Thai Buddhists Help Needy Burmese Children

By THE IRRAWADDY
SEPTEMBER, 2008 - VOLUME 16 NO.9

Needy children in Burma will benefit from an initiative launched by the Phuttika Network, a coalition of “socially engaged’’ Buddhists in Thailand.

Every year, at Buddhist Lent, the Phuttika Network chooses a worthy cause to support. This year it launched a “Fund for Education of Poor Children in Burma,” at a charity event in late August at Bangkok’s Wat Thong Nopphakhun.

The Phuttika Network noted that more than 1,400 monasteries across Burma play a crucial role in providing education and shelter for destitute young people and orphans.

They receive very little support from the Burmese government, particularly after the monk-led September 2007 demonstrations. Financial support from the Burmese public has also dropped sharply because of the dire economic situation in Burma.

The monk who heads Phuttika Network, Phra Paisan Visalo, said support for the network’s initiative would be pivotal in easing the plight of needy young people in Burma.

“True compassion transcends any race, language, or geographical boundaries,” he said. “For above it all, every human is related as brother and sister. A heart full of compassion will be so big that ‘they’ become part of ‘us,’ or even better, there will be neither ‘us’ nor ‘them’.”

Donors are invited to contribute to the network’s fund.
Further information can be obtained by calling
(66) 02-883-0592,
(66) 02-886-9881 or
(66) 08-6300-5458.

Spare the Child

Street kids in Rangoon are often employed as laborers. (Photo: Aung Thet Wine/The Irrawaddy)

By AUNG THET WINE - The Irrawaddy News - V16-9

Burma’s military government pays lip service to the rights of children,
but still allows child labor and recruits underage soldiers

RANGOON — ABOUT 6:30 p.m., a sudden, heavy rain poured down on the Thirimingala vegetable market, sending crowds of shoppers, traders and laborers running for cover.

A group of children in ragged clothes paid no attention to the drenching rain. They continued picking through wilted and soiled vegetables and fruit that had been dumped in piles of garbage behind the market.

Bits of vegetables and fruit that appeared edible were quickly stuffed into their bags. Next to the children, a few adult men and women also sifted through putrid piles of foodstuff.

The children, about 30 in total, outnumbered the adults. They were part of a small army of child laborers in Rangoon who struggle for survival, forsaking school for odd jobs, begging and scavenging.

“I come from Hlaing Tharyar,” said Ywun Ei San, a 10-year-old girl who was collecting discarded foodstuff to sell to market vendors in her hometown on the outskirts of Rangoon.

“Usually, the trucks and vegetable wholesalers throw away their damaged vegetables around 4 a.m., and at about 6:30 in the evening. We collect the good pieces. We can earn a thousand kyat a day (US $0.85).

Ywun Ei San has survived by collecting garbage for more than a year. Usually, a child, if asked what they would most like to have, says something about toys, games or candy. However, Ywun Ei San, in a resigned voice, said she wanted “vegetables that I can sell.”

Nobody knows the number of child laborers in Burma, but they number perhaps in the hundreds of thousands, working in markets, teashops, restaurants, small industry and on construction sites. Some children also end up as domestic servants, while others are exploited in the sex trade.

At 4 o’clock one morning, eight children in their teens had already started their jobs at the Win teashop in Mayangone Township on the Rangoon-Insein road. With sleep still in their eyes, some washed cups and plates, while others prepared a fire to boil water, cooked snacks and arranged tables and stools.

“We get up at 3:30 in the morning. The shop opens at 5:30. About 6:30, the customers start coming in and we start serving them. The shop owner feeds us at 8,” said Maung Thaw Kaung, a skinny 12-year-old boy. His bones pressed against his skin, and his hands were rough and worn.

“We have to serve the customers all day until the shop closes at 10:30 at night,” he said. “We have to clean and get the things in order after the shop closes, and then we go to bed about midnight. I have worked here for more than three years now, and I earn 8,000 kyat ($7) a month. Phoe Lone and Wae Htoo [two child co-workers] have just started their work here. Each of them earns 4,500 kyat ($3.70) a month. The shop feeds us two meals a day. We put these stools together with a blanket, and they are our beds.”

Burmese labor laws officially allow 8-hour working days for adults, but the children at Win teashop put in more than 17 hours a day.

“When I started running this shop, I hired five adult waiters and two children for menial jobs,” said the teashop’s owner. “Later, I learned the adults were not good at the work. Children don’t complain as much, and they do whatever I ask them to do, so I gave all the work to children.”

Many employers say the same thing about child workers, and they have little to fear because of the loose enforcement of child labor laws by authorities.

An elected representative of the National League for Democracy (NLD) said child workers were among the “silent voices” of Burma. “Nowadays, we can see child workers everywhere, from maid services to big construction sites, and it is rare to see work sites in Burma with no children. That shows our country’s future is in trouble,” he said.

An officer with an NGO that works to protect children’s rights said, “Burma signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1991, but the government performance in this regard is inadequate and unsatisfactory.”

“Children here don’t enjoy the rights which were accepted in the CRC,” he said. “We have laws, but it is very difficult to implement them.”

According to the CRC, every child is entitled to a standard of living with adequate physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development. This essentially means all children should have basic shelter, nutritious food, clean water, basic health care, the right to an education, the right to be protected from all forms of exploitation, violence and neglect and the right to express their views freely in accordance with age and maturity.

The Burmese military government, however, fails in guaranteeing such protection and is itself a major violator through its conscription and use of child soldiers in the Burmese military. Residents in Kyeemyindaing Township in Rangoon have reported that military recruiters approach street children in the areas of Central San Pya fish market and the Thirimingala market.

A resident living near the central fish market of Kyeemyindaing Township said, “There are many street children hanging around Thirimingala market. Some children have parents, but they are so poor, they can’t raise their children, and they put them on the streets. Other children are orphans. They survive by odd jobs, living on the street. Many of these street children are rounded up and forced to serve in the military.”

Similar reports are common throughout Burma even as the military government has consistently claimed to support child labor laws and denied allegations of forced child recruitment in the military.

A lawyer from Mayangone Township in Rangoon who has studied the child labor issue said, “Burma has promulgated the ‘1993 National Child Labor Law’ and the ‘2001 Rules Related to Child Labor Laws,’ but actually, these laws are only on paper and are not enforced.”

Stories of child laborers, child soldiers and abandoned street children almost never appear in the state-run media or privately owned press. When such accounts are written by journalists or concerned activists, the junta’s censorship board red flags the stories and they are discarded, said a senior journalist in Rangoon.

“I see many examples of child laborers and child soldiers while going around the city,” he said. “The censorship board is sensitive about that kind of news.”

The NLD representative is left to wonder why the military government refuses to fulfill its responsibility to protect children from neglect and exploitation.

“To stop the use of child laborers and child soldiers, we need to overhaul the whole administration system,” he said. “Until we have a system where the law is respected and actually enforced, we will continue to see more child laborers, child soldiers and child abuse,” he said.

700,000 Myanmar children need long-term aid: UNICEF

The United Nations and the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) have estimated that it will cost about US$1 billion in total to rebuild Myanmar after the cyclone. -- PHOTO: AP

GENEVA (ST)- AROUND 700,000 children are in need of long-term aid in Myanmar due to the devastating effects of May's Cyclone Nargis, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.

'While we have observed a gradual improvement in the situation for children, and have avoided the emergence of major epidemics, we must maintain our efforts,' added UNICEF's Myanmar representative Ramesh Shrestha in a statement.

The agency has launched an appeal for just over US$90 million (S$122.5 million) it needs for operations through to April 2009. To date, it has raised less than half of that sum.

The United Nations and the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) have estimated that it will cost about US$1 billion in total to rebuild Myanmar after the cyclone left more than 138,000 people dead or missing and over two million survivors in need of aid.

