BurmaNet News, July 17, 2008

[Editor]

July 17, 2008 Issue #3514


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Burmese junta profiting from aid funds?
Irrawaddy: Charges of forced labor emerge in cyclone-hit areas
DVB: School classes held in temporary shelters
DVB: Low expectations for Gambari visit
Xinhua: UNICEF to set up amusement centers for Myanmar children

ON THE BORDER
The Nation (Thailand): Thai Army pushes back Karen refugees

BUSINESS / TRADE
SHAN: Junta officials, two teak traders killed over unequal division of loot

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: UN Humanitarian Chief to visit Burma next week
AP: U.N. appeals for $33.5 million for Burma

OPINION / OTHER
Mizzima News: Cronyism; unhealthy competition in media market
New Statesman (UK): To go or not to go?
Irrawaddy: The Irrawaddy Delta redux
DPA: ASEAN finally gets something right on Myanmar



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 17, Mizzima News
Burmese junta profiting from aid funds? – Mungpi

Even as cyclone victims reel under the devastating impact of Nargis, the
military rulers are lining their pockets from the aid funds donated by the
international community including the UN. The money is being made by way
of a twisted currency exchange mechanism – dollar to local Burmese kyat, a
source in the Burmese military establishment said.

Following the killer Cyclone Nargis lashing Burma on May 2 and 3, several
international non-governmental organizations as well as UN aid agencies
rushed in to help cyclone victims.

The source, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal, said the ruling
junta is making a huge killing from these donations by keeping a margin in
the conversion rates – from foreign currency to Burmese Foreign Exchange
Certificates (FEC).

According to the source, the government-owned Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank
is the principle bank that is used by aid agencies for transferring funds.
And when aid agencies withdraw their money from the MFTB, it is given in
the form of Foreign Exchange Certificates (FEC), which is treated as
equivalent to the US dollar.

While the information cannot be independently verified, the source said
the difference in exchange rates between the dollar and FEC is the margin
that the government makes.

A businessman in Rangoon, who is into exchanging foreign currency in the
black market said, currently a US $ is worth 1,175 Kyat while the FEC is
valued at 850 Kyat. While the rates continue to fluctuate depending on the
market, the US Dollar and FEC have never been treated equally in the
market.

"The rate between the FEC and Dollar is only equal in the government
exchange rates but here in Burma things are done only in the black
market," the businessman told Mizzima.

The source, who is also close to the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank, said,
while the bank retains the in coming foreign exchange, it also profits
from the marginal difference in the conversion.

The UN World Food Programme, one of the largest UN agencies currently
involved in helping cyclone victims in Burma, however, declined to comment
on it.

But Paul Risley, the WFP spokesperson in Bangkok admitted that it uses the
MFBT to transfer funds to Burma.

UN Humanitarian Chief, John Holmes, who is scheduled to visit Burma next
week, on Wednesday, told reporters at a news conference in New York that
he would look into the issue of aid money going into the coffers of the
ruling junta through a twisted currency exchange mechanism.

But reports quoted him as saying, "My impression from what I heard is that
there is not a significant problem. There may be moments when the
difference between the dollar and FEC is significant, but by and large it
is not."

The source, however, said the Burmese military generals have made millions
of Kyat from the exchange margin.

"For every dollar, if the junta is profiting about two to three hundred
Kyats, you can imagine how much they will have pocketed since aid agencies
made their way into Burma," the source said.

Burma's military junta has asked for US $ 11 billion in aid for emergency
relief as well as for reconstruction work to be done in cyclone hit areas
of Irrawaddy and Rangoon division.

The regime, in an article carried in its mouthpiece newspaper early this
month, even challenged the international community particularly the US,
UK, French, and Japan for failing to come up with more donations to help
cyclone victims in Burma while spending huge amounts of money on wars.

The UN, last week, launched a fresh appeal urging governments to donate
US$ 300 million more to keep humanitarian efforts in Burma going.

