BurmaNet News, May 28, 2008

[Editor]

May 28, 2008 Issue #3478


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Regime must explain Suu Kyi’s detention: NLD
Mizzima News: Prominent ethnic political leader's health deteriorates
AP: Myanmar's cyclone survivors bullied by military; forced to work,
return to demolished homes
DVB: Political prisoners tortured in Insein prison: AAPP

ON THE BORDER
Asia News: Burmese refugees in Thailand ready to go home to bring help

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Salt and fisheries industries at a standstill
DVB: Local authorities skim money off farm subsidies
IHT: Even with access, distributing aid in Myanmar is difficult

ASEAN
Mizzima News: Asean-led mechanism a waste of time
AP: Philippine chief justice blasts ASEAN for slow response to Myanmar
cyclone, rice crisis

REGIONAL
The Nation (Thailand): French supplies for Burma unload in Phuket

INTERNATIONAL
BBC News: 'Window of opportunity' in Burma
Reuters: UN says raised 60 pct of targeted Myanmar aid
Irrawaddy: Amnesty calls Burma ‘human rights flashpoint’
AP: Women's underwear needed in fight for democracy in Myanmar

OPINION / OTHER
New York Times: When it comes to politics, Burmese say, government is all
too helpful
Bangkok Post: A sign of hope for Burmese

PRESS RELEASE
WSPA in Myanmar: vets gain access to animals in need




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 28, Irrawaddy
Regime must explain Suu Kyi’s detention: NLD – Saw Yan Naing

Burma’s main political opposition party, the National League for Democracy
(NLD), told the Burmese military government on Wednesday that the party is
ready to fight against the unlawful detention of its leader, Aung San Suu
Kyi.

The NLD also called on the regime to explain in legal terms why they are
extending the house arrest of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the NLD, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, “We
are ready to prove why the extension is illegal. If the Burmese junta
thinks her continued detention is legitimate they must provide reasons and
evidence.”

The NLD stated that it would appeal the decision through legal means.

The military regime announced on Tuesday that Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention
had been officially extended for six months, although several sources have
claimed that the detention order was for one more year.

Suu Kyi completed five years of house arrest this week. Under the
conditions of her detention, Article 10 (b) of the State Protection Act
Law 1975, a person can be detained for a maximum of five years.

Suu Kyi has spent more than 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest
following the NLD’s landslide victory in the 1990 parliamentary election.
She has been confined to her home at Inya Lake in the north of Rangoon
continuously since May 2003.

On Tuesday, 18 members of the NLD were arrested and are currently being
detained by Burmese authorities after they marched toward Suu Kyi’s home
in a demonstration marking the 18th anniversary of the 1990 general
election.

Meanwhile, international leaders and human rights groups are deeply upset
over the extension of Suu Kyi’s house arrest and have criticized that
Burmese government for violating its own law.

US President George W. Bush said in a statement on Tuesday: “I’m deeply
troubled by the Burmese regime’s extension of National League for
Democracy General Secretary and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi’s house arrest.”

Bush said the US would keep calling for the release of all political
prisoners in Burma and urge the government to hold a genuine dialogue with
Suu Kyi and other democratic and ethnic minority groups.

Speaking on Tuesday as president of US human rights organization Freedom
Now, lawyer Jared Genser said, “The Burmese junta’s extension of Aung San
Suu Kyi’s house arrest in clear violation of its own law comes as no
surprise.”

Freedom Now says it is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that works
to free prisoners of conscience worldwide through legal, political and
public relations advocacy efforts.

Genser, who is also lead counsel for Aung San Suu Kyi, said, “It is the
Burmese junta itself that has politicized relief efforts—through its
unwavering pursuit of two rounds of voting on its sham referendum and now
extending Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest—even as millions of ordinary
Burmese people are suffering,”

Thailand-based human rights group, the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners (Burma), also released a statement calling for Suu
Kyi’s immediate release.

____________________________________

May 28, Mizzima News
Prominent ethnic political leader's health deteriorates

Burma's prominent ethnic political leader, Pu Cin Sian Thang's health is
continuing to deteriorate after he sustained rib and shoulder injuries in
early May.

Family members of Pu Cin Sian Thang, an elected member of Parliament in
the 1990 general elections said he is currently bed ridden and is being
fed through a pipe.

"Currently he is not able to move. And since he cannot eat, we have to
feed him through a pipe. It might take some more time until he can
recover," a family member told Mizzima on Wednesday.

The veteran politician, who is also chairman of the Zomi National Congress
(ZNC), sustained injuries on his shoulder and ribs when a military truck
hit a taxi, in which he was travelling, from the rear on May 10.

Family members said three of his rib bones and his right shoulder bone was
broken. Following immediate treatment, he was discharged from the Rangoon
general hospital.

"Doctors said he has to take rest for at least six weeks. He is now unable
to do anything," a family member, who did not want to be identified, told
Mizzima.

Cin Sian Thang is one of the few political leaders who are still not
arrested in Burma. Besides, leading the ZNC, which won two parliamentary
seats in the 1990 elections, he is also a central committee member of the
Committee Representing the Peoples' Parliament, an umbrella group of
elected members of Parliament in the 1990 election.

He, however, has had to face frequent arrests by the government for being
critical of the ruling junta.

____________________________________

May 28, Associated Press
Myanmar's cyclone survivors bullied by military; forced to work, return to
demolished homes

The flimsy bamboo hut built near a road is all Aye Shwe has to keep his
family of eight dry. They lost their home to the cyclone and fear they may
soon be uprooted again by soldiers ordering them to leave.

Myanmar's reclusive government has opened up slightly to the world in the
past week, allowing U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to meet with the
country's ruling general and inviting 50 countries for a donors conference
to raise money for victims of the May 2-3 storm that killed 78,000.

