BurmaNet News, May 30, 2008

[Editor]

May 30, 2008 Issue #3480


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Aid workers say cyclone toll exceeds junta’s estimate
DVB: Karen cyclone refugees sent back to villages
Los Angeles Times: Myanmar cyclone victims die waiting for help
Guardian (UK): Burma cyclone aid agencies make plea for orphans
Irrawaddy: Experts denounce referendum as ‘neither free nor fair’
Irrawaddy: The Depayin Massacre, five years later

ON THE BORDER
IMNA: Food crisis looms in refugee camp on Thai-Burma border

HEALTH / AIDS
VOA: Burma facing serious health crisis

ASEAN
Xinhua: Myanmar appoints Deputy FM as Chairman representing Myanmar in
tripartite core group

REGIONAL
Bangkok Post: Thailand to send more aid to Burma

INTERNATIONAL
BBC News: UN condemns Burma 'camp closures'
Reuters: Myanmar may use forced labour in cyclone recovery-ILO
AFP: US sharply skeptical of Myanmar constitution

OPINION / OTHER
Washington Post: Let them eat frogs
Irrawaddy: Post-cyclone politics
UPI Asia: Myanmar and relief invasion

PRESS RELEASE
ASEAN: Sec-General of ASEAN sees signs of progress in assisting Cyclone
Nargis victims




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
Aid workers say cyclone toll exceeds junta’s estimate – Nan Kham Kaew

The death toll from Cyclone Nargis, which hit Burma on 2 May, is likely to
be greater than the military regime’s official estimate, according to a
volunteer team from Mandalay.

The team said villagers in remote areas had told them the toll was higher
than the government had estimated.

“The government has stated that 77,738 are dead and 55,900 missing from
the storm,” a team member said.

“We haven’t so far heard of anyone who was missing arriving back home so
let’s assume those missing are dead and that 133,638 were killed
altogether,” he went on.

“But we have been told by villagers that the death toll they experienced
exceeded the government figures.”

The volunteer team visited 90 remote villages from 15 to 25 May to
distribute relief supplies to cyclone victims.

The villages were on the far outskirts of cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy
delta’s Bogalay, Dadaye and Phyar Pone townships.

The team witnessed the bodies of people and animals floating in the water
during its ten-day trip.

“We first arrived in one place on 15 May and saw 71 dead bodies floating
around. We also saw dead cows and buffalos,” the team member said.

“At first, we tried to arrange funerals for the people but we couldn’t do
it as there were too many so we donated money to monasteries and asked
local abbots to organise it.”

Many of the worst-hit areas have been inaccessible to aid workers and so
the damage has not been fully assessed.

Cyclone survivors told the volunteer team their first priority was
shelter, and clothing was the second biggest need.

____________________________________

May 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
Karen cyclone refugees sent back to villages – Aye Nai

Nearly 500 cyclone refugees from the Irrawaddy delta taking shelter in
Christian missionary compounds in Rangoon's Ahlone township have been
ordered back to their villages, according to aid workers.

Most of the refugees are ethnic Karen Christians from villages around
Labutta township area in the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta.

They were brought to Rangoon by the Yangon Home Mission Karen Baptist
Association and were kept in the group's compound in Ahlone township.

An aid worker said the refugees were ordered by Rangoon divisional chief
general Hla Htay Win yesterday to go back to their villages within 24
hours.

"The Rangoon divisional chief said the refugees were to go back to the
Irrawaddy delta by tomorrow – he said there were refugee camps to give
them shelter," said the aid worker, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"But in reality, there is nowhere for them to stay."

Another missionary aid worker said a group of senior government officials
led by the deputy religious affairs minister went to the compound where
the refugees were staying and said they had arranged transportation to
send the refugees back to their homes.
"They said the 486 refugees taking shelter in the compound would be sent
back to Labutta in 15 buses the next day," said the aid worker.

"Some of the refugees have been seriously traumatised by the cyclone and
they are really depressed – they should not be sent back to their villages
now."

A pastor at the compound said today that the refugees had been sent back
to Myaung Mya in Irrawaddy division this morning in 11 buses.

____________________________________

May 30, Los Angeles Times
Myanmar cyclone victims die waiting for help

A man in one village says a fishing boat took his injured wife to a
hospital four days after the storm, but it was too late.  Tropical Cyclone
Nargis didn't kill Ma Thein Hlaing. Neglect did.

She was in the village monastery, reciting Buddha's canons day and night
in the five-day ceremony of pahtan, as the storm gathered strength over
the ocean close enough to see from her riverbank village.

The cyclone struck like a ferocious beast clawing at its prey. Thein
Hlaing, 56, cowered inside with 19 other worshipers who fought to hold on
against a rising flood.

The monastery began to break apart and a large stereo speaker toppled onto
her, forcing her head under the surging seawater.

Several men heaved the teak speaker off. But when the 12-hour tempest had
subsided May 3, her 19-year-old son, Saw Ko, had disappeared along with
the splintered pieces of the family home.

Thein Hlaing was still conscious. She needed a doctor, but in a flattened
village with no boats left, her husband, Ko Myint So, had no way to get
her to one.

He watched the horizon, hoping help would come from one of the nearby
military bases guarding the southern coast of Myanmar, also known as
Burma. It never did. More than three weeks after the storm struck, no one
from the government, neither soldiers nor civilians, has come here.

In the early days after the storm, as the military government insisted
that it had everything under control and shunned most foreign relief aid,
the armed forces moved slowly to assist hundreds of thousands of survivors
stranded in devastated Irrawaddy River Delta villages.

