BurmaNet News, May 13, 2008

[Editor]

May 13, 2008 Issue #3465

QUOTE OF THE DAY
This [issue of international assistance for Burma] is not about politics;
it is about saving people's lives. There is absolutely no more time to
lose.
- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Relief supplies appropriated by officials in Bogalay
Irrawaddy: Many cyclone survivors traumatized
Mizzima News: Junta further isolates cyclone-hit delta
Mizzima News: Junta propaganda continues for next referendum
AP: Monks help cyclone victims despite Military pressure
DVB: Burmese film stars to take aid to Irrawaddy delta

HEALTH / AIDS
DVB: Bogalay healthcare provision in crisis

ASEAN
Financial Times: Asean offers to lead Burma ‘mercy coalition’

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Thai PM to travel to Burma at UN Chief’s request

INTERNATIONAL
BBC News: UN calls for Burma aid corridor
BBC News: Military aid 'an option' in Burma
Irrawaddy: Britain orders warship to deploy off Burma
Financial Times: US presses Burma to act on relief

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: More words, or positive action? – Kyaw Zwa Moe
Washington Post: Go around the generals - Anne Applebaum

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 13, Democratic Voice of Burma
Relief supplies appropriated by officials in Bogalay

Cyclone victims in Bogalay have been unable to access aid supplies sent in
to the area as they have been taken by government supporters and are being
sold to those in need.

A resident of Bogalay said the areas below the town had been hit
particularly badly.

“Although there was not a high death toll in Bogalay, some villages in the
areas below Bogalay were wiped out and we saw none of the people again,”
he said.

“Out of 30 relatives, only one or two survived. They are in refugee camps.”

The resident said that no support had come from the government, and locals
were forced to rely on charity from small NGOs and local donors, including
rice donated to monasteries.

Government officials have provided some materials, but only exchange for
payment to be collected at a later date, the resident said.

“Senior officials are in town now and they are selling tin sheets on the
streets,” he said.

“They are selling them by means of a debt system. They don’t have to pay
yet. They are also collecting 360 [kyat per household] in labour costs,”
he said.

“The sheets are not reaching the refugees. They are dropping tin sheets
outside houses that have no roofs, and the money will be collected later.”

The resident said foreign aid supplies had been appropriated by government
supporters who were selling them in Bogalay.

“I want to state clearly that the aid given by foreign countries has not
reached the public and refugees,” the resident said.

“Plastic sheets and medicines have not reached the victims either, they
are being sold outside,” he said.

“The sheets are being sold by soldiers and members of Swann Arr Shin and
the Union Solidarity and Development Association.”

Diseases are prevalent among the survivors, and are being exacerbated by
the unsanitary living conditions, the resident said.

“Cholera and dysentery are occurring; 14 people have died, 7 instantly,”
he said.

“There are about 800-1000 people taking refuge in each monastery. There is
one doctor for them from the Health Department but some monasteries have
none, and there are no other health measures,” he went on.

“There is no toilet. And as there is no roof in monasteries, they are
living under the rain now.”

____________________________________

May 13, Irrawaddy
Many cyclone survivors traumatized – Violet Cho

Survivors of Cyclone Nargis—especially children and the elderly—have
undergone severe trauma and many will have long-term psychological
problems because of the storm and their fight for survival during its
aftermath, say aid workers.

A Rangoon resident who has traveled to Bogalay Township for relief work,
said, “People there look depressed and traumatized. They do not know what
to say when people ask them questions. Young children seem afraid of water
and the things around them.”

 “They are suffering from mentally illness. Everywhere around them are
dead bodies, injured people. It’s a miserable environment,” he said.

According to the UN Children’s Fund, children are among the most
vulnerable and are at a higher risk of protracted trauma and psychological
problems, especially the ones who are now alone because family members are
dead or missing.

In some relief camps, UNICEF has set up special areas for children that
are designed to provide a more normal environment with diversions and
makeshift schools.

Ramesh Shrestha, a UNICEF representative in Burma, said, "In any situation
where you have children living under extremely stressful conditions, both
physically and emotionally, it is important that they are provided with a
space where they feel safe and provided for."

No one is immune from feelings of sadness, guilt, anger and confusion.

An elderly survivor from Kungyangong Township, a hard hit area south of
Rangoon Division, is now living with relatives in Tachilek.

“I am so afraid to see the sky turn grey as I worry that it is going to
rain and the strong waves from the ocean will hit the land again,” he
said. “I cry every time I think about what happened, and I can not sleep.”

He lost seven grandchildren, one niece, one sister-in-law and many cousins.

“I tried to hold my grandchildren’s hands tight when the water first hit
us, but the waves were strong and big, and we could not hold on to each
other—all my grandchildren disappeared in the waves.

“I had never expected that I would face a horrible situation like this,”
he said.

“I really feel pain because I could not help my grandchildren and other
family members. I could not do anything.”

UNICEF says up to 90 per cent of the schools in the affected area have
been damaged or destroyed, totaling some 3,000 primary schools and more
than 500,000 pupils.

