By Nay Thwin - Mizzima
19 June 2008, Chiang Mai – Members of the 'Union Solidarity and Development Association' (USDA) raided the National League for Democracy (NLD) party headquarters where the 63rd birthday celebrations of pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was going to be held. They arrested a monk and three persons from the office.
The USDA members forcibly entered the party headquarters a few hours ago when about 700 NLD members were going to commence the birthday celebrations and took away a monk and three men from the office.
"We released birds after offering alms to monks. The members shouted 'Long live Daw Aung San Suu Kyi'. Then the USDA members entered our office and took away four people. They are U Tun Myint, a monk and three other persons," Nyan Win, party spokesperson, said.
About 1,000 policemen, armed riot police and USDA members were deployed around the party headquarters.
"There are about 1,000 personnel around our office with five to seven Toyota Dyna light trucks. We also saw many police cars," an eyewitness said.
The confrontation between NLD members and authorities took place since alms food was offered this morning to over 200 monks and nuns. The party headquarters had to be closed temporarily.
"Yes, we had to close our office for a while. We will offer alms shortly and have completed the Tuesday alms offering. We haven't yet offered alms for today," a NLD Youth member said.
Negotiations between the authorities and NLD leaders is in progress when Mizzima last contacted them at 12:30 BST.
Though the party invited five monks to offer alms at about 10:30 to 11 a.m. BST to observe the 63rd birthday of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the monks could not come to office as the authorities blocked their way, U Nyan Win said.
Thursday, 19 June 2008
The Imprisoned Voice of Freedom
By KYAW ZWA MOE
The Irrawaddy News
Everyone knows where Aung San Suu Kyi is spending her 63rd birthday today. But as millions of her supporters around the world mark the occasion, no one can say when she will be released from the family home that has been her prison for most of the past 19 years.
I still remember a conversation I had with Suu Kyi in late 1999, during one of her brief interludes of freedom. We met at the Rangoon headquarters of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). Two youth members of the NLD were also there. We discussed politics and our experiences as political prisoners, as well as our plans for our future education.
I can clearly recall her sobering advice at that time: that we should be prepared for a “lifelong struggle” to restore democracy to Burma.
It already feels like a lifetime has passed since then.
A few months after I met her, she was put under house arrest again. Today, almost a decade later, she is still in detention. She has been a prisoner for nearly 13 of the past 19 years.
On May 27, five years after she was taken into custody following the infamous Depayin massacre that left many of her followers dead, her detention was extended again.
When she will be released is as uncertain as the future of Burma itself. After 46 years of iron-fisted military rule, Burma seems to be perpetually on the verge of collapse. No one knows when the next crisis will strike. But one thing seems certain: The fate of Burma and its most famous prisoner of conscience are inextricably intertwined.
For the moment, the junta still holds the reins. And that means that Suu Kyi will probably not see freedom before 2010, when the regime plans to hold an election that it has no intention of losing. By that time, she will be 65 years old—twenty years older than she was when her party delivered the junta a humiliating defeat in the country’s last general election.
The regime never honored the results of the 1990 election, but it is expected to welcome the outcome of the 2010 vote. As in the constitutional referendum held in May, the junta’s victory is guaranteed.
The draft constitution, which was supposedly supported by 92 percent of the population, sets aside 25 percent of parliamentary seats for military appointees. It is also highly likely that the regime will form a political party and field candidates with strong military backing.
If the junta can achieve its goal of rewriting history—erasing the two decades that it has ruled as a reviled and illegitimate regime and starting afresh with an electoral and constitutional mandate, however dubious—it may see fit to release Suu Kyi.
But this is far from certain. The regime knows from past experience that Suu Kyi’s influence is not easily eclipsed.
When she was released from her first six-year period of house arrest in 1995, crowds flocked to her home each Saturday to hear her speak. Her talks on political subjects threatened to revive the people’s democratic aspirations, and so she was once again removed from the public eye.
In 2002, Suu Kyi was released again. Sure enough, her magnetism proved to be undiminished. Her travels around the country attracted immense attention.
Desperate to contain her popular appeal, the regime masterminded an attack on her motorcade in Depayin, Sagaing Division, on May 30, 2003. She survived the carefully orchestrated assault, but many of her supporters did not.
Even after the regime had shown the extent to which it was willing to go to remove her from Burma’s political equation, Suu Kyi remained firmly committed to dialogue.
In an article written several years later, Razali Ismail, the former United Nations envoy to Burma, recounted a conversation he had with Suu Kyi a few days after the Depayin incident: “She said that she was prepared to turn the page for the sake of the people and reconciliation, saying she was still prepared to talk to the government.”
It is almost bizarre, in light of such evidence of Suu Kyi’s willingness to forgive the regime for the many indignities that it has inflicted upon her over the past two decades, to listen to charges that she has been inflexible in her dealings with the ruling generals.
There are even some who ask if her unwavering principles, determination and courage have become political liabilities for Burma. They seem to imply that the country would be better off with an opposition leader who didn’t make the regime look so nasty and brutish by contrast.
Many of Suu Kyi’s supporters have commented that she has the power to bring out the best in people. Is it possible that she also brings out the worst in her opponents? But it seems almost grotesquely unfair to suggest that she’s to blame for the junta’s poor public image.
What makes Suu Kyi so appealing to many, and so appalling to some, is that she speaks the simple truth. She disarms people with her candor. But the generals know that lies are all they have, so they continue to attack her.
Not everyone who criticizes Suu Kyi is attacking her. But what some of her critics have in common with the regime is that they tend to ignore the facts in favor of a view which suggests that Burma is a permanent basket case, with or without military rule.
Some say that Suu Kyi’s Burman ethnicity, which she shares with most of the ruling generals, makes her equally unfit to rule a country as ethnically diverse as Burma. She herself has never shied away from the complex issue of ethnic politics. Indeed, she has always been clear that talks with the regime should include representatives of Burma’s many ethnic minorities.
Suu Kyi has never spoken of the ethnic issue as if it were a secondary matter, although her energies have always been directed primarily at restoring democracy. Far from treating the ethnic issue as unimportant, she has always envisioned democracy as a means of addressing the legitimate aspirations of various ethnic groups.
In this, she is worlds apart from both the junta and many so-called “Burma experts.” While the regime believes that force is the only way to hold the country together, some academics argue that the country is doomed to fall apart. Suu Kyi rejects both militarism and pessimism as political dead ends.
Is Suu Kyi guilty, then, of unfounded optimism about the future of Burma? Not at all.
In 1990, the NLD won over 80 percent of the seats in parliament. Even more significantly, the party’s support was strong not only in Burman-dominated cities such as Rangoon and Mandalay, but also in ethnic states.
In eastern Karen State, the NLD won 71 percent of seats; in northern Kachin State, it took 73 percent. Southeastern Mon State gave the party 80 percent support. In Shan State, the NLD won over 39 percent, while in Karenni State it won 50 percent. In western Arakan and Chin states, it won over 34 and 30 percent, respectively.
What does this prove? That Burma’s people, regardless of ethnicity, want democracy and see it as a means of improving their lives. That was true in 1990, and it is true today.
But Suu Kyi’s appeal has never been based on false promises, so the people of Burma also know that even if they get what they want most—freedom from a brutal dictatorship—there will still be challenges ahead.
Nearly a decade ago, Suu Kyi warned me that the road ahead would not be easy. Perhaps it wasn’t what I wanted to hear at the time. But now her words ring truer than ever, even though the voice that spoke them has been silenced—for how long, nobody knows.
The Irrawaddy News
Everyone knows where Aung San Suu Kyi is spending her 63rd birthday today. But as millions of her supporters around the world mark the occasion, no one can say when she will be released from the family home that has been her prison for most of the past 19 years.
I still remember a conversation I had with Suu Kyi in late 1999, during one of her brief interludes of freedom. We met at the Rangoon headquarters of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). Two youth members of the NLD were also there. We discussed politics and our experiences as political prisoners, as well as our plans for our future education.
I can clearly recall her sobering advice at that time: that we should be prepared for a “lifelong struggle” to restore democracy to Burma.
It already feels like a lifetime has passed since then.
A few months after I met her, she was put under house arrest again. Today, almost a decade later, she is still in detention. She has been a prisoner for nearly 13 of the past 19 years.
On May 27, five years after she was taken into custody following the infamous Depayin massacre that left many of her followers dead, her detention was extended again.
When she will be released is as uncertain as the future of Burma itself. After 46 years of iron-fisted military rule, Burma seems to be perpetually on the verge of collapse. No one knows when the next crisis will strike. But one thing seems certain: The fate of Burma and its most famous prisoner of conscience are inextricably intertwined.
For the moment, the junta still holds the reins. And that means that Suu Kyi will probably not see freedom before 2010, when the regime plans to hold an election that it has no intention of losing. By that time, she will be 65 years old—twenty years older than she was when her party delivered the junta a humiliating defeat in the country’s last general election.
The regime never honored the results of the 1990 election, but it is expected to welcome the outcome of the 2010 vote. As in the constitutional referendum held in May, the junta’s victory is guaranteed.
The draft constitution, which was supposedly supported by 92 percent of the population, sets aside 25 percent of parliamentary seats for military appointees. It is also highly likely that the regime will form a political party and field candidates with strong military backing.
If the junta can achieve its goal of rewriting history—erasing the two decades that it has ruled as a reviled and illegitimate regime and starting afresh with an electoral and constitutional mandate, however dubious—it may see fit to release Suu Kyi.
But this is far from certain. The regime knows from past experience that Suu Kyi’s influence is not easily eclipsed.
When she was released from her first six-year period of house arrest in 1995, crowds flocked to her home each Saturday to hear her speak. Her talks on political subjects threatened to revive the people’s democratic aspirations, and so she was once again removed from the public eye.
In 2002, Suu Kyi was released again. Sure enough, her magnetism proved to be undiminished. Her travels around the country attracted immense attention.
Desperate to contain her popular appeal, the regime masterminded an attack on her motorcade in Depayin, Sagaing Division, on May 30, 2003. She survived the carefully orchestrated assault, but many of her supporters did not.
Even after the regime had shown the extent to which it was willing to go to remove her from Burma’s political equation, Suu Kyi remained firmly committed to dialogue.
In an article written several years later, Razali Ismail, the former United Nations envoy to Burma, recounted a conversation he had with Suu Kyi a few days after the Depayin incident: “She said that she was prepared to turn the page for the sake of the people and reconciliation, saying she was still prepared to talk to the government.”
It is almost bizarre, in light of such evidence of Suu Kyi’s willingness to forgive the regime for the many indignities that it has inflicted upon her over the past two decades, to listen to charges that she has been inflexible in her dealings with the ruling generals.
There are even some who ask if her unwavering principles, determination and courage have become political liabilities for Burma. They seem to imply that the country would be better off with an opposition leader who didn’t make the regime look so nasty and brutish by contrast.
Many of Suu Kyi’s supporters have commented that she has the power to bring out the best in people. Is it possible that she also brings out the worst in her opponents? But it seems almost grotesquely unfair to suggest that she’s to blame for the junta’s poor public image.
What makes Suu Kyi so appealing to many, and so appalling to some, is that she speaks the simple truth. She disarms people with her candor. But the generals know that lies are all they have, so they continue to attack her.
Not everyone who criticizes Suu Kyi is attacking her. But what some of her critics have in common with the regime is that they tend to ignore the facts in favor of a view which suggests that Burma is a permanent basket case, with or without military rule.
Some say that Suu Kyi’s Burman ethnicity, which she shares with most of the ruling generals, makes her equally unfit to rule a country as ethnically diverse as Burma. She herself has never shied away from the complex issue of ethnic politics. Indeed, she has always been clear that talks with the regime should include representatives of Burma’s many ethnic minorities.
Suu Kyi has never spoken of the ethnic issue as if it were a secondary matter, although her energies have always been directed primarily at restoring democracy. Far from treating the ethnic issue as unimportant, she has always envisioned democracy as a means of addressing the legitimate aspirations of various ethnic groups.
In this, she is worlds apart from both the junta and many so-called “Burma experts.” While the regime believes that force is the only way to hold the country together, some academics argue that the country is doomed to fall apart. Suu Kyi rejects both militarism and pessimism as political dead ends.
Is Suu Kyi guilty, then, of unfounded optimism about the future of Burma? Not at all.
In 1990, the NLD won over 80 percent of the seats in parliament. Even more significantly, the party’s support was strong not only in Burman-dominated cities such as Rangoon and Mandalay, but also in ethnic states.
In eastern Karen State, the NLD won 71 percent of seats; in northern Kachin State, it took 73 percent. Southeastern Mon State gave the party 80 percent support. In Shan State, the NLD won over 39 percent, while in Karenni State it won 50 percent. In western Arakan and Chin states, it won over 34 and 30 percent, respectively.
What does this prove? That Burma’s people, regardless of ethnicity, want democracy and see it as a means of improving their lives. That was true in 1990, and it is true today.
But Suu Kyi’s appeal has never been based on false promises, so the people of Burma also know that even if they get what they want most—freedom from a brutal dictatorship—there will still be challenges ahead.
Nearly a decade ago, Suu Kyi warned me that the road ahead would not be easy. Perhaps it wasn’t what I wanted to hear at the time. But now her words ring truer than ever, even though the voice that spoke them has been silenced—for how long, nobody knows.
7 Supporters Of Myanmar Democracy Leader Arrested -Party
YANGON (Nasdaq-AFP)--Seven supporters of Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi were arrested Thursday as they shouted for her release during a brief protest to mark her 63rd birthday, her party said.
More than 100 people had gathered outside the headquarters of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party to give food to monks to mark her birthday.
After making their religious offerings, some of her supporters began shouting: "Release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi now!" One man held a placard denouncing the regime's response to the devastating cyclone last month which killed tens of thousands of people.
"The storm disaster is a problem. Living is a problem," his sign read.
They were only allowed to shout for a few minutes before a pro-junta militia confronted them. Seven people were later arrested, party members told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of their safety.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is the junta's main challenger, was first detained in 1989. She has spent most of the years since as a prisoner at her sprawling Yangon home, with only brief spells of freedom.
Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but it was never allowed to take office.
More than 100 people had gathered outside the headquarters of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party to give food to monks to mark her birthday.
After making their religious offerings, some of her supporters began shouting: "Release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi now!" One man held a placard denouncing the regime's response to the devastating cyclone last month which killed tens of thousands of people.
"The storm disaster is a problem. Living is a problem," his sign read.
They were only allowed to shout for a few minutes before a pro-junta militia confronted them. Seven people were later arrested, party members told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of their safety.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is the junta's main challenger, was first detained in 1989. She has spent most of the years since as a prisoner at her sprawling Yangon home, with only brief spells of freedom.
Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but it was never allowed to take office.
Aung San Suu Kyi's 63rd Birthday today: Burma monks urges UN Security Council to safeguard Burmese people
Rangoon, 19 June, (Asiantribune.com): UN Security Council and the Council of the European Union should take responsibility to protect the people of Burma when they meet today in New York and Brussels, on the 63rd birthday of the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, urged All Burma Monks’ Alliance from Rangoon Burma in its appeal.
According to the statement released by All Burma Monks’ Alliance -
(1) Today, on June 19, 2008, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will again have to spend her 63rd birthday in detention alone. She and her party members were attacked by thousands of civilian militias, organized and supported by the Burmese military junta, on the night of May 30, 2003, at nearby Depayin Township in central Burma. Although she escaped from the assassination attempt, scores of her party members were brutally killed, and she was arrested by the military junta, along with U Tin Oo, Vice Chairman of the National League for Democracy, and put in detention since then.
