month.

More than 780,000 hectares (1.9 million acres) of rice paddy fields were flooded and 90 percent of seed stock destroyed by the cyclone, the FAO estimates.

Livestock, fishing, agriculture and forestry-based industries need to be restored, Bauer said, according to a statement. As many as 100,000 people in the fishing industry have been affected, according to the FAO.

Rice Output

At least 52,000 farmers need support to plant 183,000 hectares of paddy fields by August. At historical yields, that represents about 500,000 tons of rice, or 2 percent of Myanmar's average annual output, Albert Lieberg, an FAO consultant, said last month.

The UN said July 10 as many as 74 percent of people in the delta have inadequate access to clean water. The UN Children's Fund is leading efforts to provide water purification tablets and kits, the UN's IRIN news agency reported.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies earlier this month increased its appeal for Myanmar's recovery program to 74 million Swiss francs ($72 million) from 53 million francs.

International aid was slow to reach survivors as Myanmar's military junta, which has ruled the country formerly known as Burma since 1962, delayed permission for relief workers to visit the delta until about three weeks after the cyclone struck.

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ReliefWeb - Canadian Red Cross aid worker returns from Myanmar cyclone zone
Source: Canadian Red Cross
Date: 17 Jul 2008

(July 17, 2008 – OTTAWA) Canadian Red Cross aid worker Luc Dumoulin has recently returned from Myanmar after working with the Red Cross relief effort for over a month following Cyclone Nargis, which devastated large parts of the country on May 2. Dumoulin provided logistics support for the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies operation.

Over 27,000 Myanmar Red Cross Society volunteers and staff, supported by over 30 disaster response experts from the International Federation, have provided relief to half a million survivors, eighty per cent in the worst-hit Ayeyarwady (Irrawady) Delta region.

'We've had roughly three flights of aid a week arriving in Myanmar since soon after the cyclone hit,' says Dumoulin. 'Between air and sea freight, we've been able to bring in over 2,500 tonnes of supplies to distribute to people in need.'

Estimates show that 95 per cent of houses in the affected delta region were destroyed, and more than one million people are homeless.

The Canadian Red Cross managed the delivery of 2,000 shelter kits from the Government of Canada in May and will continue to support the International Federation's relief effort. With official numbers of 84,500 dead and nearly 54,000 still missing, the International Federation is projecting a recovery process of at least three years.

'The generous contributions from Canadians and the Government of Canada have allowed life-saving supplies like shelter kits, hygiene kits, water purification tablets, blankets, mosquito nets to prevent malaria, and other items to reach to the Myanmar Red Cross for distribution to the most vulnerable,' says Dumoulin.

'Thousands of Myanmar Red Cross volunteers have been working seven days a week to help the people - many of them family, friends and neighbours - affected by this disaster. It has been an extraordinary effort and the Canadian Red Cross will continue to support them as the focus shifts from emergency response to a longer term recovery plan that will see lives and communities rebuilt, and livelihoods restored. The operation is well underway, but considering the extent of the damage there is still a long road ahead.'

Canadians wishing to make a financial donation may give online at www.redcross. ca, call 1-800-418-1111 or contact their local Canadian Red Cross office. The 24-hour toll free line accepts Visa, MasterCard and American Express. Cheques should be made payable to the Canadian Red Cross, earmarked 'Myanmar Cyclone' and mailed to the Canadian Red Cross National Office, 170 Metcalfe Street, Suite 300, Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 2P2.

The Canadian Red Cross is a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which includes the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and 186 national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Our mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity in Canada and around the world.

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ASEAN organization proposes to reconserve cyclone-destroyed sanctuary
www.chinaview. cn  2008-07-18 20:57:26

YANGON, July 18 (Xinhua) -- An environment- conservation- related organization of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)has proposed to help Myanmar carry out reconservation work on the Mingmahlagyun sanctuary partly destroyed by a recent cyclone storm in May, the local Biweekly Eleven reported Friday.

The Mingmahlagyun sanctuary in Ayeyawaddy delta's Bogalay township is among the six sanctuaries and national parks in Myanmar recognized as ASEAN heritage parks.

