BurmaNet News April 16-18, 2005

[Editor]

April 16-18, 2005 Issue # 2699


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar junta leader to attend Asia-Africa Summit: state media
The Star: Myanmar ushers in the New Year with religious ceremonies

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Many Casualties in Shan-Wa Fighting
BBC Monitor: Clash between Burmese army, Shan rebels intensifies near Thai
border
BBC Monitor: Thai border patrol policeman killed in clash with Burmese
soldiers

HEALTH / AIDS
AFP: Taboos about sex hinder HIV prevention in Myanmar, but condoms gain
ground

DRUGS
Xinhua: Myanmar exposes 239 drug cases in March

BUSINESS / FINANCE
Kyodo: Myanmar posts 12.6% economic growth in FY 2004
International Herald Tribune: Economic fog shrouds Myanmar

OPINION / OTHER
The Philippine Star: Asean’s hot potato
Independent: Tsunami carried bronze Buddha 1,000 kilometres across the ocean


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 18, Agence France Presse
Myanmar junta leader to attend Asia-Africa Summit: state media

Myanmar's junta leader Senior General Than Shwe will travel to Indonesia
and attend the Asia-Africa summit there this week, state media reported
Monday.

"At the invitation of President (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono), Chairman of
the State Peace and Development Council Senior General Than Shwe will
attend the Asian-African Summit 2005 and the commemoration of the golden
jubilee of the Asia-Africa Conference," the New Light of Myanmar said in a
brief report.

It provided no further details about the visit, but Than Shwe, 72, is to
join up to 50 heads of state expected to converge on Jakarta and the
nearby city of Bandung from April 22 to 23 for the gathering.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is also due to attend.

The visit to Indonesia, the largest member of the 10-nation Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, follows last week's meeting of ASEAN foreign
ministers in the Philippines, where debate swirled over whether Myanmar
should take the chairmanship of the regional grouping in 2006.

Last Thursday in Geneva the UN's top human rights body sharply criticised
"systematic" abuse by Myanmar's junta, calling on it to restore democracy
and free all political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.

____________________________________

April 17, The Star
Myanmar ushers in the New Year with religious ceremonies

YANGON, Myanmar: After four days of unrestrained merrymaking, Myanmar
ushered in the traditional New Year Sunday with hundreds of thousands of
devout Buddhists across the country thronging pagodas to pray for a better
future.

To make merit, and thus attain happiness in future rebirths, people
donated food to monks as well as laity in monasteries and invited the
monks to recite evening prayers in their communities.

New Year, traditionally a religious, gentle event, is celebrated in
mid-April in Myanmar as well as Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. In recent
years, it has been tarnished by wild parties, water-throwing and
commercialism.

Despite severe penalties announced by the military government for unruly
behavior, including up to five years in jail, thousands of the young and
not-so-young took to the streets to flout warnings in the four-day run-up
to the New Year.

In Thailand, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the government would
have to clamp down on the wild celebrations next year, restricting the
hurling of water and other shenanigans and cracking down on drunks.

Many of the 481 persons who died during the first nine days of the 10-day
holiday period in Thailand were drunken motorcyclists. Another 14,339
people were reported injured in Thailand.

However, many in all four countries still observed old customs, paying
respect to their elders and visiting homes for the aged to wash the hair
and cut nails of the residents. Others released captive fish, birds and
other animals as part of the merit-making.—AP

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 18, Irrawaddy
Many Casualties in Shan-Wa Fighting

Weeks of fighting between the United Wa State Army and the Shan State Army
(South) have left dozens of dead and wounded, according to reports from
the field.

A spokeswoman for the SSA-S said Monday four UWSA members had been killed
in the latest clash, which occurred on Sunday.

The fighting is concentrated in the Mong Ton area of southern Shan State,
opposite Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province. The Thai Army beefed up
security there after mortar shells landed on Thai territory.