Recently, on May 27, 2008, the military junta extended her detention again for the sixth year. We wish her all the best and thank her for her leadership and her unity with the people of Burma. Even though the junta tries to isolate her from us, she is always with us. However the junta tries to undermine her, she is still the leader of Burma’s democracy movement. Any political solution without her involvement will be meaningless and unsustainable.
(2) On her birthday, June 19, 2008, the UN Security Council will hold a debate on women, peace and security. U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice will chair the debate, as the United States holds the Presidency of the UN Security Council for June 2008.
The debate will focus on UNSC Resolution 1325, which was passed unanimously on 31 October 2000. We would like to request Secretary Rice and other members of the Council to pay attention to the plight of women in Burma.
Among the two thousands and more political prisoners in Burma, at least 154 are women activists. Burmese military troops are raping with impunity ethnic women and girls, some as young as eight years old. In the frontier areas, the Burmese military uses women as porters during the day and sex slaves at nights. Among the 2.5 million populations who were severely affected by the Cyclone Nargis and ignored by the junta, at least 50% are women and among them are over 35,000 extremely vulnerable pregnant women. We call for the UN Security Council to take effective action to stop the humanitarian crises in Burma, created by the Burmese military junta.
(3) Also today, 27 Heads of State from the Council of the European Union will meet in Brussels and discuss the EU’s role in international affairs. We would like to call for leaders of European Union to continue to assist Burma’s democracy movement led by detained leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The Burmese military junta has used the devastated situation of the people of Burma after the attack of Cyclone Nargis to consolidate its grip on power, and to exploit the generosity of the international community for its own benefit. The actions of the junta leave millions of people to die from starvation and infectious diseases in the delta region, while blocking relief efforts and assistance offered by the international community. We request the EU to bring Than Shwe, leader of Burmese military junta, before the International Criminal Court to be tried for his crimes against humanity, as recommended by the European Parliament.
(4) Some international actors assume that this is the time to save the lives, not to talk about the politics. Some even think that any harsh words or actions against the generals will jeopardize their humanitarian effort. This is totally wrong, morally, principally and practically. The Burmese military junta and their policies are responsible for all bad things happening in Burma, all the crises overloading the shoulders of the people of Burma. UN Human Rights Commissioner Ms. Louise Arbor said on June 2, 2008 “in the case of Myanmar, the obstruction to the deployment of such assistance illustrates the invidious effects of long-standing international tolerance for human rights violations that made such obstruction possible.”
She is exactly right. Long-standing tolerance by the international community of human rights violations in Burma made the Burmese military junta believe that they have a license to kill and they have nothing to fear. This is the time for the international community to stand up and protect the people of Burma, by applying unanimous and maximum pressure against the Burmese military, including a global arms embargo and coordinated financial and banking sanctions against the generals, their families and their crony businessmen.
- Asian Tribune -
According to the statement released by All Burma Monks’ Alliance -
(1) Today, on June 19, 2008, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will again have to spend her 63rd birthday in detention alone. She and her party members were attacked by thousands of civilian militias, organized and supported by the Burmese military junta, on the night of May 30, 2003, at nearby Depayin Township in central Burma. Although she escaped from the assassination attempt, scores of her party members were brutally killed, and she was arrested by the military junta, along with U Tin Oo, Vice Chairman of the National League for Democracy, and put in detention since then.
Recently, on May 27, 2008, the military junta extended her detention again for the sixth year. We wish her all the best and thank her for her leadership and her unity with the people of Burma. Even though the junta tries to isolate her from us, she is always with us. However the junta tries to undermine her, she is still the leader of Burma’s democracy movement. Any political solution without her involvement will be meaningless and unsustainable.
(2) On her birthday, June 19, 2008, the UN Security Council will hold a debate on women, peace and security. U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice will chair the debate, as the United States holds the Presidency of the UN Security Council for June 2008.
The debate will focus on UNSC Resolution 1325, which was passed unanimously on 31 October 2000. We would like to request Secretary Rice and other members of the Council to pay attention to the plight of women in Burma.
Among the two thousands and more political prisoners in Burma, at least 154 are women activists. Burmese military troops are raping with impunity ethnic women and girls, some as young as eight years old. In the frontier areas, the Burmese military uses women as porters during the day and sex slaves at nights. Among the 2.5 million populations who were severely affected by the Cyclone Nargis and ignored by the junta, at least 50% are women and among them are over 35,000 extremely vulnerable pregnant women. We call for the UN Security Council to take effective action to stop the humanitarian crises in Burma, created by the Burmese military junta.
(3) Also today, 27 Heads of State from the Council of the European Union will meet in Brussels and discuss the EU’s role in international affairs. We would like to call for leaders of European Union to continue to assist Burma’s democracy movement led by detained leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The Burmese military junta has used the devastated situation of the people of Burma after the attack of Cyclone Nargis to consolidate its grip on power, and to exploit the generosity of the international community for its own benefit. The actions of the junta leave millions of people to die from starvation and infectious diseases in the delta region, while blocking relief efforts and assistance offered by the international community. We request the EU to bring Than Shwe, leader of Burmese military junta, before the International Criminal Court to be tried for his crimes against humanity, as recommended by the European Parliament.
(4) Some international actors assume that this is the time to save the lives, not to talk about the politics. Some even think that any harsh words or actions against the generals will jeopardize their humanitarian effort. This is totally wrong, morally, principally and practically. The Burmese military junta and their policies are responsible for all bad things happening in Burma, all the crises overloading the shoulders of the people of Burma. UN Human Rights Commissioner Ms. Louise Arbor said on June 2, 2008 “in the case of Myanmar, the obstruction to the deployment of such assistance illustrates the invidious effects of long-standing international tolerance for human rights violations that made such obstruction possible.”
She is exactly right. Long-standing tolerance by the international community of human rights violations in Burma made the Burmese military junta believe that they have a license to kill and they have nothing to fear. This is the time for the international community to stand up and protect the people of Burma, by applying unanimous and maximum pressure against the Burmese military, including a global arms embargo and coordinated financial and banking sanctions against the generals, their families and their crony businessmen.
- Asian Tribune -
Myanmar monks urge EU to bring junta to war crimes court
Relief Web
BANGKOK, June 19, 2008 (AFP) - Activist monks called Thursday on the European Union to bring Myanmar's junta leader Than Shwe before an international criminal court to face charges of crimes against humanity.
The call was made in a statement on the 63rd birthday of Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was again marking the occasion alone and under house arrest in Yangon.
The All Burma Monks' Alliance, which claims to have organised mass protests against the regime last September, said Than Shwe should face trial for blocking relief supplies to victims of last month's devastating cyclone.
They also called for an international arms embargo and financial sanctions against the generals.
Cyclone Nargis killed more than 133,000 people when it struck the country formerly known as Burma nearly seven weeks ago, leaving 2.4 million in need of humanitarian aid.
The regime stonewalled international efforts to deliver aid for weeks after the storm, and continues to limit the work of foreign disaster experts.
'The actions of the junta leave millions of people to die from starvation and infectious diseases in the delta region, while blocking relief efforts and assistance offered by the international community,' the group said in a statement received in Bangkok.
'We request the EU to bring Than Shwe, leader of the Burmese military junta, before the International Criminal Court to be tried for his crimes against humanity, as recommended by the European Parliament,' it said.
The European Parliament last month approved a non-binding resolution saying the regime could face charges at the court if they 'continue to prevent aid from reaching those in danger.'
France first raised the idea that Myanmar's actions could constitute crimes against humanity, a charge normally used to prosecute war crimes such as genocide.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates accused the regime of 'criminal neglect,' while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the junta's actions 'inhuman.'
The monks' group, which operates underground, claims to be one of the organising forces behind last year's mass protests, which were violently broken up when security forces shot and beat people in the streets.
At least 31 people died and 74 remain missing, while hundreds more were imprisoned, according to the United Nations.
BANGKOK, June 19, 2008 (AFP) - Activist monks called Thursday on the European Union to bring Myanmar's junta leader Than Shwe before an international criminal court to face charges of crimes against humanity.
The call was made in a statement on the 63rd birthday of Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was again marking the occasion alone and under house arrest in Yangon.
The All Burma Monks' Alliance, which claims to have organised mass protests against the regime last September, said Than Shwe should face trial for blocking relief supplies to victims of last month's devastating cyclone.
They also called for an international arms embargo and financial sanctions against the generals.
Cyclone Nargis killed more than 133,000 people when it struck the country formerly known as Burma nearly seven weeks ago, leaving 2.4 million in need of humanitarian aid.
The regime stonewalled international efforts to deliver aid for weeks after the storm, and continues to limit the work of foreign disaster experts.
'The actions of the junta leave millions of people to die from starvation and infectious diseases in the delta region, while blocking relief efforts and assistance offered by the international community,' the group said in a statement received in Bangkok.
'We request the EU to bring Than Shwe, leader of the Burmese military junta, before the International Criminal Court to be tried for his crimes against humanity, as recommended by the European Parliament,' it said.
The European Parliament last month approved a non-binding resolution saying the regime could face charges at the court if they 'continue to prevent aid from reaching those in danger.'
France first raised the idea that Myanmar's actions could constitute crimes against humanity, a charge normally used to prosecute war crimes such as genocide.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates accused the regime of 'criminal neglect,' while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the junta's actions 'inhuman.'
The monks' group, which operates underground, claims to be one of the organising forces behind last year's mass protests, which were violently broken up when security forces shot and beat people in the streets.
At least 31 people died and 74 remain missing, while hundreds more were imprisoned, according to the United Nations.
Pro-Myanmar junta gang hits Suu Kyi birthday rally
Straits Times
YANGON - PRO-JUNTA thugs broke up a rally by supporters of Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday, detaining several people shouting slogans demanding her release on her 63rd birthday, witnesses said.
They said at least six truckloads of Swan-Arr-Shin, or 'Masters of Force", gang members waded into the crowd outside the dilapidated headquarters of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) in the former capital, Yangon.
'We saw some of them slapping and beating NLD members,' said one witness who saw several people taken away.
Police cordoned off roads leading to the rally where the NLD members had shouted slogans demanding the immediate release of Ms Suu Kyi and more than 1,100 political prisoners believed to be behind bars in the former Burma.
Ms Suu Kyi's confinement in her lakeside home in Yangon was extended in May despite international pleas to the generals to end her latest stretch of detention, which began in May 2003.
The Nobel peace laureate has now been confined for more than 12 of the past 18 years, with her telephone line cut and visitors severely restricted. -- REUTERS
YANGON - PRO-JUNTA thugs broke up a rally by supporters of Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday, detaining several people shouting slogans demanding her release on her 63rd birthday, witnesses said.
They said at least six truckloads of Swan-Arr-Shin, or 'Masters of Force", gang members waded into the crowd outside the dilapidated headquarters of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) in the former capital, Yangon.
'We saw some of them slapping and beating NLD members,' said one witness who saw several people taken away.
Police cordoned off roads leading to the rally where the NLD members had shouted slogans demanding the immediate release of Ms Suu Kyi and more than 1,100 political prisoners believed to be behind bars in the former Burma.
Ms Suu Kyi's confinement in her lakeside home in Yangon was extended in May despite international pleas to the generals to end her latest stretch of detention, which began in May 2003.
The Nobel peace laureate has now been confined for more than 12 of the past 18 years, with her telephone line cut and visitors severely restricted. -- REUTERS
Myanmar: UN Human Rights Council condemns ‘ongoing systematic violations’
18 June 2008 – The United Nations Human Rights Council today condemned “ongoing systematic violations of human rights” in Myanmar and called on the Government to stop making politically motivated arrests and to release all political prisoners immediately.
In a resolution adopted without a vote, the Council also called on the Government of Myanmar to fully implement commitments it made to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that it would grant relief workers “immediate, full and unhindered access” to people in need in the wake of last month’s catastrophic Cyclone Nargis.
It called on the Government to refrain from sending victims of the disaster back to areas where they would not have access to emergency relief, and to ensure that any returns are voluntary, safe and carried out with dignity.
The resolution, introduced before the Geneva-based Council by the European Union, also condemned the recruitment of child soldiers by both Government forces and non-State armed groups and urged “an absolute an immediate stop of this appalling activity.”
In addition, it called for an independent investigation into reports of human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, acts of torture and forced labour, and called for those responsible for such crimes to be brought to justice.
The resolution also called on the Government “to engage in a real process of dialogue and national reconciliation with the full and genuine participation of representatives of all political parties and ethnic groups who have been excluded from the political process.”
Introducing the resolution on behalf of the EU, Slovenian representative Andrej Logar said previous resolutions had not been implemented by Myanmar and many political prisoners remained in detention.
The recent constitutional referendum was conducted in complete disregard of basic standards on such issues as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, he said.
Myanmar’s representative U Wunna Maung Lwin described the resolution as politically motivated and lopsided and said powerful States were trying to influence matters through political interference.
The representative said Myanmar was working with the international community in the response effort to Cyclone Nargis, which struck the country on 2-3 May, and was also making efforts on the political front, such as with the recent holding of the constitutional referendum.
Meanwhile, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon briefed the General Assembly today on his recent trip to Myanmar, saying that overall the relief effort there is continuing to improve and to be scaled up.
More than 134,000 people are dead or missing as a result of Cyclone Nargis and the subsequent tidal wave, and as many as 2.4 million people were affected and now need humanitarian assistance.
In his address to Assembly members, Mr. Ban stressed that the humanitarian tragedy wrought by the cyclone should not be politicized, and he plans to remain focused on the issue, drawing on the efforts of his Special Adviser, Ibrahim Gambari.
The Secretary-General also covered other issues in his remarks to the Assembly, including his latest travels, the most recent developments in the global food crisis and the situation in Zimbabwe.
UNHRC
In a resolution adopted without a vote, the Council also called on the Government of Myanmar to fully implement commitments it made to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that it would grant relief workers “immediate, full and unhindered access” to people in need in the wake of last month’s catastrophic Cyclone Nargis.
It called on the Government to refrain from sending victims of the disaster back to areas where they would not have access to emergency relief, and to ensure that any returns are voluntary, safe and carried out with dignity.
The resolution, introduced before the Geneva-based Council by the European Union, also condemned the recruitment of child soldiers by both Government forces and non-State armed groups and urged “an absolute an immediate stop of this appalling activity.”
In addition, it called for an independent investigation into reports of human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, acts of torture and forced labour, and called for those responsible for such crimes to be brought to justice.
The resolution also called on the Government “to engage in a real process of dialogue and national reconciliation with the full and genuine participation of representatives of all political parties and ethnic groups who have been excluded from the political process.”
Introducing the resolution on behalf of the EU, Slovenian representative Andrej Logar said previous resolutions had not been implemented by Myanmar and many political prisoners remained in detention.
The recent constitutional referendum was conducted in complete disregard of basic standards on such issues as freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, he said.
Myanmar’s representative U Wunna Maung Lwin described the resolution as politically motivated and lopsided and said powerful States were trying to influence matters through political interference.
The representative said Myanmar was working with the international community in the response effort to Cyclone Nargis, which struck the country on 2-3 May, and was also making efforts on the political front, such as with the recent holding of the constitutional referendum.
