The Irrawaddy News - Editorial
The response by the Burmese regime to this weekend’s cyclone disaster shows that the junta is incapable of running the country, let alone helping the victims.
Three million people are thought to have suffered in one way or another from cyclone Nargis as it ripped through Rangoon, the Irrawaddy delta and southern Burma, destroying homes, sinking boats, knocking down power lines, uprooting trees and shutting down Rangoon airport.
The death toll stands officially at more than 350, but the actual figure is thought to be higher.
The junta declared five disaster zones on Sunday—Rangoon, Irrawaddy and Pegu divisions as well as Karen and Mon states.
As the country reeled under the force of the cyclone, the regime issued a statement saying its pet project, the constitutional referendum, would be held as planned this coming Saturday. Monday’s issue of the official government newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, carried the statement, together with an attack on last Friday’s pronouncement by the UN Security Council urging a free and fair referendum.
The government was “much surprised” by the UN statement, the newspaper said.
The referendum would be held as planned, the newspaper said, “and the entire people of the country are eagerly looking forward to that," it said.
Eagerly looking forward to the opportunity to participate in a sham election? Right now, the Burmese people are eagerly looking forward to emergency aid—clean water, food, medicines and other supplies. According to UN officials, the water supply is unfit to drink in the aftermath of the destruction, raising fears of water-borne diseases.
It is really sad to see how ineffectively Than Shwe’s regime is responding to this devastating crisis. The Burmese people are painfully aware that they can expect little help from an uncaring military regime.
State-run television tries to present a caring image, with footage of troops working to clear streets blocked by fallen trees. Yet Rangoon residents are telling
The Irrawaddy that official assistance is minimal.
Some reports from the devastated country speak of looting and even rioting, as prices of food and other essentials soar. Shock and anger are the prevailing mood of the people.
Belatedly, the junta formed a national central committee for natural disasters, with Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein as chairman, to coordinate relief and aid efforts. Although UN agencies and other international bodies stand ready to help, no call for aid has come from the regime, which is pathologically suspicious of international non-governmental organizations.
The media is also being kept out of the disaster zones, making it difficult to obtain a clear picture of the true extent of the disaster. News of national disasters is normally underplayed or covered up by the regime press, radio and TV.
It is vitally important for the regime to allow international aid agencies to operate in disaster zones, as well as free access to the international media.
The cyclone also changed the political landscape in Burma by probably persuading even more people to vote against the regime’s draft constitution in the coming referendum, despite the climate of fear and intimidation created by the junta’s “Vote Yes” campaign.
The regime’s totally inadequate response to the needs of the battered country will undoubtedly encourage undecided voters to reject the draft constitution.
The referendum should be postponed and the government’s efforts devoted totally to helping the cyclone victims. If they are unable to make this decision, Than Shwe and the other junta leaders should step down—the Burmese people are waiting eagerly for that to happen.
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
Cyclone Could Unleash Political Upheaval
By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News
Tropical cyclone Nargis was not only a natural disaster, but it could also signal a political upheaval for the Burmese junta if the generals fail to handle it well.
Nargis, a Category 3 cyclone, hit Rangoon, the Irrawaddy delta, the Pegu Division and Mon and Karen States on Saturday. The military junta named the five regions disaster zones.
A government statement on Monday, however, signed by Col Than Shin on behalf of the military regime, was not related to the disaster but contained a response to the UN Security Council’s latest presidential statement, which called for a free and fair referendum.
The junta said that it was surprised by the Security Council statement, but declared its determination to carry on with the referendum on May 10.
The junta mouth piece Myanma Alin still carries a daily campaign urging a “Yes” vote, and carried a report highlighting a canvassing tour of Sagaing Division, northern Burma, by the Minister of Information, Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan.
State-run MRTV reported on a cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein, to discuss the cyclone disaster, with exacted an official death toll of almost 4000 people and made hundreds of thousands homeless.
The front and back pages of Myanma Alin on Monday showed Gen Thein Sein, who heads a state disaster committee, viewing cyclone damage in Rangoon’s North Dagon Myothit Township.
“The state disaster committee includes the armed forces, police, and fire squad. But the report did not name the junta’s mass organization, the Union Solidarity and Development Association, (USDA) in the committee,” said a Rangoon student.
Rangoon residents told The Irrawaddy on Monday that most of the cyclone victims received no aid from government agencies or international ones. “My house was destroyed by the storm, but no authority came to ask about damage or assistance,” said one.
A physician who runs a private clinic in Thaketa Township, Rangoon, said he had heard of no emergency plans for treating the injured. “Last night many people injured in the disaster came to my clinic for treatment. But they came by themselves, not with state aid.”
The physician said the shortage of water was now a problem for all. There was also no power.
Rangoon and other towns in lower Burma were ill-prepared for the cyclone, unlike neighboring Bangladesh, which is regularly hit by such storms.
Mismanagement and corruption in every section of the junta’s administration also take their toll, hindering a rapid response by rescue workers and security forces.
“I don’t know where the troops and Swan Ah-shin who beat up peaceful protesters in the September demonstrations are now,” said a Rangoon housewife. “They were quick to arrive in September. Now they can’t come to aid cyclone victims.”
The monks who led the September mass demonstration are helping clear the storm debris and providing victims with food, according to one Rangoon resident.
The price of basic commodities leapt in the wake of the cyclone. Markets are crowded but food is in short supply.
The junta delayed opening the door for humanitarian aid from the international community. The Burmese regime has a policy of cooperating as little as possible with international aid agencies, which are regarded by many military officials as neocolonialist “tools.”
In April, junta newspapers accused the International Committee of the Red Cross of supporting rebel groups in Karen state.
The Burma Campaign-UK, a London-based free-Burma group, said on Saturday that the Burmese regime failed to give adequate warnings to the population about the approach of the cyclone.
The junta places restrictions on the UN and international aid agencies delivering humanitarian assistance, the group said. “This is yet another example of how the regime ignores the welfare of the people of Burma,” said Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign-UK.
However, Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst, said the junta is unwilling to allow international aid and emergency teams into the country ahead of the referendum.
“The ruling generals don’t want to see many international agencies, aid workers or rescue teams near the referendum or during the referendum.”
Win Min, a Burma expert at Thailand’s Chiang Mai University, said: “I heard people are getting angry at the authorities because of lack of prevention and disaster relief. It is not good for the junta’s referendum plan.”
The Irrawaddy News
Tropical cyclone Nargis was not only a natural disaster, but it could also signal a political upheaval for the Burmese junta if the generals fail to handle it well.
Nargis, a Category 3 cyclone, hit Rangoon, the Irrawaddy delta, the Pegu Division and Mon and Karen States on Saturday. The military junta named the five regions disaster zones.
A government statement on Monday, however, signed by Col Than Shin on behalf of the military regime, was not related to the disaster but contained a response to the UN Security Council’s latest presidential statement, which called for a free and fair referendum.
The junta said that it was surprised by the Security Council statement, but declared its determination to carry on with the referendum on May 10.
The junta mouth piece Myanma Alin still carries a daily campaign urging a “Yes” vote, and carried a report highlighting a canvassing tour of Sagaing Division, northern Burma, by the Minister of Information, Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan.
State-run MRTV reported on a cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein, to discuss the cyclone disaster, with exacted an official death toll of almost 4000 people and made hundreds of thousands homeless.
The front and back pages of Myanma Alin on Monday showed Gen Thein Sein, who heads a state disaster committee, viewing cyclone damage in Rangoon’s North Dagon Myothit Township.
“The state disaster committee includes the armed forces, police, and fire squad. But the report did not name the junta’s mass organization, the Union Solidarity and Development Association, (USDA) in the committee,” said a Rangoon student.
Rangoon residents told The Irrawaddy on Monday that most of the cyclone victims received no aid from government agencies or international ones. “My house was destroyed by the storm, but no authority came to ask about damage or assistance,” said one.
A physician who runs a private clinic in Thaketa Township, Rangoon, said he had heard of no emergency plans for treating the injured. “Last night many people injured in the disaster came to my clinic for treatment. But they came by themselves, not with state aid.”
The physician said the shortage of water was now a problem for all. There was also no power.
Rangoon and other towns in lower Burma were ill-prepared for the cyclone, unlike neighboring Bangladesh, which is regularly hit by such storms.
Mismanagement and corruption in every section of the junta’s administration also take their toll, hindering a rapid response by rescue workers and security forces.
“I don’t know where the troops and Swan Ah-shin who beat up peaceful protesters in the September demonstrations are now,” said a Rangoon housewife. “They were quick to arrive in September. Now they can’t come to aid cyclone victims.”
The monks who led the September mass demonstration are helping clear the storm debris and providing victims with food, according to one Rangoon resident.
The price of basic commodities leapt in the wake of the cyclone. Markets are crowded but food is in short supply.
The junta delayed opening the door for humanitarian aid from the international community. The Burmese regime has a policy of cooperating as little as possible with international aid agencies, which are regarded by many military officials as neocolonialist “tools.”
In April, junta newspapers accused the International Committee of the Red Cross of supporting rebel groups in Karen state.
The Burma Campaign-UK, a London-based free-Burma group, said on Saturday that the Burmese regime failed to give adequate warnings to the population about the approach of the cyclone.
The junta places restrictions on the UN and international aid agencies delivering humanitarian assistance, the group said. “This is yet another example of how the regime ignores the welfare of the people of Burma,” said Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign-UK.
However, Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst, said the junta is unwilling to allow international aid and emergency teams into the country ahead of the referendum.
“The ruling generals don’t want to see many international agencies, aid workers or rescue teams near the referendum or during the referendum.”
Win Min, a Burma expert at Thailand’s Chiang Mai University, said: “I heard people are getting angry at the authorities because of lack of prevention and disaster relief. It is not good for the junta’s referendum plan.”
Monday, 5 May 2008
Dead bodies laying in the streets of Day Da Ye: Eyewitness Account
By Mizzima News
Monday, 05 May 2008- Chiang Mai: An eyewitness that passed through Day Da Ye Township in Irrawaddy Division told Mizzima that deaths due to the cyclone in Day Da Ye Township may increase dramatically, reporting many corpses laying along the highway.
He saw firsthand the bodies of humans and animals along the road that passes through Day Da Ye while on his way to Rangoon.
Day Da Ye, about 40 miles southwest of Rangoon, is in Irrawaddy Division. Both Irrawaddy and Rangoon Divisions are among the declared disaster areas, along with Bago Division and Mon and Karen States.
"It could be up to a hundred bodies," reported the eyewitness, though he could not provide an exact figure.
Current government announced figures do not mention any deaths and damage in Day Da Ye Township.
Since there are no telephone lines working in the entire Irrawaddy Division, Mizzima has been forced to rely on the accounts of travelers passing through the region.
In Da La Township of Rangoon Division, almost all houses throughout the township suffered damage. Moreover, the residents are facing a severe shortage of drinking water.
About 90 percent of small boats, the only means of transport between Rangoon city and Da La have been destroyed by the cyclone.
At least 351 people were killed when Cyclone Nargis lashed Burma on Friday and Saturday, according to the latest government figures. On Hine Gyi Island alone, worst affected, 109 perished. Nargis has destroyed at least 20,000 homes and left more than 90,000 people homeless across Burma.
However, with the Burmese junta's tradition of secrecy and control over the media, observers said the death toll could be higher than the government admits.
A Mizzima correspondent in Rangoon said that top government leaders used helicopters to visit Maw La Myaing Kyun in Irrawaddy Division, showing that Maw La Myaing Kyun must be one of the worst affected areas.
Moreover, he added that one warship from Burma's navy that was docked in the entrance to the Rangoon Sea was sunk, along with one big fishing boat which sank near Kyi Myint Taing harbor in Rangoon.
Rangoon residents are trying to carry water with trucks and heavy vehicles from Inya and Kandawgyi Lakes due to the severe shortage of water publicly available.
In and around Anaw Ya Htar Road in downtown Rangoon, a long queue of people are lining up for drinking water distributed by the Municipal Department, according to a Mizzima correspondent in Rangoon.
The government has re-opened gas stations in Rangoon and the fuel shortage problem has lessened.
However, long queues of vehicles up to two miles long waiting for petrol can be seen in Rangoon. Gasoline and diesel prices on the black market have reached 12,000 kyat ($10.90) and 15,000 kyat ($13.60), respectively, from 7,000 kyat and 8,000 kyat yesterday morning.
The government has announced that petrol shops will be opened till 10 p.m. Some of the main roads in the city have reopened for traffic and the city is noisy from extensive generator use.
In New Dagon, a satellite township of Rangoon, tidewater is causing trees and houses to collapse.
Inya Road, near where Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi lives under house arrest, remains blocked with fallen trees.
However, Mizzima has not been able to confirm whether the house of Aung San Suu Kyi was damaged in the cyclone or not.
Residents in outlying regions of Rangoon are especially worried that the poor situation could lead to widespread looting.
Suffering from a water shortage, some people are trying to take water by blowing up the main water supply pipe, known as Gyo Pyu, in Yan Kin and South Okkalapa Townships. In Tharkayta Township, a suburb of Rangoon, residents are trying to obtain water from fire hoses, which is prohibited under Burmese law.
Rangoon General Hospital has refused admission to some patients due to an electricity shortage. The hospital is relying on generators.
Essential food prices are continuing to rise today, with an egg costing 400 kyat (0.36 cents), up from 300 kyat yesterday.
In the meantime, the price of zinc roofing has jumped 500 percent, with one foot of the material now costing 3,000 kyat, compared with a price of 600 kyat before the cyclone hit Rangoon.
Monday, 05 May 2008- Chiang Mai: An eyewitness that passed through Day Da Ye Township in Irrawaddy Division told Mizzima that deaths due to the cyclone in Day Da Ye Township may increase dramatically, reporting many corpses laying along the highway.
He saw firsthand the bodies of humans and animals along the road that passes through Day Da Ye while on his way to Rangoon.
Day Da Ye, about 40 miles southwest of Rangoon, is in Irrawaddy Division. Both Irrawaddy and Rangoon Divisions are among the declared disaster areas, along with Bago Division and Mon and Karen States.
"It could be up to a hundred bodies," reported the eyewitness, though he could not provide an exact figure.
Current government announced figures do not mention any deaths and damage in Day Da Ye Township.
Since there are no telephone lines working in the entire Irrawaddy Division, Mizzima has been forced to rely on the accounts of travelers passing through the region.
In Da La Township of Rangoon Division, almost all houses throughout the township suffered damage. Moreover, the residents are facing a severe shortage of drinking water.
About 90 percent of small boats, the only means of transport between Rangoon city and Da La have been destroyed by the cyclone.
At least 351 people were killed when Cyclone Nargis lashed Burma on Friday and Saturday, according to the latest government figures. On Hine Gyi Island alone, worst affected, 109 perished. Nargis has destroyed at least 20,000 homes and left more than 90,000 people homeless across Burma.
However, with the Burmese junta's tradition of secrecy and control over the media, observers said the death toll could be higher than the government admits.
A Mizzima correspondent in Rangoon said that top government leaders used helicopters to visit Maw La Myaing Kyun in Irrawaddy Division, showing that Maw La Myaing Kyun must be one of the worst affected areas.
Moreover, he added that one warship from Burma's navy that was docked in the entrance to the Rangoon Sea was sunk, along with one big fishing boat which sank near Kyi Myint Taing harbor in Rangoon.
Rangoon residents are trying to carry water with trucks and heavy vehicles from Inya and Kandawgyi Lakes due to the severe shortage of water publicly available.
In and around Anaw Ya Htar Road in downtown Rangoon, a long queue of people are lining up for drinking water distributed by the Municipal Department, according to a Mizzima correspondent in Rangoon.
The government has re-opened gas stations in Rangoon and the fuel shortage problem has lessened.
However, long queues of vehicles up to two miles long waiting for petrol can be seen in Rangoon. Gasoline and diesel prices on the black market have reached 12,000 kyat ($10.90) and 15,000 kyat ($13.60), respectively, from 7,000 kyat and 8,000 kyat yesterday morning.