Children are also more vulnerable to infectious diseases such as cholera,
diarrhea, dysentery, dengue fever and malaria, say aid workers. Even
before the cyclone struck on May 3, about one in three children in Burma
were malnourished.

____________________________________

May 13, Mizzima News
Junta further isolates cyclone-hit delta

Burma's military rulers imposed new restrictions on foreign and Burmese
aid workers trying to enter the country's cyclone-hit Irrawaddy Delta.
They have also banned journalists and the use of cameras.

The secret order was told to Burmese businessmen – who are assigned to
help with the reconstruction of Rangoon and the Irrawaddy Delta – on
Tuesday by Prime Minister Lt-Gen Thein Sein during a meeting at the
Rangoon Military Command.

A source close to the military told Mizzima, "Thein Sein yesterday stated
that no foreigners will be allowed to go to the delta. Even for these
[Burmese] companies, no cameras will be allowed."

A bus driver who had just returned from Bogale town in Irrawaddy division
said the government has set up check points along the road and
interrogated passengers.

"Foreigners are asked to show permits that allowed them to go into the
region, and for Burmese nationals they are asked their personal addresses
or of their relatives in Bogale," the driver said.

Similarly, a group of 20 Burmese donors from Rangoon, who wanted to help
cyclone victims in the Irrawaddy Delta, were turned away by the regional
army battalion, and were sent back without getting a chance to donate.

A source close to the donors said the army battalion nos. 66 and no. 77
stopped the donors on the road to Bogale from Rangoon. The donors were
carrying drinking water, medicine, rice, sugar and oral re-hydration
packages.

"The army said they would only be allowed to pass if they had special
permits from the regional military commander and send them away," the
source told Mizzima.

The UN office in Rangoon said aid agencies are still facing difficulties
sending aid to the delta due to the restrictions and the prohibition on
international aid workers.

"Only local staffs could work there but foreign staff are not permitted,"
Aye Win, the UN spokesperson in Rangoon, said. However, the government has
promised to ease visa procedures for UN international staff, he said.

"A government official has promised that to the UN on Tuesday," Aye Win said.

The Burmese regime has only granted a handful of visas to UN staff in the
past week, including at least nine people from International Federation of
Red Cross. More than 60 key UN personnel are still waiting for approval to
travel to Burma.

Official statements from the regime say Burma welcomes aid from anywhere
but only the government would be allowed to distribute emergency supplies.

"Access is indeed a problem," said Terje Skavadal, the regional head of
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

According to confidential UN reports, WHO and FAO foreign staff have
indeed not been granted permission to travel to the worst-affected areas
in lower Delta area.

The European aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also distributes
its emergency aid through its own staff. But it is facing "increasing
constraints" imposed on its workers in the delta, said a spokesman for the
organisation.

"In Bogale, for instance, the MSF team is unable to provide as much
assistance as they could to respond to the enormous needs in terms of food
and medical care," the aid group said.

The people on the streets of Rangoon are angry at the regime's failure to
act to help the victims. "They are a disgrace to Burma, they are a
disgrace to Buddhism, and they are disgrace to themselves," a Burmese
intellectual told Mizzima by e-mail.

Reporting by Solomon, Huaipi, Larry Jagan and Rangoon correspondent.
Writing by Mungpi.

____________________________________

May 13, Mizzima News
Junta propaganda continues for next referendum – Nem Davies

State-owned media has continuously aired propaganda for the upcoming
constitutional referendum in cyclone-hit regions of Burma.

Myanmar Radio and Television has been broadcasting propaganda songs aimed
at the 4 million eligible voters in Rangoon Township.

Most of the country has already voted, on May 10, except for voters in 47
townships in Rangoon and Irrawaddy division hit hard by Cyclone Nargis.
Those voters will be able to cast their ballots on May 24.

"Every night, junta propaganda songs are released by government television
from artists Kaing Zar and Nann Suu Yathi Soe," said an editor of a
Rangoon-based magazine. "They said to vote 'yes' for the referendum."

A Rangoon resident said, "We do not watch Myanmar television at home
anymore because there is nothing interesting to watch. Instead, we watch
DVDs and Burmese movies."

Before the May 10 vote, the junta forced state-run newspapers and private
weekly journals to run slogans urging the public to support the regime's
draft constitution. The slogans said it was voters' "national
responsibility" to approve the charter, which guarantees the military a
quarter of all legislative seats in a nominally civilian government.

But the junta has not required print media to run referendum propaganda
since May 10.

"They might be keeping quiet this time to avoid criticism from the public
and the international community," said the editor.

Tuesday's New Light of Myanmar, the government-run daily, shows pictures
of foreign donations, such as the arrival of a US military C-130 aircraft,
and local companies donating money to cyclone survivors.

The New Light reported that 31,938 people were killed by the deadly
cyclone and 1,403 were injured. In addition, 29,770 were reportedly
missing. But the UN and independent aid agencies said the death toll could
top 100,000 and that many more face disease and hardships.