Both sides traded accusations of responsibility for the fighting. The
UWSA, an ethnic ceasefire group, said the clashes had no regime military
connection and were an internal conflict between the UWSA and Shan
guerrillas.

SSA-S spokeswoman Nam Khur Hsen claimed, however, that the UWSA was being
supported by regime forces.

The UWSA claims the SSA-S arrested and then killed eight people, including
members of the UWSA, working at a new road construction in eastern Shan
State in mid-February.

A UWSA officer said in a phone interview with The Irrawaddy on Monday that
the SSA-S had claimed the people killed had been drug traffickers.

____________________________________

April 18, BBC Monitor
Clash between Burmese army, Shan rebels intensifies near Thai border

Source: The Nation web site, Bangkok, in English 18 Apr 05

Text of report in English by Thai newspaper The Nation web site on 18 April

Burmese troops and their ethnic minority allies yesterday intensified an
offensive against Shan rebels along the border with Thailand, border
sources said.

The government soldiers and pro-Rangoon United Wa State Army bombarded a
stronghold of the rebellious Shan State Army (SSA), Loi Tai Laeng, near
Thailand's Mae Hong Son Province.

The fighting began last week and the SSA commander, Yawd Serk, claims his
fighters have killed nearly 100 Wa and injured 145 others while he has
lost only two men, with 21 injured.

The Rangoon junta has also mobilized minority allies from the Karenni
National People's Liberation Front in a move to attack another rebel
group, the Karenni National Progressive Party, which is also located along
the border near Mae Hong Son, the sources said.

Thai authorities along the border are watching the fighting closely in
case it spills beyond the present battle area and threatens Thai citizens.

____________________________________

April 16, BBC Monitor
Thai border patrol policeman killed in clash with Burmese soldiers

Source: Bangkok Post web site, Bangkok, in English 16 Apr 04

Text of report by Teerawat Khamthita and Wassana Nanuam entitled:
"Intruders kill BPP officer in shootout; Burmese troops seize village
before escape"; published in English by Thai newspaper Bangkok Post web
site on 16 April

Chiang Mai: A border patrol policeman was killed in a clash with about
five Burmese soldiers who intruded into Thai territory in Mae Ai district
of Chiang Mai yesterday.

The clash took place about 10 a.m. [local time] when a 10-man BPP [Border
Patrol Police] unit patrolling the Thai-Burmese border spotted the armed
Burmese soldiers near Ban Pang Saen Khrua.

The exchange of fire lasted about 30 minutes before the Burmese soldiers
retreated into the village. They were later reported to have withdrawn
from Ban Pang Saen Khrua and moved back to Burma.

Pol Snr Sgt-Maj Boonchob Moonmuang was shot in the left thigh and the
bullet cut a main blood vessel. The officer was also hit by three more
AK47 rounds in the abdomen.

The officer was flown in a helicopter to Mengrai Maharaj military camp in
Muang district of Chiang Rai before being transferred to Chiang Rai
Prachanukroh Hospital. He died after an hour of treatment in an emergency
room.

Third Army commander Lt-Gen Picharnmeth Muangmanee said the clash took
place when the Burmese soldiers crossed the Thai border to Ban Pang Saen
Khrua. They retreated into the village, using the villagers as a shield
against further attack.

"We are not sure if they intruded into Thai territory intentionally or
just strayed across the border. However, they refused to lay down arms or
negotiate. "They kept on firing while the Thai soldiers tried to persuade
them to lay down arms and leave," he said.

The Third Army chief said Ban Pang Saen Khrua is outside the 32 sq.km.
demilitarized area of Doi Lang over which Thailand and Burma are still in
dispute and the intruders must be pushed out from the village, he said.

Lt-Gen Picharnmeth said he tried to contact Burmese military leaders and
the Thai-Burmese township border committee to settle the matter, not
wanting the incident to develop into a conflict.

He said the situation along the Thai-Burmese border was under watch as the
pro-Rangoon United Wa State Army soldiers were fighting the Shan State
Army soldiers across the border.