The government has announced that petrol shops will be opened till 10 p.m. Some of the main roads in the city have reopened for traffic and the city is noisy from extensive generator use.
In New Dagon, a satellite township of Rangoon, tidewater is causing trees and houses to collapse.
Inya Road, near where Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi lives under house arrest, remains blocked with fallen trees.
However, Mizzima has not been able to confirm whether the house of Aung San Suu Kyi was damaged in the cyclone or not.
Residents in outlying regions of Rangoon are especially worried that the poor situation could lead to widespread looting.
Suffering from a water shortage, some people are trying to take water by blowing up the main water supply pipe, known as Gyo Pyu, in Yan Kin and South Okkalapa Townships. In Tharkayta Township, a suburb of Rangoon, residents are trying to obtain water from fire hoses, which is prohibited under Burmese law.
Rangoon General Hospital has refused admission to some patients due to an electricity shortage. The hospital is relying on generators.
Essential food prices are continuing to rise today, with an egg costing 400 kyat (0.36 cents), up from 300 kyat yesterday.
In the meantime, the price of zinc roofing has jumped 500 percent, with one foot of the material now costing 3,000 kyat, compared with a price of 600 kyat before the cyclone hit Rangoon.
Yangon fights primitive conditions after cyclone
YANGON, Burma (AP) — Residents of Burma's biggest city lit candles Monday, lined up to buy water and hacked their way through trees felled in a cyclone that killed more than 350 people, destroyed thousands of homes and caused widespread power cuts.
Older citizens said they had never seen Yangon, a city of some 6.5 million, so devastated in their lifetimes.
Despite the havoc wreaked by tropical cyclone Nargis across wide swaths of the Southeast Asian country on Saturday, the government indicated that a referendum on the country's draft constitution would proceed as planned on May 10.
"It's only a few days left before the coming referendum and people are eager to cast their vote," the state-owned newspaper Myanma Ahlin said Monday.
Pro-democracy groups in the country and many international critics have branded the constitution as merely a tool for the military's continued grip on power.
Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box.
Neighboring Thailand announced it would fly in on Tuesday a first planeload of emergency assistance requested by the Burma government.
Thai government spokesman Wichianchote Sukchotrat said the ruling junta had asked for food, medical supplies and construction equipment. He said a C-130 military transport would probably ferry in the supplies.
The Foreign Ministry in Yangon called resident ambassadors to a meeting Monday and some diplomats said they expected the government to request emergency assistance from other countries.
Some in Yangon complained that the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after Saturday's storm, only clearing streets where the ruling elite resided but leaving residents to cope on their own in most other areas.
"Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?" a trishaw driver, who refused to be identified for fear of retribution, said Sunday. "They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity."
Residents, as well as Buddhist monks from the city's many monasteries, banded together Monday, wielding axes and knives to clear roads of tree trunks and branches torn off by the cyclones 120-mph winds.
With the city's already unstable electricity supply virtually non-functional, citizens lined up to buy candles, which doubled in price, as well as water since a lack of electricity-driven pumps left most households dry. Some walked to the city's lakes to wash.
Hotels and richer families were using private generators but only sparingly, given the soaring price of fuel.
Public transport was almost at a standstill and vehicles on the road had to cope with navigating without traffic lights. Many stayed away from their jobs, either because they could not find transportation or because they had to seek food and shelter for their families.
"Without my daily earning, just survival has become a big problem for us," said Tin Hla, who normally repairs umbrellas at a roadside stand. With his shanty town house destroyed by the storm, Tin Hla said he has had to place his family of five into one of the monasteries that have offered temporary shelter to the many homeless.
His entire morning was taken up with looking for water and some food to buy, ending up with three chicken eggs that cost double the normal price.
Airlines announced that Yangon's international airport had reopened for foreign and domestic flights Monday.
Most telephone landlines, mobile phones and Internet connections were down.
With the city plunged into almost total darkness overnight, security concerns mounted, and many shops sold their goods through partially opened doors or iron grills. Looting was reported at several fresh food markets, where thieves took vegetables and other items.
At least 351 people were killed, including 162 who lived on Haing Gyi island off the country's southwest coast, military-run Myaddy television station reported. Many of the others died in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.
"The Irrawaddy delta was hit extremely hard not only because of the wind and rain but because of the storm surge," said Chris Kaye, the U.N.'s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yangon. "The villages there have reportedly been completely flattened."
State television reported that in the Irrawaddy's Labutta township, 75% of the buildings had collapsed.
The U.N. planned to send teams Monday to assess the damage, Kaye said. Initial assessment efforts had been hampered by roads clogged with debris and downed phone lines, he said.
Burma, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for human rights abuses and suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.
Last September, at least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.
The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups outside of Burma urged the military junta Sunday to allow aid groups to operate freely in the wake of the cyclone — something it has been reluctant to do in the past.
USA Today
Older citizens said they had never seen Yangon, a city of some 6.5 million, so devastated in their lifetimes.
Despite the havoc wreaked by tropical cyclone Nargis across wide swaths of the Southeast Asian country on Saturday, the government indicated that a referendum on the country's draft constitution would proceed as planned on May 10.
"It's only a few days left before the coming referendum and people are eager to cast their vote," the state-owned newspaper Myanma Ahlin said Monday.
Pro-democracy groups in the country and many international critics have branded the constitution as merely a tool for the military's continued grip on power.
Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box.
Neighboring Thailand announced it would fly in on Tuesday a first planeload of emergency assistance requested by the Burma government.
Thai government spokesman Wichianchote Sukchotrat said the ruling junta had asked for food, medical supplies and construction equipment. He said a C-130 military transport would probably ferry in the supplies.
The Foreign Ministry in Yangon called resident ambassadors to a meeting Monday and some diplomats said they expected the government to request emergency assistance from other countries.
Some in Yangon complained that the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after Saturday's storm, only clearing streets where the ruling elite resided but leaving residents to cope on their own in most other areas.
"Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?" a trishaw driver, who refused to be identified for fear of retribution, said Sunday. "They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity."
Residents, as well as Buddhist monks from the city's many monasteries, banded together Monday, wielding axes and knives to clear roads of tree trunks and branches torn off by the cyclones 120-mph winds.
With the city's already unstable electricity supply virtually non-functional, citizens lined up to buy candles, which doubled in price, as well as water since a lack of electricity-driven pumps left most households dry. Some walked to the city's lakes to wash.
Hotels and richer families were using private generators but only sparingly, given the soaring price of fuel.
Public transport was almost at a standstill and vehicles on the road had to cope with navigating without traffic lights. Many stayed away from their jobs, either because they could not find transportation or because they had to seek food and shelter for their families.
"Without my daily earning, just survival has become a big problem for us," said Tin Hla, who normally repairs umbrellas at a roadside stand. With his shanty town house destroyed by the storm, Tin Hla said he has had to place his family of five into one of the monasteries that have offered temporary shelter to the many homeless.
His entire morning was taken up with looking for water and some food to buy, ending up with three chicken eggs that cost double the normal price.
Airlines announced that Yangon's international airport had reopened for foreign and domestic flights Monday.
Most telephone landlines, mobile phones and Internet connections were down.
With the city plunged into almost total darkness overnight, security concerns mounted, and many shops sold their goods through partially opened doors or iron grills. Looting was reported at several fresh food markets, where thieves took vegetables and other items.
At least 351 people were killed, including 162 who lived on Haing Gyi island off the country's southwest coast, military-run Myaddy television station reported. Many of the others died in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.
"The Irrawaddy delta was hit extremely hard not only because of the wind and rain but because of the storm surge," said Chris Kaye, the U.N.'s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yangon. "The villages there have reportedly been completely flattened."
State television reported that in the Irrawaddy's Labutta township, 75% of the buildings had collapsed.
The U.N. planned to send teams Monday to assess the damage, Kaye said. Initial assessment efforts had been hampered by roads clogged with debris and downed phone lines, he said.
Burma, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for human rights abuses and suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.
Last September, at least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.
The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups outside of Burma urged the military junta Sunday to allow aid groups to operate freely in the wake of the cyclone — something it has been reluctant to do in the past.
USA Today
Aid trickling to cyclone-ravaged Burma
The first shipments of relief aid began arriving Monday in southwestern Burma where at least 351 people were killed and tens of thousands made homeless by a big tropical cyclone on the weekend.
Cyclone Narghis came ashore Saturday across a wide area of the coast of Burma, also known as Myanmar, and the capital Rangoon was among the places hit hardest. Tens of thousands of buildings are said to be damaged and emergency services are struggling to cope with the injured and homeless.
The military junta in Rangoon is not permitting international aid teams into many affected areas and international relief agencies are meeting in the Thai capital, Bangkok, to co-ordinate their response and discuss how to work with the restrictions imposed by the Burmese government.
Terje Skavdal, the United Nations humanitarian relief head for Southeast Asia, told Reuters that finding out the extent of the damage would take some time.
"The government is having as much trouble as anyone else in getting a full overview," he said.
Skavdal said roads were blocked or damaged from Rangoon to coastal areas and hundreds of villages were cut off.
Rangoon dark, streets blocked
In Rangoon, people huddled in darkened rooms and stood in line to buy candles and cooking gas as the city's already unreliable electricity supply remained severely disrupted.
Ambassadors of foreign countries met Monday with officials from the foreign ministry.
The Associated Press reported from the city that residents were angry that the military regime had so far extended a helping hand to wealthy neighbourhoods, leaving others to fend for themselves.
The agency says streets in the normally busy capital were impassable, blocked by downed trees and debris from wrecked houses.
People were staying away from work Monday to find food and shelter for their families, AP reports.
"Without my daily earning, just survival has become a big problem for us," said Tin Hia, who runs a roadside stand repairing umbrellas for passersby. His makeshift hut in one of the city's many slums had been completely destroyed, he said.
Government figures say at least 351 people were killed but officials expect the casualty toll to be much higher as information comes in from areas cut off by the storm.
"The Irrawaddy [River] delta was hit extremely hard not only because of the wind and rain but [also] because of the storm surge," said Chris Kaye, the UN's acting humanitarian co-ordinator in Rangoon.
Referendum to go ahead despite storm
Despite the devastating storm, the Burmese junta said plans would go ahead for a referendum May 10 on a new constitution that would pave the way for multi-party elections in 2010.
Last September, at least 31 people were killed and thousands more detained when the military regime cracked down brutally on peaceful pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks and students.
CBC News
Cyclone Narghis came ashore Saturday across a wide area of the coast of Burma, also known as Myanmar, and the capital Rangoon was among the places hit hardest. Tens of thousands of buildings are said to be damaged and emergency services are struggling to cope with the injured and homeless.
The military junta in Rangoon is not permitting international aid teams into many affected areas and international relief agencies are meeting in the Thai capital, Bangkok, to co-ordinate their response and discuss how to work with the restrictions imposed by the Burmese government.
Terje Skavdal, the United Nations humanitarian relief head for Southeast Asia, told Reuters that finding out the extent of the damage would take some time.
"The government is having as much trouble as anyone else in getting a full overview," he said.
Skavdal said roads were blocked or damaged from Rangoon to coastal areas and hundreds of villages were cut off.
Rangoon dark, streets blocked
In Rangoon, people huddled in darkened rooms and stood in line to buy candles and cooking gas as the city's already unreliable electricity supply remained severely disrupted.
Ambassadors of foreign countries met Monday with officials from the foreign ministry.
The Associated Press reported from the city that residents were angry that the military regime had so far extended a helping hand to wealthy neighbourhoods, leaving others to fend for themselves.
The agency says streets in the normally busy capital were impassable, blocked by downed trees and debris from wrecked houses.
People were staying away from work Monday to find food and shelter for their families, AP reports.
"Without my daily earning, just survival has become a big problem for us," said Tin Hia, who runs a roadside stand repairing umbrellas for passersby. His makeshift hut in one of the city's many slums had been completely destroyed, he said.
Government figures say at least 351 people were killed but officials expect the casualty toll to be much higher as information comes in from areas cut off by the storm.
"The Irrawaddy [River] delta was hit extremely hard not only because of the wind and rain but [also] because of the storm surge," said Chris Kaye, the UN's acting humanitarian co-ordinator in Rangoon.
Referendum to go ahead despite storm
Despite the devastating storm, the Burmese junta said plans would go ahead for a referendum May 10 on a new constitution that would pave the way for multi-party elections in 2010.
Last September, at least 31 people were killed and thousands more detained when the military regime cracked down brutally on peaceful pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks and students.
CBC News
Hundreds of thousands without shelter in Burma: UN
Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without shelter and drinking water in military-ruled Burma after a devastating cyclone tore through the Irrawaddy delta, a United Nations official says.
Aid agencies scrambled to deliver plastic sheeting, water and cooking equipment from stockpiles in the country. The government says at least 351 died in the cyclone, which slammed into the delta region on Saturday before devastating Rangoon.
That death toll is likely to climb as the authorities make contact with hard-hit islands and villages in the delta, the rice bowl of the impoverished Southeast Asian nation of 53 million.
"It's clear that this is a major disaster," Richard Horsey, of the United Nations disaster response office in Bangkok, told Reuters after an emergency aid meeting.
"How many people are affected? We know that it's in the six figures. We know that it's several hundred thousand needing shelter and clean drinking water, but how many hundred thousand we just don't know."
The International Federation of the Red Cross said teams were trying to assess the damage and aid requirements in the five declared disaster zones where 24 million people live.
"We are issuing water purification tablets, clothing, plastic sheeting, cooking utensils and hygiene items. We're trying to mobilise portable water from local businesses," Michael Annear, head of Red Cross Southeast Asia disaster management unit.
"We're preparing to send more stuff into the country. We have not been restricted," he said.
A new policy imposed on foreign aid agencies in 2006 requires travel permits and official escorts for field trips. It also tightened rules on the transport of supplies and materials.
"That is the existing situation for international staff. The way most agencies work is they use national staff who have more freedom to move," Terje Skavdal, regional head of the UN office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), said.
"We will have a dialogue with the government to try to get access to the people affected."
It is not known whether Burma, also known as Myanmar, the world's largest rice exporter when it won independence from Britain in 1948, will need to import emergency rice supplies. If it does, it is likely to inflate yet further the already sky-high prices of the staple.
The World Food Program says it has stocks of around 500,000 tonnes inside the country, but not near Rangoon.
In the former capital, many roofs were ripped off even sturdy buildings, suggesting damage would be severe in the shanty towns that lie on the outskirts of the city of five million people.
State television was still off the air in Rangoon, and clean water was becoming scarce. Most shops had sold out of candles and batteries and there was no word when power would be restored.
In one western suburb, a group of 100 monks led efforts to clear streets littered with fallen trees and debris from battered buildings, a witness said.
"The clean-up is beginning but this will take a long time. The damage around town is intense," one Western diplomat told Reuters from Rangoon, where the airport reopened today.
State media said 19 people had been killed in Rangoon and 222 in the delta, where weather forecasters had predicted a storm surge of as much as 3.5 metres.
Only one in four buildings were left standing in Laputta and Kyaik Lat, two towns deep in the rice-producing region.
Some 90,000 people were homeless on the island of Haingyi, about 200km southwest of Rangoon on the fringe of the delta.
However, the carnage left by cyclone Nargis has not derailed a May 10 referendum on a new army-drafted constitution.
"The referendum is only a few days away and the people are eagerly looking forward to voting," the junta said in a statement confirming the vote would go ahead as planned.
The charter is part of a "roadmap to democracy" meant to culminate in multiparty elections in 2010, but critics say it allows the army to retain an unacceptable degree of power.
Bunkered down in their new capital, Naypyidaw, north of Rangoon, the junta's top brass has not formerly responded to an offer of international assistance.
But Burma's Minister of Social Welfare told UN officials help may be welcomed, depending on the terms, Skavdal said.
"I think it's a positive sign. As long as we are in dialogue it is good," he said.
Shunned by the West for its detention of democracy icon AungSan
Suu Kyi and dismal human rights record, Burma has been the target of Western sanctions for years.