____________________________________

May 13, Associated Press
Monks help cyclone victims despite Military pressure

The saffron-robed monks who spearheaded an uprising last fall against
Burma's military rulers are back on the front lines, this time providing
food, shelter and spiritual solace to cyclone victims.

The military regime has moved to curb the Buddhist clerics' efforts, even
as it fails to deliver adequate aid itself. Authorities have given some
monasteries deadlines to clear out refugees, many of whom have no homes to
return to, monks and survivors say.

"There is no aid. We haven't seen anyone from the government," said U
Pinyatale, the 45-year-old abbot of the Kyi Bui Kha monastery, where
almost depleted rice stocks and precious rainwater are shared with some
100 homeless villagers huddled within its battered compound.

Similar scenes are being repeated in other areas of the Irrawaddy delta
and Rangoon, the country's largest city, where monasteries became safe
havens after Cyclone Nargis struck on May 3—and the regime did little.

"In the past I used to give donations to the monks. But now it's the other
way around. It's the monks helping us," said Aung Khaw, a 38-year-old
construction worker who took his wife and young daughter to a monastery in
the Rangoon suburb of Hlaingtharyar after the roof of his flimsy house was
blown away and its bamboo walls collapsed.

One of the monastery's senior monks said he tried to argue with military
officials who ordered the more than 100 refugees to leave.

"I don't know where they will go. But that was the order," he said, asking
for anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The government has not announced such an order, which appeared to be
applied selectively. Other monasteries in Rangoon have been told to clear
out cyclone victims in coming days, the monk said, but in the delta,
refugees were being allowed to remain or told they could come to
monasteries for supplies but not shelter.

"They don't want too many people gathering in small towns," said Hla Khay,
a delta boat operator. The regime "is concerned about security. With lots
of frustrated people together, there may be another uprising."

Larger monasteries were being closely watched by troops and plainclothes
security men—"invisible spies," as one monk called them.

Such diversion of manpower at a time when some 1.5 million people are at
risk from disease and starvation reflects the regime's fear of a replay of
last September, when monks led pro-democracy demonstrations that were
brutally suppressed, with troops firing on and killing protestors.

Monks were also shot, beaten and imprisoned, igniting anger among ordinary
citizens in this devoutly Buddhist country. An unknown number remain
behind bars, and others have yet to return to their monasteries after
fleeing for fear of arrest. At least 30 people are reported to have been
killed although pro-democracy groups say the death toll was much higher.

"I think after the September protests, the government is afraid that if
people live with the monks in the monasteries, the monks might persuade
them to participate in demonstrations again," said a dentist in Rangoon,
who also asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals.

Newspapers have been ordered not to publish stories about monks aiding the
people, and at least one monastery and one nunnery in Rangoon were
prohibited from accepting any supplies from relief organizations.

"The government is very controlling," said U Pinyatale, the abbot at the
Kyi Bui Kha monastery. "Those who want to give directly to the victims get
into trouble. They have to give to the government or do it secretly. [The
military] follows international aid trucks everywhere. They don't want
others to take credit."

It appears unlikely that foreign aid organizations seeking to enter Burma
will be allowed to use monks as conduits for relief supplies as many had
hoped.

"One of the best networks already in place in the country are the monks,"
said Gary Walker of PLAN, a British-based international children's group,
speaking in Bangkok. "So we'll be exploring ways in which we can see
whether the monks can start distributing supplies throughout the country."

At the Kyi Bui Kha monastery, located on the banks of the Pyapon River
deep in the delta, U Pinyatale glanced anxiously at the remaining 10 bags
of rice.

"At most, we have enough for the week. We will have to find a way to get
more food," he said as monks and villagers worked together to try to dry
the sodden rice, even as rain clouds gathered above the largely roofless
monastery.

In Rangoon, monks have been able to go out on their traditional morning
rounds to accept food donations from the faithful and then share these
with refugees at their monasteries. But in devastated areas of the delta
that is not an option.

About 90 of the 120 houses in Kyi Bui Kha have been totally destroyed.
Gaps in the monastery's storm-riddled wooden walls revealed a 360-degree
view of ravaged rice fields.

U Pinyatale said the sanctuary's two dozen monks and nuns were also trying
to offer spiritual comfort to the traumatized villagers.

"We pray with them. We pray for the dead to go to the peaceful land of the
dead and for the living to rebuild their lives," he said.

"When the cyclone came, all of us hid in the rice warehouse. I saw one
person holding tightly onto a tree but he did not make it," the abbot
added. "After the storm, there were dead bodies floating everywhere. Some
people get nightmares. Some hear voices at night that their dead children
are calling for help. Some haven't spoken since."

____________________________________

May 13, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese film stars to take aid to Irrawaddy delta

Celebrities from the Burmese film world are planning to give assistance to
cyclone victims in the Irrawaddy delta and have appealed to the world
community and the people of Burma help in any way they can.

Sources from the Burmese film industry said well-known faces such as actor
Kyaw Thu, Zaganar, Lwin Moe, Lu Min and actress May Than Nu have donated
much-needed aid supplies such as food and medicine for cyclone victims in
Rangoon division and the Irrawaddy delta.

