Zarganar and Zaw Thet Htway appear in court

Jul 31, 2008 (DVB)–Prominent comedian and activist Zarganar and sports writer Zaw Thet Htway have appeared in court for the first time since they were arrested in June.

The two appeared before Western Rangoon provincial court in Insein prison and were charged with violating section 505(b) of the penal code for inciting offences against the state or causing public alarm.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment.

The next court hearing for the pair will be held on 7 August, according to family members of other political prisoners who were present at the hearing.

The two men’s families said they had not been informed of any court hearings.

Both Zarganar and Zaw Thet Htway were enthusiastically working to provide aid to cyclone victims before their arrests on 4 and 13 June respectively.

Reporting by DVB

Families still waiting for news of detained relatives - Zarganar

Jul 8, 2008 (DVB)–The families of Zarganar, Zaw Thet Htway and others involved in voluntary aid work for cyclone victims who were arrested by Burmese authorities say they are still waiting for information on their relatives.

Writer Daw Kyi Oo, the mother of comedian and activist Zarganar, said she is worried that her son has not been able to take his medication.

"He was already on three different medications before he was arrested and now he has been without the medicine for over a month,” Daw Kyi Oo said.

“We have not been informed about his situation and no one has picked up his medicine either," she said.

"His father has been not well either, and he kept asking for his son."

Daw Kyi Oo said the family had expected Zarganar to be released soon after his arrest as had happened on previous occasion.

She said aid work carried out by Zarganar's group has been on hold for the past two weeks as donations have not been coming in since the comedian's arrest.

Zaw Thet Htway's wife Ma Khin Cho said 25 days have now passed since her husband was arrested.

Ma Khin Cho said she plans to send an official letter to the authorities asking them to disclose information about his whereabouts if he is not released within 30 days.

The families of volunteers who were collecting the bodies of cyclone victims the body snatchers said they too, have no idea where their loved ones were.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

Surviving the Storm

The Irrawaddy News

Bloodied, traumatized and heartbroken, the survivors of Cyclone Nargis are now victimized and treated with contempt by the military authorities

Her eyes filled with tears, Kyin Hla, 65,
lost 12 members of her family in the cyclone’s tidal surge.
(Photo: The Irrawaddy)

KYIN Hla suddenly stopped doing her household chores at 11:20 on the morning of May 2. The wind had started swirling fiercely and from her farmhouse window she saw the sea swell and turn black. The 65-year-old woman called to her grandchildren to stop playing and come indoors. She closed the windows.

A young girl waits for food in the rain on the outskirts of Rangoon. (Photo: AFP)By midday the sky had turned “an angry red color” and dark clouds had gathered overhead. Instinctively alarmed, Kyin Hla drew her grandchildren closer and began praying.

The house began shaking violently. The noise outside grew louder and louder. Suddenly the roof was blown clean off the farmhouse, then the walls were pulled down one by one.

She managed to hold on until the tidal wave struck at 1 p.m. The force ripped her grandchildren from her arms. She remembers one child screaming “Grandmother!” as they were swept away.

The wave carried Kyin Hla into a tree. With the last of her strength she grabbed the branches and held on until the wave subsided. Then she collapsed.

When she woke up, she was surrounded by dead bodies, animal carcasses and debris. Her clothes had been ripped off, and she had to take a longyi from a dead woman to cover herself.

Her village had been destroyed. She staggered around until she met some other survivors who gave her some coconut. That was her only food for the next four days until she managed to get to a shelter in Laputta.

Kyin Hla was reunited with three of her sons, but 12 members of the family had died, including all her grandchildren.

Apart from the trauma of experiencing such a terrifying natural disaster and the heartbreak of losing their loved ones, Cyclone Nargis survivors have had to endure abysmal conditions in the aftermath of the storm. Thousands of children were orphaned and thousands of people were injured or have since died from disease.

The majority of the 2.4 million people in the Irrawaddy delta directly affected by the cyclone were farmers whose livelihoods depend on agriculture, especially rice cultivation, and livestock to work the fields.

With their homes leveled, their rice paddies inundated with seawater, their livestock dead and their villages reduced to rubble, most rural survivors had no choice but to leave behind the stench of death and walk or be carried to the nearest town.

Thousands gathered in Buddhist monasteries where monks fed and sheltered them. Others crammed into schoolhouses or public buildings. There was seldom any electricity or medical help, or enough fresh water, food or sanitation. Many families were lucky to receive a daily ration of one tin of rice.

While the junta dragged its feet on allowing in international aid, private Burmese philanthropists attempted to come to the rescue. Burmese celebrities, such as comedians Zarganar and the Moustache Brothers, and the actor Kyaw Thu joined local NGO efforts to deliver supplies to cyclone survivors.

Many private donors packed their vehicles with small makeshift aid packages and drove to the delta to hand them out.

In Bogalay, some three weeks after the cyclone had killed her father, 12-year-old Lei Lei was still begging for handouts at the side of the highway. She had her baby sister tied on her back in a longyi and was competing with hordes of other cyclone victims for packages of food occasionally thrown from of passing vehicles by private donors.

However, the authorities moved to impede the effort, preventing aid donors from entering the delta or asking them for bribes at each checkpoint. Through the media, the junta went so far as to warn the public against helping the survivors, saying it would “make them lazy.”

Apart from those refugees sheltering at a handful of showcase camps—set up methodically as photo-op backdrops for the Burmese generals, international dignitaries and the media—most survivors had still not received any aid three weeks after the disaster.

Then, when it seemed things couldn’t get any worse, the military authorities ordered rural survivors to return to their villages. The government argued that towns such as Laputta and Bogalay were overcrowded and could not support the influx of refugees from the countryside.



Overnight, thousands of refuge-seekers were evicted from the monasteries, schools and shelters. Army trucks were filled with wretched souls who were driven to the approximate location where their villages once stood and dumped by the roadside.