____________________________________

July 17, Irrawaddy
Charges of forced labor emerge in cyclone-hit areas – Saw Yan Naing

Thousands of people in hundreds of villages are being forced to labor for
free under a military-led reconstruction effort in the cyclone-devastated
Irrawaddy delta, according to sources in the area.

Villagers in the hard-hit townships of Laputta, Bogalay, Pyapon and Dedaye
say that local people, including children, have been told by Ward Peace
and Development Councils and military troops that they must provide labor
on a rotating basis.

The work they are expected to do includes serving as porters, cutting
bamboo and trees and cleaning up roads and villages. Some have also been
put to work on construction sites, the sources said.

The villagers, many of them living in camps for cyclone survivors, said
that the duties imposed on them were preventing them from rebuilding their
own homes or tending to their fields.

“They [farmers] said that for the past month, they have been forced to
work in rotation for the authorities. People who don’t work when it’s
their turn have to pay a fine of 1,500 kyat (US $1.26),” said a source in
Laputta.

A refugee from the village of Kyar Chaung said that the authorities call
on 100 men each day to carry sacks of rice. “Those who do not obey the
order are driven out of the refugee camps,” he added.

Another refugee, from the village of Kaing Thaung, said: “The authorities
accuse people who don’t want to work for them of being lazy. They say that
they are opportunists who are just waiting around to get everything for
free.”

There have been a number of reports of people in the camps being beaten
and forced to leave. Some say that the authorities are looking for excuses
to throw people out of the camps.

Meanwhile, fishermen in the area have been ordered to catch prawns and
fish for Burmese troops, said one fisherman in Ywe, a village in Laputta
Township.

The Burmese army unit responsible for recovery and reconstruction efforts
in the Irrawaddy delta is Light Infantry Division 66, under the command of
Brig-Gen Maung Maung Aye. As a commanding officer of Infantry Battalion 70
in Pegu Division and Karen State in the early 2000s, Maung Maung Aye was
notorious for pressganging civilians into road construction.

Sources in the camps for cyclone victims say that they have been told not
to discuss the use of forced labor with visitors, and to inform the
authorities about the presence of any unknown people in the camps.

Burma’s military regime has been strongly condemned by international
rights groups for its use of forced labor in building army camps and
constructing basic infrastructure such as roads and bridges. Refusal to
work on any of these projects has resulted in documented cases of
detention, torture and execution.

In June, the International Labor Organization said it was concerned that
the Burmese military regime might use forced labor in reconstructing
cyclone-devastated areas.

The Irrawaddy’s correspondent Aung Thet Wine in Laputta also contributed
to this report.

____________________________________

July 17, Democratic Voice of Burma
School classes held in temporary shelters – Naw Say Phaw

School pupils returning to their studies in the cyclone-affected Pyin
district of Hai Gyi, Irrawaddy division, are still waiting for their
school buildings to be repaired.

Private donor who is providing assistance in the area said that classes
were currently being held in makeshift huts.

"The schools have reopened, but there are no school buildings,” the donor
said.

“Some have set up huts as temporary schools where the schools used to be,
and some have wrapped tarpaulin sheets around the frames of the
half-collapsed school to provide shelter for students."

The donor said the pupils had no school uniforms and were still suffering
the psychological effects of the cyclone.

"It seemed that they were heavily traumatised by the cyclone – they run
out of their school building when there is heavy wind or rain," he said.

____________________________________

July 17, Democratic Voice of Burma
Low expectations for Gambari visit – Htet Aung Kyaw

Opposition figures and a political analyst have expressed doubts over
whether the planned visit of United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari
to Burma in mid-August will bring about any positive outcomes.

U Nyan Win, spokesperson for the National League for Democracy, said the
party did not have high expectations for the envoy’s visit.

"The only thing this shows is that Mr Gambari's role, as a negotiator for
national reconciliation in Burma on behalf of the UN Security Council and
General Assembly, still exists," Nyan Win said.

