21 Nargis volunteers still detain in Burma

Dhaka (Narinjara): Twenty one Nargis volunteer have been serving their jail term from 2 to 35 years several prison in Burma as they were working for Nargis victim and its rehabilitation after of the Nargis cyclone in Burma, said a press release of AAPP.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), AAPP, released a report one day before annual Nargis tragedy day and said in the report that 21 volunteers who are currently facing between 2 and 35 years in prison for their efforts to assist in the aftermath of the cyclone, including gathering dead bodies and burying them.

"The report released today to mark the anniversary of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma a year ago," said AAPP.

In the report, five of the volunteers are former political prisoners, who have already spent many years in jail, are also facing the punishment of authority for the involving in the volunteer.

AAPP Secretary Tate Naing said, “Their punishment is completely unacceptable. Their ‘crimes’ were to help people and tell the truth about the situation. We call on ASEAN and UN to press the military regime to release the Cyclone Nargis volunteers – and all political prisoners – immediately.”

The organization renewed its calls for support for its campaign petition Free Burma’s Political Prisoners Now! The campaign is conducted by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) and Forum for Democracy in Burma.

199 organizations worldwide have endorsed the campaign.

“Political prisoners – including Cyclone Nargis volunteers - must not be forgotten. Ordinary people everywhere can sign the petition,” added Tate Naing. (Click to Sign Petition here ...)

The campaign aims to collect 888,888 petition signatures before 24 May. This is the date that the military junta claims that Nobel Peace Prize winner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should be released from house arrest, despite the fact that the United Nations has recently declared that this consecutive sixth year of house arrest contravenes the regime’s own laws.

May/1/2009

READ MORE---> 21 Nargis volunteers still detain in Burma...

Learning the Hard Way

By AUNG THET WINE
The Irrawaddy News

LAPUTTA, Irrawaddy Delta — A year after Cyclone Nargis, many children in the Irrawaddy delta are still facing difficulties in getting a decent education due to high tuition fees and extreme shortages of schools, teachers and learning materials.

Orphans gather on Thursday at a monastery during a private ceremony
to mark anniversary of Cyclone Nargis at the village of Thongwa, Dedaye Township,
Irrawaddy Delta. (Photo: AP)

According to one construction company manager who has been overseeing the rebuilding of schools in the cyclone-affected area, only 1,500 primary schools have been constructed since last May, out of more than 4,000 that were destroyed by the storm.

“The government constructed around 600 schools during the 2008-09 fiscal year and has budgeted for 700 more this year. So far, a total of about 1,500 schools have been rebuilt by the government, private donors and other organizations,” he said.

One reason for the slow pace of reconstruction is that many companies are unable to finance their work, which is paid for in installments by the government.

“The government does not pay for construction costs in advance,” said an engineer from the Wah Wah Win Construction Company. “We receive payments in four installments upon completion of different stages of the construction work. This makes it difficult for financially weak companies to complete their projects on time.”

While many villages are waiting for their new schools to be completed, hundreds of others have no immediate prospect of having any school at all. In Shaw Chaung, a village tract in Laputta Township, for instance, there are just ten schools for 24 villages, according to a local official.

“This makes it very difficult for children to have access to a school, especially in the rainy season,” said the official.

The shortage of government-appointed teachers has also been a serious problem, forcing many villages to hire teachers privately—an expense that few can afford.

“If you want to hire a private primary school teacher, you have to pay them an advance of 100 or 150 bu of rice [worth around US $300-500; 1 bu=approximately 350 ml]. It’s not easy to pay that much, but we have no guarantees the government will send a teacher, so we have no choice,” said the head of a village in Bogalay Township.

Even children who do have access to primary schools have little hope of continuing their education beyond that level. Very few villages have secondary schools, and only well-off parents can send their children to middle or high schools in towns.

This lack of availability, combined with economic necessity, forces many children to drop out of school and begin working for a living in local industries such as fishing or farming.

“The children of farmers or fishermen usually just end up doing the same jobs as their parents before they even grow up,” said a villager from Saluu Chaung, in Laputta Township.

According to Education Ministry statistics, there are only 432 middle schools and 257 high schools out of a total of 6,324 schools in the Irrawaddy delta.


THE MONEY IS NEEDED FOR THIS AND THE AID MONEY AS WELL GOES INTO THIS:...

READ MORE---> Learning the Hard Way...

One Year After Cyclone Nargis, FXB Cites Progress and Remaining Challenges in Myanmar

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar on May 2-3, 2008. FXB International was at the forefront of the relief and rebuilding efforts in the affected areas, providing food, shelter, and health care to survivors. FXB looks back on the progress of the past year, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.

(PRWEB) -- This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar on May 2-3, 2008. One of the worst natural disasters in the country's history, the cyclone left an estimated 150,000 people dead and thousands more missing and injured. FXB International was one of the first responders to the storm, providing survivors with critical provisions, including food, water, shelter, and healthcare.

Rebuilding After Cyclone Nargis

The role of nongovernmental organizations like FXB was - and continues to be - vital to the relief and rebuilding efforts in Myanmar. Burmese military and government authorities have been criticized for their slow and ineffective response to the national disaster.

In the past year, FXB has worked around-the-clock to help stabilize the well-being of children, families, and communities in Yangon, Mon State, and Ayeyarwady through a number of relief and rebuilding initiatives. The results of FXB's initiatives to-date include:


* 300 toilets were installed, improving sanitation for 1,200 individuals
* 21 water pumps were installed and 29 polluted ponds were cleaned, providing clean water to over 50,000 individuals
* Food and emergency kits were distributed to 24,000 individuals
* Over 2,000 people living with HIV/AIDS were given treatment medicines
* 25 Child Friendly Spaces were established, providing 4,500 children with educational services
* 360 homes were rebuilt

For these efforts, FXB was cited by both the World Health Organization and the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs for the significant role it played. FXB was able to provide this assistance to survivors because of the support of partners, including the British Embassy in Yangon, UNICEF, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. FXB always maintains emphasis on producing sustainable solutions so individuals are better able to respond to survival challenges in the future.

Despite this progress, the country still faces a grave set of challenges. Long-term problems include agricultural damage, scarce food supplies, destroyed hospitals and schools, and a staggering number of newly vulnerable children in the aftermath of the storm. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to be currently homeless and in need of assistance.

About FXB International: FXB is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting children and families hardest hit by poverty and AIDS. FXB began working in Myanmar in 1992 and currently operates several public health and socio-economic development programs targeting vulnerable children and young women.

http://www.fxb.org

READ MORE---> One Year After Cyclone Nargis, FXB Cites Progress and Remaining Challenges in Myanmar...

At UN, Child Soldiers Half Addressed in Sri Lanka, Denied in Myanmar

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, April 29 -- Behind the UN's all day debate Wednesday on children and armed conflict was the war in Sri Lanka. Radhika Coomaraswamy, a Sri Lankan Tamil acceptable to the Sinhala government, issued a report which in Annex Two criticized only the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam but not the government for denial of humanitarian access. Inner City Press asked Ms. Coomaraswamy if the government too wasn't guilty of denying humanitarian access. Coomaraswamy admitted that it was, but stated that since the government no longer recruits child soldiers, it engaging in other grave violations does not get listed in the annex.

Sri Lankan Ambassador Palihakkara spoke near the end of Wednesday debate, criticizing the LTTE and using Coomaraswamy's report to the government's benefit. Afterwards, Inner City Press caught him in the hall and ask about the government's refusal to allow a UN humanitarian assessment team into the conflict zone. Palihakkara said that the ICRC and Caritas have access, the UN has to arrange it with the ICRC's boats.

Later, Ms. Coomaraswamy and her staff noted how Sri Lanka twisted the report, and how government supporters went after fellow Tamil Navi Pillay, of the Human Rights Commission, on blogs and elsewhere. Ambassador Palihakkara was noted as a serious diplomat. But what is he doing now?

Some Tamil groups portray Coomaraswamy as a plant of the Sinhala government. It has been confirmed to Inner City Press that any appointment to Coomaraswamy's level is check with the person's government. If Colombo supported Coomaraswamy, is she a credible skeptic of the UN's treatment of Tamils? We are on record in support of her work. But the doubts are growing, as a subset of the UN's problematic silence as the slaughter in Sri Lanka has developed.

While Mexican foreign minister Patricia Espinoza, who presided over Wednesday's session, cancelled her press availability thinking it would degenerate into questions about swine flu, French minister Francois Zemeray braved the stakeout. Inner City Press asked him what France does about child soldiering in Chad -- including the arrests of Chad-based JEM in Omburman, Sudan -- and Zimeray said that the combat of child combattants is a part of French foreign policy everywhere and anywhere. He said he agrees with Mexico's Claude Heller, chairman of the CAAC Working Group, that children recruited into drug gangs should be part of the CAAC mandate. Video here. But Ms. Coomaraswamy told Inner City Press that would require the Council expanding the mandate.

