BurmaNet News, July 26-28, 2008

[Editor]

July 26-28, 2008 Issue #3521


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Females hit worst by Cyclone Nargis
Kachin News Group: Ethnic Kachins kick start campaign for 2010 elections
Mizzima News: Swarms of rats destroy crops in townships in Chin State
The Telegraph (UK): Burma's cyclone survivors are left to struggle with
their fate

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Karen villagers flee Burmese forces
Kaladan News: Help arrives in Burmese refugee camp after starvation deaths

BUSINESS / TRADE
AP: Farmers in Burma go back to work

HEALTH / AIDS
Xinhua: FAO to help Myanmar prevent highly pathogenic avian influenza

REGIONAL
Mizzima News: US president likely to meet Burmese activists during visit
Thailand

INTERNATIONAL
Financial Times: Burma aid cash lost to regime, says UN
The Guardian (UK): London's link to Burmese junta revealed

OPINION / OTHER
The Australian: Don't let junta off the hook – Thaung Htun
Bangkok Post: Give human rights body teeth – Editorial
Irrawaddy: UN Security Council action needed on Burma – Yeni


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 28, Irrawaddy
Females hit worst by Cyclone Nargis – Marwaan Macan-Maker

Nearly three months after the powerful Cyclone Nargis tore through Burma’s
Irrawaddy Delta, it has emerged that the majority of those who died in the
devastated area were women.

Sixty one percent of those who died were female, reveals the Post-Nargis
Joint Assessment (PONJA), a report released by the tripartite group set up
to respond to the humanitarian crisis in military-ruled Burma, or Myanmar.
"In some severely affected villages, twice as many women aged 18-60 died
as men," the report said.

The same pattern was also evident in the deaths of children in the 5-12
age group and the among the children below five years, where there was a
noticeably higher number of young girls who died when Nargis struck than
young boys, adds the 187-page report, released last week.

But this report stuck to the official death toll that was released in the
weeks after Nargis struck on the night of May 3. "The official death toll
stood at 84,537 with 53,836 people still missing and 19,359 injured," it
notes. "Assessment data shows that some 2.4 million people were severely
affected by the cyclone, out of an estimated 7.35 million people living in
the affected townships."

Yet other estimates have put the human toll much higher, with possibly
close to 300,000 people being killed and some 5.5 million people affected.

The tripartite group is made up of officials from the Burmese government,
the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean),
the 10-member regional bloc of which Burma is a member. Asean took the
lead in this initiative, helping to create a "humanitarian bridge," since
Burma’s military regime appeared averse to opening the country to
post-disaster foreign assistance, including aid workers, and foreign
donors being reluctant to pour funds into a country ruled by an oppressive
and notoriously corrupt regime.

"The recovery period is still with us. We are not going into any long-term
planning," said Surin Pitsuwan, secretary-general of Asean, at a press
conference Friday in Bangkok. "Cyclone Nargis was one of the most horrific
natural disasters that ever visited Southeast Asia, following the
(December 2004) tsunami."

"The damage of the cyclone was enormous and it will have long-range
consequences," added Dan Baker, UN humanitarian coordinator in Burma, who
was the world body’s representative in the group that produced PONJA.
"Nearly 75 percent of all health facilities were destroyed or damaged."

The report also shed light on the economic and social cost of the natural
disaster. "Nargis struck just as the Delta’s paddy farmers were at the
very last stage of harvesting the so-called 'dry season' crop, which
accounts for about 25 percent of the annual (rice) productions in the
affected area, and destroyed several rice warehouses and their stocks," it
reveals. "A million acres of farmland were inundated with seawater,
causing serious death and destruction to humans, livestock, farm animals,
infrastructure, and means of production and livelihoods."

"The devastation caused by Nargis has impacted heavily on the availability
of food stocks, as well as seeds and tools for the June-July (main)
planting season," it states. "Over all, only 25 percent of the affected
areas reported having enough seeds."

The damage to the homes of the largely poor communities that lived in the
Delta was as severe. "Nargis affected approximately 800,000 housing units:
around 450,000 units are estimated to have been totally damaged and around
350,000 unites were more lightly damaged," states the report. "Before the
cyclone, it is estimated that 50 percent of all housing unites were built
of wood and bamboo with wood or bamboo floors on stilts."

Looking ahead, the PONJA notes that assistance is needed for safe drinking
water and safe excreta disposal for 1.4 million affected people through
April 2009, and "the rehabilitation of traditional ponds and rainwater
harvesting systems by September 2008."

The area around Rangoon, the former capital, which also took a beating, is
in dire need for aid, too, since the storm "affected four million people,
causing damage to 486.539 homes, over 7,900 factories and commercial
establishments," states PONJA. "Moreover 300,713 acres of farmland were
flooded."

But the report has not been received with universal approval. Groups
familiar with the iron grip with which Burma’s military leaders have ruled
the country for the past 46 years were skeptical.

"We are supposed to believe the official story because it reads nice and
looks nice. We are supposed to believe that the report of the
international community, the UN is correct," said Jody Williams, the 1997
Nobel Peace laureate, who was in Bangkok. "But the assessment team
included representatives of the Burmese junta who went from village to
village. We have to stop accepting the official stories."

Yet those involved with the report argued otherwise, saying there had been
no restrictions. "We mobilized 350 people (for the assessment). They had
full access, no hindrances," said Puji Pujiono, disaster assessment
specialist for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

He conceded, however, that the political climate in Burma is challenging.
"The political situation in Myanmar makes any choices we make very
difficult," he says. "The political complications will remain."

