BurmaNet News, May 15, 2008

[Editor]

May 15, 2008 Issue #3467


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Opposition, critics blast poll results
AFP: Myanmar says constitution approved by 92.4 percent
AP: Myanmar cyclone death toll soars above 43,000
DVB: Storm victims arrested and driven out from shelters
Irrawaddy: A trickle of aid reaches survivors

BUSINESS / TRADE
New York Times: Myanmar farmers may miss harvest

HEALTH / AIDS
The National: Millions of refugees at risk of disease

ASEAN
Irrawaddy: Asean assessment team expected in Burma today
The Nation (Thailand): Asean to activate all mechanisms

REGIONAL
AP: US pushes for helicopters to ferry Myanmar relief

INTERNATIONAL
BBC News: UN chief to send envoy to Burma
BBC News: Aid for Burma 'must be monitored'

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: The perfect storm – Aung Zaw
UPI Asia: Preventable deaths, global consequences



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 15, Mizzima News
Opposition, critics blast poll results

Burma's main opposition party – the National League for Democracy – said
the results of the May 10 referendum lack credibility and legitimacy and
do not reflect the desire of voters.

Burma's ruling junta on Thursday announced through state-owned radio that
a draft constitution was approved in a nationwide referendum with 92.4
percent of voters supporting the charter.

The NLD, which won a landslide victory in a 1990 parliamentary election
that was later annulled by the military, said they cannot accept the
results.

"This referendum does not reflect the peoples' desires. So, if the
constitution is being approved without the people's desires it will still
be illegitimate," Nyan Win, the NLD spokesperson, said.

Burma's prominent student activist group – the 88 Generation Students –
however, said they are not surprised at the poll results as there was not
a free and fair atmosphere in the lead up to the referendum.

Tun Myint Aung, one of the few 88 Generation Students still on the run
from the junta, told Mizzima from his hide-out, "The junta do not even
need to conduct the referendum, because they are doing whatever they want
and we already knew they would announce that more than 90 percent
supported the referendum."

"But through this referendum, people learnt how they were cheated and
intimidated by the junta to approve the draft constitution," Tun Myint
Aung said.

David Scott Mathieson, Human Rights Watch's Burma consultant, said the
result is "absurd, ridiculous and transparently dishonest." Mathieson said
with the junta's practice of widespread vote-rigging, intimidation and
ballot-stuffing, the results lack credibility.

"This is not how you run a democracy, but it is a mafia dictatorship,"
Mathieson said.

The junta's draft constitution said the charter would be enacted if more
than 50 percent of voters supported it, and as long as half of the
eligible voters turned out at the polls.

Total turnout was 99.07 percent, according to the junta's announcement.

HRW said the Burmese junta's figures cannot be taken seriously, as there
has never been such a high voter turnout, even in functioning democracies.

"Burma does not have the technical capacity to ensure this figure of voter
turnout," Mathieson said.

A voter from Mandalay's Chan Aye Thar Zan Township, who spoke to Mizzima
over the telephone Thursday, said there is no way the measure could have
been defeated as the authorities are openly rigging votes.

The voter said he witnessed the counting of votes in his polling station
as he was one of the last voters to cast his ballot on May 10. Under the
junta's referendum law, the last 10 voters in each polling station are
allowed to stay and witness the counting.

"They are just turning all the 'no' votes into 'yes.' The women affairs
members even forced my sister to tick the ballot [yes] when she was about
to cross it [no]," the voter said.

Reporting by Maung Dee, Huaipi, Jone Mann and Nem Davies, and writing by
Mungpi.

____________________________________

May 15, Agence France Presse
Myanmar says constitution approved by 92.4 percent

Myanmar's military-backed constitution was approved by 92.4 percent in a
widely condemned referendum held everywhere except regions hardest hit by
Cyclone Nargis, state television said Thursday.

"We announce the results of the referendum, with 92.4 percent casting Yes
ballots," said a statement from Aung Toe, head of the committee that
organised the vote, which was read on state television.

More than 99 percent of the 22.5 million voters eligible to vote on May 10
cast their ballots, it said.

Regions devastated by the cyclone, which left 66,000 dead or missing, are
set to vote on May 24, even though the United Nations estimates two
million people are still in desperate need of food, water and shelter.

Detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party has denounced the
regime for holding the vote while aid is only trickling to ruined villages
and emergency shelters.

"Millions of people are in great trouble. The survivors are in grief while
their health is gradually worsening," her National League for Democracy
(NLD) said in a statement late Wednesday, hours before the results were
announced.

"The holding of the referendum is completely inappropriate in this
situation," it said.

The NLD says the constitution, which the military hails as a step toward
democratic elections in 2010, will only enshrine the power of the
generals, who have ruled the country for nearly half a century.

The last time there was a national ballot, in 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi won
in a landslide. She was never allowed to rule, and instead has been under
house arrest for much of the time since.

Among its provisions, the constitution would make it illegal for her to
ever hold office.

The international community, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon,
had urged the junta to focus on the cyclone relief effort instead of using
the nation's scant resources to hold the vote.

But the regime ploughed ahead, setting up voting booths close to makeshift
camps for the homeless, while denying most of the visas requested by
international aid workers to deliver supplies to cyclone victims.

The junta now says it will hold the referendum in the cyclone zone next
week, even though many villages have been washed away. Some 550,000 people
are believed to be now living in temporary settlements.

Myanmar analyst Win Min, who is based in Thailand, said the results showed
that junta leader Than Shwe was not willing to tolerate any opposition to
his so-called "road map" to democracy.

"He was determined to get an overwhelming result," Win Min told AFP in
Bangkok.

