BurmaNet News, June 4, 2008

[Editor]

June 4, 2008 Issue #3484


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: One month after Cyclone Nargis
Irrawaddy: Monks stepped in where the authorities failed
Telegraph (UK): Myanmar cyclone: Burma's junta turns away US aid ships
AFP: Myanmar evicts cyclone victims from schools, so classes can resume
Mizzima News: Junta says constitution given mandate, opposition rejects
contention – Mungpi

BUSINESS / TRADE
DVB: Authorities demand money and goods from farmers
Reuters: Burmese stock up on rice

HEALTH / AIDS
DVB: Poor sanitation causes disease outbreak in Bogalay

INTERNATIONAL
AP: Human rights group accuses Myanmar military of killing, torturing
ethnic Karen civilians
The Nation (Thailand): UK still worried over distribution of aid in burma

OPINION / OTHER
Philippine Daily Inquirer: ASEAN’s shame
Jakarta Post: Tin Soe: Striving for democracy in Myanmar

STATEMENT
White House: Statement by the Press Secretary on cyclone relief for Burma

INTERVIEW
BBC News: Aid workers tell of time in Burma




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 4, Irrawaddy
One month after Cyclone Nargis – Aung Thet Wine

Just as relief efforts were beginning to take hold in Laputta—although
serious problems still exist—the Burmese authorities have forced tens of
thousands of refugees to return to their home villages.

Based on numbers provided by local officials, as many as 30,000 refugees
were sent back to the area of their homes during the past week. Of the
estimated 40,000 refugees that lived in Laputta previously, only about
10,000 remain.

They are living in better established camps on the outskirts of the city,
where they receive shelter, sufficient drinking water, food and other
relief supplies on a daily basis.

Reports also indicate that drinking water, food and other relief material
are beginning to reach some refugees who have been sent back to their
villages.

Many refugees are now returning to Laputta to pick up food and other
relief aid from international agencies located there. Many refugees also
are receiving diesel fuel to power vehicles or boats. However, many
refugees lack transportation to return for relief supplies.

Serious logistical problems remain in terms of distribution drinking
water, food and survival material to refugees in more rural areas. Local
doctors report many people are suffering from diseases such as diarrhea
and malaria, and many others have psychological problems.

Medical doctors in Laputta said sending the refugees back to their home
villages so quickly was a misguided policy, denying them badly needed
relief supplies and medical services.

Local Laputta authorities ordered about 40,000 refugees living in 49
temporary shelters, including camps at Thakya Mara Zein Pagoda, No 1 and
No 2 State High Schools, and other temporary shelter sites, to move to
shelter camps on the outskirts of town, called Three-mile camp on
Laputta-Myaung Mya Road, locally known as the golf course; Five-mile camp
and the Yantana Dipa Sport Ground camp.

During the past week, Laputta, authorities transported tens of thousands
of refugees back to their home villages, most of which are destroyed or
badly damaged. The refugees were transported on a daily basis by private
companies that have been awarded reconstruction contracts. The companies
include Ayer Shwe Wah, Max Myanmar, War War Win and Zay Kabar companies.

"Until May 18, there were about 40,000 refugees in total in camps in
Laputta. Starting on May 20, they were sent to camps situated out of town
and since then most refugees have been returned to their home areas," said
an officer of the Laputta Township PDC, who asked that his name not be
disclosed.

“There are now about 650 families from 22 cyclone-affected villages living
at the Yadanar Dipa Sport Ground,” he said. “The camp population is 2,609.
The camp population at Three-mile and Five-mile camps now totals about
10,000. The figures are not constant, and the refugees are being sent back
daily."

Refugees in the camps on the outskirts of Laputta are provided with tents
and other shelter material donated by the governments of Britain, Japan
and international aid agencies. They have access to safe drinking water
from distilling machines. Food is distributed by the UN World Food Program
(WFP), UNICEF, and nongovernmental organizations, including the Adventist
Development and Relief Agency Myanmar [Burma] (Adra-Myanmar) and other
organizations.

"For rice, we receive a sack of rice for four families for three days,
which is from the WFP,” said a refugee at Three-mile Camp. “The rice is
good to eat. The government also provides some rice. One person receives
two tins (measured in a condensed milk tin) of rice for three days. We
also receive cooking oil, salt and beans from other organizations. For
drinking water and water for other use, we can collect it from the
distilling machines set up at the front of the camp."

Camp refugees now have regular access to health care at medical clinics
operated by Holland-MSF, Marlin, Malteser International, UN agencies, the
Myanmar Medical Association and the Burmese Ministry of Health. Diarrhea
and other diseases are minimal in the camps, sources said.

However, many refugees already sent back to their villages are living
under very different and difficult conditions.

“They don't get proper assistance for food, drinking water and shelter and
no health care is available to them,” said a doctor with an international
health agency in Laputta.

“Many of them are suffering from diseases such as diarrheas, malaria,
typhoid, hepatitis, plus psychological distress and depression.”

"When I went out to villages, I found some cases of diarrhea and typhoid.
I see six or seven patients out of maybe 60 villagers. Some suffer from
hepatitis, jaundice, pneumonia and malaria. Most of these diseases are
caused by lack of safe water."

Many refugees are suffering from depression, he said, and mental health
specialists have yet to arrive in Laputta.

He criticized the forced return of refugees to their villages.

"It is certain these refugees will contract some diseases by sending them
back without proper preparation,” he said. “It’s also impossible for
health services to access all these villages. What we can try to do is
just contain diseases to prevent an epidemic."