Popular script writer Zaw Thet Htway and film director Mike Tee told DVB
the celebrities are now drawing up plans to go out to victims in Irrawaddy
delta themselves and to donate aid in person.

"We are planning to load up drinking water, rice, cooking oil, medicine
and clothing onto a truck and bring them to the cyclone victims," said Zaw
Thet Htway.

"If we are stopped [by local authorities] on our way, we will take another
route to make sure the victims receive our aid."

Director Mike Tee said they were only doing what they could.

"Even normal civilians are flocking to the Irrawaddy delta to help out the
victims so why shouldn’t we do the same as we all are the same human
beings," said Mike Tee.

Actress May Than Nu said she was happy to help out the cyclone victims in
any way she could.

"In this situation, there is no such thing as celebrities and normal
citizens – we are all humans," said May Than Nu.

"I feel so sad to see all these people suffer and I want to help out more
than this, but this is all I can do for now."

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

May 13, Democratic Voice of Burma
Bogalay healthcare provision in crisis

A human rights activist in Bogalay said disease and poor sanitation in the
township in the aftermath of the recent cyclone have placed a heavy burden
on healthcare provision.

The Bogalay activist said NGOs were helping refugees in the township, but
they remained in difficulty.

“Children are starting to have dysentery in the monasteries due to the
lack of toilets,” she said.

“Some people have been sent to other places and new people have been taken
in. They took pictures and videotaped the tents with the refugees and took
them away.”

The activist said aid supplies, including food, drinks and medicines, were
being held in storage in mother and child care offices, mosques, primary
schools and Hindu and Chinese temples.

She said the government has given no effective help and so support groups
have had to rely on help from NGOs and other donors who do not want to
channel aid through the government to provide pure water and medicines.

Hospitals are overcrowded and patients have been asked to pay for urgent
treatment, the activist said.

“In the hospitals, patients are being lined up on the floor as there are
not enough beds. They have many diseases, and some are heavily pregnant,”
she said.

“The UNICEF people are treating patients properly. I heard that their
staff are very tired and asking for new people. They are doing it without
asking for a single pya,” she went on.

“In the government hospital, a heavily pregnant woman was told she would
only be operated on and helped to give birth if she gave them 40,000
[kyat]. She came from a village which was completely destroyed,” she said.

“There are many women like that and they are doing nothing for them, from
what I have seen with my own eyes.”

____________________________________
ASEAN

May 13, Financial Times
Asean offers to lead Burma ‘mercy coalition’ - John Aglionby

South-east Asian countries have offered to lead an international “mercy
coalition” to help the estimated 1.5m survivors of Cyclone Nargis in an
effort to address Burma’s mounting humanitarian crisis.

Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of the Association of South-East Asian
Nations, said UN representatives had given their nod of approval for a
plan backed by Burma to let Asean coordinate the aid effort. Burma is a
member of the 10-nation grouping.

Mr Surin, who flew to the United States on Tuesday to meet Robert
Zoellick, president of the World Bank, to confirm his organisation’s
participation, said the Burmese junta asked for Asean to lead efforts
because of the regime’s “lingering suspicions” of westerners.

“But we are beginning to see a ray of hope at the end of a long dark
tunnel”, he told the Financial Times.

UN officials could not immediately be reached to confirm Mr Surin’s claim.

After blocking most international aid for a week, Rangoon has started to
accept increasing amounts of foreign relief supplies for the victims of
cyclone Nargis which struck on May 2. But aid agencies say only a fraction
of the victims’ needs are being met and complain that western aid workers
are not being given visas.

The military junta raised the official death toll to more than 32,000 on
Tuesday and has said a further 30,000 people are missing. The UN has put
the likely death toll at more than 100,000 while aid agencies have said
that up to 1.5m people have been left homeless or are suffering shortages
of basic supplies.

Mr Surin said the first Asean rapid assessment team entered Burma on
Monday, two more were scheduled to follow on Tuesday and the secretariat
staff are working round-the-clock to coordinate the response. The Asean
secretariat is based in Jakarta.

“This is the beginning of a long and difficult process to deliver
immediate relief, medium term rehabilitation and long term
reconstruction,” he said. “We expect support, contributions and
cooperation from all relevant agencies for their advice, expertise and
resources.”

Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, the
UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the World
Bank will be the coalition’s initial members, Mr Surin said.

Asean foreign ministers are expected to formally approve the initiative
when they meet in Singapore on May 19.

Mr Surin said meeting this challenge would be a “defining moment for
Asean” after decades of largely ineffectual leadership.

Politicians and analysts around the region have criticised the
organisation for failing to persuade Burma to accept international aid as
Indonesia and Thailand did after the 2004 tsunami.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 13, Irrawaddy
Thai PM to travel to Burma at UN Chief’s request – Sai Slip

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is to travel to Burma on Wednesday,
at the request of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on a mission to
persuade Burmese leaders to allow foreign relief workers into the country.

Samak originally planned to go to Burma last week, but cancelled the plan
after the regime said it didn’t want outsiders to distribute aid to
cyclone survivors.

Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said Samak would make the trip
after all following a request by the UN chief, according to a report on
the government Public Relations Department website.

Samak visited Burma for the first time as Thai premier in March. Burmese
Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein followed up with a visit to Thailand in
April.

It is unclear whether Samak will be able to meet the top leadership on
this visit.
“I am not sure at this moment who he will meet but we hope to meet Prime
Minister Thein Sein and at the very least we do hope to meet the country's
foreign minister,” Noppadon told reporters.

 On Tuesday, the Thai cabinet approved aid to Burma worth US $500,000. The
Thai Ministry of Public Health is also preparing medical supplies for
Burma worth more than $4 million, and arrangements are being made to
dispatch 40 medical teams to the cyclone-hit region.

 Surveillance has also been tightened along the Thai-Burmese border to
guard against outbreaks of endemic diseases.

Thailand’s energy conglomerate, the PTT Public Company Limited, which has
invested heavily in Burma, has donated 480,000 liters of petroleum,
originally imported from Malaysia, to ease transport and electricity
generating problems in Burma.

Several civil societies in Thailand have also organized donation centers
to help the victims. One, the Thai Sangha Supreme Council, has donated
$100,000 US$.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 13, BBC News
UN calls for Burma aid corridor

The United Nations has called for an air or sea corridor to be opened to
channel large amounts of aid to the victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma.

The UN's humanitarian agency said there was a risk of a "second
catastrophe" unless a massive operation began.

The UN said it had only been able to reach 270,000 of the 1.5m survivors.

European nations have meanwhile called for the UN principle of
"responsibility to protect" to be applied, allowing aid deliveries without
Burma's consent.

UN member states acknowledged in 2005 a collective "responsibility to
protect" people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes
against humanity.

France, Germany and the UK said they would make the proposal to the UN
Security Council, but acknowledged they did not have unanimous support
from the EU, French Human Rights Minister Rama Yade told reporters in
Brussels.

Earlier, the military government in Burma said it remained opposed to
granting visas to foreign aid workers to help co-ordinate the relief
operation.

Vice-Admiral Soe Thein said it was grateful for the aid shipment from the
United States that arrived on Monday but insisted that "skilful
humanitarian workers are not necessary".

A BBC correspondent in Burma says more aid is getting through, but many
people have yet to receive any help.

'Haphazard' delivery

The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis has now reached 34,273,
according to Burmese state television, but observers fear the final count
will be much higher. A further 27,838 people are missing.

The spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva, Elizabeth Byrs, warned that its teams had only
been able to reach 270,000 people - less than a fifth of the estimated
total of survivors.

"We are only seeing the peak of the iceberg, and the situation risks
becoming a lot more dramatic if there isn't an acceleration of
humanitarian aid," she said.

So far, she said, the World Food Programme had been able to send only 361
tonnes of food aid - and distribute just 175 tonnes.

A further 55,000 tonnes of rice would be needed to feed those most in need
for the next three months, Ms Byrs said. Half of the rice would need to be
imported.

"The scope of the disaster is huge," she warned. "That's why we need to
act quickly in order to avoid a second disaster or maybe a third
disaster."

"We need a kind of air bridge or sea bridge, and huge means as... we did
during the [2004 Asian] tsunami. It's the same kind of logistical
operation. That's why it's urgently needed that we act now," she added.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told Burma's government there is not
a moment to lose, warning that rice stocks in the country are "close to
exhaustion".

Send us your commentsEmergency help has been held up by Burma's military
leaders, who have accepted the aid but refuse to allow foreign experts to
co-ordinate its delivery.

Aid agencies say much of the food and equipment is not getting to those
who need it because the junta does not have the organisation to transport
it.

A BBC correspondent inside Burma says aid delivery is haphazard and
private citizens have begun to distribute water and cakes from the backs
of their cars rather than waiting for the soldiers to help.

The AFP news agency reported that the military had imposed a curfew in
some of the worst-affected areas in the Irrawaddy Delta region over fears
that rice rations would be stolen.

"You can't go out after 7pm because the soldiers will shoot," a
60-year-old man from the village of Pyin Ka Yaing told one of its
reporters.

'Immense frustration'

The BBC's South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head says much of the aid
that has arrived in the country has sat at Rangoon's airport for days.

He adds that after more heavy rain, the survivors are living in wretched
conditions and the fear of a further wave of deaths from disease is a real
one.

World leaders have stepped up their rhetoric against the Burmese generals
in recent days, with Mr Ban expressing "immense frustration" at what he
described as their "unacceptably slow" response.

US President George W Bush described the generals as either "isolated or
callous".

"There's no telling how many people have lost their lives as a result of
the slow response," he told CBS radio.

The EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the UN must use "all
means necessary" to ensure aid got through to those who needed it most.

A US flight carrying about 13 tonnes of supplies including mosquito nets,
blankets and water arrived in Rangoon on Monday followed by two flights
from aid agencies carrying 56 tonnes of aid.