____________________________________

July 28, Kachin News Group
Ethnic Kachins kick start campaign for 2010 elections

Ethnic Kachins in northern Burma have kick started their campaign for
contesting the 2010 general elections by the Burmese ruling junta soon
after the Interim Kachin Committee (IKC) was formed on June 20, local
sources said.

The IKC campaign is underway in 10 different areas in Hugawng Valley,
Bhamo District, Putao District, Waingmaw areas and Myitkyina District
including the three Kachin ceasefire groups' controlled areas --- Kachin
Independence Organization (KIO), New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) and
Lasang Awng Wa Ceasefire Group, said Dr. Manam Tu Ja, the Chairman of IKC
and Vice-president No. 2 of Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).

At the same time, the IKC is preparing to form a state-based political
party which will not be a totally ethnic-based party but will include the
Kachin majority and non-Kachins in the State as soon as the junta
authorizes registration of new political parties for the 2010 elections,
Dr. Tu Ja said.

In the state-based party, the KIO and NDA-K have agreed that people in
their organizations must completely drop out when they join the new party,
said NDA-K and KIO insiders.

The party aims to garner a majority of Kachin votes and seats in the state
parliament. However the military will automatically take 25% of state
seats without going through the election process in 2010, KIO and NDA-K
leaders said.

If the Kachins get a majority in the State parliament, Kachin
representatives would have a chance to negotiate autonomy for Kachins with
the newly elected government, KIO Dr. Tu Ja and NDA-K leader Zahkung Ting
Ying told KNG last week.

This is the reason the IKC was formed in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin
State on June 20 by leaders of the biggest Kachin organizations such as
KIO, NDA-K and Kachin National Consultative Assembly (KNCA).

Initially, the IKC was formed with 50 members but now, there are over 60
members in the IKC-- 10 from the KIO, 10 from the KNCA, five from the NDAK
while the rest are individual Kachin and non-Kachins except for religious
leaders, Chairman Dr. Tu Ja said.
However, the KIO and NDA-K will not surrender its weapons till the end of
the junta's seven-step roadmap and they hope to have a political dialogue
separately on the rights of ethnic Kachins with a newly elected government
after 2010 elections, the leaders of the two organizations said.

____________________________________

July 28, Mizzima News
Swarms of rats destroy crops in townships in Chin State – Zalat May

Rodents have been attacking crops in western Burma's Chin state resulting
in severe food shortage and leading to a famine like situation in at least
five townships, local residents said.

"The rats have destroyed crops in paddy and corn fields in our village.
The fields are swarming with rats," Thang Hu, chairman of the Bungtuah
Village Peace and Development Council in Hakha Township, told Mizzima.

At least five townships – Hakha, Thantlang, Falam, Paletwa and Matupi –
are at the mercy of ever increasing rats, which according to elders is a
once in 50 years phenomenon, when bamboos flower. Bamboos flower every 50
years when its life cycle comes to and end.

The flowers are eaten by rats leading to increased fertility where the
rodents multiply.  The rats then invade fields and grain store houses and
eat the crops leading to a famine like situation which is called the
Mautam in Mizoram state in Northeast India contiguous to Chin state.
Mizoram also faces a similar situation every 50 years but the government
takes preventive steps.

"The situation is getting out of hand and we don't know how to cope with
this problem. We have to kill them with rat poison but they keep
multiplying," another local official of from Tanglo village in Thantlang
Township told Mizzima.

The people are faced with a severe shortage of food and are being forced
to leave their village in search of food.

The present multiplication of rats started since the end of 2007 and
continue harass people in several other townships in the state, according
to a Canada based Chin Human Rights Organization, which is closely
monitoring the situation in Chin state.

Tera, in-charge of the CHRO in Mizoram bordering Chin state in Burma, said
at least 70,000 people including 50,000 people in one township – Paletwa -
have been affected by the famine caused by rats.

While several people have fled to neighboring Mizoram state in India, a
large number of people remaining in Burma are left to the mercy of people
who are not yet affected by the famine, Tera said.

"Now people have to even eat wild berries found in the jungle and some
wild root vegetables," Tera added.

But following the monsoon rains, these wild root vegetables become bitter
and takes a lot of time to cook so now they cannot rely on these, he
added.

According to the villagers, people in the unaffected areas have donated
over 1,000 rice bags to 60 villages. However, local people face serious
financial constraints.

While both villagers and people in the towns are suffering from the
famine, local authorities have not responded with any assistance to the
people but are strictly monitoring relief supplies that are sent to the
people by relatives in foreign countries, Tera said.

"The authorities threatened the people when they came to know they were
receiving foreign assistance and ordered them not to accept it," he added.

According to him, about 700 people have fled to the Indo-Burma and to the
Bangladesh-Burma border after the famine struck. They are now living in
places near Khaki village in lower Teddim, Lengtaleng Township in Mizoram
State in India.

"They have built houses in this new village, trying to be self-reliant by
working as daily wages earners. There are about 30 to 40 children who
cannot attend schools," said Tera, who visited these new villages.

"There are about 79 villages in Thantlang, Matupi and Paletwa Townships
which are affected by the famine. People from 11 villages from Paletwa
Township arrived in Saiha. They fled their villages after rats destroyed
their crops. They hope to get some assistance here. There are a lot of
people arriving here," said Toe Par, Secretary of 'Mara People's Party' in
Saiha, Mizoram on the Indo-Burma border.

