BurmaNet News, May 20, 2008

[Editor]

May 20, 2008 Issue #3471


INSIDE BURMA
New York Times: Myanmar mourns victims of cyclone
Irrawaddy: Reconstruction just propaganda, say Rangoon residents
Irrawaddy: Leading monks send money, aid to refugees
Mizzima News: Weekly journals ordered not to cover "destruction", but
cover "reconstruction"
The Los Angeles Times: Myanmar survivors living with dead

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima News: Farmers left jobless; need equipment to cultivate

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: Diarrhea, dysentery widespread among refugees

ASEAN
The Nation (Thailand): Asean meeting agrees to coordinate relief aid to Burma
Mizzima News: Aid agencies look forward to ASEAN mechanism

REGIONAL
Bangkok Post: UN chief to fly to Burma for talks with the generals

INTERNATIONAL
The Telegraph (UK): World Bank refuses loan claiming junta is in debt
Reuters: UN's Ban says Myanmar to allow WFP helicopters
AP: Monks from Myanmar march in Cannes Film Festival

OPINION / OTHER
Washington Post: With the junta or without it
Irrawaddy: Asean again outfoxed by Burma’s junta

STATEMENT
HRW: Burma – Time for UN Security Council to Act




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 20, New York Times
Myanmar mourns victims of cyclone – Seth Mydans and Alan Cowell

Myanmar began three days of national mourning for cyclone victims Tuesday,
one day after agreeing to let its Southeast Asian neighbors help
coordinate foreign relief assistance following the devastating Cyclone
Nargis more than two weeks ago.

The supply of aid and the entry of relief workers from countries outside
the Southeast Asian bloc will continue to be limited, said Singapore’s
Foreign Minister George Yeo after an emergency meeting in Singapore of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, which includes Myanmar.
But the move was taken as a signal that Myanmar’s reclusive military
rulers had bowed somewhat to international pressure to allow more outside
aid.

“We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can
flow into Myanmar,” Mr. Yeo said.

“Myanmar is also prepared to accept the expertise of international and
regional agencies to help in its rehabilitation efforts,” he said at a
news conference Monday. Referring to the continuing limits on help from
countries outside Southeast Asia, he said, “We have to look at specific
needs — there will not be uncontrolled access.”

Since the cyclone, which struck Myanmar on May 3, Western nations and
major relief groups have expressed alarm about Myanmar’s refusal to allow
in large-scale shipments to the estimated 2.5 million victims in need of
aid.

Myanmar has permitted a small flow of aid from several nations, including
the United States. But relief officials say that this amounts to only 20
percent of the needed supplies. Without more aid, they say, many more
people may yet die of disease and starvation.

In an echo of China’s public response to its earthquake disaster, Myanmar
lowered flags on Tuesday to begin a three-day mourning period for the tens
of thousands of people who lost their lives in the cyclone. China observed
an official silence Monday for those who perished in the quake just one
week earlier.

International pressure continued to build on Tuesday from several
directions after the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, warned
Monday that the ruling junta could be guilty of “crimes against humanity”
if it continued to restrict the supply of aid into the country.

In New York, the human rights group Human Rights Watch Tuesday urged the
United Nations Security Council to insist that “aid deliveries and
humanitarian workers be given unfettered access” to Myanmar.

However, despite the international criticism, Myanmar’s foreign minister,
Nyan Win, was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters that there had been
no delay in accepting aid. “We always welcomed international aid,” he
said.

After failing to receive a reply to letters and telephone calls made to
the military junta, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations
was to travel to Yangon, Myanmar’s main city, this week in hopes of
meeting the country’s leader, Senior General Than Shwe.

On Sunday, state-run television broadcast the first public video images of
the general since the cyclone, showing him meeting ministers involved in
the rescue effort and touring some affected areas.

The United Nations under secretary for humanitarian affairs, John Holmes,
toured the Irrawaddy Delta region by helicopter on Monday, according to
Michèle Montas, Mr. Ban’s spokeswoman.

Mr. Yeo, the foreign minister, said Asean would work with the United
Nations at the conference in Yangon on Sunday to coordinate aid
deliveries. He said Myanmar had agreed to allow in medical teams from any
of its nine neighbors in Asean. Thailand has already sent a contingent of
more than 30 medical workers.

In addition, Myanmar has allowed in 50 medical workers from India. China’s
official news agency, Xinhua, reported that a team of 50 Chinese medics
arrived in Yangon on Sunday night.

Mr. Yeo said the Myanmar government estimated losses at $10 billion in the
cyclone, which swept through the Irrawaddy Delta and Yangon.

Myanmar has raised its official death toll to 78,000. The United Nations
and the Red Cross estimate that the toll is more than 100,000, and that it
might be as high as 138,000.

Representatives of United Nations relief agencies said that some of their
supplies were getting into Myanmar but that the authorities were still
severely limiting delivery and withholding many visas from foreign relief
experts.

The United Nations World Food Program said it had managed to deliver food
aid to just 212,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are most in need.

The United States and France have naval vessels just outside Myanmar’s
territorial waters, and are prepared to deliver supplies directly to
affected areas along the coast, but they have not received clearance from
the government.

In a column in the French newspaper Le Monde, Mr. Kouchner said the United
Nations should intervene by force, or would be guilty of cowardice in the
eyes of the world.

“What we need to bring is hand-to-hand, heart-to-heart help, not donor
conferences with all their bowing and scraping,” he said later in an
interview with French radio. “In the meantime, people are dying.”

Mr. Yeo rejected the idea of delivery by force. “That will create
unnecessary complication,” he said at the news conference. “It will only
lead to more suffering for Myanmar’s people.”