Thai soldiers had been put on alert at the border for any untoward
incidents. They would push out intruders and give warning fire in the
event that stray Burmese shells landed on Thai soil.

"Red Wa soldiers are trying to take over the SSA base (on Doi Tailang),"
Lt-Gen Picharnmeth said, referring to UWSA troops. He claimed that the
UWSA had reached an agreement with the Burmese government that if they
succeeded they would be allowed to continue to produce drugs.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was in Chiang Mai for a
Songkran holiday, told the Third Army to handle the border problem
carefully, particularly the intrusion of Burmese soldiers and ongoing
fighting between UWSA and SSA troops. He did not want the matter to
escalate.

"Be careful, the matter is sensitive. Try to solve the problem at a local
level and do not let it develop into a national-level issue," Mr Thaksin
said.

_____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

April 18, Agence France Presse
Taboos about sex hinder HIV prevention in Myanmar, but condoms gain ground

Tin Tin Win has made a career out of writing love stories for young people
in Myanmar, but even she finds it difficult to talk openly about sex in
one of the world's most repressive countries.

"Talking about sex is a sensitive issue in our country," says the writer,
who uses the pen name Juu.

Worried about the skyrocketing rate of HIV infection in Myanmar -- where
the caseload has risen by 91 percent since March 2002 -- Tin Tin Win
decided to start visiting some of the people most at risk.

She ventures in karaoke bars -- the sort of places she says "decent women
would shun" -- to sit and talk with the "entertainment girls" about AIDS.

"I always observe certain rules of conduct when I educate them, because I
know that nobody wants to talk about their private life," she said.

"Some do not dare to listen, but some listen with shyness," Tin Tin Win says.

Her experiences highlight the difficulties in curbing an epidemic that the
United Nations has warned has the potential to become one of the most
serious in Asia.

UN estimates indicate that 1.2 percent of adults in Myanmar are infected
with HIV, giving the country one of the highest infection rates in Asia.
Other studies have suggested the figure could twice as high.

While the numbers are far lower than the hardest-hit nations in Africa,
what concerns medical experts is the incredible rate at which the disease
has spread in the last three years.

An estimated 177,000 people were infected with HIV at the end of March
2002, but that figure nearly doubled to almost 339,000 by the end of 2004,
according to statistics from the military government's National AIDS
Program (NAP).

Faced with the daunting prospect of a major epidemic, the notoriously
reclusive junta opened up -- at least a little -- to foreign groups
fighting AIDS.

Even western nations like the United States that have slapped sanctions on
Myanmar and blocked multilateral lending have contributed millions of
dollars to an anti-AIDS scheme developed by the United Nations and the
government.

The plan has the backing of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who is
under house arrest.

The result is that a country that once arrested women for carrying condoms
is promoting safer sex and condom use around the country.

The junta allows NGOs to drive around the country to distribute free
condoms and conduct safer sex education campaigns, while people in cities
and towns can now buy condoms for as little as a penny from street vendors
or shops.

With medical treatment generally not available in Myanmar, one of the
world's poorest countries with a delapidated health sector, prevention
offers the best hope, experts say.

"Teaching the correct technique of using condoms among adolescents and
condom promotion to youth is very essential, and it's also essential that
parents be educated in this respect at the same time," an NAP official
explains.

"Our culture forbids sexual relationships before marriage and outside of
married life. This is good for HIV/AIDS prevention," he says.

But the spiralling infection figures tell a different story.

In addition to promoting condoms, the national program also stresses
traditional cultural values in this deeply Buddhist nation when it
conducts youth education campaigns.

But overcoming social taboos is proving almost as difficult as surmounting
politics.

"I usually run away if someone comes and talks about condom use. I do not
dare to listen," says a company manager who is embarrassed about broaching
the subject, even as an educated woman at age 28.

Another woman, San San, said she was mortified to discover condoms in her
17-year-old son's desk drawer.

"I could not believe my eyes when I saw the condoms and couldn't help
worrying for my son," said San San, a 40-something mother of three sons.