"The flowering of bamboo will last not for one year but for about four to
five years. I'd like to urge the Chin people to assist these people", said
Thang Yen, General Secretary of the 'Chin National Front', an armed
student rebel group fighting for self-determination of Chins.
____________________________________

July 27, The Telegraph (UK)
Burma's cyclone survivors are left to struggle with their fate – Nick Mao

Three months after Cyclone Nargis devastated Burma's Irrawaddy Delta and
killed 140,000, many survivors have yet to receive help and some have been
thrown off their land by the military junta.

Thein Hlaing wasted no time lamenting his family's misfortune when their
home and village were wrecked by Cyclone Nargis in May. At least he, his
wife and two young children had survived the savage storm that ravaged
Burma and killed at least 140,000 people.

With his neighbours, the 28-year-old labourer plunged into the nearby
swamp to retrieve pieces of corrugated tin and lengths of wood from where
the winds had blown them, and set about rebuilding his hut on a scrap of
land above the floodwater.

But it was not until last week that the first Burmese government official
arrived, flanked by uniformed policemen. Joyful at first, Mr Hlaing
thought he would get some help at last.

Instead, the official shouted at him, ordering him and his family to
dismantle their new home or be thrown into jail. The higher ground had
been earmarked for a building development, the official said. It was no
longer permitted for anyone to live there.
Burma is not a country where you argue with anyone in authority and Mr
Hlaing knew better than to do so. But inside he was furious.

"I would like a better life for my children but how can we hope for that
now?" he said. "This government does nothing for us. It leaves us to
struggle with our fate." This week he will have to move to the spot where
he previously lived and rebuild his shelter again, spending the rest of
the rainy season in a hut built on stilts above the fetid green swamp
water which gives his children fevers.

There are growing signs that Burma's repressive military regime, headed by
General Than Shwe, is helping its supporters to profiteer from the
disaster. "A lot of government-appointed village headmen seem to be doing
very well out of the rebuilding effort," said a Western aid worker who
asked not to be named.

Villagers fear that businessmen allied with the government are being
allowed to seize the land they have lived on and farmed for years. The
price of rice has soared, both in Burma and abroad, and with it the value
of the fields in which it is grown. But under Burma's archaic socialist
system, the land is government-owned and farmers can be moved off it if
they are not productive, as most cannot be at present.

Not far from Mr Hlaing's village south of the capital, Rangoon, are
thousands of devastated communities in the Irrawaddy Delta. They have held
funerals for their dead and rebuilt their flimsy homes. Now they are
starting to think about the future – and some fear they may not have one.

Nearly three months after Nargis roared ashore on May 2, the initial
emergency phase of the disaster relief is being wound down.

With road and river travel resuming, foreign helicopters brought in to
deliver emergency food supplies are going home. The World Food Programme
scaled back flights bringing aid from Thailand last week, judging that the
worst is now over. But the United Nations says a further
£500 million aid is now needed for long-term rebuilding and to
kick-start the delta's farming and industry. There is a question mark over
how much of that will be forthcoming from donor countries.

It will take years to finish rebuilding the 800,000 homes and 4,000
schools destroyed by the typhoon. Although nobody is dying of starvation,
paddy fields are still inundated with salty water, making it impossible
for many farmers to grow the rice that is needed. About half of the area's
cattle, pigs and poultry died and 70 per cent of its fishing boats sank.

It didn't take long to find other villages suffering like Mr Hlaing's. The
chain of extra police checkpoints thrown around the delta in the immediate
aftermath of the cyclone is still in place, some now housed in what appear
to be new buildings. But by dodging around them and using back roads into
the swampy land just an hour's drive south of Rangoon, we found
communities still struggling to get back on their feet – and yet to
receive any government help.

Last week Surin Pitsuwan, the secretary-general of Asean, the body that
represents south-east Asian nations, described the situation in the delta
as "a tragedy of immense proportions", adding: "The task ahead is clearly
enormous and will take a lot of time, a lot of effort."

UN statisticians say privately that the number of deaths may reach
180,000, far above the official 140,000 dead and missing. More women and
children are believed to have died than men, who were stronger and able to
cling longer to treetops as the floodwaters raged beneath them.

Near Mr Hlaing's shack was a teahouse where his neighbours, mostly
landless labourers with no crops to tend, while away their days under a
giant poster of Manchester United, the favourite team of Burma's football
fans who crowd into tea shops to watch matches on satellite television. As
flies crawled over their shirts the men complained quietly about the
government's indifference, their eyes constantly darting around to see who
might be listening.

Since last year's anti-regime protests led by the country's monks, and
then the cyclone, security has been tightened to unprecedented levels.
Rangoon is now a fearful city full of informers.

"When there was an earthquake in China their government quickly organised
an aid effort and saved thousands of lives," one man in the tea shop said.
"Our government didn't even warn people that the cyclone was coming, and
then it did hardly anything to help victims. This government is our
misfortune."

A few miles away in another settlement of thatched huts, 83 out of 87
homes were destroyed. Most of the villagers had managed to shelter from
the storm in a factory, but two drowned as the waters surged to head
height and three more died of their injuries in the chaotic days
afterwards.

