BurmaNet News, August 5, 2008

[Editor]

August 5, 2008 Issue #3527

INSIDE BURMA
AFP: UN envoy meets top Myanmar political prisoners: spokesman
DVB: Generation Wave plans red paint campaign
KNG: Increase in Kachin women trafficking to China: KWAT
Narinjara: Security beefed up in Sittwe after anti-government posters
IRIN: Myanmar: Food shortages "significant"
Khonumthung: Meeting on food crisis in Chin state to be held in Rangoon

ON THE BORDER
TNA: Police arrest 200 illegal Myanmar workers in Mae Sot

BUSINESS / TRADE
Kaowao News: Logging ban flouted: criminal activity strips forests
AFP: UN says 51 mln dlrs needed for Myanmar's rice paddies

HEALTH / AIDS
Xinhua: Number of HIV-infected people drop in Myanmar

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Bush set to meet Burmese activists - Wai Moe

INTERNATIONAL
UN News Centre: Aid delivery in Myanmar still a challenge, UN says

OPINION / OTHER
DVB: Can the 2010 election change Burma? - Naing Ko Ko
Mizzima News: An Olympian question of legitimacy for Burma's generals -
May Ng

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 5, Agence France Presse
UN envoy meets top Myanmar political prisoners: spokesman

YANGON - THE new United Nations human rights envoy for Myanmar met on
Tuesday with some of the nation's most prominent political prisoners
inside the feared Insein Prison, a spokesman said.

UN special rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana met with five inmates, including
Win Tin, a 78-year-old journalist who is the country's longest-serving
political prisoner, detained since 1989, UN spokesman Aye Win said.

The envoy also met with leading labour activist Su Su Nway and with
Buddhist monk Gambira, who helped lead mass anti-government protests
violently suppressed by the military last September, the spokesman said.

The two other activists allowed to speak with Quintana were Thurein Aung
and Kyaw Kyaw, labour activists sentenced to 28 years in prison last year
for organising a May Day seminar at a US embassy seminar, Mr Aye Win
added.

The prison visit came shortly after Quintana toured parts of the Irrawaddy
Delta devastated by Cyclone Nargis three months ago, when more than
138,000 people were left dead or missing.

Mr Quintana arrived in Yangon on Sunday on a mission to meet with senior
officials, ethnic groups and political parties in a bid to open talks with
the generals on improving their human rights record.

The military regime stands accused of employing forced labour, suppressing
the democracy movement, persecuting ethnic minorities and imprisoning
dissidents.

Amnesty International on Tuesday said Myanmar holds more than 2,000
political prisoners, urging Mr Quintana to demand their release.

____________________________________

August 5, Democratic Voice of Burma
Generation Wave plans red paint campaign

Members of the youth activist group Generation Wave are planning to spray
red paint around Rangoon to commemorate those killed in the 8888 uprising,
the 20th anniversary of which falls on Friday.

In a statement issued yesterday, the group urged young people across Burma
to join their campaign to remember the monks, students and others killed
in the brutal crackdown in 1988.

“The authorities used violence to suppress the uprising on the streets of
Burma, including in Rangoon, and a lot of blood was spilled,” said Moe
Thway, a spokesperson for Generation Wave.

“Some of the youth today remember it but some of them were not old
enough,” he said.

“We would like to remind all of them of the history.”

The statement said Generation Wave had planned the campaign to demonstrate
to the government that the new generation are not giving in to this
regime’s pressure.

They are still sacrificing their blood and sweat and are determined to do
that until democracy has been achieved,” the group said.

Moe Thway urged all young people to do what they can to show their
solidarity with Generation Wave.

“We would like to urge all the youth and students of Burma to join hands
with Generation Wave and to support us in our activities in any way they
can,” he said.

____________________________________

August 5, Kachin News Group
Increase in Kachin women trafficking to China: KWAT

The economic slump in Burma coupled with human rights violations by the
Burmese military regime has led to Burmese women being trafficked to
neighbouring countries like China. The trafficking is increasing by the
year, said a Kachin women's group.

A new report "Eastward Bound" launched today by the Kachin Women's
Association Thailand (KWAT) said about two-thirds of the women and
children from Kachin State and about one-third from northern Shan State
were trafficked to China.

About 25 per cent of trafficked women were under 18 while most girls were
as young as 14. The majority of the women and girls are from poor quarters
of larger towns such as Myitkyina, Waingmaw (Waimaw), Bhamo (Manmaw) in
Kachin State and Kutkai in Northeast Shan State, the new report added.

 “Kachin women were mostly trafficked to China according to our research
while others included Shan, Palaung, Burmese and Chinese women from
Burma,” said a researcher of the report.

According to the report, women and girls were trafficked when they sought
work to support their families. Most women were trafficked to provide
wives for Chinese men.

A woman quoted in the new report "Eastward Bound" was sold as a bride in
eastern China. She said that she was sold as a bride for 24,000 Yuan (US$
3,500). Her husband seemed to be mentally retarded and she had to work on
the farm.

"I was never allowed out alone, and even when I went shopping someone
would always accompany me.”

The new report released by KWAT documented trafficking cases which
occurred between 2004 and mid – 2007 involving 163 women and girls.