The ASEAN organization will cooperate with other non-governmental organizations for the move, the report said.

According to another local report, Myanmar will regrow 50,000 acres (20,250 hectares) of mangrove in the Meinmahlagyun village to resist cyclone attack in the future.

Meinmahlagyun had about 100,000 acres (40,500 hectares) of mangrove before being hit by the severe storm, of which 30 percent were destroyed during the storm.

There were no casualties reported in the Meinmahlagyun village in Bogalay during the disaster.

Myanmar has stressed the preservation of mangrove to mitigate the impact of cyclone storm, calling on people to place emphasis to regrow the plantation after disaster.

Despite destruction of some mangrove in the delta region during the May cyclone storm, it had been able to prevent some villages from inflicting casualties, said other local media, citing donors, who visited a village called Thantheik in Dedaye township in the same division, as saying that although the 1,300-population village lies at a point where rivers meet, no one died in the cyclone.

The mangrove had been able to bring down the speed of the tidal wave, enabling villagers there to escape from deaths, it said.

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 84,537 people and left 53,836 missing and 19,359 injured according to the latest official-released death toll.

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Burmese opposition ready to escalate pro-democracy fight
Clancy Chassay in Rangoon
guardian.co. uk,
Friday July 18, 2008

Clancy Chassay reports from inside Burma on plans for a new uprising against the military regime, and hears some monks calling for more western intervention and an armed insurrection

Members of Burma's battered and disparate opposition are growing disillusioned with the old methods of the pro-democracy movement and are seeking ways to escalate their armed struggle.

"There is a very real debate among us about how to begin a more sustained armed struggle," an organiser of last September's failed uprising told the Guardian. "We are ready for that kind of action, if we can get the supplies and training that we need."

Speaking from exile in Thailand, Soe Aung, the chief spokesman for the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), an umbrella group representing nearly all facets of Burma's disparate opposition, said he was witnessing a significant shift in the public attitude across Burma.

"After the September uprising and then the terrible cyclone response, the anger is surging. Some are considering violent means … the Burmese people are not that kind of people, there has been a real change."

Soe Aung spoke openly of how covert Western support, primarily from the US state department-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its subsidiary the International Republican Institute (IRI), had been fundamental to the success of the uprising.

"The US is certainly doing the most for the opposition. There has been real success in training and forming an underground movement through religious organisations and monastic organisations. These provide the best cover inside Burma. The monks can spread their training very effectively. "

The NED describes itself as a private organisation but was created by, and remains accountable to, the US Congress. Set up under the Reagan administration in 1983, it has since played a leading role in influencing civil society and electoral processes in countries around the world unfriendly to US interests.

According to Brian Joseph, the man in charge of the group's Burma project, the NED gave $3m (£1.5m) to Burma in 2007. "We would send more, but there is a limit to what you can do in Burma," said Joseph.

Opposition activists both inside and outside Burma largely describe the improvements in political awareness and spread of information as a result of NED-funded projects, but also attribute them to the introduction of the internet to Burma in 2003.

"We could see in September how the advances were utilised. It wasn't just the monks but a massive increase of awareness among Burmese of all types. This was thanks largely due to media organs, the Democratic Voice of Burma, satellite TV, and, of course, the internet," said Soe Aung.

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Al-Bashir Case - Will the ICC Cast Its Net to Myanmar and South America? [opinion]
The Nation/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX News Network
Gitau Warigi
Released : Thursday, July 17, 2008 8:04 PM

Jul 17, 2008 (The Nation/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX News Network) -- The validity of the International Criminal Court's indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir notwithstanding, the decision and others involving Congolese politician and warlord Jean Pierre Bemba and former Liberian President Charles Taylor, smack of a selective approach to justice.

The International Criminal Court's indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir may well turn out to be a case of seeking justice without the benefit of political commonsense - a case where a legitimate legal sanction will badly complicate the larger problem it is meant to resolve.

In a unified chorus, the Sudan government and ruling National Congress Party have lambasted ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo' s indictment of al-Bashir for genocide and war crimes as "unprecedented and totally irresponsible. "

Darfurian rebel groups have applauded the ICC, but the indictment could woefully backfire. Whether or not Moreno-Ocampo' s motives in this matter are pure, he is up against some hard realities. The viability of peace negotiations in Darfur could be an early casualty, as could the larger stability of the State if al-Bashir, as is feared, digs in for a backlash.