Seth Mydans reported from Bangkok and Alan Cowell from Paris.

____________________________________

May 20, Irrawaddy
Reconstruction just propaganda, say Rangoon residents – Saw Yan Naing

Despite more than 1,000 tons of international aid dispatched to Burma for
cyclone victims, many residents in Rangoon say they have had to pay
inflated prices for reconstruction materials while others have received no
aid and are still living outdoors.

“Although some Burmese troops are cleaning up roads, they are not giving
any materials to the victims to rebuild their homes,” said Kyi Win, a
Rangoon resident. Some plastic sheeting has been provided, but not enough
for all the affected households; people have only plastic sheeting to
shelter their homes, he added.

Meanwhile, local authorities set up some 40 temporary tents for those made
homeless by the cyclone in Rangoon and then filmed the humanitarian
exercise for state-run television.

“It is all just propaganda,” said Kyi Win.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy by telephone on Monday, Tin Yu, a local resident
in Rangoon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township, said that non-international
aid—government supplies and voluntary contributions by philaphropist
Burmese— has been delivered to many cyclone victims who are staying in
local schools and monasteries while authorities say they are carrying out
reconstruction work on their houses.

But they aren’t, he said.

“Nothing is for free,” Tin Yu said. “To buy zinc and nails, people have to
fill in an application form. One application form alone is 500 kyat (US
$0.44). The purchase of zinc is limited—an average of just seven one-foot
sheets of zinc per household. One sheet of zinc costs 4,900 kyat ($4.33).”

Supplies are sold at the Township Peace and Development Council office and
people who want to buy materials need to provide a letter of
recommendation from a member of the Ward Peace and Development Council, he
said. People also have to queue up for a long time to get the chance to
buy materials, Tin Yu added.

Meanwhile, Kyi Win said that local philanthropists—including celebrities
and well-established figures in Rangoon—were being driven away from
cyclone-ravaged areas by members of the pro-junta group, the Union
Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) while trying to make
donations to the cyclone victims.

“Members of the USDA are telling the volunteers to give the supplies to
them and they (the USDA members) will deliver those supplies to the
victims on their behalf,” he said.

Tin Yu added that a group of private donors who recently visited wards 18
and 20 in Hlaing Tharyar Township were driven out by local
authorities—members of the Ward Peace and Development Council.

Instead of helping the victims, the local authorities are confiscating
supplies and selling them at highly inflated prices to the victims, said
Tin Yu.

According to employees of local authorities, the chairman of Ward 8 in
Hlaing Tharyar Township, Aung Myint, requisitioned some 20 gallons of
diesel for himself, while the secretary of Ward 8, Maung Zaw, stole 15
gallons.

Aye Kyu, a resident in Laputta, one of the most affected areas in the
Irrawaddy delta, said that USDA members in Laputta were forcing local
people who have been aiding the cyclone survivors to wear caps bearing the
emblem of the USDA while delivering supplies to victims.

About 70 percent of cyclone survivors are still waiting for aid, according
to the United Nations World Food Program. Spokesman Marcus Prior said that
just 250,000 people had received a two-week ration of rice, while 750,000
survivors were in desperate need of food, according to a report by Agence
France-Presse.

Meanwhile, the Burmese prime minister, Gen Thein Sein, recently told his
Thai counterpart, Samak Sundaravej, that the Burmese government had
completed the first phase—emergency relief, and was now moving on to the
second phase—rebuilding.

____________________________________

May 20, Irrawaddy
Leading monks send money, aid to refugees – Min Lwin

Burmese monks have again stepped into the front lines in a moment of
national crisis, this time helping to provide money, food, shelter and
medical supplies to survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

According to Mandalay residents, many senior monks captured people’s
imaginations—and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in
donations—while taking the lead in  organizing effective relief operations
in the delta.

Senior monks in Mandalay and elsewhere, speaking in dhamma [the Buddha’s
teachings] talks to laypeople, are also urging people to show direct
action through compassion by volunteering time or money to help the needy,
in accord with Buddhist teachings.

Mizzima Gon Yi Sayadaw [sayadaw is an abbot’s title] of Mandalay spoke
about the refugees’ need of food and shelter in his dhamma talks on May 11
and 12.

“I offered money to Sayadaw, and he got many donations to fund the
purchase of supplies. I’m sure this aid is reaching affected people,” said
one Mandalay resident.

U Kawthala, also known as Dhamma Sedi Sayadaw, of Mandalay contributed 10
million kyat (US $8,695) from his monastery fund, and his lay followers
then donated 120 million kyat (US $104,347) following his dhamma talks in
Zay Cho market in Mandalay early last week.

Dr. Ashin Nyanissara, also known as Sitagu Sayadaw, of nearby Sagaing
started collecting relief material after the cyclone hit lower Burma, and
organized a team of relief workers to go to the storm-stricken area.

He received donations from Burma and abroad and personally handed
donations to some survivors.

According to residents in Bogalay Township, Ashin Nyanissara quickly
established the Sitagu Asia Royal Emergency Clinic for cyclone victims at
a home for the elderly in Bogalay. So far, he has also assisted more than
900 refugees from Bogalay at the Sitagu Association's monastery in
Bogalay.  He also arranged for generators and water filtration systems to
be set up in areas around Bogalay.

“Sayadaw Nyanissara brought plastic shelter, food, water and supplies,”
said Myo Zaw of  Bogalay Township.

The Ministry of Information has ordered magazines and journals not to
publish stories about monks providing aid to the refugees and needy.

Monks played a leading role in the civil uprising in September 2007
against the military government. Many monks were beaten or shot and
hundreds were detained in prisons. Many monks went into hiding, fearing
arrest and imprisonment.