The Burma’s ruling junta so-called State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC) has come up with an Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law in September
2005 to address trafficking in a more substantive way and ensure that the
rights of trafficked victims were protected and that traffickers were
severely punished.

“Even though the SPDC has made the law, it's just to show the
international community that they are into an anti-trafficking programme
and are taking action against those who break the law,” said a researcher
from KWAT.

[An upate report on trafficking of Kachin women on the China-Burma border
by KWAT. ]

There has also seen false trafficking charges under the new law and it was
testified in a report that a woman made false accusations of trafficking
and that she was raped while in detention.

“I was guarded and while I was sleeping at 3 a.m. the chairman came and
raped me. I shouted out but those nearby didn't come to help,” a woman
said.

A woman quoted in a report said that she escaped and was sent back to the
Burmese border (on Ruili River) by the Chinese police. However, the
Burmese border police verbally assaulted her and refused to accept her. So
the Chinese police took her back to the Ruili side and left her in a park.

 “Anti-trafficking laws are meaningless under a regime that systematically
violates people's rights, and whose policies are driving citizens to
migrate,” said Ms. Gum Hkawng, a researcher and anti-trafficking
programme coordinator of the KWAT.

According to a Trafficking in Persons Report 2008 by the US State
Department, Burma is a source country for women, children and men
trafficked for the purpose of forced labour and commercial sexual
exploitation.

Burmese women and children are trafficked to Thailand, the People's
Republic of China, Bangladesh, Malaysia, South Korea and Macau for sexual
exploitation, domestic servitude and forced labour.

http://www.kachinnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=349:increase-in-kachin-women-trafficking-to-china-kwat&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50

____________________________________

August 5, Narinjara News
Security beefed up in Sittwe after anti-government posters appear

The Burmese junta authorities in Sittwe have beefed up security after
anti-government posters appeared calling on people to fight the junta for
democracy on the 20th anniversary of the 8-8-88 protests, said a monk on
condition of anonymity.

"Now several additional security forces, both police and riot police
forces, have been deployed at many key places in Sittwe after some
anti-government posters appeared in the city," the monk said.

Most security forces are being deployed at U Ottama garden, a historic
monument that honors the monk who first triggered anti-colonial sentiments
among the Burmese people. Other security forces are being deployed at
Lawkananda pagoda and Bura Gri temple.

"Many anti-government posters painted with monks' pictures were pasted on
walls of several shops on Thursday night in Sittwe by unknown groups. The
posters encouraged people to fight for democracy on the occasion of the
20th anniversary of the 8-8-88 uprising day," the monk said.

August is very important in Burmese history because many historic events
happened during the month.

Two important historic events occurred during the month of August. The
first is the 8 August national uprising that took place in 1988, and the
second is known as the 'rice killing day', in which the revolutionary
council led by Ne Win killed over 300 Arakanese people who were
demonstrating in the streets of Sittwe demanding rice in 1967.

"The month is important, so the authorities are on high alert everywhere
in Burma, because any time anti-government activities could break out
somewhere in Burma," the monk said.

Sittwe is also a key city in terms of the opposition to the Burmese
military government. Last year, the first monk-led demonstrations broke
out in Sittwe on August 28 and were soon followed by demonstrations
throughout towns in Burma.

____________________________________

August 5, Integrated Regional Information Networks
Myanmar: Food shortages "significant"

Three months after Cyclone Nargis hit southern Myanmar, hundreds of
thousands of people are still not back on their feet.

"The situation in Myanmar remains dire," Chris Kaye, World Food Programme
(WFP) country director, said. "The vast majority of families simply don't
have enough to eat."

According to the recent Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA),
[http://www.asean.org/21765.pdf] 42 percent of all food stocks were
destroyed and 55 percent of families only had stocks for one day or less.

Moreover, 924,000 people will need food assistance until the November
harvest this year, while around 300,000 will need relief until April 2009.

In June, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that
about 200,000 hectares, or 16 percent, of the delta's total 1.36 million
hectares of agricultural land had been severely damaged in the cyclone and
would "not be available for planting this season".

Despite recent efforts to assist local farmers replant their next paddy
crops by end-July, many failed. More than 12 weeks after the cyclone hit,
leaving 140,000 people dead or missing, many farmers continue to lack the
necessary tools or machinery to till the soil after the loss of thousands
of plough animals.

In mid-July, just as the planting season was coming to a close, the FAO
reported that upwards of 75 percent of farmers in the area lacked
sufficient seeds.

The government claims 80,000 hectares of paddy fields were not planted in
time, while others estimate that 25 percent of farmers were not able to
plant at all.

But even for those who were able to plant, questions remain as to the
quality of seeds, as well as their access to fertilisers, casting doubt on
the likelihood of a successful harvest.

One farmer from Bogale, at the southern tip of the delta, told IRIN he was
sure his paddy crop would fail or yield badly, but hoped, with help from
international donors, that his family of six would not starve.

Fishermen still lack nets

According to the FAO, almost 18,000 fishermen lost their lives in the
cyclone, with another 10,000 still missing. More than 21,000 hectares of
aquaculture ponds were destroyed and more than 2,000 larger mechanised
fishing boats lost.

Moreover, tens of thousands of non-mechanised boats, accounting for the
livelihoods of thousands of families in the affected area, are believed to
have been lost.