Even the political opposition in Sudan, which loathes al-Bashir passionately, thinks Moreno-Ocampo' s zeal will be counter-productive.

Constitutional collapse

"If any indictment is issued against the Head of State, it will create a constitutional collapse in the Sudan," the largest opposition party, the Umma, has warned.

Taj el-Sir Mohammed Saleh, of the Democratic Unionist Party, says the indictment "will reflect very badly on the peace process in Darfur and the south .... This must be stopped and we must look for another alternative. "

Al-Bashir's own arch-enemy, the Islamist ideologue Hassan Tourabi of the Popular Congress Party, has likewise refused to back the ICC on this one. This is in stark contrast with the unanimity of support the Sudanese opposition gave to last year's ICC indictment of Cabinet minister Ahmed Haroun.

It goes without saying that a satisfactory resolution of Darfur depends a great deal on Khartoum's goodwill, which Moreno-Ocampo may just have destroyed. This recognition is shared by none other than the former US envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios.

"This indictment may well shut off the last remaining hope for a peaceful settlement for the country," the American has said.

Khartoum is making no secret that it will put up the fight of its life. The counter-offensive will begin on the African Union and Arab League fronts, to which Sudan belongs, and both of which have scheduled emergency high-level meetings on the crisis at Sudan's behest.

It is fast emerging that both bodies may back al-Bashir, not because they concur with him on Darfur per se, but rather for the same escalating concern that the ICC warrants will worsen the situation.

Besides, the ICC's sudden indictment amounts to pulling the rug from under the feet of the AU, which has been deeply involved in the international effort to find a lasting solution to the Darfur conflict.

Speaking for AU chairman President Jakaya Kikwete, Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe urged the ICC to suspend its decision "until we sort out the primary problems in Darfur and Southern Sudan."

As a matter of fact, the fallout is not likely to be confined to Darfur. Southern Sudan, which worked out its own painstaking peace deal with the North in 2006, fears the indictment of al-Bashir will affect the ongoing implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

"Definitely, this will have a negative impact. Bashir is leader of the party that signed the agreement with the SPLM," said SPLM vice-chairman Riek Machar.

The semi-autonomous region has asked the UN Security Council to suspend the ICC warrants "in the interests of peace."

A delicate matter that is gathering a storm is the African perception that the ICC is biased and treats the continent as a soft target.

One of the very first statements issued by the AU in this regard condemned what it termed "the misuse of indictments against African leaders."

Travelling overnight to Khartoum on Tuesday to meet al-Bashir, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra complained that "targeting of AU officials is unacceptable. "

Of the three sitting or former Heads of State the ICC has so far indicted, two are Africans. The first was former Liberian President and warlord Charles Taylor. Al-Bashir becomes the second.

Taylor was arrested in Nigeria and is presently in ICC custody facing trial.

The only other former Head of State to go through this was Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic, who died before his trial was concluded. His position had become untenable after his campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans turned the United States and its NATO allies against him. Several of his Serbian military collaborators were also indicted.

Both Milosevic and Taylor happened to be presiding over crumbling jurisdictions while in Sudan's case, and with all its internal conflicts, even its enemies acknowledge that it remains a functioning and coherent State.

Lately, fresh indictments have been issued against Congolese presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba, who arrested in Brussels in May, and the Ugandan rebel Joseph Kony.

There was some push from Europe following the recent developments in Zimbabwe to a portray Robert Mugabe as ripe for an ICC trial. But turning a mere disputed election into a crime against humanity would not be much different from doing the same with a certain presidential electoral mishap in Florida in 2000, not to mention countless others all over the world.

Myanmar junta

Incidentally, the US does not recognise the ICC's jurisdiction over its government and troops, though the superpower backed the Court's creation and vigorously supports its mandate. Sudan does not recognise the ICC's jurisdiction either.