Footnote: Coomaraswamy's report also criticized Myanmar. Inner City Press caught up with Burmese Ambassador Than Swe in the hall after he spoke to the Council, near the anniversary of Cyclone Nargis. He had said, "peace and stability prevail in almost all corners of Myanmar." But as Inner City Press asked earlier in the week, the army there reportedly clashed with the Karen National Union, injuring across the border at least two Thai soldiers. "That is not true," Ambassador Than Swe told Inner City Press. The UN on the other hand said envoy Ibrahim Gambari does not monitor such matters. Watch this site.

READ MORE---> At UN, Child Soldiers Half Addressed in Sri Lanka, Denied in Myanmar...

Burma ‘worst country to be a blogger’

(DVB)–Burma has been ranked by a media watchdog as the worst country in the world in which to be an internet blogger, following the wave of sentencing last year of bloggers and journalists critical of the government.

The report, entitled ‘10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger’, released yesterday by the Committee to Protect Journalists, listed 10 countries in order of the extent of online repression.

Burma’s internet censorship was deemed repressive enough to rank it below notorious violators of press freedom such as Turkmenistan and Iran.

“Governments are quickly learning how to turn technology against bloggers by censoring and filtering the internet, restricting online access and mining personal data,” said Joel Simon, Executive Director of CPJ.

“When all else fails, the authorities simply jail a few bloggers to intimidate the rest of the online community into silence or self-censorship.”

Private internet penetration in Burma is only about one per cent of total activity, said the report, and the majority of Burmese citizens are forced to access the internet in cybercafés, which have to obey government censorship rules.

“I feel the junta is preparing for the 2010 elections,” said Vincent Brossel, Head of Asia desk at media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

“They are increasingly using more sophisticated propaganda, with new licences for new media, and at the same time they are keeping a very close eye on independent journalists and people who are related to the opposition.”

Burmese blogger Nay Phone Latt is currently serving a twelve year sentence in Insein prison for reporting the September 2007 protests.

Comedian Zarganar was last year sentenced to 59 years (later reduced to 35 years) after speaking to foreign media following cyclone Nargis last May.

“I think the role of the outside media and citizen journalists in Burma is reaching to its biggest and the most important level in Burma,” said San Moe Wei, secretary of the Burma Media Association.

Other countries on the list are Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Egypt, China, Vietnam and Cuba.

Reporting by Rosalie Smith and Francis Wade

READ MORE---> Burma ‘worst country to be a blogger’...

Myanmar junta declares lawyers council unlawful

Yangon (M&C)- Myanmar's junta has declared the Burma's Lawyer Council (BLC) 'unlawful,' claiming the organization was 'hurtful to the rule of law in the Union of Myanmar, stability of the state and community peace,' state news reports said Friday.

Major General Maung Oo, minister of Home Affairs, declared the Burma Lawyers Council an illegal organization as of Friday, The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

The Burma Lawyers Council, which was established in a 'liberated area' in 1994, is an independent organization that has often criticized the military's imprisonment of political prisoners and abuse of the country's judicial system.

The announcement was criticized by local politicians.

'The BLC, a foreign organization, has criticized the Myanmar government because many Myanmar lawyers have been imprisoned by Myanmar government,' said one Myanmar politician, who asked to remain anonymous.

READ MORE---> Myanmar junta declares lawyers council unlawful...

Junta’s role makes life more difficult for Nargis survivors

by Solomon: Mungpi

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Come May 2, the Burmese people will recall the worst disaster ever to hit the country, in modern times. Cyclone Nargis, left at least 140,000 dead or missing, and devastated the lives of more than 2.4 million people.

A year later, while efforts to rebuild the lives of the affected people continue, victims and relief workers are of the opinion that the government’s absurd policies and their role in reconstruction work, have only added to the miseries of the victims.

In the immediate aftermath of the Cyclone, Burma’s military rulers blatantly rejected the entry of relief materials and international humanitarian aid to help the victims, as they were busy preparing for a Referendum to approve their Constitution, which was drafted unilaterally, without the participation of other political stake holders.

Till date, even after the lapse of a year, victims in the Cyclone affected areas have said that their needs continue to be grave with shortage of food, lack of shelter, scarcity of drinking water, and inadequate support for their livelihood, including education and health.

An aid worker, who worked with an aid agency in the delta said, “If the government had not imposed restrictions on aid groups then the situation might have improved a lot more and survivors would have a better chance of getting support.”

The Rangoon-based aid worker, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, said aid distributions had largely been limited by the government’s imposition of restrictions. The government only allowed limited aid workers to go into the delta and the junta kept track of all agencies.

“Though there are several agencies, which have their offices in towns, such as Bogale, Laputta and other bigger towns in the Irrawaddy, there are still several villages in the southern area of the delta, which have not got aid,” a Rangoon-based journalist, who recently visited villages in southern Laputta Township, which is close to the Bay of Bengal, said.

David Scott Mathieson, Burma Researcher of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), said, the junta, referring to it by its official name – the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) – had been systematically controlling the flow of aid and limiting agencies from independently operating, which resulted in the slow recovery of the victims.

“The action of the SPDC in the first two weeks, after the cyclone was absolutely disgraceful,” Mathieson said.

However, later, though the government did allow aid to come in, there were still some impediments in terms of road blocks and control of aid to the delta, he added.

Saga of aid blocking by junta

In the initial few weeks after the Cyclone, Burma’s military government refused to allow international aid agencies to come in to help cyclone victims. However, with the intervention by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Burma’s military chief Snr. Gen Than Shwe agreed to allow aid to come in.

The very first international aid arrived on May 8, after nearly a week of the cyclone hitting Burma. The ruling junta allowed only two UN agencies - World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) to land their relief shipments.

“The regime, one week after the cyclone, had held the constitutional referendum. This was disgraceful and they also stopped some aid from getting in,” Mathieson added.

Burma’s military rulers also initially refused to give visas to a number of international relief workers, but with the intervention of Ban Ki-moon, who visited Burma on May 22, and met Burma’s military chief Senior General Than Shwe, the junta agreed to allow aid groups to come in.

On July 8, 2008, the junta said they had granted more than 1,500 visas for foreign aid workers, but the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Bangkok, told Mizzima on July 7, that the Burmese embassy in Bangkok had granted 317 UN staffs visas, but 13 requests remained pending.

However, one year on, international relief workers are still finding it difficult to get visas, the relief worker said. Getting permission to work in the Irrawaddy Delta is one of the biggest challenges with the government allowing only a limited period of time to foreign aid workers to be based in the delta.

“Before the cyclone there had already been enough problems of getting visas by the international humanitarian workers, but after the disaster it became worse,” said the relief worker.

“There are still restrictions on visas for international relief workers and the junta continues restricting access to the delta especially for foreign aid workers,” he said.

Imprisonment of aid workers

Besides restricting international aid workers to have free access to the cyclone-hit areas, Burma’s military government also conducted a crackdown on domestic aid workers and volunteers, who rushed to the delta in the aftermath of the disaster, to help victims.

Zarganar a.k.a Thura, a well-known comedian and film director, who had raised funds and helped cyclone victims, was arrested in June 2008 and was sentenced to 59 years, under charges of the Video and Electronic Law. But, his sentence was later commuted to 35 years of prison term.

On 10 April 2009, authorities sentenced another six volunteers to prison terms. Aung Thant Zin Oo, Phyo Phyo Aung and Shein Yarza Tun were sentenced to four years each, while Nay Win, Aung Kyaw San and Phone Pyih Kywe were sentenced to two years.

Similarly, Ein Khaing Oo, a 24 year old journalist from the “Ecovision Journal”, along with her friend Kyaw Kyaw Than were also sentenced to two years in November 2008, for reporting on Nargis survivors and approaching the Rangoon- based international NGOs.

“What is completely unacceptable and what is more horrible is the arrest of more than 20 community aid workers, including Zarganar, journalist Ein Khaing Oo and many others,” Mathieson said.

According to the Thailand-based Assistant Association for Political Prisoners in Burma (AAPPB), at least 21 relief workers, who were helping cyclone victims, have been arrested and sentenced to long prison terms.

Tate Naing, Secretary of the AAPPB said, some of the volunteers arrested and sentenced by the junta were burying corpses, which were piling up in the Irrawaddy delta.

“Their punishment is completely unacceptable. Their ‘crimes’ were to help people and tell the truth about the situation,” Tate Naing said in a statement released on Friday.

Aid control

The relief worker said, though there had been a significant amount of aid reaching the delta, he had witnessed that aid had decline after a year.

He said, it might be due to the agencies shifting focus on reconstruction works. He also said it could be partly because of the government’s restrictions.

A rice merchant from Pyapone Township said, while agencies were seen in the town and working in the areas, he did not see much support from the government.

He said, in the aftermath of the cyclone in Pyapone, the Burmese Army’s Brigade No. 66, had control over relief aid for about 5 months and every aid worker and agency were required to take permission in order to carry out relief work in the township.

But now, he said, the controls had shifted to the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, which issued permits to enter the region.