"Whether or not this will be a successful mission doesn't depend on the
UN's efforts alone,” he said.

“But we can still hope for the success if everyone starts participating –
Mr Gambari, the UN and everyone who has a concern.”

U Chan Htun, a veteran politican and former Burmese ambassador to China,
said the government had approved the trip in order to push its own agenda
on issues such as the constitution and 2010 elections, and to press
Gambari to encourage opposition groups to participate in the elections.

"They invited Mr Gambari because they have confidence that they can get
something they want,” he said.

“Our government doesn’t do anything without being sure of the outcome;
they know only what they want and they do not care about anyone else."

Burma analyst Aung Naing Oo said he had little hope for the efforts by
Gambari and the UN.

"[Gambari] would just keep going to Burma until the end of his term or
until the Burmese government stops allowing him into the country," Aung
Naing Oo said.

“If he doesn’t want to go, a new person will be appointed to continue this
work. So he'll just have to go there regardless what outcome is going to
result.”

Aung Naing Oo said no noticeable successes had come out of the special
envoy’s previous trips.

"A very common question from both inside and outside Burma is what he is
going to do seeing as the government's road map for democracy is going
forward," he said.

"In Mr Razali Ismail's era, people used to have some hope from his trips
to Burma because there was always something to hope for,” he went on.

“But with Mr Gambari, a lot of people are starting to think he is only
being used by the Burmese regime for their own ends."

Razali Ismail, the former UN special envoy to Burma, said that it was
important to keep channels of communication with the junta open.

“The ability to talk to the regime must be maintained in all aspects,
including the political,” he said.

“I don’t think the people of Myanmar should lose hope in the UN. The UN is
doing the best it can,” he went on.

“When I was working there, I was doing the best I could, but finally it is
up to the government and the people of Myanmar to make all the necessary
changes.”

____________________________________

July 17, Xinhua
UNICEF to set up amusement centers for Myanmar children

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) plans to set up at least 100
amusement centers for survived children in Myanmar's two cyclone-hard-hit
divisions, the local-language weekly Myanmar Times reported Thursday.

Secured environment will be selected for the location of the amusement
centers in Ayeyawaddy and Yangon divisions which will be managed by aid
workers and respective village dignitaries, the report said.

Arrangement will also be made for providing health care and education
services for the children, it added.

There were 51 children amusement facilities in the two divisions, of which
some were closed after storm.

According to the report, the UNICEF has also helped establish information
center in Laputta, one of the hardest-hit townships in the Ayeyawaddy
delta, and find 428 missing people with 15 family members getting
reunified with them.

Meanwhile, the government is also building two orphanages in Phyapon and
Laputta in the delta region to each house 300 orphans.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 17, The Nation (Thailand)
Thai Army pushes back Karen refugees

Thai army on Thursday pushed back 58 Karens, mostly women and children,
displaced by fighting between Burmese government troops and rebel soldiers
from Karen National Union, according to a border sources.

The 58 displaced Karens had been residing at the Mae Ra Maluang refugee
camp in Mae Hong Son's Mae Sareing district since March. They had fled
fighting in northern region of Burma's Karen State.

According to the source who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Thai
troops from Mae Sareang Unit 105 came at about 07:00 hrs Thursday morning
to remove the displaced refugees and took them to a boat dock where three
long-tail boats awaits for them.

The exact location as to where they 58 displaced Karens were being taken
was not disclosed for fear that the Burmese soldiers would retaliated but
The Nation was informed that the boat trip was about five hours long.

"Besides the fact that the area has been raining heavily, we are concern
for their safety as fighting between the KNU and the Burmese troops in the
area in question have yet to cease," said the source. "The decision to
force them back appeared to have been made hastily," he added.

Mae Ra Maluang refugee camp is the home for more than 16,000 Karen
refugees who had been residing there for decades after fleeing Karen State
because of the fighting there.

Thai Army policy is to prevent the number of displaced Karens and other
ethnic nationalities from Burma from increasing, thus, the forced
repatriation today.