In the crucial days after the cyclone hit, Myanmar's notoriously secretive leadership blocked access for foreign relief workers, raising fears thousands more people would die after being denied life-saving aid.

The junta only eased its stance after a personal visit by UN chief Ban Ki Moon, but aid groups say access to the worst-hit southern delta remains patchy. -- AFP

Myanmar visitor tells of relief efforts

By BECKY SHAY
Of The Gazette Staff
Cyclone Nargis made international headlines when it swept through Myanmar on May 3.

The devastation remained in the forefront as people around the world worried about how surviving residents would ever recover. The country is ruled by a military junta, which keeps it closed off from the outside world and rejected international assistance after the cyclone.

The plight in Myanmar, also known as Burma, eventually fell out of mainstream concern. The junta says that the victims are recovering, but people like Chylo Laszloffy and his dad, Jeff, of Laurel know that much more remains to be done.

United States trip

This weekend the Laszloffy family hosted Tha Nyan, who goes by Sonny and is honorary general secretary of the National YMCAs of Myanmar. He is making his 12th trip to the United States, visiting friends like the Laszloffy family before attending a conference in Louisville, Ky., beginning early this week.

The Laszloffys are affiliated with Vision Beyond Borders, a Sheridan, Wyo.,-based Christian organization. Chylo recently visited Myanmar and delivered medical and other supplies for the cyclone victims. The aid was distributed through a network Sonny has helped develop.

"The bottom line is there is still a huge need there," he said. "It's just not going to go away, despite what their government tells us, that everything is all right."

Valuable medical items

Chylo knew that the supplies he delivered, including valuable medical items donated by St. Vincent Healthcare, made it to those in need, but that is the exception, not the rule, he said. At the hotel where he stayed in Yangon, Chylo saw representatives of nongovernmental organizations sitting around working on laptops all day because the Myanmar junta would not let them into the cyclone-hit area.

"Guys like Sonny are much more effective," Chylo said.

Chylo also helped locate and purchase six parcels of land that will eventually be used to build orphanages for the children of the country. Each orphanage is designed to house 100 children. There were 60,000 to 80,000 children orphaned by the cyclone, according to Vision Beyond Borders.

The children are especially vulnerable, Jeff Laszloffy said, as the slave trade, mainly from Thailand, moves into Myanmar. Providing them a place to live is one of the biggest safety issues available. Buying the land and building an orphanage costs about $50,000, according to Vision Beyond Borders.

"Lots of people in Montana drive pickup trucks that cost more than what it costs to house 100 kids," Jeff Laszloffy said.

Grace Bible Church in Laurel has already committed to building an orphanage and agreed to pay for its operation, he said.

Americans are quite wealthy by international standards, Chylo said. "This is our opportunity to show some generosity, to stand up and give," he said. "We can make a big difference without much sacrifice on our part."

For example, he said, to build a small house in Myanmar costs about $300. A more deluxe model, with kitchen, is $450.

"There's still a lot that can be done," Chylo said.

Vision Beyond Borders is also working to make sure that the Myanmar people can become self-sufficient. Long-term aid projects include buying rice seedlings to replant about 3,500 acres of paddies.

In Myanmar it is monsoon season, which is welcomed because the storms should help leach out some of the salt that the cyclone dumped into agricultural land. The salt was brought in by the storm surge that drove water and sand from the ocean into the delta.

Sonny said there are more than 11 million acres of paddies in the country, about 6 million of which were affected by the cyclone. While 3,500 acres is a small portion of the land, when planted it will feed 63,600 people, according to Dyann Romeijn, regional coordinator for Vision Beyond Borders.

It cost $90,000 to purchase the seedlings, or about $1.42 for each person they will eventually feed. Vision Beyond Borders went out on a limb and made the purchase because of the narrow window of time in which planting could be done this year, Laszloffy said.

Sonny said that about 80,000 people have been confirmed dead from the cyclone while another 1.2 million are listed as missing. In all, more than 5 million people were affected by the cyclone, and more than 1 million continue to need assistance.

Outside relief - such as food, medical supplies, clothing and other basic needs - will be required for at least another year, Sonny said. Rehabilitation - such as building houses and agrarian efforts such as livestock production - will take at least three years and probably much longer. After those basic needs are met, other essentials, such as building schools, can be addressed.

The combination of material and familial losses makes the victims psychologically vulnerable, Sonny said. "It takes a lot of time" to recover emotionally, he said.

His country's people, both Christian and Buddhist, have hope for a better life, Sonny said. There is a place in the cyclone recovery for evangelism, he said, because Christians can bring hope to those who feel hopeless, by teaching that God will protect them and provide an afterlife.

"They can know salvation, they can know Jesus," he said quietly and then broken into a grin and exclaimed, "Thank you, Cyclone Nargis!"

Sonny does not talk much about the ruling military junta - any political talk is too likely to lead to retribution.

"I would have to stay in Montana," he said.

Contact Becky Shay at bshay@billingsgazette.com or 657-1231.

First the storm, then the plague

Relief Web

The flies are unbearable.’ When asked how things are in the Cylone-affected Irrawaddy delta of Myanmar, the first thing that they describe is the flies. Thick clouds of biting flies fill the air around the villages, having bred in the bloated carcasses of the buffalo killed by the storm. ‘There are so many, that some of the remaining buffaloes have even been killed from the bites.’

For foreign aid workers access to the delta remains challenging, but two of DCA's partner staffs who had just returned from the storm-ravaged communities told that it’s crucial that the farmers in the affected villages plant their rice now if they’re to get any harvest, and for many that means cleaning and preparing paddies filled with fallen trees and debris from the storm, often without the help of buffaloes. There is at most only a week left in the planting season, and time is running out.

‘Only about 50 percent of the people have been able to plant so far,’ they said. ‘Luckily, the monsoon rains have cleared out the salt water that inundated the paddies after the Cyclone. But the buffaloes that remain are either younger ones from the North of the country, or animals weakened from the storm, and they are difficult to plow with.’

‘The flies are coming from the bodies of all of the buffaloes killed by the storm. But the farmers have no choice; they are soaking their faces and arms in diesel fuel to keep the flies away.’

The relief workers had just returned from Laputa township where they were able to distribute 300 fifty-kilogram bags of rice for about 700 people, and plan another distribution in about one and a half months. Whilst some villages have received food from the UN World Food Program through DCA’s local partner, those served by DCA’s smaller partners live on the banks of small streams or far from the river banks, and many have not received any assistance at all since the Cyclone hit and they lost everything.

Incomprehensible Suffering

The story of the death and destruction in these villages is overwhelming; some villages lost up to half their populations in a single night. And the individual stories of loss echo in my mind in the days that follow. The man I spoke with saw 100 bodies buried earlier that morning.

‘Some people have lost 8 family members from a single family. But even then, they try to rebuild.

Some of the children have lost both parents and have no one else to take care of them in their villages. Nargis orphans fill the institutions in the town centers. DCA’s partner staffs help to run one orphanage with 46 children, and another with 153.

The manager of the orphanage says the kids don’t want to go to school, and while they try to impose some routine, they don’t push the children too much.

‘There are some who say that they want to commit suicide, because they have lost their families,’ they tell me. ‘There is one girl twelve year old girl who runs off very often. When I ask her why, she says that she is afraid, that she is seeing dead bodies all the time.’

‘Another girl in the 3rd grade keeps screaming that she misses her mom, crying out loud.’

The pastor of one village lost his wife and 4 of his five children, including the son who was going to take over the parish as well as a twenty month old daughter. ‘He says he has completely lost his faith, that he just doesn’t feel it any more. He continues working for the village, but not for God. He says he just can’t believe anything after what has happened to him. He will stay in the village, but only until the harvest.’