In the cyclone-hit western suburbs of Rangoon, similar incidents took place. A cyclone victim evicted from the Shwe Pauk Kan refugee camp told The Irrawaddy: “The authorities gave each refugee 10 pyi of rice (about 2.5 liters) and 7,000 kyat (US $6.22). Then they took back the tents and told us to leave.”

In Maubin, homeless 93-year-old Khin Mya showed The Irrawaddy her only shelter—an umbrella and a plastic bag. “I get very worried every evening because I have to find a place to sleep,” she told our reporter. “Maybe under a tree. Or I ask if I can share a hut with someone.”

Many of the cyclone survivors—who have suffered so much already—are back in the rubble of their villages. With few exceptions, they have no food, no water, no medicine and no livelihoods. All they have are horrific memories of death and destruction, and the struggle to stay alive.

As the monsoon season unleashes itself on the delta this month, and the survivors try to rebuild their broken lives, one wonders where they will find the strength to face the future.

In a muddy rice paddy in Laputta, 12 people were crammed into a single tent. They were the only survivors from the village of Pain Nae Kone.

“We are from the same place, so we are together,” said U Nyo, one of the survivors, his eyes red from tears and fatigue. “We are one family now.”

Correspondents Aung Thet Wine, Min Khet Maung and Moe Aung Tin contributed to this story from Rangoon and the Irrawaddy delta.

Status of Zarganar and Zaw Thet Htway unknown

Jun 24, 2008 (DVB)–The whereabouts of detained prominent comedian and social activist Zarganar and sports writer Zaw Thet Htway are still unknown, according to their relatives.

Rangoon’s Western District police commissioner and other local officials took Zarganar from his house on 4 June. The police chief said they would hold him for two days to investigate if he had been involved in any political activity but he has not returned home since.

“It has been over two weeks since my son was arrested but I still don’t know where he is and why he was detained,” said Daw Kyin Oo, the comedian’s mother.

Zaw Thet Htway was arrested in Minbu on 13 June while visiting his mother who had suffered a stroke. On his arrival into town local authorities told him to leave until he received further notice.

“My husband was only helping distribute aid to cyclone victims and focusing on his own business,” said the writer’s wife May Zaw.

“He has never been involved in any political activity so I thought he would be released within days. I am worried about him since I haven’t heard anything from him.”

Houses belonging to Zarganar and Zaw Thet Htway were thoroughly searched around the time of their arrests and authorities confiscated computers and other documents.

The comedian and the writer were had been working on relief efforts for cyclone-affected people in Rangoon and Irrawaddy divisions before they were detained.

Daw Kyi Oo said the arrest of her son and other private donors had disrupted the flow of aid to refugees.

“There is a shortage of supplies in warehouses and it has become difficult to continue with relief work because of the arrest of Zarganar, Zaw Thet Htway and others who were leading relief operations,” she said.

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 storm.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, ten donors including Zarganar and Zaw Thet Htway have been arrested since the beginning of June.

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw and Yee May Aung

Cyclone Nargis and the rice crisis: Analysis

Tai Kyaw

Jun 20, 2008 (DVB)–When Cyclone Nargis struck Burma on 2-3 May, it was a natural disaster that affected not only Irrawaddy division but also the whole of the country.

Irrawaddy division is considered the rice bowl of Burma due to its high level of rice production. A decrease in rice production is inevitable if rice cultivation cannot take place in time (in June), resulting in a huge impact on the nation’s rice supplies. The already unstable political atmosphere may progressively worsen through the scarcity of rice and the escalation of rice prices.

How bad and deep the problem will be depends on how the military regime handles the current situation and the amount of rice produced in this harvest season. We first need to know how much we have lost in the cyclone in order to assess the extent and severity of the rice crisis.

The previous farming and agriculture-related statistics issued by the regime are not reliable. After the cyclone struck Burma, systematic data collection with regard to the death toll and damage did not take place properly. The junta could not take care of the cyclone assessment itself and did not allow foreign experts to help. The ASEAN assessment team only began to collect data on the damages on 9 May, over a month after the cyclone ravaged the country.

According to the regime’s data, rice production in the whole of Burma totalled more than 1400 million tin last year. The regime said domestic consumption was 1000 million tin and there were over 400 million tin of rice stockpiled. This means the country produced approximately one third more than its actual consumption.

The International Rice Research Institute based in Manila, Philippines, says Burma produces 25 metric tons of rice a year and is the seventh highest rice producing country in the world. If Burma is producing a rice surplus of more than a third of its needs as the junta claims, the country would be able to export 8 metric tons of rice a year. However, the reality is that even the export of tens of thousands of tons had to stopped due to the cyclone, meaning the statistics of the regime cannot be trusted.

The recently cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy division produces 430 million tin of rice a year, which is about 30% of the whole country’s annual production. The regime’s data stated that there were over 5 million acres of paddy fields in Irrawaddy division, of which over 1.3 million acres were destroyed due to the presence of salt water brought by the cyclone. Even though the calculation of rice field damage was based on satellite photos taken by international organisations, a guess can be made that approximately one third of Irrawaddy division’s farmlands were destroyed.

In terms of the death of buffalo and cows, the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation stated that about 150,000 died. However, at the International Donors’ Conference held in Rangoon on 25 May, minister for National Planning and Economic Development Soe Thar said almost 300,000 cows and buffalo were killed by the cyclone.

The aforementioned differences in the data make it even more difficult to predict the forthcoming rice crisis in Burma.

In any case, a large rice-growing region of the country has already been badly affected. The authorities are aware of the potential rice problem caused by the devastation, which can lead to political unrest and threaten their power. Hence, they forced the cyclone victims back to their villages in order to work on their farms despite the fact that those people were in enormous trouble after having losing their loved ones and houses, and having no food and clothing.