More than 140,000 refugees from Burma are residing in various camps that
dotted the northern border. It has been estimated by various sources that
more than 500,000 people have been displaced internally inside Burma due
to fighting between government troops and rebel forces fighting for
self-rule.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 17, Shan Herald Agency for News
Junta officials, two teak traders killed over unequal division of loot –
Hseng Khio Fah

Two junta officials and two Chinese teak traders from Taunggyi were killed
by each other in Kholam, Namzang township, after quarreling over the
division of the proceeds from teak trading, according to SHAN sources.

The shooting took place on13 July, at 18:00, between Deputy Commander,
Major Aung Thiha and Capt Aye San Win from Infantry Battalion#66, based in
Kholam and two Chinese teak traders U Soe, 54, and Zaw Htoo, 50, at U
Soe’s house. They died instantly, said a source.

U Soe and Zaw Htoo were from Taunggyi and bought a house in Kholam during
the trading of teak, according to a source.

“Before U Soe and Zaw Htoo were to have their dinner, the officials went
to ask for their shares and quarreled with them,” a villager told to SHAN.
“One of U Soe’s followers started to shoot at the officials and the
officials shot back.”

There was no one providing security for the officers and the officers
themselves were wearing plain clothes, according to another source.

There had been no other casualty.

Before the event took place, local authorities in Kholam had banned teak
trading from the Keng Tawng forest, Mongnai township, Langkhur district,
according to sources.

Breaking news of the shooting was reported by SHAN on 14 July. However,
SHAN then had reported that the 4 men had been killed by others.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 17, Irrawaddy
UN Humanitarian Chief to visit Burma next week – Lalit K Jha

The United Nations’ top humanitarian relief official, John Holmes said on
Wednesday that he would visit Burma next week to assess the progress of
humanitarian relief work in cyclone-affected areas of the country.

“I will be there next week,” Holmes told reporters at the UN headquarters
in New York.

Besides the situation in the Irrawaddy delta, which bore the brunt of the
damage inflicted by Cyclone Nargis when it hit Burma on May 2-3, Holmes
said he would also look into the issue of aid money going into the pockets
of the ruling generals through a skewed currency exchange mechanism.

“I will try to get this point clarified,” Holmes said in response to a
question about relief funds being lost in the conversion of US dollars
into government-issued Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs), which are
officially on par with the dollar but worth substantially less when
converted into kyat.

Holmes said would stay in the country for three days. Details of his
itinerary are being worked out. He will visit Burma after attending a
meeting in Singapore on July 21 to take part in the release of the
Post-Nargis Joint Assessment Report with the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (Asean) and the Burmese regime.

Explaining the purpose of his visit to Burma, Holmes said: “It is
essentially to reassess the situation there for myself. Of course, I will
be going to the Irrawaddy delta. I do not know exactly where I will be
going there.”

The chief UN humanitarian official said he would be meeting top Burmese
officials, possibly including Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein, as well as
humanitarian actors in the region.

“By and large, as we heard last week, the problems have not entirely
disappeared, but they are containable for the moment. I want to make sure
that it stays that way,” he said.

When asked about the FEC problem, which has become an issue of concern
among humanitarian relief workers and agencies, Holmes said: “I do not
think we are losing significant amounts of money on that exchange rate
issue. We can talk about it when I return to see if there really is a
problem.”

He added: “My impression from what I heard is that there is not a
significant problem. There may be moments when the difference between the
dollar and FEC is significant, but by and large it is not.”

Holmes is currently the highest-ranking UN official in charge of
humanitarian relief work in Burma and is in contact with leaders of the
ruling military junta. Last week, he issued the second flash appeal for
Burma, increasing the amount of money needed for relief work in country by
nearly $300 million.

Next week’s visit will be his second to Burma, and the first by a
top-level UN official since Secretary General Ban Ki-moon briefly visited
the country in May.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council will discuss Burma at its meeting on
July 24, the council president for the month of July, Ambassador Le Luong
Minh of Vietnam, said on Wednesday.