But survivors in the clobbered Irrawaddy delta say the junta and its
soldiers are as iron-fisted as ever, making some victims return to their
flooded, collapsed homes and forcing others to work. Even some Myanmar
volunteers donating food and supplies to survivors are being stopped, and
the government has started impounding cars.

"Where my house used to be is still filled with water up to my waist,"
said Aye Shwe, who was ordered by soldiers to leave the hut. "How can I
build a new house there?"

In the nearby town of Bogalay, about 120 survivors were crammed into the
Sankyaung monastery, filled with the sound of rattling coughs and wailing
children.

They heat up food delivered by donors, mostly meals of rice and
vegetables, about twice a day. But abbot Kawvida said no aid has been
provided by the government.

Those stuck outside aren't as lucky. Bodies line the monastery walkway
lying atop tarps and rattan mats. Plastic sheets strung from the roof
provide limited shelter from the daily rains, but some able-bodied
survivors are being forced to leave for work.

"Some of the survivors were sent to Ma-ubin last week to build roads now
that reconstruction has started," said the monk, adding he has heard they
are being paid about 1,000 kyats (US$1) a day. "They have told me that
they are being exploited by some generals."

Ma-ubin is a delta town northeast of Bogalay, which also was slammed by
Cyclone Nargis. Some 1.5 million people remain homeless from the storm,
facing hunger and disease. The government has blocked most foreign aid
workers from accessing the delta, but the country's ruling general last
week promised to allow in outside help.

Much of the relief effort has instead been carried out by ordinary Myanmar
volunteers and the local staff of aid agencies, packing their vehicles
with food, water and supplies. They hand out rations every day to hungry
survivors begging along roads going into the delta, but several donors
have reported being harassed by police or having their vehicles impounded.

"We didn't drop food on the road, and we didn't violate any traffic
regulations," said Nyi Nyi Zaw who was stopped on his way back from
dropping supplies at a delta town. "I cannot understand why we were herded
into a compound and held there for several hours. This is absurd and very
unpleasant."

Some have reported having their driving license and car registration taken
by authorities and being told they will be charged with a traffic
violation. In some cases, worried volunteers have abandoned plans to
deliver their aid.

That means people like 93-year-old Khin Mya, whose only form of shelter is
a flowered umbrella and a plastic bag, may have one less meal.

"I get very worried every evening because I have to find a place to sleep
— maybe under a tree, or if I can share a hut with someone," she said. "I
must come to the road to receive food from donors or else I will starve."

____________________________________

May 28, Democratic Voice of Burma
Political prisoners tortured in Insein prison: AAPP – Nan Kham Kaew

Six political prisoners in Insein prison have been beaten, shackled and
held in solitary confinement, according to an information release issued
by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners yesterday.

AAPP said six prisoners from Insein prison’s No. 5 ward had been put in
solitary confinement as a punishment for refusing to carry out prison
duties.

“They were also hooded and severely beaten before being pushed into the
isolation cells where they were held in shackles,” the AAPP said.

Three of the six prisoners were members of the National League for
Democracy – Thingangyun NLD chairman U Tin Mya, U Myint Htun from
Shwepyithar and Ko Thant Zaw – while the others were Karen National Union
members.

Ko Tate Naing, secretary of the AAPP, told DVB that the group had been
unable to release the news earlier due to uncertainty about the
information.

“We can now verify that those six political prisoners were held in
solitary confinement. They were there for ten days until 20 May,” he said.

“One of them has already been visited by a family member. They all are
still shackled.”

The AAPP also mentioned in its statement that the health of female
political prisoners had deteriorated due to unclean water.

“We have heard that their health situation is concerning. They have to use
unclean water for drinking and other purposes,” said Tate Naing.

“In the beginning we heard they had scabies and other skin diseases but
now they are getting worse. They haven’t been given the necessary
treatment.”

A riot broke out in Insein prison when the Cyclone Nargis struck Burma on
3 May, during which 36 inmates were killed and over 70 injured.

After a closed door investigation by the authorities, 98 inmates including
seven political prisoners were locked up for interrogation, which lead to
the deaths of an additional four prisoners.

There are currently more than 1900 political prisoners who remain behind
bars in Burma.


____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 28, Asia News
Burmese refugees in Thailand ready to go home to bring help – Weena
Kowitwanij

A priest involved in camps along the border talks about the great
solidarity and courage shown by migrants who, despite the risks they might
encounter, want to go home to help people displaced by cyclone Nargis. He
is skeptical about the military regime’s pledge of openness towards
Western humanitarian workers.

As conscious as they are of the risks they are running, Burmese refugees
in Thailand are willing to go home to bring help to their fellow
countrymen and women faced by the destruction meted out by cyclone Nargis
last 2 and 3 May, this according to a Burmese priest involved in nine
camps set up along the Thai border that are home to some 100,000 refugees
from misery, persecution and abuses in their native land.

The priest, who asked his identity be protected, told AsiaNews that the
refugees “have seen many atrocities, their homes burn, relatives or
friends killed or arrested.” “If they go back they could be killed without
motive, but each one of them is ready to leave to help the hundreds of
thousands of Burmese in the north-west.”

The Thai Catholic Church in collaboration with COERR (Caritas Thailand) is
sending large amounts of material aid and money to the Burmese Church
which is working first hand to aid those displaced by cyclone Nargis.

Currently only a third of the 2.4 million people affected are getting any
assistance, according to the United Nations.

Myanmar’s strongman Than Shwe promised UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
that his government would facilitate the entry of “all” humanitarian
workers, who had been forced to wait for three weeks on the sidelines
along the country’s borders or in Yangon. Indeed in the Irrawaddy Delta
region, the most affected area, some villages are still isolated.

Military-controlled state media expressed appreciation for the UN
intervention, and this development might be a sign that the junta is ready
to be more open towards the rest of the world.

