BurmaNet News, June 1-2, 2008

[Editor]

June 1-2, 2008 Issue #3482


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Junta forcibly evicts cyclone victims from shelters
AP: Children in classrooms without roofs as schools reopen in Myanmar's
cyclone zone
Irrawaddy: A case for crimes against humanity [News Analysis]
Irrawaddy: Burmese troops deployed to coastal, border areas
DVB: FFSS to provide support to cyclone orphans
DVB: Donors face questioning at checkpoints

BUSINESS / TRADE
Reuters: Soaring prices compound Myanmar's cyclone misery
Asia Times: Second wave economic crisis in Myanmar
AFP: Yangon's middle class struggles with cost of living

HEALTH / AIDS
DVB: Irrawaddy residents fear spread of disease

REGIONAL
The Australian: Jakarta proposes to use cyclone in push for radical change
in Burma

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: UN warns of 'urgent work' to help Myanmar cyclone victims
DPA: Myanmar activist wins Anna Lindh Prize

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Than Shwe’s days are numbered [Editorial]

INTERVIEWS
Irrawaddy: Zarganar’s relief role


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 2, Mizzima News
Junta forcibly evicts cyclone victims from shelters - Mungpi

In what is a likely move to indicate that the emergency relief phase is
over in cyclone hit-regions, the Burmese military junta authorities have
ordered refugees to vacate several camps in the Irrawaddy and Rangoon
divisions, local aid workers and refugees said.

An aid worker, who has just returned from Kun Chan Kone Township in
Rangoon division said, authorities have driven away refugees from several
camps in the township. They were forced to return to their villages with
assurances of some aid.

"I saw refugees from two schools and a monastery in Kun Chan Kone leaving
for their villages. Those who did not want to leave were being forcibly
removed to an open field," said the aid worker, who requested that he and
his organization not be named.

A local resident of Rangoon, who returned from Dae Da Ye township in
Irrawaddy division on May 31, said several camps, which were temporarily
built by the government for refugees, have been vacated with refugees
being forced to return to their villages.

"I did not see anymore refugees in the camps, where they were taking
shelter. All of them have been sent back to their villages," the local
said.

Burma's military rulers have long declared that it had passed the phase of
emergency relief for refugees and is now concentrating in re-building and
re-construction.

But the United Nations, the refugees and local aid workers, who had been
helping the cyclone victims, all said the emergency relief phase is far
from over.

The UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon, who in May visited Burma's Irrawaddy
delta, the worst hit by Cyclone Nargis, said the 'emergency relief phase'
will continue for at least six months, while reconstructing and rebuilding
carries on side-by-side.

The local aid worker said while aid is now moving in to places in the
Irrawaddy delta, there are still several areas that aid agencies, both
domestic and international, cannot reach.

"While we were there in Kun Chan Kone, a few people from the villages came
and asked us to supply their village with aid. They said they have not
seen any form of aid coming to their village," the aid worker said.

He added that several villages cannot be reached due to lack of routes for
communication and transportation.

"It is impossible to reach these villages because there are no roads, and
the only way to get in is along the water way or by aircraft," he added.

But efforts by the World Food Programme to use helicopters for supplying
aid to remote areas has been delayed by government procedures, said WFP's
Executive Director Josette Sheeran, who visited the cyclone-hit areas in
the weekend.

Meanwhile, the authorities have also forced farmers in the cyclone hit
areas to begin work on their fields, which are still inundated with flood
water, as the monsoon rain starts pouring.

A farmer in Kun Chan Kone, who lost all his cattle, said, "Authorities
promised to give us two tractors per village but till now we have not got
any. And we are finding it difficult to start work."

The farmer said, working in the fields has been their passion but being
forced to return to work without any support and implements is meaningless
and a torture after the trauma of the cyclone that killed so many families
and near and dear ones.

"But we will have to get back to the fields and start working," the farmer
said.

According to an Emergency Analyst in the New Delhi based UNDP's Disaster
Management section, lands that have been inundated with seawater will
suffer from infertility and cannot be immediately used till the salinity
is reduced or washed away.

G. Padmanabham, the UNDP's Emergency Analyst, earlier told Mizzima, "Land
cannot become fertile again for cultivation and it could affect
productivity in that region because of the high percentage of salt having
been condensed in the land."

Burma's Deputy Defence Minister Aye Myint, during an Asian security
meeting in Singapore during the weekend, said the authorities have
promptly provided relief to all cyclone victims and that it is
concentrating now on reconstruction and rehabilitation work.

But leaders from other countries attending the forum were not convinced
with French delegates threatening that they will push the French
government to propose a UN resolution that could hold the Burmese
government liable to be brought before the International Criminal Court.

____________________________________

June 2, Associated Press
Children in classrooms without roofs as schools reopen in Myanmar's
cyclone zone

 As students filed into Middle School No. 1 on Monday for the first day of
classes since Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar a month ago, all eyes stared
skyward _ at the gaping hole in the roof.

The school in Thuwana, a southern suburb of Myanmar's biggest city,
Yangon, was one of 4,100 schools that were damaged or destroyed by the May
2-3 cyclone, according to UNICEF. More than 100 teachers died in the storm
and aid agencies estimate that about a third of the 78,000 victims were
children.

The government delayed the June 2 start of the new term for several
schools in the harder-hit Irrawaddy delta, where entire villages were
wiped off the map.

But around Yangon most schools welcomed students, despite the concerns of
teachers, parents and international aid groups about safety risks to
students.

At Middle School No. 1, a few remaining strips of rusted corrugated iron
roofing hung precariously overhead. The storm's gale-force winds shattered
several of the school's windows and punched holes in its flimsy walls.
Security guards outside the school shooed away visitors.

Khin Yir, a teacher from the northern Yangon suburb of Hlaing Thar Yar,
said she felt it was a "bad choice" to reopen schools so soon.

The storm's 120 mph (190 kph) winds ripped the roofs off two of the three
school buildings at her junior high and driving rains flooded the
interior, she said, asking that the school not be named for fear of
government reprisals against her for talking to a reporter.

So many schools needed repair that the roofs could not all be fixed in
time for the resumption of class, she said.

"After Nargis, we teachers tried to salvage what we could, but the rain
damaged everything," said Khin Yir, dressed in the standard school uniform
of a white shirt and forest-green longyi, the traditional sarong worn by
men and women in Myanmar.

"We teachers hand-dried as many books as we could, and it's a good thing
we did because we have to use them now," she said. "We haven't gotten any
new supplies."

Khin Yir said she feared for her students' safety and was concerned about
how to help them cope with the trauma that many of them lived through.