The AU's wariness regarding the impartiality or otherwise of international judicial mechanisms is not assuaged by the fact that non-African despots who have been widely demonised in the West like Kim Jong Il of North Korea or the military junta in Myanmar have so far not attracted the attention of these instruments.

Under the same token, criminal insurgents in Latin America and Asia of the Kony type who have somehow escaped ICC indictment are not unknown.

In a more equal world, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians as a consequence of a military occupation the UN had not sanctioned and which was based on
the lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction would presumably be a case tailor-made for the ICC to pursue.

A matter which has been of some concern is the safety of UN staff and peace-keeping personnel in Darfur, something which UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon was quick to raise.

Though Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadiq has pledged Sudan will abide with the peace process and protect UN staff in the country, the organisation has taken precautions nonetheless. UN staff families were evacuated from Khartoum and the Joint UN-AU peace-keeping mission said it would evacuate 200 non-essential staff to Uganda or Ethiopia.

On the wider international stage, Sudan intends to seek the support of Russia and China in getting the UN Security Council to thwart any ICC arrest warrants. Any success on this front will require co-operation from the other three Security Council members who don't agree with Khartoum - the US, Britain and France.

Only the Security Council has the power to suspend the warrants.

Gitau Warigi writes for the Sunday Nation

Africa Insight is an initiative of the Nation Media Group's Africa Media Network Project.

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Japan Monitoring Aid Distribution to Burma
The Irrawaddy - Friday, July 18, 2008
By LALIT K JHA / UNITED NATIONS

Japanese aid to Burma for the reconstruction phase in the cyclone affected areas of the Irrawaddy Delta will be determined based on an assessment of how effectively emergency aid has been delivered, a top Japanese official at the United Nations said on Thursday.

Japanese officials are waiting for next week's relief assessment report to be delivered in Singapore by the tri-partite group made up of the UN, Asean and Burma before deciding on its next aid installment.

When asked if Japan would continue financial aid to Burma during the reconstruction phase, Ambassador Takahiro Shinyo, the deputy permanent representative of Japan to the United Nations, told journalists, "It depends."

The UN has issued a revised fundraising appeal for an additional $300 million, to be used on emergency relief and the reconstruction phase which could last for a year or more. Cyclone Nargis swept through Burma on May 2-3.

"After the humanitarian phase is over, somebody must declare that we are entering into the reconstruction phase,” he said. “Then the relevance of the aid would be discussed—whether or not to help in reconstruction, " Takahiro said.

Asked for clarification, Takahiro told The Irrawaddy that it does not mean imposing any conditions on Burma in lieu of any financial aid it would provide.

"This [imposing conditions for aid] is not our culture," he said, but he indicated that financial assistance to Burma beyond the post-humanitarian phase would depend on conditions in the Irrawaddy delta, how the money would be implement and also the progress made towards the political reform process.

The Japanese ambassador said thee must be an aid monitoring process even during humanitarian relief work phase.

"We are very much keen to see if the aid is distributed rightly or not, and that it has been distributed to the people,” he said. “So the checking mechanism is very necessary."

Japan is also dispatching its own missions to Burma to see that its aid is properly distributed and reaches those for whom it is intended.

"When we extend financial assistance to international organizations, we are always asking for monitoring and assessment because we would like to assure our Parliament [that the money is being used properly]," he said.

"There have been some cases when the implementation of Japanese aid has been questioned in the Parliament so we are very keen on this," he said.

Takahiro said relief work cannot continue indefinitely. Based on previous international experience, he said it normally last from six months to one year.

"If it is longer than one year, it is no longer an emergency phase. So we can confine the time element and of course the project," he said.

Japan, previously one of the Burma’s largest donors, has not made any new funding commitments in the last few years, Takahiro said.

He said Japan has dispatched a mission to Burma to investigate how to salvage sunken ships as a result of the cyclone. There are a large number of sunken ships in the Bay of Burma, whose removal, he said, is essential to the reconstruction phase.

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NLD determined to observe Martyrs' Day at any cost
Mizzima News - Friday, 18 July 2008 19:45
Than Htike Oo, Myint Maung

Chiang Mai – Despite the Burmese military junta's attitude suggesting that restrictions will be imposed while observing the 63rd Martyrs' Day which falls tomorrow, the main opposition party the National League for Democracy is determined to go ahead with the programme.