The government estimates that the cyclone killed 78,000 people, and that
an additional 56,000 are missing. The number of injured survivors isn't
known yet. Many survivors are only now being reached as civilian relief
workers push farther into isolated areas.

For days, Thein Hlaing lay in pain, pleading with her husband to do
something. Each time one of the few remaining civilian vessels plying the
river passed the village, he and neighbors frantically shouted and waved
from the ruins.

On the fourth day after the cyclone, the crew of a fishing boat stopped at
the remnants of the village dock. It would take almost three more hours to
reach the nearest hospital, 25 miles northeast, in the town of Bogalay.

Thein Hlaing held on long enough to reach the jetty in Bogalay, a military
relief hub. She was still alive when villagers eased her onto a stretcher
and took a few hurried steps along wooden planks toward the main hospital,
her husband and other witnesses said.

She passed away before reaching solid ground again.

"My wife talked a little bit on the way, and just a few minutes before she
died, she said, 'My eyes can see clearly now,' " recalled Myint So, 53.
"Then she just closed her eyes. And she was gone."

"She didn't have to die," he said, looking down at weathered hands flecked
with mud. "She just didn't get help in time."

Nwet Nwet Win, the village nurse and midwife, was in Bogalay when the
storm barreled ashore. She worked at the town's hospital until the chief
doctor announced that any staff with homes to return to could leave on
Sunday.

The nurse said the first patients from outlying villages began arriving at
the hospital four days after the cyclone. She knows of 30 who died, mainly
children and the elderly.

"Many people died on the way to the hospital," she said.

As if a giant hand had swept across the land, the cyclone razed hundreds
of villages in the southern delta and deposited the debris along the
eastern shores of islands and riverbanks for miles.

To signal relief boats, survivors squatting in makeshift shelters who are
trying to stay dry in the daily monsoon deluge have raised tattered pieces
of cloth on trees stripped of their branches by the winds.

In one long stretch of broken planks, tree limbs and other wreckage along
the shore of Meinmahla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary, a small statue of a local
spirit, a protector on horseback called U Shin Hyi, is the only thing in
one piece and still standing.

Burmese staff from U.N. relief agencies reached this village Tuesday,
along with several cartons of food and other supplies delivered by
Buddhist monks. But without fuel and a pump to clean the reservoir, or
some other way to provide clean water, an outbreak of disease is a
constant danger, Nwet Nwet Win said.

"I'm very worried," the nurse said. "All I can do is tell people to boil
the water."

The United Nations and foreign relief agencies say they already have or
are ready to deliver equipment to purify large amounts of water in
Myanmar, but need to bring in more experts to determine the best places to
set up the machines and keep them running.

The military regime has issued dozens of visas to foreign relief workers
since top leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe told U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon at a weekend meeting that all nations were welcome to send help.

Many more aid workers are waiting to get in, along with tons of food,
medicine, building materials and other supplies, for a relief effort to
support about 2.4 million people. Ban said survivors would need support
for at least six more months.

The government, which has urged storm victims to be self-reliant, insists
that the relief phase is complete and says it has moved on to
reconstruction.

But for survivors like Myint So, what to do next remains unclear.

Before the cyclone, he had made a comfortable living making small,
low-interest loans to villagers through his micro-credit bank, financed
with capital from his son. Now, like most people in the delta, Myint So is
broke.

He couldn't pay for his wife's funeral, so volunteers took care of it for
him, burying her in Bogalay. He lives in a leaky shack smaller than a
garden shed, which he hammered together from snapped tree trunks and clear
plastic tarps.

He can't stop thinking about the woman he loved and what could have been
done to save her life.

"Before she died, I was a fit and strong guy," he said. "But I haven't
slept a single night since then. I'm getting thinner and thinner every
day."

He paused for a moment to recall his fondest memory of Thein Hlaing, and
he smiled.

"The thing I miss most about my wife is the way she talked, the way she
moved," he said. "She was a guiding star for me."

____________________________________

May 30, Guardian (UK)
Burma cyclone aid agencies make plea for orphans – Ian McKinnon

International relief agencies bringing aid to the survivors of cyclone
Nargis are calling on the Burmese regime not to build orphanages for
children whose parents were killed.

As many as 2,000 children in the Irrawaddy delta may have been orphaned by
the cyclone four weeks ago. Relief workers say the regime's plan to build
at least six orphanages is the wrong way to meet their needs.

The UN children's agency, Unicef, which dealt with the aftermath of the
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, has said large impersonal homes are not the
best way to help infants.

"We've a good relationship with the government and we're advocating
avoiding institutions," said Alexander Krueger, a Unicef child protection
specialist. "That's the usual response of any government. It's quick and
it's visible. But we urge a more proactive way of caring for children in a
family environment."

Agencies believe that up to 40% of the estimated 134,000 people killed by
the cyclone were children. Many who survived were separated from their
parents in the storm or ensuing panic.

In Laputta, one of the worst-hit delta townships, 60 children are
registered as "unaccompanied". Another 278 are classified as separated
from their parents and are living with adults who have taken them under
their wing.

Up to 700 children across the delta are known to be in similar straits. In
a few cases, aid agencies have discovered "children-headed households",
where unaccompanied children are being cared for by an older teenager
supported by adults.

The Burmese government has set up a temporary children's home in another
devastated town, Myaung Mya, and has gone ahead with plans to construct an
institution there for long-term care. There are schemes for other homes in
Laputta and in Pyapon.

