BurmaNet News, June 14-16, 2008

[Editor]

June 14-16, 2008 Issue #3492


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Student activists helping Nargis victims arrested
Mizzima News: Actor Kyaw Thu hospitalised
Irrawaddy: Food theft by homeless children increases
AP: Police arrest Myanmar activist who ferried aid to cyclone survivors
AFP: In cyclone-hit Myanmar, rain drenches children in roofless school
Mizzima News: Junta shuts down pro-opposition monastery
AFP: Cyclone dead wash ashore on distant Myanmar beach: official

ON THE BORDER
Philippines Daily Inquirer: Saffron Soldiers

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar foreign trade registers new high in 2007-08
AP: Myanmar farmers fret over post-storm rice harvest

HEALTH / AIDS
AP: UN plans Myanmar anti-dengue operation
BBC News: Too little too late for Burma
Irrawaddy: Disease on the rise in Laputta

DRUGS
AFP: Burma arrests 245 drug traffickers

REGIONAL
The Hindu: We can’t decide on Myanmar: Pranab

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Burmese generals deserve to be flogged: US Congressman
DVB: International celebrations for Daw Suu's birthday

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Twilight of the idle regime




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

Jun 16, Mizzima News
Student activists helping Nargis victims arrested – Solomon

The Burmese military junta authorities detained at least three members of
88 Generation Students last Thursday.

Three senior members, one man and three women- Myet Thu, Yin Yin Wai and
Tin Tin Cho who were into cyclone relief efforts and aid distribution were
arrested while they were sitting in a teashop in Maynigone, Rangoon.

"They were in a tea shop waiting to discuss aid with monks when unknown
people came and said they were representatives of the monks and took them
away. They have disappeared," said a relative of Yin Yin Wai who requested
anonymity. The relatives do not know their whereabouts.

The Special Branch of the police which has been after the dissidents had
searched the house of those detained at least twice and asked their family
members about the lists relating to cyclone aid distribution in Irrawaddy
and Rangoon division.

"Around 15 officials including the police searched twice on June 14 and 15
and they asked us where the aid funds were and demanded to see the
ledger," she said.

The 88 Generation Students have formed a team which is called Myitta Paung
Ku. It has distributed aid at least six times to cyclone survivors.

"They searched the entire house and took some newspaper pictures of
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The second time they asked for the
laptop," said another family member.

88 Generation Students are known to be supporters of the opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi. Their top leaders are being detained in jails after the
mass uprising in August last year.

Meanwhile, an NGO staffer told Mizzima that the police are patrolling
around their office in Inyamyaeing Streets in Rangoon. His organisation is
distributing aid in Irrawaddy delta.

The junta arrested a well know comedian Zarganar (tweezers in Burmese) on
June 4 and former First Eleven weekly journal Editor Zaw Thet Htwe last
Friday. They were both distributing relief material in Irrawaddy delta.

____________________________________

June 16, Mizzima News
Actor Kyaw Thu hospitalised

Famous actor Kyaw Thu, who was helping cyclone victims, has been
hospitalised in Rangoon.

Ko Kyaw Thu (48), leader of the Free Funeral Service charity group and a
leading Burmese actor, has been hospitalised at 'Panhlaing' private
hospital since the 14th of this month, after complaining of uneasiness
during his 'Pyin' district tour in Irrawaddy Division.

"He usually suffers like that when he is under stress. He is also
suffering from an enlarged heart, enlarged liver and hypertension. His
habit of smoking and an unhealthy diet has affected his health," Daw Shwe
Zigwet, his wife, said.

"He was sweating and his hands and feet were cold, when we reached Pathein
during his tour to 'Pyin' district. Then he had to be hospitalised," a
person who accompanied him on his tour to help the cyclone victims in
Irrawaddy Division said.

He will be discharged from hospital after two more days and would proceed
to 'Titukone' village in 'Pyin' district, where he is supervising
construction of a middle school, which could accommodate 620 students.

His charity group, the Free Funeral Service', is continuing relief work in
Amar Kunmu in Bogale Township and in Hmawdaw near Kyaiktaw.

____________________________________

June 16, Irrawaddy
Food theft by homeless children increases – Violet Cho

Increasing numbers of Burmese children, some as young as 10 years old, are
stealing food to offset starvation, say Rangoon residents.

Rangoon residents say the theft of food and other goods has increased in
the former capital and elsewhere in cyclone-damaged areas.

Food products at one large department store in downtown Rangoon are being
stolen by children in broad daylight, said the store’s owner who said he
chased after one 13-year-old boy, but was then touched by the boy’s
plight.

“I ended up providing food for him when he told me that he was from a
village in Hlaing Tharyar Township,” he said. “The boy came to find a job
in the city for his family, and he stole food from the shop because he was
hungry.”

He said more children are begging for handouts around the city while
others sneak inside people’s homes to steal anything they can sell.

Meanwhile UNICEF and other aid groups working in Burma say there is cause
to worry about the fate of children in the cyclone-affected area.

“We have deep concern over the future of children who have lost their
parents and family members,” said a Burmese staffer with UNICEF.

A recent decision by the Burmese junta that ordered storm refugees to
return to the location of their homes, many totally destroyed, was a
decision that threatens the physical and mental health of many children,
aid workers said. Children who have lost their parents and relatives are
especially vulnerable and need extra care at this time in their lives.

Children who have no adults to care for them usually end up following
people who they have met during the relief operations, they say.

According to Rangoon residents, many children from the cyclone-affected
area end up working at teashops and restaurants where they receive food
and very small salaries.

“I felt bad when I saw people take parentless children to work,” said a
Rangoon woman, who said she saw two boys from the Irrawaddy delta as young
as eight years old working in a teashop.