The US has said it hopes to send in two more transport aircraft carrying
aid later on Tuesday. Two lorries carrying relief supplies overland have
also now arrived.

___________________________________

May 13, BBC News
Military aid 'an option' in Burma

Military action on humanitarian grounds is an option to get more aid to
Burma's cyclone survivors, Britain's foreign secretary has told the BBC.

David Miliband said the "responsibility to protect" UN doctrine, drawn up
to apply in cases like genocide, could apply to natural disasters.

"All instruments of the UN should be available," he told the BBC.

Earlier the United Nations said it had only been able to reach 270,000 of
the 1.5m survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

It called for an air or sea "corridor" to be opened up to channel large
amounts of aid to the region and warned of the risk of a "second
catastrophe" if a major operation did not begin.

Aid convoys

Some European nations have called for the UN principle of "responsibility
to protect" to be applied, which would allow aid deliveries without
Burma's consent.

Asked about the issue for Tuesday BBC Radio 4 World Tonight programme, he
said the problem with the protocol - drawn up to protect people against
war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity - was
that it was a "legal requirement".

But asked if it could apply in the event of a natural disaster, Mr
Miliband told the BBC: "It certainly could and we have been absolutely
clear in New York over the last 12 days that all instruments of the UN
should be available."

However asked if aid convoys could be sent into Burma with military
escorts, without the military regime's permission he said "you could try
to" but pointed out there were 400,000 Burmese troops in uniform.

"No-one should think that there is an easy or quick answer to this," he said.

But he said "all options are being looked at" - pointing out that HMS
Westminster had been sent to the area, alongside French and US military
assets.

The military junta that rules Burma has admitted that parts of the
worst-affected region remain cut-off, but the generals are still refusing
entry to foreign aid workers

However the first US aid flight landed in Rangoon on Monday, after days of
negotiation.

Both Conservative leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Nick
Clegg have called for the dropping of aid directly into Burma if the
ruling regime continues to block foreign relief workers.

____________________________________

May 13, Irrawaddy
Britain orders warship to deploy off Burma - Wai Moe

A British Royal Navy frigate has been ordered to stand by off Burma with
emergency aid for the survivors of cyclone Nargis. The 4,900-ton HMS
Westminster will join US and French warships waiting in international
waters off the Burmese coast, ready to rush relief supplies to the
Irrawaddy delta if instructed by the UN or invited by the Burmese regime.

HMS Westminster is one of 23 frigates described as the mainstay of
Britain’s Royal Navy fleet. Originally designed for anti-submarine
warfare, the ship evolved into a powerful and versatile multipurpose
vessel with the capability to operate anywhere in the world.

The frigate is designed to conduct a wide range of other tasks, disaster
relief work and embargo-enforcement and surveillance operations.

The US has sent part of its Seventh Fleet, headed by the USS Essex, to the
Bay of Bengal, while France has dispatched a 22,000-ton amphibious naval
craft, Mistral, with 1,500 tons of rice and medical supplies.

The US vessels carry more than 20 helicopters, landing craft and 11,000
troops.

The dispatch of the British frigate was announced by Prime Minister Gordon
Brown, who said the failure of the Burmese regime to send adequate relief
to the cyclone victims was “completely unacceptable.”

Brown said: “We now estimate that two million people face famine or
disease as a result of the lack of cooperation of the Burmese authorities.
It is increasingly important that the Burmese authorities recognize that
their lack of cooperation is preventing assistance getting to people, and
that unfettered access should be made available immediately.”

Brown said the UK, which currently chairs the UN Security Council, would
urge the chamber to take urgent action.

“We are determined to use our membership and, indeed, the chairmanship of
the Security Council to push action forward in the next few days—indeed,
in the next day.”

The Security Council adopted on May 2 a presidential statement on Burma
calling on the military regime to “establish the conditions and create an
atmosphere conducive to an inclusive and credible process”.

In the US, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton urged the
Bush administration to demand from the Burmese ruler’s agreement for
direct delivery of US assistance to the cyclone survivors.

Clinton said the United States must make clear to Burma's military rulers
that the international community will hold them responsible if they refuse
to meet their international obligations by blocking access and aid to the
people of their country who are in dire need.

“We cannot allow politics to obstruct the delivery of assistance that can
prevent this grave humanitarian situation from getting worse," she said.
"The US should continue to press for access to deliver assistance
directly.”

In the devastated Irrawaddy delta region, meanwhile, cyclone victims from
Laputta were relocated to a camp in Pathein, the capital of Irrawaddy
Division. Aid workers reported that private donors and NGOs who were on
the way to Laputta were forced by soldiers to hand them half the relief
supplies of rice and other aid intended for the survivors.

In Myaungmya, the authorities converted the six state high schools into
shelters to accommodate about 600 survivors of the storm. The high schools
were sealed off and none of the refugees was allowed to leave nor could
outsiders enter.

Aid donors were being forced to also hand over supplies to the
authorities, villagers reported.

The authorities are publishing daily sheets listing destroyed or flooded
villages and the names of victims and survivors. But only villages with
predominantly Burman populations are listed—those with Christian, Karen or
Muslim minorities are not mentioned.