Victims’ plight

Although in some cases farmers received material support to re-start cultivation, the inadequate support and favoritism indulged in by the government hardened the situation with farmers unable to work.

“They gave around 6 power tillers for one village and only the people who were close to the authorities got it,” the rice merchant said.

A salt businessman from Laputta Township told Mizzima on Thursday that though he had received a loan from the government to re-start his business, he was now worried of how he would repay the debt.

“We got Kyat 300,000 [USD 300] for an acre of salt farm as a loan from the government, but it will be difficult to return because we could not do well this year,” he said.

Aid Misappropriation

Beside keeping tight control over the flow of aid and denying access to relief workers into the delta, Burma’s military government has also reportedly been misappropriating relief materials meant for victims of the cyclone.

In October 2008, Burma’s authorities arrested Kyaw Soe, a clerk at the Pyapone Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) and Hla Htay for misappropriating rice donated to the cyclone victims.

Both of them were reportedly detained in Pyapone jail, but local residents said so far no charges had been filed against them.

Sources said, Kyaw Soe sold about 1,000 bags of rice in Rangoon, which were donated by Saudi Arabia and was arrested on October 2008, by the Bureau of Special Investigations (BSI).

“The BSI has sent the investigation results to Naypyitaw, but the case is not progressing,” the rice merchant, who closely follows the case, told Mizzima.

He said, Kyaw Soe was the unlucky one, as several other local officials were also involved in re-selling aid materials in the market. But following the arrests of the two people, reports of misappropriating aid have subsided.

“Many others were also re-selling aid materials, but they were in small quantities such as 5 to 10 bags of rice. So, there was not much evidence but Kyaw Soe’s case was huge and was well-known,” he said.

On May 14, local residents said they saw biscuits of foreign make, dried meat, instant noodles, tarpaulins and plastic sheets on sale in Nyaungpinlay market, Mingalar market, Bogale market, Theingyi market and other markets in Rangoon.

The Mizzima correspondent in Rangoon has seen tissue packets with Red Cross labels in a store in Mingalar market. Residents of Rangoon also saw army trucks from the Navy supplies Depot, in Mingaladon, Syriam and Laputta bringing the relief materials to the markets.

“We will call on the project [relief aid] to effectively monitor to make sure the SPDC is not profiting from that,” Mathieson said.

Needs still large

Even as relief and reconstruction efforts are ongoing, and a significant amount of aid has reached victims, the UN said it was still crucial for the international community to continue the support.

UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Rangoon, Bishow Parajuli told Mizzima that so far only USD 315 million or 66 per cent of the first revised appeal of USD 477 had been received.

Though much has been accomplished, there are vital needs in various sectors, such as Health, Education, Agriculture, Water and Sanitation, Parajuli said.

READ MORE---> Junta’s role makes life more difficult for Nargis survivors...

Drinking water scarcity needs long term solution

by Salai Pi Pi

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The acute scarcity of drinking water is one of the main challenges which need immediate attention in some of the Cyclone Nargis devastated areas in Irrawaddy delta in Burma, said relief workers.

“The shortage of drinking water in some areas close to the sea in Irrawaddy region is a major problem. This needs to be solved urgently,” a Burmese relief worker told Mizzima.

Several areas in Irrawaddy delta were covered by saline water when the deadly Cyclone Nargis struck Burma’s coastal area on May 2 and 3 last year. The cyclone reportedly killed about 140,000 people and severely affected 2.4 million people.

After the cyclone, drinking water sources like ponds and wells were not cleared of debris properly and got mixed with saline water.

“As a consequence the areas close to the sea in Irrawaddy division are facing acute shortage of drinking water,” a Burmese relief worker said.

The most vulnerable areas are the villages in Pyikhayine village tracts of Laputta town in southern Irrawaddy delta.

Meanwhile, James East, Regional Communications Advisor of World Vision Asia Pacific, said the challenge of lack of access to drinking water is getting worse in the dry season.

“Lack of access to water was a huge challenge immediately after the cyclone and was further exacerbated in the dry season,” James East told Mizzima.

James said International Government Organizations (INGOs) including World Vision had assisted vulnerable villagers in order to increase the availability of drinking in the cyclone affected areas.

“Drinking water ponds were cleared of debris, water purification machines were installed, sanitation facilities were provided and hygiene awareness training given by NGOs like World Vision,” James East said, “Together, these measures have increased access to water.”

Another local relief worker said that they also distributed bottles of drinking water and water storage facilities such as locally made earthen pots and plastic buckets to the villagers so they could keep drinking water in the coming monsoon.

“The distributed drinking water just lasted two or three days. Providing drinking water and other facilities so far could solve the problem just for the time being,” he added.

James East from World Vision also said that long term measures are necessary to prevent the scarcity of drinking water occurring in the dry season.

“Access to water remains a concern and long-term measures like providing families with water purification filters and drilling wells, where appropriate, will be crucial to avert water shortage during the dry season,” he added.

READ MORE---> Drinking water scarcity needs long term solution...

Food crisis in rural Burma

Bangkok,(Asiantribune.com): Villagers in rural Burma are facing a severe food crisis, requiring urgent attention by the international community, according to the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), who today released the report Food crisis: The cumulative impact of abuse in rural Burma. The 28-page briefing paper examines the widespread and sustained human rights abuses at the root of this crisis and states that the crisis is a direct result of systematic militarisation and exploitation by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the military junta currently ruling Burma.

In SPDC-controlled areas, the combination of military demands in the form of forced labour, arbitrary taxation, looting and ad hoc demands for food, money or other supplies, together with land confiscation, movement restrictions and forced relocation, have placed an unsustainable burden on villagers' livelihoods, exacerbated poverty and dramatically increased food insecurity.

Meanwhile, in areas not under firm military control, SPDC forces are trying to force villagers into relocation sites by attacking villages and destroying food stores, fields and livestock. Villagers who manage to escape such attacks and flee into situations of displacement in forest hiding sites face further threats to their food security, as a shoot-on-sight policy, landmines and restrictions on trade make it extremely difficult for villagers to leave their hiding site in order to collect hidden food stores, work their former fields or purchase food supplies.

According to Saw Albert, a Karen spokesperson for the report, “The food crisis has been gradually worsening since the beginning of the SPDC's Northern Offensive in late 2005. With increased attacks on village communities and an intensified forced relocation campaign over the last three and a half years, food insecurity is at an all-time high. In military-controlled areas, villagers struggle to both meet the constant demands of the SPDC and their allied military groups and provide food for their families. While in displaced areas, villagers have to share limited food supplies with each other just to stay alive.”

Recognising the numerous strategies that villagers are already using to address food insecurity, the briefer gives recommendations to the international community on actions that can be taken to alleviate the current crisis and prevent future abuse and malnutrition in rural Burma. These recommendations include increased support for cross-border aid and local civil society organisations which can access affected populations and support for the local food security protection measures that villagers in rural Burma have already developed.

KHRG spokeswoman, Naw September Paw called for increased humanitarian aid to villagers in rural Burma: "Villagers in Karen State are faced with a serious food crisis as the direct result of military exploitation and abuse. In response, villagers have tried to find various ways to address this crisis, to maintain their livelihoods and resist abuse. Despite these strategies, there is a great need for humanitarian aid to be scaled up to reach these people. However, it is the locally-driven protection measures developed by villagers themselves that should first be taken into account in order to effectively address this crisis."

- Asian Tribune -

THE MONEY IS NEEDED FOR this..

READ MORE---> Food crisis in rural Burma...

New Naypyidaw Airport to ‘Handle 10.5 Million People a Year’

By WILLIAM BOOT
The Irrawaddy News
(Weekly Business Roundup May 1, 2009)

The new airport being built in Burma’s capital of Naypyidaw will eventually be able to handle more than 10 million passengers per year, according to an industry report.

The airport is being built in three stages by the Burmese company Asia World, whose boss, Tun Myint Naing, also known as Steven Law, is on a U.S. sanctions list because of his close connections with the country’s military leaders.

The first-phase construction will have a capacity of 3.5 million passengers per year and is due to be completed in mid-2011, according to the airport construction industry Web site passengerterminaltoday.com.

The Web site quoted Singapore-based CPG Consultants for the figures, and said CPG designed the new airport.

After all three construction phases are completed, the airport will be able to handle 10.5 million passengers a year, according to the Web site. It did not give a date for the final completion.

READ MORE---> New Naypyidaw Airport to ‘Handle 10.5 Million People a Year’...

Time for Humanitarian Dialogue?

By HTET AUNG
The Irrawaddy News

One year on and the nightmare of Cyclone Nargis still haunts the people living in Burma’s Irrawaddy delta. Those who narrowly survived the storm have seen their lives changed permanently. Proud farmers and workers are now vulnerable refugees living in makeshift shelters—their land destroyed; their livelihoods stolen by a freak storm.

The magnitude of the May 2-3 disaster—the worst in Burma’s recorded history—challenged the capacity of the military regime to conduct and control a mega relief operation for millions of its citizens, thousands of whom were dead, injured, orphaned, traumatized and homeless.