The cyclone struck in the evening time. Now when the evening sky darkens with monsoon clouds people huddle together in the church, or what remains of it, just to keep each other company. In the last village they visited yesterday, the church had been utterly destroyed by the wind and water – only the pulpit and the bell tower remained, as if a broom had swept the rest clean. For the parishioners, the memory is still fresh, and the scar is deep. One of the most frequent requests is to rebuild the church.

Life goes on

But the relief officers also talk about how inspiring it is to see the villages coming together, how surprised they are by people’s ability to move on.

‘After the Cyclone many people are sharing resources, right down to spoons and pots. Many of them normally don’t have land plots to work on, work as daily wage laborers. They work others, try to catch a few fish, and eke out a living.

‘These people are used to doing everything for themselves.’ They are a proud people who are not used to accepting charity. I told them that DCA is not there to give handouts, but to help the Burmese people help themselves. Building local capacity is a core objective of DCA’s response.

As a whole, the relief officers see no signs of famine, but there are pockets of hunger. While there is no acute malnutrition, the kids are looking thin. ‘They don’t have as much to worry about any more. In the beginning, they had no contact with the other people. They felt helpless. But now they are regaining their confidence and their community fabric. People have been able to use their small building materials to rebuild their houses.’

Like many Danes, most Burmese people do not express their sorrow openly. ‘It’s strange to see that people feel pain, but they don’t bury their thoughts in sorrow,’ they told me. ‘They try hard to forget, to go back into their communities and want to focus on rebuilding, on starting a new life.’

The months ahead

The next rice harvest will come in November, when the World Food Program is planning to half the numbers of people receiving food distribution. Even those not receiving WFP food will be affected by this move and the overall effect on local food availability. DCA’s staff and partners are concerned that the most marginalized – those living in remote villages, daily laborers and the landless – will see their nutritional status worsen in these months, and will therefore keep a close watch on the harvest, and advocate with WFP if necessary.

Water will be another big problem for the villagers in the next six months. They need to clean the ponds 1 or 2 more times, as they are still dirty. This will be an increasing problem in the dry season (March April), when they will be without drinking water.

For the survivors, the road to recovery is long.

By Erik Johnson, Burma

Over 400 orphans still search for parents: UNICEF

Solomon
Mizzima News - 08 July 2008

New Delhi - Two months after the deadly Cyclone Nargis ripped across Burma's southwestern coastal divisions, more than 400 children are still frantically searching for their parents, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday.

The UNICEF, in its report '60 Days response to Cyclone Nargis' said, as of end June 428 separated and unaccompanied children have been traced.

Zafrin Chow Chury, spokesperson of UNICEF in Rangoon said, "15 have been reunited with their parents, but as for the others we are still trying to trace their parents."

UNICEF said while it is focussing on finding family members for separated children, the process is largely hampered by the movement of refugees from their temporary shelters back to their villages or from one location to another.

"At present, efforts at tracing the families are being intensified with support from partners," the UN agency said.

Education

While tracing families for separated children is being intensified, the UNICEF said education for other children is one among the major concerns as many of the children cannot yet attend schools because several schools have been severely damaged or destroyed.

According to the UNICEF, over 4,100 schools have been damaged by the cyclone that ravaged Burma's Irrawaddy and Rangoon division on May 2-3.

In Irrawaddy delta alone, at least 1,200 schools were totally destroyed and many collapsed in the cyclone, the UN agency said.

"We have helped in the repair of about 1,326 schools," said Chury, but she said there are still a lot of schools which need to be repaired and reconstructed.

"We are providing support with back up temporary learning spaces, tents and material where all school buildings have been destroyed," Chury said.

Health

According to the UNICEF's report, Cyclone Nargis destroyed over 600 health centres and contaminated more than 4,000 drinking water wells.

"The biggest challenge facing the Health Sector is the destruction of Health Centres and depletion of health workers in the affected areas because of deaths," the UNICEF said.

While there has been no large-scale outbreak of water borne or vector borne diseases, UNICEF said cyclone survivors need ORS, antibiotics, infusion, vaccines and vitamin A to protect from any possible outbreak of diarrhoea, malaria and dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Cyclone Orphans Take Low-Paid Work to Survive

Using a small oil lamp to seal the ends, a woman and

two children pack cheroots in to plastic bags in a small factory in Pegu,
58 kilometers (36 miles) north of Rangoon.
Sources said children orphaned by Cyclone Nargis
had migrated to the cities to find work. (Photo: AFP)

By VIOLET CHO
The Irrawaddy News

Many children orphaned by Cyclone Nargis are being employed in low-paid jobs in the Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon, according to monks in the region.

Monasteries throughout the region opened their doors to orphans, but a monk in Mawlamyinegyunn Township said children who lost their parents in the storm often preferred to live with adult survivors in their own communities, where they found work in the paddy fields and fish farms.

Other children who had lost their parents had migrated to the cities to find work in tea shops, small businesses and households, often encouraged by family members, the monk said. Some were as young as 10.

A senior monk in Mawlamyinegyunn said his monastery had sent 20 orphaned children to Phaungdawoo monastery in Mandalay, where they were being educated.

“There are so many children who desperately need care, and we are now trying to collect information and data about orphans so we can help them,” he said.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday that 428 children had been separated from their parents by the cyclone. More than 50 centers had been established to help them, said UNICEF spokesman Zafrin Chowdhury.

According to government figures, more than 84,000 people died in the cyclone and 54,000 are missing. The most vulnerable victims of the disaster were children, UNICEF said.

The International Labour Organization has expressed concern about the possibility that children may be forced to help in reconstruction work, and has warned UN agencies and relief workers of “the increased risk of incidences of forced labor, child labor, human trafficking and migrant labor as the authorities and individuals come to grips with the sheer size of the tragedy.”

Rangoon-based journalist Aung Thet Wyine contributed to this report.

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.

Junta Steps Up Crackdown on Private Relief Efforts

Burma Partnership
appartnership@gmail.com partnership@loxinfo.com
http://apppb.blogspot.com

Briefer 16th – 22nd June

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The patience of the international community appears to be wearing thin as the delivery of aid continues to face undue obstacles, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi celebrates another birthday under illegitimate detention and the usual human rights abuses carry on unchecked in Burma. As the humanitarian effort struggles on in the face of a potentially terminating funding crisis, the focus of the international community seems to have shifted to the wider political and human rights crises in Burma. The National League for Democracy has once again urged the military regime to convene parliament in order to solve the political and humanitarian crises the country is facing (http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4-inside-burma/686-nld-calls-for-parliament-to-be-convened).

Cyclone Nargis:
Senator John Kerry has formally urged US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to investigate whether the junta’s restriction of foreign aid may constitute a crime against humanity under international law. He has requested a legal opinion from the State Department
(http://kerry.senate.gov/cfm/record.cfm?id=299259, and
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=12840).

The World Bank has donated US$850,000 to ASEAN for disaster assessment and recovery activities in the wake of the cyclone. The grant is further intended to support ASEAN’s leadership role in the humanitarian efforts and to strengthen its capacity in the coordination of international response and senior-level dialogue on recovery planning (http://www.aseansec.org/21645.htm). Burmese groups in exile have issued a statement expressing concern that the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) may view the current humanitarian crisis as an opportunity to increase engagement with the SPDC. The Ethnic Community Development Forum and other groups have urged the World Bank and ADB to focus only on facilitating relief efforts and to include community-based organisations advocating real political reform in any decision-making process regarding their activities in Burma (http://appartnership.googlepages.com/ECDF-June17-08.doc).