"There was no monitoring. All the results were sent to (the capital)
Naypyidaw, and then they were counted there. They didn't even count the
votes actually," he said. "They just made it up."

____________________________________

May 15, Associated Press
Myanmar cyclone death toll soars above 43,000

Myanmar's junta warned Thursday that legal action would be taken against
people who trade or hoard international aid as the cyclone's death toll
soared above 43,000.

It was the first acknowledgment by the military government, albeit
indirectly, of problems with relief operations in the aftermath of Cyclone
Nargis.

The warning came amid reports that foreign aid was being sold openly in
markets, and that the military was pilfering and diverting aid for its own
use.

The ruling junta has been blasted by aid agencies for refusing to allow
most foreign experts into the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta and not responding
adequately to what they say is a spiraling crisis.

Relief workers reported that some storm survivors were being given spoiled
or poor-quality food rather than nutrition-rich biscuits sent by
international donors, adding to fears that the ruling military junta in
the Southeast Asian country could be misappropriating assistance.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement Wednesday that it
had confirmed an Associated Press report that the military had seized
high-energy biscuits that came from abroad, and distributed low-quality,
locally produced biscuits to survivors.

Thursday's state radio announcement obliquely denied the military was
misappropriating aid.

"The government has systematically accepted donations and has distributed
the relief goods immediately and directly to the victims," it said.
"Effective legal action will be taken against those who hoard, sell or
buy, use or misuse the international or local donations or relief goods or
cash to the cyclone victims."

Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs, said aid workers who visited all the major markets
in Yangon found no evidence of hoarding or sale of relief goods.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies spokesman
Matthew Cochrane said the organization also had not received any such
reports.

The government said Thursday that the official death toll from the May 2-3
cyclone had climbed by almost 5,000 to 43,318. The number of missing has
remained at 27,838 for at least two days.

But the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
estimated the death toll was between 68,833 and 127,990. The U.N. says
more than 100,000 may have died.

The U.N. and the Red Cross say between 1.6 and 2.5 million people are in
urgent need of food, water and shelter. Only 270,000 have been reached so
far by the aid groups.

Tons of foreign aid including water, blankets, mosquito nets, tarpaulins,
medicines and tents have been sent to Myanmar, but its delivery has been
slowed down because of bottlenecks, poor infrastructure and bureaucratic
tangles.

The junta insists on taking control of the distribution. It has allowed
the U.N. and some other agencies to hand out the aid directly but
prohibited their few foreign staff allowed into Myanmar from leaving
Yangon, the country's main city.

Police have turned back foreigners from checkpoints at the city's exits.

"There is a visible fence around Yangon that we don't dare cross. A circle
has been drawn around Yangon and expats are confined there," said Tim
Costello of aid group World Vision.

He said the group has delivered aid to 100,000 people in spite of the
"narrow parameters." But there are tens of thousands more who haven't
received help because of heavy rain and lack of helicopters and expert
staff.

"While you are getting aid through, it's like getting it through on a
3-inch pipe not 30-inch pipe," Costello said.

The regime insists it can handle the disaster on its own — a stance that
appears to stem not from its abilities but its deep suspicion of most
foreigners, who have frequently criticized its human rights abuses and
crackdown on democracy activists.

In a clear sign that politics is playing a role, the junta granted
approval to 160 relief workers from India, China, Bangladesh and Thailand,
which have rarely criticized Myanmar's democracy record.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Thursday that so far the U.S. has
done 13 airlifts. Reports from the ground indicate "that international
relief supplies transported by the Burmese military have been arriving in
disaster areas," he said.

"It's impossible for us to completely verify that all the relief supplies
are getting to the affected areas but we are monitoring that through our
contacts that are inside the country" — UN and aid private aid groups, he
said. "And to the best of our ability, to date, we have not seen any U.S.
assistance that has been diverted."

He said the Navy ships from the USS Essex expeditionary strike group were
moved slightly after Wednesday's warning of another approaching storm, but
they now remain some 30 nautical off Myanmar's coast, also waiting to help
if asked.

Even Myanmar citizens are being restricted by the security forces, said
Zaw Htin, a 21-year-old medical student who visited hard-hit Bogalay town
on Wednesday.

"They (military) don't want us to stay and talk to people. They want us to
leave the supplies with them for distribution. But how can I treat them if
I can't talk to them? How do we administer medical care if we can't touch
them, feel their pulse or give them advice?" she said.

"It was overwhelming even for us who have seen a lot of suffering and
death," Zaw Htin said.

Britain's prime minister said Thursday that an emergency U.N. summit to
coordinate efforts to rush aid to cyclone victims in Myanmar will be held
in Asia.

Gordon Brown told a news conference the summit was being organized by the
U.N. and Asian countries and would be held in the region. He said the
meeting represented "great progress" but gave no details of when it would
take place.

Also Thursday, the junta announced that voters had overwhelmingly backed a
pro-military constitution in a referendum that was held one week after the
cyclone.

Human rights organizations and dissident groups bitterly accused the junta
of neglecting disaster victims in going ahead with the vote, and have
criticized the proposed constitution as designed to perpetuate military
rule.

State radio said the draft constitution was approved by 92.4 percent of
the 22 million eligible voters. It put voter turnout Saturday at more than
99 percent of eligible voters in areas that went to the polls.

Voting was postponed until May 24 in the Irrawaddy delta and Yangon areas,
which were worst hit by Cyclone Nargis. But state radio said the results
of the late balloting could not mathematically reverse the constitution's
approval.

"People are dying and they are talking about the referendum?" said Kyaw
Muang, a small food store owner in Yangon. "They (the generals) don't even
care about dying people, you think they care about democracy for living
people?" he said.