The 440lb of rice and bottles of cooking oil which The Sunday Telegraph
took to the village was the first help it had received – and the only help
it is now likely to get.

The shortage of rice is the most serious immediate problem, said Myint
Tunoo, the village headman. Its price has doubled since the cyclone,
reducing villagers to one meal a day, and the paddy fields where they had
just begun harvesting when the storm struck are still a muddy mess.

Prices are now high enough for anyone with a crop to make a good profit,
but there is no seed for replanting, which they should be doing for the
next harvest, in November.

"I fear we will never really recover," Mr Myint said. "We are too busy
just surviving, and we can't even feed ourselves." Despite that, the
village has taken in refugees from the devastated town of Bogale, farther
into the delta. Myint Myint Swe, who has a two-year-old child, saw her
husband die in agony in front of her, from a stomach wound caused by
flying debris.

"Normally it would have been treated easily in the hospital, but the roads
were blocked and we couldn't find a doctor anywhere," she said.

Since then, she said, she has lived from day to day, not daring to look
ahead for fear of what the future may hold for her and her child.

In some villages, away from the police, people were willing to talk
openly, but there is so much fear in Rangoon that merely buying rice in
the markets has become an awkward undertaking for a foreigner. We had to
leave quickly after we were warned that a man had been listening intently
to our conversation.

At many villages, anxious-looking headmen waved us away, and at one
checkpoint which we could not avoid, our driver was hauled from the car by
armed police, returning white-faced after 30 minutes, having paid a large
bribe to avoid jail.

The influx of foreign aid workers –many of whom are permitted to enter the
delta – has created work for Burma's feared Military Intelligence, which
has driven most of last year's protesters underground or caught and jailed
them. Agencies complain of having informers planted among their staff.
Humanitarian workers describe scenes of terrible suffering in the delta,
although most grudgingly admit that the regime has opened up more access
to the region than during the first fortnight after the disaster, when it
was almost completely closed.

"Eventually they got out of the way. Now they leave us to get on with it,"
said one aid worker. Another British veteran of disaster zones who has
just returned from several weeks in the devastated town of Labutta
described hellish scenes and spoke of government discrimination against
unpopular minority groups.

She said: "Only a couple of weeks ago you could still see rotting bodies
scattered around. People were just too traumatised to clear them up.

"There is rebuilding going on, you have to give the government credit for
that. But villages with Karen or Muslim ethnic minorities don't seem to be
getting any help at all."

Some Burmese are also critical of what they say is at best a patchy
foreign aid effort. "These UN staff driving around in their white
Landcruisers, what good are they doing?" one man asked. "Why are they
working with the government? It would be better for us if they were
working with the monasteries."

Guy Cave, country director of Save the Children, warned that the delta
could now face a second disaster which may endure for decades.

"Conditions are incredibly grim," he said. "Our assessment is that three
more years of assistance are needed. We hope that the world will continue
to help the survivors of Nargis, but there is a real risk of this becoming
a forgotten disaster."

Thousands of people whose lives were wrecked know that it will take them
years to recover, and many fear they never will.

At a pottery near Rangoon, Tin Moe Aung surveyed the wreckage of his small
factory, his family's livelihood. Tall trees fell into the building, much
of his stock was smashed, the kiln was wrecked and he has neither money
for repairs nor any prospect of government help.

"Our roof was gone with the wind," he sighed, gesturing at a tarpaulin
pulled over the remains of his pots inside his four bare walls. He had
searched in vain for the tin roof. "If only the cyclone had blown away our
government too."

All names of Burmese civilians have been changed for their protection.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 28, Irrawaddy
Karen villagers flee Burmese forces – Violet Cho

About 300 Karen villagers in Burma have fled to Thailand after the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and Burmese army units took over
their villages, according to sources in the area.

Robert Soe, an officer in the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)
Battalion 201, said refugees from four villages began arriving in Thailand
last weekend. They are temporarily living in Valeki in Pob Phra District
in Tak Province.

The refugees are receiving food and other necessities from local Thai
people and international nongovernment organizations.

According to local people in Valeki, the Karen villagers said soldiers
with the DKBA, a Karen splinter army, and the Burmese army took over their
villages and forced them to work as porters during a military operation
along the border.

Several hundred more villagers are reportedly displaced persons now inside
Burma, said local sources.

“They are planning to go back after the DKBA and Burmese soldiers leave
their villages because they have everything there, houses and farms,” said
Ba Wah, a resident in Valeki.

It’s unknown how long the Burmese military operation will go on along the
border area, said Ba Wah.

The exodus started early this month following skirmishes between the KNLA
and the DKBA near Valeki village, across the border from Phadee. DKBA
troops backed by Burmese army units took over a military base belonging to
the military wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), KNLA Battalion 201.

Beside Burmese army operations in Karen State, there are also Burmese army
operations going on in Shan State. According a recent report by the Free
Burma Rangers, the Burmese army uses tactics of forced relocation, often
along ethnic lines, as a way to smother potential opposition to its rule.

The Burmese army and United Wa State army both continue to use forced
labor to transport supplies and expand military infrastructure, said the
report.

People must pay a fine of 5,000 kyats (US $5) if they are unable to serve
as labor.

Villagers are generally forced to provide labor four times a month,
according to the report.

The report also said the Burmese army has ordered people in Shan State to
grow castor oil and rubber plants, in a junta-imposed project to produce
biofuel. Villagers have no choice whether or not to participate in the
program, the report said.