"I was so relieved when my husband explained that these condoms were being
routinely given to all office workers," she said.

That was three years ago, when her son worked part-time for a UN agency
where her husband was employed.

San San says that she still worries for her growing sons.

"I tell them they are still too young to think about things other than
school, in case they feel compelled to experiment with things. Our
tradition and culture forbid pre-marital sex," she says.

A housewife in Yangon says her sister had fired her maid for carrying
condoms.

"My sister sent her new maid back when she saw condoms in her suitcase.
She was worried about her husband," the woman, who wishes to remain
anonymous, says.

"Maids shouldn't bring condoms with them if they really intend to work,"
she adds.

But one UN employee working on HIV prevention projects says such anecdotes
showed that the message about condom use was taking hold.

"It is a good sign for us anyway. People are getting more aware about
safer sex and condoms," he says, speaking on condition of anonymity.

_____________________________________
DRUGS

April 17, Xinhua
Myanmar exposes 239 drug cases in March

Myanmar exposed 239 narcotic-drug- related cases in March, bringing the
total number of such cases revealed in the first quarter of this year to
724, according to a latest release of the anti-drug authorities.

During the month, the army, police and the customs seized 13 kilograms of
heroin, 31.7 kilograms of opium and 43.5 kilograms of marijuana as well as
more than 38,000 stimulant tablets, punishing 368 drug offenders in the
connection.

Some 500,000 stimulant tablets were seized in January and 172, 000 in
February. Of the January stimulants seizure, 400,000 were caught in
Tachilek and Kengtung alone, eastern Shan state of the country, according
to earlier official reports. Along with that seizure were also 79 rounds
of ammunition.

The anti-drug authorities also disclosed that Myanmar exposed a total of
3,012 narcotic-drug cases in 2004, punishing 4,153 people in the
connection. During the year, the authorities seized 973.5 kilograms of
heroin and 606.8 kilograms of opium, an increase by 405.4 kilograms and a
decrease by 874.8 kilos respectively compared with the previous year. The
stimulant tablets confiscated amounted to 8.3 million, up 4.3 million
correspondingly.

Meanwhile, during the poppy cultivation season in 2004-05, a total of
3,270 hectares of such plantations were destroyed in Shan, Kachin, Kayah
and Sagaing states and divisions, the statistics shows, revealing that one
opium refinery each in Shan state and Kachin state was overrun by the
authorities.

According to a survey report for 2004 of opium yield jointly conducted by
Myanmar and the United States' Criminal Narcotics Center (CNC), there was
34 percent drop in poppy cultivation, registering over 30,000 hectares in
2004, and 39 percent decrease in opium production during the year compared
with 2003.

Another ground survey on poppy cultivation, jointly conducted by Myanmar
and the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), also shows that
Myanmar's opium poppy cultivation area in Myanmar stood at 44,240 hectares
in 2004, declining sharply by 29 percent from 2003 and 73 percent from
1996, while opium production was 370 tons in 2004, dropping by 54 percent
compared with 2003.

Meanwhile, Myanmar and the United Nations have begun their 5th joint opium
survey to assess opium production in Myanmar this year.

Myanmar has been implementing a 15-year drug elimination plan ( 1999-2000
to 2013-2014) to totally wipe out drugs and the second five-year plan
beginning in 2004-05 is underway.

With the successful establishment of drug-free zone in Shan state's Mongla
region in 1997 and

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / FINANCE

April 17, Kyodo
Myanmar posts 12.6% economic growth in FY 2004

Myanmar's economy expanded by 12.6 percent in fiscal 2004, a state-run
newspaper reported Sunday.

The growth in the country's gross domestic product for the year ended
March 31 was announced Friday by the country's No. 3 leader Gen. Thura
Shwe Mann, the New Light of Myanmar said.

Shwe Mann was quoted as saying that per capita income stood at 165,729
kyat (about $182) in the fiscal year.