One 9-year-old boy who lost his parents and was begging near Rangoon’s
main train station, told The Irrawaddy, “I can’t go back to my village
anymore. There are no people who will give me food, and I do not know
where my parents and brothers and sisters are.”

The boy said he befriended a 14-year-old boy who had also lost his parents
during the storm.

“I decided to come to Rangoon after I realized that I lost my family,” the
14-year-old boy said. “I didn’t know what I should do or where to go. I
came here with another friend who also lost his family.”

The older boy said, “I felt pity on him [the 9-year-old boy] when I saw
him crying near the train station. I asked him to come with me. I promised
myself that I would try to help him, but I can only give him one meal a
day, so he has to beg for more food if he is hungry.”

The UN children’s fund has established more than 30 children support
centers and about 60 dormitories for orphans, according to a UNICEF
statement.

However, the number is not sufficient to meet the needs of homeless
children who need assistance and shelter.

The Burmese government’s effort to care for homeless children has been
haphazard and disorganized, say observers. The government is still
rejecting offers to provide humanitarian assistance from many
international aid groups.

“I can not imagine the future of these homeless children,” said the editor
of a Rangoon journal.

Tropical Cyclone Nargis affected about 2.4 million people. An estimated 1
million of those are children, according to UNICEF.

Irrawaddy correspondents Kyi Wai and Aung Thet Wine contributed to this
story.

____________________________________

June 15, Associated Press
Police arrest Myanmar activist who ferried aid to cyclone survivors

Police detained a prominent activist who was distributing aid to cyclone
survivors in Myanmar, colleagues said Sunday, the latest critic of the
military junta's handling of the disaster to be rounded up.

Zaw Thet Htway was taken into custody Saturday while staying at his
parents home in the central Myanmar town of Minbu, 250 miles southwest of
Yangon, the country's biggest city, said colleagues who requested
anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

The arrest followed the June 4 detention of Myanmar's most popular
comedian, Zarganar, who was working with Zaw Thet Htway to deliver
donations of critical relief supplies to the cyclone-shattered Irrawaddy
delta. Both are outspoken critics of the junta.

Zarganar's arrest came after he had given interviews to foreign news
outlets and criticized the military regime's slow response to survivors of
the May 2-3 Cyclone Nargis, which killed at least 78,000 people and left
another 56,000 missing

In one of the interviews, Zarganar said he and more than 400 entertainers
in Myanmar had volunteered to aid victims of the cyclone, making several
trips to the delta to help some of the more than 2 million survivors.

The day after the comedian was detained, the junta began publishing daily
warnings in state-controlled media against people who send "video footage
of relief work to foreign news agencies." Many believe the government
suspects Zarganar and his co-workers of providing videos from their relief
missions to anti-junta groups.

International rights groups have called for Zarganar's release.

"To arrest one of Burma's most famous public figures for talking to the
media at the time he was distributing aid shows the Burmese government is
more concerned with controlling its citizens than assisting them," Brad
Adams, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said Friday. Myanmar was
formerly called Burma.

Zarganar has been already imprisoned several times. Most recently, he was
held for three weeks for providing food and other necessities to Buddhist
monks who spearheaded anti-government protests in Yangon last September.

Zaw Thet Htway, formerly an editor of a popular local sports newspaper,
was arrested in 2003 for allegedly plotting to "overthrow the government
through bombings and assassinations."

He was convicted of high treason and sentenced to death but was later
given a reduced sentence and released in 2005 after serving 18 months.

____________________________________

June 15, Agence France Presse
In cyclone-hit Myanmar, rain drenches children in roofless school

Teacher Hlang Thein gently admonishes a group of primary school children
to carefully repeat the alphabet after her so they can wrap up the lesson
before the heavy rains drench them again.

Hlang Thein, in her immaculate white teacher's blouse, is trying to bring
some semblance of normality back to the children in her community.

Many remain traumatised after Cyclone Nargis flattened the impoverished
farming village of Mawin, which is in Kawhmu township in a remote corner
of the Irrawaddy Delta only accessible by a small motorized boat.

"But how can they not remember? We are studying in a house without a roof
and walls and every time the rain comes, they get wet," Hlang Thein told
AFP. "Our books and notepads are still damp."

The children sit on the wooden floor, and while some have managed to save
their green and white uniforms when the cyclone struck in early May, many
are wearing clothes donated by private relief agencies.

Hlang Thein said she has to be very patient with her pupils. Many of them
do not want to study until the school house is rebuilt -- and that will
take time.

Building materials are difficult to come by. All of the 275 houses
clustered in this village were blown away, except Hlang Thein's. It is,
however, heavily damaged, and only the wooden frame and floor were left
behind.

It is here where she has decided to teach the children.

"I do not want them to miss any lessons, even under these conditions," she
said.

The village's brick schoolhouse was destroyed by Nargis, and a broken
blackboard and a tiny Buddha statue are the only reminders that the rubble
was once classrooms.

None of the village's 100 registered primary school pupils were injured or
killed "but their minds are stuck on Nargis," she said.

Myanmar's military rulers insisted that schools around Yangon open on
schedule on June 2 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 delta were 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.

In Mawin, village chief Zaw Win, 46, said little aid had arrived so far,
blaming intermittent heavy rains which make it hard to navigate the narrow
tributary that connects the hamlet to the nearest port upriver.

The tributary itself is still littered with debris, including uprooted,
centuries-old birch trees and bloated animal carcasses.

"This is only accessible through the river. But only small motorized boats
can get through," Zaw Win said. "And they are too small to carry loads of
relief supplies or building materials."

He said the remaining food supplies will only be enough for 90 families,
leaving 1,100 more families without any rations for the next few days.

The cyclone has also wreaked havoc on the fields, with the flood waters
washing away what would have been a bountiful harvest in early May. Now it
is between planting seasons, and while the fields are ripe for ploughing
and there is enough irrigation, the rice seedlings have been spoiled.