The World Food Program has made a plea for additional funding for the humanitarian aid effort being carried out in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. Chris Kaye, WFP country director in Burma, warned that the distribution of supplies to distressed communities by boat, truck and air ‘will all grind to a halt by the end of this month unless we get additional funding now’ (http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/213818,lack-of-funding-threatens-myanmar-helicopter-relief-operation.html). The executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Noeleen Hayzer, called on the international community o donate 1 million gallons of diesel fuel that the regime says is needed to operate the mechanical tillers donated by other countries (http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1434).

Farmers in Labutta township, Irawaddy division, went to collect hand tractors donated as part of the cyclone relief effort but found that local authorities were demanding payment (of between 1.09 and 2.2 million kyat). Even the down payment far exceeded the means of most farmers. Reports suggest that so far none of the farmers in the delta region has been provided with any financial or material assistance to enable them to get back to work (http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1432). An absurdist bureaucracy charging farmers from the cyclone-stricken regions administration fees for defunct contracts has further hindered the distribution of machines in this critical planting season (http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1445).

Private donors continue to face harassment and obstruction despite the junta’s promises (http://www.kachinnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=247:junta-continues-to-restrict-aid-workers-from-helping-cyclone-victims&catid=38:environment&Itemid=61). Thai-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners states that ten donors have been arrested since the beginning of June (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article1.php?art_id=12822). The Burmese authorities detained three senior members of the pro-democracy group 88 Generation Students on 12th June. The group has formed a team called Myitta Paung Ku to distribute aid to cyclone survivors. Myet Thu, Yin Yin Wyne and Tin Tin Cho were waiting to discuss further aid distribution with monks when they were taken away. Their whereabouts are unknown (http://www.mizzima.com/nargis-impact/18-nargis-impact/675-student-activists-helping-nargis-victims-arrested,
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article2.php?art_id=12776, http://www.mizzima.com/nargis-impact/18-nargis-impact/679-volunteers-for-cyclone-relief-work-arrested-yet-again). Sports writer and former editor of weekly journal First Eleven Zaw Thet Htway was arrested on 13th June (http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1431).

One of the many civil groups to have formed since the strike of Cyclone Nargis has undertaken the grim task of disposing of the many corpses still lying in the rivers and fields of the Irrawaddy delta. They have given bodies a simple cremation and burial rites. Seven members of the group were arrested on June 14th (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article2.php?art_id=12846).

Donated food stored in a monastery in Phyar Pon was left to rot instead of being given to desperate cyclone victims because soldiers didn’t receive orders to distribute it (http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1433). Meanwhile, increasing numbers of children in Rangoon and other cyclone-afflicted areas have been reduced to stealing food in order to stave off starvation (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article1.php?art_id=12778).

The junta has warned against the exploitation of children orphaned by the cyclone. Anyone found guilty of trafficking children will be sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison. The authorities have also announced that they will take sole responsibility for the care of orphans, banning all individuals and organisations from doing so (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/16/content_8381219.htm). This move threatens the plans of the Free Funeral Service Society to build an orphanage.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) decided at its International Labour Conference on 13th June that it would take an active role in the post-cyclone reconstruction efforts. The ILO’s current priority will be to prevent the use of forced labour in the reconstruction effort, but it will continue to investigate complaints in other contexts, noting that the forced labour situation in Burma is a cause for ‘profound concern’ (http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1428).

The UN launched a massive anti-dengue operation in the cyclone-hit areas of Burma this week (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=12767). The climate and lack of shelter in the Irrawaddy delta has left cyclone survivors at greater risk of succumbing to this disease. Other diseases are on the rise in Labutta, although not at the rate expected (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article3.php?art_id=12775).

The 250 member Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) team returned to Rangoon on 20th June after completing its data collection in 30 affected townships across the cyclone-afflicted region. Preliminary findings and a progress report will be presented at the ASEAN meeting on 24th June (http://yangon.unic.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=244&Itemid=73).

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi:
Influential US Congressman Joe Pitts, speaking to the House of Representatives, issued a powerful rejoinder to the junta: “Madam Speaker, I rise today over the comments made by the brutal generals, military dictators in Burma, saying that Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and rightful leader elected by the people, deserves to be flogged. Come again?” (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=12763).

US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has accused the regime of ‘backtracking’ on even its most modest pledges to engage in dialogue with Burma’s elected leader. Rice criticised the Burmese authorities for holding a ‘rigged referendum… on a sham constitution’ and for the continued denial of the liberty and fundamental political and civil rights of political prisoners (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=12841).

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicholas Sarkozy have released an open letter to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on the event of her birthday praising her courage and dedication to the people of Burma (http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page15807.asp, http://www.irrawaddy.org/article4.php?art_id=12843).

Celebrations for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday took place all across the globe this week. In Washington, an event was held at the Capitol Building, home of the US Congress. Politicians from the US government and the Burmese government in exile, the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, along with activists and journalists from the exiled-Burmese and international media attended. U Tin Maung Thaw, board member of US Campaign for Burma, cited the occasion as an opportunity to persuade the US government to take the regime to the International Court of Justice (http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1429, http://www.irrawaddy.org/article2.php?art_id=12886).

Celebrations held in Burma were marred by beatings and arrests. An event held at the National League for Democracy headquarters was disrupted by members of the USDA and Swan Arr Shin. Members of the crowd were beaten and five activists were arrested (http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1451, http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1449).

Other News:
The UN Human Rights Council has called on the military authorities to cease politically motivated arrests and condemned what it termed ‘the ongoing systematic violations of human rights’. The resolution, introduced by the European Union, calls for the immediate cessation of the recruitment of child soldiers by both the regime and by non-state armed groups and the release of all political prisoners. The resolution condemns the recent referendum as held in ‘complete disregard’ of freedom of expression and assembly and urges the authorities to ensure that any returns of cyclone refugees are ‘voluntary, safe and carried out with dignity’ (http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27076&Cr=myanmar&Cr1=).

The All Burma Monks’ Alliance called for the UN Security Council to safeguard the people of Burma. Citing the raping of ethnic women with impunity, the detention of political prisoners and the handling of Cyclone Nargis, the statement argues that ‘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’ (http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/11856).

On 19th June, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the immediate release of political prisoners in Burma, and denounced the ‘prospect of flogging Aung San Suu Kyi as a crime against humanity’ (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2008-0312+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN). In addition, MPs from eight European countries have come together to form a new Parliamentary caucus on Burma. The caucus aims to raise awareness of the situation in Burma in Europe and pressure European governments to do more to bring about democratic transition in Burma (http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/pm/weblog.php?id=P371).

The Free Burma Rangers have published reports documenting the ongoing attacks on the Karen people. The reports detail the destruction of villages, the laying of land mines and the displacement of the Karen (http://www.freeburmarangers.org/Reports/2008/20080620.html).

The regime has announced a reshuffle of two cabinet positions and the appointment of the navy’s commander in chief to a ministerial post. The move comes in the wake of Cyclone Nargis and will allow the minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement to concentrate on this role by relinquishing his post as the minister for immigration and population. Rangoon-based military sources claim that the move is unusual and could signal further changes (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article1.php?art_id=12870, http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4-inside-burma/696-change-of-guard-in-burmese-junta).

The junta has questioned village heads told to monitor polling stations in remote areas of Chin State, where the majority of voters rejected the constitution (http://www.khonumthung.com/kng-news/2008-news-archive/june-2008/more-village-heads-questioned-after-referendum/).

A major from the Burma Army and a lawyer were arrested after raping two teenage Chin girls. One of the girls was hospitalised as a result of the injuries she incurred (http://www.khonumthung.com/kng-news/2008-news-archive/june-2008/two-chin-teenaged-girls-raped-in-burma-rapists-arrested/). According to the junta’s law, only the military court can investigate and punish members of the armed forces (http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1439). Three army officers who raped four ethnic Kachin schoolgirls in February 2007 have yet to be punished (http://www.kachinnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=250:junta-yet-to-punish-army-officers-for-raping-kachin-schoolgirls&catid=37:human-rights&Itemid=60).