He attributed the country's double-digit growth over the past four years
to the systematic implementation of the junta's economic plans.

Shwe Mann announced the figures at a meeting with civil servants in
Myanmar's western Rakhine state. He did not elaborate on the figures.

According to a speech given by Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Soe Win at a
business meeting earlier this month, Myanmar aims to achieve the same 12.6
percent GDP growth rate in the current fiscal year.

Myanmar's agricultural sector accounts for more than 50 percent of the
country's GDP, while the services sector accounts for 34.9 percent and
industry just 14.6 percent, according to Soe Win.

Myanmar does not regularly publish economic figures.

_____________________________________

April 16, International Herald Tribune
Economic fog shrouds Myanmar- Thomas Crampton

An ambitious 30-year old man, Maung Maung says he has found the perfect
investment vehicle in Myanmar, literally.

Standing beside a battered and recently repainted white 1988 Toyota Crown,
he eagerly lists the merits of a car that would easily be considered fit
for scrap in almost any other country.

"This car was built before 1990, when Toyota steering columns got weaker
and the car bottoms started rusting more easily," Maung Maung said. "Don't
worry about the mileage; it has rolled over too many times."

Tracing ownership is not important, he added, because the car probably
changed hands eight or nine times since arriving from Japan as an already
used car. Instead, he pointed to the seemingly absurd rise in the value of
used cars over recent months. It is not a good economic sign.

Although the government says Myanmar's economy grew 12.6 percent last
year, the International Monetary Fund has complained about a lack of
credible statistics and estimated a national growth rate of about zero. A
recent report prepared for the European Commission speculated that the
economy had probably contracted.

"We simply do not know how big it is, how fast it is growing or how it is
distributed across sectors, regions and households," the report for the
European Commission said. "Food security is a major problem in many parts
of the country."

And so with Myanmar's planned presidency next year, the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations is looking at the prospect of leadership, not only
by one of the world's most repressive military regimes, but also by what
any visitor would perceive to be an economic wreck.

Economic management by whim has unsettled the population to such an extent
that the banking system has been rendered dysfunctional, and the economy
has been permeated with peculiarities out of step with modern capitalism.

Other economic oddities include the half dozen kyat-dollar exchange rates
with one based on the size of U.S. presidential portraits and an
industrial-scale black market money transfer system to circumvent U.S.
sanctions that effectively prohibit the use of Visa or American Express
cards.

While Myanmar's neighbors have undergone economic transformations brought
by decades of fast growth, the country that made Burmah Oil a global brand
and once exported more rice each year than any other nation on earth now
imports fuel and schedules power cuts across the palm-fringed capital.

Entrepreneurial urban elites like Maung Maung exploit pockets of
opportunity created by the military leaders who regularly overrule market
forces by fiat.

In the case of used cars, the already small number of vehicles on the road
relative to the numbers in Myanmar's neighbors has shrunk considerably in
recent months because of a crackdown on illegal imports.

Private importing officially ceased in 1994, but armed insurgent groups
along the country's border had been pacified for years, in part by being
allowed to drive cars in from Thailand and sell them.

One result was a national fleet operating in a time warp and driving on
the wrong side of the road. (Drivers in Myanmar are supposed to stay to
the right, but almost every car is imported from Japan or Thailand, where
people drive on the left.)

In February the government announced an amnesty ending this month for
surrendering such vehicles.

Anyone caught driving a "without" so-called for their lack of official
registration faces as long as 14 years in prison. The result has been a
flood of vehicle donations to temples and skyrocketing prices for any
available car, regardless of condition.

Having bought his car four months ago, Maung Maung is willing to cash in a
10 percent profit by parting with it for 170 million kyats, or roughly
$180,000, but he may wait for a further price increase.

A look through the thousand or so decades-old cars lined up for sale in a
hot and dusty field in the capital supports his market reading.