Similarly, the United Nations said it was confident that things will improve.

However, the priest AsiaNews interviewed remains skeptical about the
military regime’s “openness”.

“The generals,” he said, “are only concerned with their own security and
are afraid that the presence of foreigners might help groups that have
been preparing for some time to turn against the regime.”

Myanmar’s government accepted Church intervention only on the condition
that it does not interfere in politics. “For this reason,” he added, “we
chose to hand out basic aid on Sundays after Mass.”

“Given the terrible situation, as a priest and a Burmese I am convinced
that I must do all I can for my country and do so as an instrument of the
Lord.”

The clergyman will soon leave for Myanmar, once known as Burma, with the
task of supervising the distribution of aid sent by COERR.


____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 28, Irrawaddy
Salt and fisheries industries at a standstill – Min Lwin

The salt and fisheries businesses in the Irrawaddy delta have been unable
to reopen in the wake of Cyclone Nargis due to the deaths of much of the
workforce and the destruction caused to all material aspects of the
industries.

Laputta Township— perhaps the area most affected by the killer cyclone—was
the center of Burma’s salt industry, producing salt for the entire
country, according to merchants at Bayint Naung wholesale market in
Rangoon.

Dr Aye Kyu, a representative from the opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD) in Laputta, said the cyclone has destroyed business
premises, warehouses, salt mills and fish farms in the area to the extent
that the industries are now almost nonexistent.

He said that most of the land had been flooded by seawater and mud, and
that the surviving salt mill owners were unable to dry out the inundated
salt.

“The salt industry in the delta will not be operational for months,” he
said. “Nargis has destroyed not only human resources, but also the
material resources.”

A local businessman from Laputta said that most of salt industry was run
by a local oligarchy. He said they had invested an enormous amount of
money in the industry in recent years.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, the businessman said, “All the
salt stored in coastal areas has been destroyed.”

“Now the local oligarchy doesn’t even have enough money to pay their
workers,” he said. “To open a small salt farm in the delta, a businessman
has to invest at least 2 million kyat (US $1,770), but now they can’t even
afford that amount of money,” he said. “Hundreds of millions of kyat in
investment have been lost in the salt industry in Laputta,” he added.

Cyclone Nargis has also claimed many lives and livelihoods from the
delta’s fishing industry. As many as 20,000 fishermen and fishery-related
workers are reported to have been killed in the natural disaster.

According to state-run Burmese Fisheries Department, 13,000 fishermen and
fishery workers from Laputta Township alone were killed in the storm of
May 2-3.

A source close to private cooperative Myanmar Fisheries Federation told
The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that Cyclone Nargis had destroyed many of the
fish and prawn farms in both Irrawaddy and Rangoon divisions. In
Irrawaddy, the fish industries in the townships of Bogalay and Dedaye were
devastated, as were those in Kayan, Thongwa, Kyauktan and Twante townships
in Rangoon Division.

“Almost all of Twante’s fish-breeding farms were totally destroyed by the
cyclone on May 3,” he said.
____________________________________

May 28, Democratic Voice of Burma
Local authorities skim money off farm subsidies – Naw Say Phaw

Farmers in Zee Gone township, Bago division, have been forced to give
almost one fifth of their state agricultural loans to local authorities, a
local farmer said.

A farmer from Nwartehgone village said the authorities were demanding 1500
kyat for each of the thousands of acres of farmlands in the area.

"The actual agricultural loan given to us by the government for one acre
of cultivation is 8000 kyat but local authorities are cutting 1500 kyat
from each acre," the farmer said.

"They told us we had to pay 700 kyat to the township authorities, 300 kyat
for ballot station expenses, 200 kyat for cyclone victims and the rest
goes to the Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation's funds and the
government's custard plant growing program," he said.

"But our village Peace and Development Council chairman used the money
from the cyclone victims’ fund for himself and then took another 200 kyat
from us to replace it."

The farmer said locals were also being forced to grow summer paddy, which
is unlikely to produce a successful crop.

"The village PDC chairman is controlling our lives as he has close ties
with the township PDC,” the farmer said.

“He forces us to grow crops that won’t make any profit for us and he
destroys our farmlands under various pretexts when we don't give him the
money he demands," he said.

"Some farmers have complained about the village PDC chairman to the Union
Solidarity and Development Association and the township PDC but they have
not taken any action against him."

Zee Gone township PDC office and the local branch of the state
Agricultural Bank were unavailable for comment.

____________________________________

May 28, International Herald Tribune
Even with access, distributing aid in Myanmar is difficult

A sport-utility vehicle for $250,000 and a cellphone for $3,000. As
foreign aid workers test Myanmar's commitment to allowing them to operate
inside the country as part of the relief effort for Cyclone Nargis, they
face not only administrative hurdles erected by a xenophobic military
government but also an economy warped by years of misrule.

Myanmar's military limits the sale of cellphones, bans satellite phones,
sharply restricts car imports and rations gasoline to one or two gallons
(between 3.5 and 7 liters) a day. The main beneficiaries of this system
are government employees and military officers, who profit by selling
permits, gasoline and many other items on the black market.

Aid workers from the United Nations and private aid agencies continued
Wednesday to travel into the Irrawaddy Delta, the area hardest hit by the
May 3 cyclone, after an agreement last week reached with the Myanmar
government. Richard Horsey, the spokesman for the UN relief effort, said
the military was requiring aid workers to give 48 hours' notice before
traveling into the delta but that he was hearing only positive news about
their access.

"I'm not aware of any rejections or people not able to go where they
wanted to go," Horsey said.

By government count, the storm left 134,000 people dead or missing, and
the United Nations estimates that 2.4 million survivors face hunger and
homelessness. Yet as the number of aid workers increases, Myanmar's
capacity and willingness to accommodate their needs are likely to be
stretched.