When the refugees were returned to their villages, the authorities
provided them with a sack of rice, a tin of cooking oil and 20,000 kyats
($16).

A family of refugees at the jetty in Laputta who were on their way back to
Gway Chaung village in the Yway village tract said they were required to
sign a consent form saying they were voluntarily repatriated.

"They asked us repeatedly to go back,” said the man. “They told us
repeatedly to work our way out of a beggar-like life by relying on
donations and food from others.”

A refugee living at the Yadanar Dipa Sport Ground said they were told that
if they returned home they would not be accepted back in a shelter camp.
He said he was returning to his village, Thin Gan Gyi.

A 60-year-old man at Three-mile Camp said he wanted to return home, but he
worried about how he would eat. He had no other option if the authorities
forcibly evicted him, he said.

A UNICEF officer in Laputta said repatriated refugees face renewed
problems of safe drinking water and adequate food and other supplies. They
are told to return to contact UN organizations and other relief agencies
for assistance, he said.

"We are receiving representatives from villages,” he said. “They tell us
their needs and problems such as lack of drinking water, lack of rice, and
ask us to provide pumps to take the salt water from the drinking ponds.
They need to make the ponds ready to receive fresh rain water.

A WFP supervisor said, “We are now getting more than 20 representatives a
day from various villages. They get some drinking water, rice sacks and
diesel for boats, as much as they can carry when they go back. Some
villagers are coming to us almost daily."

Staff with the UN and international organizations worry that only a
limited number of returned refugees are making contact with relief
agencies, since many don’t have adequate transportation. Likewise, relief
organizations don’t have adequate transportation to reach the villagers.

Compounding the problem is the monsoon season, which begins this month.

Sources note that villagers reach out to UN agencies and international
organizations, and they hardly share their needs or complaints with local
Burmese authorities.

For example, a representative from the Pyin Salu Sub-township was in
Laputta specifically to ask for a water-pump from the Adra-Myanmar [Burma]
agency to reconstruct a water reservoir pond for drinking water. His
village received just enough drinking water and people relied on seawater
for cooking and other purposes.

A village representative from Hlwa Sar village who was receiving relief
supplies from the WFP in Laputta on May 31, told The Irrawaddy, "Almost
all of the storm survivors believe in the UN and other international
agencies. They don't go to our authorities. The main reason is we don’t
trust them."

____________________________________

June 4, Irrawaddy
Monks stepped in where the authorities failed – Saw Yan Naing

More than 800 monks prayed for the victims of Cyclone Nargis on Tuesday at
a Rangoon ceremony in which one senior cleric criticized the regime’s
response to the catastrophe.

Pyinya Thiha, a senior monk at Thardu monastery in Rangoon’s Kyeemyindine
Township, accused the junta of exacerbating the plight of the cyclone
survivors by thinking only of its own interests and placing restrictions
on the delivery of aid. He called on the regime to allow international aid
workers access to the cyclone-devastated areas.

About 100 nuns and more than 500 members of the general public attended
the prayer ceremony, in Thardu monastery.

Pyinya Thiha said the junta was guilty of a “double injustice” in its
approach to the catastrophe. “The current situation is not important for
them [but] it is very important for the survival of the people now in
trouble.

“It is necessary to see human beings with the eyes of a human being. They
[the junta] should not see human beings as animals.”

Aid for the cyclone survivors should take priority over everything else,
Pyinya Thiha told The Irrawaddy.

Monks would do “whatever we can for the victims,” he promised. The monks
of the Thardu monastery distributed relief supplies daily in Rangoon
Division’s Hlaing Tharyar and Kyeemyindine Townships, and prayed every
evening for the cyclone victims.

Monks had already delivered relief supplies—from food to mosquito nets—to
about 200 villages in the Irrawaddy delta, he said.

Monasteries throughout the Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon division had taken
in refugees from cyclone-hit areas. Monks had also helped clear up the
cyclone damage.

One Hlaing Tharyar Township resident, Tin Yu, said the authorities didn’t
dare prevent the monks from helping cyclone survivors, some of whom were
still sheltering in monasteries, despite official pressure to leave. The
assistance provided by the monks had been “very encouraging.”

____________________________________

June 4, Telegraph (UK)
Myanmar cyclone: Burma's junta turns away US aid ships – Thomas Bell

Four American navy ships, laden with relief supplies, are steaming away
from the Burmese coast because the military junta will not allow them to
help starving cyclone victims.

US Navy ships shown earlier heading towards Myanmar On board the boats
were 22 urgently needed heavy-lift helicopters, amphibious vehicles and
water purification equipment.

The Burmese regime claimed that, far from wanting to help the 2.5 million
survivors of last month’s cyclone, the US was in fact intent on stealing
the country’s oil resources.

"I am both saddened and frustrated to know that we have been in a position
to help ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people and help
mitigate further loss of life, but have been unable to do so because of
the unrelenting position of the Burma military junta," said Admiral
Timothy Keating, commander of US Pacific Command.

"It is time for the USS Essex group to move on to its next mission."

Among the many problems still blighting the relief effort is a shortage of
helicopters. The Burmese military has provided only seven while one United
Nations helicopter has been imported and 9 more wait idle in neighbouring
Thailand.

The UN says that only 49 per cent of survivors have received any relief at
all, and even the lucky ones have received nowhere near enough. Some
devastated communities have not yet been reached by outsiders a month
after the disaster.

Access for foreign staff remains a huge problem, despite assurances from
the junta.The first six foreign Red Cross workers were expected to reach
the delta today.