____________________________________

May 20, Mizzima News
Weekly journals ordered not to cover "destruction", but cover
"reconstruction" – Min Khet Maung

Private weekly journals in Burma have been ordered by the press scrutiny
board not to run any story that depicts the destruction but to cover the
reconstruction exercise undertaken by the authorities in the aftermath of
the cyclone that pummeled Rangoon and Irrawaddy delta areas, according to
local journalists.

"We were told by the scrutiny board not to cover the news of destruction.
But, were told to cover the reconstruction they are doing," an editor of a
weekly told Mizzima on condition of anonymity for fear of junta's reprisal
for telling the outside media.

The authorities are reportedly angry with the head of the censor board,
Major Tint Swe, for having passed some cyclone stories that described the
damage to buildings and loss of property with pictures.

The head of military junta Senior General Than Shwe flared up when he
found a front page story from the Bi-weekly Eleven news journal that said,
"The plight of storm victims should not be exploited."

"As Myanmar [Burmese] readers are clever enough to read between the lines,
they immediately realized that the story did criticize the junta that has
been showing how kind they are in helping the victims by using
international aids as theirs," said  a journalist.

An editor said that the censor board cannot control Weekly Eleven or
Bi-weekly news journals since there are some generals behind the scenes.
Which is why, Major Tint Swe tried to tell the boss of Eleven Media group
this is a direct order from the ministry of communication for all weekly
journals.

"We were also warned that we must not describe how people are starving for
lack of food," one senior journalist, who has five years experience in
reporting, told Mizzima.

The Burma Media Association, a Burmese press freedom watchdog, condemned
the junta for the restriction imposed saying it not only violates press
freedom but also violates and suppresses the peoples' rights.

"The Burmese government is trying to conceal the sufferings of the people
and making false claims that they are conducting rescue and relief
missions," Son Moe Wai, Secretary of the BMA said.

A journalist, who returned from the worst hit areas, said she found
nothing being reconstructed there by the junta.

"So, what should we cover under the title -- 'reconstruction phase'?" she
asked, "They [soldiers] haven't even finished clearing the towns yet let
alone undertake the reconstruction phase."

"Journalists are meant to tell the truth so that people will know of the
situation in Burma. Suppressing the press at this time is outrageous and
shameful," Son Moe Wai said.

____________________________________

May 20, The Los Angeles Times
Myanmar survivors living with dead

They are living with the dead.  More than two weeks after Cyclone Nargis
wiped away all but one of this village's houses, decomposing corpses still
lie on muddy pathways or are trapped in eddies along the shore of the
broad Pyamaia River nearby.

The stench overpowers every corner of U Thon Tun's badly damaged home,
where 25 survivors have taken refuge.

The villagers, all tenant farmers, want to go back to work and earn money
again before another rice crop is lost. But their paddies are ruined, they
have no seeds to plant and there are no tools to work soil flooded by the
sea.

Without any tools, the villagers say they can't solve another pressing
problem: the corpses that are poisoning the river, where they wash
themselves each day.

Soldiers sent in to gather the corpses suddenly disappeared Sunday and
villagers say they heard the troops were refusing to dispose of any more
bodies, leaving survivors no choice but to live with them.

"It's not 10, it's not 100, it's thousands of bodies," Thon Tun said. "We
gave up collecting corpses around here. It's impossible to bury them
properly."

Local authorities have provided small rations of food but not the seeds,
equipment and water buffalo that villagers say they need to start planting
by the end of June.

Meanwhile, saltwater is poisoning the soil and freshwater reserves. Yet
villagers have no salt, which is essential to a healthy diet, for their
meager meals. The Irrawaddy River delta produces most of the country's
salt, but the factories were destroyed in the storm.

Local officials have provided small rations of rice, chicken-flavored
instant noodles and cookies that don't provide the nutrition that the
United Nations and other agencies say as many as 2.5 million survivors
need for a long struggle ahead.

The military regime that rules Myanmar, also known as Burma, says at least
78,000 people have died and 56,000 are missing since the storm's 120- to
150-mph winds ravaged the country's south May 2.

Save the Children, one of the most experienced foreign-aid agencies in
Myanmar, estimates that 30,000 children in the delta region were
malnourished before the cyclone hit and could be starving in two to three
weeks if adequate help doesn't arrive.

Ignoring intense pressure and suspicious foreigners would serve as spies,
the regime has refused to open the disaster zone to a massive
international-relief effort.

The U.N. World Food Program said it had managed to deliver food aid to
just 212,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are most in need.

The United States and France have naval vessels just outside Myanmar's
territorial waters and are prepared to deliver supplies directly to
affected areas along the coast, but they have not received clearance from
the government.

On Monday, the government agreed to let its Southeast Asian neighbors help
coordinate foreign aid, Singapore's foreign minister, George Yeo, said. It
also approved a visit by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and prepared
to host a meeting of aid donors, while claiming that losses from the May
2-3 disaster exceeded $10 billion.

As Tuesday dawned, a three-day official period of mourning began for the
dead.

Yeo said Myanmar agreed to allow in medical teams from any of its nine
Asian neighbors. Thailand already has sent more than 30 medical workers.

In addition, Myanmar has allowed in 50 medical workers from India. China
reported a team of 50 Chinese medics arrived in Yangon on Sunday night.

Information from The New York Times and The Associated Press is included
in this report.


____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 20, Mizzima News
Farmers left jobless; need equipment to cultivate – Nem Davies

Despite approaching monsoon, farmers in Laputta Township in Burma's
richest rice producing division, are jobless as they cannot resume
cultivation after the killer Cyclone swept across their area on May 2
and3.