"We have vast rice fields, but no rice to eat," Zaw Win said. "I am asking
for donors to bring rice seedlings so we can again plant in the June-July
season. Rice for cooking is also very essential."

"There is nothing left on the fields," he said, adding that government
officials and medical personnel had visited once since the cyclone struck,
but despite promising more rations have not returned.

Many of the other villages lying along the tributary are in the same
condition. What once were houses are now just mounds of broken wood and
debris.

Kitchen wares, trash and plastic containers line the shore and bamboo
bridges that connected communities on both sides have not been repaired.

Thein's students meanwhile are distracted by a distant rumbling of
thunder. The sky is dark, and she decides to call off lessons for the day.

"We will try to get them to sing nursery rhymes tomorrow," she said
smiling, but with a concerned look in her eyes.

____________________________________

June 15, Mizzima News
Junta shuts down pro-opposition monastery

The Burmese military junta authorities sealed a pro-opposition Buddhist
monastery in Rangoon yesterday.

The township chairman and security forces arrived at the Sasana Theikpan
monastery compound of Chauk Htut Gyi pagoda, Bahan Township on Friday
morning and told monks they would close the monastery until an official
announcement by the new head of monastery was made.

Security forces told the monks that they had come with an order from the
Rangoon military commander Brigadier General Hla Htay Win.

“They locked the door of the monastery with a lock they brought with them
at 5 p.m. yesterday,” a monk from Sasana Theikpan told Mizzima.

The monk believed that it was a ruse and he did not expect the monastery
to be reopened.  Three monks of Sansana Theikpan are taking temporary
shelter in two nearby monasteries.

The former head of the Sasana Theikpan monastery died recently and dozens
of pro-democracy opposition activists attended the funeral service on June
7 even as the authorities monitored the funeral service.

About a hundred pro-government civil militia of the Swan Arr Shin and
members of Union Solidarity Development Association were standing by to
crackdown, activists told Mizzima.

Buddhist monasteries were raided and some were sealed during and after
monks led a mass uprising against the government in September 2007.

Sasana Theikpan and Sasana Gonye were among the monasteries raided by
security forces in Bahan Township. The latter has been shut down since the
raid.

____________________________________

June 14, Agence France Presse
Cyclone dead wash ashore on distant Myanmar beach: official

About 300 bloated and decaying corpses, apparently victims of Cyclone
Nargis, washed up on a beach in eastern Myanmar more than one month after
the storm, a local official said Saturday.

The bodies had been found in the last week on the beach near Mawlamyine
town, across the Gulf of Martaban, more than 100 miles (160 kilometres)
east of the devastated Irrawaddy Delta, the official told AFP.

More than 133,000 people were killed or are missing after the cyclone
struck six weeks ago. Many were washed out to sea as a tidal surge wiped
out their villages.

"About 300 dead bodies have been cremated in the last week, after they
floated into Kyaikkhami and Setse beaches. They were all decomposing. Most
of them appeared to be women," said the official who spoke on condition of
anonymity.

"Some fishermen saw these dead bodies on the beaches and informed the
authorities," he said. "We decided to cremate them for the sake of the
environment," he said.

Residents told AFP by telephone that many people had moved away to avoid
the grim scenes of bodies washing onto the beaches.

The descriptions recalled the devastation in the delta last month, when
victims' bodies were left rotting on roadsides and floating in rice
fields, where in many cases they laid for weeks.


____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 15, Philippines Daily Inquirer
Saffron Soldiers – Patricia Evangilista

IT’S NOT OVER YET: These Burmese monks are among the many who fled after
participating in last year’s bloody saffron revolution.

The monks who have been driven out of Burma after the September 2007
revolution are not backing down just yet.

He wears a red robe and has a white scar behind his left ear. He is the
oldest here—old compared to the boys who gather under a thatched roof on a
Monday afternoon, robes looped over their shoulders. U O Ba Sa is 53, from
Pago division in Burma. He sits on the veranda, where thin, brightly
printed mats march along one side of the wooden floor. Saffron coloured
robes hang on thin wires. Outside, where a young monk sings while cleaning
fish, the trees are an impossible green.

On Sept 25, 2007, U O Ba Sa walked across Pago with 5,000 other Burmese
monks, throwing empty water bottles at the gates of monasteries whose
monks stayed behind closed doors. When darkness crept over Pago, 70
Burmese monks, led by U O Ba Sa, walked the 80km to Burma’s former capital
Rangoon.

U O Ba Sa punctuates his story with waving hands and spread fingers: The
sun burns high in Rangoon. The monks stop outside an elementary school,
waiting as a crowd of schoolchildren spilled out of the school gates. A
schoolteacher crosses the street with a 7-year-old holding on to each
other’s hand. There is a rumble, and then a Burmese police truck barrels
into the crossing group. The teacher and her tiny charges are killed
instantly. The monks who try to pick up the bodies are shot. The orange
robes turn red.

"Monks are of the people, we cannot watch them suffer."

U O Ba Sa does not know if the truck’s driver intended to kill. He only
knows what happened later, when he was beaten until the blood poured out
from behind his head. Many rushed out of the school when word spread about
the dead students—many more were shot.

“It was all at the same time happening. They couldn’t crack down on us by
beating, so they fired.”

It is Janida, a 27-year-old monk with gaunt cheeks and glasses, who
translates the stories into English. Janida was working on his bachelor of
arts degree in religion in a government university and one of the student
leaders during the saffron revolution. Teachers threatened students who
protested on the street with expulsion.

“Over 200 protested from my university. Many were afraid. I was in my
final year as student. Lost my degree, but degree does not matter. More
important what I do for the people.”

The September 2007 saffron revolution rose on the heels of exorbitant fuel
price increases. Monks, whose living depended on donations from people,
turned over their begging bowls and refused donations from the government.