"For the tsunami we had 300 expats in within the first month – compare 300
to six," France Hurtubise, a spokeswoman.

The United Nations also warned today that farmers in much of the Irrawaddy
delta are likely to miss the rice planting season, which has now begun.
The region is traditionally the most productive in Burma.

"Many areas are still empty and farmers haven’t yet come back because of
the lack of shelter and lack of food," said Food and Agriculture
Organisation’s Hiroyuki Konuma.

"We have to complete sowing by the end of July latest otherwise it will
create tremendous damage to productivity and affect income and eventually
will affect national security of Myanmar itself."

____________________________________

June 4, Agence France Presse
Myanmar evicts cyclone victims from schools, so classes can resume

The Myanmar authorities ordered schools around Yangon to open on Monday
after a long holiday, despite the affects of Cyclone Nargis, which left
133,600 dead or missing, with 2.4 million people in need of food, shelter
and medicine.

Schools in the hardest-hit regions of the Irrawaddy Delta have been given
another month to open, but UNICEF says 3,000 schools were wiped out by the
cyclone. About 500,000 children have no classrooms at all.

After Cyclone Nargis destroyed their home, Htay Win and her two daughters
found shelter in the classrooms of a nearby school on the outskirts of
Myanmar's former capital Yangon.

But late last week, authorities forced them to move back to the ruins of
their home, and then said the two daughters should return on Monday for
classes.

Her daughters, longing for some semblance of normalcy in the routine of a
school day, begged her to let them go.

So she went to a money lender to borrow the 5.50 dollars she needs for
school fees. Htay Win is supposed to pay him back at the end of the month,
plus 20 percent interest.

"I have no choice. I have to find a way to give my daughters an
education," she said.

"But I have nothing. I am a widow, and my house was destroyed by the
storm. I already had to get a loan to build a bamboo tent where my house
used to be," the 42-year-old vegetable seller told AFP.

"We just got two tins of rice from the township authorities today. Apart
from that, the authorities have not given anything to us.

"Some private donors came to donate things to storm victims, but the
authorities stopped them," she said.

Htay Win's family were among 400 hungry and homeless storm victims forced
to leave the No.2 Basic Education Middle School on Friday, according to a
teacher here.

The lucky ones had a bit of tarpaulin to make a tent, but most had
nothing, she said.

The authorities insisted that schools around Yangon open on schedule on
Monday after a long holiday, despite the cyclone that left 133,600 dead or
missing, with 2.4 million people in need of food, shelter and medicine.

Schools in the hardest-hit regions of the Irrawaddy Delta have been given
another month to open, but UNICEF says 3,000 schools were wiped out by the
cyclone. About 500,000 children have no classrooms at all.

At this middle school, flies now swarm through the three-storey building,
with classrooms reeking of human waste. There has been no sanitation since
the cyclone hit one month ago.

Teachers fear for their students' health, but their fear of defying the
military authorities is even greater.

"My school isn't clean enough. I worry for the children's health. We need
to spray disinfectant around the school. We hope the Doctors Without
Borders or World Vision will help," the teacher said.

Only about half of the school's 870 students showed up for class this week.

"Many parents can't afford to send their children to school, because they
don't have enough money. I feel so sad for my pupils," another teacher
said.

"Many parents told me that they went to money-lenders for their school
fees, even with the very high interest rates. I told the children they can
come to school even if they don't have the right uniforms," she said.

Some of the children have been sent to work instead.

San San Khaing, a 30-year-old fish seller, said she has sent her
14-year-old daughter to work in a factory after their home was destroyed
in the storm.

"I can't afford to educate my eldest daughter any more. I am sending the
younger one to school, by borrowing the money at 20 percent interest. We
are surviving on my eldest daughter's wages," she said.

"I hope she will go back to school next year," she said. "But I'm lucky
enough to send one daughter to school," she added.

Cyclone victims around Hlaing Thayar, a crippling poor neighbourhood on
Yangon's outskirts, said the military has stopped private donors from
delivering supplies here, even though state media loudly proclaim everyday
that anyone is free to make donations everywhere.

"The local authorities have given us seven potatoes. Three were already
rotten. I have seven family members. What I am supposed to do with that?"
said Khin Cho, a 43-year-old mother living in a homemade tent.

"They always try to stop the private donors," she said. "What's the
result? We get nothing."

____________________________________

June 4, Mizzima News
Junta says constitution given mandate, opposition rejects contention – Mungpi

The New York based Human Rights Watch said it does not endorse the Burmese
junta's referendum results as it falls short of any form of existing
standards and urged the international community including the United
Nations to reject it.

"Human Rights Watch does not endorse the results of the referendum," David
Scott Mathieson, HRW's Burma consultant told Mizzima.

"We don't think other members of the international community should
[endorse]. Endorsing the [junta's] process is endorsing military rule [in
Burma]."

But Burma's military rulers said the people's overwhelming support of the
draft constitution in the referendum in May shows that the people have
given the mandate to the constitution.

And that the result of the referendum wipes out the mandate claimed by the
opposition party - the National League for Democracy – that won a
landslide victory in Burma's last free and fair general election in 1990.

The junta announced that the draft constitution was supported by 92.48
percent of the total eligible voters in Burma in a referendum, which
critics said was not 'Free and Fair.'

The junta's statement, which came in the form of an article in its
mouthpiece newspapers – New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday and The Mirror on
Wednesday – questioned the 1990 election results saying it is now
irrelevant and lacks the support of the people.

"Then, what will those who claim themselves to have the mandate of the
people according to the 1990 election results have to do? Will they have
to throw the mandate down the drain," the article questioned.