Correspondent Lalit K Jha contributed reporting from New York.

____________________________________

May 13, Financial Times
US presses Burma to act on relief - Amy Kazmin

The US intensified diplomatic efforts yesterday to persuade Burma's ruling
junta to accept international offers of help in tackling the country's
humanitarian crisis. Washington entered into some of the most high-level
discussions that it has conducted with Burmese officials in decades.

But although a US military flight landed in Burma carrying provisions for
the survivors of cyclone Nargis, the flow of emergency supplies remained
at a trickle for the 1.5m people facing hunger and disease in the ravaged
Irrawaddy delta.

In New York, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, said only
a 10th of the food vital to the survival of those affected by the cyclone
had so far reached Burma and rice stocks in the country were close to
exhaustion.

Expressing his frustration with the junta, he said: "We are at a critical
point. Unless more aid gets into the country very quickly, we face an
outbreak of infectious diseases that could dwarf today's current crisis.

"I call, in the most strenuous terms, on the government of Myanmar [Burma]
to put its people's lives first. It must do all it can to prevent this
disaster from becoming even more serious."

Mr Ban said Senior General Than Shwe, the junta leader, had failed to take
his repeated urgent calls to request Burmese co-operation with the
international community.

"I was not able to reach him and so delivered a letter . . . through
diplomatic channels," he said.

There were fresh signs, however, that the Burmese junta was prepared to
consider international offers of help after a US admiral met his Burmese
counterpart in the highest-level military talks between the two countries
in decades.

Admiral Timothy J. Keating, the head of the US Pacific Command, and
Henrietta Fore, administrator of the US Agency for International
Development, arrived in Rangoon on a US military C-130 aircraft that was
carrying supplies of water, blankets and mosquito nets for cyclone
survivors.

Both US officials then held what were described as "cordial" talks with
Vice-Admiral Soe Thein, the Burmese naval chief, discussing relief work
and the potential of US military forces to help.

The US has offered to deploy up to 4,000 marines, six C-130 cargo aircraft
and a large number of heavy-lift helicopters in what would be its largest
disaster relief effort since the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

It will also have three naval ships, with helicopters on board, positioned
off south-west Burma within 48 hours.

"We have a broad array of personnel and equipment and we are ready to
respond as soon as the Burmese give us permission," said Adml Keating,
adding that the officials said they would "take it under consideration".

The Burmese regime cleared two more US C-130 relief flights to arrive
today, and Ms Fore expressed hope for deepening co-operation as time
passes.


____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 13, Irrawaddy
More words, or positive action? – Kyaw Zwa Moe

Everyone is running out of words to express their feelings about the
Burmese generals. What the generals are doing is making the world furious.
It’s time to call their actions a humanitarian crime.

It’s impossible to find logical reasons for the junta’s rejection of
adequate help from the UN, the US, the EU and the world’s relief agencies.
Clearly, it’s hubris, xenophobia, fear and a callous disregard for the
lives of the Burmese people.

“It’s a crime against humanity,” Pierre Fouilland of the Comité de Secours
Internationaux, a French disaster rescue agency, told Reuters after he was
denied a visa by the Burmese embassy in Bangkok. “It should be against the
law. It’s like they are taking a gun and shooting their own people.”

The generals may believe that they are capable of coping with the
catastrophe, but the basic facts refute their claim. They have only a
handful of helicopters and transport planes. They also lack the basic
supplies in terms of food, medicine, clean water and the ability to build
the structures to house hundreds of thousands of people for a long period
of time.

Rather, reports say the junta is concentrating on keeping true aid and
expert relief teams out of the country and the affected area.

The junta lives in fear of Western television cameras showing their
incompetence to the world, which is why they focus on keeping out as many
foreign aid workers as possible, only letting in enough not to ignite a
world backlash which could conceivably sweep them aside in some type of
unilateral aid air drop action.

While such action would raise serious issues of sovereignty, and no doubt
cause a furor among Burma’s supporters, such as China and Russia, it would
accomplish one important thing: It would save lives and show the people of
Burma that some countries will not sit by and watch a humanitarian
disaster unfold without trying to do something positive.

On Monday, when the first US C-130 cargo plane carrying relief supplies
landed in Rangoon, the state-newspapers reported that Vice-Admiral Soe
Thein told the US military delegation, including the commander in chief of
the US Pacific Command, Admiral Timothy J Keating, “So far, Burma doesn’t
need skilled relief workers yet.”

The UN estimates as many as 102,000 people have died and 220,000 people
are missing. As many as 2 million people are affected. More survivors will
die in the coming days if the junta continues to stonewall on aid.

“This is not about politics; it is about saving people’s lives. There is
absolutely no more time to lose,” said Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general
of the United Nations.

The only people who are politicizing the humanitarian aid issue are the
generals in Naypyidaw, Burma’s capital.

But, the more we complain about the junta’s inaction, the more time we
lose. It’s now 11 days since Cyclone Nargis hit Burma.