UNICEF, which has been working with Myanmar's government to rebuild
schools, was preparing information kits to train teachers to spot signs of
trauma.

With the region's infrastructure in shambles and huge demand for basic
construction materials, it was unlikely that destroyed schools in the
delta will be immediately rebuilt, said UNICEF's representative in
Myanmar, Ramesh Shrestha. In that case, classes will be held in temporary
facilities like tents or "plastic chairs covered with plastic sheeting,"
he said.

The government has arranged for some schools that withstood the storm to
run morning and evening sessions to accommodate students whose schools
were destroyed, several teachers said.

Gary Walker, spokesman for the U.K. charity Plan, said "sending (children)
to what can be unsafe buildings with ill-trained and ill-equipped teachers
can actually set them back, rather than leading them on a road to speedy
recovery."

"What is normally a safe space can become an unsafe space," Walker said.

"Safety First" appeared to be the new slogan at Primary School No. 20,
where the words were printed on white paper and posted on the walls of the
school in the northeastern Yangon suburb of Dagon.

A gleaming new iron roof topped the one-story schoolhouse, which also
opened for classes Monday _ to the dismay of some parents who said they
could not afford school uniforms or books.

Most public schools in and around Yangon charge about 7,000 kyat (US$7;
�4.50) in fees for the academic year, the equivalent of almost a
week's work for laborers in this impoverished country.

"Sending my daughter to school is a burden to me," said Khin Myo, as she
dropped her 6-year-old off at Primary School No. 20. The mother said the
storm damaged the family's home and destroyed the small shop where she
used to make a living selling onions and chilies.

"I still haven't been able to put my life back together," she said. "I
would have preferred if school reopened a month later."

____________________________________

June 2, Irrawaddy
A case for crimes against humanity - Wai Moe [News Analysis]

The Burmese military regime’s failure to respond effectively to Cyclone
Nargis, its refusal to allow foreign relief workers access to the affected
areas and its forcible eviction of refugees from shelters and health
facilities amounts to crimes against humanity, according to Burma’s
opposition and several prominent international figures.

Under international law, a “crime against humanity” is an act of
persecution or any large scale atrocities against a body of people, and is
the highest level of criminal offense. The term was first used in relation
to the post-World War II Nuremburg Trials when Nazi leaders were tried for
war crimes.

In 1996, the UN General Assembly recognized the racial persecutions of the
former South African government’s Apartheid system as crimes against
humanity.

The terminology was broadened in 1998 when the International Criminal
Court (ICC) was set up in The Hague and a treaty known as the Rome Statute
was introduced.

Under the Rome Statute, “Crimes against Humanity” was described as acts
“committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against
any civilian population.”

Those acts include systematic murder, rape, enslavement and imprisonment.
According to US-based rights group Human Rights First, the case against
the Burmese junta would also incorporate crimes against humanity in terms
of: forced displacement of ethnic minorities; forced labor; recruitment of
child soldiers; extrajudicial killings; and torture.

As of June 2008, 106 member nations had ratified the Rome Statute;
however, most notably, the US, China and Burma have refused to ratify the
treaty.

Thein Nyunt, a member of the legal panel on Burma’s opposition National
League for Democracy (NLD), told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the Burmese
authorities had committed a crime against humanity by ignoring the crisis
caused by Cyclone Nargis.

Tropical cyclone Nargis hammered lower Burma, including the Irrawaddy
delta, and the country’s largest city, Rangoon, on May 2-3. The cyclone
has claimed as many as 134,000 deaths and affected about 2.4 million
people. Survivors claim that no immediate relief was provided by the state
in the aftermath of the disaster.

“From a legal point of view, blocking aid for cyclone victims was not only
breaking international law, but also Burma’s own criminal code,” said the
NLD lawyer. “Under Burmese criminal law, failure to save lives in a
disaster situation is noted under criminal laws 269 and 270.”

Last week, cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta were forced to return
to their villages which were totally destroyed and uninhabitable,
according to numerous independent reports.

Thein Nyunt said that by forcing cyclone survivors to return to their
villages is also a form of crime as it breaks the Burmese military
government’s agreement with the International Labor Organization (ILO) on
banning forced relocation in Burma.

“The SPDC’s (the State Peace and Development Council, the official title
of the junta) refusal to allow more aid to the delta has contributed to a
large number of fatalities,” said David Mathieson, a spokesman for Human
Rights Watch in Bangkok.

He said it was still too early to determine whether the junta’s actions
constitute a crime against humanity. However, the crisis is “suddenly, a
very serious situation,” Mathieson said, which “should be investigated by
the UN Security Council.”

Human rights advocates and legal groups in Canada and Europe also say the
military regime’s blocking of aid to cyclone victims has cost tens of
thousands of lives.

Advocates of prosecuting the junta say that they must go through the UN
Security Council first before filing a motion with the ICC.

Mathieson said that although China and Russia would probably veto any
motion against Burma at the Security Council, the issue of crimes against
humanity should be pursued.

Burma watchers also accuse the Burmese regime of being preoccupied with
holding a national referendum on May 10 at a time when it could have been
saving lives in the delta.

Meanwhile, several prominent exiled Burmese groups and international
bodies lined up to condemn the Burmese junta. The words “crimes against
humanity” were never far from their lips.

Bo Kyi, the joint- secretary of a Burmese human rights group, the
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, said the Burmese military
regime knew that a massive number of people had died in the wake of the
cyclone. However, the top generals ignored the death and destruction and
went ahead with its constitutional referendum, he said.

Robert Gates, the US Secretary of Defense, said on Sunday that the Burmese
regime was guilty of “criminal neglect” for blocking large-scale
international aid to cyclone victims.

And the European Parliament stated on its Web site that the Burmese
military junta’s behavior with regard to relief work during the cyclone
disaster was a “crime against humanity,” and suggested that the Burmese
leadership face international justice.

“Blocking food and medicine for cyclone survivors is extermination,” said
Aung Htoo, the secretary of the Burma Lawyers’ Council. “If this case does
not go to the ICC, then many more people will die.”

____________________________________

June 2, Irrawaddy
Burmese troops deployed to coastal, border areas - Min Lwin

The Burmese military has been deploying infantry battalions and air
defense artillery battalions close to the Thai-Burmese border area of Mon
and Karen States and Tenasserim Division since late May, according to
sources in the area.

“Burmese troops are on high alert in Mon State,” said Aue Mon of the Human
Rights Foundation of Mon Land. “The Burmese military government has
deployed additional troops along the coasts of Mon State and Tenasserim
Division.”

He said that he believed the reinforcements were a precaution against a
possible military intervention.

“Military Operation Command 19, which consists of 10 battalions, has been
stationed in Kawzar Village, in Mon State’s Yee Township,” he said.