But critics said the constitution, drafted solely by the junta's
handpicked delegates, does not reflect the people's desire and the process
of the referendum lacks legitimacy and is fundamentally flawed.

Mathieson said the true desire of the people could only be reflected if
the referendum process did not include any form of vote-rigging,
intimidation, advance voting or any form of pressures on the people.

On Tuesday, US ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said
Burma's referendum fails to meet the standards of the UN Security Council
on account of openness and fairness.

In his interaction with the press on his assuming the office of the
Council's Presidency for June, Khalilzad told reporters in New York that
Burma's "referendum did not meet the standards that the Security Council
had expressed."

"We have not seen satisfactory progress on that
 and the easing of the
conditions on Aung San Suu Kyi has not taken place besides the issue of
the referendum," Khalilzad said.

Meanwhile, Burma's 88 generation student activists, the All Burma
Federation Students' Union and the All Burma Monks Alliance in a joint
statement on Wednesday rejected the ruling junta's referendum results and
pledged that they will continue activities until a new constitution that
reflects the peoples' desire could be formulated.

"We will continue with the Pattanikuzana (boycott campaign) until a new
government representing the people can be formed," Sayadaw U Pyinya
Wuntha, spokesperson of the ABMA told Mizzima.

But the junta said the people by overwhelmingly approving the constitution
shows that they welcome the new government to be formed after the 2010
election.

Mathieson said while practically convening the parliament on the basis of
the 1990 election might not be relevant due to the time gap and
differences in situation, the legitimacy of the election winners cannot be
denied.

"Its practical to say that convening the parliament is no longer viable,
however, everyone should remember it still has legitimacy and the
surviving Members of Parliament should be given the respect they deserve,"
Mathieson said.

Nyan Win, spokesperson of the NLD said there are no legal grounds to say
that the 1990 election results have lost its relevance. And the junta's
constitution cannot be considered legally approved as the junta has
pre-determined the result of the referendum.

"Legally, the people have given their mandate to the 1990 election
results," said Nyan Win, adding that though the junta failed to honour, it
cannot be overridden by a 'rigged referendum'.

However, the NLD believes that the best way forward for Burma's political
future is to negotiate and to hold a dialogue to kick-start an all
inclusive process of national reconciliation, Nyan Win added.


____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 4, Democratic Voice of Burma
Authorities demand money and goods from farmers – Naw Say Phaw

Local authorities in Zee Gone township, Bago division, have demanded that
farmers give them money, rice and buffalo, which they say will go to help
cyclone victims.

Farmers in Bago division's Zee Gone township said they were forced by
local authorities to pay 1000 kyat from their agricultural loans into the
cyclone fund.

"We also have to give 3 viss of rice grain for each acre of farm and each
village group in the area was asked to donate three buffalo which would be
worth around 350,000 kyat at today’s prices," one farmer said.

"They are robbing us and using the cyclone as an excuse."

Locals in Nyaung Lay Pin township said they have also been forced to give
rice grain or 48,000 kyat to local authorities for the cyclone victims.

"Township authorities told us we have a responsibility to contribute to
the rehabilitation of devastated areas in Irrawaddy and that we have to
donate whether we like it or not," a Nyaung Lay Pin resident said.

"Business owners were also asked to pay between 30,000 and 50,000 kyat."

Farmers from Nwartehgone village in Zee Gone have previously said they
were forced to give almost one fifth of their agricultural loans to local
authorities, including 200 kyat per acre for cyclone victims.

The farmers claimed the cyclone donation was taken by the village Peace
and Development Council chairman, who then demanded another 200 kyat from
them to replace it.

____________________________________

June 4, Reuters
Burmese stock up on rice

Thu Zar Nwe's rice store on a dusty street in Rangoon has done roaring
trade since last month's cyclone and sea surge engulfed more than one
million acres of arable land in Burma's key food bowl.

"If they have money, people are buying for a long time," she said, as
workers loaded an antiquated truck with 50 kg sacks of rice outside her
"Silver Earth" bulk rice shop.

The shop has been selling up to 300 sacks a day since Cyclone Nargis
struck on May 2.

Since the storm, the price of top quality rice has jumped from 28,000 kyat
per bag (about $25.45), to 42,000 kyat, making life even tougher in what
was already one of Asia's most impoverished nations after 46 years of
military rule.

Thu Zar Nwe's store is a minor oddity in Burma since it is private and not
linked to the ruling generals, who keep a tight rein over the market for
the country's staple food.

"Next year we will have problems getting good quality rice, so I think the
price can only go up," added Thu Zar Nwe, a small diamond sparkling on her
front tooth.

"Ordinary people are buying lower quality rice. Business is bad for most
people apart from the rich, so they are buying daily, bit by bit," she
added.

In a tiny room in a food and grocery market nearby, shopkeeper Khin Soe
tells the same story.

"The wealthy are buying and holding the rice, and for them it is okay. The
poor have to buy what they can each day," he said, sitting shirtless in
the morning heat.

A UN official said on Wednesday that 60 percent of the 1.3 million
hectares (3.2 million acres) of rice paddy in the five disaster areas had
been affected by the cyclone, which left 134,000 people dead or missing.

Some 16 percent, or 200,000 hectares, was seriously damaged.

Some land had been drained, but farmers still faced many hurdles,
including a lack of shelter, rice seeds, fertilizer and ploughing animals,
most of which were killed, Hiroyuki Konuma of the UN's Food and
Agriculture Organisation said.

"About 200,000 hectares will not be able to be used for the coming
production season," he told a news conference in Bangkok.