Since small-scale fishing is the mainstay activity for so many cyclone
survivors - providing the main source of diet and household income - many
storm-affected families have found it virtually impossible to continue.

The government plans to sell 9,000 boats by installment, of which 3,000
have so far been completed.

Difficult choices

With 89 percent of PONJA respondents describing food as their highest
priority expenditure, many now find themselves having to make particularly
difficult decisions.

"I always wanted them to be educated," one 47-year-old woman from Pyapon
at the southeast part of the delta, one of the worst-hit areas, told IRIN
about her three children. "But now I'm thinking of sending them out to
work to help out instead."

Food assistance from donors and the government notwithstanding, many
survivors complain they simply cannot get by on what they receive and are
concerned about where their next meal will come from.

Others still find themselves forced to borrow money from local money
lenders, increasingly placing them in debt from which they may never
recover.

____________________________________

August 5, Khonumthung News
Meeting on food crisis in Chin state to be held in Rangoon

The first ever meeting to discuss the food crisis in Chin state in Burma
is going to be held in the World Food Program (WFP) head-office in
Rangoon, former capital of Burma on Wednesday.

"How to help the victims and the areas that have been badly affected by
food crisis in Chin state is the main agenda of the meeting," Joseph Win
Hlaing Oo, director of Country Agency for Rural Development (CAD) who will
organize the meeting said.

Representatives from international and domestic Non Government
Organizations based in Rangoon will be present in the meeting. The
participants are from Oxfam GB, GRET (Groupe d'change et de recherche
technologiques), KMSS (Karuna Myanmar Social Services), UNDP (United
Nation Development program), CAD (Country Agency For Rural Development)
and CARE, according to Joseph Win Hlaing Oo.

The famine called Mautam follows bamboo flowering and is said to have
started in 2006 and plagued several parts of Chin state and caused food
crisis in the region.

Rats multiply after eating bamboo flowers and damage paddy and other crops
the main food of Chin people. The rats don't even spare barns where paddy
stocks are kept.

According to the Chin relief group known as Chin Famine Emergency Relief
Committee (CFERC) based in Mizoram, northeast India, there are around
100,000 of over 500,000 people in Chin state facing shortage of food.

CRERC is the only relief group that is facilitating cross border relief
aid from Mizoram to famine affected areas in Chin state. Recently the
relief work of the CFERC has been hit by a lack of funds.

Despite a lot of Chin people facing hunger, The Burmese military regime
has not addressed the crisis. Instead, the government is said to have
confiscated and prohibited relief aid from churches in Chin state.

After repeated appeals by Chin people from inside and outside Burma, the
meeting is to be held on Wednesday. It is a sign that the international
and domestic NGOs based in Burma have started paying heed to the plight of
western Burma facing starvation from food crisis.

The CAD was established in 2004 to combat poverty in rural areas,
particularly in Chin state the most backward and isolated state in Burma.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 5, TNA
Police arrest 200 illegal Myanmar workers in Mae Sot

Thai police have arrested about 200 illegal Myanmar workers in this
Thai-Myanmar border province ahead of this week's US presidential visit to
Thailand.

The illegal workers are mainly young people, thought to be Myanmar
students, who have come to Thailand to try to meet President George W.
Bush and his wife Mrs. Laura Bush in their move to free Myanmar democracy
advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest in her homeland
for 12 of the last 18 years, since her party won the country's elections
in 1990.

On Thursday Mr. Bush is scheduled to visit the Mae La refugee camp, the
largest concentration of refugees in Thailand and the Mae Tao Clinic of
Dr. Cynthia Maung, which provides free health care for refugees in Tak.

The United Nations reports Mae La as having a population of somewhat over
35,000 persons, while the Burma Border Consortium, an
umbrella-organisation, says there are about 38,000 persons being fed
daily.

Mr. Bush headed first to South Korea and then will visit Thailand, before
proceeding to the Beijing Olympics' opening ceremony on Friday. The US
president has rejected repeated calls by activists to boycott the Games
over human rights concerns, but is on record as saying he is attending the
Olympics as a sports enthusiast. (TNA)

http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=5593

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

August 5, Kaowao News
Logging ban flouted: criminal activity strips forests

A ban on illegal logging by Naypidaw, Burma's capital on the Three Pagodas
Pass border, in a remote region on the Thai Burma border, has proven to be
highly lucrative for the Burmese Army commanders who take bribes from
traders and logging partners to carry on with their logging operations.

Because illegal logging occurs outside legal channels, the bribes and
illegal taxes goes right into the pockets of army officials and rebel
groups, rather than into the community at large. A businessman close to
the SPDC authorities on the Thai Burma border town told a Kaowao reporter
that Captain Aye Ko Ko, who is in charge of the Burma Army IB 34 based on
the border near Three Pagodas Pass collects approximately 70,000 Baht per
10 wheeler truck loaded with timber and 30,000 Baht for smaller trucks to
give them the nod to cross the border.

The source estimates that 60 trucks per month pass into Thailand.  On June
21, there were 37 trucks and on July 10, 18 trucks loaded with timber went
through the TPP border pass without a hitch.