Mon sources also said that an artillery battalion with radar and air
defense capabilities has been stationed in Anankwin Village, about 60 km
from Three Pagoda Pass, since late May. The battalion belongs to Artillery
Division 606, based in Thaton Township.

Analysts say that after border tensions arose between Burma and Thailand
in 2001, the Burmese military increased its deployment of air defense
artillery battalions in southern Burma. There are also 12 artillery
battalions in Tenasserim Division under the command of Artillery Division
505, headquartered in Mergui Township, and 11 artillery battalions in Mon
and Karen States, under the command of Artillery Division 606.

Meanwhile, the Burmese military government has also increased its
deployment of light infantry battalions in cyclone-affected areas of
Irrawaddy Division, since late May.

A resident of Laputta Township said some 3,000 Burmese soldiers from Light
Infantry Divisions 66 and 11 were sent to areas hit by Cyclone Nargis last
week. LID 66 is based in Pegu Division’s Prone Township, and LID 11 is
based in Yemon Village, in Rangoon Division’s Hlegu Township.

The resident said the light infantry battalions were stationed in at least
6 outposts in Laputta Township and were responsible for the distribution
of rice and other supplies to survivors of cyclone.

Ohn Kyaing, a spokesperson for a relief team sponsored by the opposition
National League for Democracy, returned from Pyinsalu, Laputta Township on
Sunday and told The Irrawaddy on Monday that security forces, including
riot police, are also stationed along the Rangoon-Dedaye road in
Kungyangone Township.

Htay Aung, a Burmese defense researcher based in Thailand, said that the
Burmese military government deployed the troops along the coastal region
and in the delta because it fears humanitarian intervention by the
international community.

“Another possible reason the Burmese troops are being deployed along the
border is political instability in a neighboring country,” he said,
referring to recent rumors of a possible coup in Thailand.

____________________________________

June 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
FFSS to provide support to cyclone orphans

In an effort to provide educational assistance, the Free Funeral Service
Society plans to establish an orphanage for children whose parents were
killed when Cyclone Nargis struck Burma in early May.

According to FFSS financial officer Daw Zee Kwat, said the orphanage would
take in children who had no one else to look after them.

“We will take care of them in two ways. One way is to send the children to
our relatives and others who are willing to raise them,” she said.

“The other way is to set up an orphanage of our own for them in North
Okkalapa, Rangoon division,” said Daw Zee Kwat.

The FFSS has been providing relief supplies to cyclone victims in affected
areas in Rangoon and Irrawaddy divisions since the cyclone.

So far the group has distributed rice, cooking oil, salt, medicine,
clothes, dried fish, pounded fish, tinned fish, cooking pots, plastic
sheets, water purifying tablets, plates, bowls, blankets and other
supplies worth millions of kyat.

When asked why the FFSS was particularly interested in nurturing children,
Daw Zee Kwat said she believed that Burma’s future lay in its children.

“If our children are bright, our country will have a better future –
that’s why we are interested in looking after them,” she said.

“We want them to become well-behaved, less selfish and be willing to work
for public interest.”

The FFSS will take care of the orphans until their graduation.

Since its inception, the FFSS has been funding its programmes solely with
private donations from Burmese nationals living inside the country and
abroad. It also has received donations from individual foreigners.

____________________________________

June 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
Donors face questioning at checkpoints

Authorities have put more checkpoints in place on the way to
cyclone-affected areas and are questioning donors as they pass, according
to a member of a youth relief team from Rangoon.

Despite the military regime’s recent announcement that donors could travel
freely to cyclone-hit areas, Pyi Sone Kyaw, a youth team member, told DVB
that he was still questioned on his way to Irrawaddy division.

“Security forces – immigration, police and riot police – are everywhere. I
had to go through three checkpoints to reach my destination,” Pyi Sone
Kyaw said.

“I was asked where I was going and if any foreigners were accompanying me.
There was a sign saying free passage at every checkpoint but I was still
questioned,” he said.

“As for our truck driver who was transporting the aid, his name and car
registration were recorded.”

Pyi Sone Kyaw and his close friends formed a youth relief team to help
cyclone victims, and collected money from other friends and relatives to
purchase relief supplies.

They recently went to remote villages in Pyar Pone township in the
Irrawaddy delta on Sunday to distribute aid to villagers.

On 27 May, the National Disaster Preparedness Central Committee of the
military regime issued News Release No. 8 saying donors could go right
down to storm-hit areas of their choice.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 2, Reuters
Soaring prices compound Myanmar's cyclone misery - Aung Hla Tun

Yangon - A large "Happy World" sign hangs above a dilapidated food market
in Yangon, but on the streets shoppers are far from content.

A month after Cyclone Nargis scythed a path of destruction through
Myanmar's former capital and Irrawaddy delta, leaving 134,000 dead or
missing, those spared by the storm are struggling to cope with soaring
prices for food and fuel.

"Of course everyone is unhappy, but nobody dares complain," stall-owner
Daw Ngee Yee said as her offerings of fruit and vegetables wilted under a
hot afternoon sun.

Ordinary life in Myanmar, already tough in one of Asia's most impoverished
nations after 46 years of military rule, has become much harder since the
cyclone devastated the country's rice bowl.

A 50 kg bag of rice now sells for 38,000 kyat, or about $34.50, up from
27,000 kyat before the storm flooded more than one million acres of arable
land with seawater.

Peanut oil, used for cooking, has jumped nearly 40 percent to 5,500 kyat
for a 2 kg container.

In a country where government workers earn $30 a month or less, people
often spend around two thirds of their income to put meals on the table.

"The rich are okay, but while prices go up, salaries stay the same. We
have to eat smaller meals," 27-year-old Ma Oo said as she inspected tied
bunches of vegetable greens at the market.

But Ma Oo, who moved to Yangon two months ago in search of a better life,
counts herself lucky to have some food to buy in Yangon where life is
slowly getting back to what passed for normal before the cyclone.

FOOD AID APPEAL

Four weeks on, Myanmar's reclusive junta is gradually and grudgingly
opening up to foreign aid and expertise. It has handed out more visas to
foreign experts, but access to the delta remains restricted.

The U.N. World Food Programme said it has given 575,000 people their first
ration of rice, "but many people have not been reached, and others are now
due a second round of distributions."

WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said its $70 million food aid
program faced a 64-percent funding shortfall, as did its logistics plan
which includes boats, trucks and helicopters.

"With current contributions, we will run out of food by mid-July," Sheeran
said after a weekend visit to Myanmar.

With markets back to normal in Yangon, WFP and four NGOs have begun
handing out cash, about 50 U.S. cents per person/per day, to help people
buy their own food.