Unicef and Save the Children estimate there are 2,000 cyclone orphans,
though there is little official information. The two agencies based their
estimate on sketchy population figures for the Irawaddy delta.

The UN says only 41% of the 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone
have had any help, partly because of the Burmese regime's exclusion of
international aid workers.

Aid agencies are anxious not to classify the "separated" or
"unaccompanied" children as orphans, and have joined the Burmese Red Cross
in efforts to trace missing parents or extended family members. Save the
Children has so far reunited 12 children with their parents.

The agencies say experience has shown that homes catering to several
hundred traumatised children lack the stimulation and capacity they need.
"In this context children don't learn socialisation," said Unicef's
Krueger. "For children under five it's even worse. That's the time when
they develop stable relationships and have a role model in adults.
Institutions don't have this capacity."

The agencies say children should go to extended families or people from
their own communities.

"Institutionalisation really is the last resort," said Guy Cave, Save the
Children's Burma deputy country director. "We advocate to the government
that this is not a good solution. In the majority of cases it's possible
to find someone suitable to care for them."

____________________________________

May 30, Irrawaddy
Experts denounce referendum as ‘neither free nor fair’ – Wai Moe

A referendum held by Burma’s ruling junta on May 10 and 24 was “not free
or fair,” according to a report released by a leading international
advocacy group on May 26—three days before the country’s state-run media
declared that the draft constitution had been “ratified and promulgated.”

“The referendum was not free or fair, as it was not conducted in
accordance with international law or basic democratic standards,” said the
Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) in its report, “Burmese
Constitutional Referendum: Neither Free nor Fair.”

The PILPG report said that the ruling State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC) “failed to meet a single basic international standard for a free
and fair referendum process. Instead the SPDC affirmatively deprived
Burmese citizens of their basic democratic rights.”

In proclamation No.7/2008, which was signed by the junta’s top general,
Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the SPDC declared on Thursday that the draft
constitution had won the support of 92.48 percent of the country’s
27,288,827 eligible voters.

In its report, the PILPG outlines eight conditions required to ensure that
a referendum is free and fair: the right to vote; secret ballots; freedom
of opinion and freedom from coercion; the right to information; freedom of
the media; electoral monitoring; and independent electoral administration.

In each of these areas, the SPDC was in violation of fundamental
principles, according to the report, which accused the junta of “utilizing
oppressive and secretive tactics to try to ensure that the draft
constitution would receive the support of a majority of voters in the
referendum.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations appeared to endorse the junta’s seven-step
“road map” to a self-styled democratic state. At a press conference in
Bangkok on May 25, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the junta to
“keep their commitment to the seven-point democratization process.”

However, others took a dimmer view of the entire process, of which the
referendum was a key part. In a joint commentary published on Thursday,
Czech president Vaclav Havel, South African anti-apartheid leader Desmond
Tutu, and former president of Germany Richard von Weizsacker rejected the
referendum in strong terms.

“The military-run referendum will not bring democracy to Burma, nor will
it help the Burmese people, who now are suffering not only from the
authoritarian regime and poverty, but also from a grave natural disaster
and its totally inept handling by the cynical generals.

“Burma’s rulers have failed in their duty to protect the Burmese people,
but active and decisive political action by the international community
toward the regime may yet do so,” they wrote.

____________________________________

May 30, Irrawaddy
The Depayin Massacre, five years later – Saw Yan Naing

May 30 marks the fifth anniversary of the Depayin massacre, one of the
most notorious incidents in recent Burmese history.

Five years after this planned attack on pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi and her supporters, Toe Lwin still can’t forget that horrific night
when junta-backed thugs blocked their convoy and went on a murderous
rampage.

“They blocked our vehicles. They tore clothing off of women and then beat
them. They hit elderly people. I saw them collapse in front of me. I will
never forget it,” said Toe Lwin, a survivor of the Depayin massacre who
now lives in exile in Mae Sot, on the Thai-Burmese border.

“My duty was to protect Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. I was standing beside her
car for security. The attackers moved toward Daw Suu’s car, and soon there
around 30 of them surrounding us. I told them it was Daw Suu’s car and
asked them not to attack. I told them to stop beating people and asked
them to go back.”

“Suddenly, they started to hit Daw Suu’s car. First I tried to cover it.
Then they started to beat me. They hit my head three times and I
collapsed. Daw Suu’s driver finally sped away and escaped,” said Toe Lwin.

There are many Burmese people who will never be able to forget the Depayin
massacre, which left at least 50 people dead.

On Friday, about 300 members of Burma’s main opposition group, the
National League for Democracy (NLD), gathered at the party’s office in
Rangoon to mark the fifth anniversary of the brutal Depayin attack.

The massacre took place in Kyee village, on the outskirts of Depayin
Township in Sagaing Division, central Burma.

Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the NLD, told The Irrawaddy on Friday: “We
held a religious ceremony at our office today. We offered food to the
monks in memory of democracy supporters who died in the massacre.”

Members of the NLD in Mandalay also held a memorial ceremony in Burma’s
second largest city.

The attack was launched by a pro-junta group consisting of members of the
Union Solidarity and Development Association and the Swan Ah Ashin
militia, who blocked the road to prevent vehicles from escaping the
ambush. They also shone floodlights from trees lining the road, which was
partially covered with barbed wire.

After the massacre, police appeared and rounded up the survivors. Men and
women were detained separately on the night of May 30, and some of the
women were raped by the authorities, claimed witnesses.