"Now is a good time to invest in used cars," said Khin Shwe, a droopy-eyed
broker reclining on a chair in the shade of a tree, sipping tea from a
glass as he attempted to sell three cars for their absent owners. "Just
look at the number of people walking around to buy. Forget about a
Mercedes-Benz. I always recommend buying a car that can be resold easily,
like this newly repainted 1989 Toyota Crown."

Car brokers, some of whom hold portfolios of as many as seven used cars at
a time, generally report a rise in value of 10 to 15 percent over the last
few months, giving a 1991 Nissan van a value of $160,000, a gray 1992
Toyota Hilux a value of $200,000 and a 1990 Toyota Crown with a taxi
license a value of $145,000.

For small investors, used cars turn out to be one of Myanmar's highest
yield investment alternatives. The other options, which include dollars,
gold and mobile phone licenses, have significant risks.

Dollars remain a popular but risky investment, given the lengthy jail
terms that can be doled out for hoarding foreign currency. Dealing with
dollars can also seem confusing to outsiders because of the different
exchange rates between the dollar and the kyat.

The value of a dollar in Myanmar depends on whether the calculation is
based on the government's official exchange rate of six kyats (which seems
to apply only to calculating the size of the national economy); 450 kyats
(which a government bank offers visitors arriving at the international
airport) or the 922 kyats offered this week by black market money-changers
operating in the alleyways behind the Traders Hotel in Yangon.

Even within the black market, however, the value of individual bills can
vary for a number of reasons.

Newer U.S. bills, with the larger portrait, are locally known as Big Heads
and garner as much as 5 percent more than the older bills, referred to as
Small Heads. Woe unto those with a $100 bill having a serial number
starting with CB, since they are thought to be fake and sell for a slight
discount.

Concerns over the legitimacy of bank notes relate to uncertainty felt by
many Burmese as a result of three demonetizations. For the most recent, in
1988, the government canceled all notes with a face value of 25, 35 or 75
kyats without compensation or warning in favor of notes worth 45 or 90
kyats, which are considered numerologically auspicious because they are
multiples of nine.

The government may operate economic policy by what appears to be whim, but
Maung Maung remains defiantly upbeat.

"This is the best time for buying used cars in three years," Maung Maung
said. "This may not seem exciting to an outsider, but this is a big time
for us."

the Kokang region in 2003, the Wa region in the same state is targeted to
follow suit by this year.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 18, The Philippine Star
EDITORIAL - Asean’s hot potato

Oh well, you can’t fault the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for
not trying. These days some ASEAN members must be regretting their support
for the inclusion of Myanmar into the grouping. The "constructive
engagement" with the repressive junta in Yangon was supposed to speed up
economic and political reforms in Myanmar. By most indications, however,
the experiment in diplomacy has failed, and next year it will be the turn
of Myanmar to assume the rotating ASEAN chair.

Already some of ASEAN’s dialogue partners are making noises about
boycotting all activities of the grouping next year. Their stance will
soften only if Myanmar undertakes convincing steps toward democratic
reforms, including the release of opposition members led by Nobel laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi.

But during the weeklong general assembly in Manila of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union and the post-conference gathering in Cebu,
Myanmar made it known that it had no plans of either relinquishing the
ASEAN chair or implementing significant reforms in the immediate future.
Rules are rules; for Yangon, it’s either expulsion from the grouping or
acceptance as ASEAN chair. And it looks like ASEAN will be the first to
blink.

The prospect of one of the world’s most repressive police states chairing
ASEAN, and constantly reminding the grouping of its long-held policy of
non-intervention in each other’s affairs, is already triggering a
reassessment of foreign policies in several Southeast Asian capitals. The
Asian financial crisis in 1997 made it clear that one sick nation in the
region could quickly infect everyone else. Will the region also suffer
from the pariah status of one of its members?

That pariah is eager to step into the global limelight next year, in line
with rules that it seems confident of being upheld, no matter how
reluctantly, by ASEAN. In welcoming Myanmar into its fold, ASEAN had
legitimized the junta’s strong-arm rule; democratic reforms were not
written into the acceptance form. ASEAN is stuck with this hot potato, and
the grouping has no one to blame but itself.