“In 2007, people are starving, poor and sick. Children cannot go to
school. Monks are of the people, we cannot watch them suffer.”

Burmese refugees in Thailand say that after the Burmese army enters a
village and razes it to the ground, they proceed to kill off the men.

Parents send off young boys over the age of five to monasteries in the
city to protect them from death at the hands of the army or recruitment as
child soldiers. Burma’s military is 480,000-strong, nearly the same number
as the Buddhist monks with their 500,000 saffron-clad warriors of peace.
For many young men, the monastery, and eventually the army, are considered
not so much vocations but means of escape. Burmese villages, especially
those held by ethnic minorities, are in constant danger of military
assault.

Downstairs, the young monk has finished cleaning his fish and is hacking
it to pieces. There are white earphones shoved into his ears. He tells me
he is a fan of Michael Jackson. Someone plays Top of the World by the
Carpenters on a cell phone. There is laughter and voices chiming in
requests for Madonna and Avril Lavigne. One monk sits on a mat with a
crumpled newspaper open on the sports page, forehead creased, chin on
palm. He says he is rooting for Manchester United and Robinho.

There are many monks who decide to forgo their vocation. “They want to
wear regular clothes, meet girls, go to movies,” says Nai Nai, a young
Burmese graduate student studying in Bangkok.

The families of these monks do not know where their sons and brothers are.
There are nearly 30 monks here in Mae Sot. The youngest is 19. They are
not safe, not here, too close to the border. Very soon they will have to
find another home. Some have managed to secure travel to the United
States.

“Maybe there is another country for us. We can’t go back,” says
29-year-old Eindaka from Rangoon.

“In our society,” says Nai Nai, “the monks stand for the people. They get
offerings from the people, and if the people suffer, the monks cannot
watch. We are related, them and us. That’s why they stand for us.”

Janida fled across the border to the monastery in February. They took his
photograph, he says. He can be arrested at any time, of any crime, without
the benefit of court or jury.

Many were killed during the September protests. Bodies wrapped in robes
turned white in the sun and floated on the rivers. Monks were tied to
lampposts and beaten.

And yet Janida does not believe they lost the fight against a tyrant
government. The world saw what was happening to their people. For him, it
was only a beginning.

“You cannot tell us we lose.” The scholarly young monk is angry, and
nearly on his feet. “We win.”

This article is written under the Southeast Asian Press Alliance fellowship.


____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 16, Xinhua
Myanmar foreign trade registers new high in 2007-08

Myanmar's total foreign trade volume in the 2007-08 fiscal year which
ended in March stood 8.851 billion U.S. dollars, a new high against
2006-07's 8.1 billion U.S. dollars, the State Customs Department said in
its latest statistics.

Of the total, the exports took 6.043 billion dollars, while the imports
accounted for 2.818 billion dollars registering a trade surplus of 3.225
billion dollars.

Such trade surplus has been gained since 2002-03, before which the country
suffered a trade deficit for many years.

The apparent increase of Myanmar's foreign trade in 2007-08 was attributed
to the export of natural gas which topped the country's exports during the
year, followed by agricultural produces (1.14 billion dollars), gem
products (647.53 million dollars), forest products (578.57 million) and
marine products (365.82 million).

In the country's imports line-up in the fiscal year, fuel led with 374.06
million dollars, followed by raw textile products (278.16 million),
machinery and spare parts (253.79 million), palm oil (211.01 million)
motor vehicles ( 209.8 million), iron and steel (175.68 million), plastic
products ( 137.15 million), pharmaceutical products (113.72 million) and
food and beverage (111.07 million).

Myanmar's foreign trade is mainly with Asian countries which account for
90 percent of the total. The trade with other member countries of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) represents 51.3 percent.
The remaining are with European countries with 4.8 percent and American
countries 1.5 percent.

Myanmar's main export goods are agricultural, marine and forestry
products, while its key import goods are machinery, crudeoil, edible oil,
pharmaceutical products, cement, fertilizer and consumers goods.

____________________________________

June 16, Associated Press
Myanmar farmers fret over post-storm rice harvest

Farmer Zaw Naing was puzzled as he stared at the brand new, unassembled
tilling machine — equipment not seen in most of Myanmar's rice belt before
the deadly cyclone.

Thousands of the tillers, donated by international and private aid donors,
have been brought in to replace the water buffalo that once plowed the
rice paddies but were killed by Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3.

The plan is for farmers in the devastated Irrawaddy delta to rebuild their
livelihoods and begin producing the rice that feeds this impoverished
country.

But time is running out.

The rice planting season should have started by early June, when farmers
here typically plow their fields with water buffalo and prepare to plant
new seeds for the October harvest. The delta produces most of Myanmar's
rice, and without immediate help, food security will be seriously
threatened, international experts have warned.

The Agriculture Ministry has said 13,600 power tillers are needed to
replace more than 280,000 cattle that died in the storm.

Some farmers say they have been lucky enough to receive the new machines
but need to reassemble them since the tillers were shipped in several
pieces.

"We don't know how to put it together. We have to wait for a mechanic to
come," Zaw Naing said on a recent afternoon in the delta village of Kyaung
Gwin as he unwrapped the plastic cover of the Chinese-made machine's red
engine. He watched as a neighbor tugged at the machine's parts and pulled
its gear shifts.

Most farmers in the delta have not managed to get a mechanical tiller. But
once they do, they face further challenges: farmers can't afford the
diesel fuel to power the machines and don't know how to operate them.

"I don't know how to use this machine. We only used buffalo in the past,"
said Zaw Naing, who lost his home in the cyclone as well as the 10 water
buffalo that plowed his fields.