This incident is commemorated by Burmese democracy activists around the
world. Many democracy supporters in South Korea, Japan and Thailand marked
the fifth anniversary of the massacre with protests.

On Friday, about 20 demonstrators gathered in front of the Burmese embassy
in Seoul for more than one hour calling for the release of Aung San Suu
Kyi, who has been detained since the Depayin massacre.

The protesters held the NLD flag, photos of Aung San Suu Kyi and signs
calling for an investigation of the incident. The group also demanded that
Burmese authorities take action against the perpetrators of the attack.

During the demonstration, the protesters shouted “Release Aung San Suu Kyi
and all political prisoners.”

“Burmese authorities are worried about reprisals,” said Yan Naing Htun,
one of the organizers of the Seoul protest. “If Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is
released, she will tell the truth. So the authorities continue to detain
her.”

Aung San Suu Kyi’s latest period detention began in 2003; this week, she
completed five years of house arrest. She was first detained in the run-up
to the 1990 parliamentary election, which the NLD won by a landslide.

The military regime announced on Tuesday that Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention
had been officially extended for six months, although several sources have
claimed that the detention order was for one more year.

Nyan Win also criticized the Burmese military government for extending the
house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi.

“The Burmese authorities have detained Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for five
years. Legally, they can detain her for five years. So the extension of
Daw Suu’s house arrest is illegal,” said Nyan Win.

Under Article 10 (b) of the 1975 State Protection Act Law, a person can be
detained without charges for a maximum of five years.

The party also demanded that the regime explain the extension and said it
planned to appeal the decision in court.

World leaders and human rights groups have expressed outrage over the
extension of Suu Kyi’s house arrest and have criticized the Burmese
government for violating its own law.


____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 30, Independent Mon News Agency
Food crisis looms in refugee camp on Thai-Burma border – Lawi Weng

With camp authorities in Ban Don Yang, on the Thai-Burma border announcing
a cut in rations for next month more and more desperate refugee camp
inmates are attempting to find work outside.

Many refugees grow paddy on the mountainside for food. Some look for
vegetables or bamboo shoots while others hunt for wild animals in the
jungle to earn money, worried as they are about an imminent food crisis in
the camp, said Nai Taramon, a refugee in the camp.

With many of them working in the jungle, 60 refugees were afflicted by
malaria, a type of virus PF last month. This is the first time malaria has
been detected in the camp, he said.

Recently, the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) has made an urgent
request for USD 6.8 million as aid to the Burmese refugees.

The camp will provide full ration for this month.

The camp recently provided one basket for adults and half a basket of rice
for children under five years old.

Many are worried about the impending food crisis in the wake of the cut in
rations next month. Not many know how much of the rations will be slashed.

There are 15 kilograms of rice in one basket. One basket is made up of 64
cans.

"We will not have enough rice if they cut off rations. We have to work
outside the camp. If not, we will starve," said Taramon.

Ban Don Yang camp is located on the Thai-Burma border in Sangkhlaburi
District, Kanchanaburi Province southern Thailand on Thai-Burma border.

The camp is close to the jungle and the refugees have easy into the
forests, which is a liberated area under control of the Mon Army along the
Mon Halockhani refugee camp.

Many refugees are worried because many NGOs are focused on cyclone victims
now and they will be neglected.

TBBC is an umbrella organization providing assistance to more than 140,000
refugees from Burma housed in 10 refugee camps along the Thai-Burma
border.


____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

May 30, Voice of America
Burma facing serious health crisis – Lisa Schlein

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns hundreds of thousands of victims
of Burma's devastating Cyclone Nargis face a potentially serious health
crisis.  WHO and partner agencies are launching a multi-million-dollar,
six-month action plan to provide immediate health care and to support
longer-term efforts to rebuild the country's ravaged healthcare system. 
Official figures stand at nearly 78,000 dead and 56,000 missing from the
storm.  Unofficial estimates of the number of dead and missing are
considerably higher.  Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from WHO headquarters
in Geneva.

About 2.5 million people were affected by Cyclone Nargis.

Several-hundred-thousand people are believed to be without shelter and
safe drinking water.  And, that is a situation of great concern for the
World Health Organization.

Assistant director-general of WHO's Health Action in Crises, Dr. Eric
Laroche, says aid agencies will not know the full extent of the emergency
until health workers have been able to assess the situation in hitherto
inaccessible areas.

But he says it is clear that one of the major threats will be from
communicable diseases, such as diarrhea, pneumonia, tetanus, measles and
cholera.  He says people also are at risk from malaria and dengue fever,
which spreads widely during the rainy season.

"If we are not capable of identifying immediately where the first cases
may be, it may mean the start of an epidemic.  Then we are going to be in
big trouble.  Why?  Because everything has to be in place, treatment has
to be in place, and we have to have access," he said.

Dr. Laroche says at least $28 million will be needed to carry out the
action plan during the next six months.  Under the plan, he says health
workers will assess and monitor health needs and strengthen disease
surveillance, and respond to outbreaks and other health threats.

He says the cyclone destroyed about 50 percent of the healthcare system in
the affected region.  He says the plan includes provisions for rebuilding
facilities that can withstand any future natural disasters.

Dr. Laroche says it is critical that hungry people get the food they need
to remain strong.  He warns people who do not have access to food and
become malnourished will become too weak to fight off infections.


____________________________________
ASEAN

May 30, Xinhua
Myanmar appoints Deputy FM as Chairman representing Myanmar in tripartite
core group

Myanmar Friday appointed its Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu as
Chairman representing the country in a Yangon-based tripartite core group,
the State Radio quoting the National Disaster Preparedness Central
Committee reported.