_____________________________________

April 17, Independent
Tsunami carried bronze Buddha 1,000 kilometres across the ocean – Jan McGirk

A little bronze-eyed idol to the west of Kathmandu is causing quite a stir.

It's a Buddhist sage, and in mid-December the 5in figure was, like so many
in rural Burma, placed in a little decorated kiosk, strapped to a crude
bamboo raft and released on to the Irrawaddy river to drift to propitious
sites and cast away evil. Down the delta it floated and then, a week or so
later, the Boxing Day tsunami struck.

Eight days on, 1,000 kilometres away, fishermen in Tamil Nadu spotted the
raft floating offshore, its foil decorations glinting in the sunlight.
Nine men set off in a boat to investigate and brought back a crude bamboo
raft, lashed together with plastic clothesline and studded with silver-
foil flowers. Its only passenger was a tiny crosslegged metal figure
sitting on a plate inside a wooden hut. Three vases, a candle, some coins
and a maroon monk's robe with the word 'Burma' stitched on the tag were
stashed alongside it.

None of the villagers in Meyurkuppam, a small Tamil fishing hamlet in
southern India, could identify the foreign statue (see below), but two
Western aid workers suggested that it looked like a Buddha. Actually, it
was a chubby Jalagupta figurine, held holy by Burmese Buddhists.
Everything on board the raft was intact, and its arrival coincided with
another extraordinary event in Meyyurkuppam " everyone in the village had
survived the tsunami. Hence their insistence on pampering what local
Hindus have called 'Buddha- Swami' under their biggest banyan tree.
Believers credit this floating statue with protecting all 980 inhabitants
of Meyyurkuppam. The first post-tsunami cult was thereby created.

One New Age priest reportedly claimed that its power against evil kept a
controversial nuclear reactor from leaking radiation along their
coastline, sparing tsunami survivors a slow death from cancer. At least 30
technical personnel living close to the Kalpakkam reactor perished in the
tsunami, yet the facility stayed intact. More than 16,000 Indians died or
are still missing after the huge waves reshaped the Bay of Bengal. No
lives were lost in Meyyurkuppam.

'It is a miracle,' said Kuppurswamy, the village headman. 'We keep a glass
of water and a flower in front of the deity every day. We will worship him
like we worship our own gods. Our village has accepted it as its own.'
Last week, as Buddhist images and relics in Burma, Thailand, Laos,
Cambodia, Sri Lanka and southern China were ritually cleansed during the
three-day Theravada New Year celebrations, the tiny Buddhist sage of
Meyurkuppam received ablutions, along with ceremonial offerings of rice
sweetmeats. Fairy lights were strung around the new icon. 'He will be kept
here,' said N Padavattan, a local boatman. 'We are very happy with the
arrival of this god.'

'This is part of a wondrous cycle,' said Phra Vivek, a Bangkok monk.
'Buddhism arrived in the river deltas of South-east Asia in the third
century when the Indian emperor Ashoka sent missionaries to the Golden
Land. Now the ocean has carried Buddhism back to its source.'

K Gurumurthy, from the Indo-Myanmar chamber of commerce, was sent by the
Burmese embassy in New Delhi in February to examine the metal figurine,
which was at first rumoured to be a valuable bronze dating from the 17th
century. He told reporters it had little intrinsic value, but was a
commonplace modern statuette, floated in their scores downstream during
the rainy season in the Irrawaddy delta. But never has one travelled so
far across the sea, and in India and Burma this little statue is
considered auspicious.

The villagers have now agreed to move their Buddha-Swami to a pagoda on
high ground, because post-tsunami regulations prohibit any construction
within 500 metres of the shoreline. Once the state government donates land
for a new temple, the building, funded by the Burmese generals, will get
under way. Meanwhile, the fishermen's families offer daily prayers to the
new Buddha-Swami.