He has been told by local authorities to share the tiller with five other
farmers in his village, which is south of the town of Labutta in one of
the hardest hit areas. The cyclone killed some 78,000 people and left
56,000 more missing.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in an assessment last week that
the delta normally produces about 60 percent of Myanmar's rice and the
outlook for this year's crop is "very uncertain" after the storm flooded
paddy fields with sea water, damaged irrigation systems and destroyed seed
supplies.

"Little to no actual progress has been made to restore or rehabilitate
damaged lands and infrastructure," the report said. "Farmers are yet to be
supplied with sufficient food, viable seed, tools, livestock or
replacement mechanical tillers and fuel."

Myanmar's Agriculture Ministry says it is sending experts to train farmers
and will send 140,000 baskets of salt-resistant rice seed — the equivalent
of 2,900 tons — to the delta, a fraction of what is needed.

Once the world's top producer, Myanmar has seen rice exports drop from
nearly 4 million tons to about 40,000 tons last year, after four decades
of military rule and disastrous economic policies. Its exports are so
small these days that few expect the cyclone will have any impact on world
rice prices; the people of Myanmar consume most of the rice the country
produces.

U.N. Undersecretary-General Noeleen Heyzer issued an urgent plea Friday
for donations of 1 million gallons of diesel fuel to help farmers run the
tillers.

Myanmar's agriculture minister, Maj. Gen. Htay Oo, told Heyzer that the
fuel is needed to run some 5,000 tillers donated by Thailand, China and
other countries. Private donors and aid agencies have contributed
additional machines.

"The window of opportunity is very short," said Heyzer, the senior U.N.
official in Asia. After the planting season ends in July, it will be too
late, she said, warning of "disastrous consequences for food security in
Myanmar."

The sense of urgency — and frustration — was shared by rice farmer Tin
Yein, whose wife, five farm hands and eight buffalo were killed in the
cyclone. He spent a whole day recently lined up with 200 other farmers in
Labutta, where dozens of donated tillers were being stored in a government
warehouse waiting to be distributed.

"I didn't get one today, but maybe I will get it tomorrow," said Tin Yein,
sitting at a tea shop in town after a day of dealing with red tape.
Farmers applying for the mechanical tillers must be accompanied by their
village headmen, said Tin Yein, and his local official arrived too late to
process the request that day.

"Normally, planting season starts May 15. I'm already a month late," said
the farmer, who has 70 acres of land. Each harvest produced about 30,000
baskets of rice, enough to feed his family and bring in some $9,000 a year
in income.

Tin Yein wonders how he'll afford to use the mechanical tiller. He says
he'll need to hire eight men and a boat to transport the machine to his
village, about an hour away and accessible only by narrow waterways.

Each machine uses two gallons of diesel per acre and government rations
restrict each person to five gallons of fuel every few days. Fuel is
available on the black market but for twice the official price of $2.70
per gallon.

"I have no money for diesel because every day I struggle just to buy
food," Tin Yein said "I'm not hopeful of planting before the rainy season
is over."


____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

June 16, Associated Press
UN plans Myanmar anti-dengue operation

The United Nations plans to launch a massive anti-dengue campaign this
week in cyclone-hit areas of Myanmar where mosquitoes that carry the
disease have become a major concern, an official said Monday.

More than 1,700 volunteers will fan out across 22 priority areas in
Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, and the harder-hit Irrawaddy delta
applying larvicide, a pesticide that kills mosquito larva, to water
containers and other areas where mosquitoes are likely to breed, said
Leonard Ortega, the World Health Organization's dengue expert in Yangon.

WHO and UNICEF are handling the operation with local aid groups.

"It is a major concern not just because this is dengue season, but because
of the displacement of the population, the destruction of houses and
because people are more exposed to mosquitoes," Ortega said.

The U.N. estimates a total of 2.4 million people were affected by the May
2-3 cyclone and warns that more than 1 million of those still need help,
mostly in hard-to-reach spots in the Irrawaddy delta. The cyclone killed
more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing.

So far, the number of cases is roughly in line with previous years, Ortega
said. There were 781 cases of dengue fever reported in Yangon as of June
10, and 481 cases reported in the delta through the end of May.

State-run media and volunteers from the Myanmar Red Cross and other
organizations will be informing the public about the campaign and advising
home owners to dispose of old tires, bottles, tin cans and other objects
where water can collect and become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

The WHO has also provided the government with 200 fogging machines to
spray pesticide in areas where dengue cases have been reported, Ortega
said, noting that fogging only kills adult mosquitoes but does not destroy
the larva.

____________________________________

June 16, BBC News
Too little too late for Burma – Jane Elliott

“Too little is being done to help the people of Burma and their health is
suffering, an aid expert has warned.

Kaz de Jong, head of mental health services for Medecins Sans Frontieres
(MSF), said that five weeks after the cyclone there are still remote
villages in the Irrawaddy Delta that have received no help.

Other areas, he says, have received just a small amount of aid.

A veteran dealing with natural disasters, Dr de Jong has coordinated
services for the Pakistan earthquake and the Asian tsunami, but he says
this is the worst response he has ever seen.

More help needed

"I hardly saw any care-giving personnel, which is a big contrast to all
other natural disasters, and I have been at most of them within the last
15 years.

"We have been in the area since day two and, despite the fact that we have
done large scale distribution, there are still substantial medical needs.

“This needs to be addressed quickly."

Dr de Jong said he was shocked to find that some villages were still cut off.

"These people had been without food and medical care for a month.

"Unfortunately this is not the exception, and that is very worrying."

Focused on survival

He added that the numbers needing help far exceeded MSF's capacity.

"There is a big gap - there are other organisations giving, but it is not
enough. It is just not enough.

"The people are extremely resilient and extremely cunning in surviving,
but it is extremely difficult."