Well-known actor Kyaw Thu, leader of the Free Funeral Service charity group, has been taken ill while distributing aid in the Irrawaddy delta. His wife has attributed his illness to stress, compounded by smoking and an unhealthy diet (http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4-inside-burma/674-actor-kyaw-thu-hospitalised-).

The Burma Army has issued a ban on villagers working outside their villages. The ostensible reason for this move is cited as being to prevent armed Mon groups form contacting the villagers (http://www.monnews-imna.com/newsupdate.php?ID=1042).

Blogger Nay Phone Latt is being reinvestigated by the regime. He has been held and interrogated at Insein prison for the past five months for publishing his blog (http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4-inside-burma/673-blogger-nay-phone-latt-being-reinvestigated).

Eleven people were killed in a landslide in Moegok township, Mandalay division, on 11th June (http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=1430).

Thailand hosts an estimated 2 million migrant workers, most of whom are believed to be Burmese. Thai and Burmese rights groups are urging the Thai government to repeal a controversial law rewarding informers and imposing harsh penalties on migrants that was passed in March (http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=12798).

Salween Watch, the Chiang Mai-based coalition of environmental organisations and NGOs, has published a report describing the current and projected impacts of the Upper Paunglaung Dam on the Kayan people. The dam is being built to supply energy for Nay Pyi Daw, but the Kayan are already suffering displacement, increased abuses by the Burma Army and the loss of their livelihoods (http://www.salweenwatch.org/index.html).

Reports suggest that rumours of a national uprising on 8th August are flying in Burma. Flyers being distributed in the country appeal to the dispossessed and poorly paid soldiers of the Burma Army to turn on their overseers on the twentieth anniversary of the massacre of students across Burma and on the day that the Olympics open in Beijing (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23895645-401,00.html). The idea of military coups has lost popularity in today’s global-political climate, but it may be the only form of justice the leaders of the Burmese military regime can understand (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/19/AR2008061901429.html).

In Solidarity,

Burma Partnership Secretariat

Many child survivors traumatised

Zarni
Mizzima News

11 June 2008 - Chiang Mai – Many children who survived the killer Cyclone Nargis are traumatised having witnessed their near and dear ones dying, an international aid agency working with children said.

Children are the most vulnerable group among the survivors of the cyclone and most of them are struggling to overcome the trauma that deeply affects them, James East, World Vision's Regional Communication Director in Bangkok said.

"Many children are suffering from trauma," East told Mizzima on Wednesday.

East said more than 10 aid agencies and International NGOs including the World Vision, the UN Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children has formed a task force to assist children.

"We have some places in cyclone hit regions where the children can play games. These are 'Child-friendly Spaces', to serve as a safe and protective environment for the displaced children," East said.

East said while there could be no estimate of the number children affected by the cyclone so far, at least 2,000 children whose parents are missing have been identified in Rangoon division, and 32 children have been registered as those of missing parents in Bogale town in the Irrawaddy delta.

Though the Irrawaddy delta was hardest hit by the cyclone, the UNICEF said it is yet to confirm on the number of unaccompanied children or whose parents are missing.

Alexander Krueger, UNICEF child protection officer of the East Asia and Pacific regional office in Bangkok said a task force has been established to help the children trace their family.

"Until the process of tracing them is complete, it would be hard to say how many orphans there are," Krueger said.

But he said so far there are a few hundred children that are separated from their parents and less than 100 of them are unaccompanied.

Burmese aid workers and volunteers, who have been helping cyclone survivors, said children and kids are seen begging on the streets.

However, several children were also seen sitting idly with a 'blank-look' on their faces, a sign of being traumatized, a Burmese aid worker, working with an international aid agency said.

"Some of the kids do not know where their parents are, and are looking for them. But some said they saw their parents drowning," the aid worker, who had been helping cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta told Mizzima last week.

East said for temporary relief, the task force has established several 'Child-friendly-Spaces' -- camps where children could learn, play and be fed, while their parents are busy struggling to overcome their miseries.

"We have about 44 'Child Friendly Spaces' in the Irrawaddy and Rangoon division," where kids can go and play and try to forget about the past, East said.

In May, head of Burma's ruling junta Senior General Than Shwe, during an inspection trip to the Cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta, instructed local authorities to build orphanages for children, who lost their parents in the Cyclone, in Pyapon and Laputta townships of the Irrawaddy delta.

But Aid agencies said putting children into orphanages is not the best solution as children find friendlier environment to live in among their relatives or even with foster parents, who are willing to adopt them.

Krueger of the UNICEF said the Burmese government had talked about "building orphanages for child survivors and some unaccompanied children have been placed in institutions already."

Krueger, however, said the plan may be acceptable for children only if it is for a temporary situation and asserted that the UNICEF sees institutionalization of children as the very last resort when efforts to trace the family or to find relatives or people known to the child fails.

"UNICEF has been advocating with the Government of Myanmar [Burma] to promote family-based care solutions," Krueger added.

Burmese people have large and extended families and in the long run helping children connect with their extended family would be the best way to help children who have lost their parents, East said.

Save the Children, a group that has been helping cyclone survivors immediately after it the cyclone struck on May 2 and 3, however, said children are safest in schools as it allows them to mix with their friends and helps in forgetting their past.

"Education is vital, and it becomes even more important in the aftermath of an emergency when families are trying to regain some sense of normal life for their children," Andrew Kirkwood, Save the Children's Country Director, said in a statement.

"Schools are a safe place for children, allowing them to be with other children, to play and to begin dealing with the trauma they have experienced," Kirkwood said.

Additional reporting by Mungpi

Myanmar takes care of cyclone orphans, bans adoption

YANGON, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar will not allow adoption of orphans left by a recent cyclone storm by any organizations or any individuals, local weekly 7-Day News quoted the Department of Social Welfare as saying Wednesday.

Instead, the survived orphans will be jointly taken care by the government, domestic non-governmental organizations and resident United Nations organizations, social welfare official U Aung Tun Hlaing, who is the acting Director-General, told the 7-Day News.

The government will also help find the orphans' survived relatives and provide education for them up to university or institute level depending on the orphan's wisdom and skill, the official said.

While accommodating the orphans in cyclone-lesser-hit Maubin and Myaungmya in Ayeyawaddy division, the government is also building two orphanages in cyclone-hard-hit Phyapon and Laputta in the same division to each house 300 orphans, the report said, adding that so far there has been 130 cyclone-survived children officially registered as orphans out of an initially-estimated number of over 500.

A fortnight after the cyclone storm Nargis swept Myanmar, the country's top leader Senior-General Than Shwe called for setting up orphanages for children whose parents were killed in the storm as a special program of the relief work.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has given polio vaccination to 540 cyclone-survived children under five years of age in relief camps in Laputta with 720 others ranging from 9 months to 10 years of age also given measles vaccination.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund, of the 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone storm Nargis, 960,000 or 40percent were estimated to be children.

Meanwhile, over a dozen foreign medics have also been rendering medical aid services in different cyclone-hit regions since mid-May.

Myanmar announced that the first phase of the country's post-disaster restoration work -- rescue and relief, has finished up to a certain extent and it has now entered into a second phase of resettlement and reconstruction.

Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states -- Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructural damage.

Myanmar estimated the damages and losses caused by the storm at10.67 billion U.S. dollars with 5.5 million people affected.

The storm has killed 77,738 people and left 55,917 missing and 19,359 injured according to official released death toll.
Editor: Bi Mingin

Cyclone Victims Migrating to Thailand

Cyclone survivors travel on a fishing boat from the cyclone devastated city of Bogalay, 125 km (78 miles) southwest of Rangoon in the Irrawaddy delta. (Photo: AP /Myanmar NGO Group)

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

“I came to Thailand because the situation back in the Irrawaddy delta was becoming critical,” said cyclone survivor Ma Win. “We had received no aid. My child was seriously sick and suffering from diarrhea. I was ill too; we only had boiled rice to eat for three days.”