Source: Reuters-SBS
Aid agencies scrambled to deliver plastic sheeting, water and cooking equipment from stockpiles in the country. The government says at least 351 died in the cyclone, which slammed into the delta region on Saturday before devastating Rangoon.
That death toll is likely to climb as the authorities make contact with hard-hit islands and villages in the delta, the rice bowl of the impoverished Southeast Asian nation of 53 million.
"It's clear that this is a major disaster," Richard Horsey, of the United Nations disaster response office in Bangkok, told Reuters after an emergency aid meeting.
"How many people are affected? We know that it's in the six figures. We know that it's several hundred thousand needing shelter and clean drinking water, but how many hundred thousand we just don't know."
The International Federation of the Red Cross said teams were trying to assess the damage and aid requirements in the five declared disaster zones where 24 million people live.
"We are issuing water purification tablets, clothing, plastic sheeting, cooking utensils and hygiene items. We're trying to mobilise portable water from local businesses," Michael Annear, head of Red Cross Southeast Asia disaster management unit.
"We're preparing to send more stuff into the country. We have not been restricted," he said.
A new policy imposed on foreign aid agencies in 2006 requires travel permits and official escorts for field trips. It also tightened rules on the transport of supplies and materials.
"That is the existing situation for international staff. The way most agencies work is they use national staff who have more freedom to move," Terje Skavdal, regional head of the UN office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), said.
"We will have a dialogue with the government to try to get access to the people affected."
It is not known whether Burma, also known as Myanmar, the world's largest rice exporter when it won independence from Britain in 1948, will need to import emergency rice supplies. If it does, it is likely to inflate yet further the already sky-high prices of the staple.
The World Food Program says it has stocks of around 500,000 tonnes inside the country, but not near Rangoon.
In the former capital, many roofs were ripped off even sturdy buildings, suggesting damage would be severe in the shanty towns that lie on the outskirts of the city of five million people.
State television was still off the air in Rangoon, and clean water was becoming scarce. Most shops had sold out of candles and batteries and there was no word when power would be restored.
In one western suburb, a group of 100 monks led efforts to clear streets littered with fallen trees and debris from battered buildings, a witness said.
"The clean-up is beginning but this will take a long time. The damage around town is intense," one Western diplomat told Reuters from Rangoon, where the airport reopened today.
State media said 19 people had been killed in Rangoon and 222 in the delta, where weather forecasters had predicted a storm surge of as much as 3.5 metres.
Only one in four buildings were left standing in Laputta and Kyaik Lat, two towns deep in the rice-producing region.
Some 90,000 people were homeless on the island of Haingyi, about 200km southwest of Rangoon on the fringe of the delta.
However, the carnage left by cyclone Nargis has not derailed a May 10 referendum on a new army-drafted constitution.
"The referendum is only a few days away and the people are eagerly looking forward to voting," the junta said in a statement confirming the vote would go ahead as planned.
The charter is part of a "roadmap to democracy" meant to culminate in multiparty elections in 2010, but critics say it allows the army to retain an unacceptable degree of power.
Bunkered down in their new capital, Naypyidaw, north of Rangoon, the junta's top brass has not formerly responded to an offer of international assistance.
But Burma's Minister of Social Welfare told UN officials help may be welcomed, depending on the terms, Skavdal said.
"I think it's a positive sign. As long as we are in dialogue it is good," he said.
Shunned by the West for its detention of democracy icon AungSan
Suu Kyi and dismal human rights record, Burma has been the target of Western sanctions for years.
Source: Reuters-SBS
Burma's farcical referendum highlights junta's absurdity
Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun
May 05, 2008 - It is frequently a trait of generals and other very senior military officers that they have absolutely no sense of the ridiculous.
They can get involved in the most farcical activities without any realization that they are making themselves laughing-stocks.
Mind you, given some of the thoroughly unpleasant decisions military officers sometimes have to make, having no sense of the surreal may be a necessary survival mechanism.
Even so, it is hard not to laugh out loud at the insistence by the military regime running Burma that next Saturday's referendum on a new constitution for the southeast Asian nation is a firm step toward multi-party democracy.
Without a whiff of a sense of irony, the junta, headed by Senior Gen. Than Shwe, is so insistent that the new constitution is a good and democratic thing they have made it punishable by up to 10 years in prison for anyone to urge people to vote "no."
So the opposition National League for Democracy led by detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has had a hard time conveying its strong reservations about this proposed constitution -- which seems to achieve little except to ensure the military will continue to be the ultimate power and authority in Burma.
While opponents of the constitutional model have been silenced, senior figures in the junta and their thoroughly unpleasant grassroots political operatives have been using all forms of coercion -- from physical violence to threats to withdraw government services such as the water supply -- to impress on people the necessity of voting "yes."
Burmese voters may, of course, relish this opportunity to vote. They haven't been asked to do that since 1990, when 85 per cent of them plumped for Suu Kyi and the NLD.
The generals were appalled, annulled the election, kept Suu Kyi and hundreds of NLD leaders locked up, and slowly discussed how to avoid such a nasty thing happening again.
So it has taken 14 years to get to this point -- step five in the junta's seven-step road map to its version of democracy. And only the junta's hand-picked delegates, not Suu Kyi or the NLD, have been involved in evolving the constitutional proposals, a process which has primarily involved the delegates listening to speeches by army officers.
It does not look, however, that very many Burmese will get a chance to vote, however keen they may be to do so.
The generals say there are just over four million eligible voters, which seems extraordinarily low in a country with a population of over 42 million. Several outside observer organizations reckon there should be about 23 million eligible voters.
But as the whole process is a farce, it probably doesn't really matter.
The constitutional proposals are an adaption of those used by former president Suharto of Indonesia to control a thinly disguised military dictatorship for 32 years.
The junta's model for Burma begins by saying that the country's president must hail from the military, which gives a good indication of where this document is heading.
Then, a quarter of the parliamentary seats will be allocated to people nominated by the military.
The military will also fully control and appoint the ministers to several key ministries, including Defence and the Interior -- which is the department managing internal security.
To cap it off, the military reserves the right to oust any civilian administration it feels is putting national security in jeopardy.
This bizarre construction is meant, according to the junta, to provide a fine framework for multi-party elections in 2010.
The chances of that happening do not appear to be good. It is far more likely that what will emerge is, again, the highly directed form of democracy that functioned in Indonesia until Suharto was ousted by a popular uprising in 1998. There were a variety of political parties, but even those with designated "opposition" roles functioned as pantomime puppets manipulated from above by the military.
And Suu Kyi, who frightens the generals the way mice terrify elephants, will be allowed no role under the new dispensation.
The junta has already proclaimed that no one who is or has been married to a foreigner is eligible for public office. Suu Kyi was married to the British scholar of Tibet and Buddhism, Michael Aris, who died of cancer in 1999.
Sun International Affairs Columnist
To reach Jonathan Manthorpe, go to his blog at: www.vancouversun.com/blogs
Canada Com
May 05, 2008 - It is frequently a trait of generals and other very senior military officers that they have absolutely no sense of the ridiculous.
They can get involved in the most farcical activities without any realization that they are making themselves laughing-stocks.
Mind you, given some of the thoroughly unpleasant decisions military officers sometimes have to make, having no sense of the surreal may be a necessary survival mechanism.
Even so, it is hard not to laugh out loud at the insistence by the military regime running Burma that next Saturday's referendum on a new constitution for the southeast Asian nation is a firm step toward multi-party democracy.
Without a whiff of a sense of irony, the junta, headed by Senior Gen. Than Shwe, is so insistent that the new constitution is a good and democratic thing they have made it punishable by up to 10 years in prison for anyone to urge people to vote "no."
So the opposition National League for Democracy led by detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has had a hard time conveying its strong reservations about this proposed constitution -- which seems to achieve little except to ensure the military will continue to be the ultimate power and authority in Burma.
While opponents of the constitutional model have been silenced, senior figures in the junta and their thoroughly unpleasant grassroots political operatives have been using all forms of coercion -- from physical violence to threats to withdraw government services such as the water supply -- to impress on people the necessity of voting "yes."
Burmese voters may, of course, relish this opportunity to vote. They haven't been asked to do that since 1990, when 85 per cent of them plumped for Suu Kyi and the NLD.
The generals were appalled, annulled the election, kept Suu Kyi and hundreds of NLD leaders locked up, and slowly discussed how to avoid such a nasty thing happening again.
So it has taken 14 years to get to this point -- step five in the junta's seven-step road map to its version of democracy. And only the junta's hand-picked delegates, not Suu Kyi or the NLD, have been involved in evolving the constitutional proposals, a process which has primarily involved the delegates listening to speeches by army officers.
It does not look, however, that very many Burmese will get a chance to vote, however keen they may be to do so.
The generals say there are just over four million eligible voters, which seems extraordinarily low in a country with a population of over 42 million. Several outside observer organizations reckon there should be about 23 million eligible voters.
But as the whole process is a farce, it probably doesn't really matter.
The constitutional proposals are an adaption of those used by former president Suharto of Indonesia to control a thinly disguised military dictatorship for 32 years.
The junta's model for Burma begins by saying that the country's president must hail from the military, which gives a good indication of where this document is heading.
Then, a quarter of the parliamentary seats will be allocated to people nominated by the military.
The military will also fully control and appoint the ministers to several key ministries, including Defence and the Interior -- which is the department managing internal security.
To cap it off, the military reserves the right to oust any civilian administration it feels is putting national security in jeopardy.
This bizarre construction is meant, according to the junta, to provide a fine framework for multi-party elections in 2010.
The chances of that happening do not appear to be good. It is far more likely that what will emerge is, again, the highly directed form of democracy that functioned in Indonesia until Suharto was ousted by a popular uprising in 1998. There were a variety of political parties, but even those with designated "opposition" roles functioned as pantomime puppets manipulated from above by the military.
And Suu Kyi, who frightens the generals the way mice terrify elephants, will be allowed no role under the new dispensation.
The junta has already proclaimed that no one who is or has been married to a foreigner is eligible for public office. Suu Kyi was married to the British scholar of Tibet and Buddhism, Michael Aris, who died of cancer in 1999.
Sun International Affairs Columnist
To reach Jonathan Manthorpe, go to his blog at: www.vancouversun.com/blogs
Canada Com
Cyclone plunges Myanmar into primitive existence
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Residents of Myanmar's largest city were plunged into a primitive existence Monday, using candles instead of electricity, lining up to buy shrinking supplies of water and hacking their way through streets blocked by trees felled in a cyclone that killed more than 350.
Older citizens said they had never seen Yangon, a city of some 6.5 million, so devastated in their lifetimes.
With the city's already unstable electricity supply virtually nonfunctional citizens lined up to buy candles, which doubled in price, as well as water since lack of electricity-driven pumps left most households dry. Some walked to the city's lakes to wash.
Hotels and richer families were using private generators but only sparingly, given the soaring price of fuel.
Despite the havoc wreaked by tropical cyclone Nargis across wide swaths of the Southeast Asian country, the government indicated that a referendum on the country's draft constitution would proceed as planned on May 10.
"It's only a few days left before the coming referendum and people are eager to cast their vote," the state-owned newspaper Myanma Ahlin said Monday.
Pro-democracy groups in the country and many international critics have branded the constitution as merely a tool for the military's continued grip on power.
Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box.
The Foreign Ministry called resident ambassadors to a meeting Monday, and some diplomats said they expected the government to request foreign emergency assistance.
Some in Yangon complained the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after Saturday's storm, only clearing streets where the ruling elite resided but leaving residents to cope on their own in most other areas.
"Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?" a trishaw driver, who refused to be identified for fear of retribution, said Sunday. "They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity."
Residents, as well as Buddhist monks from the city's many monasteries, banded together, wielding axes and knives to clear roads of tree trunks and branches torn off by the cyclones 120 mph winds.
Several residents said the streets were like forests, scattered as they were with trees and debris.
Airlines announced Yangon's international airport had reopened, but public transport was almost at a standstill. Vehicles on the road had to cope with navigating without traffic lights.
Many stayed away from their jobs, either because they could not find transport or because they had to seek food and shelter for their families.
"Without my daily earning, just survival has become a big problem for us," said Tin Hla, who normally repairs umbrellas at a roadside stand. With his shanty town house destroyed by the storm, Tin Hla said he has had to place his family of five into one of the monasteries which have offered temporary shelter to many homeless.
Most telephone landlines, mobile phones and Internet connections were down.
The city was plunged into almost total darkness overnight, security concerns mounted, with reports of robberies in some working class suburbs circulating. Many shops sold their goods through partially opened doors or iron grills. Looting was reported at several fresh food markets, where thieves took vegetables and other items.
At least 351 people were killed, including 162 who lived on Haing Gyi island off the country's southwest coast, military-run Myawaddy television station reported. Many of the others died in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.
"The Irrawaddy delta was hit extremely hard not only because of the wind and rain but because of the storm surge," said Chris Kaye, the U.N.'s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yangon. "The villages there have reportedly been completely flattened."
State television reported that in the Irrawaddy's Labutta township, 75 percent of the buildings had collapsed.
The U.N. planned to send teams Monday to assess the damage, Kaye said. Initial assessment efforts had been hampered by roads clogged with debris and downed phone lines, he said.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for human rights abuses and suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.
Last September, at least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.
The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups outside of Myanmar urged the military junta Sunday to allow aid groups to operate freely in the wake of the cyclone - something it has been reluctant to do in the past.
Older citizens said they had never seen Yangon, a city of some 6.5 million, so devastated in their lifetimes.
With the city's already unstable electricity supply virtually nonfunctional citizens lined up to buy candles, which doubled in price, as well as water since lack of electricity-driven pumps left most households dry. Some walked to the city's lakes to wash.
Hotels and richer families were using private generators but only sparingly, given the soaring price of fuel.
Despite the havoc wreaked by tropical cyclone Nargis across wide swaths of the Southeast Asian country, the government indicated that a referendum on the country's draft constitution would proceed as planned on May 10.
"It's only a few days left before the coming referendum and people are eager to cast their vote," the state-owned newspaper Myanma Ahlin said Monday.
Pro-democracy groups in the country and many international critics have branded the constitution as merely a tool for the military's continued grip on power.
Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box.
The Foreign Ministry called resident ambassadors to a meeting Monday, and some diplomats said they expected the government to request foreign emergency assistance.
Some in Yangon complained the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after Saturday's storm, only clearing streets where the ruling elite resided but leaving residents to cope on their own in most other areas.
"Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?" a trishaw driver, who refused to be identified for fear of retribution, said Sunday. "They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity."
Residents, as well as Buddhist monks from the city's many monasteries, banded together, wielding axes and knives to clear roads of tree trunks and branches torn off by the cyclones 120 mph winds.
Several residents said the streets were like forests, scattered as they were with trees and debris.
Airlines announced Yangon's international airport had reopened, but public transport was almost at a standstill. Vehicles on the road had to cope with navigating without traffic lights.
Many stayed away from their jobs, either because they could not find transport or because they had to seek food and shelter for their families.
"Without my daily earning, just survival has become a big problem for us," said Tin Hla, who normally repairs umbrellas at a roadside stand. With his shanty town house destroyed by the storm, Tin Hla said he has had to place his family of five into one of the monasteries which have offered temporary shelter to many homeless.
Most telephone landlines, mobile phones and Internet connections were down.
The city was plunged into almost total darkness overnight, security concerns mounted, with reports of robberies in some working class suburbs circulating. Many shops sold their goods through partially opened doors or iron grills. Looting was reported at several fresh food markets, where thieves took vegetables and other items.
At least 351 people were killed, including 162 who lived on Haing Gyi island off the country's southwest coast, military-run Myawaddy television station reported. Many of the others died in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.
"The Irrawaddy delta was hit extremely hard not only because of the wind and rain but because of the storm surge," said Chris Kaye, the U.N.'s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yangon. "The villages there have reportedly been completely flattened."
State television reported that in the Irrawaddy's Labutta township, 75 percent of the buildings had collapsed.
The U.N. planned to send teams Monday to assess the damage, Kaye said. Initial assessment efforts had been hampered by roads clogged with debris and downed phone lines, he said.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for human rights abuses and suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.