"I assume we will be running out of quite a lot of things when the influx
comes," said Hakan Tongul, deputy country director in Yangon of the World
Food Program, a UN agency delivering supplies to the victims of the storm.
"There will be logistical problems for sure."

In the days after the storm, the World Food Program asked for permission
to import six vehicles, Tongul said. "We haven't heard anything from the
government."

To the outside world, the government's torpor in reacting to the cyclone
has come across as callous indifference. But dysfunction has also been a
factor. When a domestic Myanmar Airways passenger plane crashed in 1999
only five kilometers, or three miles, from the airport in Tachileik, near
the border with Laos and Thailand, it took the authorities five days to
locate the wreckage.

"Passengers who might have been saved all perished," said a frustrated
Myanmar government official who requested that his name be withheld
because talking to a foreign reporter could cause him to lose his job or
worse.

"The same thing is happening now," the official said, referring to the
cyclone. "We don't have the infrastructure for the kind of rescue work we
need in times like this. In this country, where everything moves through
the military chain of command, no government official takes the
initiative."

China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and other countries struck in recent years by
natural disasters have varying degrees of political restrictions. But they
all allow something Myanmar has lacked for the past 46 years under
military rule: the right to do business.

Myanmar's government controls many of the country's largest industries -
including timber, gems and petroleum - and requires permits for the
importation of the most basic items, including rice. The World Food
Program, which fears shortages later this year, has been denied permits to
bring in foreign rice. "It's an issue of pride," said Paul Risley, the
agency's Asia spokesman.

The economy is highly inefficient. Electricity - even in most parts of the
commercial capital, Yangon - is available just five or six hours a day. To
ride in a taxi in Yangon means a rickety journey on 20-year-old shock
absorbers.

India, Myanmar's neighbor to the west, is preparing to roll out a $2,500
car. To the east, Thailand exports half a million pickups. But those
fortunate enough to own a car in Myanmar are often stuck with a leaking
jalopy. The government allows only a few thousand cars to be imported each
year, many fewer than are needed in a country with nearly 50 million
people. Import restrictions have skewed the prices of used cars to levels
that would be considered absurd in neighboring countries: A 1986 Toyota
Chaser, a model the company stopped selling eight years ago, sells here
for $16,000. Those vehicles allowed for import are parceled out among
high-ranking military officers and civil servants. The richest residents
of Yangon have been seen driving Hummers and Italian sports cars.

In such a restrictive environment, the black market thrives. Rationed
gasoline, which goes for $2.50 a gallon, or about 65 cents per liter,
sells for at least twice that at the roadside bamboo shacks that serve as
illegal but tolerated gasoline stations. The military, which has easier
access to cheap gasoline, is one of the largest sellers, say drivers who
regularly fill up with the illegal fuel.

Government officials and military officers also make money from reselling
mobile telephone numbers and car and motorcycle registration documents,
all of which are very difficult to obtain.

The Myanmar official gets $120 a month for his official salary, but that
hardly meets his needs. "Everyone must find a way to survive," he said.
The police collect bribes at checkpoints from truck drivers. At airports,
pilots and ground crews split the extra-luggage surcharges from
passengers. "Everyone is doing it," the official said. "If you don't or
can't, you are doomed."

Business people in Yangon say it is impossible to do business without
connections to generals or their children.

"Do you see the car out there?" the Myanmar official said, pointing to a
used Japanese sport-utility vehicle parked outside a restaurant. "It will
probably cost $50,000 to import that car. But it's sold here for $250,000.
The $200,000 balance is for all kinds of government permits."

The going rate for a cellphone on Yangon's black market is $2,500 to $3,000.

The government also makes money by doing business with the United Nations.
Each UN agency was allowed to buy 10 cellphone numbers - at $1,500 each,
according to Tongul, of the World Food Program. In Thailand, by contrast,
cellphone numbers are sometimes given away by companies counting on making
their money back on use of the phone.

A Chinese-made motorcycle in the northern city of Mandalay costs $300 but
sells for around $1,000 when the black-market registration is included.

"They squeeze you for money," said a retired teacher in Yangon who did not
want to be named for fear of retribution. "You know the Abraham Lincoln
speech about government of the people, by the people, for the people?" the
teacher asked. "The people get nothing here, and the military takes
everything."


____________________________________
ASEAN

May 28, Mizzima News
Asean-led mechanism a waste of time – Solomon

The lives of many survivors are at stake and many are dying because of the
slow pace at which Burma's military rulers are allowing relief supplies
and aid workers to reach cyclone-hit regions, campaigners and local aid
workers said.

"The situation demands a large number of international aid workers or
experts," said a local aid worker, who has been supplying relief material
to victims in Irrawaddy region.

Saving lives is now akin to 'a race against time' and more aid workers as
well as  an abundant supply of relief materials are needed as the majority
of cyclone survivors still have not received aid, she added.

"They (expert aid workers) are needed to monitor aid supply and to make
sure that it reaches the right people at the right time," the aid worker,
who declined to be named, said.

She said despite several aid agencies already working to help the cyclone
victims, the extent of devastation and the people affected by the cyclone
does not match the amount of aid that has so far reached the area.

Despite Than Shwe's promise to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that
international aid workers will be allowed to enter the cyclone affected
areas 'regardless of nationality', aid groups said only a few of their
expatriate aid workers have so far received permission to go into the
Irrawaddy delta, the region most affected by the cyclone.

Paul Risley the spokesperson of World Food Programme in Bangkok said, "Our
country director travelled yesterday and spent last night in Laputta and
came back today. That was the first overnight stay by international staff
from WFP in the delta."

He said the WFP, with a few international aid workers who arrived
recently, has 26 international staff members in Rangoon now.