____________________________________

July 28, Kaladan News
Help arrives in Burmese refugee camp after starvation deaths

Relief material from Muslim Aid of UK and Islamic Relief Organization
(IRO) was distributed yesterday in the undocumented Burmese Rohingya
refugee camp where five refugees died of starvation between 2nd and 19
July.

The Muslim Aid distributed 10 kilograms rice, 1 litre of edible oil, 1½ kg
of pulse and 2 kgs of potato per family yesterday, said a Majee of the
camp. The IRO also distributed one kilogram of rice, 1 litre of edible
oil, 1½ kg of glutin rice flakes and 250 gram of molasses per family in
one block of the refugee camp on July 23, said another Majee of the camp.
The camp was shifted to a new location (Lada camp) on July 6. The camp is
better than the one in Dum Dum Meah. But, the refugees faced difficulties
finding jobs and to support their families as the camp was located far
from the local business area. It cost around 40 Taka for a ride from the
camp where as refugees earn only 60 taka as a daily labours. The camp
faced shortage of food and refugees began starving.  Five refugees died,
said a refugee on condition of anonymity.    “We are worse off than other
refugees as we are living in the lower parts of the camp where we are
faced with water seeping from the earth. We can’t sit in the hut (shed),”
said Mamona Begum.

“My kids are not able to go out of the shed now as it is muddy outside,”
she added.

“In the new camp, we faced some disturbance from the local people living
near the camp, who setup shops near the camp and sell goods at high prices
compared with other shops a little further from the camp. If we buy goods
from other shops, the shopkeepers near our camp loot the goods from the
refugees,” said Hussin, a father of four and a daily labourer.

Currently the Lada camp hosts 1,972 families, and the camp will be
extended for 2,000 families. Refugees will be provided ration in the days
to come, according to Union Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md. Altaf Hossain
Chowdhury of Teknaf.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 28, Associated Press
Farmers in Burma go back to work

Ko Nyi Thaut lost six of his children and all his possessions when Cyclone
Nargis hit Burma three months ago. But the farmer, 53, still has his rice
fields. The surprise, say aid workers, is how quickly he and others have
gone back to work.

The broader food outlook, however, is bleak.

Like tens of thousands of farmers, Ko Nyi Thaut labors from dawn to dusk
preparing his flood-ravaged Irrawaddy delta land for a crop that should
have been planted a month ago.

"If the weather is good and we are lucky, I think we could get about
two-thirds of what we had before," he said.

"It would not have been enough for my family if we still had 11 people.
But the cyclone killed six of my children, so maybe we will have enough
rice for the family now."

His remark is a heart-rending reminder of how the cyclone ripped entire
families to shreds as it roared through the delta May 2 and 3, killing
84,537 and leaving 53,836 missing and presumed dead, according to an
official count.

Now comes the task of feeding the survivors, and aid workers acknowledge
the odds are stacked against them being able to match the bountiful yields
that turned this region into Burma's rice bowl.

Many farmers have been quickly draining their land and removing fallen
trees and other debris. But they say they lack water buffaloes and plows,
or have gone heavily into debt to buy fuel that has doubled in price.
Families have lost not just their land but the fathers and sons who knew
how to farm it.

"It doesn't look good at all," Ashley Clements of the World Vision aid
group said by telephone from Burma. Many people will need food aid "for
the next few months and even for a year or so."

In the cyclone's immediate aftermath, the focus was on feeding and
sheltering the estimated 2.4 million survivors.

Now the recovery effort turns to reviving livelihoods. It will be a tall
task considering some 2 million acres of rice paddy were submerged by the
massive waves and 85 percent of seed stocks destroyed.

Specialists said returning farmers to the fields is a priority because of
the threat of worsening food shortages. In 1988, demonstrations against
Burma's military junta over rice prices and other issues ended in heavy
bloodshed.

The United Nations World Food Program has provided 20,000 tons of food aid
to 733,000 cyclone survivors and sees the number in need growing to
924,000. But even after rice is harvested in October, it expects to keep
feeding as many as 300,000 survivors for another year.

"Normally, we try and avoid giving out food at harvest time," said Tony
Banbury, the food program's regional director in Bangkok. But this time
it's different because of the loss of animals, land, or a family head who
"may have left behind a wife and four kids but she doesn't have the skills
to immediately pick up farming."

Burmese officials say only about 30 percent of affected fields have been
planted.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

July 28, Xinhua
FAO to help Myanmar prevent highly pathogenic avian influenza

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will help
Myanmar prevent, control and eradicate highly pathogenic avian influenza
under a bilateral agreement also involving the financial aid of the World
Bank, the state newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Monday.

The agreement between the UN organization and the Livestock Breeding and
Veterinary Department (LBVD) of Myanmar on a three-year project in this
regard, signed here on Sunday, will run from 2008 to 2011 and the Work
Bank will provide 1.315 million U.S. dollars' financial aid for the
project, the report said.

In April this year, the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) declared
Myanmar as a bird-flu-free country three months after the country was
proved that there was no residual bird flu virus remained over the period
since January.

According to then OIE statement, the latest spread of the H5N1 virus from
Kengtung to Mongphyat in Shan state in November last year, which infected
a seven-year-old girl later in December, had been under control since late
January this year, attributing the infection to carrying from abroad.

There were numerous outbreaks of the avian influenza in Myanmar covering
25 townships of six states and divisions over the past two years since
February 2006 until the last in December 2007.