Meanwhile, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon briefed the General Assembly today on his recent trip to Myanmar, saying that overall the relief effort there is continuing to improve and to be scaled up.
More than 134,000 people are dead or missing as a result of Cyclone Nargis and the subsequent tidal wave, and as many as 2.4 million people were affected and now need humanitarian assistance.
In his address to Assembly members, Mr. Ban stressed that the humanitarian tragedy wrought by the cyclone should not be politicized, and he plans to remain focused on the issue, drawing on the efforts of his Special Adviser, Ibrahim Gambari.
The Secretary-General also covered other issues in his remarks to the Assembly, including his latest travels, the most recent developments in the global food crisis and the situation in Zimbabwe.
UNHRC
Suu Kyi celebrates birthday with no hope of being freed soon
Larry Jagan
Mizzima
18 June 2008 - Millions of people throughout the world will mark the birthday of Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on June 19. The co-ordinated campaign around the world, which will take place in almost every major city in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, is trying to highlight the plight of one of the world's best known freedom fighters, languishing under house arrest in her lakeside residence in Rangoon.
But Burma's military rulers are likely to remain totally unmoved by the millions of Burmese and international protesters demanding her immediate release. "They can jump up and down and make as much noise as they like, General Than Shwe couldn't careless," according to a senior government official. As a matter of principle, the ruling junta will not be pressured into being conciliatory.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention. She is currently spending her third term under house arrest. The regime locked her up again after a brutal attack on her and her entourage as they were travelling in the north of the country in May 2003. She has been in detention ever since, and in the last four years she has been in virtual solitary confinement, seeing her doctor irregularly and meeting the UN envoy, Ibrahim Gambari five times in the last two years.
For the Burmese people, trampled for more than forty years by a repressive military regime, Aung San Suu Kyi represents their aspirations, and above all their desire for freedom and democracy. She was placed under house arrest the first time ten months before her party, the National League for Democracy overwhelmingly won the national elections – but was never allowed to form a government.
The irony is that Aung San Suu Kyi herself would probably disapprove of the world making a fuss over her birthday. She has continuously shunned personal attention. And even when her husband and sons accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, her acceptance speech smuggled out of the country at the time said it was not for her alone, but for all Burmese people in their struggle for democracy.
There has always been a self-effacing touch to Aung San Suu Kyi. Since her return to Rangoon to look after her ill mother in 1987, she has always put her personal concerns aside for the sake of the Burmese people.
"I draw inspiration from the courage and sacrifice of the ordinary Burmese people," she often said to me in interviews on the phone during the few years she was freed from house arrest for the first time in 10 July 1995, after six years under house arrest.
But Burma's military leader, senior General Than Shwe cannot even tolerate hearing her name. "The mere mention of her name sends the old man into a silent rage," according to a senior military source close to the top General.
Asia's foreign ministers were warned by their Burmese counterpart at the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh in 2002 to avoid mentioning her name in his presence. The former intelligence chief General Khin Nyunt frequently warned the UN envoy Razali Ismail to minimise the mention of Aung San Suu Kyi's name in front of the top general.
Indonesia's foreign minister Dr Hasan Wirajuda confided to UN officials that there was a marked change in Than Shwe's demeanour when he mentioned Aung San Suu Kyi. "His eyes glazed over and his facial muscles tensed; clearly our discussion had come to an end," he reportedly said.
This remains one of the key obstacles to resolving Burma's political deadlock. Burma's top generals are not interested in a concrete dialogue with the pro-democracy leader. "We've been trying to get them to the negotiating table for 14 years but they have never been keen on the idea," she told me the last time we met in March 2003.
Aung San Suu Kyi on the other hand has repeatedly offered to discuss the country's political future with the Generals. Everything is negotiable if they start meaningful talks, she told me weeks before she was detained for the third time more than two years ago following an attack on her and her entourage by pro-government thugs in what is now called Black Friday.
"We are in opposition to each other at the moment but we should work together for the sake of the country. We certainly bare no grudges against them. We are not out for vengeance. We want to reach the kind of settlement which will be beneficial to everybody, including the members of the military," Aung San Suu Kyi said to me in one of her last interviews before her fateful trip in 2003.
During Aung San Suu Kyi's second long period of house arrest, after she was detained trying to travel out of Rangoon in late 2000, the regime started tentative contact with the pro-democracy leader. The secret talks were largely brokered by the then UN special envoy for Burma Razali Ismail. Although this contact was never really substantive, it raised hopes inside Burma and abroad that political reform may be the agenda.
A process of national reconciliation was started, ostensibly involving senior representatives of the military regime, pro-democracy leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the ethnic rebel groups, many of whom have been fighting for some form of autonomy for more than five decades.
At the time there were high hopes, although many leading Burmese dissidents abroad and diplomats in Rangoon remained highly sceptical, believing the Burmese generals had no intentions of negotiating and were only concerned about hanging on to power at any cost.
In 2001 the Singaporean Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong told me privately that the generals were incorrigible and would never give up power voluntarily. Most Asian leaders probably did not disagree with the eminent Singaporean politician at the time – or even now -- but all of them preferred to coax Burma's top military leaders to change, rather than pressure them.
Even East Timor's president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta has suggested that pressuring the Generals in Rangoon was counter-productive. "Threats and deadlines have had no affect on the junta except hardening their position and forcing them to retreat into isolation," he told me several years ago.
But Aung San Suu has persisted trying to convince the regime that she at least was prepared to negotiate and that meant making concessions. "What we've always said is that dialogue is not a competition," she told me as we chatted in Rangoon over two years ago.
"We don't want a dialogue in order to find out who is the better person, or which is the smarter organisation. We have always said that the only winner, if we settle down to negotiations, the only winner, will be the country," she said.
Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly made conciliatory gestures towards the regime. As the daughter of the independence hero and founder of modern Burma, General Aung San, she understands the military mentality and is prepared to work with them.
"We have genuine goodwill towards the Burmese military. I personally look upon it with a certain amount of affection because of my father and I want it to have an honourable position in the country," she told me as we sat together talking at the NLD headquarters, weeks before the regime showed its true colours.
During yet another "honey-moon" period, after the new Prime Minister, General Khin Nyunt announced the seven-stage road map to democracy and the regime started plans to reconvene the National Convention to draft a new constitution, there was a glimmer of hope that Burma's military leaders may at long last include Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD in the process.
In 2004, at the suggestion of the Chinese, Aung San Suu Kyi even wrote to Than Shwe suggesting that they put the past behind them and move forward in a new era of cooperation. It fell on deaf ears.
Burma's top general is convinced that by keeping Aung San Suu Kyi in detention he can marginalise her and reduce her influence in the country. It is a vain hope as the protests and parties across the world will testify to. Aung San Suu Kyi is not only a massive icon in Burma, but throughout the globe.
Shortly after Kofi Annan took over as the UN secretary general he had to find some-one to lead the UN Commission on Human Rights. "I have a great idea, he told a close mutual friend, we'll make Aung San Suu Kyi the head of the human rights commission." Whether he really meant it or not we may never know.
But of course Aung San Suu Kyi who at the time had just been released from house arrest for the first time would never have taken the post as her over-riding commitment is to the cause of democracy in Burma.
At this point of time, with Burma having experienced its worst natural disaster in living memory, the detained opposition leader's thoughts will definitely be with those victims who have lost everything in the devastating cyclone that hit Burma more than six weeks ago. Their suffering has been made all the worse by the military's slow response to the disaster and their attempt to completely control the current relief efforts and any reconstruction plan in the future.
The contrast between the diminutive democracy hero and the generals in charge of Burma has never been so stark. Following what would be Aung San Syy Kyi's lead if she was free or able to talk, the NLD has offered to put aside their differences with the regime in the interests of working together to provide relief to more than three million victims, many of whom are still waiting to receive fresh water and food, and after that help with the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase.
Instead, Than Shwe and his fellow generals remain steadfast in believing they can do it alone. The horrible irony of course is that their secretive approach to ruling the country in part resulted in the damage being greater than it might have been, Warnings were not broadcast to the Delta or Rangoon before the cyclone hit – though the regime knew for days that the storm was brewing.
On the eve of the cyclone hitting Burma, government officials were ordered not say anything publicly – instructions from Than Shwe himself, according to government sources. Instead one civil servant, U Tun Lwin the director general of the meteorology department, when he was told directly by a government minister not to issue a public warning because it would cause people to panic, sent a warning SMS to as many of his friends in Rangoon as possible after midnight.
Air force fighters and private passenger planes, from Bagan Air – believed to be a joint venture between Than Shwe's family and the Burmese business tycoon Tay Ze -- and Air Mandalay were moved the evening before the cyclone from Rangoon airport to Mandalay for safety.
"This is symptomatic of the military leaders' total disregard for the safety of ordinary citizens and placing the protection of the military's interest above all else," a Burmese government official told Mizzima on condition anonymity.
For Burma's top general, Than Shwe, there is no need to compromise. This is symptomatic of the absurd irrationality that prevails amongst the military rulers. When any other national leader would be looking to promote national reconciliation and reconsolidation – the junta remains interested only in their own survival and holding onto political power, no matter how petty this is, when Burma is facing such a mammoth catastrophe.
The last time I met Aung Sann Suu Kyi – the last foreign journalist to talk to her before the ill-fated trip up-country -- we talked about the sort of Burma that could emerge if there was real political change and democracy. "You'll be exhausted because of so many things going on, because it's a dynamic country, she mused.
"At the same time I would very much like Burma to retain some of its traditional charm which has something to do with the fact that we are not as frantic as other countries. In some ways perhaps the fact that we are developing later than other countries can become an asset in a sense, that we learn from the mistakes of other countries and we learn how to get the best out of development while avoiding some of the worst aspects," she said.
Now more than ever the Burmese military regime should take heed of her continual offers to work together and solve Burma's problems. In the midst of perhaps the worse horror to have befallen Burma, it is time for Than Shwe to listen. Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly made conciliatory gestures towards the regime. As the daughter of the independence hero and founder of modern Burma, General Aung San, she understands the military mentality and is prepared to work with them.
But Than Shwe believes he does not need her and that unseen she will fade away. Nothing could be further from the truth. Aung San Suu Kyi is undeterred by the years of incarceration. When I met her on the day she was released last time – 6th May 2002, she confided that the isolation have given her plenty of time to read, reflect and meditate.
During the last five years of isolation in her Rangoon residence, I am certain she continues to draw inspiration from her father and the sacrifices of the Burmese people. "I always have been strengthened and inspired by my father. Even now, sometimes when I go over his old speeches, they are as relevant now as they were then -- he was indeed a man of vision," she confided to me as I left the NLD headquarters.
"He was a truly inspirational. I am also proud of the fact that he gained nothing. He gave but he didn't take anything from the nation. He gave the country a lot and took nothing from it. I am very proud of that and that inspires me," she said. It is a pity that the current leaders of the army, which General Aung San founded, cannot find the same inspiration, at a time when the country needs it most.
As she sits alone in her Rangoon residence now, I am certain she is continuing to draw inspiration from her father and the sacrifices of the Burmese people. She would be keen to help and is probably fretting that she cannot. It is the intransigence of the generals that is now not only delaying the return of democracy to Burma, but perhaps putting millions of lives at risk.
Now Burma's top general should at least talk directly to Aung San Suu Kyi and see how she could help the reconstruction effort. They would of course need to put genuine political dialogue with the NLD on the table in the future. But the opposition leaders' commitment to improving the lives of the Burmese people would no doubt mean she was prepared to compromise in the interests of getting the whole international aid effort into full swing.
Mizzima
18 June 2008 - Millions of people throughout the world will mark the birthday of Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on June 19. The co-ordinated campaign around the world, which will take place in almost every major city in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, is trying to highlight the plight of one of the world's best known freedom fighters, languishing under house arrest in her lakeside residence in Rangoon.
But Burma's military rulers are likely to remain totally unmoved by the millions of Burmese and international protesters demanding her immediate release. "They can jump up and down and make as much noise as they like, General Than Shwe couldn't careless," according to a senior government official. As a matter of principle, the ruling junta will not be pressured into being conciliatory.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention. She is currently spending her third term under house arrest. The regime locked her up again after a brutal attack on her and her entourage as they were travelling in the north of the country in May 2003. She has been in detention ever since, and in the last four years she has been in virtual solitary confinement, seeing her doctor irregularly and meeting the UN envoy, Ibrahim Gambari five times in the last two years.
For the Burmese people, trampled for more than forty years by a repressive military regime, Aung San Suu Kyi represents their aspirations, and above all their desire for freedom and democracy. She was placed under house arrest the first time ten months before her party, the National League for Democracy overwhelmingly won the national elections – but was never allowed to form a government.
The irony is that Aung San Suu Kyi herself would probably disapprove of the world making a fuss over her birthday. She has continuously shunned personal attention. And even when her husband and sons accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, her acceptance speech smuggled out of the country at the time said it was not for her alone, but for all Burmese people in their struggle for democracy.
There has always been a self-effacing touch to Aung San Suu Kyi. Since her return to Rangoon to look after her ill mother in 1987, she has always put her personal concerns aside for the sake of the Burmese people.
"I draw inspiration from the courage and sacrifice of the ordinary Burmese people," she often said to me in interviews on the phone during the few years she was freed from house arrest for the first time in 10 July 1995, after six years under house arrest.
But Burma's military leader, senior General Than Shwe cannot even tolerate hearing her name. "The mere mention of her name sends the old man into a silent rage," according to a senior military source close to the top General.
Asia's foreign ministers were warned by their Burmese counterpart at the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh in 2002 to avoid mentioning her name in his presence. The former intelligence chief General Khin Nyunt frequently warned the UN envoy Razali Ismail to minimise the mention of Aung San Suu Kyi's name in front of the top general.
Indonesia's foreign minister Dr Hasan Wirajuda confided to UN officials that there was a marked change in Than Shwe's demeanour when he mentioned Aung San Suu Kyi. "His eyes glazed over and his facial muscles tensed; clearly our discussion had come to an end," he reportedly said.
This remains one of the key obstacles to resolving Burma's political deadlock. Burma's top generals are not interested in a concrete dialogue with the pro-democracy leader. "We've been trying to get them to the negotiating table for 14 years but they have never been keen on the idea," she told me the last time we met in March 2003.
Aung San Suu Kyi on the other hand has repeatedly offered to discuss the country's political future with the Generals. Everything is negotiable if they start meaningful talks, she told me weeks before she was detained for the third time more than two years ago following an attack on her and her entourage by pro-government thugs in what is now called Black Friday.
"We are in opposition to each other at the moment but we should work together for the sake of the country. We certainly bare no grudges against them. We are not out for vengeance. We want to reach the kind of settlement which will be beneficial to everybody, including the members of the military," Aung San Suu Kyi said to me in one of her last interviews before her fateful trip in 2003.
During Aung San Suu Kyi's second long period of house arrest, after she was detained trying to travel out of Rangoon in late 2000, the regime started tentative contact with the pro-democracy leader. The secret talks were largely brokered by the then UN special envoy for Burma Razali Ismail. Although this contact was never really substantive, it raised hopes inside Burma and abroad that political reform may be the agenda.
A process of national reconciliation was started, ostensibly involving senior representatives of the military regime, pro-democracy leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the ethnic rebel groups, many of whom have been fighting for some form of autonomy for more than five decades.
At the time there were high hopes, although many leading Burmese dissidents abroad and diplomats in Rangoon remained highly sceptical, believing the Burmese generals had no intentions of negotiating and were only concerned about hanging on to power at any cost.