As soon as he heard about the disaster, Ma Win’s husband left Thailand where he was working and headed home to Laputta to look for his wife and six-month-old son. They had survived the cyclone, but their house was destroyed. He immediately decided to take them back with him to Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border.

They traveled for nearly two days by bus, truck and foot and had to pay soldiers 500 kyat (US $0.43) at each army checkpoint along the road to Mae Sot. They arrived on May 7. Ma Win and her baby are now receiving care and are regaining their strength.

Ma Win is among some 100 Burmese cyclone victims who have arrived recently in Mae Sot, which borders the Burmese town of Myawaddy.

Mahn Mahn, a team leader for the Backpack Health Worker Team, a medical relief group that has been assisting the new arrivals, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday: “The cyclone victims are arriving separately—nearly 100 people so far. Some are from the Irrawaddy delta and some are from Rangoon. If they didn’t lose their parents, they lost their sons or daughters.”

Among the cyclone victims who have arrived recently are orphans. Some are currently sheltering at the Mae La refugee camp, at Dr Cynthia’s Mae Tao clinic or in the Backpack office. Others are staying with relatives and friends in Mae Sot town, said sources.

“Some came here in the hope they would receive aid, said Mahn Mahn. “Most people have no plan. Some will stay here wherever they can. Others say they will look for jobs here in Mae Sot.”

The newcomers mostly came from disaster hard-hit regions such as Kungyangone and Hlaing Tharyar in Rangoon division and Laputta, Myaung Mya and Ngapudaw in the Irrawaddy delta, according to sources in Mae Sot.

Tin Shwe, who works at the Mae Tao clinic in Mae Sot, said that 49 new arrivals are now staying in the clinic and more refugees are expected.

Burmese social workers, such as Mar Mar Aye, are counseling the newcomers and providing some financial support.

Meanwhile, Thailand-based labor rights groups, Action Network for Migrants (Thailand) and the Mekong Migration Network, released a joint letter of appeal to the Thai government on June 4 saying requesting help for the cyclone victims while stressing: “The people of Burma will only migrate to Thailand if there is no other means of survival.”

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Friday, Adisorn Kerdmongkol, from the Action Network for Migrants, said, “If the survivors and the farmers cannot cultivate their land, I think most of them will migrate to Thailand.”

The labor rights groups sent the joint letter of appeal to the Thai ministries of the interior, labor and social development and human security, calling for Thai authorities to allow Burmese migrants to return home to visit families who were affected by the cyclone, but then be allowed to return to Thailand.

The groups also urged the Thai government to ensure that the Burmese military authorities provide full protection to the cyclone victims in terms of shelter, food, medical care, reconstruction and restoration of livelihoods.

DVB News for 2-3 June'08

Ethnic organisations appeal for border aid

Modern art group holds cyclone memorial

Meikhtila NLD denounces referendum result

Rights activists commemorate cyclone victims

Donors face questioning at checkpoints

Films planned to raise funds for cyclone victims

FFSS to provide support to cyclone orphans

Irrawaddy residents fear spread of disease

ILO concerned about forced labour after cyclone

Cyclone benefit concert stopped by authorities

School opening delayed in cyclone-hit areas

Face of tragedy in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis

Rangoon (Mizzima) - While various reports have emerged on the situation in the Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon division, the true extent of devastation and human loss still remains unconfirmed as the government continues to impose restrictions on entry into the region.

Several reports of the terrible hardships of refugees and cyclone victims have come in from the few aid workers, who were allowed by the government to go in and from local and international media persons, who sneaked into the region.

Mizzima's correspondent in Rangoon, who despite various restrictions and courting great risk, sneaked into the delta region, narrates what he saw and heard.

Over two weeks since Cyclone Nargis wrought havoc in Burma's delta region, the stories and images in villages, removed from now largely sanitized population centers, are a composite of increasing hardship and heightened despair.

Approximately two hours south of Laputta by boat, Betuit Village has confirmed 911 deaths out of a pre-cyclone population of 9,169; Myitpauk 4,649 out of 10,682; and Maungnge 1,247 out of 6,210 - including every primary school student.

A local volunteer observing a smaller tributary to the Irrawaddy on May 16, counted 27 bodies floating past in only three minutes. Five children and seven monks were among the victims. In Zeehyu Village, of a pre-cyclone kindergarten to grade 7 enrollments of 197 students, only 50 survived. Meanwhile in Siskone, 12 rotting bodies dotted the paddy fields inundated in saline water in the immediate vicinity of bamboo homes now scattered across the ground.

Another local, who managed to visit villages between Kunchankone and Dae Da Ye, reports similar tales of death, destruction and prolonged suffering. Visiting Kyetsinphyu on May 11, the person found only eight of over 100 residents had survived the killer cyclone. Remarkably, four of those spared were infants. They had been placed in one of the giant pots prevalent throughout the region; a pot that floated and kept them alive. They are now orphaned.

Continuing from Kyetsinphyu, the man proceeded to visit a remote school where he formerly taught, in "a village with no name." What he found was: "Nothing. No village, no houses." All that he encountered were "ghost voices" of former students rising from the debris. History will leave no remembrance for those that once lived in this remote location with no name.

These are the scenes in communities that international observers and organisations are not allowed to see, restricted only to main towns such as Dae Da Ye and Laputta. Meanwhile, the plight of the survivors of rural communities continues to grow.

Inexplicably, local volunteers speak of only being allowed access to such villages following the government's announcement that its May 10 (a week after the cyclone) constitutional referendum had passed - an event the communities in question did not even participate in and are widely said to have never even taken an interest. Now, iroically, there are reports of refugees in monasteries being told to return to their destroyed villages to cast votes in the May 24 polling for the cyclone hit regions - again, for a motion that has already announced to have passed the test.

Back in Betuit, increasing desperation combined with profiteering led three persons to start cutting off the fingers and ears of corpses for their jewelry. Two of them, subsequently reported to the authorities, were summarily executed. There is talk of the entire region being under undeclared martial law.

Without tablets to clean water, diarrhea is beginning to take on epidemic proportions in some parts, with villagers forced to drink out of the same stagnant pools of water in which carcasses lie rotting.

The absence of potable water is indicative of what is transpiring to be a grossly inadequate and incompetent distribution of relief material that is largely reliant upon patronage and private aid. The Oil and Gas Minister, having come from Kyoneda Village in the delta, has seen to it that Kyoneda is well taken care of. Yet just a short distance away, in a village with 194 of 200 village homes destroyed, but having suffered only 20 casualties, residents were granted enough construction material to assemble a single new home - without the tools to do so.

While potato crops damaged in Pyapon, due to the negligence of a navy sergeant, in Laputta, locals are paid to carry aid to a government storeroom - from where it may or may not move. Local representatives of the UN, WFP, JICA, MSF, MERLIN and Melteser International are said to be withholding aid from a desperate population as they instead involve themselves with meticulous and redundant documentation. In Laputta, individual observers place the number of internal refugees that have flocked to the town at a much higher number to that of the UNDP estimate.

And what of the long-term future for these hard hit farming communities? The people are said to want to return to their land, a land they say they love. But with damaged fields and, significantly, a devastated buffalo and cattle population, how can this be accomplished? The Minister of Agriculture has since given notice that by the end of the year there would be ample machines to replace animals lost, machines able to overcome all that has been swept away by Nargis' fury, and machines that no villager knows how to operate. For their part, farmers talk of the need for buffaloes.