Last September, at least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.
The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups outside of Myanmar urged the military junta Sunday to allow aid groups to operate freely in the wake of the cyclone - something it has been reluctant to do in the past.
Military slow to help cleanup after deadly Myanmar cyclone
YANGON, Myanmar - A powerful cyclone killed more than 350 people and destroyed thousands of homes, state-run media said yesterday. Some dissident groups worried that the military junta running Myanmar would be reluctant to ask for international help.
Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit at a delicate time for the junta, less than a week ahead of a crucial referendum on a new constitution. Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box.
Some in Yangon complained the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after Saturday’s storm.
“Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?” said a trishaw driver who refused to be identified for fear of retribution. “They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity.”
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for human rights abuses and suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.
The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups outside of Myanmar urged the military junta yesterday to allow aid groups to operate freely in the wake of the cyclone - something it has been reluctant to do.
The U.N. planned to send teams today to assess the damage. Initial assessment efforts have been hampered by roads clogged with debris and downed phone lines, he said.
Boston Herald
Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit at a delicate time for the junta, less than a week ahead of a crucial referendum on a new constitution. Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box.
Some in Yangon complained the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after Saturday’s storm.
“Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?” said a trishaw driver who refused to be identified for fear of retribution. “They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity.”
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for human rights abuses and suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.
The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups outside of Myanmar urged the military junta yesterday to allow aid groups to operate freely in the wake of the cyclone - something it has been reluctant to do.
The U.N. planned to send teams today to assess the damage. Initial assessment efforts have been hampered by roads clogged with debris and downed phone lines, he said.
Boston Herald
Red Cross rushes aid to Myanmar cyclone victims
BANGKOK: Aid agencies on Monday rushed emergency food and water supplies to victims of a massive storm in Myanmar which killed hundreds of people and left tens of thousands homeless, a Red Cross spokesman said.
Tropical cyclone Nargis left at least 351 dead after hitting southwest Myanmar at the weekend, packing winds of 190 kilometres (120 miles) per hour, razing thousands of buildings and knocking out power lines, state media reported.
Several coastal villages had been destroyed according to a preliminary assessment by the International Federation of the Red Cross, spokesman Michael Annear told AFP.
The villages in the Ayeyawaddy (Irrawaddy) delta bore the brunt of the storm which came in from the Bay of Bengal and combined with a sea surge before hitting the main city Yangon. State media said nearly 98,000 were homeless on the delta's Haing Gyi island alone.
Annear said teams in Myanmar were distributing essential supplies and would be bringing in more from Malaysia as soon as possible.
"We're distributing supplies for those who need shelter, plastic sheeting to cover roofs, water purification tablets, we are currently procuring 5,000 litres of water, cooking items, bed-nets, blankets and clothes for those in most need," he said.
"We went out as soon as possible but there were problems with mobility due to a lot of debris and power lines down. Authorities and the local community have been clearing the road networks so mobility has increased today.
"Assessment teams have been a lot better getting through to affected areas but it's going to take a number of days to get an overall picture of the overall disaster," he said, adding that Yangon's airport was expected to reopen on Monday.
International Red Cross teams would be connecting with the local Myanmar Red Cross where more than 1,000 workers are trained in assessment and relief.
United Nations agencies and international charities were meeting later on Monday at the UN's Bangkok headquarters to coordinate their response to the disaster.
"We have called in the relief agencies and we will be discussing the overview of the situation, what we expect to happen over the course of the day and what activities are foreseen by the agencies," Terje Skavdal, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told AFP.
All the major UN agencies involved in the disaster response were attending, including the World Health Organisation, the UN Children's Fund and World Food Programme, alongside the International Federation of the Red Cross and major aid organisations Save the Children and Oxfam.
Myanmar's national Red Cross was the only agency able to begin assessment of the damage on Sunday, but a number of other agencies had now started their own assessments, Skavdal said.
"Collating the data will take some time," he said. "Because of communication problems with phone lines down people will have to come back to Yangon to share their findings."
The IFRC has sent assessment teams to Yangon, the Ayeyawaddy, Karen, Bago regions and may also deploy to Mon state.
- AFP/so
Tropical cyclone Nargis left at least 351 dead after hitting southwest Myanmar at the weekend, packing winds of 190 kilometres (120 miles) per hour, razing thousands of buildings and knocking out power lines, state media reported.
Several coastal villages had been destroyed according to a preliminary assessment by the International Federation of the Red Cross, spokesman Michael Annear told AFP.
The villages in the Ayeyawaddy (Irrawaddy) delta bore the brunt of the storm which came in from the Bay of Bengal and combined with a sea surge before hitting the main city Yangon. State media said nearly 98,000 were homeless on the delta's Haing Gyi island alone.
Annear said teams in Myanmar were distributing essential supplies and would be bringing in more from Malaysia as soon as possible.
"We're distributing supplies for those who need shelter, plastic sheeting to cover roofs, water purification tablets, we are currently procuring 5,000 litres of water, cooking items, bed-nets, blankets and clothes for those in most need," he said.
"We went out as soon as possible but there were problems with mobility due to a lot of debris and power lines down. Authorities and the local community have been clearing the road networks so mobility has increased today.
"Assessment teams have been a lot better getting through to affected areas but it's going to take a number of days to get an overall picture of the overall disaster," he said, adding that Yangon's airport was expected to reopen on Monday.
International Red Cross teams would be connecting with the local Myanmar Red Cross where more than 1,000 workers are trained in assessment and relief.
United Nations agencies and international charities were meeting later on Monday at the UN's Bangkok headquarters to coordinate their response to the disaster.
"We have called in the relief agencies and we will be discussing the overview of the situation, what we expect to happen over the course of the day and what activities are foreseen by the agencies," Terje Skavdal, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told AFP.
All the major UN agencies involved in the disaster response were attending, including the World Health Organisation, the UN Children's Fund and World Food Programme, alongside the International Federation of the Red Cross and major aid organisations Save the Children and Oxfam.
Myanmar's national Red Cross was the only agency able to begin assessment of the damage on Sunday, but a number of other agencies had now started their own assessments, Skavdal said.
"Collating the data will take some time," he said. "Because of communication problems with phone lines down people will have to come back to Yangon to share their findings."
The IFRC has sent assessment teams to Yangon, the Ayeyawaddy, Karen, Bago regions and may also deploy to Mon state.
- AFP/so
Burma's 'sham' referendum may be deferred
Voting in Burma's "meaningless" referendum may be delayed because of the destructive cyclone in the nation's former capital, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says.
Reports of the death toll from the cyclone that hit Rangoon have been difficult to ascertain because of communication difficulties, but Mr Smith said there had been no reports of Australian casualties.
All Australian diplomats and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) officers were safe and accounted for.
He has urged all Australians in Burma to contact the Australian mission in Burma or their friends or families in Australia.
"We've had no reports of any Australians in difficulties, the mission has contacted a number of Australians in Rangoon but we know that we haven't contacted all Australians who are living or temporarily living in Burma," Mr Smith said.
"So we urge those Australians in Burma to either make contact with our mission or Smart Traveller or their friends or family in Australia."
More than 350 people have been killed by the powerful cyclone Nargis that knocked out power in the impoverished country's commercial capital and destroyed thousands of homes, state-run media said.
Mr Smith said the significant cyclone damage could mean voting in the upcoming referendum could be deferred or delayed.
In February, Burma's military rulers announced a constitutional referendum would be held on May 10, which they said would set the stage for multi-party elections in 2010.
But the referendum was meaningless, Mr Smith told reporters at Perth airport.
"We've made it absolutely crystal clear that Burma should move to a democratic state where human rights are respected," he said.
"It's quite clear that the current referendum process that the Burmese have in train is nothing more, nothing less than a complete sham.
"It may well be as a result of the cyclone that voting in the referendum is deferred or delayed.
"To me that won't account for anything in the overall context because that referendum is nothing more, nothing less than a fraud designed to perpetuate the military regime in Burma."
Source: AAP -SBS Australia
Reports of the death toll from the cyclone that hit Rangoon have been difficult to ascertain because of communication difficulties, but Mr Smith said there had been no reports of Australian casualties.
All Australian diplomats and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) officers were safe and accounted for.
He has urged all Australians in Burma to contact the Australian mission in Burma or their friends or families in Australia.
"We've had no reports of any Australians in difficulties, the mission has contacted a number of Australians in Rangoon but we know that we haven't contacted all Australians who are living or temporarily living in Burma," Mr Smith said.
"So we urge those Australians in Burma to either make contact with our mission or Smart Traveller or their friends or family in Australia."
More than 350 people have been killed by the powerful cyclone Nargis that knocked out power in the impoverished country's commercial capital and destroyed thousands of homes, state-run media said.
Mr Smith said the significant cyclone damage could mean voting in the upcoming referendum could be deferred or delayed.
In February, Burma's military rulers announced a constitutional referendum would be held on May 10, which they said would set the stage for multi-party elections in 2010.
But the referendum was meaningless, Mr Smith told reporters at Perth airport.
"We've made it absolutely crystal clear that Burma should move to a democratic state where human rights are respected," he said.
"It's quite clear that the current referendum process that the Burmese have in train is nothing more, nothing less than a complete sham.
"It may well be as a result of the cyclone that voting in the referendum is deferred or delayed.
"To me that won't account for anything in the overall context because that referendum is nothing more, nothing less than a fraud designed to perpetuate the military regime in Burma."
Source: AAP -SBS Australia
Burma aid delays worrying Aust NGOs
Australian non-government organisations (NGOs) are raising concerns about the delay aid agencies are facing in Burma to access those hardest hit by the weekend's cyclone.
More than 350 people have been killed and many towns and villages are yet to report on their damage.
United Nations aid workers in Burma say they are ready to send help to those hardest hit by the cyclone as soon as authorities there give the go-ahead.
A spokesman for Burma Campaign Australia, Winthura Wynn, says he is concerned Burmese authorities are yet to give permission to organisations such as the United Nations.
"Right now this is a critical life and death situation as the people in Burma face this cyclone," he said.
"I really wish this foreign relief agency to get through for their causes."
Catastrophe
The regional head of the UN office for co-ordinating humanitarian affairs, Terje Skavdal, has described the aftermath of the cyclone as a catastrophe.
"Practically all the roads are blocked more or less because of the trees that have blown down," he said.
"The city has great damage on telephone nets, on the electrical net, lots of damages to housing and to public buildings."
Aung Din, from the US Campaign for Burma, has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program that the cyclone has left Rangoon without transport, water or communications.
"The most part of the city of Rangoon are now damaged, and at least part of the houses are destroyed, and the rest are without roofs," he said.
"This is really a war zone and great devastation ... done by mother nature."
Australians safe
Meanwhile, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says it has no reports of Australians being injured in the cyclone in Burma.
A Department spokeswoman says 132 Australians in Burma have registered with the embassy but the actual number in the country is probably higher.
She says all embassy staff and their families are safe and they have been able to confirm the safety of a number of Australians.
- ABC/BBC
More than 350 people have been killed and many towns and villages are yet to report on their damage.
United Nations aid workers in Burma say they are ready to send help to those hardest hit by the cyclone as soon as authorities there give the go-ahead.
A spokesman for Burma Campaign Australia, Winthura Wynn, says he is concerned Burmese authorities are yet to give permission to organisations such as the United Nations.
"Right now this is a critical life and death situation as the people in Burma face this cyclone," he said.
"I really wish this foreign relief agency to get through for their causes."
Catastrophe
The regional head of the UN office for co-ordinating humanitarian affairs, Terje Skavdal, has described the aftermath of the cyclone as a catastrophe.
"Practically all the roads are blocked more or less because of the trees that have blown down," he said.
"The city has great damage on telephone nets, on the electrical net, lots of damages to housing and to public buildings."
Aung Din, from the US Campaign for Burma, has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program that the cyclone has left Rangoon without transport, water or communications.
"The most part of the city of Rangoon are now damaged, and at least part of the houses are destroyed, and the rest are without roofs," he said.
"This is really a war zone and great devastation ... done by mother nature."
Australians safe
Meanwhile, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says it has no reports of Australians being injured in the cyclone in Burma.
A Department spokeswoman says 132 Australians in Burma have registered with the embassy but the actual number in the country is probably higher.
She says all embassy staff and their families are safe and they have been able to confirm the safety of a number of Australians.
- ABC/BBC
Burma referendum to go ahead
From correspondents in Rangoon
MILITARY-ruled Burma will press ahead with a referendum on a new constitution on May 10 despite a devastating cyclone that slammed into the country at the weekend.
"The referendum is only a few days away and the people are eagerly looking forward to voting," the Government said in a statement carried in the state media.
Authorities and foreign aid workers are struggling to assess the damage from Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 350 people and left tens of thousands homeless.
The charter is part of a "roadmap to democracy" meant to culminate in multi-party elections in 2010 and end nearly five decades of military rule. The opposition and Western governments say it allows the army to retain too much control.
State media said 20,000 homes were destroyed on one island alone after Cyclone Nargis, a Category 3 storm packing winds of 190km/h ripped through Butrma's Irrawaddy delta on Saturday.
The death toll is likely to climb as the authorities slowly make contact with islands and low-lying villages in the delta, the rice bowl of former Burma.
Teams of foreign aid workers were trying to assess the damage and aid needs, but their access and movements are restricted by the military, which has ruled Burma for 46 years.
UN disaster experts are due to meet in Bangkok in neighbouring Thailand today to assess Burma's needs and how best to respond.
Bunkered down in Naypyidaw, 240 miles to the north of Burma, the junta's top brass has not formally responded to an offer of international assistance.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said there had been no reports of Australian casualties.
And he reiterated that the referendum was nothing more "than a fraud designed to perpetuate the military regime in Burma".
- with AAP
MILITARY-ruled Burma will press ahead with a referendum on a new constitution on May 10 despite a devastating cyclone that slammed into the country at the weekend.
"The referendum is only a few days away and the people are eagerly looking forward to voting," the Government said in a statement carried in the state media.
Authorities and foreign aid workers are struggling to assess the damage from Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 350 people and left tens of thousands homeless.
The charter is part of a "roadmap to democracy" meant to culminate in multi-party elections in 2010 and end nearly five decades of military rule. The opposition and Western governments say it allows the army to retain too much control.
State media said 20,000 homes were destroyed on one island alone after Cyclone Nargis, a Category 3 storm packing winds of 190km/h ripped through Butrma's Irrawaddy delta on Saturday.
The death toll is likely to climb as the authorities slowly make contact with islands and low-lying villages in the delta, the rice bowl of former Burma.
Teams of foreign aid workers were trying to assess the damage and aid needs, but their access and movements are restricted by the military, which has ruled Burma for 46 years.
UN disaster experts are due to meet in Bangkok in neighbouring Thailand today to assess Burma's needs and how best to respond.
Bunkered down in Naypyidaw, 240 miles to the north of Burma, the junta's top brass has not formally responded to an offer of international assistance.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said there had been no reports of Australian casualties.
And he reiterated that the referendum was nothing more "than a fraud designed to perpetuate the military regime in Burma".
- with AAP
Aid agencies struggle to assess cyclone damage
Aung Hla Tun
YANGON, May 5 (Reuters) - Authorities and foreign aid workers in army-ruled Myanmar struggled on Monday to assess the damage from a severe cyclone that killed more than 350 people and left tens of thousands homeless.
State media said 20,000 homes were destroyed on one island alone after Cyclone Nargis, a Category 3 storm packing winds of 190 km (120 mile) per hour, ripped through Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta on Saturday.
The death toll is likely to climb as the authorities slowly make contact with islands and low-lying villages in the delta, the rice bowl of former Burma.
"The government is having as much trouble as anyone else in getting a full overview. Roads are not accessible and many small villages were hit and will take time to reach," Terje Skavdal, regional head of U.N. office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), told Reuters in Bangkok.
Teams of foreign aid workers were trying to assess the damage and aid needs, but their access and movements are restricted by the military, which has ruled the former Burma for 46 years.