All of the occurrences were blamed for infecting from abroad especially
that the virus was carried into the country by migratory birds from the
cold regions in the world infecting local birds, according to the LBVD.

Myanmar reported outbreak of the avian influenza in the country for the
first time in some poultry farms in Mandalay and Sagaing divisions in
early 2006, followed by those in Yangon division in early 2007, in Mon
state's Thanbyuzayat and western Bago division's Letpadan in July and in
eastern Bago division's Thanatpin and in Yangon division's Hmawby in
October the same year.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 28, Mizzima News
US president likely to meet Burmese activists during visit Thailand

US President George W. Bush is likely to meet Burmese activists during his
trip to neighboring Thailand in early August, sources in Bangkok said.

The source said Bush may have a luncheon meeting with a few Burmese
activists and political observers in Bangkok, during his two day visit to
Thailand.

George and his wife Laura Bush are scheduled to arrive Thailand on August
6 to mark the 175th bilateral relationship between the two countries. It
will be his last visit to Asia before his term as president expires.

Bush, who will visit Bangkok on August 6 and 7, will hold bilateral talks
with Thailand's Foreign Minister Samak Sundaravej and commemorate 175
years of bilateral relations between the two countries, according to
Thailand's daily newspaper, Bangkok Post.

During the visit, Bush will also deliver a speech in Bangkok.

"President Bush will deliver a speech on Asia while he is in Bangkok," the
paper quoted Thailand's Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Jarungvat as
saying. "The importance of the speech is that it will be his last speech
on Asia during his presidency."

Bush is also expected to raise Burma issue during his talks with Thai
officials including Foreign Minister Samak.

During his term as the President of the United States, Bush implemented
stricter economic and financial sanctions against Burma's military rulers
and pushed for a United Nations Security Council resolution on Burma.

But his effort, which was backed by the United Kingdom and France,
however, failed to yield any result and ended up as a UNSC's Presidential
statement, as two other veto wielding countries – China and Russia –
objected to the resolution.

Bush will fly to China after ending his visit to Thailand for the Beijing
Olympics, which will have its opening ceremony on August 8.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 26, Financial Times
Burma aid cash lost to regime, says UN – Harvey Morris

International aid money sent to Burma's cyclone victims is being lost as a
result of the junta's foreign exchange regulations, according to United
Nations officials.

John Holmes, the UN's humanitarian affairs chief, has described the loss
as "a serious problem" that he had raised with Burmese leaders during a
visit this week. They had promised to address the issue.

The UN's first acknowledgement of the gravity of the problem followed
claims by Burmese political exiles that the regime was using exchange
controls to pocket a proportion of donor funds destined for the more than
2m survivors of cyclone Nargis that killed 140,000 in May. While UN
officials could put no figure on the losses, the exiles claimed they might
amount to 20 per cent of the tens of millions of dollars so far spent.

The losses stem from Burma's requirement that foreign exchange brought
into the country must be changed into government-issued Foreign Exchange
Certificates (FECs). The FECs are, officially, at parity with the dollar
but, in -practice, they trade in the local market at a discount when
converted into Burmese kyat to buy local goods and services.

"FECs trade currently at about 80 cents for every $1 they supposedly
represent," said Sean Turnell, an Australian economist who monitors the
Burmese economy from Sydney's Macquarie University. "This means that for
every $1 supplied by the international agencies, 20 per cent is
automatically unavailable for redemption into goods and services. Shorn of
technicalities, a cut of 20 per cent to the regime is built in."

Mr Turnell said it was difficult to quantify the actual losses as much of
the aid to Burma was supplied in kind rather than in cash. Claims of an
overall loss of 20 percent were probably overstated, he said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Holmes office said the "vast majority" of aid to
Burma was purchased outside the country and not subject to the exchange
control anomaly. Any losses would principally be related to salaries and
expenses of local aid personnel.

Mr Holmes this month more than doubled the target of an international
disaster appeal for Burma to $482m (£242m, €307m). Some $190m has so far
been pledged.

____________________________________

July 28, The Guardian (UK)
London's link to Burmese junta revealed – Nick Mathiason

London insurance connection propping up the murderous Burmese military
dictatorship can be revealed in a development that will acutely embarrass
leading City figures.

Three Lloyd's of London operators will be named as helping to insure the
junta's state-owned airline Myanma Airways earlier this year. They are
Kiln, Atrium and Catlin. All were contacted by The Observer and asked to
explain their involvement but refused to comment.

Other Lloyd's syndicates have shared the risk of insuring the junta's
shipping interests. Without shipping and aviation insurance, the Burmese
government would not be able to export gems, timber, clothing, oil and
gas, which would lead to economic ruin for the generals running the
oppressed south-east Asian nation.

The London insurance involvement, to be exposed this week in a report by
Burma Campaign UK, will acutely damage the reputation of the City. It is
likely to trigger a wave of campaigns aiming to force Lloyd's of London to
recommend that its members pull business from Burma. Campaigners are
demanding a face-to-face meeting with Lloyd's chairman Lord Levene.

'The insurance industry is helping to fund the Burmese dictatorship.
Insurance companies, including members of Lloyd's, are putting profits
before ethics. They don't care that they're helping Burma's brutal regime
fund the purchase of guns, bullets and tanks for their campaigns of
repression and ethnic cleansing. In an age where companies like to claim
they behave ethically, the truth is these companies are helping to finance
a regime that rapes, tortures and kills civilians,' said Johnny
Chatterton, Burma Campaign UK's campaign officer.