In reality, all cyclone-affected farmers, fishermen and salt workers want to go back to their homes and resume their occupations as soon as possible. No one wants to live in a situation of virtual house arrest, having no freedom and being dependent on the donations of others. They just do not want to return yet because they don’t have anything. They don’t even have shacks with roofs and walls, or drinking water and food in their places.

There is a great need to revitalize the rice cultivation in the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy division. Farmer’s families should be provided with secure places to live. Assistance should be given to obtain drinking water for locals, such as pumping out the water from ponds and lakes full of salt water and cleaning them.

Since farmers have lost their stockpiled rice that was meant for their own consumption, they should be supported with rice for at least 4-6 months. Instead of buffalo and cows, hand tractors for cultivation should be provided to farmers in good time. Fuel also should be supplied constantly. The most important is that farmers obtain paddy seeds for germination, which can resist salt water.

Rice experts have pointed out that about 2 million tin of paddy seeds for germination are needed to grow rice this year. They have also requested that the military regime import paddy seeds from abroad. Everything needed for rice cultivation has to be in place by June. Otherwise, the late cultivation will have an impact on production in the coming rice collection season.

The massive need for relief, reconstruction and revitalization efforts in Burma cannot be tackled by the military regime and domestic NGOs alone but also requires the effective support, participation and expertise from the international community. The international community has offered and is still offering to help cyclone victims but the generals have refused to welcome the assistance. The regime has asked the world to give them donations but does not want any outsiders to enter the country. They said they did not need any expertise and that they could manage the catastrophe themselves, and that’s why problems have deepened with each passing day.

Normally, international aid comes into a country with its own rules and regulations over how much assistance is to be provided, to whom and for what reasons. It also requires verification to ensure the assistance actually reaches those who are meant to receive aid, and that it is effective. Furthermore, independent organizations monitor the effective distribution of aid. None of the international donors used to accept a government like Burma’s military regime that tells them to only give money and materials and not to come to the country.

Now every day, people in Irrawaddy division as well as Rangoon and Bago divisions have to eat wet yellow rice prepared from grinding cyclone-hit paddy after it has been exposed. This type of rice is not healthy but people have to consume it because it is cheaper than the regime’s ration rice that costs 700 kyat a pyi (approximately 4 kg). This indicates that rice problems from Irrawaddy division have gradually spread to other states and divisions.

No matter what the military regime thinks of its own citizens, there are those who cannot turn a blind eye and turn away from the suffering for their people. They are private donors from various walks of lives. They have been collecting money, buying hand tractors and looking for paddy seeds for germination, and giving them to needy villages. Prominent comedian and director Zarganar was even busy purchasing tractors and looking for paddy seeds up until the night he was arrested by the regime.

The way the military regime currently deals with farming and agricultural problems in Irrawaddy division is terrible. Buffalo and cows are needed for cultivation so the regime forcibly buys them from other states and divisions for low prices. Money is needed so the regime collects it from villages and families on order. As for paddy seeds, the regime puts pressure onto farmers from other states and divisions.

Although news about the regime’s donations of hand tractors to farmers are often shown on TV none of the villages from any village has received them free of charge. Farmers have to pay for tractors by installment with interest. Furthermore, the regime still restricts international relief operations that would help ease farmers’ survival while working on cultivation.

In any case, it is certain that Burma’s rice production will be reduced in the coming rice collection season. Whether there is proper management by the military junta, the amount of international assistance received by farmers and the price of fuel will determine the size and the impact of the coming rice crisis.

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.

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.”

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.

Student activists helping Nargis victims arrested

New Delhi: The Burmese military junta authorities detained at least three members of 88 Generation Students last Thursday.

Three senior members, one man and three women- Myet Thu, Yin Yin Wai and Tin Tin Cho who were into cyclone relief efforts and aid distribution were arrested while they were sitting in a teashop in Maynigone, Rangoon.

"They were in a tea shop waiting to discuss aid with monks when unknown people came and said they were representatives of the monks and took them away. They have disappeared," said a relative of Yin Yin Wai who requested anonymity. The relatives do not know their whereabouts.

The Special Branch of the police which has been after the dissidents had searched the house of those detained at least twice and asked their family members about the lists relating to cyclone aid distribution in Irrawaddy and Rangoon division.

"Around 15 officials including the police searched twice on June 14 and 15 and they asked us where the aid funds were and demanded to see the ledger," she said.

The 88 Generation Students have formed a team which is called Myitta Paung Ku. It has distributed aid at least six times to cyclone survivors.

"They searched the entire house and took some newspaper pictures of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The second time they asked for the laptop," said another family member.

88 Generation Students are known to be supporters of the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Their top leaders are being detained in jails after the mass uprising in August last year.

Meanwhile, an NGO staffer told Mizzima that the police are patrolling around their office in Inyamyaeing Streets in Rangoon. His organisation is distributing aid in Irrawaddy delta.

The junta arrested a well know comedian Zarganar (tweezers in Burmese) on June 4 and former First Eleven weekly journal Editor Zaw Thet Htwe last Friday. They were both distributing relief material in Irrawaddy delta.

Relief Web

Call for release of magazine chief editor and blogger held for distributing aid to cyclone victims - Zaw Thet Htwe

Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association condemn the arrest of Love Journal chief editor Zaw Thet Htwe on 13 June for assisting in the distribution of food and clothes in areas hit by Cyclone Nargis. While editor of the sports magazine First Eleven Journal in 2003, he was arrested, tortured and sentenced to death, and then pardoned by the supreme court.

‘Zaw Thet Htwe is a respected journalist who was moved by the woes of his compatriots after the cyclone,’ the two organisations said. ‘Banned by the military government’s censorship from writing openly about the tragedy in his magazine, he decided to act. We urge UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon to intercede with the Burmese authorities so that civilians distributing aid should no longer be treated as criminals, and so that the Burmese and international media should be allowed to operate freely in the cyclone-hit areas.’