That has allowed the WFP to focus on delivering aid to the hardest-hit
delta where most food stocks were destroyed and few markets survived the
storm.

Authorities have pushed ahead with a campaign, condemned by human rights
groups and deemed "unacceptable" by the U.N., of evictions of displaced
people from government shelters.

The last camp in Kawhmu, a district south of Yangon, was closed on Monday,
witnesses said of the closures which appeared aimed at stopping the
"tented" villages from becoming permanent.

"We have nowhere to go and we don't know any other life except farming and
fishing," U Kyi, who fled to the camp with his wife days after the
cyclone, said on Friday.

The evictions came on the heels of last week's official media criticism of
foreign donors' demands for access to the delta, saying that cyclone
victims could "stand by themselves."

Under fire for its slow response to the disaster, a junta general insisted
on Sunday his government had acted swiftly and it remained open to foreign
aid "with no strings attached."

But the patience of Western donors is wearing thin.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who accused the regime of "criminal
neglect" and causing more deaths by stonewalling foreign aid, said on
Sunday U.S. ships cruising near Myanmar could leave in a "matter of days."

Gates, on a regional tour after attending a security conference in
Singapore, discussed Myanmar with Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej in
Bangkok on Sunday.

Samak told the Pentagon chief the junta had rejected a big international
aid effort partly because the generals feared it could be seen as an
invasion, a senior U.S. defense official said.

"That was the clear inference," the official said. "He was not justifying
it in any way, he was just saying 'this is what they tell me."'

(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray in BANGKOK)


____________________________________

June 2, Asia Times
Second wave economic crisis in Myanmar - Larry Jagan

While Myanmar counts the cost of the Cyclone Nargis disaster and
international aid agencies struggle to get relief supplies to an estimated
2.4 million homeless and desperate victims, time is running out for the
country's rice farmers to plant new crops and help the country stave off
famine.

If seeds are not sewn within the next 30 says in the worst-hit Irrawaddy
Delta - Myanmar's rice bowl - rice production will be dangerously reduced,
United Nations food and agriculture specialists warn. Meanwhile, analysts
specializing in Myanmar's economy say that other food sectors have also
been decimated, raising the risk of food shortages at a time the ruling
military junta for political purposes continues to obstruct aid shipments
and distribution.

Myanmar's economy was already one of Asia's worst performers, due to
decades of economic mismanagement by successive military-run governments.
After the cyclone disaster, the risk is rising of a full-blown economic
collapse, some contend. "The damage to the economy is serious indeed, both
in the short and longer term," said Sean Turnell, a specialist on
Myanmar's economy at Macquarie University in Australia. "Rice and
agriculture is only part of the picture," he said.

Agricultural experts warn that the cyclone disaster could soon shift the
country from being a net rice exporter to importer, which will put new
pressures on the country's already strained balance of payments. One week
after the cyclone hit and the extent of the devastation was not yet known,
Myanmar continued to export rice. Because of the damage "food stores have
been lost, seeds have been destroyed, and other assets needed have all
been swept away", said Diderik de Vleeschauwer, a spokesman for the UN's
Food and Agriculture Organization.

"Farmers have until the end of June to replant their seedlings, otherwise
food production will be sorely reduced," he said. "In the lower
[Irrawaddy] Delta, they just do not have the capital to replace the seeds,
livestock and tools needed to start replanting rice in the next few
months."

The usual planting season starts now in the Irrawaddy Delta, which usually
produces as much as two-thirds of Myanmar's annual rice crop. About a
quarter of the rice paddy in this area is still flooded with salty sea
water carried inland by the cyclone and is littered with decaying animal
carcasses and human corpses, which experts say will have to be cleared
before planting can begin.

Meanwhile, irrigation channels need to be repaired, paddy walls restored
and water pumps replaced to restore what was already an extremely low
level of production efficiency, say food and agriculture experts. More
than half of the delta's livestock, much of which was used for plowing,
reportedly perished in the storm or has since starved.

"This is going to prove a very high opportunity cost for the government in
the coming months, particularly given the present and likely future
international demand and high prices for rice," said Turnell.

As relief efforts focus primarily on saving human lives, so far little if
any agricultural rehabilitation has taken place. "They've got to put their
houses back together first," said Paul Risely, a regional spokesman for
the UN-affiliated World Food Program (WFP). "Even then the farmers will
need to be supported with food supplies until their crops are harvested."
The WFP expects to have food-for-work programs in place in the delta area
for at least the next six months.

Even if a limited amount of rice is planted this year, the quality and
yield is likely to be severely reduced, experts say. "We can certainly
count on very meager crops for an indefinite future. The next two harvests
will be greatly affected," said Turnell. "Before the cyclone this area was
performing way below potential, mainly because of the regime's willful
neglect and terrible policies towards agriculture."

Forced rehabilitation
Now there is a risk the military regime aggravates the humanitarian and
economic crisis by forcing farmers prematurely back onto their land. UN
officials warned the government on Friday that the forced resettlement of
thousands of victims could launch a second wave of deaths, through disease
outbreaks and deprivation in areas that lack proper drinking water and
food supplies.

Myanmar-based aid workers and relief volunteers who had worked in the
delta areas in recent weeks doubt that many rice farmers will be able to
plant their monsoon crops on time - despite the government's forced
resettlement policies.

"They are more concerned about surviving and getting food for their
families than returning to their farms," said a Thai volunteer, who has
just spent a week in the worst-affected areas of the delta. "Everywhere
outside the towns, the fields and waterways were full of rotting animal
carcasses and bloated bodies."

Other food sectors have similarly been affected, including the crucial
fishing industry, which was largely based in the delta area. More than
half of the fishing industry has been wiped out by the cyclone, according
to a government official in the Agriculture Ministry. More than 20,000
fishermen are reportedly dead and another 6,000 are missing in the delta,
he estimated.

Most of the country's fishing fleet has been destroyed or is missing,
according to local government officials. There were an estimated 26,000
small- and 2,000 medium-sized fishing vessels that operated off-shore
before the cyclone hit, according to official statistics. Meanwhile
thousands of fish ponds, which helped supplement farmers' food and
incomes, have also been rendered useless by the salt water.

Many of the shrimp and prawn farms near Yangon and in the Irrawaddy Delta
have been destroyed or badly damaged by the cyclone, a businessman
involved in the export of prawns to Thailand said on condition of
anonymity. "The cyclone is likely to have reduced this to a fraction of
last year's output and will severely dent the country's export trade,"
said the Burmese fisheries exporter.