"We got visas for seven of our staff here in Bangkok on Monday. Several
staff members are travelling today and tomorrow," Risley said.

He also said they are hoping to send in several international staff
members from Rangoon to cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta's Laputta, Pyapon,
Bogale and other towns for a long term or over several weeks.

"We have received permission for them to travel there [Irrawaddy delta],"
Paul Risley said.

However, the progress in the UN, Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) and the Burmese government's agreement is too little, an advocacy
group Alternative Asean Network on Burma (Altsean Burma) said.

"The progress is tardy and it is just not enough," Debbie Stothard,
Coordinator of the Altsean Burma said. "They (UN) are allowing Than Shwe
to keep holding the people as hostages."

"The problem now is not the suffering because of the cyclone but the
problem is because of the junta, they are a bigger disaster than Cyclone
Nargis," said Debbie Stothard.

Amanda Pitt, spokesperson of the UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (UNOCHA) in Bangkok, however, said there has been some progress
made on the promise made by Burma's military rulers.

"The process is progressing but it is too early to say," Pitt told
Mizzima, declining further comment on what the progress was.

But not withstanding the UN's acknowledgement that there are signs of
progress in terms of getting aid to the most affected people, Mark
Farmaner Director of Burma Campaign UK said, Burma's rulers have lied on
their agreement with the UN chief.

"We have information that there is no proper access to the delta. In
London aid workers have had their visas turned down," Farmaner, the London
based campaigner said.

"Ban Ki-moon's efforts have failed to secure a breakthrough which was
needed," he added.

Meanwhile, in a ridiculous development, the Burmese Embassy in India's
capital city of New Delhi has told a few Indian social workers, who have
volunteered to go into Burma to help cyclone victims, that their visa
process would take at least two months.

In Rangoon, international aid workers, who have been given visas for
entry, are reportedly sitting in their office, as the government has not
yet cleared their documents to let them into the delta region, Mizzima's
correspondent said.

But the correspondent said in a significant move six UNICEF workers have
been let into delta on Tuesday.

But the correspondent, who went visiting offices of international aid
agencies, described the scene at the office saying, "International staff
members are still sitting in the offices sipping coffee and tea in
Rangoon."

But in the Delta, where the cyclone hit the hardest, people are seen
lining up on the roadside waiting for vehicles that may carry relief
supplies, local aid workers said.

The local aid worker, who talked to Mizzima over telephone said, "There is
not enough food and relief supplies for the people and many more are
without any aid as we cannot afford to go everywhere."

Debbie Stothard from Altsean said, this is the time for the international
community to act but they are playing games with the rules set by the
military government.

"It is no time for diplomacy, it is time to be realistic, it is time to
tell the truth about what is going on," she added.

 (Editing by Mungpi)

____________________________________

May 28, Associated Press
Philippine chief justice blasts ASEAN for slow response to Myanmar
cyclone, rice crisis

The Philippine chief justice criticized the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations on Wednesday as "impotent" for its slow response to the Myanmar
cyclone and surging rice prices he said could become a regional security
threat.

Chief Justice Reynato Puno said the 10-member ASEAN's policy of deciding
by consensus has hobbled it in responding rapidly to crises, including the
May 2-3 Cyclone Nargis that killed 78,000 people and left 56,000 missing
in military-ruled Myanmar, according to government figures.

"The disaster has become an aid crisis that exposes the impotence of the
ASEAN in assisting a member country knocked down on its knees," Puno told
an ASEAN conference in Manila attended by academics and diplomats.

ASEAN failed to rapidly act in the crucial first few days after the
cyclone because of the lack of an effective regional mechanism to deal
with such contingencies, Puno said.

Puno noted that ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan called for a
"coalition of mercy," but it took several more days before the bloc
managed to agree on a way to help cyclone victims.

"While the body bags kept on piling in Myanmar, the coalition cannot
immediately come to life given the ASEAN way of slow-motion
intergovernmental consultation and consensus-taking process," he said.

ASEAN only managed to organize an emergency meeting of its foreign
ministers on May 19 — more than two weeks after Nargis struck — after
getting Myanmar's consent. The ministers agreed to set up a task force to
handle distribution of foreign aid to more than 2 million cyclone victims
and hold a donor conference with the United Nations.

ASEAN has long been hamstrung by a bedrock rule of noninterference in each
other's affairs and a policy of making decisions by consensus. It has
particularly been criticized for failing to nudge member Myanmar to move
toward democracy, release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house
arrest and improve its dismal human rights record.

ASEAN has also failed to effectively deal with steep increases in the
price of food, particularly rice — the region's staple — despite the fact
that half of its 10 member countries are key grain exporters, he said.

"The rice crisis has far-reaching repercussions to the stability of the
region, for there is no greater threat to tranquility than the rumblings
of empty stomachs," Puno said.


____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 28, The Nation (Thailand)
French supplies for Burma unload in Phuket – Salinee Prab

The French navy ship Mistral docked Wednesday in the island resort of
Phuket to unload tonnes of supplies for cyclone victims in neighbouring
Burma after floating for weeks on the Indian Ocean waiting for permission
to enter Burmese water.

French Ambassador to Thailand, Laurant Billie, told The Nation that an
agreement has been reach with the Burmese military government that Phuket
would be the logistic points for French supplies heading for the victims.

Burmese junta has refused foreign naval carriers or air force cargo plane
from entering its territory of airspace.

France's Mistral had been floating for two weeks on the Indian Ocean water
before heading to Phuket to reload.

The cargo will be kept in a warehouse until a commercial vessel can carry
the aid to Myanmar, Billie said.

The French military said on Monday that the supplies would be given to the
UN's World Food Programme, which would then distribute it to the cyclone
victims in worse hit areas.