Le Luong Minh told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York that a
consensus has been reached among the 15 members of the body about holding
a “consultation” on the current situation in Burma. At the start of the
month, when the agenda for July was being discussed, the members had
failed to reach a consensus on the exact date of the debate on Burma.

“There was an agreement that a consultation would be scheduled by the end
of the month. We intend to schedule it for July 24,” Minh told reporters
in response to a question.

The decision by the Security Council comes a day after the spokesperson
for the UN secretary general said that the Burmese government had invited
Ibrahim Gambari, the UN envoy to Burma, to visit for consultation in
mid-August.

____________________________________

July 17, Associated Press
U.N. appeals for $33.5 million for Burma

A U.N. food agency is appealing for $33.5 million to help small farmers
and fishermen in cyclone-hit Burma.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said that 75% of farmers
in the country's main food-producing region lack sufficient seed, with
little time left before the end of the planting season in August.

The agency said over 50,000 small-scale farming households and 99,000
landless rural households need immediate assistance. More than 100,000
fishermen have also been affected.

FAO said in a statement Thursday that some 1,934,793 acres of rice paddy
fields were submerged when Cyclone Nargis struck in May and up to 85% of
seed stocks were destroyed.

Fish and rice constitute the key components of Burma's diet.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 17, Mizzima News
Cronyism; unhealthy competition in media market – Htet Win and Hset Linn

The workability of most local media outlets in Burma is now apparently
harder not just because of irregularities of the censorship board but also
the unscrupulous approach of military cronies at their own expenses,
resulting in an obstruction of the growth of private media.

Despite the military government's healthier attitude to local private
media development in recent years amid private sector's intense struggle
to surge up in a still unfair field of operations, a number of media
owners, who are in favour of undue government authority, have come to
monopolize the industry.

News journal operators in Burma – not more than 12 – could be categorized
into two major divisions – one is those who rush to ally with the
authority to survive or to gain a lion's share regardless of general
public interests and the other is of those who are building their own
capacity to be able to take up fair competition in the gradually growing
market.

The leading media outlets that are in the first category include few but
are strong financially to put the censor board authorities in their
pockets.

"They are few in number, but they are strong financially. They reserve
their strength for curbing others' growth in order to offset fair
competition," said an editor of a recently launched news weekly, adding
that they had close relationships with high ranking government authorities
such as Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, the minister for the Ministry of
Information, which handles the censorship procedures and grants publishing
licenses.

The Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, censorship board is called
Sarpay Kempeitai among Burmese writers and journalists in comparison to
Japanese military police who suppressed and widely committed atrocities on
the Burmese independence revolutionaries during the Second World War. The
word Sarpay means literature.

Every article needs to be submitted to the censorship board before
publishing and violations can even land persons responsible in jail.

The crony media outlets have since five years ago misused the government
to suppress the growth of other local media rivals as they fear fair
competition in growing local print media industry – especially of weekly
publication business, locally known as journals.

"Their positions are more apparent amid increased regularities of
censorship and personal bias of the Government's Office of Press Scrutiny
along with domestic political impasse, which also results in limited kits
of business survival like in other businesses in Myanmar (Burma), stemmed
from part of the government's mismanagement of the country's business
environment," the editor said.

They showcase a few things in their editorial works seemingly against
government policies, yet virtually applaud pro-government agenda contents
run. For example, they carried articles to form the general public's
mindset to follow the government's so-called seven step Road Map to
democracy.

And the pullout of a popular weekly journal was said to link to their
undue influence over the head of the press scrutiny office, which stripped
early this year off the weekly's operating license over a news content run
despite being banned.

There are several reasons why those media outlets are in position to do
so. Colonel Soe Naing Oo, head of the Office of Sr Gen Than Shwe, is a
major stakeholder of a leading media company. His business partner used
this connection as the press scrutiny office's head Maj Tint Swe to be
able to take up that position in late 2004.