The tripartite core group, also comprising representatives from the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations, is
a working mechanism for coordination, facilitating and monitoring the flow
of international assistance into Myanmar cyclone-hit areas.

The core group was established at an ASEAN-UN international pledging
conference held in Yangon last weekend, attended by 51 countries and 24 UN
organizations and international non-governmental organizations following
the establishment of an ASEAN Humanitarian Task Force led by the ASEAN
Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan.

The task force is beginning work immediately to ensure full information
exchange, close coordination, relief and recovery efforts and resolution
of any problems which may arise.

The 51 participating countries pledged in the conference their
determination to help Myanmar overcome cyclone tragedy and resume their
normal lives as quickly as possible. They said this event was an important
exercise towards building a great trust, confidence and cooperation
between Myanmar government and the international community.

The international community is ready to consider helping Myanmar
government for longer term as Myanmar made clear the scale of the
rehabilitation, reconstruction and recovery efforts likely to be needed
and the immediate requirement to ensure that farming and fishing
activities could be resumed as soon as possible, not least to ensure that
as much rice as possible can be planted in the forthcoming planting
season.

The ASEAN-UN international pledging conference was held to seek further
international financial aid commitment for Myanmar's cyclone aid relief
and rehabilitation efforts.

The conference, hosted by Myanmar, was attended by Myanmar Prime Minister
General Thein Sein, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, ASEAN Chairman and Singapore Foreign
Minister George Yeo and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi along with
other delegates from ASEAN member states, donor countries as well as those
from UN agencies, international financial institutions and
non-governmental organizations.


____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 30, Bangkok Post
Thailand to send more aid to Burma

The government will seek more assistance to help orphans who lost their
parents to Cyclone Nargis, Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsab said
Friday.

Speaking after accompanying the new team of doctors to Burma, Mr Chaiya
said the Burmese government and people were grateful for the kindness of
the royal family and assistance from the government.

Mr Chaiya met his Burmese counterpart and visited 60 relief camps where
cyclone-hit victims received relief supplies from Thailand.

Now, a large number of orphans need psychological treatment, he said,
adding that he will discuss more aid at the cabinet meeting. The issue of
concern is the mental condition of about 320 orphans, who can suffer
trauma after losses in the disaster. The government will first send
mosquito nets and medicines to orphanages.

According to the report of the first medical team returning home from
Burma, the minister said, the doctors treated more than 3,600 patients,
including 900 children, in Myaungmya and Labutta during the two week
mission.

Most of the patients suffered from respiratory diseases and digestive
system illnesses, wounds. No severe contagious diseases were detected.

Dr Surachet Satitniramai, secretary-general of the Institute for National
Emergency Medicine, said that the second team of doctors are focusing on
psychological treatment and sanitation management to prevent any outbreak
of illness. (TNA)


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 30, BBC News
UN condemns Burma 'camp closures'

A senior UN official has said that any coercion of Burmese cyclone victims
to return home is completely unacceptable.

Terje Skavdal's remarks follow reports that Burma's military government
had begun to evict homeless families from some government-run emergency
camps.

It has given them bamboo poles and tarpaulins and told them to go and
rebuild their lives, say reports.

An estimated 2.4m people remain homeless and hungry following Cyclone
Nargis, which struck on 2 May.

Mr Skavdal, head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, said he could not confirm the camp closures but pointed out that
the agency did not endorse premature return to areas with no services.

"People need to be assisted in the settlements and satisfactory conditions
need to be created before they can return to their place of origins," said
Mr Skavdal.

"Any forced or coerced movement of people is completely unacceptable."

'Bureaucratic hindrance'

A Unicef official, Teh Tai Ring, had earlier said camps set up by the
government in the Irrawaddy Delta towns of Bogale and Labutta had been
emptied, according to AP news agency.

Mr Skavdal also complained of "bureaucratic hindrance" of aid workers and
urged the junta to allow in 30 International Red Cross staff who were
awaiting visas.

Last week, senior General Than Shwe assured UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon all foreign aid workers would be allowed in.

The international community last week pledged $150m (£75m) for cyclone
relief in Burma but state media lashed out at donors, saying the junta
needed $11bn to rebuild the stricken country.

The Burmese-language daily, Myanma Ahlin, said cyclone survivors could get
by without "bars of chocolate" from the international community.

At least 78,000 people have died as a result of the cyclone, and another
56,000 people are still missing.

____________________________________

May 30, Reuters
Myanmar may use forced labour in cyclone recovery-ILO – Stephanie Nebehay

The International Labour Organisation warned on Friday of an increased
risk Myanmar's ruling military may try to use forced labour -- including
children -- to rebuild the country after this month's cyclone.

The ILO has been at loggerheads with the former Burma for more than a
decade over what the United Nations agency calls a widespread practice of
forcing villagers to work on infrastructure projects or as porters for the
army.

It is also concerned about the recruitment of minors into military service
in the secretive state whose ruling junta has been heavily criticised by
the West for its reluctance to let in foreign aid workers following
Cyclone Nargis, which struck on May 2 and left 134,000 people dead or
missing.

As Myanmar seeks to recover from the devastating storm, the ILO said U.N.
agencies and relief workers must be aware of "the increased risk of
incidences of forced labour, child labour, human trafficking and migrant
labour as the authorities and individuals come to grips with the sheer
size of the tragedy."