The international community responded unanimously with an outpouring of sympathy for the cyclone victims and an immediate promise of massive emergency aid into the affected areas.

The junta thanked the world by coldly rejecting the aid, dragging its feet on relief decisions and imposing a blockade on the delta region.

The impasse was eventually breached and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) were allowed into the country to offer relief and implement humanitarian programs.

Since last May, the number of INGOs operating in the Irrawaddy delta has doubled to more than 100 and the numerous field offices around the region testify to the INGO community’s desire to help people in the delta rebuild their lives.

However, it is because of the scope and depth of this relief operation that the situation demands a networking mechanism among the INGOs to address disaster-related issues.

No such a mechanism has existed before in Burma because the authorities preferred to create an element of competition between the INGOs, playing games of favoritism and giving concessions to those who please them.

The treatment the junta dished out to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is arguably the best example of how Burmese authorities have regarded INGOs with contempt.

Renowned throughout the world for its impartiality and apolitical objectives, ICRC has managed to maintain health projects and treat the wounded in world wars, civil conflicts and humanitarian disasters since 1863. ICRC has a reputation for keeping its nose out of a country’s political affairs and has consequently been allowed to operate during military operations in Palestine, Afghanistan, both recent Iraqi wars, Rwanda and Yugoslavia.

Yet even the ICRC couldn’t navigate its way through the Burmese junta’s red tape and restrictions, including a ban on visiting prisoners. In March 2007 it made the decision to close down some of its field offices and cease some major operations in Burma due to a complete lack of cooperation from the junta.

“The ICRC's humanitarian work in Myanmar has now reached near- paralysis,” said ICRC’s Director of Operations Pierra Krahenbuhl in Geneva at the time.

Save the Children-Myanmar has emerged as the leading INGO in the region after the cyclone, coordinating a consortium of local NGOs and INGOs, such as International HIV/AIDS Alliance, the Burnet Institute, Swiss Aid, World Concern, KDN (Knowledge and Dedication for the Nation) and the Metta Foundation. Known as “Paung Ku,” the consortium was created to offer capacity-building support and a small grants service to the emerging local relief groups which were urgently in need of technical and financial support.

Save the Children has proven its mettle for its capacity to participate in broader relief operations, such as health, education, protection of women and children, shelter and food assistance, livelihood projects and logistics.

The organization was among 13 INGOs that issued a joint appeal statement in October 2007 calling for both the Burmese government and the international community to collaborate toward achieving three demands: to strengthen public sector policies by increasing public expenditure in health, education and sustainable livelihoods; to improve operating environment for local and international humanitarian organizations; and to significantly scale-up international humanitarian assistance to directly address the needs of the poor.

The joint statement was a concerted attempt by the INGOs to express their serious concern about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Burma soon after the regime brutally cracked down on the Buddhist monks-led demonstrations.

Then, in late 2008, another major INGO, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) issued a report titled “A Preventable Fate: The Failure of ART Scale-up in Myanmar,” criticizing the Burmese authorities.

“MSF can no longer continue to scale-up ART [anti-retroviral treatment] provision, in the face of so little response by other actors. Therefore, it has had to make the painful decision to restrict the number of new patients it can treat… With growing revenue from oil and gas exports, the Government must invest more in its ailing health system and specifically HIV/AIDS care and treatment,” the report stated.

But it has become clear that the demands of the INGOs have not been met by the military regime. They will take little solace from the fact 10 years ago and no agency would dare criticize the regime for fear of its projects being disrupted.

When analyzing the expansion of the humanitarian aid programs in the region, there is no denying that Cyclone Nargis significantly altered the capacity of the INGOs in terms of the number of organizations operating and the structural expansion within those organizations.

For instance, Save the Children employed around 500 staff before the cyclone; now it has a staff of 1,600. However, now that the emergency relief period is over, INGOs are scaling down their operations. According to a source close to Save the Children, the organization will reduce its staff by 300 in the near future and close down five of its field offices.

Another significant factor in the equation is the expansion of local civil society organizations (CSOs) despite their having to operate under numerous restrictions. One major obstacle for these local groups is that they cannot officially register or open a bank account with the state-owned foreign exchange bank which is the only conduit in the country for transacting the delivery of foreign currencies. As a result, they have to rely heavily on the INGOs inside the country.

What is unforgivable is that the regime has harassed, arrested, detained and even handed down harsh prison sentences to the selfless citizens who formed small groups and weathered atrocious conditions to rescue and support victims of the cyclone.

Take the case of Dr Nay Win, a former political prisoner. He responded to the disaster along with his daughter and four colleagues by helping villagers in the delta by cremating corpses. The six were detained by authorities and sentenced earlier this month under sections 6 and 7 of Unlawful Association Act.

A litany of human rights violations by the regime in the wake of Cyclone Nargis was recorded by Thailand-based Emergency Assistance Team (Burma) with the technical help of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a recent report titled “After the Storm: Voices from the Delta.”

However, the report was not fully appreciated by several organizations working inside Burma. A group of 21 INGOs—including Save the Children—challenged the credibility of the EAT report and accused the group of undermining the case for further aid to the survivors. The group went on to call for dialogue with EAT-Johns Hopkins to solve their differences.

Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Bangkok in on April 22, Dr Frank Smithius of MSF-Holland admitted the restrictions on the activities of the international aid agencies outside the cyclone-affected areas imposed by the regime remain unchanged.

At the same panel discussion, Andrew Kirkwood, the country director of Save the Children-Myanmar reiterated the call for a humanitarian dialogue with EAT-Johns Hopkins.

In an interview with The Irrawaddy, he said the researchers’ report was not “balanced.” He went on to say that Save the Children was working closely with the Burmese junta.

“With their [the government’s] cooperation, we are able to do a lot of community-based assistance. So it’s really not right to say that all parts of the government are not being cooperative.”

However, the heads of Save the Children and MSF-Holland stopped short of calling for the release of individuals who received harsh prison sentences for undertaking humanitarian work or volunteering their services in cyclone-ravaged areas.

In short, the last two years have been critical times for INGOs in Burma and they should be commended for taking on unprecedented projects. They have stood up and criticized the junta and have made a few rare efforts to change the junta’s policies. They have also proved that they can operate even under severe governmental restrictions. Finally, they have been able to set up a cooperating and networking mechanism to collectively respond to what they believe undermines the continuation of international aid to Burma.

However, controversially, they were silent when it came time to publicly criticize the junta’s repression on local relief volunteers, despite the impartial and apolitical nature of the humanitarian work involved.

The time has come for the INGOs to reassess their three demands and exercise their networking mechanism to seek a humanitarian dialogue with the junta for the promotion and protection of the local CSOs.

International humanitarian aid will follow if the junta genuinely creates a better operational environment without restrictions and repression.

The author is an independent researcher in International Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

READ MORE---> Time for Humanitarian Dialogue?...

No Land, No Home, No Hope

PYAPON, Irrawaddy Delta— When she sees other families in her neighborhood receiving housing materials to rebuild their houses, 43-year-old Khin Yee’s hopes lift. But for the most part, she is desperately depressed.

Prior to Cyclone Nargis, Khin Yee lived in a small house that sat alongside a paddy field, about one mile from Mhawbi Village, near Pyapon. Her husband, a rice farmer, was killed in the storm that ravaged the region on May 2-3 last year.

A man points to the hut where 12 members of his family are currently living. (Photo: Min Khet Maung/The Irrawaddy)

Now she is too traumatized to stay at the old place, and has moved close to Mhawbi, where she stays with her three children in a makeshift shelter.

“I have no land on which to build a house, even if I was given the housing materials,” she said. “I was promised by some volunteers from a humanitarian agency that they would build a house for me, but that it would only be possible when I own some land.”

Khin Yee said she has no money to buy land, and no relatives she can borrow from or share with.

With a crack in her voice, Khin Yee said she has all but given up hope.

There are hundreds of people like Khin Yee in the areas devastated by the cyclone who have been left without land.

“We have been urging the [Burmese] government to tackle this [land] problem for several months, but so far, we haven't seen any action from the government," said a United Nations official, who is involved in rehabilitation projects. (JEG's: quite the opposite the government is selling the land by plots and or building for the elite who can afford it.. .)

He said that the government should consider the issue seriously as landless families are still stranded and unable to support themselves.

"We would give shelter to the homeless, but it's the government's duty to distribute property to the landless families," the UN official said.

In the meantime, most of those made landless by the deadly storm are living in makeshift huts, mainly built from bamboo and sheets of tarpaulin.

Next door—as such—to Khin Yee's house is a dilapidated shelter that has no walls and no stilts. A family of eight lives there, and since it is built on the ground, the family has to sleep on plastic sheets on a cold bare dirt floor.

The head of the family said she has been told repeatedly by the local authorities that they were preparing to move her family back to their former village.

But, as she points out, the problem is that they have nowhere to go back to. Everything was destroyed by the cyclone, including the arable land which was ruined by salt water.