In 2001 the Singaporean Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong told me privately that the generals were incorrigible and would never give up power voluntarily. Most Asian leaders probably did not disagree with the eminent Singaporean politician at the time – or even now -- but all of them preferred to coax Burma's top military leaders to change, rather than pressure them.
Even East Timor's president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta has suggested that pressuring the Generals in Rangoon was counter-productive. "Threats and deadlines have had no affect on the junta except hardening their position and forcing them to retreat into isolation," he told me several years ago.
But Aung San Suu has persisted trying to convince the regime that she at least was prepared to negotiate and that meant making concessions. "What we've always said is that dialogue is not a competition," she told me as we chatted in Rangoon over two years ago.
"We don't want a dialogue in order to find out who is the better person, or which is the smarter organisation. We have always said that the only winner, if we settle down to negotiations, the only winner, will be the country," she said.
Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly made conciliatory gestures towards the regime. As the daughter of the independence hero and founder of modern Burma, General Aung San, she understands the military mentality and is prepared to work with them.
"We have genuine goodwill towards the Burmese military. I personally look upon it with a certain amount of affection because of my father and I want it to have an honourable position in the country," she told me as we sat together talking at the NLD headquarters, weeks before the regime showed its true colours.
During yet another "honey-moon" period, after the new Prime Minister, General Khin Nyunt announced the seven-stage road map to democracy and the regime started plans to reconvene the National Convention to draft a new constitution, there was a glimmer of hope that Burma's military leaders may at long last include Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD in the process.
In 2004, at the suggestion of the Chinese, Aung San Suu Kyi even wrote to Than Shwe suggesting that they put the past behind them and move forward in a new era of cooperation. It fell on deaf ears.
Burma's top general is convinced that by keeping Aung San Suu Kyi in detention he can marginalise her and reduce her influence in the country. It is a vain hope as the protests and parties across the world will testify to. Aung San Suu Kyi is not only a massive icon in Burma, but throughout the globe.
Shortly after Kofi Annan took over as the UN secretary general he had to find some-one to lead the UN Commission on Human Rights. "I have a great idea, he told a close mutual friend, we'll make Aung San Suu Kyi the head of the human rights commission." Whether he really meant it or not we may never know.
But of course Aung San Suu Kyi who at the time had just been released from house arrest for the first time would never have taken the post as her over-riding commitment is to the cause of democracy in Burma.
At this point of time, with Burma having experienced its worst natural disaster in living memory, the detained opposition leader's thoughts will definitely be with those victims who have lost everything in the devastating cyclone that hit Burma more than six weeks ago. Their suffering has been made all the worse by the military's slow response to the disaster and their attempt to completely control the current relief efforts and any reconstruction plan in the future.
The contrast between the diminutive democracy hero and the generals in charge of Burma has never been so stark. Following what would be Aung San Syy Kyi's lead if she was free or able to talk, the NLD has offered to put aside their differences with the regime in the interests of working together to provide relief to more than three million victims, many of whom are still waiting to receive fresh water and food, and after that help with the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase.
Instead, Than Shwe and his fellow generals remain steadfast in believing they can do it alone. The horrible irony of course is that their secretive approach to ruling the country in part resulted in the damage being greater than it might have been, Warnings were not broadcast to the Delta or Rangoon before the cyclone hit – though the regime knew for days that the storm was brewing.
On the eve of the cyclone hitting Burma, government officials were ordered not say anything publicly – instructions from Than Shwe himself, according to government sources. Instead one civil servant, U Tun Lwin the director general of the meteorology department, when he was told directly by a government minister not to issue a public warning because it would cause people to panic, sent a warning SMS to as many of his friends in Rangoon as possible after midnight.
Air force fighters and private passenger planes, from Bagan Air – believed to be a joint venture between Than Shwe's family and the Burmese business tycoon Tay Ze -- and Air Mandalay were moved the evening before the cyclone from Rangoon airport to Mandalay for safety.
"This is symptomatic of the military leaders' total disregard for the safety of ordinary citizens and placing the protection of the military's interest above all else," a Burmese government official told Mizzima on condition anonymity.
For Burma's top general, Than Shwe, there is no need to compromise. This is symptomatic of the absurd irrationality that prevails amongst the military rulers. When any other national leader would be looking to promote national reconciliation and reconsolidation – the junta remains interested only in their own survival and holding onto political power, no matter how petty this is, when Burma is facing such a mammoth catastrophe.
The last time I met Aung Sann Suu Kyi – the last foreign journalist to talk to her before the ill-fated trip up-country -- we talked about the sort of Burma that could emerge if there was real political change and democracy. "You'll be exhausted because of so many things going on, because it's a dynamic country, she mused.
"At the same time I would very much like Burma to retain some of its traditional charm which has something to do with the fact that we are not as frantic as other countries. In some ways perhaps the fact that we are developing later than other countries can become an asset in a sense, that we learn from the mistakes of other countries and we learn how to get the best out of development while avoiding some of the worst aspects," she said.
Now more than ever the Burmese military regime should take heed of her continual offers to work together and solve Burma's problems. In the midst of perhaps the worse horror to have befallen Burma, it is time for Than Shwe to listen. Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly made conciliatory gestures towards the regime. As the daughter of the independence hero and founder of modern Burma, General Aung San, she understands the military mentality and is prepared to work with them.
But Than Shwe believes he does not need her and that unseen she will fade away. Nothing could be further from the truth. Aung San Suu Kyi is undeterred by the years of incarceration. When I met her on the day she was released last time – 6th May 2002, she confided that the isolation have given her plenty of time to read, reflect and meditate.
During the last five years of isolation in her Rangoon residence, I am certain she continues to draw inspiration from her father and the sacrifices of the Burmese people. "I always have been strengthened and inspired by my father. Even now, sometimes when I go over his old speeches, they are as relevant now as they were then -- he was indeed a man of vision," she confided to me as I left the NLD headquarters.
"He was a truly inspirational. I am also proud of the fact that he gained nothing. He gave but he didn't take anything from the nation. He gave the country a lot and took nothing from it. I am very proud of that and that inspires me," she said. It is a pity that the current leaders of the army, which General Aung San founded, cannot find the same inspiration, at a time when the country needs it most.
As she sits alone in her Rangoon residence now, I am certain she is continuing to draw inspiration from her father and the sacrifices of the Burmese people. She would be keen to help and is probably fretting that she cannot. It is the intransigence of the generals that is now not only delaying the return of democracy to Burma, but perhaps putting millions of lives at risk.
Now Burma's top general should at least talk directly to Aung San Suu Kyi and see how she could help the reconstruction effort. They would of course need to put genuine political dialogue with the NLD on the table in the future. But the opposition leaders' commitment to improving the lives of the Burmese people would no doubt mean she was prepared to compromise in the interests of getting the whole international aid effort into full swing.
Volunteers burying storm victims arrested
Nam Davies
Mizzima - 18 June 2008
New Delhi – The 'Myanmar Tribune' journal chief editor Aung Kyaw San and at least six of his colleagues who had buried cyclone victims in devastated areas were arrested on June 14 by the authorities.
The volunteer grave diggers of 'Myanmar Tribune', CEO Aung Kyaw San (45) and six of his colleagues buried the remains of a number of cyclone victims in Bogale Township, Irrawaddy Division. They were detained last Saturday.
"Aung Kyaw San has not yet been released. We heard that he was arrested in Bogale but is now transferred to Rangoon. His wife is worrying about him since she does not know his whereabouts. She is asking many people about her husband unaware where he has been kept," a person close to the family said.
"He made frequent visits to Bogale. He made about three trips. He was arrested during his last visit. We heard that his colleagues arrested along with him were released yesterday," he added.
Though the reason behind the arrest is not known, literary and journalist circles criticized the authorities for hindering relief operations by volunteers, questioning and arresting volunteers.
"It's good to see the volunteers helping cyclone victims where the authorities have not done much. They are complementing the government's job on their own. Hindering and banning relief operations being conducted by the volunteers will worsen the suffering of cyclone victims," the editor of a weekly journal said.
Aung Kyaw San stopped publishing his 'Myanmar Tribune' weekly journal due to various reasons and engaged in volunteer work of burying the dead after the cyclone.
Mizzima - 18 June 2008
New Delhi – The 'Myanmar Tribune' journal chief editor Aung Kyaw San and at least six of his colleagues who had buried cyclone victims in devastated areas were arrested on June 14 by the authorities.
The volunteer grave diggers of 'Myanmar Tribune', CEO Aung Kyaw San (45) and six of his colleagues buried the remains of a number of cyclone victims in Bogale Township, Irrawaddy Division. They were detained last Saturday.
"Aung Kyaw San has not yet been released. We heard that he was arrested in Bogale but is now transferred to Rangoon. His wife is worrying about him since she does not know his whereabouts. She is asking many people about her husband unaware where he has been kept," a person close to the family said.
"He made frequent visits to Bogale. He made about three trips. He was arrested during his last visit. We heard that his colleagues arrested along with him were released yesterday," he added.
Though the reason behind the arrest is not known, literary and journalist circles criticized the authorities for hindering relief operations by volunteers, questioning and arresting volunteers.
"It's good to see the volunteers helping cyclone victims where the authorities have not done much. They are complementing the government's job on their own. Hindering and banning relief operations being conducted by the volunteers will worsen the suffering of cyclone victims," the editor of a weekly journal said.
Aung Kyaw San stopped publishing his 'Myanmar Tribune' weekly journal due to various reasons and engaged in volunteer work of burying the dead after the cyclone.
NLD calls for parliament to be convened
Solomon
Mizzima
The National League for Democracy, Burma's main opposition political party urged the military junta yet again to convene Parliament to solve the political dilemma the country is facing.
The statement issued by the NLD said the country is facing a national crisis in the aftermath of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Nargis. And it needs to be tackled at the earliest.
"The Parliament legally exists. When we talk about national crisis, it means not only economic crisis but also the legitimacy of the constitution. We need the Parliament to solve this environment of crisis in a legal manner," Thein Nyunt of the party's information department said.
"We want international aid to effectively tackle the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis and to reach succour to the victims," he added.
The statement said that the damage caused by the cyclone is far too big and needs the help of international experts. Aid is needed because Burma alone cannot handle the reconstruction.
Severe inflation and the run away increase in prices of essential commodities are interlaced with the political crisis and no country in the world can ignore this, it said.
Mizzima
The National League for Democracy, Burma's main opposition political party urged the military junta yet again to convene Parliament to solve the political dilemma the country is facing.
The statement issued by the NLD said the country is facing a national crisis in the aftermath of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Nargis. And it needs to be tackled at the earliest.
"The Parliament legally exists. When we talk about national crisis, it means not only economic crisis but also the legitimacy of the constitution. We need the Parliament to solve this environment of crisis in a legal manner," Thein Nyunt of the party's information department said.
"We want international aid to effectively tackle the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis and to reach succour to the victims," he added.
The statement said that the damage caused by the cyclone is far too big and needs the help of international experts. Aid is needed because Burma alone cannot handle the reconstruction.
Severe inflation and the run away increase in prices of essential commodities are interlaced with the political crisis and no country in the world can ignore this, it said.
Is Cyclone Aftermath Creating a Burmese Civil Society?
By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News
The aftermath of Cyclone Nargis has produced a number of local private relief groups in a country where civil society is under strict scrutiny by the authorities—giving rise to the question: could this phenomenon grow into some kind of social structure?
Shortly after the cyclone struck, a Laputta Township youth group, previously involved in offering funeral services for poor people, set up a cyclone relief team, together with local monks.
They collected funds and rice from better-off people and rice merchants in the township and opened emergency relief centers at monasteries and schools in Laputta, one of the worst hit areas,
On day one of the cyclone, the young people and the monks made rice soup for hundreds of survivors, at a time when no aid had reached the area from state authorities or international relief agencies.
“The local relief workers in Laputta are also themselves cyclone victims,” Aye Kyu, a Laputta physician told The Irrawaddy in early May. “In this disaster, nobody, such as government agencies and others, could help us. So victims needed to stand up by themselves, and help each other as well as save themselves,”
Local relief efforts weren’t confined to Laputta and the Irrawaddy Delta—the desire to help spread across the country.
“Our group started with five people,” said a young Rangoon doctor. “We didn’t collect money, food and other supplies, but just told our relatives and friends that we would go to the Irrawaddy Delta to help people there. Then people who know us donated cash, rice and other relief items for the survivors.”
Some local relief initiatives grew to scores of volunteer workers.
“These civic groups born in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis are unlike civil society in western countries,” said Khin Zaw Win, a Burmese researcher in Rangoon. “They are rooted in goodwill, replacing the irresponsible people.”
One large relief group, the Free Funeral Services Society, led by Burmese actor Kyaw Thu, has 150 volunteers and 50 staffers, according to its official website. The group visited more than 100 Irrawaddy Delta villages with aid.
The Nargis Action Group Myanmar, a sister organization of an education company, Myanmar E-gress, led by Nay Win Maung, a Burmese journalist with good connections to the military elite, has 100 volunteer workers in four townships in the Delta, according to its Web site.
Burmese émigrés add their weight to relief efforts, using their access to blogs and Web sites.
One group, the Myanmar-Burma Emergency Aid Network, based in Burma, Singapore and Britain, started up with 70 volunteers, who took relief supplies to 44 cyclone-hit villages.
“It’s been overwhelmingly impressive what local organizations, medical groups and some businessmen have done,” Ruth Bradley Jones, second secretary in the British Embassy in Rangoon, told The New York Times. “They are the true heroes of the relief effort.”
Such praise doesn’t impress the Burmese regime, which puts difficulties in the way of civic groups, many of which are denied official registration and lack legal basis.
While registered and well-connected groups, such as Myanmar E-gree, are officially approved, the activities of a relief group of 400 volunteers led by Burmese satirist Zarganar have been restricted by the authorities, and on June 4 Zarganar was arrested.
His detention was followed by the arrest of more than a dozen other local relief workers. “From this step, it is too early to talk about the growth of a Burmese civil society,” said Khin Zaw Win.
The Irrawaddy News
The aftermath of Cyclone Nargis has produced a number of local private relief groups in a country where civil society is under strict scrutiny by the authorities—giving rise to the question: could this phenomenon grow into some kind of social structure?
Shortly after the cyclone struck, a Laputta Township youth group, previously involved in offering funeral services for poor people, set up a cyclone relief team, together with local monks.
They collected funds and rice from better-off people and rice merchants in the township and opened emergency relief centers at monasteries and schools in Laputta, one of the worst hit areas,
On day one of the cyclone, the young people and the monks made rice soup for hundreds of survivors, at a time when no aid had reached the area from state authorities or international relief agencies.
“The local relief workers in Laputta are also themselves cyclone victims,” Aye Kyu, a Laputta physician told The Irrawaddy in early May. “In this disaster, nobody, such as government agencies and others, could help us. So victims needed to stand up by themselves, and help each other as well as save themselves,”
Local relief efforts weren’t confined to Laputta and the Irrawaddy Delta—the desire to help spread across the country.
“Our group started with five people,” said a young Rangoon doctor. “We didn’t collect money, food and other supplies, but just told our relatives and friends that we would go to the Irrawaddy Delta to help people there. Then people who know us donated cash, rice and other relief items for the survivors.”
Some local relief initiatives grew to scores of volunteer workers.