Marine fisheries in the area produce more than half of the country's fish
supply, while coastal aquaculture, including shrimp, crab and grouper
farms, accounts for nearly 20% of production. Both of these sectors
generated significant export earnings in recent years and represented one
of the few viable growth industries in the country.

The Myanmar government on May 25 requested US$11.7 billion from
international donors for purposes of reconstruction and rehabilitation. So
far, it's not clear the international community is willing to foot that
huge bill. The junta's request included an estimated $243 million to
restore the rice industry and an additional $25 million to replace
livestock production. The rehabilitation bill for the fishing industry, if
fully restored, will be much higher, experts say.

All told, the economic impact of the cyclone disaster could prove to be
even more devastating than the loss of lives, officially estimated now at
around 133,000, though some estimate that figure much higher. The cyclone
will compound the country's already deep economic woes and put further
pressure on government coffers.

"Imports of basic commodities and foodstuffs, all at very high
international prices, will certainly increase and exports will fall
dramatically, especially from the fisheries sector, putting increased
pressure on the country's foreign exchange reserves," said Turnell.

While energy exports, including to Thailand, India and China, are expected
to be unaffected by the cyclone disaster, the revenues they previously
provided for government coffers will in future be swallowed up by the cost
of rehabilitation-related imports, he said. Expensive imports will
inevitably add inflationary pressures to a dire humanitarian crisis,
raising the economic risk of more human suffering in the months ahead.

Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the British
Broadcasting Corp. He is currently a freelance journalist based in
Bangkok.

____________________________________

June 2, Agence France Presse
Yangon's middle class struggles with cost of living

Cho Cho knows she's fortunate, even after Cyclone Nargis ripped through
Myanmar's former capital of Yangon, damaging her family's home and leaving
them without running water for the last month.

The storm left a trail of destruction across the city, ripping off roofs,
uprooting century-old trees and tossing them onto cars.

But the destruction here was mild compared to the Irrawaddy Delta, where
entire villages were washed away and where most of the 133,000 dead or
missing lived.

The United Nations estimates that about one million people in the delta
are still without international aid, while the poor around Yangon are
receiving at least some support.

Cho Cho still has her job teaching English, but says even her middle-class
family is worried about how they will survive the months to come in a
country that was already among the poorest in the world.

"My father spent all of his money on repairs," said the 29-year-old, who
lives with her parents.

Much of the city's water system was damaged by the storm, and without
electricity to power the pumps, there's no way to get water into Cho Cho's
building.

They can rent a generator, but this costs nearly eight dollars an hour.
Pumping water into the building takes about five hours, and the 40 dollars
it would cost is more than what some families pay in rent each month.

"We'd need to buy fuel on the black market to make the generator work,
because fuel is rationed," she told AFP.

Fuel prices more than doubled after the storm, though the price has eased
a little as supplies have resumed again.

For families in top-floor apartments, their bigger priority has been
shelter, because many of their roofs were blown away by the storm. The
price of corrugated metal has doubled, but people have been forced to buy
it because of the daily monsoon rains.

"Those who could not afford metal bought tarpaulins. Those who don't have
enough money have gone to live somewhere else, and their apartments have
been flooded by rain," Cho Cho added.

To add to this new list of worries, Yangon's residents also have to cope
with the high price of rice.

Ju Ju, who works for a medical instrument import company, had to give up
good quality rice after the price jumped 50 percent to 45,000 kyats (40
dollars) for a 24-pound bag.

That was unaffordable on her 80,000-kyat salary and her mother's dismal
pension of 1,600 kyats, the price of about three packets of cigarettes.

"Even if we have money, here in Yangon, we can't buy the rice that we
want. Officials are stockpiling it and waiting to sell it for a higher
price," she said.

"Also, we don't know what will happen with the next harvest. Next year
rice will be even more expensive," she added.

Crops in the Irrawaddy Delta, Myanmar's most important rice-growing
region, were flooded by sea water. Residents there have lost everything
and are still waiting for help.

If crops aren't in the ground by the end of June, farmers will have missed
the planting season, prompting experts to warn of shortages and even
famine.

The delta was also the main source for charcoal used throughout Myanmar
for cooking and manufacturing. After the cyclone, the price of charcoal
went up 20 percent.

"Even though they aren't considered poor, many people are having huge
difficulties," said Cho Cho.

Despite their struggles, many people in Yangon are still using their
meagre resources to buy food and clothing to send into the delta, helping
people in even more desperate need.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

June 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
Irrawaddy residents fear spread of disease

Cyclone victims in the coastal areas of Irrawaddy division are worried
about the spread of disease from dead bodies which have still not been
collected, according to a donor.

A private donor from Mandalay, who has visited around 90 villages in the
coastal areas, said residents were still in desperate need of help, with
bodies of humans and animals still lying on the streets a month after the
cyclone hit.

"There are human corpses still floating around in creeks and drains in the
area as well as dead animal bodies," the donor said.

"According to an elderly farmer in one of the villages, a lot of cows and
buffalo are continuing to die from diarrhoea after drinking from lakes and
ponds filled with salt water," he said.

"Local residents are really scared that they might catch diseases spread
by flies bred from the dead bodies."

The donor said aid workers had still not reached some villages that were
badly hit by the cyclone.

"Some villages in Daydaye township, such as Ywar Thar Aye village, have
not received any aid yet and villagers are only surviving by eating the
wet rice and drinking rain water," he said.

"They are running out of food – if they don't receive help within a few
weeks, they will starve."

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 2, The Australian
Jakarta proposes to use cyclone in push for radical change in Burma - Greg
Sheridan

Indonesia is planning a bold new initiative on Burma, aiming to use the
flux created by Cyclone Nargis to push through far-reaching change.

A group of think tank analysts and former senior officials have formulated
a detailed plan, which is under consideration in the office of President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

This would involve Indonesia commissioning a special envoy on Burma. One
name mooted for this position is former Indonesian foreign minister Ali
Alatas,

Indonesia would convene a dialogue group of Burma's key Asian neighbours
and partners, including China, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore.

The aim of the plan would be to find a settlement between the Burmese
Government of General Than Shwe and the opposition National League for
Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who is still under house arrest.

The authors of the plan believe it would need to furnish Burma's rulers
with three assurances.

The first is time. A long transition phase, perhaps as much as 15 years,
would be needed for the settlement to unfold.

The second is regime and territorial security. It would be necessary to
reassure Burma's paranoid rulers that no one would attempt or support any
violent regime change.

The third requirement would to help Burma in dealing with its ethnic
minorities, some of which are concentrated in what are effectively
territorial insurgencies.

One model the Burmese would be offered is Indonesia's abandoned dwifungsi,
or dual function, for the military. Under dwifungsi, the military had both
a security and political role in Indonesia for years.