"That is the existing situation for international staff. The way most agencies work is they use national staff who have more freedom to move," Skavdal said.
"We will have a dialogue with the government to try to get access to the people affected," he said.
In Yangon, many roofs were ripped off even sturdy buildings, suggesting damage would be severe in the shanty towns that lie on its outskirts.
State television was still off air in the former capital more than 48 hours after Nagris slammed into the city of 5 million. Clean water was becoming scare and with the electricity down, nost shops had sold out of candles.
In western Yangon, a group of 100 monks led efforts to clear streets littered with fallen trees and debris from battered buildings, a witness said.
"The clean up is beginning but this will take a long time. The damage around town is intense," one Yangon-based Western diplomat told Reuters.
State media said 19 people had been killed in Yangon and 222 in the delta, where weather forecasters had predicted a storm surge of as much as 12 feet (3.5 metres)
Official newspapers said only one in four buildings were left standing in Laputta and Kyaik Lat, two towns deep in the rice-producing region.
Some 90,000 people were left homeless on the island of Haingyi, around 200 km southwest of Yangon on the western fringes of the Irrawaddy delta.
United Nations disaster experts were due to meet in Bangkok, the capital of neighbouring Thailand, later on Monday to assess Myanmar's needs and how best to respond.
With many buildings damaged or destroyed, plastic sheeting was a high priority to provide shelter during the rainy season.
Water purification tablets, mosquito nets and cooking equipment would also be needed, Skavdal said.
Bunkered down in Naypyidaw, 240 miles to the north of Yangon, the junta's top brass has not formerly responded to an offer of international assistance.
But UN officials met with Myanmar's Minister of Social Welfare on Sunday "and the indication was assistance may be welcomed, but we need to understand the terms," Skavdal said.
"I think it's a positive sign. As long as we are in dialogue it is good," he said.
The regime declared a disaster in five states and government television carried footage of soldiers clearing trees from roads and Prime Minister Thein Sein, a lieutenant-general, meeting people sheltering in a Buddhist pagoda.
State media said on Monday that a referendum on a new army-drafted constitution would go ahead on May 10 despite the cyclone.
"The referendum is only a few days away and the people are eagerly looking forward to voting," the government said in a statement carried in the state media.
The charter is part of a "roadmap to democracy" meant to culminate in multiparty elections in 2010 and end nearly five decades of military rule. The opposition and Western governments say it allows the army to retain too much control.
Some flights to Yangon resumed on Monday.
Nargis had weakened as it moved into western and northern Thailand on Monday, where there were no reports of damage or casualties.
(Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by David Fox)
YANGON, May 5 (Reuters) - Authorities and foreign aid workers in army-ruled Myanmar struggled on Monday to assess the damage from a severe cyclone that killed more than 350 people and left tens of thousands homeless.
State media said 20,000 homes were destroyed on one island alone after Cyclone Nargis, a Category 3 storm packing winds of 190 km (120 mile) per hour, ripped through Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta on Saturday.
The death toll is likely to climb as the authorities slowly make contact with islands and low-lying villages in the delta, the rice bowl of former Burma.
"The government is having as much trouble as anyone else in getting a full overview. Roads are not accessible and many small villages were hit and will take time to reach," Terje Skavdal, regional head of U.N. office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), told Reuters in Bangkok.
Teams of foreign aid workers were trying to assess the damage and aid needs, but their access and movements are restricted by the military, which has ruled the former Burma for 46 years.
"That is the existing situation for international staff. The way most agencies work is they use national staff who have more freedom to move," Skavdal said.
"We will have a dialogue with the government to try to get access to the people affected," he said.
In Yangon, many roofs were ripped off even sturdy buildings, suggesting damage would be severe in the shanty towns that lie on its outskirts.
State television was still off air in the former capital more than 48 hours after Nagris slammed into the city of 5 million. Clean water was becoming scare and with the electricity down, nost shops had sold out of candles.
In western Yangon, a group of 100 monks led efforts to clear streets littered with fallen trees and debris from battered buildings, a witness said.
"The clean up is beginning but this will take a long time. The damage around town is intense," one Yangon-based Western diplomat told Reuters.
State media said 19 people had been killed in Yangon and 222 in the delta, where weather forecasters had predicted a storm surge of as much as 12 feet (3.5 metres)
Official newspapers said only one in four buildings were left standing in Laputta and Kyaik Lat, two towns deep in the rice-producing region.
Some 90,000 people were left homeless on the island of Haingyi, around 200 km southwest of Yangon on the western fringes of the Irrawaddy delta.
United Nations disaster experts were due to meet in Bangkok, the capital of neighbouring Thailand, later on Monday to assess Myanmar's needs and how best to respond.
With many buildings damaged or destroyed, plastic sheeting was a high priority to provide shelter during the rainy season.
Water purification tablets, mosquito nets and cooking equipment would also be needed, Skavdal said.
Bunkered down in Naypyidaw, 240 miles to the north of Yangon, the junta's top brass has not formerly responded to an offer of international assistance.
But UN officials met with Myanmar's Minister of Social Welfare on Sunday "and the indication was assistance may be welcomed, but we need to understand the terms," Skavdal said.
"I think it's a positive sign. As long as we are in dialogue it is good," he said.
The regime declared a disaster in five states and government television carried footage of soldiers clearing trees from roads and Prime Minister Thein Sein, a lieutenant-general, meeting people sheltering in a Buddhist pagoda.
State media said on Monday that a referendum on a new army-drafted constitution would go ahead on May 10 despite the cyclone.
"The referendum is only a few days away and the people are eagerly looking forward to voting," the government said in a statement carried in the state media.
The charter is part of a "roadmap to democracy" meant to culminate in multiparty elections in 2010 and end nearly five decades of military rule. The opposition and Western governments say it allows the army to retain too much control.
Some flights to Yangon resumed on Monday.
Nargis had weakened as it moved into western and northern Thailand on Monday, where there were no reports of damage or casualties.
(Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by David Fox)
Sunday, 4 May 2008
Casualties expected as cyclone hits Burma
Damage ... this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency shows fallen trees in Rangoon after Tropical Cyclone Nargis ripped through the city / APBy Ed Cropley in Bangkok
News.com.au
A LARGE tropical cyclone that slammed into Rangoon toppled buildings and felled trees, a Thailand-based aid agency said, raising fears of major casualties in military-ruled Myanmar's main city.
The internet and land, mobile and satellite phone connections have been down since Cyclone Nargis's 190 km (120 mile) per hour winds hit on Saturday, making it impossible to confirm the extent of the damage in the sprawling river delta city of 5 million.
However, Kyaw Lin Oo of Burma Democratic Concern, an anti-regime activist and aid group in neighbouring Thailand, said he had spoken to a contact in Rangoon on Saturday evening after the worst of the storm passed at around 7 pm (1230 GMT).
"The whole city is in a very bad condition. All the trees have been uprooted and some buildings have fallen down near Yangon University," he told Reuters in the Thai capital.
The university lies in the heart of the former Burmese capital, and is one of its poshest districts.
On Saturday, a United Nations official in Bangkok said U.N. staff had managed to contact a colleague in Rangoon as the eye of the storm passed overhead in the afternoon.
"A lot of roofs from well-constructed buildings have been blown off. That would lead you to believe that less well-constructed buildings will have taken a really big whack," Tony Craig, regional emergency coordinator for the World Food Programme (WFP), told Reuters.
The Federation of Trade Unions, Burma, a Thailand-based labour rights group, said the ruling military junta had declared states of emergency in five affected provinces, most of them in the low-lying floodplains of the Irrawaddy delta.
State-run MRTV and Yangon City Radio were off the air, making it impossible to confirm the report.
A spokesman for Britain's Department for International Development (DFID), which has a staff of 10 in Burma, said it had not been able to establish the extent of damage because of poor communications, but that its people were safe.
Power is out
The electricity supply in Rangoon - hit-and-miss at the best of times in one of Asia's poorest countries - failed after Nargis drew near on Friday evening.
Meteorological officials warned of a possible storm surge of up to 12 feet (3.5 metres) in coastal areas, suggesting tens of thousands of people could be at risk.
The streets of Rangoon were virtually deserted, and buses and trains were not operating due to extensive flooding, a Reuters reporter in the city said before his communications were cut off.
A spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said officials from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Rangoon would meet with the Burma Red Crescent on Sunday to assess the damage.
It remains to be seen what impact the storm will have on a referendum on an army-drafted constitution scheduled for May 10.
The constitution is part of a "roadmap to democracy" meant to culminate in multiparty elections in 2010 and end nearly five decades of military rule. Critics say it gives the army too much control.
Naypyidaw, the generals' new capital, is 240 miles (390 km) north of Rangoon.
An official at Rangoon International Airport said all incoming flights had been diverted to the second city of Mandalay, in the middle of the southeast Asian nation, and all departures from Rangoon had been cancelled.
An official at Thai Airways in Bangkok said the airline planned to resume flights on Sunday, but was unable to give details of conditions on the ground in Burma.
Weather forecasters said Nargis was likely to keep moving northeast on Sunday and into northern Thailand, where a storm warning has already been issued.
Friday, 2 May 2008
Organize now against oppression in Burma
We never hear much about Burma, officially known today as Myanmar, until it's too late. Take, for example, last fall. Crimson-robed monks marched peacefully in the streets of Rangoon, making the case for democratic reforms and human rights.
The monks' nonviolent approach and well-argued appeals were met by beatings, imprisonment and even death -- not all that surprising from a country whose military dictatorship has ruled with an iron fist. Burma -- a country roughly the size of Texas and with a population of some 50 million people -- manages to put some of the better-known human rights violators to shame.
But when those powerful images dropped off the front pages of newspapers and news sites, they also seemed to drop from our consciousness.
That is unconscionable. Under the current junta, the regime has perpetrated a coordinated program of ethnic cleansing that relies on rape as a weapon of terror, while destroying more than 3,200 villages (displacing far more than 1 million people) and conscripting more than 70,000 child soldiers (putting it literally at the top of the list for any country).
In the meantime, Aung San Suu Kyi, the rightfully elected leader of Burma, whose party won 82 percent of the seats in Parliament, has spent roughly 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest. Rather than transforming her nation through her vision and a commitment to nonviolent change, she has been unjustly imprisoned.
So why am I writing this now, when the world's attention is on issues like the tragedy unfolding in Darfur or the fight for political independence in Tibet? The simple answer is that as important as those two issues are -- and they both are of the utmost importance and are deserving of a great deal of our support and attention -- there is something so simple about the issues in Burma.
Among other things, there is fact that the Suu Kyi has the distinction of being the only Nobel Peace Prize recipient who was prevented from ever accepting her prize. She earned another honor on April 24, when she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given by the U.S. Congress.
What can we do? About a month ago, my friend Jack Healey, a former Franciscan priest, told me about his idea to create a new kind of celebrity-based public service announcement to take the case for Burma to the public. Healey is no beginner when it comes to mobilizing big names. I met him nearly 20 years ago when he was executive director of Amnesty International in the United States. At the time, he had pulled together some of the biggest artists of the decade -- Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Police, Peter Gabriel -- to embark on a world tour intended to raise the issue of human rights and to put Amnesty International in the public consciousness.
Healey and Jeremy Woodrum, who runs the U.S. Campaign for Burma, have devoted their lives to fighting for the people of Burma, trying to rescue the country from the overbearing grip of a military junta and a violent dictator.
I volunteered to help. In the last month, we've managed to put together a campaign of 30 television and Internet spots, shot by and starring some of Hollywood's biggest names, with the hope that their messages will reach not only millions of Americans but also the rank-and-file soldiers in Burma, who may not even realize how closely the world is looking at the atrocities many of them are carrying out on everyday citizens and, especially, monks.
Our campaign relies on internationally recognized athletes, actors, directors, writers and musicians to address what is happening today in Burma. We are running the spots on our Web site (www.fanista.com), as well as a host of other online distribution sites, trying to drive a million people to sign a virtual petition at www.burmaitcantwait.org.
We have just finished marking Passover, a holiday that demands of us to both celebrate our freedom and fight for the oppressed. It is incumbent on all of us who live in this great country, who have been blessed with the freedoms of democracy, religious tolerance and equal rights for all, to do anything we can to ensure that others -- be they within our own communities or on the other side of the world -- enjoy those same freedoms.
We are, as I heard Rabbi Elazar Muskin say over Pesach, a "people of hope." That sense of hope not only allows us to dream of a better and more just world but also obligates us to do what we can to make those conditions a reality. May all of our efforts help achieve those goals for Suu Kyi and the people of Burma and for all oppressed people, wherever they may be.
____________________
Dan Adler is the Founder and CEO of Fanista, which is co-producing and sponsoring the entire "Burma: It Can't Wait" campaign, in partnership with the Human Rights Action Center (www.humanrightsactioncenter.org) and the U.S. Campaign for Burma (www.uscampaignforburma.org).
Jewish Journal
The monks' nonviolent approach and well-argued appeals were met by beatings, imprisonment and even death -- not all that surprising from a country whose military dictatorship has ruled with an iron fist. Burma -- a country roughly the size of Texas and with a population of some 50 million people -- manages to put some of the better-known human rights violators to shame.
But when those powerful images dropped off the front pages of newspapers and news sites, they also seemed to drop from our consciousness.
That is unconscionable. Under the current junta, the regime has perpetrated a coordinated program of ethnic cleansing that relies on rape as a weapon of terror, while destroying more than 3,200 villages (displacing far more than 1 million people) and conscripting more than 70,000 child soldiers (putting it literally at the top of the list for any country).
In the meantime, Aung San Suu Kyi, the rightfully elected leader of Burma, whose party won 82 percent of the seats in Parliament, has spent roughly 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest. Rather than transforming her nation through her vision and a commitment to nonviolent change, she has been unjustly imprisoned.
So why am I writing this now, when the world's attention is on issues like the tragedy unfolding in Darfur or the fight for political independence in Tibet? The simple answer is that as important as those two issues are -- and they both are of the utmost importance and are deserving of a great deal of our support and attention -- there is something so simple about the issues in Burma.
Among other things, there is fact that the Suu Kyi has the distinction of being the only Nobel Peace Prize recipient who was prevented from ever accepting her prize. She earned another honor on April 24, when she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given by the U.S. Congress.
What can we do? About a month ago, my friend Jack Healey, a former Franciscan priest, told me about his idea to create a new kind of celebrity-based public service announcement to take the case for Burma to the public. Healey is no beginner when it comes to mobilizing big names. I met him nearly 20 years ago when he was executive director of Amnesty International in the United States. At the time, he had pulled together some of the biggest artists of the decade -- Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Police, Peter Gabriel -- to embark on a world tour intended to raise the issue of human rights and to put Amnesty International in the public consciousness.
Healey and Jeremy Woodrum, who runs the U.S. Campaign for Burma, have devoted their lives to fighting for the people of Burma, trying to rescue the country from the overbearing grip of a military junta and a violent dictator.
I volunteered to help. In the last month, we've managed to put together a campaign of 30 television and Internet spots, shot by and starring some of Hollywood's biggest names, with the hope that their messages will reach not only millions of Americans but also the rank-and-file soldiers in Burma, who may not even realize how closely the world is looking at the atrocities many of them are carrying out on everyday citizens and, especially, monks.
Our campaign relies on internationally recognized athletes, actors, directors, writers and musicians to address what is happening today in Burma. We are running the spots on our Web site (www.fanista.com), as well as a host of other online distribution sites, trying to drive a million people to sign a virtual petition at www.burmaitcantwait.org.
We have just finished marking Passover, a holiday that demands of us to both celebrate our freedom and fight for the oppressed. It is incumbent on all of us who live in this great country, who have been blessed with the freedoms of democracy, religious tolerance and equal rights for all, to do anything we can to ensure that others -- be they within our own communities or on the other side of the world -- enjoy those same freedoms.
We are, as I heard Rabbi Elazar Muskin say over Pesach, a "people of hope." That sense of hope not only allows us to dream of a better and more just world but also obligates us to do what we can to make those conditions a reality. May all of our efforts help achieve those goals for Suu Kyi and the people of Burma and for all oppressed people, wherever they may be.