She said that there are more than 20 homeless families from Mhawbi who are currently waiting for land on which they can build a house.

She said that all the families are worried about the upcoming rainy season.

"My hut is just one foot above the stream," she said, pointing to the four-foot-wide waterway running alongside the road in front of her shelter. “I'm afraid our hut will get washed away as soon as the heavy rains come and cause flooding.”

JUNTA'S INVESTMENTS GO INTO THIS SO ARE THE INT'L AID DONATIONS...

READ MORE---> No Land, No Home, No Hope...

Burmese Women Arrested in Prostitution Raid

By THE IRRAWADDY

Thirty-nine Burmese migrant women were arrested on Tuesday by Thai immigration authorities in Ranong in southern Thailand under suspicion of working as prostitutes and illegal entry into the country, according to local sources.

A local resident said that at least 40 members of the Thai security forces, including soldiers, raided a house where Burmese women were living and arrested all those inside.

“The women had been renting the house for some time,” he said. “But the neighbors were upset about what they were doing, so they informed the local authorities.”

According to Inn News, a Thai-language Web site, immigration officials questioned the arrested women, 17 of whom allegedly entered Thailand illegally and five of whom had border passes that had expired.

Inn News quoted a 20-year-old Burmese woman as saying: “I come from Rangoon and have been living in Ranong for six years.”

She said that she normally serviced eight to ten customers a night, according to the Thai Web site, and that Burmese migrant sex workers have to pay 180 Baht (US $5) per night to local authorities to avoid arrest.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, a staff member at the immigration office in Ranong said the 39 women were being detained at the local police station.

Last week, Burmese and Thai authorities signed an agreement to counter human trafficking—especially that of women and children—which included a measure to set up more checkpoints along the common border.

READ MORE---> Burmese Women Arrested in Prostitution Raid...

Myanmar cyclone survivors stuck in makeshift huts

Source: Reuters Foundation

KUNGYANGONE, Myanmar, Relief Web (Reuters) - A year after Cyclone Nargis blasted his home in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta, Pyae Aye sees little hope of replacing the threadbare tarpaulin over his head with a new roof.

The 10 ft by 12 ft (3.0 by 3.7 metre) hut where the rice farmer lives with his two young sons is unbearably hot and began leaking when the first monsoon rains arrived in early April.

"We lost everything and we just can't afford to repair the house yet," said Pyae Aye, who like thousands of survivors of the cyclone that killed nearly 140,000 people, has struggled to rebuild his modest home.

Aid groups estimate at least 500,000 survivors, including 200,000 children, are living in makeshift shelters cobbled together with bamboo poles and fraying tarpaulin, primarily due to a lack of money.

Normally, natural materials such as thatch from palm trees and shrubs provide cheap, relatively cool and rainproof roofing.

But the May 2-3 cyclone destroyed most of the trees and 375,000 homes, according to government estimates.

A year on, only 17,000 new homes have been built, according to U.N. estimates, while another 200,000 have been repaired by their owners.

With the full might of the monsoon season only weeks away, tens of thousands face the prospect of spending another year living in "extremely vulnerable shelter", said David Evans, acting head of the U.N. housing agency UN-HABITAT.

"If they haven't been able to help themselves in the last 11 months, it's not likely they're going to be able to help themselves now, and so far we haven't managed to reach them," Evans said.

FUNDS DRIED UP

Nearly all Nargis survivors received some form of emergency shelter after the storm, including those few allowed into the junta's "model villages" after the generals were criticised for their slow response to the disaster.

But a year on, donor funding for housing has met only 4 percent of the U.N. target.

Donors are giving money for education, health care and food, but they consider housing and infrastructure the government's responsibility, said Andrew Kirkwood, country director of aid agency Save The Children.

"While we would like to see the government spending more on public services, it's completely unjust that the international community does not pick up their part of the responsibility," he said.

Aid groups are trying to fill the gap before the monsoon rains drench the delta, the rice bowl of the former Burma.

The Red Cross plans to hand out tarpaulins in May and June to 30,000 families in the delta, and CARE Myanmar says it will spend close to $2 million on aid for shelter until next June.

UN-HABITAT has appealed for $10 million to provide temporary roofing materials "we needed yesterday", Evans said.

"If it isn't agreed in the next couple of weeks, then we totally miss this last window of opportunity before the severe wind and rain arrives," he said.

Evans also defended his agency's advocacy of $500-$700 homes, which some critics consider too expensive. They are made with traditionals materials but use modern techniques for flooring and foundations to make them more resistant to disasters.

Even with unlimited funds, he said similar rebuilding efforts after the 2004 Asian Tsunami took four years to complete.

But that did not seem to impress Myint Thein, a farmer in the devastated Labutta area, who rebuilt his home on stilts "with whatever we could find".

"If it gets blown away, it gets blown away," he said. "Besides, if there is another storm like Nargis, we won't survive again anyway." (Editing by Darren Schuettler and Bill Tarrant)

READ MORE---> Myanmar cyclone survivors stuck in makeshift huts...

Australia to give Tk 3cr to UNHCR for Rohingyas

Dhaka, Apr 30 (bdnews24.com)—Australia will provide Aus $700,000 or around Tk 3.15 crore to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the construction of refugee camps for Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar.

A press release of the Australian High Commission in Dhaka said Thursday the funds will be used to construct improved shelters for 492 Rohingya families as part of UNHCR's ongoing shelter replacement project.

Australia earlier this month announced Aus $3.2 million humanitarian funds for the Rohingya people living in Burma's northern Rakhine State.

"This reflects Australia's commitment to a permanent solution to the Rohingya issue," the statement quoted Australian high commissioner to Bangladesh Justin Lee as saying.

"Australia's funding to UNHCR will provide better living conditions including more space, privacy and protection to around 3000 refugees, until a durable solution can be found", he said.

The UNHCR also welcomed the assistance.

"Australia's commitment to the refugee program in Bangladesh, especially by funding new shelters, has already resulted in improvements in the health and protection of the refugees," UNHCR Representative in Bangladesh, Pia Prytz Phiri said in the statement.

"This additional funding will ensure that over 80 percent of all shelter needs are met in both camps," she said.

Bangladesh has been hosting over 28,000 Rohingya refugees refusing to return to Myanmar.

They constitute a residual caseload of 250,000 who entered Bangladesh in 1991 and 1992.

UNHCR has been providing assistance to Rohingya refugees since 1991 when hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims poured into Bangladesh following a crackdown on them by the Burma's military junta.

bdnews24.com/krc/bd/1521h.

READ MORE---> Australia to give Tk 3cr to UNHCR for Rohingyas...

Fishery Department introduces media censorship

by Myo Thein

Rangoon (Mizzima) – The 'Myanmar Fishery Federation’ has imposed certain restrictions on the domestic media, on media coverage of fishery products and export figures issued by the government Fisheries Department, without getting prior approval from them.

A weekly journal reported the actual export figures of fishery products in its news report, and claimed that it was far below the targeted figure for 2008-09 fiscal in comparison with the previous financial year, in terms of percentage. Following the publication of that news report, the Fisheries Department put forth such restrictions on the local media.

The Myanmar Fishery Federation holds a Meeting for Development of Meat and Fishery every Tuesday, at its head office in West Gyogon, which is attended by responsible people from the Fishery Department, the concerned people from organizations under the Myanmar Fishery Federation, concerned people from the Livestock Federation and sometimes even the Minister of Livestock and Fishery attends these meetings.

During these meetings, the local media are usually allowed to attend and report the news emanating from the meeting freely, but currently an officer of FIQC, a section of the Fishery Department has said that news regarding these meetings must get prior approval from their office. He also informed the local media that this restriction had already been communicated to the notorious Censor Board.

Although the reason given for this restriction, was reportage of incorrect facts, the real reason was disclosure of the true facts of both export earnings and volumes far short of target, by a local weekly journal, a Rangoon-based journal editor said.

"The reason is reporting of these facts before being sent to Naypyitaw. The Fishery Federation usually discloses weekly and monthly export figures. Though the media are allowed to report these figures, they are not allowed to report these figures in an overview report, such as export figures and target for the whole financial year. All reporters, who are familiar with this department and organization, know about it. In this case, the journalist, who wrote this news, was summoned to their office and a complaint was also lodged with the Censor Board,” he told Mizzima.

Sources from this Fishery Department said that the officials usually adjust the export volume and foreign exchange earning figures for each financial year, before reporting to their higher authorities.

They do such adjustments to avoid criticism and blame, likely to be put on them by their higher authorities, the sources said.

"The export target for this financial year is USD 850 million and the actual export is just 56% of this target. The Fishery Department wants the local media to report this news only from a positive viewpoint. Now it seems to be pointing out their negative aspect. It seems likely that we have to write news reports, without facts and figures from now on," a source said.

The Fishery Sector stands fourth in export earnings in Burma and the export target for the 2008-09 financial year is USD 850 million. Even in the post-Nargis scenario, the fishery products export business was not affected much. However, the current global economic slowdown has hit this fishery sector hard, when it was just picking up.