"I don't care about the referendum. It doesn't mean anything," he said.

Human Rights Watch also slammed the timing of the constitution
announcement and questioned the accuracy of the results.

David Mathieson, a spokesman in Bangkok, Thailand, said the junta hopes
that by announcing the results now it would divert attention away from its
handling of the disaster and its refusal to cooperate with the
international community.

"It seems strategically timed because you would have thought with how busy
they were in cleaning up the cyclone that they never would have had time
to count this properly," he said.

____________________________________

May 15, Democratic Voice of Burma
Storm victims arrested and driven out from shelters – Aye Nai

The police attacked and arrested a storm victim and a member of South
Dagon Township National League for Democracy (NLD) member today for
attempting to meet with UN officials in Rangoon.

At 4’oclock this evening, Daw Khin Win Kyi was arrested for attempting to
tell the sufferings of refugees to senior government officials, diplomats
and UN officials who were inspecting the living condition of storm victims
with 15 other women, a local resident told DVB.

“She wanted the senior officials to know the sufferings of the people and
wanted to tell them face to face and went to wait at the route of the
official entourage. She told officials at Ward – 17 to let her see the
senior officials, and the police told her that they could not let her in,
and a shouting match followed. Then, the police sergeant punched her,
dragged her away and handcuffed her.”

South Dagon suffered severe damage caused by Cyclone Nargis that hit
Rangoon on 2 May and homeless victims have been taking refuge in
monasteries and schools, but they were helped only by private donors and
there has been no proper help from the government. The authorities placed
refugees inside forty tents donated by the international community and
tried to deceive foreign officials this way.

There are thousands of refugees in Wards 55 and 26 of South Dagon
sheltering inside monasteries and schools. The authorities have been
trying to evict the refugees from these places in order to make way for
the referendum for pro-army constitution which is to be held on 24 May,
the resident said.

“Those who refuse to obey the order will be prosecuted by the Internal
Affairs Ministry, I was told.”

At nearby Daw Pon, refugees who were sheltering in a storehouse were also
driven out into the rain, a refugee said.

“We told them that we have nowhere to live. They said, you can go anywhere
you like. If you don’t, we will ask the army to remove you tonight, the
ward authority chairman Nay Lin Aung said to us.”

____________________________________

May 15, Irrawaddy
A trickle of aid reaches survivors – Saw Yan Naing

International aid groups have sent hundreds of tons of emergency supplies
to Burma’s cyclone victims, but local aid workers say no aid is reaching
huge numbers of homeless in the Irrawaddy delta, 13 days after the
devastation.

According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), it has dispatched more
than 700 tons of rice, high-energy biscuits and beans to nearly 100,000
people (about 7 kg per person) in cyclone-affected areas in Burma.
However, there are at least 1.5 million homeless, say officials.

Aye Kyu, a resident of Laputta Township in the Irrawaddy delta, said some
nongovernmental organizations such as UNICEF and the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have begun relief operations there,
setting up temporary shelters, mobile clinics and sanitation facilities.

However, the relief effort there is still insufficient for the 80,000
homeless from outlying areas who have sought shelter in Laputta, where
many people still live in temporary shelters such as monasteries and
schools or outdoors.

A local aid worker told The Irrawaddy that relief organizations are
focusing on the delta’s two main towns, Bogalay and Laputta, and outlying
villages are not a high priority at this time.

Some aid supplies continue to be stolen, misappropriated or hoarded by
Burmese authorities, say aid workers.

Aye Kyu said rice and diesel fuel donated by international aid groups are
being sold by local authorities in some areas.

“The authorities are demanding between 13,000 and 15,000 kyat (US $11.25
and $12.99) for one bag of rice and 10,000 kyat (US $8.66) for one gallon
of diesel fuel,” said Aye Kyu.

Officials of Burma’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said
members purchased 1,000 towels on Wednesday to donate to survivors, but
later discovered a World Food Programme stamp on the bags the towels were
placed in.

NLD spokesman Nyan Win said the towels were bought at Rangoon’s Mingalar
market. “When I arrived home, I found the letters WFP (World Food Program)
stamped on the bags, together with the flag of Japan and a message in
English and Burmese (donated by the Japanese people).”

“I’m not sure that the towels are from the WFP, but those bags are now
found in Mingalar Market,” he said.

A worker at Rangoon airport told a Rangoon-based Irrawaddy correspondent
that generators and water-treatment equipment unloaded from a foreign
aircraft had been sent to Naypyidaw, seat of the Burmese military regime.

Richard Horsey, a spokesman for UN humanitarian operations in Bangkok,
said investigations into cases of misappropriated aid are now underway.

Because of geographical and logistical difficulties, he said supplies are
not reaching survivors quickly enough, but “the ability to deliver aid is
increasing everyday.”

“But, we are still at the level that not nearly enough aid is going in to
meet the needs of the affected people. There are several problems. Large
flooded areas, remote isolated populations and damaged infrastructure from
the storm.”

More trucks and small boats are needed to transport food and supplies to
the affected areas, he said.

“We need the whole range of logistical assistance, not just flights into
Rangoon.” said Horsey.

On Wednesday, about 200 Burmesse military personnel unloaded relief
supplies from aircraft at the Rangoon airport, mostly working by hand in
the absence of forklift trucks and other heavy-lifting equipment.

The lack of proper equipment was creating a bottleneck, according to UN
logistical staff.

Meanwhile, John Holmes, under secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs,
said food, water, medical supplies and shelter material are arriving in
Burma in increasing quantities from UN agencies, the Red Cross,
nongovernmental organizations and other donors.