The SPDC issued an order to ban illegal logging in 2004 but the order has
had little effect on the corruption ingrained in the local authorities who
take bribes to turn a blind eye.  Captain Aye Ko Ko and another commander
from the Burma Army's Sayapha Branch are now fighting for control over the
illegal check point, added the businessman.

Environmentalists claim vast tracts of pristine timber are being cut down
from Burma's forests that have further degraded an already damaged
environment. Rebel groups along the border also flout the laws and receive
illegal taxes for logging hardwood trees which has spread deforestation in
Burma's southern forests.

The rugged mountain terrain and harsh topography hundreds of miles from
the new capital that characterizes the landscape on the eastern border
with Thailand forms part of the northern Tennasserim mountain range that
hosts a number of endemic flora and fauna species that needs further
exploration for species identification and is ranked as one of the most
ecologically diverse rainforest regions in the world and named in the top
200 for biodiversity and the fourth for mammal diversity in the Indo
Pacific region by the World Wildlife Fund.

According to WWF much of the area on the Burma side is 'habitat intact'
and remains unexplored. At higher elevations the tropical deciduous and
evergreen forest which faces the Bay of Bengal receives more precipitation
than on the Thai side of the border that causes problems of malaria
outbreak among Burmese migrants crossing through the jungle on their way
to the Thai-Burma border. At the lower elevations are found huge swathes
of teak forests being cleared away without any forest or logging
management policy and are thought to have caused environmental problems
recently such as less rainfall and flooding from erosion, according to
local villagers.

Loggers from the Burma border travel deep into the forests, far away from
the border town, to log and transport the timber.  They employ local
villagers, elephants, and oxen that work in the saw mills and use large
trucks to bring the timber back across the border. Big trees are not found
along the Burma border as most have been logged, however the scope of
illegal logging and its effect on the environment is difficult to assess
due to lack of access to the region.

According to Nai Taing Htow who works as a volunteer for a Mon NGO,
unsustainable practices and illegal logging only leads to losses in value
added development for the surrounding community in the long term, "despite
the SPDC authorities having banned furniture and log exports to Thailand,
businessmen still operate by paying bribes to local authorities and local
community development will suffer as a result," he said.

____________________________________

August 5, Agence France Presse
UN says 51 mln dlrs needed for Myanmar's rice paddies

Three months after much of Myanmar's fertile land was washed away by a
devastating cyclone, a rescue effort remains critically underfunded, the
United Nations said Tuesday.

Restoring fallow rice paddies to provide food for the 2.4 million affected
people in Myanmar's southwest delta will require another 51 million
dollars, a UN statement said.

"While agriculture is a key area, as it affects both food security and
livelihoods, it remains the least funded sector," the statement said.

"Much more urgently needs to be done in remote areas where affected
communities are still living in dire conditions," said the United Nations
Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, Daniel Baker.

Cyclone Nargis hit the country in early May, leaving 138,000 people dead
or missing, sweeping away 85 percent of rice seed stocks in the delta
area, and killing half of all buffaloes used for farming.

Myanmar's ruling generals blocked entry to many foreign aid workers
immediately after the cyclone, but UN efforts have enabled 22,500 metric
tonnes of emergency food aid to be distributed among 684,000 people.

A further 800 ponds used for drinking water have been cleaned, but the UN
estimates nearly one million people will require basic food aid for
another nine months and 1.8 million need a continued supply of safe water.

The UN's overall appeal is facing a shortfall of 285 million dollars, the
statement said.

Donor countries demanded strict assessment and aid monitoring conditions
to be met before pledging funds.

"With these conditions now met, we look forward to the international
community following their commitments to continue providing urgently
needed assistance," Baker said.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

August 5, Xinhua
Number of HIV-infected people drop in Myanmar

The number of people infected with HIV dropped to 240,000 in 2007 from
300,000 in 2001, the local Newsweek journal quoted a recent report of the
UNAIDS as saying Tuesday.

The report attributed the fact to the fall in the number of HIV-infected
pregnant women.

According to the report, there are 6 young women per 1,000 at the age
between 15 and 24 infected with HIV, while it is for 7 young men per 1,000
at present in the country.

Official press media reported earlier that the infection rate of HIV in
Myanmar declined to 0.67 percent in 2007 from 0.94 percent in 2000.

The figures were based on the findings from a HIV/AIDS projection and
impact analysis workshop organization by the Myanmar government and the
World Health Organization in September last year.

In its efforts to control AIDS, Myanmar set up the Central Committee for
Control and Elimination of AIDS in 1989. A coordination body comprising
the ministries, United Nations agencies and social organizations at home
and abroad was also established.

As part of the project for control of AIDS and syphilis, efforts are being
made for giving educative talks on AIDS, for 100-percent use of condoms in
targeted groups in 170 townships in the country and for effective
treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, according to the media report.

Work has also been underway for preventing spread of HIV among those who
use drugs through injection and from mother to foetus at 37 hospitals and
106 townships, while preventing such spread through blood transfusion and
introducing safe blood transfusion.

Besides, 13 strategies on preventive measures and rehabilitation are now
being implemented under five-year national strategic plan (2006-2010)
adopted collectively by the relevant ministries, local non-governmental
organizations, UN agencies and community-based organizations.

In cooperation with foreign organizations in the fight, Myanmar is
actively taking part in implementing the ASEAN HIV/AIDS Control Plan, the
HIV Prevention Plan in Mekong Region countries, and regional and central
level plans of UN agencies.