“These civic groups born in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis are unlike civil society in western countries,” said Khin Zaw Win, a Burmese researcher in Rangoon. “They are rooted in goodwill, replacing the irresponsible people.”
One large relief group, the Free Funeral Services Society, led by Burmese actor Kyaw Thu, has 150 volunteers and 50 staffers, according to its official website. The group visited more than 100 Irrawaddy Delta villages with aid.
The Nargis Action Group Myanmar, a sister organization of an education company, Myanmar E-gress, led by Nay Win Maung, a Burmese journalist with good connections to the military elite, has 100 volunteer workers in four townships in the Delta, according to its Web site.
Burmese émigrés add their weight to relief efforts, using their access to blogs and Web sites.
One group, the Myanmar-Burma Emergency Aid Network, based in Burma, Singapore and Britain, started up with 70 volunteers, who took relief supplies to 44 cyclone-hit villages.
“It’s been overwhelmingly impressive what local organizations, medical groups and some businessmen have done,” Ruth Bradley Jones, second secretary in the British Embassy in Rangoon, told The New York Times. “They are the true heroes of the relief effort.”
Such praise doesn’t impress the Burmese regime, which puts difficulties in the way of civic groups, many of which are denied official registration and lack legal basis.
While registered and well-connected groups, such as Myanmar E-gree, are officially approved, the activities of a relief group of 400 volunteers led by Burmese satirist Zarganar have been restricted by the authorities, and on June 4 Zarganar was arrested.
His detention was followed by the arrest of more than a dozen other local relief workers. “From this step, it is too early to talk about the growth of a Burmese civil society,” said Khin Zaw Win.
New Hydropower Dam to Displace Thousands
By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News
More than 3,500 people, including many ethnic Kayan in southern Shan State in eastern Burma, will be displaced by a new dam being built in the Pyinmana hills, according to the Kayan Women’s Union.
The Kayan Women’s Union released a report, “Drowning the Green Ghosts of Kayanland,” on Wednesday saying the Upper Paunglaung Dam will flood 12 villages and submerge more than 5,000 acres of fertile farm land about 26 miles east of Burma’s new capital at Naypyidaw.
Mu Kayan, a spokesperson of the Kayan Women’s Union, said, “Forty years ago, we Kayan people lost our sacred lands to provide electricity to Rangoon. Now the dwelling places of our guardian spirits will again be submerged to power Naypyidaw.”
About 140 megawatts of electricity will be generated by the 99-meter high Upper Paunglaung Dam, whose construction will also provide additional water to increase the generating capacity of the Lower Paunglaung Dam, completed in March 2005, which provides electrical power to Naypyidaw.
The Upper Paunglaung Dam is scheduled to be completed in December 2009.
The Upper Paunglaung Dam is being built by the Yunnan Machinery and Export Co Ltd, one of 24 major hydropower dams planned or under construction in Burma by Chinese companies, said the report.
Meanwhile, reports of human rights abuses including forced labor have increased in local villages near the dam’s construction site, according to the report. The Burmese army provides security in the dam area.
The secretary of Burma Rivers Network, Aung Ngyeh, who is also a Karenni environmentalist, said, “Burmese soldiers are deployed at the dam site. The army has forcibly called local villagers to the construction site and asked them to serve as laborers. The Burmese army also bans villagers from working on their farms. Villagers can’t do their own work because they have to work for the army.”
The Burmese army’s deployment along the Paunglaung River is in direct contravention of the ceasefire agreement between the Kayan New Land Party (KNLP) and the military regime in 1994, according to the report.
The KNLP was formed in 1964 to protest the construction of Burma’s first major hydropower project, the Mobye Dam in Karenni State, which flooded more than 100 villages and displaced many Kayan and Padaung, many of whom became refugees in Thailand. More than 8,000 people in Pekhon, including many Kayan, were also forcibly displaced in southern Shan State by the Mobye Dam.
Kayan people are an indigenous ethnic minority living in an area bordering southern Shan State, northern Karenni State and northern Karen State. The total population is estimated at around 200,000 comprising four ethnic subgroups, the largest being Padaung.
The Irrawaddy News
More than 3,500 people, including many ethnic Kayan in southern Shan State in eastern Burma, will be displaced by a new dam being built in the Pyinmana hills, according to the Kayan Women’s Union.
The Kayan Women’s Union released a report, “Drowning the Green Ghosts of Kayanland,” on Wednesday saying the Upper Paunglaung Dam will flood 12 villages and submerge more than 5,000 acres of fertile farm land about 26 miles east of Burma’s new capital at Naypyidaw.
Mu Kayan, a spokesperson of the Kayan Women’s Union, said, “Forty years ago, we Kayan people lost our sacred lands to provide electricity to Rangoon. Now the dwelling places of our guardian spirits will again be submerged to power Naypyidaw.”
About 140 megawatts of electricity will be generated by the 99-meter high Upper Paunglaung Dam, whose construction will also provide additional water to increase the generating capacity of the Lower Paunglaung Dam, completed in March 2005, which provides electrical power to Naypyidaw.
The Upper Paunglaung Dam is scheduled to be completed in December 2009.
The Upper Paunglaung Dam is being built by the Yunnan Machinery and Export Co Ltd, one of 24 major hydropower dams planned or under construction in Burma by Chinese companies, said the report.
Meanwhile, reports of human rights abuses including forced labor have increased in local villages near the dam’s construction site, according to the report. The Burmese army provides security in the dam area.
The secretary of Burma Rivers Network, Aung Ngyeh, who is also a Karenni environmentalist, said, “Burmese soldiers are deployed at the dam site. The army has forcibly called local villagers to the construction site and asked them to serve as laborers. The Burmese army also bans villagers from working on their farms. Villagers can’t do their own work because they have to work for the army.”
The Burmese army’s deployment along the Paunglaung River is in direct contravention of the ceasefire agreement between the Kayan New Land Party (KNLP) and the military regime in 1994, according to the report.
The KNLP was formed in 1964 to protest the construction of Burma’s first major hydropower project, the Mobye Dam in Karenni State, which flooded more than 100 villages and displaced many Kayan and Padaung, many of whom became refugees in Thailand. More than 8,000 people in Pekhon, including many Kayan, were also forcibly displaced in southern Shan State by the Mobye Dam.
Kayan people are an indigenous ethnic minority living in an area bordering southern Shan State, northern Karenni State and northern Karen State. The total population is estimated at around 200,000 comprising four ethnic subgroups, the largest being Padaung.
Local Activists Blast Relief Effort
By MIN LWIN
The Irrawaddy News
Burmese humanitarian activists have complained that the distribution of aid to cyclone survivors is uncoordinated and is restricted to people in urban areas.
A well-known activist from Mandalay, Than Myint Soe, said on Tuesday that private donors and international aid agencies are not cooperating or sharing information while distributing aid to cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta.
“The villages near roads or along the rivers get assistance,” the social activist said. “But rural villages located far from roads and rivers haven’t received any food, clothes or even fresh water.”
Than Myint Soe, a coordinator for the Mandalay Charity Group for Nargis, added: “What is the point of not sharing your information? The organizations and private donors are simply not coordinating their assistance.”
He said that Mandalay Charity Group for Nargis, which he founded along with businessmen, doctors and philanthropists from Mandalay, had delivered upward of 160 million kyat (US $136,750), including food, clothes and emergency aid to an estimated 90,000 cyclone survivors in Dedaye and Pyapon townships.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Than Myint Soe said that the makeshift charity planned to build schools in Dedaye and Pyapon, as well as high brick walls as barriers in case of floods in the future.
“Well constructed buildings and strong walls can save lives,” he said. “When I traveled to Dedaye and Pyapon to deliver supplies, I could see that the villagers that survived the cyclone winds and the tidal wave took shelter in well-built structures.”
Nyi Lynn Seck, a 29-year-old blogger and social activist from Rangoon who, along with four colleagues, formed a makeshift group which they called “Handy Myanmar Youths to reconstruct homes in the delta, said that to date they have built more than 100 houses, or what they call “budget huts,” for cyclone survivors in the Laputta area.
However, the activist complained that corrupt local officials were siphoning off many of their building materials and that their disaster management skills were inefficient.
“I was disappointed because some villages did not receive the materials we tried to supply,” Nyi Lynn Seck said. “Officials from the Ward and Village Peace and Development Council stole them. For example, they gave us proposals for 10 x12-foot huts, but they took materials and tools to build 15 x 30-foot houses,” he said.
An urgent concern is the high price and scarcity of materials and tools, Nyi Lynn Seck said, noting in his blog that they were having trouble finding wood to build “budget huts” in Laputta.
He said that another setback to aid distribution was the disorganized method the Burmese military government relied on. He said the authorities did not use a computerized system for the logistics of the disaster management and that they only worked on paper, so much of the help was “delayed, forged and wasted.”
In Bogalay, rebuilding and rehabilitation has still not been initiated in remote villages of the township, according to a Buddhist monk who spoke to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.
The monk said that the Htoo Company, the junta-linked contractors with a monopoly on rights to rebuild in the cyclone-ravaged Bogalay area, had constructed only roofing shelters supported by poles at a state school in the village of Ahkare Gyi in Bogalay Township, but that no buildings had yet been constructed.
The Irrawaddy News
Burmese humanitarian activists have complained that the distribution of aid to cyclone survivors is uncoordinated and is restricted to people in urban areas.
A well-known activist from Mandalay, Than Myint Soe, said on Tuesday that private donors and international aid agencies are not cooperating or sharing information while distributing aid to cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta.
“The villages near roads or along the rivers get assistance,” the social activist said. “But rural villages located far from roads and rivers haven’t received any food, clothes or even fresh water.”
Than Myint Soe, a coordinator for the Mandalay Charity Group for Nargis, added: “What is the point of not sharing your information? The organizations and private donors are simply not coordinating their assistance.”
He said that Mandalay Charity Group for Nargis, which he founded along with businessmen, doctors and philanthropists from Mandalay, had delivered upward of 160 million kyat (US $136,750), including food, clothes and emergency aid to an estimated 90,000 cyclone survivors in Dedaye and Pyapon townships.
Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Than Myint Soe said that the makeshift charity planned to build schools in Dedaye and Pyapon, as well as high brick walls as barriers in case of floods in the future.
“Well constructed buildings and strong walls can save lives,” he said. “When I traveled to Dedaye and Pyapon to deliver supplies, I could see that the villagers that survived the cyclone winds and the tidal wave took shelter in well-built structures.”
Nyi Lynn Seck, a 29-year-old blogger and social activist from Rangoon who, along with four colleagues, formed a makeshift group which they called “Handy Myanmar Youths to reconstruct homes in the delta, said that to date they have built more than 100 houses, or what they call “budget huts,” for cyclone survivors in the Laputta area.
However, the activist complained that corrupt local officials were siphoning off many of their building materials and that their disaster management skills were inefficient.
“I was disappointed because some villages did not receive the materials we tried to supply,” Nyi Lynn Seck said. “Officials from the Ward and Village Peace and Development Council stole them. For example, they gave us proposals for 10 x12-foot huts, but they took materials and tools to build 15 x 30-foot houses,” he said.
An urgent concern is the high price and scarcity of materials and tools, Nyi Lynn Seck said, noting in his blog that they were having trouble finding wood to build “budget huts” in Laputta.
He said that another setback to aid distribution was the disorganized method the Burmese military government relied on. He said the authorities did not use a computerized system for the logistics of the disaster management and that they only worked on paper, so much of the help was “delayed, forged and wasted.”
In Bogalay, rebuilding and rehabilitation has still not been initiated in remote villages of the township, according to a Buddhist monk who spoke to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.
The monk said that the Htoo Company, the junta-linked contractors with a monopoly on rights to rebuild in the cyclone-ravaged Bogalay area, had constructed only roofing shelters supported by poles at a state school in the village of Ahkare Gyi in Bogalay Township, but that no buildings had yet been constructed.
Regime Steps Up Crackdown on Private Cyclone Relief Efforts
By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News
Despite assurances of free access by private donors to cyclone-devastated areas of Burma, the military government continues to arrest individuals taking aid to survivors of the May 2-3 storm.
Ten donors have been arrested since the beginning of this month, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
The arrested aid workers were identified as Zarganar, Zaw Thet Htwe, Ein Khine Oo, Myat Thu, Yin Yin Wine, Tin Tin Cho, Ko Zaw, Tin Maung Oo, Ni Mo Hlaing and Toe Kyaw Hlaing. Zarganar is Burma’s most popular satirist and an outspoken critic of the regime.
Toe Kyaw Hlaing, a former 88 Generation Students leader, was the latest donor to be arrested. He was detained on Tuesday after returning to Rangoon from the Irrawaddy Delta.
AAPP Secretary Tate Naing said: “The arrests are now increasing, especially of people actively helping cyclone survivors. We don’t know the reasons for the arrests.”
Tate Naing said family members were not being informed of the arrests.
Six of those arrested—Myat Thu, Yin Yin Wine, Tin Tin Cho, Ko Zaw, Tin Maung Oo and Ni Mo Hlaing—are being held by the police special branch in Rangoon’s Sanchaung Township. They were detained on June 12.
Zaw Thet Htwe, a journalist and private aid worker, and Ein Khine Oo were arrested last weekend.
Zarganar ran a group of voluntary relief workers, but one of them said they had suspended their aid efforts because of the regime crackdown.
Since the cyclone, the regime mouthpiece, The New Light of Myanmar, has been carrying a slogan on its back page stating: “Everybody may make donations freely. Everybody may make donations to any person or any area.”
The Irrawaddy News
Despite assurances of free access by private donors to cyclone-devastated areas of Burma, the military government continues to arrest individuals taking aid to survivors of the May 2-3 storm.
Ten donors have been arrested since the beginning of this month, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
The arrested aid workers were identified as Zarganar, Zaw Thet Htwe, Ein Khine Oo, Myat Thu, Yin Yin Wine, Tin Tin Cho, Ko Zaw, Tin Maung Oo, Ni Mo Hlaing and Toe Kyaw Hlaing. Zarganar is Burma’s most popular satirist and an outspoken critic of the regime.
Toe Kyaw Hlaing, a former 88 Generation Students leader, was the latest donor to be arrested. He was detained on Tuesday after returning to Rangoon from the Irrawaddy Delta.
AAPP Secretary Tate Naing said: “The arrests are now increasing, especially of people actively helping cyclone survivors. We don’t know the reasons for the arrests.”
Tate Naing said family members were not being informed of the arrests.
Six of those arrested—Myat Thu, Yin Yin Wine, Tin Tin Cho, Ko Zaw, Tin Maung Oo and Ni Mo Hlaing—are being held by the police special branch in Rangoon’s Sanchaung Township. They were detained on June 12.
Zaw Thet Htwe, a journalist and private aid worker, and Ein Khine Oo were arrested last weekend.
Zarganar ran a group of voluntary relief workers, but one of them said they had suspended their aid efforts because of the regime crackdown.
Since the cyclone, the regime mouthpiece, The New Light of Myanmar, has been carrying a slogan on its back page stating: “Everybody may make donations freely. Everybody may make donations to any person or any area.”
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Gov’t Tightens Restrictions on Relief Efforts
By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News
As Burma’s state-run media urged private citizens to donate “cash and kind” to relief efforts in the cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy delta, donors say that the government is moving to tighten its control over private donations.
On Monday, The New Light of Myanmar, a junta mouthpiece, announced that donations could be made through the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Sub-committee of the National Disaster Preparedness Central Committee, as well as through authorities at the district and township levels.
