BurmaNet News, May 25-26, 2008

[Editor]

May 25-26, 2008 Issue # 3476

INSIDE BURMA
AP: Referendum approved in cyclone-hit areas
Irrawaddy: Helpless and stranded
Reuters via Doha Time: Myanmar monks beat controls to provide aid
AP: $100 million offered to Myanmar
Irrawaddy: Few aid workers in the Delta, say aid groups
Reuters via Khaleej Times: UN urges Myanmar not to alienate orphans
Irrawaddy: Burma’s navy suffers strategic losses
AP: Burma bans top Western journalist, deports another

REGIONAL
Mizzima News: Burmese embassy in Bangkok on fire

INTERNATIONAL
BBC News: UN official sees Burma progress
DVB: ILO conference to address forced labour in Burma

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: The prisoner who won’t go away - Aung Zaw

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 26, Associated Press
Referendum approved in cyclone-hit areas

Voters in cyclone-hit areas of Burma overwhelmingly approved a
constitution which critics say will perpetuate the military's decades-old
grip on power in the country, state radio said on Monday.

The constitution was approved by a 92.4 percent vote in a referendum held
in the Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon on Saturday, the radio said. The
official turnout was 26 out of 27 million eligible voters.

The Saturday balloting was irrelevant since the main May 10 referendum had
already approved the draft document by an identical 92.4 percent. Voting
was postponed in areas hit by Cyclone Nargis.

The junta says the constitution will pave the way for a general election
in 2010. The constitution guarantees 25 percent of parliamentary seats to
the military and allows the president to hand over all power to the
military in a state of emergency—elements that critics say defy the
junta's professed commitment to democracy.

The constitution would bar Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,
the detained leader of the country's pro-democracy movement, from public
office. The military refused to honor the results of the 1990 general
election won by her National League for Democracy.

Critics also slammed the regime for holding the referendum while hundreds
of thousands suffered from the cyclone, and from most accounts receiving
very little government aid.

____________________________________

May 26, Irrawaddy
Helpless and stranded - Min Khet Maung / Dedaye, Delta

The look on Lei Lei’s face is one of hopelessness.

She takes no notice of the school uniform that a private donor had left
for her. Instead, the 12-year-old girl stares ahead at the vehicles
passing back and forth along the highway. On her back, her sick sister
coughs relentlessly.

Every time a car passes by, Lei Lei raises her hand and shouts, “Please
give us some food!”

A truck stops a bit farther ahead and Lei Lei’s head swiftly turns in its
direction. She sets off running, her baby sister bouncing up and down in
the sarong over her shoulder.

Some of her friends are already waiting with hands scratching the air
toward the truck drivers. They push and jostle their way closer to the
back of the truck where two men are throwing packages down to those
desperate souls below them.

After a struggle, Lei Lei emerges with a small pack of steamed rice. She
shares some with her sister and eats the rest greedily.

Today was the 19th day that Lei Lei had spent begging for food on the
highway—some three weeks since Cyclone Nargis destroyed her family home in
Bogalay and killed her father.

She said she does not feel self-pity as all the survivors have to queue in
lines all day to get a handout of food and drinking water.

“I feel sad when I hear that other children will go back to school next
month though,” she says.

“But for now, I need food, not schooling.”

According to a recent government announcement, all schools in Burma—except
in the areas devastated by the cyclone—must reopen on June 2. In the
Irrawaddy delta, schools are still a long way from being rebuilt.

UNICEF says up to 90 percent of the schools in the cyclone-affected areas
have been damaged or destroyed, totaling some 3,000 primary schools and
affecting more than 500,000 students. The academic year for those areas
will be delayed at least two months.

In the meantime, the Burmese junta is bargaining with the international
community to leave all matters of aid and reconstruction in its hands.

“This time last year, my father took me to Rangoon to buy text books and
stationery for school,” Lei Lei recalls tearfully.

She lays her small hand on her sister’s forehead to check her temperature.

“My sister has got a bad cold,” she murmurs. “She has been out in the rain
for so long.”

Though they have plastic sheets for shelter at night, they have no
protection from mosquitoes.

Like other traumatized survivors, Lei Lei also dreams about the fatal
night that swept her father away.