At least eight journalists and one blogger are currently in prison in Burma.

Zaw Thet Htwe was arrested by members of the military police while with his seriously-ill mother in the central city of Minbu on 13 June. The police searched his home in Rangoon yesterday. His wife, fellow journalist Ma Khine Cho, told Democratic Voice of Burma, an exile radio station, that the police confiscated his mobile, phone, computer and various documents.

Like the comedian and blogger known as Zarganar, Zaw Thet Htwe had been helping to channel relief to the victims of the Cyclone Nargis. Zarganar was arrested on 4 June after talking to the foreign news media about the slowness of the relief efforts being organised by the military government.

A Rangoon-based journalist reported that the authorities have stepped up control of cameras in the delta region. Equipment has been seized from the home of private individuals for fear that it could be used to film or photograph victims.

A military court sentenced Zaw Thet Htwe and eight other people for ‘high treason’ on 28 November 2003. The real reason for Zaw Thet Htwe’s arrest was the success of his football magazine and its independent line. The supreme court commuted his sentence to three years in prison on 12 May 2004 and he was finally released from Insein prison in January 2005.

Blogger Nay Phone Latt has meanwhile been transferred from cell No. 7 to cell No. 3 in Insein prison’s Building 1. During a recent interrogation session, the police threatened to bring other charges against him, in addition to the charge of possessing banned DVDs.

Relief Web

Savage paranoia

Chicago Tribune

Cyclone Nargis, which hit the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar more than a month ago, has, by official count, claimed 78,000 lives. Another 56,000 people are missing and as many as 2.4 million desperately need basic humanitarian aid—food, clean drinking water and shelter.

The country's repressive ruling junta, however, doesn't see it that way. The New Light of Myanmar, the state-run newspaper that serves as a mouthpiece for the ruling generals, called the Western media "the enemy who is more destructive than Nargis." The Western media, a recent article claimed, have sensationalized their reporting and exaggerated the suffering of the storm's victims, all in an attempt to "undermine national unity."

What amazing paranoia. And if it were limited to bleating from The New Light, everyone could laugh. But Myanmar's rulers have turned away repeated offers of foreign aid. The xenophobic generals would rather let their people starve than risk allowing outsiders in to help.

Now, they're clamping down on efforts by their own people. Popular comedian and political critic Maung Thura, better known by his stage name Zarganar, was recently taken from his Yangon home by police. His apparent crime? Traveling to the Irrawaddy delta to deliver relief supplies to the victims of Nargis. The military junta is trying to stop the people of Myanmar from helping the people of Myanmar.

It has accused citizens who have shot video of the deplorable conditions in the delta of being "self-seekers exploiting storm victims." It insists, all evidence to the contrary, that conditions in the Irrawaddy delta are better than reported.

In his masterpiece "1984," British author George Orwell described a society where reality was wholly subjective, created by a government propaganda machine known as the "Ministry of Truth." If citizens didn't hew to the government's totalitarian line, they were subject to arrest, torture and re-education. The government's sole purpose: to perpetuate its own existence. Orwell's book was a work of fiction intended as a criticism of totalitarian government.

Today it could double as the Myanmar junta's manual of governance.

As donors disappear, cyclone survivors fend for themselves

By SAW YAN NAING
Web Relief

As private donors disappear from cyclone-affected areas of the Irrawaddy delta, residents of Bogalay, one of the hardest-hit towns in the disaster zone, say that they are struggling to rebuild their homes by themselves.

Many residents said that they were using old materials to repair or rebuild their homes, despite an abundant supply of new materials available in local shops and at the homes of businessmen and members of the Township Peace and Development Council.

‘When I went to buy corrugated zinc sheets to cover my roof, they [township authorities] sold it to me for 780 kyat (US $0.68) per foot,’ said Wa Yint, a local resident.

‘I have to rebuild my house using old zinc sheets. But for parts of my house that were badly damaged, I needed some new sheets,’ he added.

Residents said that outside assistance has come to a complete stop more than five weeks after Cyclone Nargis struck the region on May 2-3.

‘In May, five or six donor groups came to donate supplies every day,’ said one resident. ‘They came with six to twenty trucks a day.

‘But from the beginning of June, the number dwindled to one group every two or three days. Now they have completely disappeared. They stopped coming two days ago,’ he added.

Bar Ku, a local donor in Bogalay, explained: ‘In Burma, it is not possible for citizens to feed one another for a long time. Everybody has to struggle for their daily survival.’

‘Who can feed them everyday? I don’t think private donors can afford to donate any longer,’ said a local aid donor in Laputta, another seriously affected town in the delta.

He added, however, that Buddhist monks are still active in relief efforts, delivering food and supplies to survivors in the outskirts of Laputta.

Sources also said that monks have played a key role in helping private donors to get past restrictions imposed by Burmese authorities.

Last Saturday, a group of local donors who traveled to the delta town of Pyapon were stopped at a checkpoint, but were later given permission to go through after they explained that their aid supplies were going to local monasteries, according to Ma Nyein, a friend of a member of the aid group.

She added that the donors were told by the authorities—members of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association and the Swan Ah Shin militia group—that they should hand over the supplies directly to them.

Ma Nyein is the sister-in-law of Burma’s best-known comedian, Zarganar, who has played a prominent role in distributing aid to victims of the cyclone. She said that on one occasion, on May 15, she and her brother-in-law were forced to give aid supplies directly to the authorities.

On subsequent trips, however, they were accompanied by monks, who said that the aid supplies were going to monasteries.

‘When the monks asked them not to block us, they allowed us to go through,’ she said. ‘They don’t dare to confront the monks.’

Tin Yu, a resident of Rangoon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township, agreed.

‘Five days ago, local authorities stopped us when we tried to deliver aid to victims,’ he said, adding that they were only allowed to pass after a monk from Aung Parahita Monastery suggested that they make the donation through his monastery.