“But the question is how much of that aid is getting to the affected areas
and people,” said Holmes, in a statement released on Wednesday.

There are now 100 UN international staff in Burma. About 46 visas have
been issued to nongovernmental aid organizations, according to the UN
statement.

With heavy rain forecast later this week, aid officials fear there’s not
enough warehouse space to protect the supplies beginning to flow into
Rangoon.

Officially, the Burmese regime says 38,491 people died and 27,838 people
are missing following the cyclone. The Red Cross estimates up to 127,990
died and up to 2.15 million people are have been severely affected.


____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 15, New York Times
Myanmar farmers may miss harvest

Normally, at this time of year, Burmese farmers in the southern delta of
Myanmar would be draining their rice paddies, plowing their fields with
their water buffaloes and preparing to plant new seeds for an autumn
harvest.

But two weeks ago, Cyclone Nargis did away with all that. The storm’s
timing could not have been worse. Tens of thousands of farm families lost
their draft animals, their rice stocks and their planting seeds. Now the
harvest is in doubt as well.

“I think we’re going to miss it, we’re going to miss the harvest,” said
Hakan Tongul, deputy country director for the World Food Program in
Myanmar. “Time is short.”

Mr. Tongul and other international aid experts with long experience in
Myanmar fear the cyclone has disrupted the seasonal cycle of life in the
Irrawaddy Delta, once one of the world’s most fertile and important
rice-growing regions.

Delta farmers lost 149,000 water buffaloes, said Brian Agland, the country
director for CARE, and it will be impossible to replace them in time for
the plowing season. Instead, CARE and other aid groups will likely be
buying what the locals call “iron buffaloes” — small red tractors made in
China that go for about $1,000 apiece.

Huge deliveries of new rice seeds are needed, too. Thailand is the likely
source for new seeds, Traditionally, delta farmers have used seeds from
the rice they grew the year before.

New livestock — pigs, ducks, chickens and fish fingerlings in addition to
buffaloes — and seeds are among the priority items for aid groups working
in rural development in the delta. “The agricultural cycle is so
critical,” Mr. Agland said Thursday. “We’ve got to avoid a hunger gap, and
we’ve got very little time.”

On Thursday, the government’s count of the dead rose nearly 5,000, to more
than 43,000, with 27,838 missing, The Associated Press reported. The
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has
estimated the death toll at between 68,833 and 127,990, The A.P. said.

United Nations agencies and international relief groups held an emergency,
closed meeting Thursday afternoon to plot strategies for getting the delta
farmers back to their farms and back to work

“They’re restricting, they’re hiding, they’re not allowing us to import,
almost nothing,” Mr. Tongul said. “I need 50,000 tons of rice to feed
people for the next six months. I’ve got 3,000 on hand. This is what keeps
me awake at night.”

Many delta farm families who have lost their homes and livelihoods have
sought shelter in Buddhist monasteries, old buildings or schools.

The government has been trucking internally displaced persons to
military-run refugee settlements far from their farms. The farmers, the
aid agencies say, need to get back to whatever is left of their farms in
order to rebuild houses — even rudimentary ones — drain waterlogged
paddies, and get on with the plowing-and-planting schedule.

Unless they can do that work, international aid groups in Myanmar say the
country will need another 50,000 tons of rice six months from now, Mr.
Tongul said.

The Yangon River, which was blocked by sunken ships and storm debris,
finally reopened Thursday afternoon, an encouraging development for relief
officials. It means that larger shipments — especially of rice — can now
be delivered by boat into the port at Yangon if the government loosens its
restrictions on imports.

The World Food Program got thousands of high-energy biscuits into the
south, but the agency has heard that some of the biscuits have been
stolen, or replaced with cheap crackers. , Mr. Tongul said. He said that
the United Nations has launched an investigation into the matter.

On Thursday, The A. P. reported, Myanmar’s junta warned in a state radio
address that legal action would be taken against people who trade, hoard
or misuse international aid for cyclone survivors.

Heavy rains continued to drench Yangon and the delta Thursday, further
complicating aid deliveries as bridges and roads wash out. Trucks have so
far been used to get most of the aid from the capital region to the delta,
and groups like Save the Children, World Vision and CARE have had some
success in delivering food into the south.

But many townships and villages deep in the delta are still largely out of
contact, and it is likely the death toll will jump once counts in those
areas can be taken, regional experts say.

“We’ve been using small boats and motorbikes to get to places,” Mr. Agland
said, “and we’re finding villages where 200 people used to live, and now
there’s 5 or 10.”

Missing, Mr. Agland cautioned, did not necessarily mean dead.

“For example, there have been a lot of lost kids reported, but we’re also
finding groups of kids on their own” in rural, storm-damaged areas, he
said.

“The death toll is quite high, and I don’t know if we’ll ever find out the
real number. The focus now is stopping more deaths, and keeping the number
from growing.”


____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

May 15, The National
Millions of refugees at risk of disease – Larry Jagan

Tens of thousands of cyclone survivors are on the move in Myanmar’s
Irrawaddy Delta after their homes, families and livelihoods were wiped out
by the devastating storm, posing challenges for international relief
workers trying to reach them.

With torrential storms approaching, and another possible cyclone
developing, Myanmar is on the verge of a major humanitarian crisis, the UN
has warned.

Children are at risk not only from malnutrition and disease but, faced
with a loss of family members, could also be susceptible to kidnapping and
trafficking.

Witnesses said villagers from the lower Irrawaddy Delta were moving north
to safety, with many trekking towards the former capital, Yangon, in
search of food and shelter. “Millions may be on the move,” said a Western
diplomat based in Yangon. “Within an hour’s drive or so from Yangon there
are already large groups of people huddled together, squatting by the
road, waiting for water and food to reach them.”