"I cry out at night," she admits.

"My mother cries in her sleep,” she says. “When I ask her in the morning,
she says she was thinking about my father.”

"Sometimes, I get involved in quarreling and fighting with other girls my
age,” she says. “We are all trying to get as much food as we can.”

On May 16, flocks of cyclone victims rushed to a field where a helicopter
was about to land. Fights broke out. Lei Lei says she was pushed aside by
the crowd and fell over. Her baby sister was almost trampled.

In the end, no one got any food. The helicopter had only landed to take on
more gasoline. The crowd’s fighting had proved futile.

When asked what she expects of the future with regard to education or her
dreams, Lei Lei frowns and shakes her head.

"I must be on the side of the road from dawn to dusk every day," she says
solemnly.

____________________________________

May 26, Reuters via Doha Time
Myanmar monks beat controls to provide aid

While big international donors try to persuade Myanmar's military rulers
to open their doors wider to aid, small groups of volunteers are getting
past army checkpoints to reach desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

Among them were Catholics and Buddhists seeking to fulfil a charitable
mission under extreme circumstances three weeks after the devastating
storm left 2.5mn people destitute, most of them in the hardest-hit
Irrawaddy delta.

Yesterday, larger than normal crowds of worshippers gathered at Myanmar's
biggest Catholic cathedral to hear priests criticise the slow pace of aid
"for our suffering countrymen".

"We need the world to speak out because our people are dying every
minute," one priest, who asked not to be identified, said at Saint Mary's
Cathedral, built in 1899.

Small groups of parishioners had been able to get past military
checkpoints in recent days and visited delta fishing villages where they
found starving people, he said.
Elsewhere in Yangon, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was attending a
donor pledging conference days after he received a promise from junta
leader Than Shwe to allow more Western aid workers into the delta.

Critics say the seven-day visas already granted to some foreign relief
workers are too short and that some Myanmar nationals have also been
barred from the delta.

"One of the most disturbing things that we heard was even Burmese were
being intimidated and harassed and prevented from helping their own
people," activist Debbie Stothard, co-ordinator of the Alternative Asean
Network on Burma, said in Bangkok.
"They are also blocking communications and transportation equipment," she
said.
However, a European aid official said the generals had begun to talk about
funding and the need for foreign advisers.

"So there are the first signs of a wider opening," said the official, who
declined to be named.

Army checkpoints on the main road south to the delta stood empty on
Saturday on the Maha Bandula bridge, named after the Burmese general who
fought against British colonial rule.

Army trucks carrying sacks of rice were seen driving across the Yangon
river, but people in the town of Kyauktan, 30km from the former capital,
said they had received little aid.
"We are homeless. Every time something goes wrong we get help only from
the monks," a woman said as she sat with hundreds of others on the wooden
floor of a monastery.
Around 252 people, including scores of children, were crammed into the
small building with 10 resident monks. Parts of the roof in three corners
are missing.

Around them, the palm, coconut and betel nut trees look as if their trunks
have been shorn by cannon fire. Houses and factories had their windows
blasted out by the fierce winds.

Still, Kyauktan got off relatively lightly compared with the western
delta, where aid workers have yet to reach many in need.

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____________________________________

May 26, Associated Press
$100 million offered to Myanmar

Yangon, Myanmar - Donor countries said they were ready to provide Myanmar
with more than $100 million to help it recover from cyclone Nargis, but
warned the ruling junta Sunday they will not fully open their wallets
until they are provided access to the hardest-hit areas.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, speaking to The Associated Press after a
one-day meeting of 51 donor nations, said he believed a turning point had
been reached in getting Myanmar's isolationist junta to allow foreign aid

workers unhindered entry into the devastated Irrawaddy Delta.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that this could be a turning point for Myanmar
to be more flexible, more practical, and face the reality as it is on the
ground," Ban told The AP.

But Myanmar's leaders - and potential donors - continued to take a guarded
tone.

Myanmar's Prime Minister Lt.-Gen. Thein Sein said international aid "with
no strings attached" was welcome. But he hedged on the sensitive issue of
direct access, saying only civilian vessels could take part in the aid
operation, and they would have to go through Yangon.