Pyinya Thiha, a senior monk at Thardu Monastery in Rangoon’s Kyeemyindaing Township, said that he and his group were recently approached by local authorities in a village near Laputta, but he was able to continue his journey.

‘They [the authorities] came and asked some questions. But they asked us politely, so we replied politely. If they had asked rudely, we would have replied in the same manner. We didn’t face any difficulty,’ he said.

Government seeks at all cost to control news coming out of Irrawaddy delta

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Burma Media Association, an organisation of Burmese journalists in exile, condemn a series of measures taken by military government in the past few days to control news and information coming out of the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta

The blogger and comedian known by the stage name of Zarganar was arrested without explanation on 5 June. The police began confiscating satellite dishes on 6 June in order to deny Burmese access to foreign news media. And the official press published articles denigrating the foreign media on 8 June. Furthermore, several journalists have been expelled in recent weeks and it has become impossible to get a press visa.

“We call for the immediate release of Zarganar, whose arrest is typical of the contempt shown by military junta towards those who express themselves freely,” the two organisations said. “Zarganar is very well known in Burma. In his sketches and in the blog he has keep since August 2007 (http://zarganar-windoor.blogspot.com/), he defends human rights and condemns the junta’s behaviour. He had become a source of news and information.”

Zarganar, who has been dubbed the “Burmese Charlie Chaplin,” gave an interview to a foreign TV station on the eve of his arrest in which he criticised the government and referred to a group of 400 people who have managed to provide relief assistance to the victims of last month’s cyclone despite a government ban. The group cooperated with another one founded by a Buddhist month.

The authorities told Zarganar’s family that they would hold him for “only two days” in order to question him, but he has not been released. (JPEG)“Many journalists are being prevented from working freely and the foreign media are being attacked in the official press, which is trying to discredit them,”
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association said. “Activists are playing a vital role in providing news and information through what they are posting online. We condemn the way the authorities are deliberately trying seal the citizens of the Irrawaddy delta behind a wall of silence.”

Several foreign journalists, including CNN and Time reporters have been deported in the past few weeks and others have been refused visas.

The New Light of Myanmar, a government newspaper, referred to “enemy” radio stations on 8 June. "The storm is now no more. However, the enemy that is more destructive than (Cyclone) Nargis has reared its ugly head," the newspaper said. "It is time (that) the foreign broadcasting stations and their accomplices knew that their instigation and propaganda are good for nothing. And they should stop broadcasting such kinds of fabricated news." (See below)

According to Burmese exile media reports , the police are also confiscating the satellite dishes that Burmese citizens use to receive foreign TV stations. Around 50 dishes were reportedly seized from a Rangoon store on 6 June.

Burmese censor board banned news and pictures about the cyclone in local newspaper and monthly magazines but also in foreign magazines, such as the 26th may and 2nd June issues of the magazine Times.



About press freedom in Burma

About the Internet in Burma

Zarganar still under detention

Mizzima News
10 June 2008
( Interview with his mother-in-law Daw Kyi Kyi Soe )

News circulated some corners in Rangoon that famous comedian and actor Zarganar (tweezers) was released from detention on Monday and is now under house arrest. He conducted relief efforts actively providing relief supplies to cyclone victims.

Mizzima tried to contact him last night, but in vain. Mizzima, however, got in touch with his mother-in-law Kyi Kyi Soe today. She said that the news of Zarganar being released is not true and his family members still do not know his whereabouts. Huai Pi contacted and interviewed his family member.

Q: We heard that Zarganar has been released. Is it true?

A: This is just concocted news. We still don't know his whereabouts since he was taken from here. His wife, who is in the US called me at 2 a.m. today after seeing the news of his release on some websites. The news also said that he has been put under house arrest after being released from detention. I told my daughter this was not true. I am answering your phone call from his bedroom staying with my granddaughter's pet dog. I am not lying. I am telling the truth. He has not yet been released.

Q: What do you think about Zarganar's detention?

A: The authorities forced Zarganar to sign a pledge on 28th October last year not to talk to the media. After Cyclone Nargis struck Burma, he did relief work and talked to the media. I think this is the reason why the authorities took him away.

Q: Are there any surveillance teams outside your residence?

A: Yes, a lot, but I don't know the exact number. I don't know to which units they belong. Yesterday two police officers came to my home. One was from the West District Police Force and was of captain rank. Another one was a police inspector who always watches and monitors Zarganar.

Q: Did you ask them about Zarganar?

A: Yes, I asked them but they could not answer. They said that they also don't know about Zarganar. They were responsible for monitoring Zarganar's movement and had to hand him over to the higher authorities on that day. An unknown couple asked my younger daughter Ma Nyein to harbour a youth aged about 23 at our home as they have been fired and are unemployed at the moment. We happily accepted this boy and he is living together with my two grandchildren. We simply thought it is a good deed to provide food to anyone who is in trouble. He reached our home just three days before Zarganar was taken away. He accompanied Zarganar in his relief campaign to cyclone-hit areas.

He was out of the house when the police came and took away Zarganar. Our neighbours informed him about Zarganar 's arrest when he came back. He left immediately. I don't know where he's gone. He's left here himself. We don't know even his name. We simply called him 'Kadone' (clean shaven head).

Q: Did the police visit your home again in the meantime?

A: They came and asked about this youth on the 6th of this month. I told them I don't know about him as he has not come back since that day. I told them we don't know about him and his parents. I am worried about the police visiting the couple and inquiring about the youth. They are simple persons like Zarganar. The police came at noon and searched all three bedrooms.

The police said that they have to take away my daughter Ma Nyein and the youngest one if we cannot find this youth. My youngest daughter is suffering from heart disease and she is nervous and timid. She was shocked and collapsed when the police said this. Only after that, a woman police sub-inspector, a woman police sergeant and other personnel who came to our home when Zarganar was taken away, left our home at about 10 p.m.