“They are understandably trying to escape the devastation,” said Amanda
Pitt, the regional communications officer for the UN’s Office for the
Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “This of course makes assessing the
needs of the displaced people more difficult and targeting relief even
harder.”

Richard Bridal, the regional head of Unicef, warned that children were
especially vulnerable.

“Of course, many of the survivors are children and they are in danger of
being kidnapped and trafficked,” Mr Bridal said.

“These children are also in danger of suffering from acute malnutrition;
they need to be identified and treated – if they are not, they will
certainly die.”

Alexander Kreuger, a child protection expert with Unicef in Bangkok, said
mass migration increases the danger of children being separated from their
parents, “risking sexual harassment and being trafficked”. Although the
international community is growing increasingly impatient with the junta’s
intransigence to allow in more aid, the UN remains optimistic that things
are improving.

“Supplies are getting in and there has been some movement on allowing
visas for UN disaster rapid response experts,” said Ms Pitt. “There has
been some progress in some areas, but it’s certainly not enough as yet.”

Diplomats in Yangon, however, are less sanguine.

“There needs to be a 20-fold increase in aid and people,” one Western
diplomat said.

Logistics – how to transport the supplies from Yangon to the affected
areas in the Irrawaddy Delta to the west of the city – remains one of the
most immediate problems. There is already a bottleneck at Yangon’s
international airport as available equipment is unsuitable for unloading
relief supplies and most of it must be lifted off planes by hand.

Getting aid to the affected areas also remains a problem. The UN estimates
it has managed to reach 20 per cent of those in need of food and medical
supplies. It has a fleet of 30 lorries to transport the goods to the
delta, but are constrained by bridges and rivers that make travel there
precarious. The government has supplied small boats and two helicopters to
help with deliveries.

“We need more helicopters and have located four in the region that could
be used, but we’d need to get permission first,” said Marcus Prior, a
senior official with the UN World Food Programme.

“It’s difficult to estimate how much logistical support is needed to bring
the operation up to speed – but much more than we have available at
present.”

The junta remains deeply suspicious of the outside world and has refused
to let in foreign experts who specialise in getting aid to disaster
victims. Official statements from the regime say Myanmar welcomes aid from
anywhere, but only the government is allowed to distribute supplies.

Recently the generals have started to realise that the magnitude of the
disaster may be beyond their capacity. In the past two days they have
asked for technical help from Bangladesh, China, India and Thailand.

“The regime is anxious to hide the extent of the cyclone damage from the
Burmese people,” said Win Min, an independent analyst from Myanmar based
in northern Thailand.

“That’s why foreigners are not being allowed in the delta area and any
Burmese aid workers or businessmen travelling there are forbidden to carry
cameras,” he said.

Independent newspapers in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, and
periodicals have been barred from carrying pictures of the cyclone damage
on their front or back covers, according to one local editor.

Coverage of the cyclone by Myanmar’s private media, including the English
weekly The Myanmar Times, has been heavily censored. In particular, they
have not been allowed to mention that the regime is preventing
international aid and disaster experts into the country.

The regime has also been taking credit for the work of other countries.
Food packages from foreign governments have been commandeered by soldiers
that have stuck labels on them saying they were being presented by
particular generals.

There are also reports that aid supplies are being diverted away from the
survivors and turning up on the local market. Local community groups who
tried to deliver food to poor people in the outlying areas of Yangon have
been forcibly stopped and their bags of rice confiscated.

Nearly 125,000 people were killed by the cyclone, according to aid workers
assessing the damage done in the Irrawaddy Delta. The UN estimates that a
further 100,000 are missing. The government insists the death toll is
around 34,000 with about the same number missing.

The UN estimates that more than two million people have been made homeless
and are at risk from diseases ranging from dysentery and typhoid and
cholera to malaria and dengue fever.

____________________________________
ASEAN

May 15, Irrawaddy
Asean assessment team expected in Burma today – Sai Slip

A team of experts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)
was due to arrive in Rangoon on Thursday to assess the scale of the
cyclone disaster and relief requirements.

Asean Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said in Washington on Wednesday
that the Burmese government had agreed to grant visas to an “emergency
rapid assessment team,” which would leave for Rangoon within 24 hours.

The Burmese military government said on Wednesday it would also accept 160
relief workers from India, China, Bangladesh and Thailand.

Thailand is to send 20 medical teams to Burma on Saturday, supported by a
medical unit under royal patronage. The unit will comprise 30 physicians
from Thailand’s public health ministry, the Thai Red Cross and two
government hospitals.

The Thai assistance was discussed in talks in Rangoon between Thai Prime
Minister Samak Sundaravej and his Burmese counterpart Thein Sein. Samak
went to the former Burmese capital on a mission to persuade the junta to
accept foreign relief workers, but he said Thein Sein had assured him that
the Burmese authorities could cope alone.

“I was told that 27 countries offered to sent relief workers Burma but the
country only wanted relief supplies, not a large number of foreign
experts, as it can manage to solve its own problem,” Samak was quoted as
saying by the Thai News Agency on Thursday.

Samak said Thein Sein assured him during a visit to a government relief
centre that there had been no outbreaks of disease or cases of starvation
or famine among the cyclone survivors, who had been transported to safe
areas.

____________________________________

May 15, The Nation (Thailand)
Asean to activate all mechanisms – Supalak G Khundee and Piyanart Srivalo

A senior Asean official said yesterday the group would activate all
necessary emergency mechanisms for relief, rehabilitation and
reconstruction in Burma after Cyclone Nargis killed tens of thousands
people.