"It is okay for us in the industry as a whole – if and when they do for
their own business growth. However, they make efforts to suppress others'
growth in an early stage development of the Myanmar news media industry,
exploiting their close relationship with the authorities," the editor
said.

Meanwhile, another senior editor who works for a Rangoon-based leading
publication said private print media grows amid myriad challenges
including the high cost of raw materials, lack of technology and
equipment, pointing out that quality, rather than quantity, will
ultimately be the litmus test for long-term success, with possibilities in
the long run such as media partnership.

"If we are to look critically at our media, improvements in quality have
not necessarily matched that of quantity. We have a considerable issue
here," he said.

More than anything, to establish a new media company needs deep pockets.

Local operators had pulled out of the market not because of lack of
capital but because of poor technical know-how. And stronger cooperation
among the general public, government departments and the media is needed
in order to create an up-to-date media sector.

Nevertheless, challenges such as censorship do not hamper capacity
building among local journalists. Despite these challenges local
journalists are becoming more creative in their professional development.
They are working in a unique age that offers them opportunities like
training and media fellowships overseas.

Another Rangoon-based journalist talked of private sector role in media
partnership in order to push media industry forward faster and enjoy
benefits.

"Media partnerships between the public and private sectors work well
because they require that the people involved are aware not only of the
attitudes of government policymakers towards media development but also of
general public expectations," he said.

In a healthy media environment, the public sector would merely act as a
regulatory authority and the private sector would have some measure of
independence.

"Especially, the broadcasting sector in Myanmar needs to develop more so
the country can enjoy benefits like increased business and employment
opportunities, and so the people can get information in a timely manner,"
he added.

____________________________________

July 17, New Statesman (UK)
To go or not to go? – Ruth Padel

In May 2002, with Aung San Suu Kyi temporarily released from house arrest,
I was doing poetry workshops and readings in Mandalay and Rangoon. It was
just before the monsoon, and the dawn air was like a sauna as I walked
round the Golden Palace, destroyed by the Japanese and rebuilt with forced
labour. Restored, it feels like an emptied concentration camp,
aggressively regimented and dead: the way the junta would like to keep the
whole country. Above is Mandalay Hill, from which, at dusk, the largest
lit-up building you can see is Mandalay Correction Facility, the city's
jail.

In Rangoon the monsoon broke. The swirling streets were ankle-deep. I
talked to writers about how British poetry had been revived in the 1970s
by translations from eastern European poets struggling with censorship -
which Borges called "the mother of metaphor". They identified instantly. I
wish I'd had more books with me. They have no access to other writing, and
drew straws for the books I had to give.

I asked Suu Kyi what she thought of tourists coming to Burma. "Let the
junta know tourism is waiting to happen the moment they change on human
rights," she said. "But now tourists shouldn't come; they won't see the
truth."

"No," said a writer friend. "Let tourists see for themselves." "No, she's
right," said another. "What would they see?"

I agree. On the surface you see poverty but not the misery: forced labour,
surveillance, writers tortured for "distributing information regarding
repression to international press agencies and western diplomats" or
"spreading information injurious to the state". Incessant power cuts
illustrate the unseen truth. My friends got eight hours of electricity in
72. In hotels, the air-conditioning just switched to generator.

What tourists do see are "The People's Desires", painted on walls and
prefacing all printed matter. "Oppose those relying on external elements,
acting as stooges, holding negative views; oppose those trying to
jeopardise stability of the State and progress of the Nation; oppose
foreign nations interfering in internal affairs of the State; crush all
internal and external destructive elements as the common enemy." Writers
have to pay to print this on the front page of their books.

Conservation is another matter. Burma has the largest tiger reserve in the
world. Whether conservation is a Canute-like operation against relentless
Chinese exploitation of Burmese timber or not, western conservation
agencies, like welfare groups, have to operate there - or the animals will
disappear. For that, I would go again. Otherwise not.