Burma's (Myanmar's) elite help with aid

Rangoon, Burma - While international aid groups and world leaders have been clamoring for greater access or accusing the government of Burma (Myanmar) of neglecting cyclone victims, the junta has effectively parceled out areas of the disaster zone to the country's corporate leaders.

They are a "who's who" of Burma's business class: powerful execs with close ties to the ruling military junta, some of them under Western sanctions for that reason.

Despite those connections – indeed, because they have enabled these men to distribute badly needed relief – foreign aid workers in Burma, their own efforts inhibited by the junta, are partnering with these businessmen-turned-relief workers.

Andrew Kirkwood, Burma director for Save the Children, has been sharing boats and distribution networks in the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta with corporate-relief volunteers from Serge Pun Associates.

"They've been doing a lot of good things. They have a lot of assets, and they've been putting it to good use," he says. "We've been coordinating at various levels to reach as many people as possible."

Burma's power class
A week after the May 2-3 cyclone Nargis left an estimated 134,000 dead or missing and 2.4 million more affected, the government put out a call asking business leaders to volunteer for relief operations, says James Kong, a Hong Kong-based surgeon and former head of Rangoon's Pun Hlaing International Hospital, who has returned to help his native Burma.

Some of them are under Western sanctions. Others hold foreign passports, work with business leaders across Asia, and have publicly listed companies on Asian markets.

On May 12, a number of executives formed the Cape Negrais Committee, named after the site where the cyclone first slammed into southern Burma's Irrawaddy Delta.

The team has so far helped 45,000 to 75,000 people on Middle Island, one of their areas of operation in the delta, says Mark Tippetts, an Englishman and longtime Burma resident who oversees the Pun Hlaing golf course, a favorite haunt of Burma's elite.

The hard-to-reach delta is where many of the more than one million people who have yet to receive aid are located, according to the United Nations.

Htoo Trading, led by young entrepreneur Tay Za, is operating in the delta's Bogale area. Tay Za came under US economic sanctions last October when President Bush tightened restrictions on ranking members of Burma's ruling junta and associated business groups.

Another company, Max Myanmar Ltd., is running relief operations in the town of Labutta.

'He's got boats'
Save the Children, a respected international organization which has reached about 300,000 cyclone survivors in Burma, is working closely with Serge Pun, the chairman of Yoma Bank and 40 other companies, who is not under US sanctions.

"I feel absolutely comfortable with our relationship with him," says Mr. Kirkwood, adding that, before accepting Pun's offer to help, the aid agency conducted a background check and concluded there was no reason to refuse.

"He's got boats and people and warehouses, and we've got lots of aid to deliver, and together we can get stuff to people who need it," Kirkwood continues.

Pun, who is pioneering private healthcare in Burma, flew back to the country on May 11 and converted his companies' executives, as well as doctors at Pun Hlaing hospital, into volunteer aid workers.

After some quick training on how to handle emergencies and trauma, 12 doctors and a team of nurses and support staff headed deep into the delta.

They endured seven-hour boat rides amid stormy currents and rain, says Joseph Lopez, chief operating officer at Pun Hlaing hospital.

Corporate efforts: good, not enough
International aid workers and Western diplomats are quick to praise the heroic response of private groups and individuals in Burma to the disaster.

But Western diplomats say this shouldn't distract from the regime's continued obstruction of foreign aid and equipment and refusal to allow many foreign experts into the disaster zone.

"There no doubt they [the business groups] are helping people get access to aid and medicine, says a Western diplomat.

"But rather than rely on local businesspeople with no aid experience, it makes more sense for experts to be allowed to mobilize properly," the diplomat continues.

Last Wednesday, a prominent entertainer and political activist known as Zarganar, who had led private relief operations in the Delta, was arrested at his home in Rangoon.

His detention may be linked to his background and his speaking out critically against the government to foreign media, says Win Min, an exiled Burmese professor in Chiang Mai, Thailand, adding that it sends a worrying signal to other private groups.

"If Zarganar can be arrested, anyone can be arrested if the government is angered by what you're doing" in the delta, says Win Min.

Media reports have carried accounts of Burmese being prevented from driving to the delta with aid supplies and of private trucks being seized by police and soldiers.

• Simon Montlake contributed reporting from Bangkok, Thailand.

Christian Science Monitor

UN Expert Concerned by Zarganar's Arrest

By ELIANE ENGELER / AP WRITER
The Irrawaddy News

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — The United Nations' expert on human rights in Burma said Monday he was very worried about the arrest of a well-known comedian who was trying to help survivors of last month's devastating cyclone.

Comedian Maung Thura—whose stage name is Zarganar—was taken from his home in Rangoon by police Wednesday night after going to the Irrawaddy delta to donate relief items to survivors, a relative said.

Tomas Ojea Quintana from Argentina, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma. (Photo: AP)
"I'm very concerned because I don't know so far about his whereabouts," said Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN Human Rights Council's new investigator for Burma.

Quintana, from Argentina, said he asked the government for clarification about Zarganar's arrest.

The relative said Friday that the family had heard nothing from Zarganar since the arrest and that the ruling military junta had given no reason for the arrest.

Zarganar was leading a team of around 400 people assisting cyclone victims, said Quintana, adding that other actors, comedians and writers were part of the group.

The UN estimates a total of 2.4 million people were made homeless or were otherwise affected when Cyclone Nargis hit May 2-3, and has warned that more than 1 million of those still need help, mostly in the hard-to-reach delta.

The 46-year old comedian and his team had made videos of their relief activities and Zarganar gave interviews critical of the government's relief effort to foreign media, including the British Broadcasting Corp., whose news broadcasts are popular in Burma.

In an interview with the Thailand-based magazine Irrawaddy before his arrest, Zarganar said some areas in the delta had not been reached by the government or international aid groups. Zarganar said his group distributed food, blankets, mosquito nets and other aid.