Asean would call an emergency meeting of foreign ministers on Monday in
Singapore to explore ways to help Burma in the short and long terms, he
said.

Burma's Foreign Minister Nyan Win would brief his Asean colleagues on the
current situation.

Asean has a disaster rescue team which previously had practice in only
"desktop operations" rather than real situations, said the Foreign
Ministry's director of the Asean Affairs Department, Vitavas Srivihok.

"The disaster is a good chance for Asean to activate all mechanisms in the
document to work in real terms," Vitavas told a press briefing.

The disaster assessment team has one official in Burma now who had urged
all member countries to dispatch more helpers. Thai officials from the
Interior Ministry's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation would
be in the team, Vitavas said.

Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan is now in Washington to seek
financial support from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Vitavas said Asean in fact had a fund for emergency relief but it might
not be enough for such devastation.

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who was in Naypyidaw yesterday, agreed on
terms to dispatch 30 medical personnel to help survivors of the cyclone
for two weeks initially at Thai expense.

Burma would grant entry visas for the Thai medical team but deferred
consideration for other foreign aid workers, Foreign Minister Noppadon
Pattama said.

Samak flew to Burma to try to convince the junta's leaders to open up for
more international assistance, notably from Western countries, after
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked him to use his
influence. The Thai medical team and their equipment are due to fly to
Burma tomorrow.


____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 15, Associated Press
US pushes for helicopters to ferry Myanmar relief – Eric Talmadge

The door is open. But just a crack.  Myanmar's isolationist ruling junta
is now allowing U.S. military cargo planes to regularly fly relief
supplies into their largest city to provide aid to cyclone survivors.

But if the aid is to get out to the estimated 2 million people who need it
most, Myanmar is going to have to make another big concession: letting the
U.S. start flying helicopters directly into the hardest-hit areas and
allowing boots on the ground.

So far, that is where the junta draws the line.

Myanmar, whose ruling military generals are intensely sensitive to what
they see as outside meddling, has limited the U.S. military to the Yangon
airport, where emergency supplies must be unloaded by hand.

Once the planes are unloaded, they are quickly sent back to their
makeshift base in Utapao, in central Thailand east of Bangkok.

The U.S. military has flown 13 C-130 cargo planes loaded with 156.6 tons
of aid into Yangon over the past four days. Five flights flew on Thursday,
military officials said, and another eight were expected to take off
Friday.

The C-130s have brought in much-needed supplies including water, mosquito
nets, blankets, plastic sheets and hygiene kits. But aid groups say the
airport soon will have more supplies than it will be able to handle,
meaning bottlenecks and delays.

The U.S., which was conducting its annual Cobra Gold military exercises in
the area when the cyclone hit, has 11,000 troops and a flotilla of ships
ready to go. U.S. military assets from as far away as Guam and Japan are
in Thailand or off its waters.

"We've got a lot of assets in the field," said Lt. Col. Douglas Powell, a
Marine spokesman for the relief effort, called Operation Caring Response.
"We're not limited to our C-130s."

Largely with the use of helicopters, which have tremendous versatility,
the U.S. military made a major contribution to the international relief
effort after the catastrophic 2004 tsunami killed more than 230,000 people
in a dozen nations around the Indian Ocean.

Helicopters to the devastated Irrawaddy Delta and some troops on the
ground would be an essential part of a stepped-up relief effort in Myanmar
as well.

To prepare for such an operation, the U.S. is moving several ships that
can support helicopters into international waters closer to Myanmar and
has scouted out possible staging sights on land, including Mae Sot, a Thai
border town with an air base about 250 miles from the disaster zone.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Thursday that Navy ships from the
USS Essex expeditionary strike group were moved slightly after Wednesday's
warning of another approaching storm, but they are now some 30 miles off
Myanmar's coast, also waiting to help, if asked.

"The need is still high," Whitman said.

Thailand also has sent military flights to Yangon. The British, French and
Australian militaries have diverted assets to help, but are still awaiting
approval from the Myanmar leaders to actually go in.


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 15, BBC News
UN chief to send envoy to Burma

The UN intends to send a top official to Burma to persuade the military
rulers to accept foreign assistance, says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

He is also proposing a summit of global leaders to discuss aid, as fears
grow for the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

UN figures now suggest as many as 2.5 million people have been severely
affected by the cyclone. The official death toll stands at almost 38,500.

A second cyclone that was forming off Burma's coastline subsided overnight.

But heavy rain has been reported in the worst-affected regions around the
Irrawaddy Delta.

Meanwhile the junta announced 92.4% of voters had backed their proposed
constitution in a national referendum held last weekend.

Human Rights Watch said the result was an "insult to the people of Burma"
as there was no way such a majority could have been gained fairly.

The decision to hold a ballot while tens of thousands of people were in
dire need of assistance provoked a global outcry against the junta.

The vote was postponed until 24 May in the regions worst-affected by the
cyclone.

The proposed constitution entrenches the power of the military, and many
observers labelled the referendum a stunt to give a veneer of legitimacy
to the junta's reforms.

Undercover reporter says aid is still in short supply in Burma

In an apparent concession to international pressure, the generals say they
will allow 160 foreign aid workers into the country, as well as an
emergency relief team from the Association of South East Asian Nations
(Asean).

But it was unclear whether the workers - from countries including
Thailand, China, India, Bangladesh - would be allowed out of Rangoon into
the stricken delta region, where help is most urgently needed.

"Even though the Myanmar [Burma] government has shown some sense of
flexibility, at this time it's far, far too short," Mr Ban said.

He told reporters that John Holmes, the UN's top humanitarian official,
would accompany the next aid flight into Burma and attempt to negotiate
with the junta.