Therefore, the department revised its export target in early 2009, to a more realistic USD 500 million from the previous USD 850 million. But the actual export earnings reached only USD 483.082 million at the end of the last financial year, which ended in March 2009.

READ MORE---> Fishery Department introduces media censorship...

Three Village Leaders Abducted by Armed Group

Paletwa (Narinjara): Three village leaders, including two village chairmen, were abducted by an unidentified armed group on the western Burmese border on 24 April, after the group entered Pri Zaw Village on the border to extort money, said a relative of one of the victims.

He said, "I came to the Bangladesh border to enquire about their condition but I have not heard anything about them. An eleven-member group armed with guns abducted the men on the night of 24 April and brought them to the border area near Bangladesh."

The victims have been identified as U Sein Aung, chairman of Pri Zaw Village, U Wai Ni Kyaw, chairman of Mraung Village, and U Tun Aung, a village leader from Mraung Village in Paletwa Township in Chin State.

"The armed group took two chickens and two baskets of rice from our village. Afterward, our chairman was abducted and taken from the village," he said.

According to a border source, most of the villages know the armed group that abducted the three men, but no has revealed its identity for fear of retaliation.

"We do not know why the armed group abducted our chairman and we do not know the organization's name. We have to enquire about the abduction and later may be able to reveal the organization's name," the relative said.

On the western Burmese border, especially in Paletwa Township, there are two or three insurgent groups that sometimes patrol the area in order to ambush SPDC soldiers in the area.

According to a local villager source, the villagers in the area live in a very risky position because both the insurgent groups and the Burmese army abduct and kill villagers whenever they are unable to meet their demands for money, food, or information.

In addition the recent abduction, an elder monk was assassinated by unknown assailants in upper Sami Village in Paletwa Township last week.

READ MORE---> Three Village Leaders Abducted by Armed Group...

Wa anniversary has positive, negative responses in Thailand

(SHAN) -According to Thailand’s security, that has been closely following Wa developments, the recent Wa celebrations marking their 20th anniversary of what it calls “Peaceful Construction” was both a satisfying and disappointing event.

“We’ve been using its 10th anniversary pictorial publication like a bible on Wa up to this day,” a senior security officer told SHAN as he fondly ran his fingers through his newly received 392 page 20th anniversary publication, priced at Y188 (roughly $27) per copy in Panghsang, the Wa capital. “Whenever we wanted to know who’s who in Wa, we always refer to the volume. The new one is even better, and more detailed.”

For instance, while the 1999 volume did not carry photographs of the Wei brothers, wanted in both Thailand and the United States, the 2009 volume has two colorful prints of Wei Xuelong, the eldest and Deputy Minister of the Wa State Government’s all powerful Finance Department, and Wei Xuegang, the youngest and Deputy Commander of the 171st Military Region that covers areas opposite Thailand’s Maehongson, Chiangmai and Chiangrai provinces.

[“I wish the SSA (Shan State Army “South”) takes its cue from this one,” he added. The group has 5 main bases across the border.]

The only disappointment was that no latest snapshots of the most well-known brother, Wei Xuegang, was again not included the new volume. “Which means we are stuck to the only two available photos we have of him,” said another.

“We can do nothing about that,” said a Wa official who requested anonymity, “because it is his explicit wish. He attends only close door meetings. He’s so paranoid you can’t expect his presence in any meeting where there are 30 participants upwards.”

The other disappointment was about the lack of any display of United Wa State Army (UWSA)’s military might on 17 April, when around 2,400 of its troops took part in the military parade.

The Wa is reported to have acquired at least 2 Chinese-made armored vehicles, each Y 2.8 million ($400,000) recently, aside from a number of sophisticated anti-aircraft guns, mortars and field guns. This reluctance was in contrast to its former nemesis the Mong Tai Army (MTA) of the late Khun Sa who never failed to fascinate its civilian supporters with a show of its weaponry.

The UWSA, held a 4-day celebrations, 15-18 April, at its main base on the Sino-Burma border, attended by hundreds of its allies and thousands of guests from China.

The UWSA and the Thai Army have fought each other on several occasions since 1996, most notably in 2002, when the latter launched a military exercise code-named Surasi.

READ MORE---> Wa anniversary has positive, negative responses in Thailand...

Appalling conditions in Naga Hills Region under Burmese junta

by Ring Aung
Kachin News Group

A majority of the Naga, estimated to be about four million live on the Indian side, in Nagaland. The Naga in Burma is in the minority with an estimated population of over 200,000.

The Naga in Burma live in Homemalin Township, Khamthi Township, Leshi Township, Lahe Township, Namyun Township and Pangsau sub-township of Sagaing division and Shing Bwe Yang sub-township in Kachin State.

The people in the Naga Hills Region under the Burmese military junta have never got favours from the regime. Their neglect by the junta is appalling. Some of these people are forcibly recruited into the army. Their religious practices are controlled by the Burmese authorities.

After 1990, there has been religious persecution in the Naga Hills Region. Since the majority of Naga people are Christians, the Burmese military regime has been planning to develop the region under the military. The Buddhist religious organizations are keen on persuading the Naga people to convert to Buddhism.

In some villages, the Burmese junta has been burning churches. The people have been ordered by the Burmese authorities to convert to Buddhism and are being threatened by the authorities. Villagers who don’t want to change their religion have to run away from their villages.

According to locals in the Naga region, the people tried to negotiate with the Burmese authorities to stop the religious persecution in the region twice in the past, but there has been no progress. The situation is said to be bad.

In every village in the Naga region, the population is half Buddhist and half Christians. The Burmese regime has built temples in a village and put in place fake monks.

Monks staying at a temple in a village are imposters. They are just pretending to be monks. If there are 10 monks in a temple, half of them are soldiers. Some carry guns.

All the monks receive financial assistance and food. Normally, they get 60,000 Kyat (US $ 59) per month. They also receive rice but they sell the rice to for money. Because villagers donate food to them, they can afford to sell the rice, said a local.

All Christian churches in the region have to register with the Burmese authorities and it is mandatory to put up the registration sign board on top of their church.

Being Christians in the region they have to struggle a lot and the Burmese authorities even beat up Christian missionaries who graduated from India. They are not allowed to carry out any mission in the region, a local added.

Because of poor transportation and road communication, the children from the region can’t afford to go to school. Most villages have only a primary school and if the children want to go to middle or high school, they have to study in the township. Children who have finished primary school cannot go for higher studies. They help their parents in farming.

On the other hand, the Burmese Army forcibly recruits youngsters including those under18 years of age.

According to local people from Shing Bwe Yang Township, in September 2007, the Burmese Army recruited over 80 people into the armed forces. They were from the Shing Bwe Yang Township.

Ring Aung is a staff reporter of Kachin News Group (KNG).

READ MORE---> Appalling conditions in Naga Hills Region under Burmese junta...

Dialogue necessary before 2010 elections

(DVB)–If the Burmese government releases all political prisoners and holds dialogue without preconditions with opposition groups then Burma’s main opposition party will contest the 2010 elections, said a statement yesterday.

Following a plenary meeting on Tuesday between senior officials of the National League for Democracy, whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest, a statement was released outlining conditions under which the NLD would participate in the elections next year.

The so-called Shwegondaing statement also emphasized that dialogue without precondition between senior government officials and NLD members was the key to resolving Burma’s political problems.

“The NLD has a big role in solving the problems the country is currently facing - the release of political prisoners, the amendment of the constitution, the recognition of the 1990 election result, and the holding of dialogue,” said Ohn Kyaing, a member of the NLD central information committee.

“These are problems that need sorting out now, but dialogue is the main thing.”

He added, however, that dialogue would have to take place without preconditions, and that any discussion should include the provision of equal opportunities for the ethnic nationalities.

Critics have said the draft constitution, ratified by the government last year in the weeks following cyclone Nargis, guarantees entrenchment of military rule.

The plenary meeting was attended by over 150 party organizers, members of parliament, and central executive committee members.

Diplomats from countries such as United States, United Kingdom, France and Italy also attended.

Reporting by Aye Nai

READ MORE---> Dialogue necessary before 2010 elections...

Diarrhea outbreak claims three lives

(DVB)–Outbreaks of severe diarrhea have continued in several towns in Burma, with hospitals now unable to cope with the upsurge in patient numbers and several deaths being reported.

Fresh outbreaks have occurred in Nyaung Lay Pin township in Bago division and Pakokku township in Magwe division.

“At our Nyaung Lay Pin hospital, patients have to be lined up on the corridors because the hospital is full up,” a local resident said.

“Up to last night, three people had died."

It is possible that the outbreak was caused by a combination of rising temperatures and people eating food contaminated by flies, said a retired local medical staff.

The illness has mainly affected poor people in Pakokku township, a local resident said.

"It is happening more among grassroots people as they are poor,” he said.

“They can't afford to drink clean water, and there is no electricity.”

A member of staff on duty at Pakokku said however that the situation was not dire.