"Relief supplies can be transported by land, air or sea," he said. "But if
relief supplies have to be transported by water, civilian vessels can come
in through Yangon port."

That seemed to nix plans for U.S., British and French warships loaded with
humanitarian supplies to join in the relief operation. The ships have been
off Myanmar's coast for more than a week.

Myanmar's leaders have virtually barred foreign aid workers and
international agencies from the delta because they fear a large influx of
foreigners could lead to political interference in their internal affairs.

The junta is also hesitant to have its people see aid arriving directly
from countries such as the United States, which it has long treated as a
hostile power seeking to invade or colonize the country.

Thein Sein, saying that about 3,000 tonnes of humanitarian supplies have
already been delivered from abroad, presented a long list of urgent needs,
including temporary shelters, rice seeds, fertilizer and fishing boats.

Official estimates put the death toll about 78,000, with another 56,000
missing.

Myanmar has estimated the economic damage at nearly $11 billion and the
United Nations has launched an emergency appeal for $201 million.

At Sunday's meeting:

* The European Community, which has already pledged $72.5 million, offered
another $26.8 million.

* China boosted its pledge to $11 million.

* Australia pledged $24 million.

* The Philippines doubled its previous pledge to $20 million.

* South Korea upped an earlier pledge for a total of $2.5 million.

Ban said the relief operation would last at least six months.

____________________________________

May 26, Irrawaddy
Few aid workers in the Delta, say aid groups - Saw Yan Naing

Very few foreign aid workers have reached the Irrawaddy delta to help
cyclone victims, two days after an agreement was made between UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Burma’s head of state, Snr-Gen Than
Shwe, to allow all aid workers access, said international aid groups.

At a press conference in Bangkok on Saturday, the UN general-secretary
said, “Snr-Gen Than Shwe agreed to allow all international aid workers to
operate freely and without hindrance. We agreed to establish [logistics
hubs incorporating] air, sea and road links to the most affected areas.

“The Myanmar [Burmese] government appears to be moving toward the right
direction 
 Some international aid workers and NGOs (nongovernmental
organizations) have already gone into the regions of the Irrawaddy delta
without any problem.”

Paul Risley, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Bangkok,
told The Irrawaddy on Monday that three foreign relief workers from WFP
have arrived in the cyclone-ravaged delta since Saturday and WFP were
planning to deploy more to the area.

“On Saturday, WFP sent one international aid worker from Rangoon to Pyapon
and Bogalay and no problems were reported, he said. “Two others traveled
today to Bogalay and other places in the delta. Tomorrow, three
international aid workers will travel to Laputta.”

WFP said it only had 10 international staff and 200 local staff in Rangoon
before Cyclone Nargis devastated the region on May 2-3, but the UN group
said it would deploy international staff to operate long-term aid projects
in the stricken delta region.

A total of 22 visas have been granted to WFP international staff since the
cyclone struck and there are currently 29 national staff members deployed
in affected areas outside Rangoon, according to the organization.

Risley said that WFP are not experiencing problems traveling to the delta
and that aid supplies had reached the hands of some cyclone survivors,
though not enough.

“Last Friday, more than 500,000 cyclone victims in the Irrawaddy delta
received food at least once. However, much more food needs to be provided.
We want to feed people every day. Most people haven’t received any food
yet,” he added.

WFP has established two sub-offices in the Irrawaddy delta—in Laputta and
Bogalay—and has relocated national staff members from the north to the
affected areas in the south to step up its response capacity, according to
the group.

Veronique Terrasse, a communications officer for Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF) in Bangkok, said that about eight foreign workers from her
organization had reached the Irrawaddy delta, although most foreign
workers were still staying in Rangoon. MSF currently has 49 foreign aid
workers in Burma.

Meanwhile, in Bangkok, Richard Horsey, a spokesperson for the UN Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said “a number” of
the UN’s international experts have arrived in affected areas.

“It is so important to have agreement not only on national staff traveling
to the delta without problems, but international staff need to be able to
travel there too,” said Horsey.”

During his visit to Burma last week, Ban stopped at Shwedagon Pagoda,
Burma's holiest Buddhist shrine and made a religious offering. "The United
Nations and the whole international community stands ready to help you
overcome this tragedy,” he said.