The ILO is working with Myanmar authorities to "ensure that the
reconstruction effort does not involve the use of forced labour in any of
its forms," it said in a report on Friday.

Steve Marshall, ILO's liaison officer in Yangon, submitted the report to
the annual International Labour Conference, being held in Geneva through
June 13. A key committee of ILO's 182 member states will hold a debate on
Myanmar on Saturday.

"From the ILO's perspective it is important to assist communities but the
reconstruction work must be done in line with international standards,"
Marshall told Reuters on Friday.

So far, there have not been any verified reports of forced labour linked
to the disaster, he said, adding: "We're not saying it isn't happening."

Myanmar passed a decree in October 2000 abolishing forced labour, which is
banned under an ILO Convention it has ratified. The Geneva-based agency
was allowed to open an office there two years later to help it eradicate
the practice.

But the ILO said in its report some victims of forced labour were harassed
or detained in the past year when they sought to report abuses. This had
discouraged many others from coming forward and distorted official
figures.

Some 89 allegations of forced labour have been lodged under a complaints
mechanism set up in February 2007, the report said.

"The incidence of harassment and detention of persons associated with its
application has severely limited its operation," it said of the mechanism.
"The number of complaints therefore cannot be seen to reflect the size of
the issue."

Six young labour activists, sentenced to between 20 and 28 years in jail
last year for helping organise a May Day workers' rights seminar, remain
in prison, the ILO report said. (Editing by Laura MacInnis and Mary
Gabriel)

____________________________________

May 30, Agence France Presse
US sharply skeptical of Myanmar constitution

The White House on Friday expressed frustration at the pace of aid flows
into Myanmar after devastating Cyclone Nargis and said the ruling junta's
new constitution lacks legitimacy.

"We have not thought the constitution nor the process was legitimate,"
spokeswoman Dana Perino said after the junta announced that the blueprint
had been "confirmed and enacted" in a referendum shortly after the killer
storm.

Perino charged that the charter would only serve to entrench military rule
and sideline democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and added: "We hope they take
steps to treat their people well and get on the path to freedom and
democracy."

Earlier, Perino had dismissed the document, declaring "I don't think that
the junta's constitution holds a lot of water," and stressing that
Washington remains more interested in getting aid to survivors of the May
2-3 storm that left 133,000 dead or missing.

The junta's response to the crisis "continues to frustrate not just the
United States, but other countries, and certainly the non-governmental
organizations that are trying to get in there," she said.

Myanmar's ruling junta lashed out at foreign aid donors Friday, saying
cyclone victims did not need supplies of "chocolate bars" and could
instead survive by eating frogs and fish.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a government mouthpiece, also warned
that foreign relief workers could snoop inside homes, and condemned donors
for linking aid money to full access to the hardest-hit regions in the
Irrawaddy Delta.

Despite the harsh statements in official media, aid agencies say they have
had some success in receiving visas and securing access to the delta,
which bore the brunt of the devastation.


____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 30, Washington Post
Let them eat frogs

Burma's junta is willing to let its people starve while relief waits just
offshore.

"THE SEARCH for food begins just after dawn," the Los Angeles Times
reported Tuesday from a small, devastated village in Burma. "Each day,
men, women and children fan out into paddies flooded by seawater, littered
with corpses. Like prospectors working claims, they scoop up the muck in
their bare hands and finger through it for grains of unmilled rice swept
away by the cyclone. When their luck is good, they discover red chile
peppers or small onions in mud reeking of the dead. Then, they can have
condiments with their next meal of rotten rice and coconut meat."

If only those villagers had read the New Light of Myanmar! The official
newspaper for the military junta in charge (Myanmar being the generals'
name for the country) this week assured its readers that everything was
returning to normal in Burma's Irrawaddy Delta. And, the junta also
assured its readers, hunger could not be a problem, since farmers can
gather water clover or "go out with lamps at night and catch plump frogs."

This might be funny were it not obscene. In fact, according to editor and
columnist Aung Zaw of the exile magazine Irrawaddy, more than half of the
2.4 million people affected by the cyclone have yet to receive aid.
Meanwhile, a U.S. naval task force consisting of the USS Essex and three
other vessels has been steaming in circles offshore since Cyclone Nargis
swept through Burma on May 2 and 3. According to Adm. Timothy Keating,
head of the U.S. Pacific Command, the task force could deliver 250,000
pounds of relief material per day, by plane, helicopter and amphibious
landing craft. "And the kids out there, the young sailors and Marines, are
desperate to provide help," Adm. Keating said Wednesday. "Some of them
have experience with the tsunami at Aceh. Some of them have experience
with Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh last Thanksgiving. So these guys, they
know what they're doing and they know how much help they can provide just
that quick. . . . And there would be significant materiel going ashore
within an hour, I'd say."

So why are those villagers still scrounging? "As yet," Adm. Keating
explained, "we don't have permission from Burma to conduct those
operations."

That's right. Since the cyclone that left more than 100,000 people dead or
missing, Burma's generals have found time to conduct a phony referendum to
make military rule permanent; issue a decree extending the house arrest of
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi; detain many other democracy activists
and ordinary civilians and monks trying to deliver aid to cyclone victims;
harry and repulse foreign correspondents (the Los Angeles Times reporter
quoted above had to file anonymously); and complain that foreign
governments are being stingy with "reconstruction" aid. But the junta
continues to prevent the kind of large-scale relief operation that the
country needs, allowing in just enough private aid workers to defuse
international pressure.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was right to visit Burma and press the
junta to admit more aid. But he was wrong, in explaining why he didn't say
much there about Aung San Suu Kyi, to urge a "focus on people, not
politics." It is politics -- the generals' politics -- that is killing
uncounted numbers of children in Burma's delta. It is the generals'
politics to rebuff emergency relief while demanding reconstruction loans
that could make the junta richer. And it is the generals' politics that is
forcing villagers to strain the mud for rotten rice while tons of clean
food float unused not many miles away.