He said the normal coping mechanisms of the community would be to rally
round and support each other, but that in many areas the cyclone had
destroyed this caring and supportive network, making people more
vulnerable.

“The communities are trying to care for each other, but their hands are full.

"How can you care for someone who has lost eight family members, when you
have lost five."

Dr de Jong spent two weeks in Burma, also known as Myanmar, and he said
the inhabitants were showing signs of mental trauma.

He said if more help were available now, some long term mental health
problems could be avoided.

"People are severely affected by what has happened to them, especially in
those areas where whole families have been washed away.

"They have watched their whole households be destroyed.

"They question whether they should continue, what is the meaning of life.

"They are not suicidal, but there are moments in life when you question
the meaning of it and this is certainly one of those moments," he said.

"One woman came up, her family had been completely wiped out, she was the
only survivor.

"She said 'I love you for your food distribution, but you know I don't
feel like eating'.

"You can put food in front of people, but they need the motivation to eat it.

Mental stress

Dr de Jong said his teams were seeing signs of mental stress.

"Nearly everybody is plagued by sleeping problems. Their sleep is being
disturbed by nightmares, they are also waking up early and not being able
to sleep because they are very worried about everything. It is affecting
children and adults.

"And if the wind starts blowing they get a sort of feeling they are back
in the cyclone.

“Many people have complained about not having any energy," he said.

Dr de Jong said his clinic were also seeing general health problems such
high as blood pressure and unspecified aches and pains.

"About 40% of the complaints are difficult to diagnose in the sense that
they are unclear - they are not all stress related, but one of the signs
of people being under stress is that they have all sorts of unclear
physical complaints.

"This all points to people finding life very difficult and being very
vulnerable.

"It is this vulnerability that worries us, because the fact that people
are vulnerable and also suffering from the signs of stress may affect
their functioning and at this stage they need to be fully functional to
protect their survival and reconstruct their lives."

He said with help most would recover, but some would need more intensive
interventions.

"The majority will recover by themselves after a very tough period. Some
need a helping hand in the form of physical and/or mental support.

"But after some months there are a small minority who find it difficult to
reconstruct their lives and put energy into their future - they need
counselling, psychiatric support and some even medication.

Dr de Jong his teams are already building an infrastructure.

"We are not just assessing needs and walking off. We are in the process of
training community health workers, and counsellors - people who are
locally recruited.

"They are our eyes and ears.

"We also get them to draw attention to people who need help.

"We stay as long as we are needed. What we saw in Pakistan and after the
tsunami was that after one year the situation stabilised and the role of
MSF as medical emergency organisation became less relevant."

____________________________________

June 16, Irrawaddy
Disease on the rise in Laputta – Saw Yan Naing

Due to the spread of diarrhea and other infectious diseases, dozens of
cyclone victims in Laputta Township are seeking medical treatment in local
clinics every day, according to doctors active in the area.

Aye Kyu, a Burmese doctor working in Laputta, told The Irrawaddy on Monday
that about 100 patients—most suffering from diarrhea—gather at nine local
clinics to receive medicine or medical treatment every day.

“About 20 patients came to my clinic this morning. Six of them were
suffering from diarrhea. It’s the same at every clinic around here.
Diarrhea is the single biggest problem,” said Aye Kyu.

A local resident said that diarrhea was spreading not only in the town of
Laputta, but also in the surrounding area. He added that although local
nongovernmental organizations are providing medicine, supplies are not
sufficient to meet the needs of patients.

Aye Kyu said that the disease is especially prevalent in overcrowded
temporary refugee camps. Rats and flies, which help to spread disease, are
proliferating because of the abundance of human and animal corpses that
still litter the countryside, sometimes in close proximity to the camps.

Aye Kyu added that he is also suffering from diarrhea, which he said he
suspected he got from an infected patient.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization and its Health Cluster partners
released the first disease surveillance bulletin in cyclone-affected areas
on Monday, saying that since the beginning of June, 685 cases of acute
respiratory infections, 659 cases of diarrhea (including 117 cases of
bloody diarrhea), 337 cases of trauma or injuries, ten cases of measles,
five cases of malaria and three cases of suspected dengue hemorrhagic
fever have been reported.

Despite the ongoing health problems in cyclone-affected areas, two Thai
medical teams returned to Thailand from the Irrawaddy delta on Sunday,
according to a report by the Thai News Agency.

The report added that Burmese authorities informed Thai health officials
that further assistance would not be required, as the Burmese government
has the situation under control.

Disease is not the only problem facing cyclone victims who are taking
shelter in temporary refugee camps in Laputta. Sources in the area say
that many are also being forced to provide labor with little or no
payment.


____________________________________
DRUGS

June 16, Agence France Presse
Burma arrests 245 drug traffickers

Authorities in Burma arrested 245 drug traffickers in May, state media
said, as the world's second-largest opium producer sought to show it was
cracking down on narcotics.

Military, police and customs officers also seized 76.78kg of opium, 1.19kg
of heroin, 3.43kg of marijuana, 93,867 stimulant tablets and other
narcotics, a state-run newspaper said.

"Action was taken against 245 persons - 201 men and 44 women in 158
cases," the New Light of Myanmar reported ahead of the United Nations
anti-drugs and trafficking day on June 26.

Burma is the second largest opium-producing nation after Afghanistan.

The military government has promised that Burma will be opium free by
2014, and regularly burns drug hauls to convince the world it is tackling
rampant drug production.

But after years of sharp decline, the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) reported last year that opium production in 2006 jumped by
46 per cent, blaming high-level collusion, corruption, and porous borders.

The United States, a vocal critic of the junta, has also said several
hundred million amphetamine tablets are produced in Burma every year and
shipped by gangs to neighbouring China and Thailand.

Even China, one of Burma's few allies, has publicly pressured the regime
to crack down on narco-trafficking.