____________________
Dan Adler is the Founder and CEO of Fanista, which is co-producing and sponsoring the entire "Burma: It Can't Wait" campaign, in partnership with the Human Rights Action Center (www.humanrightsactioncenter.org) and the U.S. Campaign for Burma (www.uscampaignforburma.org).
Jewish Journal
Meeting over referendum continues in Waingmaw
By KNG
Mobilising the people for the forthcoming referendum to approve the constitution continues briskly by the Burmese military junta authorities in Waingmaw Township (Wai Maw) in Kachin State, northern Burma, a source said.
Waingmaw Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC or Ma-Ya-Ka) and members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) held a meeting on April 29 at the government primary school in Nam Wa village to get people to approve the draft constitution. Over 200 people above the age of 18 attended the meeting, a participant told KNG.
The meeting was called by U Min Kyi, USDA member and the head of the organizers for the referendum in Waingmaw, a participant added.
According to a participant, U Min Kyi told them that the drafted constitution was the best and it was not compiled by one person. It was put together by all the representatives of each state and division and it reflects the people's desire. Therefore, the people have to cast the "Yes" vote.
On the other hand, Salang Bawm Ying, a member of referendum commission also told the meeting in tribal language that this was not the time to explain the draft constitution. The people should go to the polling booths and cast the "Yes" vote.
The referendum meeting by the Waingmaw TPDC was also held in Washong village in Waingmaw Township the same day.
Mobilising the people for the forthcoming referendum to approve the constitution continues briskly by the Burmese military junta authorities in Waingmaw Township (Wai Maw) in Kachin State, northern Burma, a source said.
Waingmaw Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC or Ma-Ya-Ka) and members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) held a meeting on April 29 at the government primary school in Nam Wa village to get people to approve the draft constitution. Over 200 people above the age of 18 attended the meeting, a participant told KNG.
The meeting was called by U Min Kyi, USDA member and the head of the organizers for the referendum in Waingmaw, a participant added.
According to a participant, U Min Kyi told them that the drafted constitution was the best and it was not compiled by one person. It was put together by all the representatives of each state and division and it reflects the people's desire. Therefore, the people have to cast the "Yes" vote.
On the other hand, Salang Bawm Ying, a member of referendum commission also told the meeting in tribal language that this was not the time to explain the draft constitution. The people should go to the polling booths and cast the "Yes" vote.
The referendum meeting by the Waingmaw TPDC was also held in Washong village in Waingmaw Township the same day.
Burmese Biofuel Policy a Debacle: Report
By GRANT PECK / ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
The Irrawaddy News
A plan by Burma’s ruling military for large-scale growing of a promising but little-tested biofuel crop has turned into an agricultural debacle, activists linked with the exile-based opposition alleged in a report on Thursday.
The 48-page report, "Biofuel by Decree: Unmasking Burma's Bio-energy Fiasco," was produced by the Ethnic Community Development Forum, a self-described alliance of seven community development organizations from Burma.
Though not directly political, the groups are all associated with the exile-based opposition to Burma’s military government.
The fiercely critical report, which says the biofuel policy hurts an already ailing agriculture industry, comes as biofuels draw intense scrutiny over whether their benefits in replacing petroleum fuels offset the resources they take from food production.
The forum said the report is based on government documents and press accounts, as well as 131 interviews carried out in all seven states of Burma between November 2006 and April 2006.
"A draconian campaign by Burma's military to grow 8 million acres of the Jatropha curcas tree for biofuel production is resulting in forced labor and land confiscation throughout the country, while evidence of crop failure and mismanagement expose the program as a fiasco," alleges the report.
It recounts how the leader of the Burmese junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, in December 2005 publicly ordered the campaign to plant the jatropha crop—better known as physic nut.
The five-year plan was to plant the crop across 202,000 hectares of each state and division in the country, a total of 3,237,000 hectares—an area roughly the size of Belgium.
The report charges that "farmers, civil servants, teachers, schoolchildren, nurses and prisoners have been forced to purchase seeds, fulfill planting quotas and establish biofuel plantations in service to the 'national cause."'
"They must plant the trees along roadsides, in housing, school and hospital compounds, in cemeteries and religious grounds, and on lands formerly producing rice," it says.
It alleges that people "have been fined, beaten, and arrested for not participating," and that food security is being threatened because physic nut is being planted on land usually used for stable crops.
The crop has promise as a biofuel, with greater yields of oil per hectare than other biofuels and one-fifth the carbon emissions. But poor management has doomed efforts to use it in Burma, where the yield so far appears to have been too low to be of much use, the report says.
Some 800 refugees who fled to Thailand from Burma’s Shan State have even cited the program as the reason for fleeing their country, the report says.
"It will not be successful," said one farmer quoted in the report. "You see, the soldiers carry guns. They don't know anything about agriculture."
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has suggested biofuel crops may be causing shortages of food staples and rises in food prices.
An e-mailed request for comment sent to the Burmese government spokesperson was not answered before release of the report.
However, in January 2006, according to the report, Agriculture Minister Col Aung Thaung said the production of physic nut for biodiesel was the only way Burma could cope with a chronic oil shortage.
Burma in the past few years has become a major producer of natural gas, but lacks the infrastructure to make efficient use of it and instead exports it for desperately needed foreign reserves.
The Irrawaddy News
A plan by Burma’s ruling military for large-scale growing of a promising but little-tested biofuel crop has turned into an agricultural debacle, activists linked with the exile-based opposition alleged in a report on Thursday.
The 48-page report, "Biofuel by Decree: Unmasking Burma's Bio-energy Fiasco," was produced by the Ethnic Community Development Forum, a self-described alliance of seven community development organizations from Burma.
Though not directly political, the groups are all associated with the exile-based opposition to Burma’s military government.
The fiercely critical report, which says the biofuel policy hurts an already ailing agriculture industry, comes as biofuels draw intense scrutiny over whether their benefits in replacing petroleum fuels offset the resources they take from food production.
The forum said the report is based on government documents and press accounts, as well as 131 interviews carried out in all seven states of Burma between November 2006 and April 2006.
"A draconian campaign by Burma's military to grow 8 million acres of the Jatropha curcas tree for biofuel production is resulting in forced labor and land confiscation throughout the country, while evidence of crop failure and mismanagement expose the program as a fiasco," alleges the report.
It recounts how the leader of the Burmese junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, in December 2005 publicly ordered the campaign to plant the jatropha crop—better known as physic nut.
The five-year plan was to plant the crop across 202,000 hectares of each state and division in the country, a total of 3,237,000 hectares—an area roughly the size of Belgium.
The report charges that "farmers, civil servants, teachers, schoolchildren, nurses and prisoners have been forced to purchase seeds, fulfill planting quotas and establish biofuel plantations in service to the 'national cause."'
"They must plant the trees along roadsides, in housing, school and hospital compounds, in cemeteries and religious grounds, and on lands formerly producing rice," it says.
It alleges that people "have been fined, beaten, and arrested for not participating," and that food security is being threatened because physic nut is being planted on land usually used for stable crops.
The crop has promise as a biofuel, with greater yields of oil per hectare than other biofuels and one-fifth the carbon emissions. But poor management has doomed efforts to use it in Burma, where the yield so far appears to have been too low to be of much use, the report says.
Some 800 refugees who fled to Thailand from Burma’s Shan State have even cited the program as the reason for fleeing their country, the report says.
"It will not be successful," said one farmer quoted in the report. "You see, the soldiers carry guns. They don't know anything about agriculture."
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has suggested biofuel crops may be causing shortages of food staples and rises in food prices.
An e-mailed request for comment sent to the Burmese government spokesperson was not answered before release of the report.
However, in January 2006, according to the report, Agriculture Minister Col Aung Thaung said the production of physic nut for biodiesel was the only way Burma could cope with a chronic oil shortage.
Burma in the past few years has become a major producer of natural gas, but lacks the infrastructure to make efficient use of it and instead exports it for desperately needed foreign reserves.
Than Shwe Urges Workers to Vote ‘Yes’
The Irrawaddy News-AP
Burma's junta chief urged workers on Thursday to approve a draft constitution in the upcoming referendum while the main opposition party implored them to reject the document, which critics call a sham intended to cement military rule.
In his May Day message appearing in The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, Snr-Gen Than Shwe said workers should approve the proposed charter in the May 10 referendum because labor groups participated in drafting it.
The charter "was drawn in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the National Convention, which was participated in by delegates of workers," Than Shwe was quoted as saying in the state-run newspaper.
A military-managed national convention was held intermittently for 14 years to lay down guidelines for the country's new constitution. The junta's hand-picked delegates included those representing workers.
The new constitution is supposed to be followed in 2010 by a general election. Both votes are elements of a "roadmap to democracy" drawn up by the junta.
Meanwhile, the country's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, urged workers and farmers to vote against the draft.
"The proposed constitution mentions very little about the rights of workers and farmers," the NLD statement said.
The NLD earlier said the draft charter was written unilaterally by those hand-picked by the military government and would not guarantee democratic and human rights.
Dissidents inside the country as well as exiled groups have urged voters to reject the constitution, saying it is merely a ploy to perpetuate more than four decades of military rule.
Opponents have staged scattered, mostly low-profile protests against the draft charter, but harassment of pro-democracy activists and restrictions on freedom of speech have made a mass movement difficult.
The government has launched an aggressive campaign in the state-controlled media with songs, cartoons, articles and slogans urging voters to approve the constitution.
The draft constitution guarantees 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military and allows the president to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency.
It also bans anyone who has enjoyed the rights and privileges of a foreign county from holding public office—a rule that would keep Suu Kyi out of government because her late husband was British.
Suu Kyi, the leader of the NLD, is under house arrest and has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years.
Burma held its previous general election in 1990. Suu Kyi's party won, but the military refused to hand over power.
The international community increased pressure on the junta after it violently quashed peaceful mass protests last September. At least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained.
Burma's junta chief urged workers on Thursday to approve a draft constitution in the upcoming referendum while the main opposition party implored them to reject the document, which critics call a sham intended to cement military rule.
In his May Day message appearing in The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, Snr-Gen Than Shwe said workers should approve the proposed charter in the May 10 referendum because labor groups participated in drafting it.
The charter "was drawn in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the National Convention, which was participated in by delegates of workers," Than Shwe was quoted as saying in the state-run newspaper.
A military-managed national convention was held intermittently for 14 years to lay down guidelines for the country's new constitution. The junta's hand-picked delegates included those representing workers.
The new constitution is supposed to be followed in 2010 by a general election. Both votes are elements of a "roadmap to democracy" drawn up by the junta.
Meanwhile, the country's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, urged workers and farmers to vote against the draft.
"The proposed constitution mentions very little about the rights of workers and farmers," the NLD statement said.
The NLD earlier said the draft charter was written unilaterally by those hand-picked by the military government and would not guarantee democratic and human rights.
Dissidents inside the country as well as exiled groups have urged voters to reject the constitution, saying it is merely a ploy to perpetuate more than four decades of military rule.
Opponents have staged scattered, mostly low-profile protests against the draft charter, but harassment of pro-democracy activists and restrictions on freedom of speech have made a mass movement difficult.
The government has launched an aggressive campaign in the state-controlled media with songs, cartoons, articles and slogans urging voters to approve the constitution.
The draft constitution guarantees 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military and allows the president to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency.
It also bans anyone who has enjoyed the rights and privileges of a foreign county from holding public office—a rule that would keep Suu Kyi out of government because her late husband was British.
Suu Kyi, the leader of the NLD, is under house arrest and has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years.
Burma held its previous general election in 1990. Suu Kyi's party won, but the military refused to hand over power.
The international community increased pressure on the junta after it violently quashed peaceful mass protests last September. At least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained.
Burma's Political Transition Needs People Power
By MIN ZIN
The Irrawaddy News
The notion of political transition initiated by a country’s elite has been a dominant discourse in Burmese politics since the late 1990s. The model advocates that a peaceful transition can be facilitated by negotiations between the regime’s “doves” and opposition moderates. It would involve the opposition initiating a concrete proposal to the military in order to persuade the latter to sit at the negotiating table.
This political strategy gained currency in the early 2000s since it coincided with the political ascendancy of former Intelligence Chief Gen Khin Nyunt. At the time, talks between opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta seemed to offer a glimmer of hope. However, simultaneously, the opposition movement was losing its strength in "people power" campaigns, such as the unsuccessful Four Nines (September 9, 1999) Mass Movement, and in armed struggles due to ethnic armies signing ceasefire agreements and the fall of the Karen National Union stronghold in 1992.
Any optimism in Burmese politics is never sustained for long. However, the transitional model remained popular as the only way out for the Burmese people. Proponents claimed there was "No alternative!"
"Many diplomats who we met always encouraged and even pressured us to initiate a proposal to the regime," said Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). "In fact the party has always called for dialogue and has always been ready to negotiate."
In early 2006, the NLD proposed a transitional plan urging the junta to convene parliament with the winners of the 1990 elections in return for giving the regime recognition as an interim executive power holder. Though the party's call for a negotiated transition was rejected by the regime, the opposition forces—including the 92 MP-elects from the 1990 election and notable veteran politicians—continued to offer flexible transitional packages to the junta. None of them worked.
The proponents of the transition model often downplay the role of public action and mass movement. Some believe it will not happen because more than 20 percent of the population has been born since the uprising in 1988 and are therefore much less affected by the people’s power movement of those times. Others worry that mass movement could be counterproductive to a possible negotiated transition—often the momentum of a protesting crowd will spiral out of control and threaten the careful process of negotiation. They all conclude that the army doesn't respond to public pressure.
Then, all of the sudden, the September protests broke out. The so-called “experts” and “policymakers” failed to see it coming. In the wake of the crackdown, UN-led mediation efforts were revived and Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his generals, once again, were called on to sit at the negotiating table. And once again they declined.
The question now to the advocates of the elite-driven transition model is what to do when the regime refuses to negotiate with the opposition? What it is to be done when the military insist on a referendum to approve a constitution that will allow the perpetuation of military rule in the country?
Almost all supporters of the model say the people of Burma must accept whatever offer the junta makes. They say "something is better than nothing." Some suggested using the generals’ flawed model of democracy as a starting point from which to pursue a more acceptable long-term solution.
"We must give consideration to possible generation change within the military," said Harn Yawnghwe, a well-know lobbyist and director of the Brussels-based Euro-Burma office. "The new blood of the army must have options available on the table when their time comes. This constitution and referendum, though they are flawed, can give reform options to a new generation of military officers. It will create a new dynamic for the country to get out of the current deadlock."
That’s why many advocates of the elite-initiated transition advise the Burmese public to accept the constitution and hope it will lead to amendments with the objective of the military's gradual withdrawal from politics at a later period.
Tun Myint Aung, a leader of 88 Generation Students group, disagrees.
"It is such disgraceful advice. The so-called experts and policy makers are pushing our people to live in slavery," he said from his hideout in Burma. "We do not accept the military's constitution; not because we don't want gradual transition, but because the constitution is too rigid to make any change possible. The military holds a veto over any amendments."
Critics said it is now clear—after a series of rejected proposals from oppositions groups and the UN—that rather than political carrots, it is much more likely that effective public action will compel the new military generation to choose the path to reform.
"Unless a mass movement challenges the corrupted military leadership, divisions within the military will not surface," said Kyaw Kyaw, head of the Political Defiant Committee under the National Council of Union of Burma, the umbrella opposition group in exile. "Besides lacking local and international legitimacy, the corrupt leadership is now losing its loyalty from within military ranks since the September protest. In a historical Burmese context, public action, or mass movement, has played a decisive role ever since the struggle for independence to the 1988 democracy uprising to the monk-led protests last September. It will continue to do so until we gain a genuine resolution."
In fact, only when mass movement with strategic leadership rises up against the current military top brass, then the elite’s calculations, regime defection and international pressure will become relevant issues in facilitating a negotiated transition. In other words, political transition is not likely to take place within a framework of proposed constitutional means. Even amendments to the constitution with the hope of gradual reform will not be possible within a military-dominated parliamentary debate. It will happen only when the people challenge the status quo with public pressure.