____________________________________

May 30, Irrawaddy
Post-cyclone politics – Min Zin

When Cyclone Nargis ravaged Burma, it did not spare political prisoners.
The notorious Insein Prison, where hundreds of political prisoners are
locked up, was one of the hardest-hit sites in Rangoon.

The wind uprooted trees, rain flooded prison cells, and electricity was
cut. Many prisoners, wet and cold, began screaming in the dark.

The storm’s wrath triggered a riot and guards started shooting. Criminal
prisoners in one ward set the building on fire, causing smoke to fill
neighboring prison cells.

Suffering from an eye-infection, the most prominent jailed student leader,
Min Ko Naing, was choking from the smoke and his eyes were burning. Some
of his fellow inmates had passed out.

A few sympathetic prison guards managed to push aside fallen trees that
blocked the entrances to the cells and moved the political prisoners to
the prison’s hospital.

"Min Ko Naing and many other political prisoners in the cells could have
died from smoke if the rescue had been delayed," said Bo Kyi, a former
political prisoner who heads the Thailand-based Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners Burma (AAPP).

There are no official figures for how many prisoners died and were injured
during the havoc, but the AAPP believes at least 36 prisoners were shot to
death.

In the cyclone’s aftermath, many political prisoners who had family living
in the storm-stricken areas learned they had lost family members.

One political prisoner, Thiha Thet Zin, was told that eight of nine family
members, including his parents, grandmother, a son and siblings, were
swept away with the storm. His wife was the only survivor.

In fact, what happened in Insein Prison during the killer storm could be
seen as a microcosm of Burma's political landscape.

Since Cyclone Nargis, which claimed 134,000 deaths and at least 1 million
homeless, the world has seen that the unwillingness of the Burmese junta’s
disaster response is antamount to a “crime against humanity."  The cyclone
has placed the country in a defining moment with inevitable political
consequences, but just how events may play out is anybody’s guess.

"Things will not return to a status quo," said Priscilla Clapp, a US
diplomat who served as Chief of Mission in Burma from 1999-2002.

While the military tries to exploit the world's generosity, it will also
ensure that the cyclone will not have any effect on its "road map to a
discipline-flourishing democracy."

"The rush to complete the referendum and declare victory was a defensive
move, in recognition that the whole scheme could be derailed by the storm
if it was not wrapped up immediately," said Clapp.

Unbelievably, the junta claimed that the constitutional referendum was
approved by 92 percent of the voters.

"I think the whole business of the ‘road map’ is no longer relevant in
Burmese politics after the cyclone," said Moe Thee Zun, a well-known
former student leader. "The most important thing we need to watch is how
Nargis will test the army's loyalty to the leadership and expose
dissension within army."

Some observers, perhaps wishfully, believe that the regime's failed
response could weaken the junta, especially Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
Significantly, the junta’s current public failure follows its ruthless
crackdown on the "Saffron Revolution" last September.

"We have heard that there are considerable tensions within the military,"
said David Steinberg, a Burma expert at Georgetown University. "But I
don't know whether the tension is strong enough to split the military and
at what level it exists, and whether it is a high enough level to threaten
the present leadership. If change comes, it has to come from within the
military itself."

Many military observers doubt that Than Shwe would be challenged by his
immediate subordinates. Change after his death is a more likely scenario,
they say.

However, many opposition leaders prefer to place their hopes for change on
public actions. They say that unless a mass movement challenges the
corrupt military leadership, divisions in the military will not surface.

"Whether or not the military will take sides with the public is the
defining issue in Burmese politics," said Po Than Gyaung, a spokesman for
the Communist Party of Burma. "A mass movement is the most likely trigger
for change within the military."

However, there are few public signs that the junta has been weakened by
either the people’s uprising or the cyclone’s aftermath. The regime sits
on more than $4 billion in foreign exchange reserves and earns more than
$150 million a month in natural gas sales. Observers say it is unlikely
any government money will be used for humanitarian aid or reconstruction.
The regime donated US $ 4.5 million immediately after the cyclone, but the
money largely came from donations by regime supporters.

On the other hand, Burmese civil society clearly has been weakened, both
physically and psychologically. The economy will suffer for an extended
period of time.

On the Cyclone Nargis frontlines, many ordinary citizens responded to the
call for aid, but their efforts cannot replace the need for a
professionally organized, long-term relief effort. A significant portion
of the country could experience food shortages, say UN agencies.

Though people are angry with the junta, the grip of fear appears to be
stronger than anger and any attempt at mass action in the near future most
likely would end up in abortive protests and violence.

In addition, the role of the opposition will continue to be marginalized
as long as leading figures such as Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Ko Naing
remain in detention or unless a new community-based leadership emerges out
of the cyclone relief efforts.

The prospect of growing community-based leadership is a possibility, but
it is not likely to yield any immediate political impact. More
importantly, such new initiatives can be nipped in the bud by the regime's
repression and intimidation.

At the same time, the UN has proven to be unresponsive to the idea of its
"responsibility to protect" principle. The West will continue to champion
the cause of democracy in Burma in moral and rhetorical terms, but it is
likely to act only in the most practical terms, relying largely on
cooperation and pressure from China and Asean.