International aid workers hope that around half of the rice farmers in the
delta will be able to plant at least an acre of rice for the critical
monsoon crop.

The June planting, watered by the seasonal rains, produces the main rice
crop in the delta, the "rice bowl of Asia" in the days when Burma
administered as part of the British empire.

But with so much land still flooded, the UN is lobbying Burma's junta to
accept it might need short-term rice imports.

The UN's World Food Programme estimates that it will need to feed at least
750,000 people in Rangoon and the delta for some time to come.

Illustrating the impact of the storm, another store owner, Lin Lin Khine,
had just received a consignment of 50 sacks of rice she bought before the
cyclone and could have sold for a top price.

Instead, it has been soaked through by the rain and has now turned varying
shades of brown.

"Now it is good only for pigs," she said in disgust.


____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

June 4, Democratic Voice of Burma
Poor sanitation causes disease outbreak in Bogalay – Aye Nai

Aid workers on the ground in Irrawaddy division have reported continuing
health and sanitation problems, while some cyclone victims in some remote
areas are still waiting for assistance.

In Bogalay township, volunteers from the Human Rights Defenders and
Promoters network have had to withdraw from Ayeyargyi village, where they
had been helping storm victims, due to an outbreak of dysentery, according
to HRDP members based locally.

The United Nations and health organisations have warned that there could
be outbreaks of dysentery and typhoid in cyclone-hit areas due to lack of
proper sanitation.

An individual aid worker who had travelled to remote areas of Bogalay,
Dadaye and Laputta said the outbreak was not surprising because of the
lack of access to clean water.

“I’ve seen people bathing and washing their mouths and faces about 20 feet
away from corpses,” he said.

“In this kind of situation, you won’t be able to control dysentery and
other contagious diseases.”

He also urged aid workers and UN staff based in towns to come and help
survivors in remote areas.

“There are people who want to help but they are based in towns – people
don’t tend to go to remote areas,” the aid worker said.

“As for the authorities, they just keep on loading and unloading materials
on and off military trucks at depots,” he said.

“That’s all we see at the moment. We see them in boats with flags flying,
but they are doing nothing effective. Many villages, especially Karen
villages, have not received aid.”

U Myint Aye of HRDP also said that doctors from Philippines had not been
allowed to visit remote areas and had been restricted to treating patients
in the regional capital Pathein.

A Buddhist monk who has been helping survivors of Cyclone Nargis in
Irrawaddy division stressed that help is still needed and that comforting
words alone are not enough to save lives.

“The situation here is not how the Burmese government describes it. People
will only be able to survive with the help of others,” he said.

“You can’t just send prayers; you have to send charity.”

The monk’s comments came after the junta declared in state-run newspapers
that the disaster relief phase was over and called for patience while
reconstruction work takes place.


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 4, Associated Press
Human rights group accuses Myanmar military of killing, torturing ethnic
Karen civilians

While Myanmar's ruling military fails its people suffering after a
devastating cyclone, it is committing crimes against humanity in a brutal
campaign against ethnic Karen civilians, an international human rights
group said Wednesday.

The London-based Amnesty International said the Karen in eastern Myanmar
are being killed, tortured and forced to work for the military while their
villages are burned and their crops destroyed.

An estimated 147,800 Karen peopleremain refugees in their own land because
the junta forcibly relocated them from their villages to camps, in efforts
to stamp out a decades-old rebellion by a segment of the Karen community
seeking autonomy from the central government.

"These violations constitute crimes against humanity ... involving a
widespread and systematic violation of international human rights and
humanitarian law," an Amnesty report said.

The government has repeatedly denied similar allegations in the past,
saying it was only engaged in security operations in Karen State aimed at
wiping out "terrorists."

Amnesty said the continuing campaign is the fourth turbulent episode in
the country's recent history.

The others include a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests last
September, a recent referendum on a constitution designed to perpetuate
military rule and "a humanitarian and human rights disaster in the wake of
Cyclone Nargis," it said.

The international community has sharply criticized the junta for barring
foreign aid workers from areas worst hit by the cyclone and itself
providing little help to survivors.

Amnesty said that unlike in earlier campaigns against the Karen National
Union, the key rebel group, the current one that began 2 1/2 years ago has
"civilians as the primary targets."

The group said it documented cases of more than 25 Karen civilians killed
by the military in Karen State in the two years since July 2005.

One farmer working in his field in Dweh Loh township was beaten and shot
by soldiers after he told them the location of a rebel camp. Another
farmer told of a civilian detainee being stabbed in the chest and then
dropped down a mountain slope "just like an animal."

"If they found us they would kill us, because for the Burmese army the
Karen and the Karen National Union are one," a 35-year-old villager in
Thandaung township told Amnesty. Myanmar is also known as Burma.

Arbitrary arrests, sudden disappearances, forced labor and portering for
the military continue to be widespread, Amnesty said. A woman from
Tantabin township said she and other porters were forced to act as human
minesweepers, and that some stepped on mines.

To purportedly separate civilians from the armed rebels, villagers have
been forcibly relocated from their homes into camps where men, women and
children are also forced to work for the military.

Often the villages they left behind were torched.

____________________________________

June 4, The Nation (Thailand)
UK still worried over distribution of aid in burma – Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The United Kingdom is continuing to express its concerns over the
distribution of aid to the devastated areas of Burma.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband yesterday urged his Thai counterpart
Noppadon Pattama, who is visiting London on a European tour, to use
whatever pressure he can to get the assistance to the hundreds of
thousands of affected people.