However, although mass action is believed to be necessary to bring about change in Burma, its inherent dangers mean the possibility of its success remains a big question.
"The calls for public action are getting louder since the prospect of elite-initiated negotiation became impossible," said Nyan Win. "If the regime rigs the referendum result, it could spark mass protests."
A recent history of democratization shows that vote-rigging and stealing elections create favorable conditions and the opportunity for the outbreak of a democratic uprising or, in a worst case scenario, violence.
In fact, vote rigging might not only trigger public outrage in Burma, but also test the loyalty of the regime's staff. It could create divisions and weaken the standing of Than Shwe, who is solely responsible for the decision to move ahead with the unilateral implementation of the current political process by ignoring the UN's call for inclusiveness.
Whether or not public action leads to a negotiated transition depends on the opposition's leadership. No process of democratization has evolved purely and solely from a civil movement or people’s uprising.
It would nevertheless be shortsighted to exclude the role and power of the people in a Burmese political context where elite-driven transition is no longer relevant.
The Irrawaddy News
The notion of political transition initiated by a country’s elite has been a dominant discourse in Burmese politics since the late 1990s. The model advocates that a peaceful transition can be facilitated by negotiations between the regime’s “doves” and opposition moderates. It would involve the opposition initiating a concrete proposal to the military in order to persuade the latter to sit at the negotiating table.
This political strategy gained currency in the early 2000s since it coincided with the political ascendancy of former Intelligence Chief Gen Khin Nyunt. At the time, talks between opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta seemed to offer a glimmer of hope. However, simultaneously, the opposition movement was losing its strength in "people power" campaigns, such as the unsuccessful Four Nines (September 9, 1999) Mass Movement, and in armed struggles due to ethnic armies signing ceasefire agreements and the fall of the Karen National Union stronghold in 1992.
Any optimism in Burmese politics is never sustained for long. However, the transitional model remained popular as the only way out for the Burmese people. Proponents claimed there was "No alternative!"
"Many diplomats who we met always encouraged and even pressured us to initiate a proposal to the regime," said Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). "In fact the party has always called for dialogue and has always been ready to negotiate."
In early 2006, the NLD proposed a transitional plan urging the junta to convene parliament with the winners of the 1990 elections in return for giving the regime recognition as an interim executive power holder. Though the party's call for a negotiated transition was rejected by the regime, the opposition forces—including the 92 MP-elects from the 1990 election and notable veteran politicians—continued to offer flexible transitional packages to the junta. None of them worked.
The proponents of the transition model often downplay the role of public action and mass movement. Some believe it will not happen because more than 20 percent of the population has been born since the uprising in 1988 and are therefore much less affected by the people’s power movement of those times. Others worry that mass movement could be counterproductive to a possible negotiated transition—often the momentum of a protesting crowd will spiral out of control and threaten the careful process of negotiation. They all conclude that the army doesn't respond to public pressure.
Then, all of the sudden, the September protests broke out. The so-called “experts” and “policymakers” failed to see it coming. In the wake of the crackdown, UN-led mediation efforts were revived and Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his generals, once again, were called on to sit at the negotiating table. And once again they declined.
The question now to the advocates of the elite-driven transition model is what to do when the regime refuses to negotiate with the opposition? What it is to be done when the military insist on a referendum to approve a constitution that will allow the perpetuation of military rule in the country?
Almost all supporters of the model say the people of Burma must accept whatever offer the junta makes. They say "something is better than nothing." Some suggested using the generals’ flawed model of democracy as a starting point from which to pursue a more acceptable long-term solution.
"We must give consideration to possible generation change within the military," said Harn Yawnghwe, a well-know lobbyist and director of the Brussels-based Euro-Burma office. "The new blood of the army must have options available on the table when their time comes. This constitution and referendum, though they are flawed, can give reform options to a new generation of military officers. It will create a new dynamic for the country to get out of the current deadlock."
That’s why many advocates of the elite-initiated transition advise the Burmese public to accept the constitution and hope it will lead to amendments with the objective of the military's gradual withdrawal from politics at a later period.
Tun Myint Aung, a leader of 88 Generation Students group, disagrees.
"It is such disgraceful advice. The so-called experts and policy makers are pushing our people to live in slavery," he said from his hideout in Burma. "We do not accept the military's constitution; not because we don't want gradual transition, but because the constitution is too rigid to make any change possible. The military holds a veto over any amendments."
Critics said it is now clear—after a series of rejected proposals from oppositions groups and the UN—that rather than political carrots, it is much more likely that effective public action will compel the new military generation to choose the path to reform.
"Unless a mass movement challenges the corrupted military leadership, divisions within the military will not surface," said Kyaw Kyaw, head of the Political Defiant Committee under the National Council of Union of Burma, the umbrella opposition group in exile. "Besides lacking local and international legitimacy, the corrupt leadership is now losing its loyalty from within military ranks since the September protest. In a historical Burmese context, public action, or mass movement, has played a decisive role ever since the struggle for independence to the 1988 democracy uprising to the monk-led protests last September. It will continue to do so until we gain a genuine resolution."
In fact, only when mass movement with strategic leadership rises up against the current military top brass, then the elite’s calculations, regime defection and international pressure will become relevant issues in facilitating a negotiated transition. In other words, political transition is not likely to take place within a framework of proposed constitutional means. Even amendments to the constitution with the hope of gradual reform will not be possible within a military-dominated parliamentary debate. It will happen only when the people challenge the status quo with public pressure.
However, although mass action is believed to be necessary to bring about change in Burma, its inherent dangers mean the possibility of its success remains a big question.
"The calls for public action are getting louder since the prospect of elite-initiated negotiation became impossible," said Nyan Win. "If the regime rigs the referendum result, it could spark mass protests."
A recent history of democratization shows that vote-rigging and stealing elections create favorable conditions and the opportunity for the outbreak of a democratic uprising or, in a worst case scenario, violence.
In fact, vote rigging might not only trigger public outrage in Burma, but also test the loyalty of the regime's staff. It could create divisions and weaken the standing of Than Shwe, who is solely responsible for the decision to move ahead with the unilateral implementation of the current political process by ignoring the UN's call for inclusiveness.
Whether or not public action leads to a negotiated transition depends on the opposition's leadership. No process of democratization has evolved purely and solely from a civil movement or people’s uprising.
It would nevertheless be shortsighted to exclude the role and power of the people in a Burmese political context where elite-driven transition is no longer relevant.
UNLD Calls for Referendum Boycott
By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News
While many political campaigners in Burma are calling for a “No” vote in the forthcoming referendum, the United Nationalities League for Democracy (UNLD) is calling for a complete boycott of the polls on May 10.
Leaders of the UNLD, a Rangoon-based umbrella organization of political parties representing ethnic minority peoples, said that casting a vote in the constitutional referendum is a form of following the regime's orders and supporting their "Seven-step road map" to democracy.
Speaking with The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Thawng Kho Thang, a senior member of the UNLD and the Committee Representing People’s Parliament (CRPP), said: “As we never supported the ‘Seven-step road map,’ why should we go and vote? If we cast a vote, it means we support Step Four of the road map. So, we won’t go and cast a vote in the referendum.”
The national referendum is the fourth step on the junta’s so-called “Seven-step road map” toward democracy in Burma. The junta has also announced the fifth step of the road map—multi-party elections in 2010.
Thawng Kho Thang said that no leader or member of the UNLD will cast a vote in the national referendum. The group called for a boycott of the referendum on May 10 and urged Burmese citizens to join the boycott.
Senior leaders of the UNLD also include: Aye Tha Aung, the chairman of the Arakan League for Democracy and the secretary of the CRPP; Thar Ban of the Arakan League for Democracy; and veteran politician Aung Tin Oo.
Thawng Kho Thang said that even if a majority of Burmese citizens vote “No” in the referendum, the junta will try to legitimize the draft constitution somehow.
The UNLD leader also said that the military regime was holding the national referendum too early after releasing the draft of the constitution, which gave voters insufficient time to read the 194-page document. He said many citizens were unclear about the new constitution and didn’t know whether to support it or oppose it.
"The junta should allow another two years for people to study the constitution,” he added. “If possible, they should translate the draft constitution into ethnic languages, because some ethnic minority people can’t read Burmese."
Thawng Kho Thang predicted that the majority of Burmese citizens would vote “Yes” in the referendum out of fear of repercussions from the security forces.
He also criticized the National League for Democracy, saying that the opposition party did not launch its “Vote No” campaign widely enough in Burma nor seek to educate people about the junta's constitution.
UNLD senior member Aye Thar Aung also confirmed that he would not participate in the May 10 referendum. He said that to solve the conflict in Burma, the military regime should create a genuine dialogue with the opposition parties—not hold a constitutional referendum.
The UNLD leaders condemned the draft constitution as a one-sided document written by the military generals alone, which lacked the suggestions of the 1990 elected members of the CRPP.
Meanwhile, Rangoon-based veteran politician Amyotheryei Win Naing suggested that Burmese citizens should seriously consider casting a vote on May 10 based on two points.
He said that if 32 million people are eligible to vote in the referendum, then a turnout of 16 million plus one person would legitimize the referendum.
If half of the participants, 8 million plus one person, vote “Yes,” the draft constitution would be legitimized, he said.
“If people don’t vote, the junta cannot legitimize the draft constitution,” Amyotheryei Win Naing said in a letter received by The Irrawaddy on Thursday.
The Irrawaddy News
While many political campaigners in Burma are calling for a “No” vote in the forthcoming referendum, the United Nationalities League for Democracy (UNLD) is calling for a complete boycott of the polls on May 10.
Leaders of the UNLD, a Rangoon-based umbrella organization of political parties representing ethnic minority peoples, said that casting a vote in the constitutional referendum is a form of following the regime's orders and supporting their "Seven-step road map" to democracy.
Speaking with The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Thawng Kho Thang, a senior member of the UNLD and the Committee Representing People’s Parliament (CRPP), said: “As we never supported the ‘Seven-step road map,’ why should we go and vote? If we cast a vote, it means we support Step Four of the road map. So, we won’t go and cast a vote in the referendum.”
The national referendum is the fourth step on the junta’s so-called “Seven-step road map” toward democracy in Burma. The junta has also announced the fifth step of the road map—multi-party elections in 2010.
Thawng Kho Thang said that no leader or member of the UNLD will cast a vote in the national referendum. The group called for a boycott of the referendum on May 10 and urged Burmese citizens to join the boycott.
Senior leaders of the UNLD also include: Aye Tha Aung, the chairman of the Arakan League for Democracy and the secretary of the CRPP; Thar Ban of the Arakan League for Democracy; and veteran politician Aung Tin Oo.
Thawng Kho Thang said that even if a majority of Burmese citizens vote “No” in the referendum, the junta will try to legitimize the draft constitution somehow.
The UNLD leader also said that the military regime was holding the national referendum too early after releasing the draft of the constitution, which gave voters insufficient time to read the 194-page document. He said many citizens were unclear about the new constitution and didn’t know whether to support it or oppose it.
"The junta should allow another two years for people to study the constitution,” he added. “If possible, they should translate the draft constitution into ethnic languages, because some ethnic minority people can’t read Burmese."
Thawng Kho Thang predicted that the majority of Burmese citizens would vote “Yes” in the referendum out of fear of repercussions from the security forces.
He also criticized the National League for Democracy, saying that the opposition party did not launch its “Vote No” campaign widely enough in Burma nor seek to educate people about the junta's constitution.
UNLD senior member Aye Thar Aung also confirmed that he would not participate in the May 10 referendum. He said that to solve the conflict in Burma, the military regime should create a genuine dialogue with the opposition parties—not hold a constitutional referendum.
The UNLD leaders condemned the draft constitution as a one-sided document written by the military generals alone, which lacked the suggestions of the 1990 elected members of the CRPP.
Meanwhile, Rangoon-based veteran politician Amyotheryei Win Naing suggested that Burmese citizens should seriously consider casting a vote on May 10 based on two points.
He said that if 32 million people are eligible to vote in the referendum, then a turnout of 16 million plus one person would legitimize the referendum.
If half of the participants, 8 million plus one person, vote “Yes,” the draft constitution would be legitimized, he said.
“If people don’t vote, the junta cannot legitimize the draft constitution,” Amyotheryei Win Naing said in a letter received by The Irrawaddy on Thursday.
'Burma Referendum A Shame'
Special Correspondent
Guwahati, Northeast India: The May 10 referendum on a new constitution in Burma has been termed as a shame process aimed at entrenching the military by the Human Rights Watch. The New York based rights body in a statement on May 1 asserted that the conditions for a free and fair referendum do not exist in Burma because of widespread repression, including arrests of opposition activists, media censorship, bans on political meetings and gatherings, the lack of an independent referendum commission and courts to supervise the vote, and a pervasive climate of fear created by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) in the run-up to the referendum.
"The Burmese generals are showing their true colors by continuing to arrest anyone opposed to their sham referendum, and denying the population the right to a public discussion of the merits of the draft constitution," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "International acceptance of this process will be a big step backward."
The 61-page report, "Vote to Nowhere: The May 2008 Constitutional Referendum in Burma," shows that the referendum is being carried out in an environment of severe restrictions on access to information, repressive media restrictions, an almost total ban on freedom of expression, assembly, and association, and the continuing widespread detention of political activists. It highlights recent government arrests, harassment and attacks on activists opposed to the draft constitution.
Since the announcement of the referendum in February 2008, the Burmese military government has stepped up its repression, detaining those expressing opposition to the draft constitution. For example, on March 30 and April 1, security forces detained a total of seven opposition activists who had held a peaceful protest wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the word "No" in Rangoon. Throughout Burma, similarly peaceful protests are immediately broken up by the authorities. The Thailand-based Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners in Burma reported that over 70 Burmese activists have been arrested trying to stage demonstrations in Burma between April 25-28.
The SPDC's wide use of spies and informants severely limits the ability of people to speak freely even when talking with friends in teahouses or private homes. Any gathering of more than five people is banned in Burma, and even solitary peaceful protesters face imprisonment.
SPDC-backed groups routinely threaten violence against members of the leading opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). In April 2008, such groups allegedly were responsible for physical attacks on NLD officials and human rights activists.
The draft constitution, a 194-page document only available in Burmese and English, was released just a month before the referendum. Many Burmese citizens are ethnic minorities who do not speak Burmese or English, and so have no ability to read the draft.
"You can't hold a free and fair referendum when you deny every basic right to your people," Adams said. "The generals expect the Burmese people to just shut up, follow their orders, and approve the draft constitution without any discussion or debate. That's not exactly how democracies are born."
The referendum is taking place just months after the Burmese junta violently crushed massive nationwide pro-democracy protests in September 2007, documented in the Human Rights Watch report, "Crackdown: Repression of the 2007 Popular Protests in Burma." The brutal crackdown drew international condemnation and renewed pressure on the government to end its repression and bring about real democratic reform. Apparently in response, the SPDC accelerated its "seven-step path to democracy" and announced the referendum.
The draft constitution emerged from the 14-year-long National Convention. The National Convention was a tightly controlled, repressive, and undemocratic process that excluded the vast majority of the representatives elected in the annulled 1990 parliamentary elections. Any statement to be made at the National Convention had to be pre-approved and censored by the military-controlled Convening Commission. Criticism of the National Convention was punishable by prison sentences of up to 20 years. Two delegates were sentenced to 15- and 20-year prison terms respectively, simply for disseminating speeches delivered at the convention.
The new report analyzes key elements of the draft constitution, demonstrating that it seeks to entrench military rule and limit the role of independent political parties. Under the draft constitution, the commander-in-chief will appoint military officers for a quarter of all seats in both houses of parliament, and the military has even broader representation in the selection of the president and two vice-presidents.