"This is the time we use to go to our fields to work," said a 50 year old
farmer from Laputta Township. "We would sow paddy seed in the fields and
it would have been our busiest time in the year."

"But we are now jobless," the farmer said

Most of the paddy fields in Laputta Township were destroyed and were
flattened by the cyclone. And most of the cattle were killed where tens of
thousands of people lived in the township.

Though the exact number of deaths in Laputta town, which is one of the
worst hit, remains unknown, it is believed that as many as 73,000 people
were killed by the cyclone.

"Of the 28 buffaloes that I owned, only four are left, and I lost 24
buffaloes," a farmer whose family members survived the cyclone said.

But many farmers are becoming depressed and nobody can think of starting
cultivation said the farmer, "Because we do not own anything now."

Cyclone Nargis uprooted most of the big trees, mangroves and palm trees
and the paddy fields remain covered with sea water.

Mr. G. Padmanabham, an Emergency Analyst in the New Delhi based UNDP -
Disaster Management section said the situation in the aftermath of the
cyclone could largely affect the fields and have along term impact on
cultivation.

"Lands cannot become fertile again for cultivation and it could affect
productivity in that region because of high salt being condenses in the
land," Padmanabham said.

A health worker from Laputta Township also said "All the ponds in the
villages [affected by the cyclone] were filled with salt water and dead
bodies are found in them."

Beside the lands being polluted, clean drinking water for the villagers
has become a major problem, the aid worker said.

The UNDP-officer said technicians and experts are urgently needed to treat
the land and water. It is important to remove contaminated water in the
fields by spraying chemicals and to pump out salt water from the wells,
lakes and ponds, before it can totally damage the region.

Another way of removing the condensed salt and the contaminated water will
be through rain water.  But it is entirely dependent on the rain fall
pattern, he added.

Health workers said, in recent days, there has been heavy rain fall in
Laputta Township and it was even more problematic for survivors to get
into shelters. But they expressed their doubts whether the temporary rain
could wash away the contaminated water and the condensed salt from the
fields.

While most survivors in the rural areas said aid has been slow in coming,
a few farmers in Laputta township complained of not getting enough relief
from the government. They also complained that they have not been
supported with cultivation equipment rather than water-pumps.

"I prefer to get cultivation equipment than a water-pump, because they are
less useful to farmers," said the farmer. He said the money he need to
start cultivation was at about kyat 3,000,000 (USD $2608).

Most of the villagers from Laputta Township are traditionally farmers and
earn their living from cultivation.

"I have no other job," said the farmer, adding that it is not easy to look
for other jobs in big towns. "I need cultivation equipment."


____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

May 20, Irrawaddy
Diarrhea, dysentery widespread among refugees – Min Khet Maung

A volunteer Burmese doctor, after seeing a number of patients in Rangoon
and the Irrawaddy delta following Cyclone Nargis, shook his head in
disbelief.

“Almost 80 percent of my patients had diarrhea and dysentery!” he said. He
asked not to be identified in fear of retribution from the military
regime.

“In the first week [after the cyclone], most of the patients caught a
cold,” he said, while working at a monastery near Daydanaw village, where
he treated about 60 patients in two and one-half hours.

“I feel regret for not having a chance to give enough time to my patients
here. Many of them need a more thorough check up,” he said. “There are
just too few doctors to treat too many patients.”

Other volunteer doctors and medical personnel are finding the same
symptoms in the worst hit areas of Kungyangone, Dedaye, Pyapon, Bogalay
and Laputta.

Health conditions among the storm victims are in a precarious state two
weeks after the storm, according to medical staff, because of the junta’s
refusal to allow aid and medical staff to reach the victims in a timely
fashion.

“The junta is to blame in this regard,” said another doctor working with
an NGO. “They didn’t take the health issue seriously.”

He said the junta’s lack of response has caused increasing numbers of
illnesses and a risk of epidemics.

The lack of sufficient food, even in areas where relief camps have been
established, is also placing refugees at greater risk, he said, because
many people suffer from malnutrition.

The lack of nutritious food and proper shelter combine to lower patients’
resistance, making them more susceptible to serious illnesses.

Adding to the problem of a lack of relief supplies and medicine is a
widespread lack of information about disease-related issues, such as waste
disposal, sanitation and hygiene. Much of the delta population is simply
uninformed about such issues, say doctors.

People in many areas are forced to use water from wells, rivers and lakes
where bodies have been decomposing. The lack of sanitation facilities has
filled the water supply and the ground water with fecal matter and other
disease-bearing materials.

“The way they eat and the way they excrete are no longer healthy, since so
many people have no access to proper sanitation,” said one doctor.

The number of existing clinics in the area prior to the disaster was
already inadequate, he said, because the regime has never employed enough
health workers. Volunteer doctors from Rangoon and doctors attached to
NGOs are playing an essential role in getting some medical supplies and
services to the major relief camps and most remote areas.

Still, many areas are out of the reach of health workers, because of lack
of transportation and organization.

“The junta should take the lead in getting medical services to the
victims,” said one NGO expert.

Meanwhile, a relatively small number of NGO-attached medical staff and
volunteer medical personnel are trying to cope with an overwhelming number
of patients.


____________________________________
ASEAN

May 20, The Nation (Thailand)
Asean meeting agrees to coordinate relief aid to Burma – Supalak G khundee

Asean yesterday agreed in an emergency meeting in Singapore to set up an
Asean-led coordinating mechanism to help cyclone-hit Burma with emergency
relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Foreign ministers of the 10-member regional grouping, of which Burma is a
member, activated a task force led by Asean Secretary-General Surin
Pitsuwan to run the mechanism, said Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon
Pattama.