The UK contributed ฃ25 million (Bt1.6 billion) to Burma after
Cyclone Nargis hit the country early last month and left more than 134,000
people dead and missing.

After long delays, international humanitarian aid has begun to flow into
the junta-ruled country but the United Nations said only 60 per cent of
2.4 million affected people have received assistance.

Noppadon said yesterday he told Miliband the Asean-led coordinating
mechanism and the tri-partite core group jointly set up by the UN, Asean
and the junta would be able to get things done.

Burmese authorities said yesterday assistance from abroad could reach
devastated areas without delay.

"Myanmar [Burma] was able to successfully carry out the relief and
rehabilitation operation in a short time although it was hit hard by the
severe storm," said the junta's mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar.

Noppadon urged the UK to continue humanitarian assistance to Burma beyond
the emergency relief, in terms of education and human development.

Despite being a bilateral visit, the Burma issue dominated discussions
between Noppadon and Miliband on the natural disaster and political
development in the military-ruled country.

"I beg the UK for understanding that Thailand cannot take a tough position
on democracy in Burma but needs to engage Burma since we are immediate
neighbours who share more than 2,000 kilometres of border," he said via
telephone conference from London yesterday.

The political situation in Burma has been in deadlock since the junta
refused to allow the opposition to participate in politics. The
authorities have just extended the house arrest of opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi despite proceeding with the so-called "seven-step" roadmap
toward national reconciliation and democracy.


____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 4, Philippine Daily Inquirer
ASEAN’s shame

A month after the storm that wrought havoc on Burma (Myanmar) and killed
over 130,000 people, over 2 million Burmese citizens remain at risk. The
international community had responded readily, offering both rescue teams
and relief aid. But in the first three weeks of the deepening humanitarian
crisis, the military dictatorship that has controlled Burma since 1962
spurned all forms of foreign assistance. It changed its mind only after
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Burma and personally
negotiated the terms of access with junta leader Than Shwe.

It has since become clear, however, that regardless of the junta’s
promises, foreign relief remains unwelcome in Burma. This must be due to
the junta’s fear of foreign intervention and its brutal disregard for the
welfare of its own people. (It even took advantage of the tropical
cyclone’s chaotic aftermath to extend opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s
house arrest.)

Last week, a French naval vessel sailed from Burma after being refused
entry into the country one last time; it had to leave its cargo of relief
aid with the United Nations in Thailand. And today, four US Navy ships
will leave the area too, save for several heavy-lift helicopters it will
temporarily base in Thailand, after the American government’s offer of
help was rejected for perhaps the 15th time.

“Over the past three weeks we have made at least 15 attempts to convince
the Burmese government to allow our ships, helicopters and landing craft
to provide additional disaster relief for the people of Burma,” the
commander in chief of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Timothy Keating,
said. “I am both saddened and frustrated to know that we have been in a
position to help ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people and
help mitigate further loss of life, but have been unable to do so because
of the unrelenting position of the Burma military junta.”

Reuters reported from Bangkok that Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej
had told US Defense Secretary Robert Gates over the weekend the Burmese
junta’s reason for rejecting foreign military help: because (according to
Reuters) “it feared it could be seen as an invasion.”

The army of American relief-bringers that descended in parts of Indonesia
after the 2004 tsunami could also have been seen as an invasion; in fact
it did not escape criticism from some Indonesians, especially in the
context of the growth of fundamentalist Islamic movements in the world’s
largest Muslim nation. But Indonesia’s government welcomed the assistance,
helping thousands of lives in the process.

To be sure, Indonesia is an emerging democracy, and Burma remains as one
of the world’s last totalitarian states. But both countries belong to the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The members of ASEAN could have
prevailed on Burma to open its doors temporarily to foreign aid (and to
the military organizations needed to transport it).

We note with great regret that it was diplomatic pressure from the United
Nations that prompted the junta to open the gates (ever so slightly) to
foreign aid—regret, because it should have been ASEAN applying the
pressure. Indeed, it should be ASEAN’s role to keep the pressure on, to
ease the entry of more relief goods into the country.

But in the face of one of the worst crises in ASEAN history, the
association is being sucked into the vortex of irrelevance.

We realize that diplomacy has only a limited effect on a dictatorship like
Burma’s. We acknowledge that the Burmese junta’s decision in 2005 to
vacate ASEAN’s rotating presidency in favor of the Philippines was the
result of some furious back-channeling. We recognize that, for a junta
like Burma’s, an international honor like that of ASEAN’s rotating
presidency pales into insignificance beside the imperative of regime
survival. But surely ASEAN can make the case to Burma to allow
non-regime-threatening humanitarian aid.

If Burma’s membership in ASEAN does not allow other members to help in
times of great calamity, why join in the first place?

____________________________________

June 4, Jakarta Post
Tin Soe: Striving for democracy in Myanmar – A Junaidi

Tin Soe knows how difficult it is to be a minority Burmese Muslim --
suffering discrimination and insecurity -- as well as a journalist working
in an authoritarian country like Myanmar.

Along with other inter-faiths activists, Tin, who is also known as Mohamed
Taher, the editor of Kaladan Press Network, has been struggling against
Myanmar's military junta and dreaming of a democratic country.

"I'm fighting the military junta through the media. No foreign media are
able to cover ... the junta are not giving permission to enter the areas,"
Tin said in an interview with The Jakarta Post recently on the sidelines
of his visit together with a group of Buddhist monks at the Post's office
in Central Jakarta.

The visit included a discussion on the recent rally in Myanmar, which
thousands of people joined, including Buddhist monks in Yangon, the
capital of the country.