Although the announcement did not state that donations had to be made through these channels, sources actively involved in relief efforts say that the junta’s invitation to would-be donors was effectively an order.
“The restrictions have now been stated publicly in the government’s newspapers, but actually, tighter controls on private donations started at least two weeks ago,” said one private donor, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Donors must now get permission from the authorities before making any donations.”
According to the announcement in The New Light of Myanmar, cash donations should be made to Col Hla Thein Swe, the deputy finance and revenue minister, or to two high-ranking officials of Burma’s central bank, Maung Maung Win and Kyaw Win Tin.
Relief items should be donated to Than Oo, director general of the relief and resettlement department, or Aung Tun Khaing, an official of the social welfare department.
The newspaper also listed the officials’ phone numbers.
The junta has arrested at least five private relief workers recently. Zarganar, a well-known comedian who led relief efforts by Burmese celebrities and organized one of the biggest local relief groups was arrested on June 4.
Two female aid workers, Yin Yin Wei and Tin Tin Cho, were arrested last Thursday along with their colleague Myat Thu. Zaw Thet Htway, a journalist and a private relief worker, was arrested on Friday.
“People who have a history of political activity have the most trouble when they get involved in relief work. People who have contact with the opposition party also find it difficult. Other relief workers who do not have good relations with the authorities also get into trouble,” said Khin Zaw Win, a Burmese researcher and relief worker in Rangoon.
Analysts say the recent arrests were an attempt by the ruling junta to weaken Burma’s civil society, which has gained strength through its involvement in relief efforts after the cyclone.
Meanwhile, villagers in Laputta Township in the Irrawaddy delta, one of the worst-hit areas, complained about corruption by local authorities, the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
Kyi Win, a member of the NLD’s disaster response committee, said that the party received a letter from residents of the villages of Nyaung Lein and Peti, explaining that local authorities took 20 head of cattle which were supposed to be distributed to farmers who lost livestock in the disaster.
The Irrawaddy News
As Burma’s state-run media urged private citizens to donate “cash and kind” to relief efforts in the cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy delta, donors say that the government is moving to tighten its control over private donations.
On Monday, The New Light of Myanmar, a junta mouthpiece, announced that donations could be made through the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Sub-committee of the National Disaster Preparedness Central Committee, as well as through authorities at the district and township levels.
Although the announcement did not state that donations had to be made through these channels, sources actively involved in relief efforts say that the junta’s invitation to would-be donors was effectively an order.
“The restrictions have now been stated publicly in the government’s newspapers, but actually, tighter controls on private donations started at least two weeks ago,” said one private donor, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Donors must now get permission from the authorities before making any donations.”
According to the announcement in The New Light of Myanmar, cash donations should be made to Col Hla Thein Swe, the deputy finance and revenue minister, or to two high-ranking officials of Burma’s central bank, Maung Maung Win and Kyaw Win Tin.
Relief items should be donated to Than Oo, director general of the relief and resettlement department, or Aung Tun Khaing, an official of the social welfare department.
The newspaper also listed the officials’ phone numbers.
The junta has arrested at least five private relief workers recently. Zarganar, a well-known comedian who led relief efforts by Burmese celebrities and organized one of the biggest local relief groups was arrested on June 4.
Two female aid workers, Yin Yin Wei and Tin Tin Cho, were arrested last Thursday along with their colleague Myat Thu. Zaw Thet Htway, a journalist and a private relief worker, was arrested on Friday.
“People who have a history of political activity have the most trouble when they get involved in relief work. People who have contact with the opposition party also find it difficult. Other relief workers who do not have good relations with the authorities also get into trouble,” said Khin Zaw Win, a Burmese researcher and relief worker in Rangoon.
Analysts say the recent arrests were an attempt by the ruling junta to weaken Burma’s civil society, which has gained strength through its involvement in relief efforts after the cyclone.
Meanwhile, villagers in Laputta Township in the Irrawaddy delta, one of the worst-hit areas, complained about corruption by local authorities, the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
Kyi Win, a member of the NLD’s disaster response committee, said that the party received a letter from residents of the villages of Nyaung Lein and Peti, explaining that local authorities took 20 head of cattle which were supposed to be distributed to farmers who lost livestock in the disaster.
Renew Focus on Burma - Analysis
By MIN ZIN
The Irrawaddy News
As Aung San Suu Kyi quietly spends another birthday under house arrest on Thursday, the UN Security Council will sit down to a debate on women’s rights, while the European Council is scheduled to examine the role of the European Union (EU) in international affairs. Perhaps the conjunction of events on June 19 will mark a perfect date to start refocusing on Burma’s political crisis.
At her home on the banks of Inya Lake in Rangoon, the only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate in the world, Suu Kyi, will turn 63 on Thursday, having spent almost 13 of the last 19 years under detention.
On the same date on the other side of the world, in New York, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will sit to examine the global progress on Resolution 1325, which was passed unanimously in October 2000. The resolution specifically addresses the impact of war on women by protecting them from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, and addresses women's contributions to conflict resolution and creating sustainable peace.
“There is no more opportune and timely an international gathering to raise the issue of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's unlawful detention and the plight of women in Burma than at this significant occasion,” said Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the National League for Democracy.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will chair the debate, as the US holds the presidency of the UNSC for June 2008. According to sources close to the US state department, Rice is expected to highlight the situation of Suu Kyi, as well as the plight of women political prisoners and ethnic women in Burma.
There are about 154 imprisoned women activists languishing in Burma's jails, out of almost 2,000 political prisoners. Last week, at least three women volunteers distributing relief supplies to cyclone victims were arrested by Burmese authorities.
Meanwhile, the situation for women and girls in many ethnic areas in Burma is critically serious. In conflict areas such as Karen, Karenni and Shan states, ethnic women and girls, some reportedly as young as 10 years old, are raped by Burmese soldiers during military operations in these areas. This issue commands not only debate, but urgent action from the Security Council.
Also on June 19, the European Council will meet in Brussels and the 27 heads of state will discuss the role of the EU in international affairs.
The issue of Burma should be high the agenda of EU leaders. In the wake of Cyclone Nargis, many analysts observe that the regime's handling of the humanitarian crisis in the country was tantamount to a “crime against humanity.” France, one of the leading members of the EU, correctly invoked the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine to intervene in Burma on humanitarian grounds.
“We demand the EU's heads of state bring Than Shwe before the International Criminal Court to be tried for his crimes against humanity, as recommended by the European parliament,” said Aung Din, the director of the US Campaign for Burma.
Of course, such a demand may not find an immediately positive reception in the halls of the parliament in Brussels.
However, the bottom line is that the international community must renew its focus and prioritize Burma's underlying political crisis. To this end, the date of Suu Kyi's birthday in conjunction with two major international meetings would be a symbolically good start.
One of the key obstacles in reorienting the international community's focus on the political crisis in Burma is the misleading UN principle of keeping humanitarian aspects totally separate from political aspect, according to UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes.
In fact, Holmes was echoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's words. “Issues of assistance and aid in Myanmar [Burma] should not be politicized,” he said before his first meeting with the regime’s leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, to plead for international access to the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta.
“While the UN secretary-general, the Burmese regime and allies of the junta have urged that the question of humanitarian aid not be “politicized,” the regime itself is taking every advantage of the cyclone to cement its grip on power to the exclusion of helping its own people,” said Jared Genser, attorney for Suu Kyi. “As is often the case, distraction and delay in discussing the fundamental issues in Burma only serve the interests of the regime.”
Some sources close to the UN said that Ban is considering a proposal to the Burmese military government that a political solution in Burma be implemented as an integral part in the coordinated reconstruction phase of the cyclone disaster.
However, the prevailing attitude and insistence among some key officials from the UN and INGOs is that even any tough talk from the international community could upset the generals and make the continuation of current access to the country impossible.
During last week's panel discussion in New York convened by the Asia Society and the Open Society Institute, Holmes said that further international sanctions or the threat of force would only have kept aid from the people who so desperately need it.
However, many Burmese opposition groups say such an attitude is appeasement.
“How inhumane are they?” asked Aung Din. “They are trying to reward Than Shwe and his clique in the name of humanitarian access. Actually, they have become complicit in allowing Than Shwe to commit crimes against humanity.”
NLD spokesperson Nyan Win said that the party always views the issues of politics and humanitarian crises as interrelated.
"A softly-softly policy has never yielded any solution in the past,” he said. “Nor will it in the future.”
Several UN officials expect the Burmese military may be more confident in dealing with the UN when they come to realize that the UN avoids politicizing humanitarian issues.
It could create a better mutual understanding and ultimately lead the junta to become more receptive in cooperating with the UN, even in a political area, said a UN source in New York.
If there were an implicit expectation behind such a jealously guarded humanitarian attitude, it would be dead wrong. The mentality of the Burmese generals will not allow such tactical optimism feasible.
Recently, the junta's top leaders—especially Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye—declared war on UN and INGO officials during the regime's relief-related meetings in the delta area.
According to sources close to the military, Maung Aye said that the foreigners are attempting to enslave the country. He also noted that it was China and Russia, not the UN, that helped convince the US and France to withdraw their naval vessels from international waters off the coast of Burma. The general also gave instructions to stamp out local NGOs and volunteer groups who, in his words, were “like slaves” receiving support from international donors.
Nonetheless, it should always be welcomed that the international community uses persuasion, not force, to achieve its goals, in this case opening up the delta in the aftermath of a devastating cyclone. However, the tactic of persuasion should not undermine the strategic goal—that of facilitating an acceptable political transition in Burma.
Engaging humanitarian work and pushing for genuine political transition should not be mutually exclusive. Avoiding tough talk and action against a brutal regime out of a fear of upsetting that regime is morally unacceptable and politically unsustainable.
The international community must renew its attention on Burma’s political crisis. Otherwise, Suu Kyi will be blowing out the candles on her birthday cake alone in her house for many more years to come.
The Irrawaddy News
As Aung San Suu Kyi quietly spends another birthday under house arrest on Thursday, the UN Security Council will sit down to a debate on women’s rights, while the European Council is scheduled to examine the role of the European Union (EU) in international affairs. Perhaps the conjunction of events on June 19 will mark a perfect date to start refocusing on Burma’s political crisis.
At her home on the banks of Inya Lake in Rangoon, the only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate in the world, Suu Kyi, will turn 63 on Thursday, having spent almost 13 of the last 19 years under detention.
On the same date on the other side of the world, in New York, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will sit to examine the global progress on Resolution 1325, which was passed unanimously in October 2000. The resolution specifically addresses the impact of war on women by protecting them from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, and addresses women's contributions to conflict resolution and creating sustainable peace.
“There is no more opportune and timely an international gathering to raise the issue of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's unlawful detention and the plight of women in Burma than at this significant occasion,” said Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the National League for Democracy.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will chair the debate, as the US holds the presidency of the UNSC for June 2008. According to sources close to the US state department, Rice is expected to highlight the situation of Suu Kyi, as well as the plight of women political prisoners and ethnic women in Burma.
There are about 154 imprisoned women activists languishing in Burma's jails, out of almost 2,000 political prisoners. Last week, at least three women volunteers distributing relief supplies to cyclone victims were arrested by Burmese authorities.
Meanwhile, the situation for women and girls in many ethnic areas in Burma is critically serious. In conflict areas such as Karen, Karenni and Shan states, ethnic women and girls, some reportedly as young as 10 years old, are raped by Burmese soldiers during military operations in these areas. This issue commands not only debate, but urgent action from the Security Council.
Also on June 19, the European Council will meet in Brussels and the 27 heads of state will discuss the role of the EU in international affairs.
The issue of Burma should be high the agenda of EU leaders. In the wake of Cyclone Nargis, many analysts observe that the regime's handling of the humanitarian crisis in the country was tantamount to a “crime against humanity.” France, one of the leading members of the EU, correctly invoked the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine to intervene in Burma on humanitarian grounds.
“We demand the EU's heads of state bring Than Shwe before the International Criminal Court to be tried for his crimes against humanity, as recommended by the European parliament,” said Aung Din, the director of the US Campaign for Burma.
Of course, such a demand may not find an immediately positive reception in the halls of the parliament in Brussels.
However, the bottom line is that the international community must renew its focus and prioritize Burma's underlying political crisis. To this end, the date of Suu Kyi's birthday in conjunction with two major international meetings would be a symbolically good start.
One of the key obstacles in reorienting the international community's focus on the political crisis in Burma is the misleading UN principle of keeping humanitarian aspects totally separate from political aspect, according to UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes.
In fact, Holmes was echoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's words. “Issues of assistance and aid in Myanmar [Burma] should not be politicized,” he said before his first meeting with the regime’s leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, to plead for international access to the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta.
“While the UN secretary-general, the Burmese regime and allies of the junta have urged that the question of humanitarian aid not be “politicized,” the regime itself is taking every advantage of the cyclone to cement its grip on power to the exclusion of helping its own people,” said Jared Genser, attorney for Suu Kyi. “As is often the case, distraction and delay in discussing the fundamental issues in Burma only serve the interests of the regime.”
Some sources close to the UN said that Ban is considering a proposal to the Burmese military government that a political solution in Burma be implemented as an integral part in the coordinated reconstruction phase of the cyclone disaster.
However, the prevailing attitude and insistence among some key officials from the UN and INGOs is that even any tough talk from the international community could upset the generals and make the continuation of current access to the country impossible.
During last week's panel discussion in New York convened by the Asia Society and the Open Society Institute, Holmes said that further international sanctions or the threat of force would only have kept aid from the people who so desperately need it.
However, many Burmese opposition groups say such an attitude is appeasement.
“How inhumane are they?” asked Aung Din. “They are trying to reward Than Shwe and his clique in the name of humanitarian access. Actually, they have become complicit in allowing Than Shwe to commit crimes against humanity.”
NLD spokesperson Nyan Win said that the party always views the issues of politics and humanitarian crises as interrelated.
"A softly-softly policy has never yielded any solution in the past,” he said. “Nor will it in the future.”
Several UN officials expect the Burmese military may be more confident in dealing with the UN when they come to realize that the UN avoids politicizing humanitarian issues.
It could create a better mutual understanding and ultimately lead the junta to become more receptive in cooperating with the UN, even in a political area, said a UN source in New York.
If there were an implicit expectation behind such a jealously guarded humanitarian attitude, it would be dead wrong. The mentality of the Burmese generals will not allow such tactical optimism feasible.
Recently, the junta's top leaders—especially Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye—declared war on UN and INGO officials during the regime's relief-related meetings in the delta area.
According to sources close to the military, Maung Aye said that the foreigners are attempting to enslave the country. He also noted that it was China and Russia, not the UN, that helped convince the US and France to withdraw their naval vessels from international waters off the coast of Burma. The general also gave instructions to stamp out local NGOs and volunteer groups who, in his words, were “like slaves” receiving support from international donors.
Nonetheless, it should always be welcomed that the international community uses persuasion, not force, to achieve its goals, in this case opening up the delta in the aftermath of a devastating cyclone. However, the tactic of persuasion should not undermine the strategic goal—that of facilitating an acceptable political transition in Burma.
Engaging humanitarian work and pushing for genuine political transition should not be mutually exclusive. Avoiding tough talk and action against a brutal regime out of a fear of upsetting that regime is morally unacceptable and politically unsustainable.