"It is a good starting point to help Burma concretely and productively.
The Asean-led mechanism will be a driving force to mobilise resources and
humanitarian assistance from countries around the world," Noppadon told
reporters via a telephone conference from Singapore.

The mechanism will start working when Burma hosts the Asean-United Nations
pledging conference in Rangoon next Sunday, he said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon initially proposed having the conference
in Bangkok, but the Burmese government offered to host the pledging
conference inside the country instead.

Ban is due to fly to Burma tomorrow to tour the hardest-hit Irrawaddy
Delta and expected to meet with paramount junta leader Than Shwe.

After the Asean meeting, the junta agreed to receive

30-member medical teams from each Asean member, but the entry of aid
workers from outside of Asean will be on a case-by-case basis, Noppadon
said.

Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win briefed the Asean meeting that his
country needed at least US$11.7 billion (Bt378 billion) in aid and a large
amount of grain seed, notably rice for hundreds of thousands of
plantations in the devastated area.

Asean Secretary-General Surin will visit the country soon to make a
further assessment.

Asean does not have sufficient funds for rehabilitation and
reconstruction. Surin has received only $100,000 from the Nippon
Foundation for this purpose, Noppadon said, adding that next Sunday's
Asean-UN conference would discuss the issue.

____________________________________

May 20, Mizzima News
Aid agencies look forward to ASEAN mechanism – Solomon

Several aid agencies have welcomed the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations' (ASEAN) initiative to lead a task force to facilitate aid
distribution in Burma's cyclone hit regions.

During a meeting on Monday in Singapore, foreign ministers from ASEAN
agreed to form an ASEAN-led coordinating mechanism, which will facilitate
distribution and utilization of assistance from the international
community.

Chris Lom, spokesperson of International Organization for Migration (IOM)
said they welcome the idea of Asean-led mechanism saying, "If the work
guarantees aid supplies to get to the victims, I think that is great."

But he said, "I have not seen the mechanism but if it works, I think it
will be welcomed by everybody."

So far the aid agencies have been relying to a large extent on their local
partners or affiliates to avoid handing aid supplies directly to the
government.

However, several aid agencies and countries have no other choice but to
hand over their aid supplies to the Burmese government for re-distribution
as the regime imposed restriction on entry of foreign aid workers.

IOM said so far they have been cooperating with the World Health
Organization and the Burmese Ministry of Health in re-distributing aid
supplies.

The Asean meeting on Monday also said the Burmese government is willing to
accept aid supplies as international assistance through the Asean-led
mechanism and it will not be politicized.

The World Food Programme, which has been sending tons and tons of food
into Burma for the cyclone victims, said the Asean agreement reached in
Singapore was a positive development.

WFP has so far distributed food for over 250,000 survivors and are trying
to get more aid supplied to the worst hit areas in the Irrawaddy delta,
Marcus Prior, WFP spokesperson in Bangkok said.

"WFP has already worked with Asean, to understand exactly how we can best
support their efforts to expand the humanitarian operation in Burma,"
Prior said.

According to the agreement, the ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan
will lead the task force and will work together with the UN. It is also
agreed to set-up a central coordinating body in Burma so that the
Asean-led mechanism materializes .

The Asean meeting decided to hold an Asean-UN International Pledging
Conference, in Rangoon on May 25, 2008.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in
Thailand said, the one day meeting will focus on lobbying the
international community for more support and relief for the cyclone
victims.

"The conference will focus on the needs of the affected people and will
try to get more international support and assistance as humanitarian
response," an official at the UNOCHA office in Bangkok said.

The official confirmed that the UN Secretary-General, who will be
traveling to Burma on Wednesday, will attend the meeting.

While there seems to be much optimism among aid groups after the Asean
meeting on Monday, a Burmese journalist in Thailand expressed his concern
saying it is a shame for the international community to take so much of
time to reach the most affected people.

"The idea of the meeting seems to be good, but it is such a shame for the
international community to conduct conferences or meetings at this moment
when people in Burma are dying by the minute due to lack of support," Son
Moe Wai, a journalist and secretary of the Burma Media Association said.

According to the latest figures that the Burmese government has released
the death toll has exceeded 140,000.


____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 20, Bangkok Post
UN chief to fly to Burma for talks with the generals

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to arrive in Rangoon
tomorrow to assess the devastation in the cyclone-hit country, diplomatic
sources said.

The announcement of his visit came as the Burmese military junta bowed to
pressure from its Asean neighbours during an emergency meeting in
Singapore yesterday for it to open its doors to more relief efforts.

It was also agreed at the meeting that Surin Pitsuwan, the Asean
secretary-general, would visit Burma as soon as possible. Mr Surin's
schedule was not released, however.

Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said yesterday the Burmese junta had
agreed to accept the immediate despatch of medical teams from Asean
nations.

Thirty medical personnel from each of Burma's nine Asean partners will be
sent to the country, in addition to contingents from India, Bangladesh and
China. A Thai medical team arrived in Rangoon on Saturday.

However, Mr Yeo said the regime has yet to soften its stance on allowing
in foreign aid workers in the numbers required to reach the estimated 2.4
million people still in desperate need.

"We have to look at specific needs and specific offers of help. There will
not be an uncontrolled entry of foreign personnel into Burma," said the
Singaporean foreign minister.

Mr Ban is to preside over a conference of donors next Sunday in Rangoon.
The forum, known as the "international pledging conference" was originally
schedule to be held in Bangkok, but Burma wanted it to be in Rangoon.

"We have to listen to Burma's opinion first," Foreign Minister Noppadon
Pattama said in Singapore.

It is unclear if Senior General Than Shwe, chairman of Burma's ruling
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), will meet Mr Ban, who failed
to get the junta leader to even take his phone calls or respond to his
letters in the aftermath of the disaster that has left at least 133,000
people dead or missing.