What is also becoming increasingly clear is that there is very little central control over the entire process, with local officers concealing the true extent of the damage to senior officials as is exemplified in the clearing of private donor cars along the delta's main access road ahead of Senior General Than Shwe's visit this week - over two weeks after the disaster. Additionally, aid workers and media report that the situation on the ground varies greatly with the posturing of the individual or individuals in charge - reporting favourable views in some areas as to assistance with their work and stark obstructionism in other cases.

Much of delta village life currently stands obliterated. And without a drastic increase in aid and efficiency to match it, the situation is likely to worsen. The new fear now is that in three months time the region could be hit with widespread famine, piling ever more misery onto a decimated population.

UN: Most schools ravaged in Myanmar's cyclone zone

Children in Myanmar may be forced to attend school in relief camps and tents because 85 percent of the educational buildings have been destroyed or damaged in a cyclone-ravaged region, the U.N. said Wednesday.

With the school year slated to begin June 1, UNICEF said there is no time to rebuild the estimated 2,700 severely damaged primary schools used by 350,000 students or to replace the unknown numbers of teachers killed or missing following the storm.

Instead, the focus is on training volunteer teachers, providing as many as 300,000 school kits for affected students and setting up schools in temporary locations as soon as possible using tarps, tents and even bamboo.

"Children have been through a terrible tragedy and trauma," said Cliff Meyers, UNICEF's regional education adviser. "Research shows that getting back into a normal pattern represented by attending schools really helps them adjust to the tragedy and overcome the horrors they have been through."

The U.N. is hoping to reach the likes of Tin Soe, who this week was begging on the streets of Yangon with his grandmother. His family lost their home in the disaster.

"We are here to help mother make some money so we can eat," the child, Tin Soe, said softly. "We are hungry."

Asked if he thinks his school will be rebuilt before the school year begins, he scratched his head and said: "I don't know. I hope so. I miss my friends and my teachers."

Richard Bridle, another UNICEF official in Bangkok, said that getting children back to their classrooms is good for adults, too.

"It gives parents breathing space to think about things other than the immediate survival of their families," he said.

Guy Cave, deputy country director in Myanmar for the private aid group Save the Children, also supports the goal of setting up temporary schools as soon as possible.

But he said that doing so by June 1 would be difficult, given many areas still have "not been reached with food and water let alone school equipment."

"In many of these places, it will take longer than that to get up and running. It will be an enormous logistics challenge," Cave said.

The group received a boost Wednesday when the humanitarian organization founded by George Clooney and other "Ocean's Thirteen" stars announced it would donate $250,000 to help survivors in Myanmar. Not On Our Watch said it will provide an additional matching contribution of up to $250,000 for every dollar donated to its emergency relief fund for cyclone victims.

Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, and the United Nations and the Red Cross have suggested the death toll is likely to exceed 100,000.

Children were especially hit hard. UNICEF estimating a third of those killed were young people, based largely on population data from the affected areas.

"If you are small, you are more likely to be killed than if you're big," said UNICEF's Bridle.

Reports from the delta tell of village upon village ruined by the storm waves. Scores of families were killed and heart-wrenching photos often show the bodies of children.

"Our figures in the camps show a lot of adults, but very few children and very few elderly," said CARE Australia's country director in Myanmar, Brian Agland. "In one village there were 500 survivors and they were all adults."

The crowded, makeshift shelters built by survivors have forced orphans and separated children to live alongside strangers, often in dark areas with little supervision.

UNICEF warned that those children could be at risk of human trafficking and even sexual abuse in chaotic refugee camps.

"We are really concerned about the risk of exploitation and sexual abuse," said Anne-Claire Dufay, chief of UNICEF's child protection section in Myanmar. "If they don't have private sleeping spaces, it could be an issue."

Dufay said Tuesday there had been one report of the attempted trafficking of a teenage storm survivor in the country's largest city, Yangon, but so far no confirmed reports of sexual abuse.

Similar concerns were expressed following the 2004 tsunami, but little evidence of such problems emerged.

To counter those fears and provide a safe environment for children, the United Nations and several non-governmental organizations have been setting up scores of youth centers, where the young can talk about their concerns in a safe environment and can play games, sing and study.

"It helps these children go through the process of grief and shock more quickly," said Laura Blank, a spokeswoman for World Vision, which is setting up 37 centers to serve up to 3,700 youngsters in and around Yangon.

"When the children have a chance ... to play and sing, you create an environment where they feel like it is OK for them to be kids again."

Fox News

Traffickers target child cyclone survivors

(Newscom) - CHILD traffickers are targeting the youngest and most vulnerable survivors of Burma's catastrophic cyclone and two suspects have already been arrested, the United Nations has reported.

The children, among up to two million people struggling to survive without enough clean water, food or shelter in the aftermath of the storm, were approached last week in Rangoon, the UN said yesterday.

"A broker came to a shelter and tried to recruit children,'' said UNICEF's chief child protection officer in Burma, Anne-Claire Dufay.

"There was an intervention. The police intervened and made arrests,'' she said.

The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis has risen to 34,273, with 27,836 people missing, state radio said today.

Ms Dufay said children who had been separated from their parents, and who were possibly orphans, were now facing the threat of violence on top of the everyday struggle to find enough food and water.

"There are concerns for children in camps,'' she said.

Katy Barnett, Save the Children's child protection adviser in Rangoon, said the organisation was aware of the report of the arrests and expected more trafficking problems as the crisis develops.

"It's something which agencies have been expecting. It's an absolute standard thing in the fallout from an emergency like this,'' Ms Barnett said.

"Traffickers can easily get hold of unaccompanied or separated children and tell them they'll lead a better life or be safe.''

Ms Barnett said another unconfirmed report of people looking in camps to recruit girls to work as domestic workers - a typical ruse for traffickers - was being investigated by a church organisation today.

"They are asking families if they would give their girls up and they haven't been stopped yet apparently,'' she said.

Burma made human trafficking illegal in September 2005, but in a report last year the US State Department listed the isolated nation as one of the world's worst offenders, along with North Korea and Laos.

Many of those involved in the trade are women and girls who face sexual exploitation after being smuggled across borders.

Southfield woman makes a safe place for foster children from Myanmar

By Neil Rubin
Detroit News

They're teenage boys, so what do you expect? They wrestle and sometimes they crank their music up too loud, and no, you can't play soccer in the house!

They're teenage boys from halfway around the world, and they've seen and survived things most of us can't even fathom. One of them has a tattoo across his chest from an army that made him a soldier at a point when American kids are still learning to drive.

But boys will be boys, whether it's in Myanmar or Southfield.

"They know I don't like the burping," Denise Burroughs says, and her silver hoop earrings quiver as she laughs.

Burroughs, 33 and single, could have bought herself a tidy little condo when she went looking for a home last year. Instead, she made God an offer. "You bless me with a house," she said, a good-sized ranch at a near-miraculous price, "and this will be my return favor to you."

He came through, Burroughs says, and so did she. One acre, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and now four foster sons who will build the rest of their lives atop the foundation they're forming with their surrogate mom.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, shares its largest borders with India, China and Thailand on the Indochinese peninsula. The band of generals who run the overwhelmingly Buddhist nation are so secretive and dictatorial that they have throttled attempts by the rest of the world to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, which killed upward of 20,000 people early this month.

Two of Burroughs' boys are ethnic Chins and all are Christians, and neither of those is currently a good thing to be in Myanmar. The United States admitted nearly 14,000 refugees from the country in 2007, eight times more than the year before.

Her wards fled military service or the threat of it, made their way through the jungle, found refugee camps in Malaysia and were welcomed by Lutheran Social Services in Lansing, one of only 14 agencies nationwide that works with unaccompanied refugees younger than 18.

Now they are learning about pizza and the peculiarities of English, and she is learning that no dinner is complete without spice and rice.