The international community must renew its attention on Burma’s political crisis. Otherwise, Suu Kyi will be blowing out the candles on her birthday cake alone in her house for many more years to come.
Burmese Endure in Spite of Junta, Aid Workers Say
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
YANGON, Myanmar — More than six weeks have passed since Cyclone Nargis swept through the Irrawaddy Delta in southern Myanmar, leaving a trail of flattened villages and broken lives and arousing international sympathy that turned to anguish as the military government obstructed foreign aid.
Now doctors and aid workers returning from remote areas of the delta are offering a less pessimistic picture of the human cost of the delay in reaching survivors.
They say they have seen no signs of starvation or widespread outbreaks of disease. While it is estimated that the cyclone may have killed 130,000 people, the number of lives lost specifically because of the junta’s slow response to the disaster appears to have been smaller than expected. (JEG's: what about the badly injured buried alive? those numbers will never count I suppose)
Relief workers here continue to criticize the government’s secretive posture and obsession with security, its restrictions on foreign aid experts and the weeks of dawdling that left bloated bodies befouling waterways and survivors marooned with little food. But the specific character of the cyclone, the hardiness of villagers and aid from private citizens helped prevent further death and sickness, aid workers say.
Most of the people killed by the cyclone, which struck on May 2-3, drowned. But those who survived were not likely to need urgent medical attention, doctors say.
“We saw very, very few serious injuries,” said Frank Smithuis, manager of the substantial mission of Doctors Without Borders in Myanmar. “You were dead or you were in O.K. shape.”
The cyclone swept away bamboo huts throughout the delta; in the hardest-hit villages, it left almost no trace of habitation. Some survivors carried away by floods found themselves many miles from home when the waters receded.
But those who survived were not likely to be injured in the aftermath by falling rocks or collapsing buildings, as often happens during natural disasters, like the earthquake in China.
That appears to be the primary reason villagers were able to stay alive for weeks without aid. As they waited, the survivors, most of whom were fishermen and farmers, lived off of coconuts, rotten rice and fish.
“The Burmese people are used to getting nothing,” said Shari Villarosa, the highest-ranking United States diplomat in Myanmar, formerly Burma. “I’m not getting the sense that there have been a lot of deaths as a result of the delay.”
The United States has accused the military government of “criminal neglect” in its handling of the disaster caused by the cyclone. Privately, many aid workers have, too. The junta, widely disliked among Myanmar’s citizens, did not have the means to lead a sustained relief campaign, they say.
But relief workers say the debate over access for foreigners and the refusal of the government to allow in military helicopters and ships from the United States, France and Britain overshadowed a substantial relief operation carried out mainly by Burmese citizens and monks.
They organized convoys of trucks filled with drinking water, clothing, food and construction materials that poured into the delta.
“It’s been overwhelmingly impressive what local organizations, medical groups and some businessmen have done,” said Ruth Bradley Jones, second secretary in the British Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. “They are the true heroes of the relief effort.”
Aid workers emphasize that of the estimated 2.4 million Burmese strongly affected by the storm, thousands remain vulnerable to sickness and many are still without adequate food, shelter and supplies.
But their ailments are — for now — minor. Medical logs from Doctors Without Borders show that of the 30,000 people the group’s workers treated in the six weeks after the cyclone, most had flesh wounds, diarrhea or respiratory infections. The latter two afflictions are common in rural Southeast Asia even in normal times. Diarrhea can be especially dangerous for infants and young children, but doctors say that, while they have treated thousands of cases, the illness has not reached critical levels.
“I can’t say it was an outbreak,” said May Myad Win, a general practitioner who works for Doctors Without Borders and spent 25 days in the delta treating an average of 25 patients a day. “It was not as severe as we feared.”
The number of people in need of serious medical aid was judged to be low enough that officials at a British medical group canceled plans to bring in a team of surgeons in the days after the storm, said Paula Sansom, the manager of the emergency response team for the group, Merlin.
For several weeks after the disaster, the government prevented all but a small number of foreigners from entering the delta. Now a more comprehensive picture of the damage is being assembled by a team of 250 officials led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The officials plan to release their findings next week.
The number of people killed in the storm may never be known. The government has not updated its toll since May 16, when it said 77,738 people were killed and 55,917 were missing.
In a country that has not had a full census in decades, it is not even certain how many people had been living in the area before the storm. Itinerants who worked in the salt marshes and shrimp farms were probably not counted among the dead, aid workers say.
But it is clear that in many villages, women and children died in disproportionate numbers, said Osamu Kunii, chief of the health and nutrition section of Unicef in Myanmar.
“Only people who could endure the tidal surge and high winds could survive,” Mr. Kunii said. In one village of 700, all children under the age of 7 died, he said.
With only minimal food supplies in villages, aid workers say, delta residents will require aid until at least the end of the year. The United Nations, after weeks of haggling with Myanmar’s government for permission to provide assistance, is now using 10 helicopters to deliver supplies to hard-to-reach places and alerting relief experts at the earliest sign of disease outbreaks.
Still, the military government continues to make it difficult for aid agencies to operate.
Last week, the government issued a directive that accused foreign aid agencies and the United Nations of having “deviated from the normal procedures.” The government imposed an extra layer of approvals for travel into the delta, effectively requiring that all foreigners be accompanied by government officials.
“They’re changing the goal posts,” said Chris Kaye, the director of operations in Myanmar for the United Nations World Food Program. “We have a whole set of new procedures.”
Myanmar’s government says it issued 815 visas for foreign aid workers and medical personnel in the month after the cyclone. But some aid workers were never allowed in, including the disaster response team from the United States Agency for International Development.
Local news media reported over the weekend that the government planned to build 500 cyclone shelters in the delta. These structures are used in neighboring Bangladesh, which has a relatively widespread early warning system.
When Cyclone Sidr struck Bangladesh in November, the winds reached an intensity similar to the 155-mile-an-hour gusts that blew through the Irrawaddy Delta last month.
Tellingly, the number of people killed by Cyclone Sidr — about 3,500 — was a small fraction of those killed in last month’s cyclone here.
YANGON, Myanmar — More than six weeks have passed since Cyclone Nargis swept through the Irrawaddy Delta in southern Myanmar, leaving a trail of flattened villages and broken lives and arousing international sympathy that turned to anguish as the military government obstructed foreign aid.
Now doctors and aid workers returning from remote areas of the delta are offering a less pessimistic picture of the human cost of the delay in reaching survivors.
They say they have seen no signs of starvation or widespread outbreaks of disease. While it is estimated that the cyclone may have killed 130,000 people, the number of lives lost specifically because of the junta’s slow response to the disaster appears to have been smaller than expected. (JEG's: what about the badly injured buried alive? those numbers will never count I suppose)
Relief workers here continue to criticize the government’s secretive posture and obsession with security, its restrictions on foreign aid experts and the weeks of dawdling that left bloated bodies befouling waterways and survivors marooned with little food. But the specific character of the cyclone, the hardiness of villagers and aid from private citizens helped prevent further death and sickness, aid workers say.
Most of the people killed by the cyclone, which struck on May 2-3, drowned. But those who survived were not likely to need urgent medical attention, doctors say.
“We saw very, very few serious injuries,” said Frank Smithuis, manager of the substantial mission of Doctors Without Borders in Myanmar. “You were dead or you were in O.K. shape.”
The cyclone swept away bamboo huts throughout the delta; in the hardest-hit villages, it left almost no trace of habitation. Some survivors carried away by floods found themselves many miles from home when the waters receded.
But those who survived were not likely to be injured in the aftermath by falling rocks or collapsing buildings, as often happens during natural disasters, like the earthquake in China.
That appears to be the primary reason villagers were able to stay alive for weeks without aid. As they waited, the survivors, most of whom were fishermen and farmers, lived off of coconuts, rotten rice and fish.
“The Burmese people are used to getting nothing,” said Shari Villarosa, the highest-ranking United States diplomat in Myanmar, formerly Burma. “I’m not getting the sense that there have been a lot of deaths as a result of the delay.”
The United States has accused the military government of “criminal neglect” in its handling of the disaster caused by the cyclone. Privately, many aid workers have, too. The junta, widely disliked among Myanmar’s citizens, did not have the means to lead a sustained relief campaign, they say.
But relief workers say the debate over access for foreigners and the refusal of the government to allow in military helicopters and ships from the United States, France and Britain overshadowed a substantial relief operation carried out mainly by Burmese citizens and monks.
They organized convoys of trucks filled with drinking water, clothing, food and construction materials that poured into the delta.
“It’s been overwhelmingly impressive what local organizations, medical groups and some businessmen have done,” said Ruth Bradley Jones, second secretary in the British Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. “They are the true heroes of the relief effort.”
Aid workers emphasize that of the estimated 2.4 million Burmese strongly affected by the storm, thousands remain vulnerable to sickness and many are still without adequate food, shelter and supplies.
But their ailments are — for now — minor. Medical logs from Doctors Without Borders show that of the 30,000 people the group’s workers treated in the six weeks after the cyclone, most had flesh wounds, diarrhea or respiratory infections. The latter two afflictions are common in rural Southeast Asia even in normal times. Diarrhea can be especially dangerous for infants and young children, but doctors say that, while they have treated thousands of cases, the illness has not reached critical levels.
“I can’t say it was an outbreak,” said May Myad Win, a general practitioner who works for Doctors Without Borders and spent 25 days in the delta treating an average of 25 patients a day. “It was not as severe as we feared.”
The number of people in need of serious medical aid was judged to be low enough that officials at a British medical group canceled plans to bring in a team of surgeons in the days after the storm, said Paula Sansom, the manager of the emergency response team for the group, Merlin.
For several weeks after the disaster, the government prevented all but a small number of foreigners from entering the delta. Now a more comprehensive picture of the damage is being assembled by a team of 250 officials led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The officials plan to release their findings next week.
The number of people killed in the storm may never be known. The government has not updated its toll since May 16, when it said 77,738 people were killed and 55,917 were missing.
In a country that has not had a full census in decades, it is not even certain how many people had been living in the area before the storm. Itinerants who worked in the salt marshes and shrimp farms were probably not counted among the dead, aid workers say.
But it is clear that in many villages, women and children died in disproportionate numbers, said Osamu Kunii, chief of the health and nutrition section of Unicef in Myanmar.
“Only people who could endure the tidal surge and high winds could survive,” Mr. Kunii said. In one village of 700, all children under the age of 7 died, he said.
With only minimal food supplies in villages, aid workers say, delta residents will require aid until at least the end of the year. The United Nations, after weeks of haggling with Myanmar’s government for permission to provide assistance, is now using 10 helicopters to deliver supplies to hard-to-reach places and alerting relief experts at the earliest sign of disease outbreaks.
Still, the military government continues to make it difficult for aid agencies to operate.
Last week, the government issued a directive that accused foreign aid agencies and the United Nations of having “deviated from the normal procedures.” The government imposed an extra layer of approvals for travel into the delta, effectively requiring that all foreigners be accompanied by government officials.
“They’re changing the goal posts,” said Chris Kaye, the director of operations in Myanmar for the United Nations World Food Program. “We have a whole set of new procedures.”
Myanmar’s government says it issued 815 visas for foreign aid workers and medical personnel in the month after the cyclone. But some aid workers were never allowed in, including the disaster response team from the United States Agency for International Development.
Local news media reported over the weekend that the government planned to build 500 cyclone shelters in the delta. These structures are used in neighboring Bangladesh, which has a relatively widespread early warning system.
When Cyclone Sidr struck Bangladesh in November, the winds reached an intensity similar to the 155-mile-an-hour gusts that blew through the Irrawaddy Delta last month.
Tellingly, the number of people killed by Cyclone Sidr — about 3,500 — was a small fraction of those killed in last month’s cyclone here.
"In that one night my whole life was destroyed" : International Medical Corps and Mingalar/Myanmar Helps Survivors Rebuild Their Lives
International Medical Corps
Website: http://www.imcworldwide.org
Reuters
Yangon, Myanmar - Tint had moved his family to Dedaye town in April and was about to return to his home village to start preparing his paddies for the planting season when cyclone Nargis hit the delta. "The morning after the storm I looked around town and saw only devastation," he remembers. "I was convinced that everybody in my village was dead."
For five days he worried and waited for news but none came. Finally, he managed to hire one of the few boats that had not been destroyed in the storm and made the 90 minute trip to his home town. When Tint reached the village it was wrecked. "In that one night my whole life was destroyed."
Tint lost 20 relatives. One cousin's family was completely wiped out. Another uncle lost his wife and daughter. A nephew saw all of his children dying; a sister survived by hanging on to the remains of a cow shed.
A Trail of Destruction Only 17 houses were still standing, more than 100 had simply disappeared. First the wind had come, carrying away the thatched roofs. Then the water rose to the level of a grown man's chest. And finally huge waves gushed up from the delta carrying away the bamboo houses, the animals, and the people.
Tint's house is also gone. Only one of his water buffalos survived, now too weak to plough the paddies. He lost 300 baskets of rice he had stored in the village's granary that was washed away. This included all his food and seed savings.
"We all cried and then they told me how they survived," Tint remembers. The survivors were huddling in the monastery, the only brick building in the village. The morning after the storm they organized rescue missions. "They rowed out on to the water collecting people clinging to trees in the only two boats that were still intact."
The economic base of the whole village is gone. Half of the villagers live from growing rice; the others are fishermen or work as casual laborers. With only weeks left for preparing the paddies and planting this year's crop the outlook was grim.
Rebuilding Lives and Livelihoods But there was also good news. The salt water that was swept into the fields was washed away by heavy rains following the storm. And slowly help came trickling in.
Mingalar/Myanmar, International Medical Corps' local partner organization, brought food to the village. Other organizations delivered tarpaulin for makeshift houses and distributed mosquito nets. The three fresh water ponds were contaminated and an aid group fixed one of them so that villagers had drinking water.
Now International Medical Corps and its local partner have teamed up to kick start the economic recovery in this and other villages. The poorest farming families in the village will receive equipment, including tractors to replace the water buffalos, fuel, and seeds. A village committee will be in charge of the equipment, making sure that as many people as possible will benefit. The machines will work every day on a different farm during the early planting season to prepare as many fields of as many farmers as possible. Tint will be one of them. "Without this assistance we would struggle. Maybe we would have planted only a small part for our own consumption; and next year a bit more. But maybe it would have taken us ten years to recover completely."
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Website: http://www.imcworldwide.org
Reuters
Yangon, Myanmar - Tint had moved his family to Dedaye town in April and was about to return to his home village to start preparing his paddies for the planting season when cyclone Nargis hit the delta. "The morning after the storm I looked around town and saw only devastation," he remembers. "I was convinced that everybody in my village was dead."
For five days he worried and waited for news but none came. Finally, he managed to hire one of the few boats that had not been destroyed in the storm and made the 90 minute trip to his home town. When Tint reached the village it was wrecked. "In that one night my whole life was destroyed."
Tint lost 20 relatives. One cousin's family was completely wiped out. Another uncle lost his wife and daughter. A nephew saw all of his children dying; a sister survived by hanging on to the remains of a cow shed.
A Trail of Destruction Only 17 houses were still standing, more than 100 had simply disappeared. First the wind had come, carrying away the thatched roofs. Then the water rose to the level of a grown man's chest. And finally huge waves gushed up from the delta carrying away the bamboo houses, the animals, and the people.
Tint's house is also gone. Only one of his water buffalos survived, now too weak to plough the paddies. He lost 300 baskets of rice he had stored in the village's granary that was washed away. This included all his food and seed savings.