Mistral was reported to have been equipped with three helicopters and
carries enough food to sustain 100,000 people for two weeks. The ship also
has tents and tarpaulin sheets to provide shelter to 60,000 homeless
people,

Cyclone Nargis left 133,000 dead or missing when it struck Myanmar on May
2-3.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he found it "deeply lamentable" that
the regime had prevented delivery of the humanitarian aid, which arrived
off the Burmese coast 10 days ago.


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 28, BBC News
'Window of opportunity' in Burma

A 'window of opportunity' for political progress in Burma now exists, a
former UN official has said.

Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, the former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in
Burma, told the BBC that the cyclone crisis had helped achieve more active
dialogue with the junta.

On Tuesday pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest was renewed.

Foreign donors condemned the decision but acknowledged that the donation
of aid wouldn't be affected by it.

Mr Pinheiro pointed out that the international relief operation could have
positive ramifications for Burma's future democratic development.

But he said this would depend on "the capacity to transform this
humanitarian dialogue into a dialogue for transition".

He acknowledged that "terrible obstacles" to progress still existed inside
the junta which he described as paranoid.

Local donors

A French ship carrying humanitarian supplies for Burma docked in Thailand
on Wednesday.

The regime has prohibited the direct delivery of aid by foreign
governments, so the United Nations will distribute the ship's supplies.

____________________________________

May 28, Reuters
UN says raised 60 pct of targeted Myanmar aid – Louis Charbonneau

The United Nations said on Tuesday it had raised roughly 60 percent of its
initial $200 million target for aid for cyclone-ravaged Myanmar, where aid
workers were now experiencing fewer access problems.

"We've reached just over a million people with some kind of aid," U.N.
humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters. The United Nations
estimates that some 2.4 million people in Myanmar are in urgent need of
help.

Speaking about Sunday's pledging conference in Yangon, he said the United
Nations had raised some $119 million, around 60 percent of its initial
"flash appeal" target for victims of Cyclone Nargis.


>From that perspective, Sunday's pledging conference could be deemed "a

success," he said.

Separately, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) reported that the total amount of aid offered to Myanmar relief
efforts amounted to nearly $233 million as of Monday. This includes the
money raised by the United Nations under the U.N. flash apeal.

Holmes said that once the focus of aid work shifted from relief to
reconstruction, the amount of money needed would no longer be in the
millions of dollars but in the billions.

Holmes acknowledged that some countries remained skeptical of the junta
and were waiting to see if Myanmar would follow through on promises to
open up access to foreign aid workers before committing larger sums of
money.

"There's been a little bit of concern on behalf of some member states,
some potential donors ... about exactly how their aid is going to be used"
because of the lack of international staff on the ground, Holmes said.

"The general atmosphere of difficulty about this operation has contributed
to a certain amount of reluctance."

The military junta of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, promised U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week that it would allow all legitimate
foreign aid workers access to victims across the country.

Holmes said he did not know if all roadblocks had been removed, though he
said the situation was clearly better.

"It's a much freer position that it was, say, a week ago," Holmes said.

Myanmar's national relief effort, which includes bilateral aid from some
individual countries, had probably reached another "several hundred
thousand more or even a million," Holmes said. However, he was unable to
give exact figures.

"There's still a lot of people out there who have received nothing or
certainly not enough," he said.

On the positive side, Holmes said U.N. relief workers had so far seen no
signs any major outbreaks of diseases.

"There are diarrheal diseases around which are being monitored very
carefully," Holmes said. "We haven't heard anything that alarms us yet."
(Additional reporting by Megan Davies) (Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

____________________________________

May 28, Irrawaddy
Amnesty calls Burma ‘human rights flashpoint’ – Wai Moe

Describing Burma as a “human rights flashpoint,” Amnesty International
urged governments around the world on Tuesday to take “immediate action”
to improve the situation there.

An Amnesty International report, marking the organization’s 60th
anniversary, said: “Governments today must show the same degree of vision,
courage and commitment that led the United Nations to adopt the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights 60 years ago.”

The report dealt at length with the Burmese regime’s brutal suppression of
popular, monk-led demonstrations in August and September 2007.

It said that although 31 deaths had been confirmed, it believed that many
more people were killed when security forces broke up the demonstrations.
At least 72 people had disappeared and thousands had been detained, the
report said.

The report highlighted the deaths of two students, Thet Paing Soe and Tun
Lynn Kyaw, who were shot dead by security forces in front of No 3 State
High School in Rangoon’s Tamwe Township on September 27, and the shooting
“at point-blank range” of Japanese reporter Kenji Nagai the same day.

Amnesty International said an unknown number of detainees had died as a
result of maltreatment and interrogation. It named U Thinlavantha, deputy
abbot of a monastery in Myitkyina, Kachin State, who it said was beaten to
death in detention on September 26, and Win Shwe, a member, of the
National League for Democracy, who died in Plate Township police station,
upper Burma, on October 9.

The Amnesty report also referred to the alleged burning of a large number
of bodies at Rangoon’s Ye Way crematorium under the cover of darkness.

The report listed Burma together with Darfur, Gaza, Iraq and Zimbabwe as
“human rights flashpoints” that Amnesty International Secretary-General
Irene Khan said demanded “immediate action.”

Amnesty International also sent an open letter to Surin Pitsuwan,
secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean),
saying that without immediate further action by Asean the cyclone disaster
in Burma would result in further massive human rights violations and put
at risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

Amnesty accused the Burmese regime of deliberately obstructing the
delivery of relief to the cyclone victims.

Meanwhile a Burmese human rights group, the Assistance Association for
Political Prisonera-Burma (AAPP), charged in a press release on Tuesday
that political prisoners in Rangoon’s infamous Insein Prison were being
“continuously tortured.”

AAPP said five political prisoners were hooded, severely beaten, and held
in punishment shackles in solitary confinement on May 10, 2008.