HIV/AIDS is among the three major communicable diseases of national
concern designated by Myanmar. The other two diseases are tuberculosis and
malaria.

http://mathaba.net/news/?x=600856

____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 5, Irrawaddy
Bush set to meet Burmese activists - Wai Moe

US President George W Bush will have a private lunch with Burmese
activists in exile in Bangkok on Thursday in a stopover on his way to the
opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

“He will have a lunch in Bangkok with Burmese activists and hear their
stories,” said Dennis Wilder, a press officer at the White House. “And
then he will be interviewed by the press in Thailand that broadcast into
Burma, so that he can give a message directly to the Burmese people.”

First lady Laura Bush will travel to Mae Sot, near the Thailand-Burma
border, where she will visit the Mae La Refugee Camp, the largest on the
border. She will also visit a refugee clinic operated by Dr Cynthia Maung,
according to the White House.

 “The US policy on Burma is already very heavily influenced by [Burmese]
activists,” said John Virgoe, the Southeast Asia director of the
International Crisis Group. “I am not surprised he is interested to meet
with activists.”

Nyan Win, a spokesperson of Burma’s main opposition party, the National
League for Democracy, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the party welcomed
Bush’s meeting with exiled activists.

Thakin Chan Tun, a veteran politician and former Burmese ambassador to
China, said, “President Bush’s meeting with Burmese activists shows how he
and his wife strongly support Burma’s democracy movement.”

The US administration has strongly supported the democracy struggle in
military-ruled Burma since 1988, the year thousands of demonstrators were
killed by the military regime.

Bush has been under criticism by human rights activists around the world
because of his decision to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing
Olympics.

Virgoe said the US is not very outspoken about human rights in China.
“When we talk about China, of course, human rights is not on top of the
[US] agenda,” he said.

During Bush’s eight years in office, the US has witnessed several
important events in Burmese history. The democracy movement leader Aung
San Suu Kyi and her convoy were ambushed in Depayin in Sagaing Division,
northern Burma in May 2003 by thugs, backed by the junta. More than 100
people were reportedly killed. After the attack, Suu Kyi was placed under
house arrest.

“The [Burmese] military authorities should release Aung San Suu Kyi and
her supporters immediately,” Bush said in early June 2003. “We have urged
Burmese officials to release all political prisoners and to offer their
people a better way of life, a life offering freedom and economic
progress.”

In July 2003, Bush signed economic sanctions against the military regime.
“These measures reaffirm to the people of Burma that the United States
stands with them in their struggle for democracy and freedom,” Bush said.

In September 2007, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators led by Buddhist
monks marched in Rangoon, the largest city in the country and many other
towns, calling for a better life and national reconciliation. Burmese
troops killed at least 30 people, including a Japanese photojournalist.
Thousands of monks and activists were arrested.

Since the brutal crackdown in 2007, the US has put fresh “targeted
sanctions” on the Burmese generals and their cronies. The new sanctions
affect many state-controlled businesses and large businesses doing deals
with the junta.

Deadly Cyclone Nargis hammered Burma on May 2-3, causing an estimated
134,000 deaths. The junta stalled for weeks, blocking large shipments of
foreign aid and access to the affected area by   foreign relief experts.

Bush sent a group of US Navy vessels, led by the aircraft carrier USS
Essex, to stand by near Burma. Some aid from the vessels was shipped into
the country by air, but the regime denied the massive amounts of aid the
US was ready to provide to the devastated Irrawaddy delta.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University
in Bangkok, said the impact of US policies on Burma is limited. “He
[George W Bush] needs to put pressure on China, India, Thailand and Asean
on the Burma issue. He needs to put more pressure on countries that trade
with Burma,” he added.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

August 5, UN News Centre
Aid delivery in Myanmar still a challenge, UN says

Three months after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar, delivery of sufficient
relief and early recovery assistance remains a challenge, particularly in
hard-to-reach areas of the affected Ayeyarwady Delta, according to the
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“We have seen significant progress being made in the affected areas as a
result of the coordinated efforts of local and international humanitarian
actors. However, much more urgently needs to be done in remote areas where
affected communities are still living in dire conditions,” the UN
Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, Daniel Baker, said today.

With the loss of up to 85 per cent of seed stocks and some 50 per cent of
buffalos in cyclone-affected areas, the rapid provision of paddy farming
inputs in time for the monsoon planting season remains critical, OCHA
says.

While agriculture is a key area, since it affects both food security and
livelihoods, it remains the least funded sector in the UN’s revised
appeal, with an unmet requirement of $51 million.

To date, more than 25,600 tons of food assistance has been delivered to
affected areas, reaching some 684,000 cyclone-affected people.

However, OCHA says there is an urgent need to supply food to some 924,000
vulnerable individuals on a systematic basis over the next nine months.

Just over half of the estimated 488,000 affected households have received
some kind of shelter assistance, including plastic sheets, toolkits and
other essential non-food items. In addition, many more households have
used local materials to rebuild their homes, but there will be a
longer-term need to build safer and more permanent housing.

Although no major outbreaks of diseases have been reported, risk factors
continue to be present. Around 75 per cent of health facilities in the
Delta were damaged or destroyed and will need to be restored.