Quintana, who on Friday presented a 16-page report to the UN council on the situation of basic rights in Burma, said he didn't have information about other members of Zarganar's team being arrested.

But "the detention of Zarganar concerns me a lot," he told reporters.

Zarganar, known for his anti-government jibes, has previously been arrested together with other actors for openly supporting demonstrations against the military junta.

UN officials and aid groups have criticized the regime for hindering cyclone relief efforts.

Quintana said if a government is unable to help its people after a disaster, it has to accept outside aid.

"All states have the obligation to guarantee their people all the rights with all the available means," he said. "If the means inside the country are not enough ... there is an obligation to use means from the international community."

Junta blacks out media

Mungpi

Mizzima, 09 June 2008, New Delhi – The Burmese military junta on Monday warned cyclone victims to remain vigilant against donors, who it said were seeking personal benefits. The donors were taking the credit for being generous and feeding false stories to foreign news agencies, the regime said.

The junta, in its official mouthpiece, New Light of Myanmar, on Monday said, "Internal and external anti-government elements, self-centered persons and unscrupulous elements are now seeking their self-interests by sending to foreign news agencies stories about relief and rehabilitation work they have made up and shot on video."

"Cyclone victims are hereby warned to remain vigilant with nationalistic spirit against the deceptions of self-centered persons and unscrupulous elements," the paper warned.

The warning comes days after the ruling junta raided the residence of a prominent Burmese comedian and relief worker Thura, also known as Zarganar, and arrested him on Wednesday night.

The police team, which arrested Zarganar, also confiscated two cash account books, about 1000 USD, which he had collected to help cyclone victims, and also several video CDs including those on the plight of Cyclone Nargis victims.

"So far we have not received any news about him. We don't know his whereabouts. They [the police] said it would be just for a day or two but till now he is not back. We are worried about him," a relative of Zarganar told Mizzima on Monday afternoon.

But an unconfirmed report received by Mizzima said the Burmese comedian was sent home later on Monday and was kept under surveillance, a situation of house-arrest.

However, his family members were not immediately available to comment and the information could not be independently verified.

The arrest of the Burmese comedian and critic, who was boldly helping cyclone survivors, is clear evidence of intimidation by the ruling junta to all other private volunteers and donors, a Burmese aid worker, working with an international aid agency said.

Following the arrest of Zarganar, rumours have been spreading in Rangoon, Burma's former capital and commercial hub, that at least 12 people, who made video recordings of the devastation caused by the killer cyclone, have been arrested.

While the information cannot be independently verified, the aid worker said a friend in Laputta, who has made video records of the devastation, was taken in for interrogation after police found the clips during a surprise raid in his house.

"This man had several video clips on the devastation and the suffering of the victims. His house was raided by the police and he was taken away for interrogation," the aid worker said.

"Though he was not arrested, he was made to sign a pledge not to continue making video records," the aid worker said.

Meanwhile, sources in Rangoon said at least two dealers of satellite television receivers were arrested during the weekend. Several satellite receivers, which they were selling, were seized.

The source, who wished not to be identified said, Chit Win Kyaing from Grand Electronics and another person from Green Leaf were arrested after the police searched their shops.

"They [the police] did not give any reason. They just raided, confiscated the receivers and arrested them," the source said.

An observer in Rangoon said the junta's recent crackdown on dealers in satellite receivers is an attempt to impose a black-out on the media. Burmese people are curiously watching foreign satellite television broadcasts.

An electronic shop owner in Rangoon on Monday told Mizzima that the police on Friday confiscated at least 50 satellite dishes from a shop in Hlatha Township's Anawratha Street.

"The shop keeper was made to sign a pledge not to sell to people with out a license," the shop owner said.

In Burma, owning a satellite dish or receiver requires license from the authorities. With black marketing in vogue, the law was never strictly enforced. However, it gives the authorities the chance to play around with it.

The junta is taking new steps to stop information flow by arresting and intimidating people who are believed to have contacts with the media, the Burmese aid worker said.

Zarganar, a critic of the ruling junta, was giving interviews and providing information to several news agencies before he was detained on Wednesday. His interviews revealed much about the ground situation - the extent of devastation and relief work done.

The junta, in its mouthpiece newspaper, accused those providing information to the foreign media as well as to Burmese media groups in exile as "saboteurs and destructive elements."

Since Cyclone Nargis struck Burma, the junta has prevented both foreign and domestic journalists from visiting the worst affected areas in the Irrawaddy delta. But several of them have managed to sneak in.

The aid worker said, Zarganar's arrest was not only for his interviews with the foreign media "the authorities also suspected him of assisting foreign journalists to go into the restricted Irrawaddy delta."

Burma rights violations serious: UN

The Burma military junta's arrest of a popular comedian campaigning for victims of Cyclone Nargis is part of continuing serious human rights violations in the country, a United Nations investigator said.

Tomas Ojea Quintana also told a news briefing there were political prisoners in the country, despite the regime's insistence it imprisons law breakers.

"The latest information coming to me in the last few days builds up a picture of a serious situation of violations of human rights in Myanmar [Burma]," said Mr Ojea Quintana, an Argentine lawyer who has just taken up his UN post.

News reports from Rangoon said the comedian, known by his stage name of Zarganar, was detained last Wednesday (local time) by police who seized his computer and banned film and recordings of the devastation caused by the cyclone.

Mr Ojea Quintana, whose own parents were political prisoners under a military regime in Argentina, said he had asked the Burma authorities for clarification and for information on Zarganar's whereabouts, but had received no reply.

As special investigator for Burma, he reports to the UN's 47-nation Human Rights Council at which he called last week for release of all political prisoners, starting with Nobel laureate and Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burma's ambassador in Geneva denied his government arrested people for political reasons. He also rejected another assertion by the investigator that soldiers had shot prisoners on the night of the cyclone on May 2.