____________________________________

July 17, Irrawaddy
The Irrawaddy Delta redux – Aung Thet Wine

I’ve just returned from Laputta in the Irrawaddy delta, where the
situation is appalling and vastly different than government accounts.

I visited Kaing Thaung, Kanyin Kone, Ywe and Pyin Salu villages, where I
witnessed a lot of forced labor incidents in the name of "reconstruction."

I was told the soldiers said, "We’re here for your village reconstruction.
You must cooperate with us." Some villagers are even beaten during their
forced labor conscription.

There are also numerous cases of refugees who remain at Three-Mile,
Five-Mile and Yatana Dipa refugee camps being conscripted for forced
labor. The authorities say these remaining camps will be closed on August
5.

I haven’t been that impressed with what the UN is doing. I think many UN
workers are just here for dollars. Perhaps, they don’t release the real
news of conditions here because they fear the government’s reaction. They
are on the ground, they know the situation, but I think they turn a blind
eye because they don’t want their projects stopped.

The UN workers live in good house, renting for around 1.5 million kyats
(US $ 1271) per month. It’s my belief that if they had good hearts, they
could reduce these high expenses and give more to the refugees.

Thanks to regular rain fall, the refugees appear to have enough safe
water. If they don't get rain water, there could be more outbreaks of
infectious diseases. In terms of medical care, there are still a lot of
villages that need medical services.

The villagers I talked with complained about the hardships they
experience. They hope I can do something for their relief, but I can't do
anything except write a report or a news story. I realize that what I
write may get to the international communities, but then what?

Refugees told me that when they were ordered to leave Pha Yar Gyi and
other temporary camps in Laputta, soldiers from Light Infantry Division
(LID) 66 entered the camps with batons and guns and forced the refugees
into trucks, like driving a herd of cattle.

The UN staff knows about the forced relocation of the refugees, but they
don’t issue any press releases about it.

Refugees have many stories of abuse by Burmese military and civil
officials in charge of the camps. They tell stories of drunken camp
officials swearing at refugees: “You are lazy people living on rice
donations! You are beggars! Go back home."

Some refugee families couldn't bear it and talked back to the authorities.
They would beat and drive them from the camp. It is happening in all three
camps. Refugees are also told to inform volunteer donors who come to the
camps that they don’t need anything. Some savvy donors wait and talk for
several minutes and then they understand the real story.


>From my talks with Laputta residents, I also question the assessment by

the Tripartite Core Group (TCG)—a body formed in cooperation with Asean,
the UN and the Burmese junta. The teams collected data in the Irrawaddy
delta.

The local authorities I talked with said some young people came around and
asked questions about the situation in the surrounding villages. They
claimed they were not well informed on the current situation there, but
they offered to send them to the villages. The teams, however, seemed to
have limited time and left the town with the data they gathered from the
administrators in the town.

I also made inquires about the government providing mechanical tillers and
paddy seeds to farmers and boats and fishing nets to villagers. Villagers
I spoke with said some villages received the assistance, but the tillers
were old and the authorities provided only 2 gallons of diesel for plowing
an acre. The old machines break down and consume 4 or 5 gallons to plow
one acre of land.

They said three out of five of the tillers were in workable condition, and
if a farmer wanted to use the machine, they had to bribe the village head
with 200,000 kyat ($ 169.5)

The rice seeds the authorities provided are low quality, called Hnan-Kar,
also known as Ma-Naw Thu-Kha. Some farmers said they sow them but no
sprouts appeared. The farmers feel helpless because they don’t have access
to the seeds they used before.

I saw some paddy fields with green sprouts, but much of the land in the
disaster area has not been planted.

My impression is that the camp administrators, township officials, their
relatives and landlords in Laputta are benefiting post-Nargis. The
restaurants in town are crowded most of the time.

I returned from this trip feeling great sympathy and sorrow for the
cyclone victims. I wish the relief effort could be more effective. The
people are still suffering.