There is heightened security cordon around the NLD headquarters in Bahan, Shwedagon pagoda, Sule pagoda and Martyrs' mausoleum. But the NLD is planning to observe Martyrs' Day at its party headquarters tomorrow. However, there is apprehension that members may be  obstructed, beaten up and arrested just as it happened during the 63rd birthday celebrations of  Daw Aung Suu Kyi's last month when the Union Solidarity and Development Association members intervened.

"They will disturb and obstruct us when we pay our respects to the fallen martyrs as is the tradition. But we will hold the ceremony in accordance with the law in our office at any cost. We are determined to hold this ceremony successfully, " Dr. Wi Naing the NLD information department member said.

The government backed USDA and Swanahshin members stormed into the NLD office, beat up and arrested two NLD members and two visitors while the birthday celebrations of Daw Aung Suu Kyi was being held on June 19.

This gazetted holiday and national level ceremony was downgraded to the local level this year. Previously Martyrs' Day ceremony was held annually in Rangoon. The DPA news reported that the Rangoon Mayor instead of the usual Minister of Culture will attend this year. The regime cancelled the invitations sent to foreign diplomats.

The opposition believes that this move is to conceal the likely violence against visitors attending the Martyrs' Day ceremony which will be held tomorrow at NLD office, where tributes will be paid to nine fallen martyrs including independence hero Bogyoke Aung San, father of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Dr. Win Naing said, "The ruling junta is tightening security and may provoke and unleash violence. But we will control our people for we intend to hold this ceremony successfully" .

It is learnt that alms food will be offered to the monks tomorrow early morning while tributes will be paid to the fallen martyrs at 10:37 a.m.  The ceremony will commence at noon.

The NLD has invited foreign diplomats, veteran politicians, CRPP members MPs, political parties, foreign and domestic journalists to attend tomorrow's ceremony.

"They will do what we have seen in history like storming into the Magawati Sukarnoputri party office in Indonesia and beating up party members, and recent incidents in Zimbabwe, beating and arresting opposition party members. They might follow these examples. We cannot rule it out as there are precedents as on 19th June  when they stormed into our party office and beat up and arrested our party members," Dr. Win Naing said.

Thakin Chan Tun of the Veteran Politicians' Group said, "They attacked Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade during her tour to Depayin, upper Burma which left many people dead and injured. Many vehicles were burnt. This time they may do it again. This will be an indelible black mark in our history. They should not commit such violence against the opposition. The government and senior armed forces leaders should control their own and protect the people".

The nine fallen martyrs including Bogyoke Aung San were assassinated at the Secretariat while they were holding a cabinet meeting on 19 July 1947, on the eve of gaining independence from British colonial rule, by gunmen sent by Galon U Saw.

On that day, Aung San, Ba Win, Man Ba Khaing, Sao San Tun, Razat, Deedoke Ba Cho, Thakin Mya, Ohn Maung and Ko Htwe were assassinated.

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Four NLD members arrested
Mizzima News - Friday, 18 July 2008 17:38
Phanida

Chiang Mai – The Burmese military junta authorities arrested four NLD members from Rangoon Division yesterday. They were whisked away from their homes yesterday evening.

The local Special Branch police personnel arrested and took away Dagon satellite town NLD Youth in-charge Thi Han, Htet Htet Oo Wai , Myint Htay and Win Myint Maung from their homes at about 10 last night.

"They came to our home at 10:30 p.m. They said that they wanted to question him for a while. I asked them to say frankly if they were going to arrest my brother. They said he would not be arrested but taken away just for a while for questioning. I did not trust them. But they took permission from my father and took him away," Yin Yin Htike, elder sister of Thi Han, said.

The Special Branch of the police from Dagon Township arrested Thi Han.

"They came to my home at about 9:30 p.m. when my husband was away. They waited for him to come back which he did at about 10:30 p.m. They said that they would take him away for questioning for a while. I gave some clothes to my husband. They said that they would take him to the Home Ministry," wife of Myint Htay said.

Eight local officials arrested U Myint Htay and they included Tamwe Township Special Police and SIP from the Home Ministry.