The Indonesian President has yet to decide on the plan, which could be
called the Jakarta Initiative on Myanmar.

The acronym, JIM, would have a strong echo of the successful Cambodian
peace plan of the 1990s, in which Indonesia played a central role and
which was prosecuted for a time under theJakarta Informal Meetings
process.

The record of failure on Burma is long, and the Indonesian administration
has no desire to add to it. But Indonesian officials say the opportunity
arising out of Cylcone Nargis's devastation may last only a matter of
weeks.

Indonesian officials believe the experience of Aceh is instructive. The
Aceh peace agreement is one of Dr Yudhoyono's proudest achievements.
Indonesian officials say Jakarta's ability to act quickly after the 2004
tsunami was the key to success.

Jakarta and ASEAN have yet to receive sufficient recognition for
engineering the junta's change of heart in allowing outside aid into
Burma, Indonesian officials say.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hasan Wirajuda, discussed Burma last Friday
with a visiting group of Australian editors.

He emphasised that Indonesia's priority was to bring immediate emergency
assistance to Burma's cyclone victims.

He said France had briefly proposed bringing Burma's situation to the UN
Security Council under the general humanitarian right to intervene.
Indonesia, China and Vietnam had opposed this move.

Indonesia and other ASEAN nations had talks with Burma to make it open up
to aid. ``I myself said Myanmar should take steps like Indonesia took
after the (2004) tsunami, and open its country wide to international
relief efforts,'' Mr Wirajuda said.

He said he ``did not believe'' Burma's claim that it would need
$US11billion ($11.5billion) in international aid.

Mr Wirajuda was not asked directly about the proposed Indonesian plan for
Burma, which still has no official status. However, he expressed the
frustration that ASEAN feels over its most recalcitrant member. ``On the
political side, we must admit we are all frustrated. ASEAN thought when we
admitted Myanmar (Burma) in 1997 that we could change Myanmar through
constructive engagement. That was not the case. Likewise, those who favour
sanctions and pressure are frustrated they could not change Myanmar
either,'' he said.

``Yes, political and human rights concerns are central. But there are also
Myanmar's concerns about its security and territorial integrity. We urge
people to see the situation more broadly.

``Realistically, we cannot expect radical change immediately. A
transitional period must be there. Perhaps the military can exercise a
dual function, as we had under President Suharto. That could be useful as
a transitional phase.

``Secondly, there is a greater expectation for ASEAN to play a bigger
role, but when the President and I visited Myanmar we found it very
comfortable with its relations with China and India.

``So when (US) President (George W.) Bush at APEC (in Sydney) asked
President Yudhoyono whatto do about Myanmar, he said, `Please, Mr Bush,
talk to China and India'.''

The Indonesian Foreign Minister said Jakarta was exploring at the UN a
dialogue at ambassadorial level between Burma and key Asian neighbours.

``Unlike some ASEAN members, Indonesia prefers to maintain its engagement
(with Burma),'' Mr Wirajuda said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 2, Agence France Presse
UN warns of 'urgent work' to help Myanmar cyclone victims - Hla Hla Htay

A month after Myanmar's cyclone left 133,000 people dead or missing, the
UN's food agency chief warned Monday that "urgent work" is needed to help
hundreds of thousands of survivors stave off hunger.

The United Nations estimates that around 2.4 million people are in need of
food, shelter, clean water or other humanitarian aid, with 60 percent yet
to receive any help at all.

Myanmar's isolationist military regime -- deeply suspicious of the outside
world -- has limited international help and restricted access for
humanitarian workers to the hardest-hit parts of the Irrawaddy Delta,
where whole villages were washed away in the storm.

Josette Sheeran, the World Food Programme chief who visited Myanmar at the
weekend, said progress had been made in receiving visas for international
aid workers, whose expertise is needed to oversee the complex relief
operation.

But she said aid workers still faced bureaucratic hurdles in travelling to
the delta, which suffered the brunt of Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3.

"What we need is a seamless global lifeline of relief supplies," Sheeran
said Monday, after her visit.

"Progress has been made, but urgent work remains on the critical last leg."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wrapped up a visit here more than a week
ago, saying that he had convinced junta leader Than Shwe to allow a
full-scale foreign relief effort.

But aid agencies say access to the delta remains spotty, although more
visas have been granted.

Myanmar flatly refused to accept help from US, British and French naval
ships, which were laden with thousands of tonnes of supplies and
helicopters to deliver them.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has accused the regime of "criminal
neglect" for refusing their help, saying Myanmar's initial delays could
have cost tens of thousands of lives.

"Unless the regime changes its approach, its policy, more people will
die," he said after a weekend regional security forum in Singapore.

Malaysia's deputy prime minister Najib Razak urged the regime to allow
military helicopters from neighbouring countries to deliver supplies,
insisting such help would be purely humanitarian.

"We have proven time and time again that our involvement is strictly
humanitarian in nature and there is no other agenda," he told the security
forum.

Southeast Asian countries and the United Nations have formed a new
coordinating body with junta officials in Yangon in a bid to clear
obstacles to the relief effort.

Sheeran said she met with the head of the panel, Myanmar's deputy foreign
minister Kyaw Thu, to urge him to do more to speed the relief effort.

So far, the WFP has dispatched enough food to give a first ration of rice
to 575,000 people, but many people have not been reached and others are
now due for a second ration, the agency said.

WFP says it is trying to reach a total of 663,000 people in the worst-hit
parts of the delta.

In the former capital of Yangon, also pounded by the storm, the agency is
providing 200,000 people with 50 cents a day so they can buy their own
food in local markets, the statement said.

"WFP is committed to being resourceful and finding better ways to reach a
large number of people who are struggling to put their lives back
together," Sheeran said.

The project in Yangon "allows us to focus our food delivery efforts on the
delta, where most food stocks have been destroyed and markets are not
functioning properly," she added.

Some ordinary residents in Yangon are trying to deliver supplies on their
own to hard-hit regions of the delta, and victims have lined the roadsides
to beg for food.

"Stop, just a minute," said an old man named Maung, sitting on the
outskirts of the city in tattered clothes and reaching to passing cars
with his empty, gesturing as if to eat.

He sat with a young boy carrying a small bag with all that remains of
their possessions, staring blankly into space.

"No one here, not even the junta seems to stop to help," he said.

____________________________________

June 2, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Myanmar activist wins Anna Lindh Prize

DPA x Sweden People Myanmar Myanmar activist wins Anna Lindh Prize
Stockholm. Exiled Myanmar activist Khin Ohmar was Monday. named winner of
the Anna Lindh Prize, a human rights award created in. memory of the
murdered Swedish foreign minister.