Mr Ban said he "regretted" the UN had spent more time arranging rather
than delivering help.

Aid agencies continue to criticise the military regime - accusing the
generals of stalling on issuing visas for relief experts, ineptly
distributing the supplies they are allowing into the country and blocking
access to the worst-affect regions.

A slow trickle of aid is now getting to survivors but the agencies say it
is nowhere near enough.

They say far more boats and trucks are needed to get the supplies to the
communities that need them most - and far more expert personnel.

The latest Burmese official figures put the number of dead at almost
38,500, with 27,838 more missing, but the Red Cross warned as many as
128,000 could be dead.

____________________________________

May 15, BBC News
Aid for Burma 'must be monitored'

Countries sending cyclone aid to Burma must monitor it closely to stop the
military regime seizing supplies, a leading rights group has said.

Human Rights Watch said aid could not simply be left at Rangoon airport as
it would not necessarily reach victims.

Burma's state media have raised the official death toll to 43,318 with
27,838 missing, AFP news agency said.

The regime is stopping most foreign aid workers already there from leaving
Rangoon to go to affected areas.

More than 10 days after Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy delta, the
BBC's Natalia Antelava, who reached the area, says it is still completely
cut off from the outside world and there is little evidence of things
getting better.


She says soldiers were blocking the roads but fishermen took her to
affected areas by boat. One said he wanted the world to know what was
happening.

In one village, 20 survivors were living in the only house still standing
and had been eating rice and drinking rain water for 10 days.

Biscuits taken

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: "Without
independent monitors on the ground, we can't be sure the aid is reaching
those most at risk."

He said there were reports some supplies had already been diverted to the
military.

The group said it could confirm news agency reports that high-protein
biscuits had been taken by the military and replaced with poorer, locally
made substitutes.

The group said aid from the increased number of flights the regime had
allowed in over the past few days was being handed to the military for
distribution.

It said it "remained concerned about a lack of monitoring at Rangoon
airport and throughout the transport process to ensure that all aid is
delivered as intended".

In an apparent concession to international pressure, the generals say they
will allow 160 foreign aid workers into the country, as well as an
emergency relief team from the Association of South East Asian Nations
(Asean).

But it was unclear whether the workers - from countries including
Thailand, China, India, Bangladesh - would be allowed out of Rangoon into
the stricken delta region, where help is most urgently needed.

Aid agencies say far more boats and trucks are needed to get the supplies
to the communities that need them most - and far more expert personnel.

Burma insisted again on Thursday it was capable of coping with the crisis.

The state media New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the people "will not
rely too much on international assistance and will reconstruct the nation
on a self-reliance basis".

The Red Cross has estimated the death toll at between 68,800 and 128,000.

'Insult'

The junta has also announced that 92.4% of voters had backed its proposed
constitution in a national referendum held last weekend.

Human Rights Watch said the result, which entrenches the power of the
military, was an "insult to the people of Burma" as there was no way such
a majority could have been gained fairly.

The decision to hold a ballot while tens of thousands of people were in
dire need of assistance provoked a global outcry against the junta.

Meanwhile on Thursday, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the UN would
hold a summit of donors in Asia but gave no date.

"We will stop at nothing in trying to pressure the regime into doing what
any regime should have done long ago," he said.


____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 15, Irrawaddy
The perfect storm – Aung Zaw

A friend of mine in Rangoon called me this morning. “It’s depressing and
upsetting—people in the delta region are desperately scavenging for food
and aid,” he said, having just returned from a charity mission to the
devastated area.

But he added: “The survivors are coping as best they can. They are very
resilient and are putting their own lives back together. They haven’t lost
their dignity.”

I was relieved to know that in spite of all the heartbreaking reports and
horrific images coming out of Burma, the only one who had lost his dignity
was Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

In spite of the woefully slow response from the Burmese military
authorities—and the heartless blockade and misappropriation of aid and
supplies—the people of the delta are taking matters into their own hands,
standing strong, taking care of each other, determined to survive.

The generals are unyielding; the United Nations pathetic.

John Holmes, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs,
whimpered: “The biggest problem we have at the moment is that
international humanitarian staff are not being allowed down into the
affected area in the delta.”


On Wednesday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held an emergency meeting
with select countries, including Asean, India and the five permanent
members of Security Council.

Briefing the media afterward outside the UN headquarters in New York, Ban
said, “There was some concern expressed that, while this will be a
humanitarian crisis, if we are not able to address this issue in a proper
way—reaching those people in need—then it may create inevitably some kind
of political issue. Therefore, we need to be careful about that.”

The UN, by nature, is careful—often timid in its language—and takes a
gentle diplomatic approach to each of its myriad concerns. It has no
intention of picking a fight with Burma’s generals. Ambassador after
ambassador at the UN emphasized that they didn’t want to politicize the
issue.

That’s why, to me, this humanitarian crisis has now become a man-made
disaster.

Than Shwe and his clique have failed in every regard—to issue cyclone
warnings, to plan an evacuation, to allow aid workers and supplies in,
even to the point of stealing the food and water marked for those victims
who are dying without it.

Then he turned his back on the horror in the delta and stole the
referendum as well.

Rightly so, Than Shwe is now accused of committing crimes against humanity.

Like it or not, this crisis is a political issue and the UN has failed
again to grasp its own impotence.

The UN huffs and puffs and “ums” and “ahs” as warships containing hundreds
of tons of aid sit unsolicited in international waters, not a day’s sail
from the delta. It sits on the fence while its leading members cry out for
humanitarian intervention.

With the United Nations apparently unable to move, the spotlight again
turns to Than Shwe and his diplomatic chess game.