Mr Ban's planned trip follows that of UN relief coordinator John Holmes,
who visited the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta, which has been all but closed
to reporters and most other foreigners, yesterday.

Burma declared three days of mourning for cyclone victims yesterday.

The regime said the mourning period would start today with the lowering of
all flags to half-mast - 18 days after Cyclone Nargis pummelled the
country.

In Thailand, Chiang Mai-based group Friends of Burma will organise a range
of activities today to raise funds for cyclone victims and also boost
awareness about human rights abuses in Burma.

A public forum and concerts will be held at the Chiang Mai University
Convention Hall. Lessons on aid for tsunami victims will be shared, and
paintings by famed artist Thepsiri Suksopha and social critic Thirayuth
Boonmi will be auctioned.


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 20, The Telegraph (UK)
Burma cyclone: World Bank refuses loan claiming junta is in debt – Thomas
Bell

The World Bank has refused to lend money to Burma to help it recover from
the cyclone because the country’s ruling generals have been in arrears
with the bank for a decade.
The Burmese junta, which is still only allowing limited access for relief
supplies and is barring foreign disaster specialists, says that £5 billion
worth of damage was done by Cyclone Nargis, which killed an estimated
200,000 people 17 days ago.

The junta in Burma, also known as Myanmar, has invited the World Bank to a
donor conference jointly organised by the United Nations and the
south-east Asian regional body Asean, to be held in Rangoon on Sunday.

"But the bank cannot legally provide any resources to Myanmar because it
is in arrears with the bank since 1998,” said Juan Jose Daboub, the World
Bank’s managing director.

However he said that the bank is working with Asean by providing technical
support to assess the damage and plan economic reconstruction.

On Monday a plan was announced to channel international aid to Burma
through Asean, raising hopes that more assistance may shortly reach the
2.5 million cyclone survivors in desperate need of food, shelter and
drinking water.

So far, according to the UN, only around 20 per cent of them have received
anything at all.

The xenophobic junta has obstructed foreign aid, apparently for fear that
it would undermine their grip on power, but they are less suspicious of
Asian neighbours who have consistently refused to criticise their brutal
rule.

However, the plan is short on details and it remains to be seen what, in
practice, it will amount to.

Witnesses describe desperate survivors lining up in torrential rain along
the roads leading into the worst hit Irrawaddy delta, begging passing
vehicles for food.

In the absence of an adequate government response some private citizens
have tried to help - but now the regime has started distributing leaflets
asking them not to.

The leaflets say that giving food may make victims “lazy and more
dependent on others".

But there are signs that the insular junta, which recently relocated to a
remote new capital, has begun to appreciate the scale of the disaster.

A three day period of national mourning began today.

Senior general Than Shwe finally toured a pristine camp for survivors at
the weekend, in his first public appearance since the storm.


The New Light of Myanmar, the state newspaper, quoted him claiming that
the government “took prompt action to carry out the relief and
rehabilitation work shortly after the storm".

____________________________________

May 20, Reuters
UN's Ban says Myanmar to allow WFP helicopters

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said on Tuesday that Myanmar's junta
had granted permission for the World Food Programme to use helicopters to
distribute aid to cyclone-hit areas of the country.

The military government in the former Burma has allowed relief flights to
deliver supplies to Yangon, the largest city, but had balked at aerial
access to the southwestern Irrawaddy delta, where an estimated 2.4 million
people were left destitute.

"We have received government permission to operate nine WFP helicopters
which will allow us to reach areas that have so far been largely
inaccessible," Ban told reporters before departing for a visit to Myanmar.

The top U.N. humanitarian envoy, John Holmes, said in Myanmar on Tuesday
he had discussed the use of helicopters with government officials, who
"took note" of his suggestion.

The junta's delays in allowing access to international aid workers has
drawn criticism and warnings that many more people could die in the
aftermath of the cyclone that roared across parts of the Southeast Asian
country at the start of May.

Ban said he welcomed the government's "recent flexibility" but added that
aid workers had so far been able to reach only around 25 percent of those
in need.

He said he hoped Myanmar's reclusive leader Than Shwe would be among
senior government officials he meets during his visit. Ban was due to
arrive in the Thai capital Bangkok on Wednesday and go to Myanmar on
Thursday.

Ban said a May 25 donors' pledging conference in Yangon would be crucial
for the longer term rebuilding of the country, where he said the
government had estimated the cost of the disaster at some $10 billion in
economic losses. (Reporting by Claudia Parsons; editing by John
O'Callaghan)

____________________________________

May 20, Associated Press
Monks from Myanmar march in Cannes Film Festival

Five monks from Myanmar marched through the Cannes Film Festival crowd on
Monday to demand that the Southeast Asian nation's junta allow foreign aid
workers into the country to help cyclone victims.

"This is a humanitarian crisis — we need help," said U Uttara, an exiled
monk among the marchers.

Singer-actress Jane Birkin joined the monks during their awareness-raising
efforts in Cannes. Other activities included speeches and the screening of
a short film shot in Myanmar, called "Freedom from Fear."

Birkin said the march's message was: "Let us in, and let us help."

"Please, otherwise there will be 300,000 people that will die," she said.

Myanmar's May 2-3 cyclone left at least 134,000 people dead or missing.
European Union nations have warned the junta could be committing a crime
against humanity by blocking aid intended for up to 2.5 million survivors
faced with hunger, loss of their homes and potential outbreaks of deadly
diseases.