Hundreds of people, including the monks and a foreign journalist, were
reportedly killed during the demonstration after police brutally dispersed
the crowd.

Through his news agency, which is based in Chitagong, a Bangladesh border
town, Tin coordinated reporters inside Myanmar, particularly in Yangon, to
collect information on the rally.

Tin said he was jailed twice in 2004 -- in January (seven days) and
November (15 days) -- in Bangladesh for distributing news about the
military junta.

"The military junta would also attack Buddhist monks if they felt
threatened ... it's not just Muslims who suffered discrimination for years
under the regime," self-exiled Tin said.

The muslim population of Myanmar comprises about eight percent or one
million of the total population. The religious group is divided into four
sub-groups: Muslims of Indian origin, from Bangladesh, India or Pakistan;
Arakan Muslims, called Rohingyas; Panthays Muslims, who originate from
Yunnan, China and use Mandarin language; and Burmese Muslims, of Persian
origin.

Tin said Burmese Muslims in Mynamar were discriminated under an
assimilation project commonly called "Burmanization", a socio-cultural
project in which Muslims were not allowed to use Urdu (the main language
of Muslims of Indian origin), Arabic and Mandarin, instead of Burmese
language. Islamic schools, mosques and cemeteries were also closed under
the project.

"We were banned from holding Islamic functions such as the Idul Adha and
Idul Fitri celebrations," Tin, who received his Bachelor of Science degree
in physics from Rangoon University, Burma, said.

Another form of discrimination, he said, was the one citizen law, which
had forced thousands of Arakan Muslims (who resided in predominantly
Muslim state of Rakhine) to take refuge in Bangladesh, as they were not
legally acknowledged in Myanmar and not permitted to hold identity cards.
Many Muslims also took refuge in Malaysia, while others sought protection
in Thailand.

After graduating from university, Tin worked at a private company in
Chitagong. He was also active in the Arakan Roping Islamic Front as an
intern who collected information from inside Arakan on abuses carried out
by the military junta from May 1982 to December 1988.

Tin, who was born on May 20, 1955, went on to study mass media and joined
several training programs on various topics, such as public relations,
photography and news gathering in Baguio city, the Philippines, and web
design and ICT in Thailand.


>From January 1989 to December 2003, he worked as an assistant (overseas)

information secretary for the Arakan Rohingya National Organization in
Saudi Arabia. He reported to the head office in Bangladesh on the
settlement of large number of Rohingyas refugees in the Middle East, and
set up networks with government officials and local NGOs.

The military junta's brutal action against Buddhist monks was an
indication, Tin said, that the violence in Myanmar did not discriminate
religion or ethnicity.

It was once thought that the junta supported Buddhism -- as shown by their
participation in Buddhist rituals and celebrations -- and discriminated
other minority religions, including Islam.

However, the junta has always claimed that a firm government is needed to
prevent the country, which is diverse in terms of ethnicity and religions,
from breaking up. Burmese comprise the largest ethnic group in Myanmar.
Other ethnic groups, including the Karen and Shan groups, are still
involved in armed conflict with the military junta.

The current military junta is dominated by Burmese (top opposition leader
Aung San Su Kyi is also Burmese).

International countries, including ASEAN states like Indonesia, have
condemned the brutal military action against demonstrators in Myanmar.

Tin said international support would help Mynamarmese activists to free
the country from military repression. He and other activists, including
monks, are now traveling overseas to seek that support.

"We have shown that we, Buddhists and Muslims, as well as people from
different ethnic (groups) can cooperate. We believe a democratic country
can protect their citizens without any discrimination."


____________________________________
STATEMENT

June 3, White House
Statement by the Press Secretary on cyclone relief for Burma

The United States is committed to bringing relief assistance to the
victims of Cyclone Nargis, and to work with ASEAN countries, the United
Nations, and non-governmental organizations to do so. To date, the United
States has provided more than $26 million in humanitarian assistance to
the people of Burma, and the United States Agency for International
Development and the Department of Defense, as part of the ongoing airlift,
have completed a total of 106 airlifts of emergency relief commodities
that will benefit at least 417,000 people.

As the Pacific Command announced last night , the USS Essex group and U.S.
Marine Corps 31 Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) will move from the waters
off Burma and continue their previously-scheduled operational commitments
on June 5, 2008. These assets were immediately deployed to Burma in the
spirit of goodwill to offer extensive and life-saving assistance to the
victims of Cyclone Nargis. Tragically, the Burmese authorities refused to
accept this assistance.

Furthermore, the generosity and compassion of the United States and the
wider international community are impeded by the unwillingness of the
Burmese authorities to provide full access to the cyclone-affected areas,
despite their commitments to do so. Over a month after the cyclone hit the
shores of the Burmese Delta, tens of thousands have died and over a
million victims have yet to receive any assistance. The Burmese regime
must permit all international aid workers the access necessary to provide
the urgently-needed assistance. There is no more time to waste.


____________________________________
INTERVIEW

June 4, BBC News
Aid workers tell of time in Burma

A month after Cyclone Nargis devastated parts of Burma, the few British
aid workers allowed in by the ruling military junta have begun returning
home.

Here three tell of their time there and whether the £11m so far donated by
Britons is having an effect.

KATY BARNETT, CHILD PROTECTION ADVISOR, SAVE THE CHILDREN

Up to 2,000 survivors of the Burma cyclone are thought to be lost children
unable to find their parents.

Child protection specialist Katy Barnett visited Burma shortly after
Cyclone Nargis struck and stayed for two weeks.