"We all cried and then they told me how they survived," Tint remembers. The survivors were huddling in the monastery, the only brick building in the village. The morning after the storm they organized rescue missions. "They rowed out on to the water collecting people clinging to trees in the only two boats that were still intact."
The economic base of the whole village is gone. Half of the villagers live from growing rice; the others are fishermen or work as casual laborers. With only weeks left for preparing the paddies and planting this year's crop the outlook was grim.
Rebuilding Lives and Livelihoods But there was also good news. The salt water that was swept into the fields was washed away by heavy rains following the storm. And slowly help came trickling in.
Mingalar/Myanmar, International Medical Corps' local partner organization, brought food to the village. Other organizations delivered tarpaulin for makeshift houses and distributed mosquito nets. The three fresh water ponds were contaminated and an aid group fixed one of them so that villagers had drinking water.
Now International Medical Corps and its local partner have teamed up to kick start the economic recovery in this and other villages. The poorest farming families in the village will receive equipment, including tractors to replace the water buffalos, fuel, and seeds. A village committee will be in charge of the equipment, making sure that as many people as possible will benefit. The machines will work every day on a different farm during the early planting season to prepare as many fields of as many farmers as possible. Tint will be one of them. "Without this assistance we would struggle. Maybe we would have planted only a small part for our own consumption; and next year a bit more. But maybe it would have taken us ten years to recover completely."
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
Myanmar bloggers help build 'Budget Huts' for cyclone survivors
LABUTTA, Myanmar (IHT): Bloggers may find their messages blocked by Myanmar's military regime, but that hasn't stopped blogger Nyi Lynn Seck from raising tens of thousands of dollars for cyclone survivors through his Web site.
The 29-year-old IT specialist and his friends are getting their hands dirty and putting the donations to work by helping to build "Budget Huts" in the Irrawaddy delta, a region still reeling from the May 2-3 killer storm.
Days after Cyclone Nargis hit, Nyi Lynn Seck traveled from Yangon to the delta to document the survivors' stories. He posted their accounts and his photographs on his Web journal.
"I have been blogging for quite a long time and many overseas Myanmar citizens read it. They wanted me to go to the delta and help out," he said.
Nyi Lynn Seck quit his job as a manager at a software solutions company to lead six volunteers, including four other bloggers, on a mission to aid villages around Labutta. They have been here since May 9.
He is just one example of a grass-roots movement that has emerged in Myanmar. Many of those doing private relief work are highly critical of the government effort that followed the storm.
Private efforts have filled a lot of gaps in the relief effort, especially in the early weeks after the storm, when the junta turned back most foreign relief workers. After pleas from the U.N., the junta agreed to international aid, but it still limits foreigners' activities.
Nyi Lynn Seck said most of the US$30,000 received by the group came from Myanmar expatriates in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, but that money had come in from as far away as Europe.
Myanmar's military government, which strictly controls all media including the Internet, blocks most blogging sites. However, they are sometimes accessible by using a server that masks the site's true origin.
Bloggers played a major role in ensuring the free flow of information during anti-government protests in Myanmar last fall and the violent crackdown that followed. At least one blogger, Nay Phone Latt, remains in prison.
Nyi Lynn Seck's blog has in the past included personal observations, advice for would-be bloggers and news items. It has not been seen as anti-government.
Nyi Lynn Seck said he became an aid worker because he felt the junta's response to the storm — which killed 78,000 people and left 56,000 more missing — was inefficient.
"The government doesn't rely much on a system or technology and they don't know what to do. They work only on paper, so the help was really delayed," he said.
Nyi Lynn Seck picked up his black leather laptop bag and pulled out a stack of slides he shows to would-be donors. He also has two models of wood-and-blue plastic shelters, dubbed "Budget Huts."
The group, which calls itself "Handy Myanmar Youths" because it wants to lend a hand to survivors, has put up 88 huts in delta villages.
Such volunteerism is not always welcomed by the junta. A popular comedian was taken from his Yangon home by police this month after going to the delta to help survivors.
Many Myanmar volunteers and the local staff of foreign aid agencies pack their vehicles with food, water and other supplies when heading into the delta; several have reported being harassed by police or having their vehicles impounded.
Nyi Lynn Seck said the government approved his group's project after they detailed their plans to authorities in Labutta and declared that no foreigners were directly involved.
The group makes five- to six-hour boat rides to coastal villages to deliver materials and tools to build the huts and supervise the construction, which is done mostly by survivors.
Due to tides, the volunteers are unable to return to Labutta on the same day, so they usually spend at least one night sleeping on the bare ground without shelter from mosquitoes. Several have fallen ill.
The blogger said the group's most pressing concerns were about sustaining the project despite the high price of materials and transportation.
"Now the biggest problem is that we're having trouble finding wood in Labutta, and the wood is also getting very expensive," Nyi Lynn Seck said.
"As long as there are funds and donors, hopefully we can keep this up for another two to three months here," he said. "But I'm not so sure about the future."
___
On the Net:
Nyi Lynn Seck's Myanmar-language blog: http://nyilynnseck.blogspot.com/
The 29-year-old IT specialist and his friends are getting their hands dirty and putting the donations to work by helping to build "Budget Huts" in the Irrawaddy delta, a region still reeling from the May 2-3 killer storm.
Days after Cyclone Nargis hit, Nyi Lynn Seck traveled from Yangon to the delta to document the survivors' stories. He posted their accounts and his photographs on his Web journal.
"I have been blogging for quite a long time and many overseas Myanmar citizens read it. They wanted me to go to the delta and help out," he said.
Nyi Lynn Seck quit his job as a manager at a software solutions company to lead six volunteers, including four other bloggers, on a mission to aid villages around Labutta. They have been here since May 9.
He is just one example of a grass-roots movement that has emerged in Myanmar. Many of those doing private relief work are highly critical of the government effort that followed the storm.
Private efforts have filled a lot of gaps in the relief effort, especially in the early weeks after the storm, when the junta turned back most foreign relief workers. After pleas from the U.N., the junta agreed to international aid, but it still limits foreigners' activities.
Nyi Lynn Seck said most of the US$30,000 received by the group came from Myanmar expatriates in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, but that money had come in from as far away as Europe.
Myanmar's military government, which strictly controls all media including the Internet, blocks most blogging sites. However, they are sometimes accessible by using a server that masks the site's true origin.
Bloggers played a major role in ensuring the free flow of information during anti-government protests in Myanmar last fall and the violent crackdown that followed. At least one blogger, Nay Phone Latt, remains in prison.
Nyi Lynn Seck's blog has in the past included personal observations, advice for would-be bloggers and news items. It has not been seen as anti-government.
Nyi Lynn Seck said he became an aid worker because he felt the junta's response to the storm — which killed 78,000 people and left 56,000 more missing — was inefficient.
"The government doesn't rely much on a system or technology and they don't know what to do. They work only on paper, so the help was really delayed," he said.
Nyi Lynn Seck picked up his black leather laptop bag and pulled out a stack of slides he shows to would-be donors. He also has two models of wood-and-blue plastic shelters, dubbed "Budget Huts."
The group, which calls itself "Handy Myanmar Youths" because it wants to lend a hand to survivors, has put up 88 huts in delta villages.
Such volunteerism is not always welcomed by the junta. A popular comedian was taken from his Yangon home by police this month after going to the delta to help survivors.
Many Myanmar volunteers and the local staff of foreign aid agencies pack their vehicles with food, water and other supplies when heading into the delta; several have reported being harassed by police or having their vehicles impounded.
Nyi Lynn Seck said the government approved his group's project after they detailed their plans to authorities in Labutta and declared that no foreigners were directly involved.
The group makes five- to six-hour boat rides to coastal villages to deliver materials and tools to build the huts and supervise the construction, which is done mostly by survivors.
Due to tides, the volunteers are unable to return to Labutta on the same day, so they usually spend at least one night sleeping on the bare ground without shelter from mosquitoes. Several have fallen ill.
The blogger said the group's most pressing concerns were about sustaining the project despite the high price of materials and transportation.
"Now the biggest problem is that we're having trouble finding wood in Labutta, and the wood is also getting very expensive," Nyi Lynn Seck said.
"As long as there are funds and donors, hopefully we can keep this up for another two to three months here," he said. "But I'm not so sure about the future."
___
On the Net:
Nyi Lynn Seck's Myanmar-language blog: http://nyilynnseck.blogspot.com/
Volunteers help Myanmar cyclone victims still without foreign aid
By Moe Moe Yu
Tue Jun 17, 2008, KYON KA NAN, Myanmar (AFP) - Cyclone Nargis almost destroyed the remote village of Kyon Ka Nan, but residents are now rebuilding their homes and their food stocks, aided by a resilient group of Myanmar volunteers.
In this village of 300 homes, only six houses were left after the cyclone hit nearly seven weeks ago. Residents say 114 people died, many of their bodies washed into the freshwater ponds once used for drinking water.
Residents in Kyon Ka Nan say they have yet to receive any international aid, and official assistance has been meagre.
But they are slowly piecing together their shattered lives with the help of a resourceful network of local volunteers, who have delivered enormous amounts of aid despite their meagre resources and restrictions imposed by the military regime.
The latest shipment filled a cargo ship and a small boat, carrying 22 tonnes of rice, 100,000 tins of fish, and a team of doctors.
As the boat docked, men from the village helped unload 500 bags of rice, each weighing 100 kilos (225 pounds), and carried them to the Buddhist temple, which has become the focal point of the relief effort.
Many of the surviving villagers are living with the monks, as they rebuild their homes with bamboo and whatever they can salvage from the wreckage.
Villages like this one in the Irrawaddy delta bore the brunt of the cyclone's power, with more than 133,000 dead and 2.4 million in need of humanitarian aid.
Myanmar's regime has limited the scope of the international aid operation, and the UN says one million people have yet to receive any foreign assistance.
Even local volunteers -- often of modest means themselves -- struggle to skirt military roadblocks, and two prominent leaders of the aid movement have been arrested.
Despite the obstacles, Lae Lae, a 39-year-old helping to deliver the aid to Kyon Ka Nan, said they have reached more than 40 villages in this area southwest of Yangon.
"The donations came from several different sources -- monks, private companies or our friends working overseas," she said.
"They donated money through us and we have tried to reach villages where not much aid has arrived."
This is the group's fourth visit to Kyon Ka Nan. The volunteers hope to leave them with a month's supply of food, so the villagers can focus on reviving their rice fields.
The volunteers have organised themselves by specialty.
Five young volunteer doctors set up a temporary clinic at the monastery to treat people with injuries from the storm, as well as minor illnesses and in some cases trauma among people who watched their loved ones die.
A second group headed to the freshwater ponds that were once used for drinking, but were filled with debris and rotting corpses.
The bodies have already been cremated and the wreckage cleared, but residents are too afraid to drink from the ponds and have relied on rainwater instead.
The volunteers assure them they will take samples back to the main city of Yangon for testing, to see if the water is safe. But they will likely need to find a pump to empty the ponds and let the monsoon rains refill them.
A third group begins distributing the food, including rice, fish, cooking oil, beans and onions. The villager's leader had already made a roster of the families, and called out each family to receive their share.
"Ever since Nargis, we have lived on food donated from local groups. Otherwise we wouldn't have survived," said Win, one of the women lining up for food.
In the six weeks since the storm, Win says the only official aid she has received was 13 cups of rice and a few potatoes, plus a tarpaulin sheet from the local Red Cross Association.
Like most families in the delta, Win and her husband make their living by fishing and working as tenant farmers in the rice paddies.
She said the villagers already know how to supplement their diets with fish and wild vegetables, but she said their own supplies of rice were washed away.
"We mainly need rice. Fish and vegetables can be found easily," Win said.
The volunteers say they hope that if the village's most basic needs are cared for, the residents will be able to focus on farming
"We think that if they have enough food, then they can get back to work," said one of the volunteers. "So we are thinking about donating farming and fishing equipment next time."
Tue Jun 17, 2008, KYON KA NAN, Myanmar (AFP) - Cyclone Nargis almost destroyed the remote village of Kyon Ka Nan, but residents are now rebuilding their homes and their food stocks, aided by a resilient group of Myanmar volunteers.
In this village of 300 homes, only six houses were left after the cyclone hit nearly seven weeks ago. Residents say 114 people died, many of their bodies washed into the freshwater ponds once used for drinking water.
Residents in Kyon Ka Nan say they have yet to receive any international aid, and official assistance has been meagre.
But they are slowly piecing together their shattered lives with the help of a resourceful network of local volunteers, who have delivered enormous amounts of aid despite their meagre resources and restrictions imposed by the military regime.
The latest shipment filled a cargo ship and a small boat, carrying 22 tonnes of rice, 100,000 tins of fish, and a team of doctors.
As the boat docked, men from the village helped unload 500 bags of rice, each weighing 100 kilos (225 pounds), and carried them to the Buddhist temple, which has become the focal point of the relief effort.
Many of the surviving villagers are living with the monks, as they rebuild their homes with bamboo and whatever they can salvage from the wreckage.
Villages like this one in the Irrawaddy delta bore the brunt of the cyclone's power, with more than 133,000 dead and 2.4 million in need of humanitarian aid.
Myanmar's regime has limited the scope of the international aid operation, and the UN says one million people have yet to receive any foreign assistance.
Even local volunteers -- often of modest means themselves -- struggle to skirt military roadblocks, and two prominent leaders of the aid movement have been arrested.
Despite the obstacles, Lae Lae, a 39-year-old helping to deliver the aid to Kyon Ka Nan, said they have reached more than 40 villages in this area southwest of Yangon.
"The donations came from several different sources -- monks, private companies or our friends working overseas," she said.
"They donated money through us and we have tried to reach villages where not much aid has arrived."
This is the group's fourth visit to Kyon Ka Nan. The volunteers hope to leave them with a month's supply of food, so the villagers can focus on reviving their rice fields.
The volunteers have organised themselves by specialty.
Five young volunteer doctors set up a temporary clinic at the monastery to treat people with injuries from the storm, as well as minor illnesses and in some cases trauma among people who watched their loved ones die.
A second group headed to the freshwater ponds that were once used for drinking, but were filled with debris and rotting corpses.
The bodies have already been cremated and the wreckage cleared, but residents are too afraid to drink from the ponds and have relied on rainwater instead.
The volunteers assure them they will take samples back to the main city of Yangon for testing, to see if the water is safe. But they will likely need to find a pump to empty the ponds and let the monsoon rains refill them.
A third group begins distributing the food, including rice, fish, cooking oil, beans and onions. The villager's leader had already made a roster of the families, and called out each family to receive their share.
"Ever since Nargis, we have lived on food donated from local groups. Otherwise we wouldn't have survived," said Win, one of the women lining up for food.
In the six weeks since the storm, Win says the only official aid she has received was 13 cups of rice and a few potatoes, plus a tarpaulin sheet from the local Red Cross Association.
Like most families in the delta, Win and her husband make their living by fishing and working as tenant farmers in the rice paddies.
She said the villagers already know how to supplement their diets with fish and wild vegetables, but she said their own supplies of rice were washed away.
"We mainly need rice. Fish and vegetables can be found easily," Win said.
The volunteers say they hope that if the village's most basic needs are cared for, the residents will be able to focus on farming
"We think that if they have enough food, then they can get back to work," said one of the volunteers. "So we are thinking about donating farming and fishing equipment next time."
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