"That is why I am here,” added Ban. “The main purpose of my coming to
Myanmar is to demonstrate my solidarity and bring a message of hope.”

____________________________________


May 26, Reuters via Khaleej Times
UN urges Myanmar not to alienate orphans

Yangon - The United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) is trying to
convince army-ruled Myanmar not to place at least 2,000 youngsters
orphaned by this month's cyclone into state-run homes, a senior official
said on Monday.

"We should try and place children within family environments as a
priority, and not in institutions," Anne-Claire Dufay, UNICEF's child
protection chief in the former Burma, told Reuters in an interview on
Monday.

"We should try to keep them in their community and even in the interim,
before we are able to trace families, we should be able to place children
in temporary foster care families. That's the message we are sending," she
said.

The junta said last week it would build orphanages in Labutta and Pyapon,
two of the hardest-hit areas of the Irrawaddy delta, where the May 2
cyclone left 134,000 people dead or missing and another 2.4 million
destitute.

In an attempt to reverse this policy, UNICEF is flying in its Asia head,
Anupama Rao Singh, to speak in person to Welfare Minister Major-General
Maung Maung Swe on Monday.

Despite government restrictions on aid workers in the delta, the United
Nations says it has established that at least 2,000 children have lost
both parents.

In Labutta, 282 children were separated from their families, and of those
50 now in the care of officials had no known family, UNICEF said.

Their story is repeated across the delta, where -- as in the 2004 Indian
Ocean tsunami -- children made up a disproportionate number of the dead
because they were unable to cling to trees or buildings when the storm
surge swept in.

Even before Cyclone Nargis, children in Myanmar faced a challenge to stay
alive. Infant mortality rates of 76 per 1,000 live births are among the
highest in Asia and the U.N. says one in three toddlers is malnourished.

One of the few positives is that decades of military rule and
international isolation have at least protected youngsters from the child
trafficking networks that operate elsewhere in southeast Asia.

"If there is one area in Myanmar where we can say the government has taken
positive steps, it is child trafficking," Dufay said.

Even though a trickle of aid is getting through, Dufay said Nargis would
affect families for months to come as poverty forced children to leave
home in search of work, causing a so-called "second separation".

"You have family breakdowns, poverty, single-headed households, women with
five children and no husband to go fishing. Child protection issues tend
to surface over many months," she said.

As with nearly all outside aid agencies, UNICEF has had problems with
access to the delta, although said it had been fortunate enough to have
some emergency supplies already stockpiled in the area.

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____________________________________

May 26, Irrawaddy
Burma’s navy suffers strategic losses - Min Lwin

Cyclone Nargis hit Burma’s Panmawaddy Navy Base on Hainggyi Island at the
mouth of the Bassein River, destroying military buildings and a
reconnaissance station, according to navy sources.

Burma’s navy chief, Admiral Soe Thein, on Monday toured various sites on
Hainggyi Island, according to the state-run The New Light of Myanmar.

No figures were given for naval personnel dead or injured, or the number
of family members dead or injured. And unknown number of personnel and
family members are reportedly missing.

The Hainggyi Island naval base major played a strategically important role
in patrolling the rivers of the Irrawaddy delta and guarding the Coco
Islands, the site of a Chinese signal intelligence unit that monitors ship
movement in the eastern Indian Ocean, especially shipping routes between
the Bay of Bengal and the Strait of Malacca.

The Hainggyi Island navy base was established in the early 1990s with
Chinese military assistance to provide security for Great Coco Island and
Little Coco Island, just north of the Indian-held Andaman Islands, where
the electronic intelligence stations are located.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday, a sergeant with the No1 Strategic
Naval Force (Sit Byu Ha Yay Yin) in Rangoon said the cyclone swept over
the Panmawaddy naval command where more than 1,500 Burmese navy personnel
were stationed. About 2,000 family members also lived on the island, he
said.

No 26 Naval Flotilla and No 27 Training Unit were extensively damaged by
the Category 3 storm, according to the source. No 21 Naval Administrative
Unit, No 22 Naval Support Unit and No 24 Naval Ordnance Unit were also
damaged.