Other outbreaks have been occurring in Rangoon, Mandalay, and some towns in Irrawaddy division.

The government’s health ministry has previously said it would publish details of the condition of the illness but so far there has been no report.

Reporting by Ahunt Phone Myat

READ MORE---> Diarrhea outbreak claims three lives...

Karen group lose outpost to army

(DVB)–Burma’s principal armed opposition group has lost sections of a strategically important outpost near the Thai border after nearly a month of fighting between the group and government troops.

The Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Karen National Union, yesterday said it has lost parts of its Walakee outpost run by Battalion 201 in eastern Karen state.

Government troops, backed by the pro-junta Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, launched the latest offensive against the battalion two days ago.

A KNLA officer said that main section of the outpost was still under their control, although the army had taken the artillery firing ground.

According to the KNLA, three government soldiers were killed in the offensive and ten were injured.

Villagers living near the base were reportedly being forced to work for the army and were running out of food, said Battalion 201 official Captain Kyi Aung.

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army split from the KNU in 1994 and allied themselves with the government.

Reconciliation talks between the KNU and ruling State Peace and Development Council, whose conflict is thought to be the world’s longest running, have been on the cards for some time.

Both sides have agreed in principle to hold discussions, although the KNU have repeatedly stated that they will not disarm.

Reporting by Nay Htoo

READ MORE---> Karen group lose outpost to army...

Crossing the Great Divide

By AUNG ZAW
The Irrawaddy News

Last week, I was at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) to attend a panel discussion organized by the BBC Burmese Service to mark the one-year anniversary of Cyclone Nargis, Burma’s worst recorded natural disaster.

My first question to Tin Htar Swe, the head of the BBC Burmese Service in London, was why there were no Burmese NGO workers or monks on the panel. Both groups are widely recognized as key participants in the post-Nargis relief effort.

She replied that local aid workers and monks were initially invited to speak, but they all turned down the invitation when they learned that the discussion would be videotaped and aired.

After hearing this response, a Burmese colleague joked that it looked like Burma’s humanitarian workers were sharing the fate of the country’s political activists, who have long been forced to carry out most of their activities “underground.”

But two of the panelists—Chris Kaye, the World Food Program’s country director for Burma, and Dr Frank Smithius, the country representative for MSF (Holland)—disagreed with the suggestion that the Burmese regime was impeding relief efforts.

They said that aid could be delivered to the needy without interference from the junta. But they also emphasized that much more work needed to be done to improve the lives of cyclone survivors. The recovery process in the delta would take time and more assistance was needed, they said. No one disagreed with them.

The third panelist, Britain’s ambassador to Burma, Mark Canning, also had a message that few people could disagree with. He said that Burma remained one of the most repressive places on earth, and insisted that real political progress could only begin after the regime released all of the country’s political prisoners.

At the same time, however, he stressed that while searching for a solution to Burma’s political problems, the basic needs of the Burmese people could not be ignored.

But meeting these needs continues to be a serious challenge for all involved. Although more international NGOs have entered Burma since Cyclone Nargis and large numbers of ordinary Burmese have joined the relief effort, it remains unclear how far the regime will go in allowing a larger “humanitarian space” to open in the country.

While many observers outside the country remain skeptical about the international aid agencies’ claims of being able to work freely (“What else do you expect them to say?” asked one cynical senior journalist at the FCCT), the regime itself is as suspicious as ever of these outsiders.

According to official sources in Naypyidaw, top leaders have shown little interest in humanitarian relief efforts in the delta, but are paying close attention to what’s going on there, as they remain ever watchful of signs of anything that could undermine their grip on power.

Indeed, when the microphones were off, some aid workers admitted that the junta has often been less than helpful, confirming comments from some Burmese observers who attended the FCCT event, who said that the real situation in the delta was very different from the picture being painted by the international aid groups.

Some foreign NGO workers also expressed doubts about the three-year recovery project receiving the $700 million it is estimated to need—something that will hinge largely on their ability to convince foreign donors that the regime is not hindering their efforts.

Last week, Koos Richelle, the director general of the European Commission’s EuropeAid Cooperation Office, told reporters in Manila that Burma must open up to dialogue with donors if it wants to receive much-needed development assistance. He added, however, that there has been little progress in providing aid to Burma because the military regime refuses to discuss development programs. (JEG's: but they want our money... )

Although the regime has extended the mandate of the relief-coordinating body, the Tripartite Core Group—consisting of representatives of the UN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the junta—for another year, Naypyidaw appears to be reluctant to allow more foreign aid workers into the country.

This is a disappointment for aid workers who say that they have been able to collaborate effectively with officials committed to helping their fellow Burmese citizens through cooperation with international relief groups and UN agencies.

One panelist even said that his organization was able to work inside Burma without sacrificing any of its core principles. But a foreign aid worker with in-depth knowledge of Burma was dismissive of this claim. The only organization in Burma that has strictly adhered to its principles is the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), he said. Although the ICRC stopped its activities, including prison visits, in Burma after the regime imposed restrictions, it has maintained its office in Rangoon.

Meanwhile, some aid workers active inside Burma are countering such recriminations by arguing that advocacy groups and activists outside the country are attempting to paint an overly bleak picture of the difficulties of working with the junta.

Recently, 21 international NGOs involved in Nargis-related relief and recovery work slammed a joint report by the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Thailand-based Emergency Assistance Team (EAT) which was highly critical of the relief effort in the delta.

In a joint letter, the NGO group said that the report, titled “After the Storm: Voices from the Delta,” published on February 27, was “both inaccurate and does a disservice to the courageous and resilient survivors of Cyclone Nargis.”

The report focused on human rights violations in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.

The response letter said, “We found a number of shortcomings in the report, including its premise, methodology and most of its findings.”

Defending the relief effort, the letter said: “Dozens of international and local relief agencies along with foreign embassies are continually examining humanitarian and delivery from inside Burma. They are able to do so independently and first-hand.

“The international humanitarian assistance delivered to date has been life-saving and life sustaining for millions of cyclone survivors. It has reached them without significant interference,” the letter claimed.

The letter also claimed that misleading reports could undermine further aid to cyclone survivors.

Although others have also questioned the Johns Hopkins/EAT report’s methodology, most observers agree that it has succeeded in initiating a healthy debate. Some researchers who advocate increased aid defended the report, saying that it helps to raise awareness of the need for transparency and accountability in the distribution of aid and use of funds.

As the relief effort approaches the one-year mark, this would be a good time for the aid community inside and outside Burma to open a dialogue, instead of undermining the missions inside and along the border.

Burmese aid workers on both sides of this artificial divide have many shared concerns. One is that the fight over aid money could obscure more important issues and even intensify divisions between Burmese inside and outside of the country.

A year ago, there was unprecedented cooperation between Burmese living in exile and those still inside the country, as both struggled to find a way to come to the assistance of their fellow citizens. Now, however, many fear that a dispute among foreign aid groups could weaken their shared resolve, with consequences that can only add to the tragedy of Cyclone Nargis.

READ MORE---> Crossing the Great Divide...

Differences halt school reconstruction in Nargis-hit regions

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Serious differences have cropped up between the No. 1 Basic Education Department and construction companies over sanctions for rebuilding schools in Cyclone Nargis devastated regions.

The ministers of the Burmese regime assigned to supervise reconstruction work in Irrawaddy delta region identified 40 construction companies for rebuilding 680 schools in the region. But the Basic Education Department officials rejected the scheme and reassigned the reconstruction work to the companies. This has led to a deadlock where they have not been able to sign an agreement with the construction companies yet.

"The Basic Education Department wants to manage reconstruction of all the schools. So they recompiled the list of construction companies to build the schools and got it approved by the supervising ministers," a manager of a construction company told Mizzima.

At the same time, there are allegations that the construction companies are bribing the authorities concerned to get job orders for rebuilding schools at an estimated cost of Kyat 12,000 million.

Cyclone Nargis which devastated the region on May 2 and 3 last year left 84,537 dead and 53,836 missing. The Tripartite core group's joint assessment report said that an estimated up to 50 to 60 per cent of public schools, including monastic schools, in the hardest-hit 30 townships were destroyed.

With the monsoon approaching the people are worried about the differences between construction companies and government officials of the No. 1 Basic Education Department.

The junta gave some private companies construction contracts for reconstruction work in cyclone-hit regions and assigned some ministers to supervise the work.

READ MORE---> Differences halt school reconstruction in Nargis-hit regions...

$US 690 million needed to rebuild devastated Delta region

A year after Myanmar’s worst ever cyclone debt-ridden survivors need substantial aid package

Embargoed until 00:01GMT Thursday April 30

Hundreds of thousands of people who survived Myanmar’s worst-ever cyclone are facing the prospect of being trapped in debt with little prospect of securing further credit or loans and need urgent help from the international community, international aid agency Oxfam said today.

”One of the many impacts of Cyclone Nargis was that it destroyed almost an entire harvest that farmers and fishermen had already borrowed against before the cyclone hit,” Oxfam Myanmar Country Director Claire Light said.