Conditions in the prison had deteriorated following the fire at the height
of the cyclone earlier this month in which 36 inmates died in clashes with
prison guards, riot police and troops called to establish order. The fire
and rioting broke out after the cyclone tore off a cell block’s roof and
the authorities refused to move prisoners to safety.

AAPP Secretary Tate Naing said on Wednesday that his organization had
learned that Ohn Than, a political prisoner arrested last August and now
serving a life sentence, was believed to be seriously ill in prison in
Hkamti, Sagiang Division. He was moved to Hkamti from Insein Prison
shortly after his conviction.

Tate Naing said Ohn Than’s family reported he was suffering from malaria.
“Hkamti is in a tropical malaria zone. Sending political dissidents to
this kind of prison is equivalent to a death sentence.”

____________________________________

May 28, Associated Press
Women's underwear needed in fight for democracy in Myanmar

Women are being asked to volunteer their undergarments in an international
effort to shame Myanmar's ruling junta into giving citizens greater access
to humanitarian aid and human rights.

Organizers launched the Canadian edition of the Panties for Peace!
campaign this week with a call for women to send underwear to the Myanmar
embassy in Ottawa. According to the campaign, Myanmar's embassies in
Europe, Australia and Brazil, among other places, have been receiving
female underpants in the mail.

The campaign plays off what the groups says are regional superstitions
that contact with women's panties can sap a man's power. Activists claim
the fear is shared by the leaders of the country's military regime.

"If you don't believe me, you can bring this to the Yangon airport — you
will be shot dead," activist Thet Thet Tun Tuesday as she clutched a pair
of white undies. "So we use this against them."

Spearheaded by a pro-democracy group based in Thailand, the campaign was
launched last year to draw attention to human rights abuses against women
in the country, also known as Burma.

At the time, the junta was accused of violently suppressing a
pro-democracy uprising by the country's Buddhist monks.

The Canadian version of the international campaign, co-ordinated by the
Quebec Women's Federation and Rights and Democracy, hopes to also raise
funds for victims of Cyclone Nargis.

More than 130,000 people are thought to be dead or missing in the wake of
the cyclone that struck earlier this month. The United Nations estimates
that 1.5 million survivors have not yet received any aid.

"I think there have been more victims from the cyclone from the fact that
the military prevented aid from getting through," said Mika Levesque,
Rights and Democracy's program officer for Myanmar.

Humanitarian workers have only just begun reaching the remote, hardest hit
areas of the country.

Levesque said Rights and Democracy will funnel any money raised to known
aid groups working along the Myanmar-Thai border. She refused to name the
groups for security reasons.

Tun, who fled the country seven years ago, described a society suffocating
under state control and widespread misogyny.

"Our daily clothes are separated from a man's clothes, our towels are
separated from their towels," she said. "That's what everyone still
believes."

___

On the Net:

http://www.pantiesforpeace.ca


____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 28, The New York Times
When it comes to politics, Burmese say, government is all too helpful

As the fisherman sat mending cyclone-damaged nets in his riverside hut
here on Saturday, he said he had not known it was the day he and other
residents of the Irrawaddy Delta were supposed to vote on the new
military-backed Constitution.

But the fisherman, 54, did remember that a village leader affiliated with
the ruling junta told him and his neighbors a few days earlier that he had
already marked ballots for them and sent them to the regional authorities.

“He said he made the right choice for us,” the fisherman said with a
shrug. “So we said, ‘O.K., no objection.’ ” The fisherman’s name was not
used because of the possibility of retaliation by the government.

In Yangon, more than 60 miles northeast of his delta village, an official
at a government-run company said the 1,000 or so workers there had not
voted either: the company marked ballots for them as well.

“This was my first chance to exercise my right to vote, but the government
did it for us without our knowledge,” said the official, in his late 30s.
“None of our staff dared say that we wanted to vote ourselves. This is
standard in Myanmar.”

The same thing happened at the military-run company where his wife works,
he said.

At least 135,000 people are dead or missing since a cyclone struck
Myanmar, formerly Burma, on May 3, in the world’s biggest natural disaster
since the Asian tsunami in 2004. For the junta that runs the country,
however, politics has consistently trumped aid, local residents said and
some government officials acknowledged.

On Tuesday, officials allowed foreign aid workers to travel to the
hardest-hit areas of the Irrawaddy Delta for the first time. But the
numbers reaching devastated coastal communities were still tiny — fewer
than 20 by some estimates — suggesting that the government was still
determined to keep an iron grip on the provision of aid.

The United Nations estimates that 1.5 million people who survived the
cyclone are still struggling to find food and clean water and that the
death toll could rise sharply unless supplies reach them soon. But the
Burmese government claims that it can handle relief work by itself and
that foreign nations should instead provide billions of dollars to help
the junta rebuild the country later.

Over the weekend, military leaders pressed ahead with the vote on the new
Constitution, which would prolong their rule by, among other things,
allotting 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military.

Saturday’s referendum in Yangon, Myanmar’s main city, and the Irrawaddy
Delta, the regions most affected by the cyclone, took place after two
weeks of delay. The rest of the country voted May 10, as scheduled, just a
week after the storm. Even before the final round of balloting, state
radio said that round could not reverse the Constitution’s approval
because 92.48 percent of the 22 million eligible voters had already voted
for it on May 10. In any case, The New Light of Myanmar, the state-run
newspaper, reported Tuesday that voters in Yangon and the Irrawaddy Delta
had affirmed the Constitution by an even more resounding 92.93 percent.

Critics said the referendum as a whole was a sham.

In the days before the Saturday referendum in Yangon, homeless cyclone
victims taking shelter in schools and other public buildings were evicted
to make room for polling places. In four delta villages visited Saturday,
villagers gave the same answer: The government had voted for them; they
did not even get to see the ballots.