The vessels at the Panmawaddy Naval base are grouped under the No 2
Strategic Naval Force (Sit Bu Ha Yay Yin Su 2).

A former navy officer who was previously stationed at the Irrawaddy Naval
base in Rangoon said the cyclone damaged the main navy dockyard there,
where facilities include ship repair. The area is also the home of a navy
ordnance company at Thilawah in Thanlyin Township, where virtually all
naval ordnance is stored. The Naval Training Centre at Thanlyin, across
the Pegu River from Rangoon, was also damaged.

When the military seized power in 1988, the junta embarked on a major
upgrade of navy forces, which included the development of existing bases
at Sittwe near the Bangladeshi border and at Mergui near the Thai border.

The Burmese navy was formed in 1940 and played a small, but active role in
Allied operations against the Japanese during World War II. The navy
played a key role in the government's fight against ethnic insurgent
groups and the Burma Communist Party in the delta area.

In addition, the navy performs surveillance activities, such as monitoring
fish poaching, smuggling, insurgent movements and pirate activities.
Burma’s navy is made up of Chinese and North Korean built ships.

____________________________________

May 26, Associated Press
Burma bans top Western journalist, deports another - Jim Andrews

The Burmese regime on Sunday banned the prominent Swedish author and
journalist Bertil Lintner from accompanying a Swedish government
delegation to Rangoon.

Lintner, author of six books on Burma and a leading authority on the
country, had been invited by the Stockholm government to join two other
Swedish journalists on a two-day visit to Rangoon, and possibly Naypyidaw,
in a delegation led by Minister of International Development Cooperation
Gunilla Carlsson.

Carlsson and her delegation attended Sunday’s international aid conference
in Rangoon.

Lintner is correspondent in Southeast Asia for the Swedish daily Svenska
Dagbladet and also writes for other publications, including The Irrawaddy.
He frequently presides over conferences on Burma in the US, Europe, Asia
and Australia.

One day before he was due to join the Stockholm delegation in Bangkok for
the flight to Rangoon he was told his name had been struck from the list
of participants by the Burmese authorities. No reason was given—“But it
didn’t really surprise me,” said Lintner, an outspoken critic of the
Burmese regime and its repressive policies.

Lintner said he was told by Burmese diplomats about 20 years ago that he
had been put on the country’s black list of unwanted foreigners following
the publication of his books “Land of Jade,” an account of a trek of more
than 2,000 kilometers through northern Burma, and “Outrage: Burma’s
Struggle for Democracy,” a blistering account of the military regime’s
brutal rule,

Last Wednesday, another leading journalist and authority on Burma,
Britain’s Andrew Marshall, was deported from Rangoon, together with his
American photographer. Both underwent several hours of interrogation
before being put aboard a flight to Bangkok.

“This is the reality behind the regime’s promises to become more open to
the international community,” said Lintner. “They’re just empty promises.”

____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 26, Mizzima News
Burmese embassy in Bangkok on fire

Nearly 70 % of the Burmese Embassy building in Bangkok including portions
of the Ambassador's office was burnt when a fire broke out on Monday
morning, an embassy official said.

The blaze, which started at about 7:45 a.m. (local time) was put off at
about 9:00 a.m (local time) after the Thai fire brigade arrived, the
embassy official, who declined to be named, told Mizzima.

No embassy officials were injured by the fire, which started from an
electrical short circuit inside the embassy building, the official said.

"Since it was 8:00 a.m in the morning no embassy officials have arrived,"
the official said.

Despite the fire, an eyewitness said the visa department and revenue
departments of the embassy remained open with several people working.

Security arrangements outside the embassy remained normal, the eyewitness
added.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 26, BBC News
UN official sees Burma progress

A senior UN official says there are fragile signs that Burma's
co-operation with the international aid effort for victims of Cyclone
Nargis is improving.

Kathleen Cravero of the UN Development Programme told the BBC that visas
had become more easily available and access to affected areas was getting
better.

But she said more was needed and said the UN would continue to monitor the
Burmese government's stance.

On Sunday, international donors pledged nearly $50m (£25m) to help relief
work.

The amount was only a fraction of the $11bn sought by the Burmese government.