To reduce the risk of water-borne diseases, interventions are still needed
to provide an adequate supply of safe water for local populations. Over
the last three months, 800 ponds have been cleaned and pans and pipes to
construct more than 14,000 latrines have been distributed. But these
efforts will need to be stepped up since approximately 1.8 million
severely affected people don’t have access to a continuous supply of safe
water.

Meanwhile, efforts are ongoing to repair more than 900 schools, and to
establish more than 400 temporary safe learning spaces for up to 60,000
children. Relief workers are also distributing essential learning
materials to 140,000 girls and boys, and providing supplies to more than
600 schools. To date 254 Child Friendly Spaces are also functioning,
providing protection and psychosocial support to children.

OCHA says the cooperation between the Government of Myanmar, the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the UN has laid the
ground for these concerted relief and early recovery efforts.

“Aid workers now have access to cyclone-affected areas and an objective
joint assessment of the ongoing relief and recovery needs has been
completed. With these conditions now met, we look forward to the
international community following their commitments to continue providing
urgently needed assistance,” Mr. Baker added.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 5, Democratic Voice of Burma
Can the 2010 election change Burma? - Naing Ko Ko

In 2010, Burma's military generals are going to hold an election under
their new helmetocracy constitution, which was more than a decade in the
making and aims to allow the generals to run the country for decades to
come.

Prior to the referendum to approve the constitution, the ministers of the
junta's war office worked rapidly in both rural and urban areas of Burma,
using populist appeals and fear-mongering, to persuade the people to vote
Yes.

Can this helmetocracy constitution and the planned bulletocracy election
change Burma? Will Burma become a semi-democratic state or remain under
authoritarian rule in the post-election years?

Will Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, U Tin Oo, Ko Min Ko Naing and all other
political prisoners be released? Will the exile movement and overseas
Burmese in rich first-world countries go back to Burma to vote in this
election and to run for office?

“Road map to helmetocracy”

Elections are one of the foundations for democracy in civilized countries,
with open competition giving public legitimacy to those elected to run the
country. Unsurprisingly, the people of Burma do not have the right to
monitor the election nor do they have access to the management of the
election.

Burma is one of most ethnically diversity countries in the world and not
all of its people can read, speak and write the common language of
Burmese. Nonetheless, the constitution and election has been published
only in English and Burmese and was written by the military generals and
their handpicked, unelected cronies.

The people have no choice but to shut their mouths, close their eyes and
act like sheep during the election period and beyond when the helmetocracy
government comes to power. Those who dare to oppose the election risk
imprisonment and the loss of their property and livelihoods.

While the junta is going door-to-door campaign for support for its road
map to helmetocracy, thousands of innocent civilians are being locked up
by the present elite generals. Those in jail include respected Buddhist
monks and nuns, as well as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the
National League for Democracy which won 82 percent of the seats in the
1990 election that has never honored by the military thugs. Other members
of her party have also been detained, as has Min Ko Naing, one of the 88
Generation Student leaders.

The generals of the junta's cabinet aggressively ordered that referendum
and election propaganda in support of the military regime should go out in
the print media, including the periodicals, journals and magazines run by
local journalists. But at the same time, there are no international media
present to monitor the process and most ordinary Burmese cannot access
international radio, TV and newspapers. Needless to say, the staffers of
the military-run national media such as the New Light of Myanmar
newspaper, Myawaddy TV and Myanmar Radio and Television have been
forcefully ordered to parrot the junta's psychological warfare and
propaganda about the election and the next helmetocracy government.

Obviously, both the helmetocracy constitution and the bulletocracy
government of the military elite are aimed at shoring up the country's
political authority, its domestic legitimacy and its international image.
This reassertion of sovereignty was needed after the junta brutally
sprayed innocent civilians and respected Buddhist monks with bullets. But
this is no basis for genuine change or transition in Burma.

In fact, the people of Burma want a genuine change in the political,
economic and legal systems. They want a peaceful state where they can live
their lives without fear and the burden of military hegemony, brutality
and domination. However, Burma's elite generals still greedily guard their
control over almost all of the state's resources, power, sovereignty and
legitimacy.

Even if voters across the entire country vote overwhelmingly against the
military regime in the 2010 elections, the generals will still declare a
win to secure their grip on political power and maintain the status quo.
The junta does not want change in Burma and has no understanding of
democratic transitional models. Significantly, the elite generals do not
want to transfer power to civilian elected representatives.

Models for transition

There are many models for transition of an authoritarian regime to a
democracy, for example the model sometimes referred to as "upper structure
reform" – simply put, where power is transferred from one elite to
another. This was seen in South Africa when power was transferred from the
'white elite' to a new 'black elite', the African National Congress
leaders.

Another model is referred to as the economic development model, which has
been followed in such countries as South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. In
Indonesia, the people gained knowledge and agency as a result of the
country's economic development, and were able to challenge the dictator
Suharto.

However, neither of these models has been applied in the Burma context. In
the past 20 years, Western liberal countries have tried to persuade the
junta to enter into dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and even offered
them $1 billion, but this was not accepted. ASEAN counties used an
“economic development first and democracy later” approach, but this has
also foundered. These regime transition models will continue to fail in
Burma's current political climate.