”That has meant many families defaulted on those loans, and haven’t been able to access enough credit ever since to get back on their feet,”

”Urgent international assistance is needed before June so that farming and fishing families can kick-start their upcoming harvest, repay their loans, and avoid losing any more to this devastating cyclone and its aftermath,” Ms Light said.

Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady Delta and Yangon Division on May 2 - 3, 2008, as well as killing 140 000 people and destroying homes and schools, demolished farmland, cattle, fishing ponds and equipment leaving the vast majority of survivors who rely on these for an income struggling to make ends meet, Oxfam said today.

A recovery plan prepared by the Association of South East Nations (ASEAN), the United Nations in Myanmar and the Government of the Union of Myanmar, says that $US 690 million is needed from the international community over the next three years to restore people’s lives back to what they were before the cyclone.

Of that it states $US 189 million dollars is needed to restore people’s livelihoods, through activities such as generating jobs and supporting agricultural production for fishing and farming communities.

The United Nations Flash Appeal opened soon after the cyclone, will draw to a close only 67 per cent funded, and has a $US 42 million shortfall in the amount requested for agricultural projects. That appeal closes tomorrow.

Ms Light said aid agencies do not want to see funding end after the first anniversary of the cyclone, and they have not seen enough pledges from the international community for long-term aid.

“There was a generous response in the wake of the storm that allowed the largest ever relief effort in Myanmar, and because of that almost all cyclone-survivors have been reached with some level of assistance,” Ms Light said.

“But Cyclone Nargis caused a level of destruction similar to the worst-hit areas of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. The 2.4 million people affected will continue to feel its impact unless aid keeps flowing for the next three years,” Ms Ireland said.

Oxfam has reached approximately half a million people with aid in the cyclone-affected regions. The aid agency has been directly operational in the country since August 2008, and continues to fund partner organisations that assisted in the immediate relief efforts. Prior to Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar received among the lowest levels of aid per capita in the world.

Oxfam GB’s Myanmar Country Director Claire Light, based in Yangon, and Oxfam GB’s Regional Director, Sarah Ireland, based in Bangkok are available for interview. To interview them or for a copy of the background note The Aftershock of Cyclone Nargis: Credit Crunch in the Delta or for more information please contact: Sunita Bose in Bangkok on +66... or on Australian number +61... or Uamdao Noikorn in Bangkok on +66 .... In the UK contact Sean Kenny +44 7766 443 506, skenny@oxfam.org.uk

Notes to editors: Overview of Oxfam’s Cyclone Response in Myanmar

Where we work:

Oxfam has reached approximately half a million people with aid following Cyclone Nargis.

Oxfam has been directly operational in the country since August 2008, and continues to fund local partner organisations who assisted in the immediate relief efforts.

In the first phase of the response, Oxfam and our partners provided immediate relief assistance in 24 of the most affected townships. Oxfam now works directly in Dedaye and Pyapon townships, and supports recovery efforts in eight cyclone-affected townships through partner organisations.

Oxfam’s response to date:

Oxfam has provided 64 000 households with water-related support. This has included giving people emergency water and reconstructing water infrastructure systems, or providing water storage containers.

Oxfam has given approximately 53,000 households emergency shelter materials to protect them from the elements or assistance to rebuild their homes.

Oxfam has given approximately 11 000 households fishing or farming support so that they can continue to generate an income.

Oxfam has given approximately 26,000 households food or cash-for-work support to assist in small-scale rehabilitation of infrastructure or to receive vocational training to build their capacity to earn an income.

Oxfam has supported the rehabilitation of early childhood care and development centers and schools provided school supplies, uniforms, and books.

Oxfam is providing radios to communities as an early warning radio system that would benefit 45 000 villagers.

Oxfam’s priorities for the next two years:

Oxfam and our partners are now supporting communities on the very long road to recovery.

Oxfam’s direct cyclone response work is a three-year programme, and in the next two years, subject to funding, aims to reach 243 000 people in the hardest-hit townships in the Ayeyarwardy delta with livelihoods and water and sanitation support.

Oxfam are working to restore agricultural and fisheries production to pre-cyclone levels so that people in the region can generate an income to feed themselves and their families and avoid getting further into debt.

Oxfam is working to reduce long-term public health risks and are safeguarding people from water-borne diseases, by helping communities to restore their water supplies and through distributing pots, buckets and water purification means and building latrines.

For more information please contact: Sunita Bose in Bangkok on +66 84 ... or on Australian number +61 407... or Uamdao Noikorn, in Bangkok on +66 818 553 196. I n the UK contact Sean Kenny +44 7766 443 506, skenny@oxfam.org.uk

Oxfam UK

READ MORE---> $US 690 million needed to rebuild devastated Delta region...

'I Worked For Human Traffickers'

(RFA) -A Burmese man describes how he was forced to beat other illegal workers by a Malaysian trafficking gang to buy his own freedom.

Ko Wunna is a 28-year-old resident of Burma's former capital, Rangoon, who was trafficked to Malaysia by gangs importing illegal workers in a constantly revolving racket in which, former participants say, the Malaysian police are also complicit.

Here, Ko Wunna speaks to RFA Burmese service reporter Kyaw Min Htun about his experiences over three months working for a trafficking gang in the region in and around northern Malaysia's Kedah province, which borders Songkhla and Yala provinces in Thailand. He reveals that illegal migrants who don't come under the aegis of one gang are vulnerable to worse exploitation by others.

The Malaysian government has recently pledged to investigate claims made by many other Burmese like Ko Wunna.

"I was arrested [by Malaysian immigration authorities] on Nov. 15, 2008 and was sentenced to jail for two months and one stroke of the lash. I was released on Jan. 2, 2009. After I was released from prison, the Thai human traffickers [to whom Ko Wunna says he was then sold by immigration authorities] told me to buy myself 'back in' [to work in Malaysia] from the border town of Changlun. But they wanted 2050 ringgit (U.S. $570) to buy myself back in. I couldn’t give them that much money. Those who could pay were able to leave [the trafficking gang]."

"Seven of us were left behind. We told them that we would work our way out. But they would not accept it. They said if we could not pay we would be sold to an Indonesian boat under a five-year plan. What we heard about this five-year plan was that if we were unable to work, they would kill us, beat us to death. We were afraid, so we escaped in the night. The traffickers and their Thai boss chased us. We fled into the forest."

"In the morning we saw a tea shop and asked for help. The people in the tea shop asked what nationality we were. We told them we were from Burma. They said we should contact the police. We thought about it. The traffickers chasing us had iron rods and were closing in on us. They also had motorcycles and if we crossed the street they would have tried to hit us with their cars. And if we were caught by the Thais we knew we would be dead. So we decided it would be better to be arrested, so we surrendered to the police."

Police 'took money from traffickers'

"The police told us to wait while they telephoned their officer in charge. The police told us to sit and wait at the tea shop. While we were waiting the police officer arrived. But it seemed that the police officer and the traffickers had done business in the past, because one of the traffickers came along with the police officer. They told us to get into the car. The police officer himself drove the car while the trafficker sat next to him. They took us to the same place that we had been kept before."

"After leaving us there, the police left, after receiving 2,000 ringgit from the traffickers. There were four traffickers. They kicked us with their boots. Later three more of them arrived with a gun and a metal chain. They hit us, but not on our faces where the injuries could be seen. They also used knuckle-dusters to hit us on our bodies."

"After we were caught again, the price [to leave the gang] went up to 3,000 ringgit. They said that if we did not pay the 3,000, the Thai bosses would cut our legs off as an example to the others... I was concerned so I contacted my home, but they were also in a tight situation in terms of money. So I did not ask for help from them again."

Ordered to beat new arrivals

"There was no way I could pay the money they asked for. So they told me to work for the payment. I agreed and did what they told me to do. After that they did not look after the new arrivals, they just kept them in that big house with just me looking after the new arrivals ... The traffickers gave me a phone, a book, and a ball-point pen. I had to register their names, their destination, and the phone numbers the new arrivals were calling. Those who could pay the money were brought forward first."

"The traffickers first showed me how to deal with the new arrivals. If they could pay 2,500 ringgit they were allowed to make the telephone call. If they could not pay, or if they said they would pay at the end of the month or later, I was told to hit them across their faces. Since they asked me to hit them, I had to do it."

"It was not easy, as I myself had gone through the same fate in the past. But I had to hit them because if I did not do as I was told they would turn against me. So I had to hit them a bit in front of the trafficker. But after the traffickers had left, I would apologize to the new arrivals. I told them that I would have to hit them, kick them, and treat them roughly in front of the traffickers, but that I was not really like that. And I asked them to understand my situation. They understood, as all of us were Burmese."

Original reporting in Burmese by Kyaw Min Htun. Burmese service director: Nancy Shwe. Translated by Soe Thinn. Edited for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie.

2009-04-29

ALSO READ PART TWO
They are still sending them

READ MORE---> 'I Worked For Human Traffickers'...