The draft constitution treats political parties with open hostility: draconian restrictions exclude many opposition politicians from running for office, and a custom-drafted clause prevents NLD opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from holding any elected office because she is the widow of a foreigner. The draft constitution makes it virtually impossible to amend these clauses, because more than three-quarters of the members of both houses of parliament need to approve any amendment. Given that the military holds at least one quarter of the seats – they can also run for any "open seats," so their representation will be significantly higher – it holds an effective veto.
Human Rights Watch called on the international community not to give any credibility to the referendum process, and to firmly insist on real reform from Burma's military rulers. The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his special envoy on Burma have a particular responsibility to speak out clearly and forcefully and make it clear that only a referendum that meets international standards will be recognized.
"This referendum and the draft constitution it seeks to impose on the Burmese people are designed to forever entrench more of the same abusive rule that Burma has endured for nearly half a century already," said Adams. "The Burmese junta's friends, including China, India, and Thailand, should not give any credibility to this process. If they do, it will simply expose them to ridicule for having said they were committed to democratic change in Burma."
Supporting: Narinjara News
Guwahati, Northeast India: The May 10 referendum on a new constitution in Burma has been termed as a shame process aimed at entrenching the military by the Human Rights Watch. The New York based rights body in a statement on May 1 asserted that the conditions for a free and fair referendum do not exist in Burma because of widespread repression, including arrests of opposition activists, media censorship, bans on political meetings and gatherings, the lack of an independent referendum commission and courts to supervise the vote, and a pervasive climate of fear created by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) in the run-up to the referendum.
"The Burmese generals are showing their true colors by continuing to arrest anyone opposed to their sham referendum, and denying the population the right to a public discussion of the merits of the draft constitution," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "International acceptance of this process will be a big step backward."
The 61-page report, "Vote to Nowhere: The May 2008 Constitutional Referendum in Burma," shows that the referendum is being carried out in an environment of severe restrictions on access to information, repressive media restrictions, an almost total ban on freedom of expression, assembly, and association, and the continuing widespread detention of political activists. It highlights recent government arrests, harassment and attacks on activists opposed to the draft constitution.
Since the announcement of the referendum in February 2008, the Burmese military government has stepped up its repression, detaining those expressing opposition to the draft constitution. For example, on March 30 and April 1, security forces detained a total of seven opposition activists who had held a peaceful protest wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the word "No" in Rangoon. Throughout Burma, similarly peaceful protests are immediately broken up by the authorities. The Thailand-based Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners in Burma reported that over 70 Burmese activists have been arrested trying to stage demonstrations in Burma between April 25-28.
The SPDC's wide use of spies and informants severely limits the ability of people to speak freely even when talking with friends in teahouses or private homes. Any gathering of more than five people is banned in Burma, and even solitary peaceful protesters face imprisonment.
SPDC-backed groups routinely threaten violence against members of the leading opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). In April 2008, such groups allegedly were responsible for physical attacks on NLD officials and human rights activists.
The draft constitution, a 194-page document only available in Burmese and English, was released just a month before the referendum. Many Burmese citizens are ethnic minorities who do not speak Burmese or English, and so have no ability to read the draft.
"You can't hold a free and fair referendum when you deny every basic right to your people," Adams said. "The generals expect the Burmese people to just shut up, follow their orders, and approve the draft constitution without any discussion or debate. That's not exactly how democracies are born."
The referendum is taking place just months after the Burmese junta violently crushed massive nationwide pro-democracy protests in September 2007, documented in the Human Rights Watch report, "Crackdown: Repression of the 2007 Popular Protests in Burma." The brutal crackdown drew international condemnation and renewed pressure on the government to end its repression and bring about real democratic reform. Apparently in response, the SPDC accelerated its "seven-step path to democracy" and announced the referendum.
The draft constitution emerged from the 14-year-long National Convention. The National Convention was a tightly controlled, repressive, and undemocratic process that excluded the vast majority of the representatives elected in the annulled 1990 parliamentary elections. Any statement to be made at the National Convention had to be pre-approved and censored by the military-controlled Convening Commission. Criticism of the National Convention was punishable by prison sentences of up to 20 years. Two delegates were sentenced to 15- and 20-year prison terms respectively, simply for disseminating speeches delivered at the convention.
The new report analyzes key elements of the draft constitution, demonstrating that it seeks to entrench military rule and limit the role of independent political parties. Under the draft constitution, the commander-in-chief will appoint military officers for a quarter of all seats in both houses of parliament, and the military has even broader representation in the selection of the president and two vice-presidents.
The draft constitution treats political parties with open hostility: draconian restrictions exclude many opposition politicians from running for office, and a custom-drafted clause prevents NLD opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from holding any elected office because she is the widow of a foreigner. The draft constitution makes it virtually impossible to amend these clauses, because more than three-quarters of the members of both houses of parliament need to approve any amendment. Given that the military holds at least one quarter of the seats – they can also run for any "open seats," so their representation will be significantly higher – it holds an effective veto.
Human Rights Watch called on the international community not to give any credibility to the referendum process, and to firmly insist on real reform from Burma's military rulers. The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his special envoy on Burma have a particular responsibility to speak out clearly and forcefully and make it clear that only a referendum that meets international standards will be recognized.
"This referendum and the draft constitution it seeks to impose on the Burmese people are designed to forever entrench more of the same abusive rule that Burma has endured for nearly half a century already," said Adams. "The Burmese junta's friends, including China, India, and Thailand, should not give any credibility to this process. If they do, it will simply expose them to ridicule for having said they were committed to democratic change in Burma."
Supporting: Narinjara News
USDA Member Stabbed to Death
Sittwe: A member of the USDA, or Union Solidarity Development Association, in Sittwe, Arakan State, died at the Sittwe hospital on 20 April from injuries sustained in a knife attack, reports a town resident.
The victim has been identified as Ko Maung Maung, 26 years old, from Singu Land Ward in Sittwe. He was a close associate of Arakan State USDA General Secretary U Kyaw Yin.
The incident took place on a ferry ship that was harbored at Sittwe's inland water transportation jetty on the day of April 20.
An 18-year-old youth named Ko Kyaw Win reportedly stabbed Maung Maung with a knife during a quarrel over the matter of the transportation of goods to Buthidaung from Sittwe via the ferry ship.
Maung Maung was a supervisor of goods transportation on the waterway from Sittwe to Buthidaung, and had been appointed to his position by U Kyaw Yin.
U Kyaw Yin has received several good business opportunities from the Burmese military government, among them the control of the transportation of goods between Sittwe and Buthidaung.
Many USDA members have been appointed by U Kyaw Yin as workers in the transportation sector, and the USDA members are known to harass ordinary travelers and traders and collect large tolls for transportation services.
It is believed that Ko Kyaw Win stabbed Ko Maung Maung on board the ship out of frustration with this harassment and extortion.
Supporting: Narinjara News
The victim has been identified as Ko Maung Maung, 26 years old, from Singu Land Ward in Sittwe. He was a close associate of Arakan State USDA General Secretary U Kyaw Yin.
The incident took place on a ferry ship that was harbored at Sittwe's inland water transportation jetty on the day of April 20.
An 18-year-old youth named Ko Kyaw Win reportedly stabbed Maung Maung with a knife during a quarrel over the matter of the transportation of goods to Buthidaung from Sittwe via the ferry ship.
Maung Maung was a supervisor of goods transportation on the waterway from Sittwe to Buthidaung, and had been appointed to his position by U Kyaw Yin.
U Kyaw Yin has received several good business opportunities from the Burmese military government, among them the control of the transportation of goods between Sittwe and Buthidaung.
Many USDA members have been appointed by U Kyaw Yin as workers in the transportation sector, and the USDA members are known to harass ordinary travelers and traders and collect large tolls for transportation services.
It is believed that Ko Kyaw Win stabbed Ko Maung Maung on board the ship out of frustration with this harassment and extortion.
Supporting: Narinjara News
U.S. widens sanctions on Myanmar
WASHINGTON (Reuters-IHT): President George W. Bush said Thursday that he had ordered a new round of sanctions on state companies in Myanmar to pressure the military leadership there over human rights abuses and to push for political change.
"Today I've issued a new executive order that instructs the Treasury Department to freeze the assets of Burmese state-owned companies that are major sources of funds that prop up the junta."
The sanctions were targeted at companies and industries that produce timber, pearls and gems. They mark the latest effort by Bush to ratchet up pressure on Myanmar after its crackdown against pro-democracy protesters last September.
"Today I'm sending yet another clear message that we expect there to be change and we expect generals to honor the will of the people," Bush said.
The Treasury Department has already imposed sanctions on Myanmar's private companies and military leaders.
Myanmar last held elections in 1990, but ignored the results when the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has spent more than 12 of the past 18 years under some form of detention.
The current junta has scheduled a referendum on May 10 as a critical stage in a seven-step "road-map to democracy" that should culminate in multi-party elections in 2010, as a replacement to the absolute power wielded by the army since a 1962 coup.
Human Rights Watch has said that at least 20 people were killed in the crackdown on protesters last September, but Western governments say the toll may have been much higher.
"Today I've issued a new executive order that instructs the Treasury Department to freeze the assets of Burmese state-owned companies that are major sources of funds that prop up the junta."
The sanctions were targeted at companies and industries that produce timber, pearls and gems. They mark the latest effort by Bush to ratchet up pressure on Myanmar after its crackdown against pro-democracy protesters last September.
"Today I'm sending yet another clear message that we expect there to be change and we expect generals to honor the will of the people," Bush said.
The Treasury Department has already imposed sanctions on Myanmar's private companies and military leaders.
Myanmar last held elections in 1990, but ignored the results when the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has spent more than 12 of the past 18 years under some form of detention.
The current junta has scheduled a referendum on May 10 as a critical stage in a seven-step "road-map to democracy" that should culminate in multi-party elections in 2010, as a replacement to the absolute power wielded by the army since a 1962 coup.
Human Rights Watch has said that at least 20 people were killed in the crackdown on protesters last September, but Western governments say the toll may have been much higher.
Burma's army digs in
By Peter Janssen, dpa
Bangkok Post
When Burmese vote in a May 10 referendum on the country's new constitution, they will be getting a bitter foretaste of the "discipline-flourishing democracy" the military has in store for them.
The referendum, Burma's third in the past five decades, will theoretically decide the fate of the country's new charter, a document that promises to cement the dominant role of the military in Burmese politics following the next general election, planned in 2010.
In fact, the outcome of the referendum is a foregone conclusion, according to veteran Burma watchers.
"It's going to be a yes vote," said Naing Aung Oo, a former Burmese student activist who was forced to flee the country in the aftermath of the 1988 anti-military protests. "There are two reasons, one is intimidation and the other reason is the high probability of rigging the vote," he explained.
The military junta, calling itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has left little up to free choice in the upcoming referendum.
The generals no doubt learned their lesson from the 1990 election, which, contrary to their expectations and planning, the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, won by a landslide.
Despite their electoral victory, the NLD was blocked from power on the military's argument that a new constitution was needed before civilian rule could be risked in Burma, a country suffering from a long history of ethnic-based insurgencies and separatist struggles.
The referendum on the constitution, which took 14 years to draft, was announced in February, amid intensifying international pressure on the Burmese military regime to demonstrate its sincerity in moving towards some form of democratic system in the aftermath of its latest crackdown on its own people in September of last year, when the government brutally suppressed protests led by Buddhist monks.
In the same month, but less publicly, the regime also announced a new law that punishes anyone caught publicly criticizing the referendum with a three-year jail term and a fine.
The law has been readily enforced. Between March and April scores of activists have been detained for holding peaceful protests urging a "No" vote on the referendum, including five members of National League for Democracy (NLD) who participated in a peaceful protest in Rangoon, according Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The New York-based rights group said conditions for a free and fair referendum on May 10 do not exist because of widespread repression, media censorship, bans on political gatherings, the lack of an independent referendum commission and courts to supervise the vote, and a pervasive climate of fear created by the ruling junta in the run-up to the election.
But given the content of the constitution being voted on, the nature of this "discipline-flourishing" referendum should come as a surprise to nobody.
Two of the fundamental principles of the military-drafted constitution are to provide "a discipline-flourishing genuine multiparty democracy" and "for the Tatmadaw (military) to be able to participate in the national political leadership role."
How the military will dominate Burma's post-election politics is clearly spelled out.
Under the draft charter, 110 members of 440-seat lower house, or People's Parliament, and 56 members of the 224-seat upper house, or National Parliament, would be selected by the military.
Control of this 25 per cent of both houses would effectively bar amendments to the charter that might threaten the military's dominance, since for an amendment to pass, it would require more than 75-per-cent support.
The draft constitution also includes restrictions excluding many opposition politicians from running for office and a clause that effectively prevents opposition leader Suu Kyi from holding any elected office because she is the widow of a foreigner.
The new charter also enshrines the right of Burma's future president, a non-elected post that is likely to be claimed by the commander-in-chief, to seize executive and legislative powers in case of an emergency.
"A military coup could be implemented in Burma by constitutional means," noted Lian Sakhong, general secretary of the Ethnic National Council, representing the ethnic minority groups opposed to the military.
Bangkok Post
When Burmese vote in a May 10 referendum on the country's new constitution, they will be getting a bitter foretaste of the "discipline-flourishing democracy" the military has in store for them.
The referendum, Burma's third in the past five decades, will theoretically decide the fate of the country's new charter, a document that promises to cement the dominant role of the military in Burmese politics following the next general election, planned in 2010.
In fact, the outcome of the referendum is a foregone conclusion, according to veteran Burma watchers.
"It's going to be a yes vote," said Naing Aung Oo, a former Burmese student activist who was forced to flee the country in the aftermath of the 1988 anti-military protests. "There are two reasons, one is intimidation and the other reason is the high probability of rigging the vote," he explained.
The military junta, calling itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has left little up to free choice in the upcoming referendum.
The generals no doubt learned their lesson from the 1990 election, which, contrary to their expectations and planning, the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, won by a landslide.
Despite their electoral victory, the NLD was blocked from power on the military's argument that a new constitution was needed before civilian rule could be risked in Burma, a country suffering from a long history of ethnic-based insurgencies and separatist struggles.
The referendum on the constitution, which took 14 years to draft, was announced in February, amid intensifying international pressure on the Burmese military regime to demonstrate its sincerity in moving towards some form of democratic system in the aftermath of its latest crackdown on its own people in September of last year, when the government brutally suppressed protests led by Buddhist monks.
In the same month, but less publicly, the regime also announced a new law that punishes anyone caught publicly criticizing the referendum with a three-year jail term and a fine.
The law has been readily enforced. Between March and April scores of activists have been detained for holding peaceful protests urging a "No" vote on the referendum, including five members of National League for Democracy (NLD) who participated in a peaceful protest in Rangoon, according Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The New York-based rights group said conditions for a free and fair referendum on May 10 do not exist because of widespread repression, media censorship, bans on political gatherings, the lack of an independent referendum commission and courts to supervise the vote, and a pervasive climate of fear created by the ruling junta in the run-up to the election.
But given the content of the constitution being voted on, the nature of this "discipline-flourishing" referendum should come as a surprise to nobody.
Two of the fundamental principles of the military-drafted constitution are to provide "a discipline-flourishing genuine multiparty democracy" and "for the Tatmadaw (military) to be able to participate in the national political leadership role."
How the military will dominate Burma's post-election politics is clearly spelled out.
Under the draft charter, 110 members of 440-seat lower house, or People's Parliament, and 56 members of the 224-seat upper house, or National Parliament, would be selected by the military.
Control of this 25 per cent of both houses would effectively bar amendments to the charter that might threaten the military's dominance, since for an amendment to pass, it would require more than 75-per-cent support.
The draft constitution also includes restrictions excluding many opposition politicians from running for office and a clause that effectively prevents opposition leader Suu Kyi from holding any elected office because she is the widow of a foreigner.
The new charter also enshrines the right of Burma's future president, a non-elected post that is likely to be claimed by the commander-in-chief, to seize executive and legislative powers in case of an emergency.
"A military coup could be implemented in Burma by constitutional means," noted Lian Sakhong, general secretary of the Ethnic National Council, representing the ethnic minority groups opposed to the military.
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