International responses

With respect to international legitimacy and sovereignty, it is noteworthy
that the fox-like prime ministers of some neighboring countries are
already planning a red-carpet welcome for the generals who will become the
new generals-turned-president and prime minister of the Union of Burma, in
a case study of the “Burmese way to bulletocracy”.

Moreover, in the tradition of the decades-old non-interference policy of
the Bandung Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement, the leaders of India,
China, Thailand, Singapore and some other ASEAN members are preparing a
huge banquet to wine and dine the future president and prime minister of
the Burmese bulletocracy.

At the same time, these countries are encouraging their business elites to
cut virgin natural forests, dig mineral resources, explore natural gas and
exploit Burma's economy alongside the military junta. India, China,
Thailand and Singapore ignored the liberty, security and sovereignty of
the people of Burma for the sake of the seductive Burmese energy boom and
the billions to be made from investment in new pipelines and ports.

In addition, the Western liberal democracies will as usual adapt their
diplomatic responses towards Burma and its new helmetocracy constitution
and bulletocracy Burma depending on the state of their economic relations
with China. If the United States is at odds with the politburo of the
Chinese Communist regime over monetary policy or if there is an imbalance
in bilateral trade with Beijing then the US will use “megaphone
diplomacy”. The international media will report criticism of Burma's human
rights abuses and failure to democratise.

Under the helmetocracy constitution, there will be no genuine change in
Burma. 110 members of the 440-seat People's Parliament, and 56 members of
the 224-seat National Parliament will be selected by the elite generals.
Rather than making a transition to democracy, it is incontrovertible that
Burma's elite generals are instead following the models of North Korea and
Suharto's Indonesia.

Finally, the possibility for regime change in Burma depends on when people
power rises up again to throw this helmetocracy constitution into the
dustbin. People power can override this constitution and it will come
about without a Burmese Ramos. A human sovereignty clock is ticking in
Burma.

Naing Ko Ko is a postgraduate scholarship student in the Department of
Political Studies at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He is a
former political prisoner.

____________________________________

August 5, Mizzima News
An Olympian question of legitimacy for Burma's generals - May Ng

Twenty years ago on 8 August 1988, the Burmese people rose up and ended
the first chapter of military dictatorship in Burma, the Burma Socialist
Programme Party (BSPP). But after months of countrywide anti-government
demonstrations, on 18 September 1988, the army staged a coup and formed
the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). After suspending the
1974 constitution, SLORC promised to conduct multiparty elections in the
future.

The army announced four "duties" under SLORC Declaration No.1/88 that
included the "holding of a multiparty General Election." And SLORC Law
No.14/89, "Pyithu Hluttaw (Assembly) Election Law," in chapter 3, section
3, stated that the "Hluttaw shall be formed with the Hluttaw
representatives who have been elected." In addition, SLORC statement No.
1/90 stated that the people's representatives must make the constitution,
for the army will not accept the establishment of a government with a
temporary constitution.

According to the Burma Lawyers Council (BLC), on several occasions--
including 23 September 1988, 27 March 1989, 3 July 1990, September 1990
and at General Khin Nyunt's (former Secretary (1) of the SPDC) - 100th
press release held on 13 July 1990-- the army repeatedly promised that:
"We, soldiers, will go back to the barracks and try to serve our original
primary duties, from the past to the present day." And the army also
stated that, "The parties which won the election have to draw up a
constitution for the future sake of the people of Burma." But the BLC said
that despite these public announcements, election results from the free
and fair election in 1990 were never officially recognized by the military
junta.

Today, the All Burma Monks Association (ABMA), the All Burma Federation of
Students' Union (ABFSU), the '88 Generation Students and elected MPs of
the 1990 general election have all rejected the result of the junta's
recently tightly controlled constitutional referendum, and declared that
they will boycott the 2010 general election-- the most important step of
the junta's own roadmap. In New York, the International Burmese Monks
Organization, led by Pinann Sayadaw, has asked international political
activists to raise the issue of Burma at the 63rd session of the United
Nations General Assembly, which will open on 16 September 2008.

Since the Saffron Revolution last fall, the ABMA inside Burma is still
refusing alms from the military - the religious boycott commonly referred
to as the "overturning of the alms bowls" still being in effect.

For some, violence against the revered Buddhist monks in Burma last
September may evoke the memory of Adolph Hitler. Hitler suggested in 1937
that the best way for the British to deal with Indian Nationalism is to
just "shoot Gandhi, and if that does not reduce the Indians to submission
shoot a dozen leading members of the Congress and if that does not suffice
shoot 200 and so on until order is restored."

Besides Hitler, Sun-Tzu's The Art of War also sheds light on the
military's conduct. For it articulates that the army is established on
deception, mobilized by advantage, and changed through dividing up and
consolidating the troops. Sun-Tzu continues, writing that after plundering
the countryside, the army divides the wealth among the troops
and after
expanding territory, divides and holds places of advantage.

This warrior-philosophy helps explain the regime's conduct against its own
citizens in treating them as enemies. After which, as its own political
legitimacy becomes more elusive, the military's ability to extinguish
potentially explosive situations becomes extremely limited, meaning that
only the use of force is left to protect its power.