Khin Ohmar, a former student activist, has lived in exile for the past 20
years and is currently based in Thailand where she is active in the Burma
Partnership that mobilizes people's organizations and promotes democracy.

Former Swedish foreign minister Jan Eliasson, chair of the Anna Lindh
Prize committee, said the jury was "very happy that Khin Ohmar has
accepted to receive the Anna Lindh Prize in this year when the people of
Burma's suffering has become so evident for us all."

The prize, worth 250,000 kronor (41,000 dollars), was created as a tribute
to the late Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, who was stabbed to death
in September 2003.

The award was to be presented June 18, the day before Lindh would have
turned 51.

Khin Ohmar said in a statement that "humanitarian assistance should not be
political, but humanitarian assistance alone cannot solve Burma's
humanitarian catastrophe," referring to the recent devastation caused by
Cyclone Nargis and the military regime's slow response.

"The basic reasons for the suffering of the Burmese people is political
and the solutions have to include means for political change," she added.

Last year Colombian activist Leonor Zalabata Torres won the prize for
campaigning for the rights of indigenous peoples in the South American
nation.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 2, Irrawaddy
Than Shwe’s days are numbered [Editorial]

Burma’s military leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, has been accused of committing
a “crime against humanity,” as evidence mounts that his refusal to allow a
meaningful relief effort in the cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy delta has put
hundreds of thousands of lives at risk.

A month after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Burma, relief supplies are still
not reaching large numbers of survivors. Meanwhile, there are reports that
many of those who have received some assistance are already being told to
leave their temporary shelters and return to their flattened villages. On
Friday, United Nations officials confirmed that refugees were being
evicted from government-run camps.

The decision to essentially abort the relief mission before it has barely
had a chance to begin comes straight from Than Shwe, who rules from his
distant capital, Naypyidaw.

Recently, the senior leader held a cabinet meeting and reportedly told
ministers and army leaders that the Tatmadaw, or armed forces, could
handle the crisis in the delta on its own. Some senior leaders who wanted
to accept more international aid were said to have been disappointed by
Than Shwe’s stubborn resistance to the idea.

After the cabinet meeting, a rumor spread among Burmese suggesting that
some of Than Shwe’s loyal ministers and family members held a ceremony to
pay their respects to his leadership, praising him for his decision to
move the capital to Naypyidaw, far beyond the range of the cyclone.

The unexplained decision to shift the capital to central Burma in 2005 may
have spared Than Shwe and his family from the deadly storm, but it won’t
save him from the consequences of his failure to do anything about the
devastation in the delta.

Because Cyclone Nargis struck an area known as Burma’s “rice bowl,” the
economic impact of the disaster will eventually reach every corner of the
country. As poverty deepens and infectious diseases spread beyond the
delta, the consequences for the country will be dire.

A month after the cyclone, it is not Than Shwe who is saving lives.
Burma’s monks, activists, civil society groups, local NGOs and even
celebrities are reaching out to refugees with food, relief supplies and
money. They are the heroes of Burma.

People from as far away as Shan and Kachin States are traveling to the
delta to help. Exiled Burmese groups are raising funds to support
independent relief groups. Churches and temples are working together to
help refugees. Thai and Burmese medical workers coordinate their efforts
to deliver relief supplies and paddy seeds to farmers.

Meanwhile, the regime’s mouthpiece newspapers are telling farmers to be
self-reliant by foraging on water cloves and frogs. People in the rest of
the world can only shake their heads and wonder what the generals are
thinking.

Listen to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates: “It’s not been us that have
been deaf and dumb in response to the pleas of the international
community, but the government of Myanmar [Burma]. We have reached out;
they have kept their hands in their pockets.”

Gates, who was speaking at the Asia Security Summit, which was held in
Singapore from May 30 to June 1, expressed his frustration over the
regime’s refusal to allow relief missions into Burma. US, French and
British naval vessels were waiting near Burmese waters to deliver aid to
the delta but were not allowed in.

Now France has withdrawn its ships, and the US has indicated that it will
do the same soon if it cannot obtain permission to enter Burma.

Recently the international media reported that the regime had approved all
pending visas for UN aid workers. But this doesn’t mean that the
devastated country will soon be crawling with hundreds or thousands of
competent, compassionate and fully equipped aid workers. The actual number
of pending visas was 45.

And here’s more “good” news: Save the Children, Medecins sans Frontieres
and the United Nations Children’s Fund have just sent in another 14 aid
workers.

Than Shwe is now clearly committing humanitarian crimes. It is time for
Burma’s democratic forces inside and outside the country to think of a
better strategy to remove the Than Shwe regime. They have to show that
there is an alternative to Than Shwe.

The international community and neighboring countries must also continue
to pressure the regime and help refugees in the delta. They must speak
with one united voice. The Than Shwe regime is not sustainable.

Without Than Shwe, we will be able to save many lives and rebuild a new
Burma.

____________________________________
INTERVIEWS

June 2, Irrawaddy
Zarganar’s relief role - Zarganar

Zarganar, a popular Burmese comedian and social activist, has been heavily
involved in volunteer disaster relief aid in the cyclone-damaged areas. An
estimated 400 Burmese involved in the entertainment world joined together
to do volunteer work in the delta.

Question: Can you talk about the situation on the ground since the cyclone
struck Rangoon and the Irrawaddy delta?

Answer: We started our [volunteer] emergency relief work on May 7, and we
are still working. I have been to all the townships struck by the
disaster, except Nga Pu Taw.

There are 420 volunteers in our group. We divided our volunteers in groups
to work more effectively. The places we go to are usually places nobody
has been to yet. We have been to 42 such villages, most under the
administrative area of Dedaye Township. Three of these villages are large
village tracts where the paddy [rice] purchasing center was located.

We went to three large village tracts in Bogalay Township. They hadn’t
received aid not only from the government, but also from UN agencies. No
NGOs had reached there yet.

Q: What did you see there? What do they need at this moment?

A: I can give you an example. There was a large village tract called Ma
Ngay Gyi, where 1,000 families used to live and 700 houses were demolished
totally. The other 300 houses left remnants of house-poles and floors. In
total, 221 people died in the village and 300 are missing. Nobody knows
where they are.

We arrived there on May 22 and until that day, and we saw bodies floating
in streams. Survivors there received 7 tins (measurement with
condensed-milk-tin) of rice from authorities and an instant noodle pack
from some independent donors. Apart from that, they received nothing else.
That was the scene we saw 20 days after the cyclone.

On May 28, we went from Bogalay to Tin Maung Chaung, Kyein Su, Hteik
Chaung Kyi, Kan Su and Shwe Bo Su villages. The villagers there had
received no assistance as well. They had almost no clothing and almost all
the children were virtually naked.