____________________________________

July 17, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
ASEAN finally gets something right on Myanmar – Peter Janssen

The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has had little to brag
about with its handling of bad-boy member Myanmar over the past 11 years.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, joined the club in 1997 and has been a
constant embarrassment since, to the extent of raising serious questions
about the relevance of ASEAN as a regional-problem solving forum.

Then came Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3, which devastated Myanmar's central
coastal region, including the rice-rich Irrawaddy Delta and the former
capital of Yangon, leaving some 140,000 people dead or missing.

Myanmar's military junta, in their inimitable style, turned the natural
disaster into a diplomatic one, by initially blocking the free-flow of
international aid and aid workers to the devastated areas while pushing
ahead with a national referendum designed to cement their political
dominance over any future elected government.

The international community was outraged, the United Nations was
frustrated, humanitarian organizations furious, and ASEAN, arguably for
the first time it is history, actually took the initiative.

Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN's newly appointed secretary-general, held an
impromptu meeting in Singapore in the wake of the cyclone calamity and
pushed through a tri-partite mechanism including ASEAN, the UN and Myanmar
government that essentially created a "diplomatic umbrella" under which an
emergency relief operation could operate despite the junta's knee-jerk
distrust of the international community.

Under the ASEAN initiative, a tri-partite core group of ASEAN-UN-Myanmar
bureaucrats has meet regularly in Yangon since June to deal with
on-the-ground issues affecting the relief work and over the past six weeks
has compiled an assessment report of the amount of damage wrought by
Cyclone Nargis that will be presented at the ASEAN foreign ministers
meeting in Singapore on July 21-24.

The announcement of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report will
hopefully lead to an outpouring of donor contributions to the UN's revised
flash appeal for 480 million over the next year in emergency relief for
the million-plus people whose lives and communities have been affected by
the cyclone.

The situation today is a lot different than what it was in mid-May, when
international aid workers were warning of a second catastrophe of
starvation and epidemics if relief supplies and international expertise
was not allowed in soon.

Over the past two-and-a-half months the World Food Programme (WFP) has
successfully delivered 20,924 tons of food to some 684,000 beneficiaries,
much of it through an emergency air cargo hub at Bangkok's Don Muaeng
Airport.

There were no outbreaks of epidemics, or none worse than the normal rates
of dengue, malaria and typhoid that plague Myanmar's neglected population
under normal circumstances.

Since the tri-partite core group got started, access to the hardest-hit
areas was essentially eased, although getting official permission for
travel still accounts for 90 per cent of the logical hassles, according to
aid workers.

UN officials closely involved in the cyclone relief effort from day-one
attribute this relative success to the ASEAN initiative.

"It's been the make or break issue on the response," said one UN official
who required anonymity. "I think it provided a convenient solution for
everyone."

For the UN it provided access to Myanmar's advice-adverse military rulers,
for the regime it provided a face-saving way to change its initially
disastrous approach to the disaster. For ASEAN it may have provided a new
mission in life.

"In some respects this is the most effective thing ASEAN has done," said
David Mathieson, the Myanmar expert for Human Rights Watch. "But in
praising the mechanism we shouldn't forget that the reason for creating it
was because of the barbarity of the junta."

It is a good development that ASEAN is playing a lead role, at least
diplomatically, in coping with Myanmar's humanitarian crisis.

And there are hopes, within the international aid community, that ASEAN
will use the Cyclone Nargis experience to enhance its operational skills
in regional disaster relief.

But Myanmar still poses serious challenges. It remains to be seen to what
extent the international community responds to the UN flash appeal for 480
million dollars. The response to the initial appeal, for 200 million, was
about 60 per cent.

Aid to Myanmar, even when it is humanitarian aid going directly to the
people through international agencies, is always a sensitive political
issue for Western democracies, as it should be.

"The aid has got to be transparent and accountable and has to empower the
local communities," said Mathieson. "And one of the biggest challenges for
ASEAN and the UN is going to be integrating human rights reporting into
the aid mechanism."