Sun-Tzu, the master of war, once ordered the execution of a king's two top
commanders as an example to command complete obedience from the rest of
the soldiers; this method may explain how the Burmese junta keeps absolute
control over its foot soldiers, who were ordered to shoot monks in
September.

The junta's brutality toward its own monks has shocked the world, and
clearly the Burmese army's temple of worship is not the Buddha's, but that
of a warrior's - as evidenced by the grandiose statues of long gone
warring rulers in the new capital.

In the 12 November 2004 issue of Constitution and Legitimacy, Milan
Petrovic wrote that dictatorship usually results from illegal activities,
and through a coup d'état usually carried out by the army. But Petrovic
continued, saying that illegal dictatorships can be both legitimate and
illegitimate; a legitimate dictatorship in the past, after restoring order
and performing the most urgent reconstruction of state bodies and public
services, generally gave power back to civilians; but a dictatorship can
also become illegitimate if the old, civilian tyranny was only exchanged
for a new, military one, as when Napoleon won unlimited power in a coup
not to preserve, but to overthrow the constitutional system.

But unlike a handful of other non-democratic, but still legitimate
governments throughout the world, the Burmese military government has lost
its legitimacy in the eyes of its people.

In speaking of the American Constitution, Richard H. Fallen, Jr. argued in
the Harvard Law Review of April 2005, that even if the Constitution had
been lawfully adopted, it would not provide a morally legitimate
foundation for coercive action unless coercion pursuant to it could be
justified morally. The legal legitimacy of the Constitution depends much
more on its present sociological acceptance than upon the legality of its
formal ratification. He said that the Constitution is law not because it
was lawfully ratified, as it may not have been, but because it is accepted
as authoritative.

The justification of the central role of the military in the future
government of Burma is the need of discipline in state affairs in a
country of over 100 ethnicities, said Timo Kivimäki on 11 December 2007.
His comments were based on massive comparative evidence, Paul Collier had
earlier claimed that societies with many, equally powerful ethnic groups
are no more war prone than homogenous societies. And thus Burma, with it's
over 100 ethnic groups, is no more vulnerable and in need of discipline
than any other country.

Kivimäki wrote that the fact that the future role of the ethnic armies has
been planned in a secret process within the Ministry of Defense could
easily be the main immediate concern, and the least unlikely trigger of
war between the center and the regions.

Kivimäki continued, arguing that according to Rudolph Rummel's extensive
comparative evidence, the risk of a citizen of getting killed in wars is
reduced from 0.54% to 0.24% if the country is democratic, rather than
authoritarian. Kivimäki suggested that on the basis of comparative
evidence, Burma should demilitarize in order to achieve optimal
probability for peaceful resolution to its territorial wars.

In a recent Shan Herald Agency News report; even though as many as 76,000
refugees in 2007 were forced to leave their homes for the relative safety
of Thailand due to the abuses of the Burmese military, many are being sent
back by Thai authorities and may end up in makeshift shelters in the
jungle.

Lt. Col. Sai Aung Mya, a commander of the Shan State Army (South),
recently said that he now spends most of his time protecting and
developing the welfare system for people who are trying to escape military
brutality, but are prevented from being recognized as refugees by the
United Nations because of Thai government policies. It was clear in the
case of Sai Aung Mya that as a peaceful and religious person he had taken
arms against the military junta in self defense, the necessity of which
became evident last fall when thousands of unarmed people were not able to
protect their monks from the army's assault.

Even Aung San Suu Kyi, the winner of Nobel Peace prize, said that she will
never disown students who are fighting for democracy, even though they
have chosen to take up arms. She also said that nothing comes free in life
and, one way or another you will have to pay for everything.

According to Thomas Carothers, the United States, and to a lesser extent
other Western powers, have often talked grandly in the past several
decades about their commitment to global democracy. But underneath the
rhetoric is a long record of a very mixed policy and the role of outside
actors in most attempted democratic transitions is relatively limited.

But the time has now come for the United States and the rest of world's
democratic community to give tangible support to the people of Burma;
including the victims of Cyclone Nargis and the victims of military
brutality on the borders of Burma - especially because of the
unwillingness of the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations to assert their utmost influence for democratic change inside
Burma.

In conclusion, Carothers noted that the terrible socioeconomic conditions
and weak rule of law apparent in so many developing countries is, in many
cases, a legacy of decades of misrule by autocratic regimes that claimed a
deep commitment to developmental goals but in fact gave greater priority
to narrower, self-interested and countervailing concerns.

Even after the 8-8-08 Olympics, China's misguided support for the
destructive regime in Burma will come back to haunt them. As General Aung
San, the architect of Burma's Independence said, "a man sows so shall he
reap and that if any individual or nation oppresses or exploits another
and violates natural and social justice in that way that individual or
nation shall pay for that sin against justice and humanity."

Lastly, as a young man Abraham Lincoln used to worry that no one would
remember that he had lived. But like Lincoln, the heroes of Burma from
1988 to 2007 will never be forgotten.

Especially in this Olympic year, Burma's heroes will be remembered for
having fought beyond their limits of endurance, in striving to leave
behind a much better world than the one they have endured.

May Ng is the New York regional director of Justice for Human Rights in
Burma. To view her poems about Burma, please visit:
http://www.othervoicespoetry.org/vol33/ng/index.html