After declaring a massive turnout and a victory in the referendum, the
former psychological warfare officer is now preparing to go on the
offensive.

In approving visas for aid workers from Bangladesh, China, India and
Thailand, Than Shwe shows he plans to again hide behind his neighbors and
allies.

“Even though Burma’s military regime is denying aid to 2 million people
facing death, efforts at the UN Security Council to invoke the
‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine are dead as a doornail, mainly
because of Burma’s ally, China,” said Aung Din, Executive Director of the
US Campaign for Burma.

“It is time for countries to stop waiting for the [UN Security] Council to
act—which it won’t—and commence immediate delivery of aid to thirsty,
starving and homeless Burmese now facing imminent threat of disease in the
Irrawaddy Delta,” he pleaded.

But Than Shwe is—if nothing else—consistent. He will not buckle, nor see
the light or the error of his ways. He will continue regardless, callous
and deceitful as always.

Meanwhile, the so-called civilized world will keep on talking, “moving the
process forward,” expressing their concerns and deep frustration.

Thankfully, the brave people in the Irrawaddy delta are not
procrastinators by nature. They are survivors. And their dignity will not
allow them to sit back and wait while their leaders and the rest of the
world abandon them.

____________________________________

May 15, UPI Asia
Preventable deaths, global consequences – Awzar Thi

As predicted, survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which ravaged lower Burma on
May 2 and 3, are no longer surviving. Not only in the worst-hit delta
areas but also in places close to Rangoon people are suffering from
illnesses brought on by dirty water, lack of food and exposure to the
elements. On Wednesday, a resident speaking to the Voice of America
Burmese Service described the situation:

“In Thanlyin, 43-year-old Ko Aung Kyaw Moe died from cholera, as did a
small girl in another village on the ninth. She was in the morgue. Also in
Twente, I heard it of two girls. Then in Hpayagyigone village of Thanlyin
an entire family of five died. And there’s around seven or eight sick
people in the hospital.”

This account may or may not be fully accurate, but it is anyhow backed by
many other similar reports from the disaster zones. Together they affirm
that people are today dying of what can only be described as the most
preventable of deaths -- deaths due not to a lack of knowhow, resources or
concern, but to an excess of obduracy in a military regime with a record
of unremitting and shameless disregard for basic human rights and absolute
minimum universal standards.

Under international law, the right to clean drinking water, a decent place
to stay and adequate food fall into a special domain that places both
positive and negative duties upon governments. What this means is that
states must do some things but not others to make sure these rights are
upheld.

More specifically, in trade jargon, states are obliged to respect, protect
and fulfill fundamental rights. What these three requirements entail, in
reverse order, is that authorities must assist people who cannot provide
for themselves, must defend the vulnerable from others who may undermine
their ability to do so, and at the very least must not do anything to
cause people to go hungry, thirsty or homeless.

Often, the problems lie in getting governments to do things that they have
not, perhaps because of a lack of money or people, a lack of interest, or
maybe because of discriminatory policies. But in certain circumstances,
such as those in Burma today, the problem may lie more in getting a
government to do nothing at all.

People living in Burma are largely self-reliant. They have to be. By
modern standards they generally expect very little of their
administrators, and are satisfied if left alone to get by as best they
can. Unfortunately, it rarely happens that they are unimpeded, and people
who are already hard pressed to meet their own needs are often called upon
to contribute to those of the state. Protecting and fulfilling fundamental
rights have never been among the regime’s strong points.

Still, never has it sunk so far in its blatant disrespect for the lives
and wellbeing of its reluctant subjects than in the past week. Its
audacious blockading of cyclone-stricken areas to proffered vital relief,
especially technical assistance, far surpasses any of its former acts of
self-interested unkindness. Its shabby treatment of United Nations
agencies and other reputed international bodies at the cost of its own
citizens’ lives has shocked even those used to dealing with it and its
agents, as well as those used to hearing of its more routine excesses.

The government’s behavior is also coming as a shock to its own people. In
a broadcast on the exile Democratic Voice of Burma radio, a crowd of
outraged townsfolk in Laputta this week shouted and cried with palpable
anger that approaching two weeks on from the cyclone there are still dead
bodies floating in canals, that they have been told to leave shelters and
go back to homes that no longer exist, and that they have seen aid being
delivered but have not themselves received one iota of it.

The exact number of dead from Cyclone Nargis will never be known. It
claimed just too many victims across too wide an area of too disorganized
a country for anyone to ever be able to calculate it with certainty. But
what can be said with 100 percent certainty is that the number tomorrow
will be higher than it was today. And the number next week will be far
higher still if, one way or another, help doesn’t get through to those who
are in grave danger of dying preventable deaths.

The consequences of doing nothing, or of being unable to do anything, are
for the cyclone’s immediate victims clear enough. The dramatic and lasting
damage that will be caused to their entire country and its already
battered economy can also be foreseen. But beyond these, the effects on
the whole world, particularly its disaster relief and human rights
movements, should be of special concern.

Failure to address this disaster effectively will establish a monstrous
precedent with lasting unwelcome results not only for the people of Burma
but for everyone, everywhere. It will be a massive political, legal and
humanitarian defeat for us all, but above all, a moral defeat from which
it will not be easy to recover. For the sake of Nargis’s victims, their
fellow countrymen and women, and for the sake of each and every one of us,
this cannot be allowed to happen.

--

(Awzar Thi is the pen name of a member of the Asian Human Rights
Commission with over 15 years of experience as an advocate of human rights
and the rule of law in Thailand and Burma. His Rule of Lords blog can be
read at http://ratchasima.net.)