In numbers, there were 542 households there and all the houses were
heavily damaged. There was a small pagoda left on high-ground. The
villagers gathered themselves on the platform of the pagoda and sleep
together. There were no UN or NGOs there yet, and they had received
nothing. Our private group gave them what we had. The most horrible thing
was that they had no water to drink and collected water when it rained. We
gave them 10,000 bottles of drinking water.

Q: Has any of the international aid that the regime received reached those
areas?

A: There are temporary shelters in Laputta and Bogalay Townships. Some
people can stay in tents in those shelters with four or five people to a
tent. The people staying there eat rice and rice gruel. Those people
receive some assistance, but they are few in number. The people in the
villages get no assistance.

Q: The UN said only 25 percent of the storm survivors have received
assistance up to last week; do you think that estimate is correct?

A: It’s fairly correct. Only a few people can access these shelters. The
other survivors are stranded on islands and in distant villages with
hardly accessible roads. They usually rely on boats for transportation.

I would like to share a sad story with you. I met an old lady who had 11
family members and 10 of them died in the storm. I saw many people like
her. I saw many traumatized people on the delta islands. Only boats can
get in there.

Q: You saw many people suffering trauma and depression?

A: I see three types of people suffering trauma. One type is very violent,
and sensitive. They are angry, and I can't say anything to them. They are
aggressive all the time.

The second type is people crying and moaning all the time. They think
about what happened again and again, and they repeat what happened over
and over.

The third type is silent—no talking, very little movement.

We gave people yellow beans and lablab, along with a blanket and mosquito
net. We gave a pack of these things to each survivor, and many didn't even
appear to acknowledge it. They showed little interest, as if they thought
it would be better to die.

Q: How was your experience with the local authorities? Any problems?

A: At the beginning, we took risks, and we had to move forward on our own.
Sometime we had confrontations with the authorities.

For example, they asked us why we were going on our own without consulting
them and wanted us to negotiation with them. They said they couldn't
guarantee our lives.

We said we’d take our chances on our own. Later after the Natural Disaster
Prevention and Protection Committee (NDPPC) said private donors could
contribute, we faced fewer problems.

After that announcement, well-off traders from Chinatown and gold traders
from Mogul Street joined the relief work. It is better now since the
survivors can receive more assistance. These rich traders can't go to
remote areas, and we try to help them deliver aid to remote villages. For
instance, they can drop the assistance in Bogalay and our actors' group
takes it to villages.

Q: The Myanmar Alin newspaper said survivors in the delta don’t need
foreign ai. They can survive on locally grown vegetables and edible fish
and frogs. It says the Irrawaddy delta can prosper again next year with
vast golden fields of paddy.

A: I have no idea whether they can catch edible fish and frogs. We renamed
the Irrawaddy River and Bogalay River by the color of the water. The
rivers are a chalky white color. We call it the Nargis color. There are
many dead bodies and cadavers of cattle floating in the rivers. We call
that the Nargis odor.

The odor sticks with us when we come back from the villages. Nobody can
stand it, and causes some people to vomit. How could people find edible
fish and frogs in that environment?

Q: Have many of the bodies have been properly buried?

A: I returned returned from five villages in the Bogalay area on May 28. I
couldn't take videos and photos in those villages because there were so
many bodies, at least 40 bodies. That was after about 1,000 corpses were
burned, I think. I believe some NGOs like AZG and some Christian
organizations helped cremate bodies.

Q: Most of the people in the delta are Karens. How is their situation?

A: In Bogalay and Dedaye districts there are Karen villages and most of
them are Christians. I like these Karen. When I arrived in their villages,
I saw some organizations were already there. They appointed some local
Karen leaders to go to Rangoon, and they organized meetings with doctors
and other professionals. They are taking a part in their reconstruction
effort.

They came back to some villages with relief items like material for
shelters, food and utensils. I believe they have already been given some
vegetable seeds like morning glory, amaranth, rosells and fertilizers that
can be used on any kind of soil.

Q: When do you think the area can start to recover its agricultural
potential?

A: In many areas, I think rice will be unworkable for a long time, but
vegetables can grow. We need to start working with the people on how to
recover the land and work their crops.

There are only 15 days left in the rice planting season. We have talked to
private companies and Thai professionals about how to resume the
agricultural works with small machinery.

A small mechanical plow, called Shwe Kywe, costs 1.4 million kyat. We have
selected the Kyun Nyo Gyi village tract for a pilot project. About 5,514
people live there. Thai professionals said the agricultural work could be
resumed. We will try to start the work with 18 small plows. We’ve received
10 plows from donation.

Q: Is any assistance coming from northern and central Burma?

A: Of course, many people come to assist. For example, 10-wheel trucks
from Namti, Myit Kyi Na and Lashio arrived with aid. They brought 200
tanks of cooking oil and other supplies. The Christian group from Lashio
came with 10 trucks. They are Shan.

Q: How is Rangoon now?

A: We are also reaching out in Rangoon as well. Our group left this
morning to Dala, Kwan Chan Kone, Kyi Myin Daing and Nyaung Wine on the
other side of the river. The situation there is not as bad as in delta.
However, the houses were damaged, and we do need to assist them as well.
Psychologically, they are not as traumatized as the people in the delta.

Q: What do you want to say people living outside of Burma?

A: There are many things we can’t do alone. People can help us a great
deal. For instance after the tsunami in Thailand, professionals arrived
immediately and built houses for the survivors in a short time. We can't
afford such assistance, and it is a very vast area. It would be better if
international assistance could help with this.

Q: What is the UN able to do?

A: I am not happy with the UN. It doesn’t seem able to reach many of our
people. The UN and NGO staff must work under the eye of the regime. That’s
a problem. Why are they so concerned with the government's endorsement of
their relief work? They should have taken more risks.

Even if they can't go without permission, they could assist volunteers
like us who are willing to go to the villages. There are a lot of groups
like us assisting refugees. Many people have received nothing from the UN
and NGOs. The UN and a lot of professional organizations send their aid to
the compounds of the local township authorities.

Q: What happens with the people who are waiting for food on the roads?

A: Actually, they have to beg as they are starving. The authorities said
don't give out food to people on the roads, but they are starving. The
scenes are not that chaotic. I didn't see people robbing each other for
food.

Q: The US says some relief work could be done with their amphibious boats.
They are willing to help. Do you think they are still needed a month after
the cyclone?

A: I believe they are necessary. We provided some survivors with radios
and asked them to listen to the news, to keep in contact with the world.
They were happy with that news, but now they feel sad and desperate
because the ships aren’t allowed to come. They feel alone and abandoned.