Mr Ojea Quintana said he understood the prisoners, in a jail at Insein in the Irrawaddy delta where Nargis struck with full force, were trying to flee the partially destroyed facility to save their lives.

In his report, he asked the Burmese authorities to investigate assertions by a Thailand-based activist group that 36 prisoners had died when police and troops moved in to quell what they said was a riot.

The investigator said he hoped to be able to establish an open dialogue with the Government on Burma and to be given permission to visit the country to check information coming into his office. But so far no clearance had come from Rangoon.

ABCNet-Reuters

UN Expert Urges Investigation Of Prisoners Killed In Burma

By Lisa Schlein - Geneva
09 June 2008

Schlein report - Download (MP3) audio clip
Schlein report - Listen (MP3) audio clip

(VOA News) - The U.N. Special Investigator into the Human Rights situation of Burma, also known as Myanmar, is calling for an investigation into the alleged killing of prisoners during the early days of Cyclone Nargis. The expert has submitted a report on violations in Burma to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, from where Lisa Schlein reports for VOA.

Photo AP: Tomas Ojea Quintana, 09 Jun 2008

Argentinian lawyer Tomas Ojea Quintana assumed his post as the U.N. Special Rapporteur on May 1. This was one day before Cyclone Nargis struck, leaving an estimated 134,000 people dead or missing.

He says this catastrophic event triggered a number of events, which have serious human rights implications. He says the day of the storm on May 2, about 1,000 prisoners in the town of Insein were forced inside a hall after their jail's zinc roofs were torn off.

He says many prisoners panicked and soldiers and riot police were called in to control the situation. He says they reportedly opened fire on the prisoners and a number were allegedly killed.

"It is not that they were trying to escape," said Quintana. "Under the Cyclone circumstances, they were trying to save their lives because apparently the Cyclone was hitting the prison. So, they were trying to save their lives. And, there are some reports that there are 30 or 40 perhaps, a number of killings in the situation in Insein prison."

Quintana is urging the authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation to clarify the facts and identify the perpetrators of those arbitrary killings.

The U.N. investigator is calling for the government to free all political prisoners, starting with Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest.

Burma's military rulers deny they are holding political prisoners, but Quintana says he has received reports of people having been detained while protesting the recent constitutional referendum. He says they are among 1,900 political prisoners, including monks rounded up after protests last September.

Photo AP: Zarganar (file photo May'06)

He says he is worried about the arrest of the popular Burmese comedian Zarganar, who had been leading some of the relief efforts after the Cyclone.

"I am very concerned because I do not know, so far, about his whereabouts. I do not know if he is in detention in the police station or where. So, I ask for clarification from the government on that," said Quintana.

Quintana has sharp words regarding alleged obstruction of humanitarian assistance to the victims of Cyclone Nargis. He says under international human rights law, if a country cannot provide for the needs of its people, then other means have to be found to assist them. He says aid should be allowed to flow freely to the victims.

Rights Groups Report Post-Cyclone Abuses

By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News

Burmese and international human rights groups have accused Burma’s ruling junta of committing serious rights violations in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, heightening concerns that the regime’s refusal to allow an open and transparent international relief effort is endangering the safety of victims of the deadly storm.

In a statement released on Friday, the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP) said that inmates of Rangoon’s Insein Prison were being forced to eat spoiled rice, even after the International Committee of the Red Cross replaced “moldy, foul and inedible rice” damaged by exposure to rain.

AAPP said that a few days after prison authorities received the new rice, they reverted to using rice that had been stored in a warehouse when Cyclone Nargis ripped the roof off the building.

According to the group, the spoiled rice was causing intestinal problems such as diarrhea and dysentery, as well as other symptoms, including vomiting, dizziness, rashes and stomach swelling.

Meanwhile, leading international human rights advocacy group Amnesty International (AI) claimed on Thursday that the Burmese military junta has been misusing international aid and forcing cyclone victims out of emergency shelters.

In a report titled “Myanmar Briefing: Human rights concerns a month after Cyclone Nargis,” AI said that the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) began evicting homeless cyclone survivors from government and unofficial relief camps after it declared an end to the rescue and relief phase of its disaster response on May 20.

The report also details cases of local officials “obstructing or misusing aid.” Despite statements against such conduct by senior leaders, corruption continues to go unpunished, according to the report.

The group said that it had received over 40 reports or accounts of aid being confiscated by government officials, diverted or withheld instead of being handed to cyclone survivors.

AI’s Burma researcher, Benjamin Zawacki, told The Irrawaddy on Friday that the report aims to alert the donor community of ongoing human right abuses and “ideally, to ensure that they will stop.”

The main human rights concern after the cyclone was displacement in the affected areas, he said.

Zawacki also said that claims by the United Nations that its agencies had provided relief goods to one million survivors needed to be put into context.

“Even if it is correct that one million people have been reached, that simply means that they have received some formal assistance.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean that it has been comprehensive or sufficient. Some formal assistance—that could be a single bottle of water for a single person,” he said.
He also noted that more than 2.4 million were affected by the cyclone.

“So even if the UN’s one million figure is correct, that is still less than half of all the people who need to have assistance,” he said. “That is a really huge concern, as it shows that access to the Irrawady delta is still not what it should be.”

Zawacki described the arrest of Burmese comedian Maung Thura, also known as Zarganar, on Thursday as a “message of intimidation” directed at political activists.

“By detaining him, the SPDC is seeking to send the message that political dissidents and people who are politically active should not be involved,” the AI researcher said.

He added that by arresting Zarganar, the junta was contradicting an announcement it made on May 27, when it declared that individual donor were free to carry out relief work.

AI also published another Burma-related report on Thursday.

“Crimes against humanity in eastern Burma” deals with the Burmese army’s ongoing military offensive against ethnic Karen civilians.

The offensive, which began two years ago, has involved widespread and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, according to the report.