A home away from strife

Burroughs took in her first two foster kids, a brother and sister from Rwanda, when she was only 26.

She was a renter with two bedrooms in Rochester Hills, and she had paid minimal attention to the Rwandan genocide. A social services manager she knew floated the idea and told her to pray on it.

"Like God's going to say 'no,' " Burroughs says. The siblings were with her for two years, and when they went on with their lives the way they're supposed to, "it left a hole in my heart.."

In September, the boys from Myanmar filled it.

A former middle school teacher, Burroughs has a degree in social work and works as a residential care specialist at a private psychiatric hospital. She read about Lutheran Social Services someplace, dialed the phone, loaned a friend her Chrysler Sebring, bought a Town & Country, and switched her shift to overnights so she could drive her new kids to school.

School starts at 8 a.m. -- half a day of English, half of standard education. They're ready by 7:20.

Adjusting to a new life

Amawong, the oldest, turns 19 in August. He arrived in the United States in June, three months earlier than the others, and tends to speak for all of them because he's better at it.

He's the Alpha dog, the one who automatically sits up front in the minivan. Before Lien went door-to-door over the winter, Amawong wrote a note for him on an index card: "The weather is bad today. I would like to shovel your snow."

Thang, 17, is the least fluent and most extroverted. He'll phone Burroughs' mother in Detroit, "and I'm thinking he's talking to someone from his country," she says. "He starts out in English and then he gets excited and doesn't realize he switched to Burmese."

Sai Sai, 18, bears the tattoo. He's a talented artist, something he didn't realize until he arrived here. Translating, Amawong says Sai Sai "was not interested to draw" in Myanmar.

Lien, 18, is the only one of the four without a nickname. He likes movies. He left a girlfriend back home.

The proper pronunciations are Amung, Tung, Sigh Sigh and LEE-an. Amawong is an orphan, but he has a 15-year-old brother at a refugee camp who will meet with a United Nations caseworker soon. They all have friends or relatives in Myanmar, so out of caution, they don't want their last names in print.

Thang and Sai Sai call Burroughs "Mom." Amawong and Lien call her "Auntie." All four are learning guitar, all four keep asking when they can go to work, and all four have become protective of their foster mother: "Where are you going? How long?"

They share a range in height from 5 foot 2 inches to 5 foot 5 inches and musical tastes that range from country to Christian. Within minutes after Burroughs picks them up from school, someone has an Olivia Newton-John song playing: "If you love me, let me know ..."

They do not expect to return to Myanmar, which they call Burma, and where as far as they know their relatives survived the cyclone unscathed. When Amawong outlines their plans, the others nod. They will go to college, and they will become doctors and lawyers.

Burroughs reminds them that the first step is to improve their English. "You have to speak it to learn it," she tells the quiet ones.

"It's like having babies," Burroughs says. "I'm the only one who understands them."

Oreos, lost in translation

Burroughs has rules and concerns, just like any parent. She worries about influences the boys might find outside the house.

"You start walking around looking crazy with your pants hanging off your butt," she tells them, "and you will not be employable."

She wants them to be optimistic but also realistic. They drove through some of the dicier parts of Detroit one day, just so they understood that "America is no instant scratch-off ticket."

Not that they'd have grasped the concept if she'd phrased it that way. Some references don't translate. Neither, she discovered, do Oreos.

The first box she bought sat untouched for a week and a half. Finally, she took them into the boys' bedrooms with glasses of milk to demonstrate the concept of cookies.

Judy Burroughs, Denise's mother, says her daughter was always giving and always precise. She would keep a dictionary open on her lap when she talked on the phone with friends, so she could respond if someone challenged one of her new words.

"When Stormey was little" -- it's Stormey Denise Burroughs, but she's never liked the first name -- "she'd get out of kindergarten and stop by all the old people's houses," Judy says. Denise would tell their 90-year-old neighbor, "I'm going to have 100 kids when I get older. And guess what, Aunt Mary? You're going to be the babysitter."

She has opted so far for temporary dependents, teens with accelerated childhoods who move on to independent living when they turn 20. Plenty of kids here need help, too, she realizes, but there's no other safety net for someone from Rwanda or Myanmar.

There's nowhere else for them to sling their cargo shorts over the chairs in their rooms, to strum their guitars, to thumb through "My First Picture Dictionary." There's no other way to make such an enormous impact in such a fleeting amount of time.

At Christmas, she gave Lien a rice cooker. Months later, she realized he had never used it, and she asked him why.

"So when I get married," he told her, "I can say, 'This is the rice cooker my Auntie Denise got me,' " back when everything was new and strange and there was someone who showed him how much she cared.

Reach Neal Rubin at (313) 222-1874 or nrubin@detnews.com.

Cholera outbreak in Laputta relief centre

Maung Dee
Mizzima News

In the aftermath of the Cyclone Nargis in Burma, there is apprehension of the health situation of people deteriorating severely. There are at least 10 cholera patients in each relief centre in Laputta, it is learnt.

Lack of potable water and crowded relief centres will exacerbate the current situation in all 32 relief centres in Laputta Town.

"There is an outbreak of cholera. It is taking an epidemic form as over 2,000 victims have to share limited toilets in the relief centres. This situation will worsen," a doctor from Laputta providing medical attention to storm victims said.

There are over 80,000 survivors in Laputta which is close to the sea and almost half the area was devastated in the storm. The survivors had to take shelter in 32 relief centers opened in pagodas, monasteries, schools, and mosques with 2000 to 3,000 survivors taking shelter in each relief camp.

"We have to eat gruel everyday, sleep on uncovered cold concrete floors with open roofs which were ripped apart and swept away in the storm. When it rains, we have to sit on the floor and cannot sleep," the doctor added.

The doctors in Laputta pooled in their resources and formed the 'Voluntary Doctors Association' to provide medical care to the storm victims in the town. They distributed re-hydration packets, and in a free medical clinic are conducting prevention of cholera outbreak.

Though a NLD party worker said that four had died of cholera, Mizzima could not verify this news from independent sources.

Local residents are complaining that about 80,000 survivors haven't yet received any relief supplies from the local authority except receiving cash, drinking water, medicine, rice and cooking oil donated by Burmese in Singapore.

The local authority kept all the relief supplies at the relief operation warehouse, without distributing it to the survivors. They also they seized all the supplies donated by well-wishers. The material included rice, cooking oil, salt, instant noodles and drinking water. So over 10 trucks carrying these supplies stopped in the outskirts of the town to wait and see the attitude of the authorities, a doctor from Laputta said.

The Burmese Medical Professionals Association formed by Burmese doctors in exile in a statement appealed to the junta to let in international aid workers and use their expertise along with the relief supplies since the SPDC is not in a position to provide efficient and speedy relief operation to storm victims.

"It is not a good thing not to allow international aid workers and distributing the relief supplies to the storm victims by themselves. They are not in position to handle a disaster of this scale. They must accept trained and experienced aid workers and the facilities to handle such a disaster in this scale as they have none of these facilities," Dr. Raymond Tint Way from Australia said.

Distributing only a blanket, a tin of rice (about 1.5 Kg) cannot alleviate the sufferings and sorrows of the orphans, widows who lost entire families in the devastating storm. The state-run media should stop the propaganda footages of distribution of meal packets to the storm victims by the PM and should start effective relief operation immediately, he added.

"The people are dying and suffering from de-hydration as time. They have no food, are dying of diarrhea, typhoid and malaria. It is very difficult to tackle such a big disaster. The junta needs international assistance so we humbly appeal to the government to allow these international aid workers in and use their expertise as soon as possible," Dr. Raymond Tint Way further said.

The Burmese Medical Professionals Association appealed to the UN and the international community to conduct humanitarian intervention by ignoring the restrictions imposed by the junta to save hapless storm victims who are dying in Burma day by day.