____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 20, Washington Post
With the junta or without it

There's only one priority in Burma: aid for the thousands who have been
abandoned.  The story of Cyclone Nargis, which devastated much of Burma
more than two weeks ago, long ago moved from the tragic to the criminal.
It is now becoming grotesque.

Diplomats from the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations have announced they will hold a "donor conference" in Burma's
capital on Sunday. This will allow foreign ministers from around the world
to preen and promise millions in loans and grants for "reconstruction"
that, if delivered, will enrich and empower the corrupt rulers of that
unhappy nation. Meanwhile -- thanks to those same rulers -- as many as 3
million people affected by the cyclone will still be suffering, and in
many cases dying, because the regime refuses to allow delivery of
humanitarian aid on anything close to the scale that's needed.

If this sounds surreal -- what government would deliberately allow its
citizens to sicken and die? -- it may be worth reviewing a few facts.
Burma is a nation of about 50 million ruled by a clique of generals and
hangers-on who overwhelmingly lost a free election in 1990. Rather than
honoring the results, the generals imprisoned the winners; Aung San Suu
Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate who leads the National League for Democracy,
has been under strict house arrest for most of the past 18 years. In fact,
her year-to-year detention is scheduled to end Sunday, the same day as the
"donor conference"; will the foreign ministers be extending loans to the
regime on the day it extends her confinement for another year? Meanwhile,
in the years since the election, the junta has become known mostly for
stealing its nation's plentiful natural resources, forcing children and
others into slave labor, and trying to subdue autonomy-minded ethnic
groups with mass rape and forced relocation.

It is these generals who failed to issue timely warnings to their
population about the approaching cyclone; who, once the cyclone struck,
lied about the scope of devastation; who refused to permit the delivery of
needed food, water, tents and medicine; and who diverted their soldiers
from rescue operations to enforce the conduct of a previously scheduled
phony referendum enshrining their rule. Now those same soldiers are
chasing reporters out of the disaster zone and confiscating aid from
Buddhist monks and other Burmese trying to help their compatriots. Burma's
generals are concerned about preserving power, not saving lives, and they
fear that foreign aid workers would undermine the regime's legitimacy. So
victims of the cyclone are left in the rain, without shelter; lying in
mud, without bedding; hungry, without even rice. Every day the danger, and
perhaps the reality -- with so few reporters on the scene, we can't be
sure -- of cholera, diarrheal diseases, measles and dehydration grows.
Meanwhile, a few miles offshore, U.S. and French ships are carrying tons
of food and medicine, helicopters, and other tools and supplies.

Tomorrow, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to visit Burma.
Good for him. Anything the secretary general can do to call attention to
this horror is welcome. But Mr. Ban should not accept the junta's
unilateral decision to move on to a "reconstruction" phase. On the
contrary, he should make clear that other nations insist on a
"humanitarian relief" phase and that they will attend no conferences if
they cannot conduct assessments, on site, of true needs. He should make
clear that any reconstruction will be conducted in concert with the
National League for Democracy. He should warn the regime that the United
States and Europe cannot extend loans to individuals and organizations
under sanction for their repressive behavior.

And the United States, France, Britain and Indonesia and other neighboring
countries should prepare to deliver immediate relief and save thousands of
lives, whether or not Burma's generals want them saved.

____________________________________

May 20, Irrawaddy
Asean again outfoxed by Burma’s junta – Kyaw Zwa Moe

Asean countries, of course, have great sympathy for the cyclone-hit
Burmese survivors, but they lack any political leverage—and courage—to try
to influence the reclusive generals who rule Burma.

Sadly and shamefully, this means Asean has again agreed to let the
generals’ determine the rules.

After an emergency meeting of Asean foreign ministers in Singapore on
Monday, the grouping agreed to set up a task force to coordinate
distribution of humanitarian aid to Burma while working through the United
Nations.

However, the international aid and the desperately needed expert relief
workers will continue to be limited and allowed to enter Burma only upon
the approval of the military regime, said Singapore’s Foreign Minister
George Yeo. This will probably mean Asian-only relief workers and a
trickle of aid from the West.

In other words, the Burmese junta is still in the driver’s seat. Asean,
the UN and the rest of the world are—again—being manipulated by the
oppressive generals.

Hypocritically, Nyan Win, the Burmese foreign minister, told reporters,
“We always welcomed international aid.” In fact, the xenophobic junta has
let in only an estimated 20 percent of aid that’s needed and that’s
reached only a few areas, while other areas of the Irrawaddy delta have
yet to see any aid or aid workers, Asian or otherwise.

In its statement, Asean said Burma “should allow more international relief
workers into the stricken areas, as the need is most urgent, given the
unprecedented scale of the humanitarian disaster.”

It was the latest plea among hundreds from the world’s governments and aid
organizations. Don’t expect anything from Asean’s call.

For the past two weeks, the world has witnessed the slow, calculated
response of the junta, which is oblivious to the needs of the estimated
2.5 million survivors. Estimates say as many as 134,000 people are dead or
missing.

The Burmese foreign minister said the losses from the cyclone are expected
to total more than US $10 billion. On May 25, an Asean-UN International
Pledging Conference will be held in Rangoon.

The Asean statement said, “This Asean-led approach was the best way
forward.” In fact, this Asean approach has accomplished nothing and may,
in fact, set back a true, effective response to the disaster. The UN and
Western governments have been outmaneuvered, again.

Dire warnings are mounting of a potential second wave of deaths among
survivors, especially children, who have been hard-hit by the lack of
fresh water, proper shelter, sufficient food and medicine.

Asean has extensive experience in dealing with Burma’s generals. Its
latest “best way forward” is another example of appeasing the cynical,
hard-hearted generals.