The NLD Youth In-charge said that the local authorities arrested Win Myint Maung, Kayan NLD Liaison In-charge from his elder sister's home in Syriam (Thanlyin) while he was on a visit.

Similarly USDA members and Swanahshin arrested 14 NLD members when they were celebrating the 63rd birthday of pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on June 19 at the NLD headquarters.

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NLD warned not to celebrate Martyrs' Day

Jul 18, 2008 (DVB)–National League for Democracy members in Magwe and Mandalay divisions have been warned by authorities not to plan any events to commemorate Martyrs’ Day on 19 July.

Ko Tint Lwin of Yaynanchaung NLD in Magwe said the authorities had told them the government would not mark the day.

"We were warned by local authorities not to do any of the usual activities we usually do on Martyrs’ Day every year, such as providing meals to monks and merit making,” he said.

“They said the government has no plans to celebrate the day and we would not be allowed to either."

Daw Khin Saw Htay, the leader of Magwe Division NLD’s women’s wing, said the government’s warnings would not deter people from celebrating the day.

"Martyrs' Day is the day we remember our leaders who brought independence to us and barring people from celebrating such a day is very narrow-minded act,” she said.

“We don't care if they arrest us, we will do what we do every year."

Taung Twin Gyi NLD member Ko Bo See said he had his colleagues were told to sign an agreement promising not to plan any activities on the day.

"The authorities told us they could not allow us to celebrate national days without their permission and we were asked to sign an acknowledgment of that,” Ko Bo See said.

“We were also asked to sign an agreement not to donate meals to monks as a way of marking the day.”

“There are 58 monasteries in town and we will go to one of them and donate meals to the monks anyway. We are not saying whether we are marking Martyrs' Day or just donating meal to monks because we respect them."

An NLD member from Aung Lan said the local NLD chairman had also been asked to sign an agreement.

"Our township NLD chairman U Than Htay was told by local authorities to sign agreement not to mark Martyrs’ day,” he said.

“But he refused to sign it."

Daw Myint Myint Aye, the NLD secretary in Meikhtila, Mandalay, said politicians had a duty to commemorate the day.

"Every year, we mark Martyrs' Day at the [township] headquarters – we make it very apparent that it is a political activity,” Myint Myint Aye said.

“On Martyrs' day this year, we will provide meal to monks at 10am, hang a huge wreath at Kyaw Kyaw printing shop which is our headquarters and hang the national flag at half-mast. Then we will go lay the wreath at the Martyrs' monument in town,” she went on.

“We are only doing this because it is what we should do as a citizens or politicians.”

Myint Myint Aye said she had been summoned by the township administration to a meeting at 10am tomorrow morning.

NLD information officer U Nyan Win said the day was an important national event and should not be undermined by political differences.

"In our country, we don't see Martyrs' Day as representing a political party or an organisation,” Nyan Win said.

“This is a day we mark on a national scale, to remember and thank our leaders who did a lot for us,” he said.

“It is very inappropriate to ban a day like that since it is showing disrespect to the people who brought us independence. "

Martyrs’ day commemorates the day in 1947 when nine people, including general Aung San and other independence leaders, were assassinated.

There is usually an annual ceremony to mark the day at the Martyrs’ Mausoleum in Bahan township, Rangoon.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

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Forced labour on road reconstruction

Jul 18, 2008 (DVB)–Residents and criminal suspects awaiting charge have been forced to do hard labour to repair the Butheetaung- Maung Taw highway in Arakan state, locals said.

The road was destroyed earlier this month by heavy rain.

A local resident said about 500 people had been made to work on the road reconstruction.

"About 500 detainees from Butheetaung prison, including criminal suspects who had not yet been charged, were forced to work on the reconstruction of the highway," the resident said.

"Nearby villages were also asked to contribute 10 people from each ward and those who could not go had to pay 2000 kyat."

Butheetaung- Maung Taw highway was destroyed by a mountain landslide early this month due to heavy rain in the area.

The road is a vital border trading route between Burma and Bangladesh and local authorities were ordered by the government to get it repaired as soon as possible.

Reporting by Naw Noreen

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