“We are not interested in voting; we are starving for food,” said a
villager at Zee Phyu Chaung, a delta hamlet where those interviewed were
aware that Saturday was referendum day. “Our village leader voted for us
two days in advance, and we don’t know how he voted.”

Such stories did not surprise the Yangon government official, who compared
living in Myanmar to “living in a prison with a very big border.”

The man spoke in English during an interview arranged on the condition
that his name and personal details not be disclosed for fear of government
retribution for criticizing the junta to outside journalists.

Interviews with Burmese farmers and fishermen in the Irrawaddy Delta and
with businessmen and officials revealed the frustration and quiet
perseverance of people in this poor and politically repressive country.

The official and several businessmen in Yangon said the government’s
attitude toward its people was best illustrated by the discrepancy between
its swift and harsh reaction to a popular uprising led by Buddhist monks
last September and its foot-dragging in aiding victims of Cyclone Nargis.

“You saw what happened in 1988 and last September,” the official said,
referring to the junta’s bloody crackdowns on pro-democracy demonstrators.
“In other countries, if you stand up against the government, you may get
tear gas. Here you get the bullet. I have a wife and a child to support. I
can’t risk my life.”

When asked about his future, the official pulled on his cigarette and
mentioned what other young, relatively well-educated Burmese call “voting
by foot.”

“If you can’t fight it, if you can’t reform it, it leaves you with just
one option: leaving this country and going abroad to find a decent job and
give your child a better future,” he said.

That is not easy. As is the case with other officials, his passport is
held by the government. If he wants to travel abroad, he must apply to
have his passport returned, a process that he said takes two months,
assuming it is successful, and requires a fair amount of bribes.
“Otherwise, all government officials would emigrate,” he said. “We Burmese
are born oppressed.”

The signs of that oppression are pervasive, even in the Internet cafes of
Yangon, where young people in crowded rooms play computer games and
exchange news and photos of the cyclone’s victims with friends overseas.

Employees are deft at helping customers bypass government firewalls to
visit foreign Web sites. When a user logs out, the computer usually shows
a notice reminding him to erase all his Internet download history, a
bizarre snippet of life in a society where one Yangon businessman said
“fear is a dominant motivator in everyday life.”

____________________________________

May 28, Bangkok Post
A sign of hope for Burmese

With the departure of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from
Burma after Sunday's donor pledging conference for the victims of Cyclone
Nargis, it would seem the people of Burma are once again left to rely on
the slim mercies of the ruling generals.

For a few remarkable days the presence of the figurehead of the premier
global organisation for the advancement of international cooperation and
human rights, brought a glimmer of new hope to the people who live under
one of the world's most reclusive and repressive regimes. Now, with the
doors still forced partly open because of the magnitude of the disaster
which struck on May 2, aid agencies are determined to see that the ruling
generals make good on the promise given on Sunday to allow them freedom of
movement. Reuters news agency quoted the head of one major relief agency
as saying on Monday that his organisation was "going to head out today and
test the boundaries".

Preliminary reports are that restrictions have been eased to some extent.
Kathleen Cravero of the UN Development Programme said visas had become
more easily available and access to affected areas was getting better. She
added that more was needed and the UN would continue to monitor the
Burmese government's stance.

Secretary-General Ban remarked that he is "cautiously optimistic that this
could be a turning point for Burma to be more flexible, more practical,
and face the reality as it is on the ground". His words were directed to
the crisis at hand but it goes without saying that if such a turning point
has truly been reached, it will have ramifications even beyond the
disaster relief efforts.

The fact that the conference was held and promises were made shows the
generals are not completely unaffected by the opinions of the world and
the suffering of their people, as has long been supposed. But the promise
of opening up the country to foreign relief workers carries within it
another, unspoken promise which will be much harder to deliver on.

The flexibility Mr Ban referred to is anathema to Burma. Allowing freedom
of movement to foreign relief agencies for a protracted period of time, no
matter how cautiously it is done and no matter how deferentially it is
undertaken by the relief agencies themselves, constitutes a direct
challenge to a regime that has been built upon stifling such freedom and
strictly curtailing contacts between the masses and the outside world.

The more such contact is allowed, the louder the cries will become both
within and outside Burma for greater personal freedom and human rights for
its people. The Burmese leaders may have only two options: to abruptly
close the door opened by Cyclone Nargis, or to begin taking true strides
on the road to democracy, as has so long been promised.

Unfortunately, yesterday's news that police in Burma had detained more
than a dozen members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) does not
suggest the necessary radical departure from the status quo by the junta.
That would mean releasing Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and allowing
her NLD full participation in the political process.

Mr Ban told reporters before leaving Bangkok for New York on Sunday night
that he personally would remain "fully, continuously and personally
engaged" in the crisis and return to Burma "before long". These are
welcome words, as his high-level presence is essential if there is to be
any hope of delivery on the promises the generals made in Rangoon.


____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

May 28, World Society for the Protection of Animals
WSPA in Myanmar: vets gain access to animals in need

A WSPA disaster assessment and response (DART) team today received
permission to enter Myanmar and begin delivering aid to the animals that
communities rely on so heavily.

The five-strong vet team will arrive on Monday and Tuesday following an
initial WSPA delivery of 31 tonnes of animal feed. The feed will be met in
Myanmar by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO), who we will work with.

DART team leader Dr Ian Dacre said today: “We can’t wait to get in and
start delivering aid to animals – by doing that we will also improve the
situation for people who rely on these animals for their food and
livelihoods. Our plan is to work alongside humanitarian agencies and use
the logistic framework that they have established to distribute aid.”

WSPA is the first animal welfare organisation to be granted access to
Myanmar and will be working to distribute food, prevent the spread of
disease and alleviate suffering among the surviving animals, which are
vital to the recovery and food security of the communities affected by
Cyclone Nargis.