Some donors said the money depended on foreign aid workers being allowed
into the Irrawaddy Delta disaster zone.

At least 78,000 people have died as a result of the cyclone that struck
three weeks ago. More than 50,000 people are still missing.

At the weekend, Burma held a second round of voting on its military-backed
constitution, after the 10 May referendum was delayed in some regions
because of the cyclone.

According to state media, the overall result showed nearly 93% of people
endorsed the constitution.

Critics claim the vote was rigged, and are angry it was held at all amid
such a huge disaster.

'Encouraging'

Late last week, Burma's top leader Gen Than Shwe told UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon that "all" aid workers would now be allowed into the country.


Correspondents say it appears to be a significant breakthrough, but that
the coming week will clarify whether or not it is genuine.

Speaking from Rangoon, Ms Cravero told the BBC that since the top-level
meeting, the situation had improved somewhat.

"In the last few days the visa situation has greatly opened up and access
to the affected areas has begun to open up. So if we can call that fragile
but concrete evidence, that's been encouraging," she said.

"But of course it has to open up much more, both in terms of getting the
right experts in and getting those experts to the areas where it counts."

The UN believes only a quarter of those needing aid - up to 2.4 million
people - have received it.

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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is

Aid agencies say expert personnel and specialist equipment are desperately
needed in the worst-hit regions.

Speaking after the donor conference on Sunday, Mr Ban said he hoped
Burma's leaders were now facing up to the scale of the problem.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that this could be a turning point for Myanmar
(Burma) to be more flexible, more practical, and face the reality as it is
on the ground," he told the BBC.

But Burma is still unwilling to accept aid from foreign naval vessels
waiting off its coast.

A French ship, Le Mistral, is now heading for Thailand so that its cargo
of aid can be delivered via the World Food Programme (WFP).

French officials said they were "particularly shocked" by Burma's failure
to allow them to deliver the aid directly.

____________________________________

May 26, Democratic Voice of Burma
ILO conference to address forced labour in Burma

The forced labour situation in Burma will be on the agenda at the
International Labour Organisation’s annual conference in Geneva this week,
an ILO official told DVB.

Steve Marshall, the ILO liaison officer in Rangoon, said he would present
a report on the current situation to a special sitting on Burma scheduled
for 31 May.

Marshall said there had been some progress on forced labour issues, but
much more needed to be done.

“We are quietly making progress, but not as quickly as we could or should
be,” he said.

“We’re still working hard to try and improve things, to make sure that
people understand what their rights are, and also what other people’s
responsibilities are; they are the critical issues for us.”

Marshall urged greater commitment on all sides to eliminating forced
labour practices.

“Small steps of progress are made; that is all good, because every little
bit helps,” he said.

“However, if we really want to do some justice to this issue and to try
and really work towards the elimination of forced labour then a much more
committed effort on the part of all parties is really required.”

The ILO is continuing to receive forced labour complaints on a range of
issues, including infrastructure work, forced crop-growing, enforced guard
duties, portering and military recruitment of children.

Marshall said around 89 complaints had been received in the past year, and
46 formal complaints had been submitted to the Burmese government.

When asked if he was able to investigate forced labour complaints on the
ground, Marshall said he had undertaken one recent trip which he described
as “constructive”.

“I went up through to Taunggok and visited a number of townships on the
way, in Bago division,” he said.

“That was as a direct result of a complaint received and an agreement with
the government that we would carry out a joint mission to follow up on
that complaint.”

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 26, Irrawaddy
The prisoner who won’t go away - Aung Zaw

In military-ruled Burma, citizens must be prepared to spend years behind
bars for discussing politically sensitive issues. For visiting
dignitaries, the penalty is not quite as harsh, but the ban on talking
politics is every bit as absolute.

During his recent visits to Burma, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was
careful to respect the generals’ reticence about any subject that touched
upon their claims to legitimacy, lest he leave the country empty-handed.

This came as no surprise. After all, as political activists in Rangoon
joked, Ban was a “guest of the state”—like the thousands of political
prisoners who have experienced the junta’s hospitality over the past
twenty years.