"I headed up our child protection responsibility, which looked at family
tracing and at the well-being of children, many of whom may have lost
siblings or parents," she said.

"For children who are declared orphans we are looking at long-term care
arrangements.

"We know from other emergencies that children who are separated from their
families are extremely vulnerable to all kinds of exploitation and abuse.

"There's a threat of trafficking, we've heard tales of horrendous child
labour.

"In Burma, it seemed to be perfectly normal for children to start work
under 10, and to be living far from home."

She said this was a pre-existing situation, so was a "huge threat" to
those orphaned by Cyclone Nargis.

"We had second-hand reports, from community members, that traffickers had
been in villages offering work for both adults and children.

"We were told of a family of six children whose mother had accepted to go
to China to work."

She said their biggest challenge was still ahead. Children who had been
taken in by a foster family were vulnerable when these families started to
find it "much harder to sustain extra children".

"After the initial flurry of aid has gone, it can be much more dangerous
for that child," she said.

"In Burma we found that children were generally being fostered by their
extended family."

They were developing plans on how to best support these families. "We
don't want to make it really attractive for families to take on new
children unless they genuinely want to help.

"On the other hand, we don't want to leave foster families without any
support at all. We have to get the support just right."

On her time in Burma and the restrictions placed on her as a foreigner,
she said: "I did get to go out a little bit around Yangon [the official
name for Burma's capital Rangoon] but I wasn't able to go into the Delta
and that made it much harder to understand the situation, especially as
the communications were quite rocky.

"You had to take a huge leap of faith - for example with family tracing -
that the procedures were being followed, that interviews were being
carried out in an ethical manner."

She said she had not had contact with the Burmese authorities, as this was
done through Save the Children's government liaison officer.

"It was really important that we were always consistent about what we were
doing and why," she said.

ALISON FERNANDES, DESK OFFICER, TEARFUND

Alison Fernandes works for Christian charity Tearfund. She visited Burma
for 10 days, returning last week.

Based in Rangoon, she said she visited the charity's "partners" - the 276
churches in the affected area who were providing aid on the ground - "to
make sure they had the support they needed".

"I was there meeting them to find out what they have been doing and hear
their experiences and help them plan for the future," she said.

"The most wonderful thing was to see for myself that aid was getting
through to the people who needed it.

"The churches are reaching out to people who are in need, so I am really,
really pleased that aid is getting through.

"One of our partners is sending medical teams who are being able to give
emergency aid."

She gave one example: "We were able to give one man whose eye was poked
out by a tree first aid and refer him to where he would get the help he
needs."

They were also providing shelter.

"It was wonderful to have a sense that things are actually happening.
There was a real buzz of action, but also a sense that the needs are
absolutely huge."

She said she had attempted to reach the affected area but she was stopped
at a roadblock and told she would not be allowed through without the
relevant permissions.

Instead, she said, she visited some of the townships just outside Rangoon.

She found people who had lost their homes and many were out of work, with
many factories damaged.

The petrol price had gone up a lot so people were finding it hard to pay
for bus fares to find work, she continued.

"A third of people's daily wage has been taken up just by transport."


She said trauma was going to be a "really big issue". People had told her
many stories about the guilt of survivors.

"I heard so many stories of parents who tried to save their children. Some
tied them to their wrists with rope, but this cyclone moved very, very
slowly, so people were buffeted for about eight to 10 hours in the middle
of the night.

"Many couldn't hold their children for that whole time, so many just got
washed away.

"I found it very difficult emotionally because I am a mother myself, and
it was hard to hear so many stories of how children had been lost.

"On the other hand I was inspired that our partners are doing a most
fantastic job."

JONATHAN PEARCE, INFORMATION OFFICER, MERLIN

Jonathan Pearce, an information officer for the medical charity Merlin,
visited Burma for one week two weeks' ago.

He was there to establish a picture of the environment and an idea of what
people needed, he said.

"Our access was hampered considerably both by the nature of the
environment - it was very remote - and by the bureaucratic and legal
restrictions.

"As a foreigner in Myanmar [the official name for Burma] I could not go to
certain areas freely and many of the areas that were severely affected
couldn't be visited by foreigners without a permit."

Fortunately, he said, Merlin already had a project in the area at the time
of Cyclone Nargis so "we had the infrastructure in place to be able to get
permits".

"The main thing was we were able to get into the country without much
difficulty because we had already been working there," he said.

"And most of our work was delivered by nationals. A lot of qualified
medical graduates were available. They could travel there freely."

During his stay, Mr Pearce was based in Labutta, in the affected region.

"The week I was there, when we arrived in Labutta it rained solidly for 48
hours. People desperately needed better shelter," he said.

"People were... camping under sheets of plastic on bricks, to keep off the
wet ground. And they were cold because the rain was so intense.

"It was two weeks after the event and there wasn't an atmosphere that this
was the hub of aid co-ordination.

"You would expect to see helicopters, you would expect to see the roads
choked with supplies. Nothing that came in was in the quantities that you
would expect."

However, he said, they were having an impact.

"There was a huge need, but there was a sense that we were being
successful in helping people every day. We felt we were doing what we
could do.

"As an organisation we just pushed and tried to get things done."

He said that steadily they were able to reach more and more people, some
of whom did complain not enough was being done.

"When someone goes through a disaster like this most are in a state of
shock and have no idea what to expect. People didn't feel safe and didn't
know when they were going back to their villages. Many of these villages
were literally washed away."

Since Mr Pearce's visit more Merlin workers have been allowed to Labutta
and more aid has arrived, the charity said.