The junta has restricted not only international aid but also domestic
relief donations. Burmese citizens and organizations that want to donate
to the victims must give the aid to the authorities. No government imposes
such draconian restrictions.

Even more restrictions are on the way, not less. Sources say that military
authorities have ordered local authorities not to allow anyone to bring
cameras into the affected areas. The junta is already upset with the
extensive media coverage of Nargis Cyclone and the visual images of
victims, corpses and damages.

If anyone thinks or believes the junta is going to open up more, I can say
with conviction its wishful thinking. You will just be fooled again by the
generals.

The international community, especially the US and EU, are trying hard to
get their relief supplies into the country. The US is positioning naval
ships which are loaded with helicopters, food, water and medicines. Will
the junta allow the US navy to help? Don’t count on it. The western world,
especially the US, the regime’s strongest critic, is the junta’s enemy.

So far, no one has found a way to get the junta to cooperate. Not the UN,
the West, the EU, Asean or Burma’s friendly neighbors.

Time is running out. The world is running out of words. Many thousands
more could die in the coming days and weeks. What else can be done?

The world can do a unilateral humanitarian intervention. Air drop food,
water and medicine. What harm can it do?

It’s time for responsible actions in the face of irresponsible inaction.

____________________________________

May 13, Washington Post
Go around the generals - Anne Applebaum

They are "cruel, power-hungry and dangerously irrational," in the words of
one British journalist. They are " violent and irrational," according to a
journalist in neighboring Thailand. Our own State Department leadership
has condemned their "xenophobic, ever more irrational policies."

On the evidence of the past few days alone, those are all accurate
descriptions. But in one very narrow sense, the cruel, power-hungry,
violent and xenophobic generals who run Burma are not irrational at all:
Given their most urgent goal -- to maintain power at all costs -- their
reluctance to accept international aid in the wake of a devastating
cyclone makes perfect sense. It's straightforward: The junta cares about
its own survival, not the survival of its people. Thus the death toll is
thought to have reached 100,000, a further 1.5 million Burmese are at risk
of epidemics and starvation, parts of the country are still underwater,
hundreds of thousands of people are camped in the open without food or
clean water -- and, yes, if foreigners come to distribute aid, the
legitimacy of the regime might be threatened.

Especially foreigners in large numbers, using high-tech vehicles that
don't exist in Burma, distributing cartons of rice marked "Made in the
USA" or even "UNDP," of course. All natural disasters -- from the Armenian
earthquake that helped bring down the Soviet Union to Hurricane Katrina,
which damaged the Bush administration -- have profound political
implications, as do the aid efforts that follow them. The Burmese generals
clearly know this.

Hence the "logic" of the regime's behavior in the days since the cyclone:
the impounding of airplanes full of food; the initial refusal to grant
visas to relief workers or landing rights to foreign aircraft; the initial
refusal to allow American (or, indeed, any) military forces to supply the
ships, planes and helicopters necessary for the mass distribution of food
and supplies that Burma needs. Nor is this simply anti-Western paranoia:
The foreign minister of Thailand has been kept out, too. Even Burmese
citizens have been prevented from taking food to the flood-damaged
regions, on the grounds that "all assistance must be channeled through the
military." The result: Aid organizations that have workers on the ground
are talking about the hundreds of thousands of homeless Burmese who may
soon begin dying of cholera, diarrhea and other diseases. This isn't logic
by our standards, but it is logic by the standards of Burma's leaders.
Which is why we have to assume that the regime's fear of foreign relief
workers could even increase as the crisis grows, threatening the regime
further.

If we fail to persuade the junta to relent soon -- despite what I hope are
assurances that Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders and the U.S. military will
bring only food, not regime change, much as we all might like to see it --
then we have to start considering alternatives. According to some
accounts, the U.S. military is already considering a variety of options,
including helicopter deliveries of food from ships and supply convoys from
across the Thai border. The U.S. government should be looking at wider
diplomatic options, too. The U.N. Security Council has already refused to
take greater responsibility for Burma -- China won't allow the sovereignty
of its client to be threatened, even at the price of hundreds of thousands
of lives -- but there is no need for any country to act alone. In fact, it
would be a grave error to do so, since anything resembling a foreign
"invasion" might provoke military resistance.

Unfortunately, the phrase "coalition of the willing" has been forever
tainted -- once again proving that the damage done by the Iraq war goes
far beyond Iraq's borders -- but a coalition of the willing is exactly
what we need. The French (whose foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, was a
co-founder of Doctors Without Borders) are already talking about finding
alternative ways to deliver aid. Others in Europe and Asia might join,
too, along with some aid organizations. The Chinese should be embarrassed
into contributing, asked again and again to help: This is their satrapy,
after all, not ours.

Think of it as the true test of the Western humanitarian impulse: The
international effort that went into coordinating relief after the 2004
tsunami has to be repeated, but in much harsher, trickier, uglier
political circumstances. Yes, we should help the Burmese, even against the
will of their irrational leaders. Yes, we should think hard about the
right way to do it. And, yes, there isn't much time to ruminate about any
of this.