____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 15, The Hindu
We can’t decide on Myanmar: Pranab

Often under international pressure to nudge the junta in Myanmar to usher
in democracy, India on Sunday made it clear that “it is not our job to
determine what kind of government is” in that country.

“It is not our job to determine what kind of government is there (in
Myanmar)....economic development and peace should go side by side,”
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, while inaugurating a
branch secretariat of the External Affairs Ministry here.

“We want to have good relations with China, Bangladesh and Myanmar so that
trade between the North East (NE) region and the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries are promoted,” he said.

Connectivity

India had over the years promoted its engagement with the military rulers
in Myanmar bilaterally as well as part of its “Look-East” policy.

Mr. Mukherjee said the core issue should not be the dispute but promoting
close relationship through which trade links would be established.

Stressing on the need to improve connectivity, he said economic
development of the area depends on “how fast we can build connectivity
between the ASEAN and neighbouring countries with NE region.”

The Minister said that prior to 1991, external relations were a subject
matter of diplomats but with liberalisation there had been a
transformation in the economic system, where the States had a major role
to play.

India’s trade target

Mr. Mukherjee said India had fixed a target of trade worth $ 60 million by
2020 with the ASEAN countries with which sectoral dialogues had already
started. PTI


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 16, Irrawaddy
Burmese generals deserve to be flogged: US Congressman – Lalit K Jha

It is the Burmese generals, who have indulged in gross violations of human
rights against its own citizens and prevented the establishment of
democracy in the country, that need to be flogged and not Aung San Suu
Kyi, an influential US Congressman has said.

"It is the SPDC generals, brutal dictators with their crimes against
humanity and campaigns of ethnic cleansing, who deserve to be stripped of
power and placed under arrest for many years to come," Congressman Joe
Pitts said on June 12.

Pitts, a Republican, who represents Pennsylvania's Lancaster Chester and
Berks counties, made the speech on the floor of the House of
Representatives, after Burmese state-run media said Aung San Suu Kyi
deserved to be beaten like an errant child for threatening national
security.

"Madam Speaker, I rise today over the comments made by the brutal
generals, military dictators in Burma, saying that Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel
Peace Prize winner and rightful leader elected by the people, deserves to
be flogged. Come again?" Pitts said.

Pitts said these are the generals who stonewalled for weeks and refused to
allow desperately needed humanitarian aid to get to the people after
Cyclone Nargis.

These are the generals who order their military to attack ethnic groups
throughout the country and in 1988 issued a blood assimilation order to
their troops to marry or rape the ethnic women in order to "purify" the
ethnics’ blood lines, he said.

Pitts alleged the generals forcibly conscript children to serve as
soldiers in their army and plant land mines around the villages they
attack so that returning villagers get maimed or killed.

The authoritarian rulers pillage or plunder the resources of Burma so they
can have huge weddings with millions of dollars of jewels around the necks
of their daughters, Pitts said.

Meanwhile on June 12, the US Senate approved renewal of import
restrictions contained in the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003.

"Last month, the whole world got a close look at the SPDC's contempt for
human life when a devastating cyclone hit Burma," said Senator Mitch
McConnell from Kentucky.

"No one can say with certainty what the full toll of death and destruction
is from the storm, but we do know the junta greatly compounded matters
through inaction and its utter disregard for the Burmese people,"
McConnell said before the Senate decided to renew the sanctions.

This bill is the same legislation the Senate has passed in prior years. If
enacted, it would extend import sanctions for another year unless the
regime takes a number of tangible steps toward democracy and
reconciliation.

He said the SPDC severely restricted the entry of relief workers into
Burma. Four US navy ships carrying much-needed supplies for Burmese people
were turned away time and again by the regime, he alleged.

McConnell said: "Estimates put as many as 135,000 people dead or missing
after the cyclone hit on May 3, and many of those deaths must lie at the
feet of the SPDC for its outrageous acts of criminal neglect."

The bill, however, would not hinder or block US efforts to provide
humanitarian aid to Burma in the wake of the cyclone. This bill imposes
sanctions on trade, not humanitarian aid, McConnell said.

"America is a friend to the people of Burma. That is why we stand against
Burma's tyrannical ruling regime," he said. Besides McConnell, Senator
Dianne Feinstein and Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican
nominee, were its co-sponsors.

____________________________________

June 16, Democratic Voice of Burma
International celebrations for Daw Suu's birthday – Yee May Aung and Htet
Aung Kyaw

Events are being held across the globe to celebrate the 63rd birthday of
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and acknowledge her contribution towards the struggle
for democracy in Burma.

In the US the occasion is to be held at the Capitol Building, home of the
US Congress, on 19 June from 11am to 12.30pm.

US senators, Burmese government in exile, National Coalition Government of
the Union of Burma, Burmese activists, foreign correspondents and the
Burmese exile media are all expected to attend.

According to U Tin Maung Thaw, a board member of the US Campaign for
Burma, the event will not solely be a celebration but also an opportunity
to appeal to the US government to bring Burma to the International Court
of Justice.

"We do it every year, but the special thing about this year is that we're
going to march to the White House after the gathering," said Tin Maung
Thaw.

"[We want the US] to bring the Burmese government before the ICJ for
unfairly exceeding the five-year limit of Daw Suu's house arrest, which is
an act against international law."

At the same time, there are plans to push for international action to be
taken against the Burmese government for being responsible for the deaths
of cyclone victims due to their inaction.

"The Burmese government, by refusing international help, has left many to
die, and that is a crime against humanity," said Tin Maung Thaw.

Some of the attendees at the celebration will march to the White House in
order to make this appeal.

They are also expected to march on to the UK and French embassies to make
the same plea.

In South Korea, celebrations on behalf of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday
have already begun in a preemptive ceremony held yesterday.