Lloyd's this weekend argued that its members were not breaking the law by
insuring Burma's key infrastructure. While the US has imposed
across-the-board sanctions on Burma, the European Union has taken a
limited stance. EU sanctions cover gems and timber but not financial
services. Despite pressure from the European parliament to extend
sanctions, heads of state have failed to unanimously approve the measure.

Last night, Lloyd's said: 'Unless there are official international
sanctions in place, we do not instruct the market where it can and cannot
write business.'

Lloyd's intransigence will put pressure on the UK government to intervene.
Gordon Brown has in the past made plain his disapproval of any business
trading with Burma. It is unclear whether the Foreign Office has raised
the issue with senior Lloyd's officials.

The Burma Campaign report will expose eight other insurance companies.
While Lloyd's is vital to the regime, much business goes to Singapore and
Thailand. By Burmese law, all insurance has to goes through Myanma
Insurance, in which the state is the sole shareholder. It is an
imprisonable offence to get insurance through any other organisation.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 28, The Australian
Don't let junta off the hook – Thaung Htun

IF it were possible for human rights in Burma to be further assailed, then
Cyclone Nargis managed to provide the opportunity. The storm, which swept
through Burma's Irrawaddy Delta in May, killed up to 140,000 and ruined
the lives of millions. Human rights are also a victim of Nargis.

Indeed, Human Rights Watch recently observed: "The greatest obstacle faced
by the international community in addressing the large-scale
reconstruction needs of the Irrawaddy Delta is Burma's abusive military
regime." Yet the Burmese generals pat themselves on the back for ratifying
an important regional human rights charter. Those who live in the real
world must not be bought off by this latest lavish ruse.

Burma's ratification of the human rights charter of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations is infused with the sharpest irony.

For one, the charter, despite being years in the making, is neither
enforceable nor does it carry any powers of prosecution. In fact, it
extends ASEAN's non-interference culture to new lows. While the Burmese
military junta remains truculently unwilling to provide basic access to
foreign aid organisations post-Nargis, ASEAN seems prepared to allow a
signature on a document to stand for its commitment to justice and human
rights.

The torpid nature of ASEAN's human rights culture is epitomised in
article14 of its charter. Pertaining directly to human rights in the
region, the two-paragraph entry is vague and weak in tone. It's a perfect
backdrop to ASEAN's listless approach.

So, for Burma's generals, ratifying the human rights statement was a
no-brainer. The timing is clearly political, as it provides a moment for
the generals to bask in some rare global community warmth. It also acts as
a diversion to ongoing human rights violations in Burma.

Burma's junta is already a signatory to treaties and agreements on the
rights of women, children, labour and unionists, among others. These
documents gather dust on the shelves of military dictators while the
Burmese horror story goes on.

More specifically, the generals continue to ignore the suffering of those
affected by Nargis.

Nearly three months after Nargis, more than one million Burmese still have
not received any assistance from international humanitarian and aid
agencies. Wads of aid money are landing in the khaki pockets of the
country's rulers, prompting the British Government to reconsider providing
any aid at all, invoking the principle of its responsibility to protect
Burma's civilians. This money funds continued atrocities of various
degrees.

For instance, villagers still are being press-ganged into rebuilding roads
and other infrastructure projects, even as donor money is pledged to pay
for them. The Burmese military still is forcibly relocating many villagers
in the Irrawaddy Delta, often to put them out of the reach of
international aid workers. Meanwhile, there are critical shortages in
housing materials, educational materials such as books, water and
sanitation equipment, and health care and basic medical services. Some
areas are desperately short of food.

On another level, people still are being detained, including locals who
have volunteered to help the aid effort. Forced labour, land grabs,
torture and rape are common military tactics, often targeting ordinary
civilians going about their daily affairs.

The continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi is a fitting symbol of the
years of neglect and mistreatment of the Burmese people.

If these acts of political bastardry don't suffice as a pointer to the
Burmese military's true intentions, it should be remembered that in the
immediate aftermath of the cyclone, the Government was more concerned with
conducting a sham referendum to legimitise constitutional changes that
shored up the military's power base. Those who opposed the process were
summarily locked up.

During this period, the infamous Law 5/96 was regularly invoked. This law
imposes a maximum prison term of 20 years for so much as discussing the
constitution.

Without a democratic and accountable government, aid work will remain
underdone and over-exploited. Without international monitors, money from
international donors will continue to be wasted or, worse, scurrilously
diverted.

Unfortunately, while ASEAN has achieved something worthwhile in persuading
Burma to ratify its human rights charter, the victory rings hollow, as
hollow as the roar of a vastpaper tiger over the broken Irrawaddy Delta.

Thaung Htun is the representative for UN affairs at the Burma UN Service
Office of Burma's government-in-exile.

____________________________________

July 27, Bangkok Post
Give human rights body teeth

The Asean (the Association of South East Asian Nations) charter signed at
the group's summit in the past week boldly declared the pursuance of human
rights in the region as a core value, but unfortunately the signs coming
out of the 41st Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Singapore are that when
the Asean human rights organisation does finally comes on line it might be
toothless.