Of course, after weeks of being spurned by the regime’s reclusive leader,
Snr-Gen Than Shwe, Ban probably felt lucky just to have a chance to
discuss the matter at hand: the devastation in the Irrawaddy delta, where
hundreds of thousands of people were still at risk three weeks after
Cyclone Nargis.

To get Than Shwe to listen, Ban knew that he and his team had to be
careful to avoid one taboo topic in particular. If he had so much as
mentioned the name of Aung San Suu Kyi in the presence of Than Shwe or in
front of a TV camera, last week’s meeting in Naypyidaw would never have
taken place.

Than Shwe’s personal dislike for the Nobel laureate is an open secret.
Foreign ambassadors who have met with the junta leader to give their
credentials have been asked to leave after they uttered her name.

After a two-hour meeting with Burma’s paramount leader, Ban finally got
the green light for “all aid workers,” regardless of nationality, to be
allowed to deliver aid to the delta region. But it remains to be seen if
the regime will keep its promise.

Ban had no choice but to express optimism. “I had a very good meeting with
Snr-Gen Than Shwe and particularly on the aid workers,” he said with his
characteristic mild-mannered smile.

Even after leaving Burma, Ban was careful to stay on message. At a press
conference in Bangkok, he was asked if the UN’s position on the release of
Suu Kyi and other political prisoners had changed, given his silence on
this issue.

“I make it quite clear that the United Nations’ position vis-à-vis the
democratization process of Myanmar remains unchanged,” he replied.

He added: “I’m going to have my special envoy, Mr [Ibrahim] Gambari,
continue his work as my special envoy to help facilitate the
democratization of Myanmar [Burma]. I hope the Myanmar authorities will
keep their commitment to the seven-point democratization process.”

He went on to say that he would return to these issues “in the near
future.” At no point did he mention Suu Kyi.

No doubt the UN chief was concerned that Than Shwe’s promise to allow
international relief workers into the country could be abruptly reversed
if the generals detected even a hint of political meddling. So for now,
Suu Kyi and the issues she represents remain on the back burner.

But at Sunday’s donors’ meeting in Rangoon, where representatives of
governments and aid organizations gathered to pledge assistance to the
victims of Cyclone Nargis, Suu Kyi was not far from people’s minds,
according to one Western ambassador who attended.

This was not due to a peculiar preoccupation with the well-being of
Burma’s most famous political prisoner. Ironically, it was the junta’s
fixation with her, and particularly its need to keep her out of the
spotlight, which has once again forced the world to take notice of her.

At midnight on May 25, the day of the international pledging conference in
Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi was due to be released from house arrest.

“In a tremendously significant coincidence of timing, she must be released
by the end of the day on May 24,” said Suu Kyi’s lawyer Jared Genser, who
is also president of the Washington-based rights group Freedom Now.

Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since May 2003, when junta-backed
thugs went on a rampage in the central Burmese town of Depayin, killing
many members of her entourage in an attack on their convoy during a tour
of Upper Burma. She and other senior leaders of her party narrowly escaped
with their lives.

Five years later, she is still under house arrest, after receiving a
one-year sentence that has been extended every year since 2003. According
to Burmese law, the regime cannot add another year to her sentence unless
it brings new charges against her.

Of course, this didn’t happen. The junta didn’t even announce its plans to
illegally extend her sentence. It simply didn’t release her. She has been
sentenced by silence.

Suu Kyi is not just a skeleton in the junta’s closet. Like Burmese
everywhere, she is listening to the news about the humanitarian crisis in
the delta, and sharing her compatriots’ fears for those who have been
stranded by an inept and indifferent regime.

Min Ko Naing, Su Su Nway and other prominent activists behind bars are
also collecting the scraps of news that reach them through the visitors
who are infrequently permitted to see them, or from sympathetic prison
wardens.

Like Suu Kyi, they have probably heard Than Shwe’s promise by now. And
like her and everyone else who has heard it all before, they are probably
quietly fighting with feelings of despair for those they are powerless to
help.

Burma’s political prisoners know they aren’t going anywhere soon, so they
will no doubt forgive the international community for ignoring them at
this time of crisis. But if the world allows the regime to sentence
hundreds of thousands of Burmese to death by neglect, it will be a crime
that even those who have learned to bear intense injustice will have
trouble forgiving.