Kavi Chongkittavorn, an editor at The Nation newspaper in Bangkok, said
last week in reference to the then upcoming Asean ministers’ meeting: “I
am very concerned the Burmese junta may be using Asean for its own
purposes, for buying time and dragging its feet.”

He called it like it is.

Naval ships from the US, France and UK are nearby Burma. They are loaded
with relief supplies, but the Burmese government stubbornly refuses their
offers of help. Activists, and human rights groups have called for the UN
and Western governments to initiate a “responsibility to protect”
principle and to enter Burma to aid the refugees without the approval of
the military government.

The French foreign minister also has urged the UN to invoke the
“responsibility to protect” principle and provide aid without the approval
of the generals.

Obviously, Asean doesn’t like that idea. “That will create unnecessary
complications. It will only lead to more suffering for Myanmar [Burmese]
people,” the Singapore foreign minister said in the meeting.

The Burmese generals have successfully manipulated Asean since 1997, when
it was accepted into the grouping.  This time, it’s no different.

Meanwhile, on Monday—17 days after the cyclone—the generals announced
three days of national mourning for the victims. That was obviously an
afterthought, coming immediately after China’s announcement of three days
of national mourning for its earthquake victims.

Even the appearance of mourning is a calculated ploy of the generals.


____________________________________
STATEMENT

May 20, Human Rights Watch
Burma: Time for UN Security Council to Act

ASEAN Plan Inadequate to Deliver Timely and Sufficient Assistance

The United Nations Security Council should insist that aid deliveries and
humanitarian workers be given unfettered access to Burma, Human Rights
Watch said today. The Burmese government has blocked supplies and
humanitarian workers from reaching areas devastated by Cyclone Nargis.

Official Burmese government estimates of the death toll have risen to
77,738, with some 55,917 missing. Other estimates of the dead are
considerably higher. Yet more than two weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit the
Irrawaddy Delta region, rendering an estimated 2.4 million people homeless
and in need of food and medical care, the World Food Programme said it had
been able to provide aid to only approximately 30 percent of victims.
Whole areas of the delta have still not received any assistance.

While the Burmese government has accepted more aid flights and granted
more visas to aid workers in recent days, this continues to be just a
fraction of the total needed. Meanwhile, ships from France, the United
Kingdom and the United States packed with aid that could save large
numbers of lives and alleviate the suffering of survivors continue to be
refused entry.

“The Security Council is avoiding its responsibilities to save lives by
not insisting that Burma accept all aid and humanitarian workers being
offered,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “It is not
acceptable to dither and allow large numbers of people to die while ships
are sitting offshore and humanitarian workers are in Bangkok ready to
deliver aid.”

There are now an estimated 120 official or makeshift shelter camps housing
some 150,000 internally displaced people in parts of Laputta and Bogale
townships alone. International health organizations have reported isolated
outbreaks of cholera and are fearful that respiratory diseases and the
effects of poor sanitation and access to drinking water will increase the
spread of illness.

Human Rights Watch is dismayed that the words of John Holmes, head of the
UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), to the
Security Council are still as relevant today as they were on May 9, when
he made the statement: “The sooner humanitarians are allowed in, and the
less procedural and other obstacles we encounter, the more lives we can
help save. The speed with which we deliver assistance to those in need is
becoming more and more critical and the danger of the outbreak of
epidemics rises by the hour.”

“Until the Burmese government opens its doors to all aid offered,
unnecessary deaths and suffering will continue,” said Adams. “How many
failed and inconclusive meetings and visits to Burma by diplomats will it
take before the UN Security Council acts?”
Human Rights Watch applauded the efforts of Burmese and international
relief workers operating in difficult circumstances. The majority of the
aid work being carried out in the delta is by Burmese national staff of
the World Food Programme, Save the Children, World Vision and other
intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, as well as by local
Red Cross workers.

On May 19, the ASEAN announced that it would establish a coordinated
response to the emergency. The Burmese government agreed to accept medical
teams from all ASEAN countries, while ASEAN has sent an “Emergency Rapid
Assessment Team” to Burma.

“While the ASEAN initiative may turn out to be a step forward, it does not
have the capacity to address all the urgent needs faced by Burma’s cyclone
survivors,” said Adams. “Governments and aid agencies should not delude
themselves into thinking otherwise.”

Human Rights Watch called on the Burmese government to open
cyclone-affected areas to a major international relief effort by
immediately granting visas to aid workers, by allowing UN and
international humanitarian agencies to distribute the aid they provide
directly to those in need, and by allowing countries with military assets
nearby to deliver aid by air and sea to survivors who cannot be reached
quickly any other way. Many affected communities are only accessible by
air and sea, which makes assistance by countries that are equipped to deal
with humanitarian disasters essential.

Under international law, the 2 million or so people thought to have been
made homeless by the cyclone are considered internally displaced. Under
the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, a state should not
arbitrarily withhold permission for international humanitarian
organizations and other appropriate actors to provide aid, “particularly
when authorities concerned are unable or unwilling to provide the required
humanitarian assistance.” The principles further state that “All
authorities concerned shall grant and facilitate the free passage of
humanitarian assistance and grant persons engaged in the provision of such
assistance rapid and unimpeded access to the internally displaced.”

Human Rights Watch said that China, India, Thailand and other members of
ASEAN with close relations with Burma should press Burma’s government to
lift restrictions on international assistance so aid can reach survivors
of Cyclone Nargis.

“The Chinese government has shown unprecedented openness in accepting
international aid after the earthquake in Sichuan,” said Adams. “Yet it
does not appear to be doing anything to pressure the Burmese government to
respond to the cyclone with the same urgency and openness. China has
blocked concerted UN Security Council action in the past, but after the
quake it must shift its policy to put people ahead of politics.”