An Asean human rights body is a long time coming. At the 26th AMM, also
held in Singapore, all foreign ministers agreed that Asean should
coordinate a common approach on human rights and actively contribute to
the application, promotion and protection of such rights. It furthermore
agreed that Asean should consider the establishment of an appropriate
regional mechanism on human rights. At the 41st AMM, the membership of a
High Level Panel (HLP) was established to draft the terms of reference
(TOR) for a human rights body was formalised. The panel is to present its
work at the 14th Asean summit in December 2008 in Bangkok.

But reports from Singapore indicate that some countries within the
10-member regional grouping - Burma in particular - are already putting
severe limits on the functionality of any Asean human rights organisation.
According to an anonymous diplomatic source, on Tuesday the HLP met with
foreign ministers in a closed-door session in which Burmese Foreign
Minister Nyan Win told the panel it should uphold the Asean tradition of
non-interference in the internal affairs of member states and reject a
monitoring capacity for the human rights body.

If agreed to, this provision would effectively prohibit a proper
investigation of human rights abuses. It has already been tacitly agreed
that the human rights body will not have the power to impose sanctions on
any member state or seek prosecution for alleged offenders. The lack of a
monitoring capacity would make it easy for governments to deny access to
alleged victims.

If Burma s wishes are honoured by the panel - and to be sure, Burma is not
alone in its position - what exactly will the human rights body be able to
accomplish? It seems that the most we could hope for is issuing
statements, with some authority, based on reports compiled by journalists
and NGOs.

To its credit, Thailand has for some time taken the high ground on the
formation of a human rights body, along with Malaysia, the Philippines and
Indonesia, and lobbied for greater empowerment. However, this movement has
been led by segments of governmental and civil society which are naturally
predisposed to human rights advocacy.

It is uncertain how the influence of sitting politicians in these
countries will shape the final draft of the TOR, but it seems likely they
will be more than happy to limit the scope of the human rights body and
let the blame fall on Burma.

In fairness, although it is true that Asean is the world's only major
regional grouping without a formal human rights mechanism, the sacrifice
of human rights to political expediency is hardly unique to this region.

The same criticism was leveled at the United Nations Human Rights
Committee, whose membership and even leadership at times included states
with appalling human rights records.

The remodeled UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), established in March 2006,
is an improved, but still very flawed mechanism.

Yet the UNHRC does have the power to act if it chooses to, as it has on
Darfur in heping to prepare a case for the International Criminal Court,
over the objections of powerful member-state China. The coming Asean human
rights body is in danger of having weakness written into it before it ever
becomes a reality.

____________________________________

July 26, Irrawaddy
UN Security Council action needed on Burma – Yeni

The UN’s top humanitarian relief official, John Holmes, ended his three
day visit to Burma on Thursday after reviewing UN efforts in the country’s
cyclone-affected areas. Holmes hailed the spirit of cooperation and vowed
to continue cooperation with the Burmese regime on relief and an early
recovery from the effects of the cyclone.

During his meeting with Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein and other
ministers in Naypyidaw, Holmes told them the UN and other humanitarian
agencies are ready to provide assistance and expertise to Burma in the
vital areas of disaster preparedness, risk reduction and early warning
systems. "We must make sure that humanitarian efforts continue to be
separate from politics," he said.

But humanitarian aid, funded by donations from individuals, corporations,
governments and other organizations, should not given without a monitoring
system, including access to the organization’s mission statement, accounts
and control systems, providing for greater transparency in operations and
overall accountability.

At that point, the media could play an important role. Burma, however, has
continued to restrict and censor press coverage of the cyclone and arrests
the “messengers.” Moreover, there is still lack of recognition from the
leaders—from regional to international—of the importance of allowing the
press to function without harassment or intimidation during the next
crucial phases of the multilateral relief effort in Burma.

While Holmes wants humanitarian efforts to be separate from politics, his
boss, UN chief Ban Ki-moon, called for strong cooperation from the Burmese
regime when UN mediator Ibrahim Gambari visits the country mid-August.

Ban also convened a meeting of the so-called "Group of Friends" on Burma
which was set up last December—bringing together Australia, the UK, China,
France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Korea,
Thailand, the US, Vietnam, the European Community and the EU—to discuss
Gambari's visit.

According to Ban, the group specifically focused on "tangible progress"
expected "with regard to the resumption of dialogue between (Ms) Aung San
Suu Kyi and the government, the credibility of the electoral process, and
the regularization of engagement with the good offices of the Secretary
General."

However, there has always been an excuse for putting off reform in Burma.
Since Burma was voted onto the permanent agenda of the council in 2006,
there is still a lack of mechanism and system to deal with the Burmese
regime.

The UN Security Council still finds itself unable to agree to do much to
protect suffering people, especially from Darfur, Zimbabwe, and Burma. 
China and Russia, both arch-defenders of the world's brutal regimes, have
seriously consider the authorization of forceful intervention—even for
humanitarian purpose—as a threat to a state’s sovereignty.

The concept of "responsibility to protect," adopted by a UN world summit
in 2005, should not be dead when it comes to the issue of Burma. The world
body should set an urgent agenda to broker a political and economic
settlement on Burma.

If the military regime continues to refuse to implement democratic reforms
and release political prisoners, including opposition leader and Nobel
peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, why shouldn’t the UN Security Council
take action on measures that will prevent the sale of arms to the Burmese
military, and a ban on banking transactions targeting top Burma's ruling
generals, as well as state and private entities that support the regime's
weapons trade?