Hosted by the National League for Democracy – Liberated Area, the event
took place in Busao town from 1pm to 4pm and was attended by Korean
parliamentary representatives, university professors and Burmese
nationals.

With as many as 150 guests in attendance the NLD-LA chairman U Aung Myint
Swe spoke about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi 's long struggle for democracy.

The celebration also included a video screening of documentaries about the
NLD leader's life and the Depayin massacre.

The occasion involved a group prayer where people from different religions
joined together to pray for her freedom.


____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 16, Irrawaddy
Twilight of the idle regime – Saw Htun

I lived in a military compound during my youth, when my father was an army
officer and Burma was still ruled by the Burmese Socialist Party Program
under Gen Ne Win.

In the final years of the Ne Win regime, two incidents occurred which I
can still remember very distinctly. One was a storm warning that put
everyone in the small-town base where we lived on alert. When the storm
hit, soldiers were ordered to patrol the town to come to the assistance of
any who might need it. This included not only government officials, but
also people living in surrounding villages.

The other episode involved a major fire which destroyed several buildings
and threatened many lives. Soldiers were promptly sent to prevent looting
and to save children and the elderly from the conflagration. They also
quickly tore down thatched roofs to prevent the fire from spreading
uncontrollably.

As dramatic as these events were, however, they don’t compare to the night
of May 2-3, when Cyclone Nargis tore through Rangoon. Fortunately, my
family and I live in a flat about half-way up a tall building, so we were
safe from danger. But after we put our children to bed, my wife and I
spent a sleepless night, on constant watch like two soldiers who did not
want to miss the battle raging all around us.

Outside we saw taxis and small cars driving with great care, as if they
were clinging to the asphalt for all they were worth. Sheets of corrugated
zinc flew through the air like paper. We even saw a few foolish people
trying to walk in the streets, struggling against the incredibly powerful
wind and rain. We worried ceaselessly about our friends and relatives in
other parts of the city.

The next day, I was even more surprised by what I saw—or rather, by what I
did not see.

Rangoon looked like a battleground, with trees toppled everywhere. Roads
were impassable, and the city was at a standstill. The only signs of life
were Buddhist monks—some of them helped by youths in their distinctive
hip-hop garb—cutting the massive trunks and branches with handsaws to make
them easier to clear from the roads.

Instinctively, I looked for soldiers, who were never in short supply in
military-ruled Burma (whereas monks have been noticeably less visible in
Rangoon since last September, when they dared to challenge the ruling
regime’s authority). But they were nowhere to be seen.

Where were the soldiers? Some people suggested that they were waiting for
orders from the generals. But I knew from experience that orders from on
high were not required in these circumstances. Any commanding officer
could have put his men to work. After all, the natural response to a
natural disaster is action, not paralysis.

Personally, I suspected that the soldiers were reluctant to show
themselves because they believed that the cyclone had been sent as
punishment for their actions last September, when they mistreated and
killed Buddhist monks. Many ordinary Burmese had suggested as much, half
in jest, but perhaps the soldiers really believed it and were afraid to
face the wrath the nature.

Meanwhile, we started to hear horrific stories coming from the Irrawaddy
delta, which was much more severely affected by the cyclone than Rangoon.
We received this news via the BBC and VOA: Local radio stations and the
state-run television station were silent on the impact of the disaster in
the delta. Like many other people in Rangoon, we started to think about
ways to help.

When it came time to take action, we followed the example of the ’88
Generation Students group, which initiated last year’s protests by
boycotting public transport after the government suddenly raised fuel
prices and bus fares. Like them, we decided to bypass the government’s
belated relief efforts (which came only after thousands of cyclone victims
had needlessly perished in the crucial days after the cyclone hit).
Instead, we entrusted our donations to monks, who had worked side by side
with us as we tried to bring our lives back to normal.

It was not until two days after the cyclone struck that the soldiers
finally made an appearance on the streets of Rangoon. Young captains
commandeered the municipal government’s heaviest equipment to remove trees
from the roads. They even used these machines to move small branches, in a
show of their immense efforts to help the people.
Then Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein was named “president of the national
committee for natural disaster mitigation.” It was all very impressive.

Of course, this was also the week before the referendum, when the generals
were giving us a chance to vote for their constitution. With the aftermath
of a major disaster on our hands, however, no one had any interest in the
referendum, the outcome of which was decided in advance, in any case. But
we were surprised that the regime didn’t at least try to win support by
making a serious effort to help the people in the delta. Apparently, it
didn’t matter much what voters thought, since “victory” was already in the
bag.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring China, a major earthquake struck, and the world
witnessed a dramatically different response to a deadly disaster. It is
ironic that in China, where the ruling Communist Party does not even
pretend to be democratic, the authorities paid far greater attention to
public opinion than the generals in Burma, who were trying to make
everyone believe that they were steering the country towards democracy.

It is also ironic that, at a time when they were trying to impose a new
constitution on the country, the regime showed its disdain for rule of law
by illegally extending Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest.

This was not only another slap in the face of Burmese voters, but also
another lost public relations opportunity. Suu Kyi’s sentence ended the
same weekend that international donors were in Rangoon, ready to pledge
generously to relief and reconstruction efforts in the delta. Snr-Gen Than
Shwe wanted $11 billion in aid, no strings attached. But he was unwilling
to show good faith by honouring a previous promise to the international
community that he would negotiate directly with Suu Kyi to achieve
national reconciliation.

Burma under its current rulers makes the Ne Win era seem almost a model of
competence and efficiency. If there is any consolation to be drawn from
this experience, it is that the junta has shown its weakness, and sown the
seeds of its future downfall.

With the military hiding from its own shadow, and the people defiantly
taking the initiative, the ruling generals must be having many sleepless
nights. If they doze off again, they may one day wake up to find that they
are the casualties of a crisis of their own making.