Meanwhile, the regime clearly sees the likelihood of international
humanitarian aid as a "jackpot,” and will try to include only enough
relief workers to keep the flow of aid and reconstruction money coming.

The fate of the Burmese people and the political prisoners in Insein
Prison remain in limbo. While there are no immediate signs of political
storms brewing, we know the water is always rough and there are few safe
harbors in Burma.

____________________________________

May 30, UPI Asia
Myanmar and relief invasion – Mong Palatino

When the Burmese junta refused international aid, the U.S. Air Force
proposed food drops to deliver aid in the cyclone-ravaged regions of
Myanmar. The U.S. military should have pushed through with its plan even
without U.N. backing. After all, it had no qualms dropping lethal bombs in
Indochina forty years ago. It would have been symbolic if U.S. jets were
dropping aid boxes instead of napalm bombs.

The junta is still obstinate as they continue to limit the entry of
international relief in Myanmar. It is this stubbornness which provokes
world leaders to call for bold measures like relief invasion in the name
of humanitarian intervention. Myanmar’s neighbors and the rest of the
world are obviously concerned over the rising death toll and the
deteriorating situation in the flooded regions of the country. The junta
should not assume that the world will turn a blind eye to the
unprecedented human catastrophe in the Irrawaddy Delta.

In order to deliver emergency assistance to Myanmar’s flood victims, the
“responsibility to protect” doctrine has been invoked already. It is a
legal instrument which was passed by the United Nations a few years ago to
justify military attack on the grounds of preventing genocide, war, ethnic
cleansing and crimes against humanity. But who will judge whether a
country is undemocratic or not? Who will decide which government is
committing a crime against humanity? This controversial matter is still
unresolved.

The arguments to attack Myanmar can be used to invade other “failed
states” as well. Numerous governments are engaged in a violent war against
their own people. Rampant human rights violations in despotic countries
can be described as crimes against humanity.

So why are the United States and other rich countries ganging up on
Myanmar? Why are they not proposing an invasion of other poor countries
ruled by cruel regimes?

Is it because Myanmar is too close to China? Or maybe the energy-hungry
countries are salivating over the rich gas deposits in Myanmar. These
powerful governments want to invade Myanmar in order to reap economic
benefits. They are invoking the names of cyclone victims and Myanmar’s
local activists to justify a possible military aggression. This is
hypocritical.

The discourse of relief invasion represents a shift in the foreign
policies of the United States and other rich countries. There is now a new
rationale to justify foreign intervention. Environmental disasters could
now be used to advocate regime change in “unfriendly” countries and
install a new government which would be accommodating to the agenda of the
West.

Outright military occupation has always been the preferred mode of
dominating small nations. In many instances, military power was replaced
by economic subordination. Today rich countries can choose what type of
intervention is most effective in subjugating a poor country.

Local wars had been exploited to defend military intervention. This was
accomplished in Kosovo and East Timor a decade ago. Then the Bush doctrine
of preemptive strike was adopted to attack Afghanistan and Iraq. In
Eastern Europe, civil society groups were funded to intensify local
uprisings which would lead to the so-called “color” or “flower
revolutions.”

Here comes Myanmar, devastated by a deadly cyclone, ruled by a callous and
evil junta, and the Burmese represented by dissident groups clamoring for
change. Myanmar is a perfect target for military invasion.

Myanmar showed how natural disasters can be manipulated to undermine the
national sovereignty of countries. Many governments seriously contemplated
entering Myanmar without the approval of the latter’s government. The
junta may be unpopular and oppressive, but it is still the head of
Myanmar’s bureaucracy.

Since global warming is expected to worsen in the future, the world should
expect stronger cyclones, hurricanes and long periods of drought. Poor
countries with little resources to cope with these disasters are
vulnerable to foreign intervention. In the name of humanitarian missions,
rich countries can “invade” small countries or intimidate uncooperative
governments. Climate change will facilitate this new mode of colonialism.

Bowing to international pressure, the junta finally agreed to partially
allow the entry of relief goods in Myanmar. This softened the hard-line
stance of rich countries who want to invade Myanmar. Now they want to
occupy certain areas in Myanmar that are not effectively controlled by the
junta. This is still military aggression.

If the junta is suspicious of the motives of relief workers from the
United States and other rich countries, Myanmar’s neighbors could have
volunteered to lead the international relief campaign. But why was the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations too slow in organizing the so
called “coalition of mercy?” A united ASEAN aid campaign could have
defused the tension in Myanmar’s borders where relief goods are awaiting
to be shipped. Like the junta, ASEAN underestimated the damage wrought by
cyclone Nargis.

If ASEAN had acted quickly, the United States and other rich countries
would have no compelling reason to propose a relief invasion.
-- 
(Mong Palatino is a Filipino youth activist, news editor of Yehey!, a
Philippine-based web portal and regional editor for Southeast Asia of
Global Voices Online. He can be contacted at mongpalatino at gmail.com and
his Web site is www.mongpalatino.motime.com. ©Copyright Mong Palatino.)


____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

May 30, ASEAN
Secretary-General of ASEAN sees signs of progress in assisting Cyclone
Nargis victims

Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, chaired the second meeting
of the ASEAN Humanitarian Task Force on 29 May 2008 at the ASEAN
Secretariat.  Dr Surin reported signs of progress and momentum in
assisting the victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. More relief supplies
have been sent and more helicopters of the World Food Programme have flown
into the affected areas in the Irrawaddy delta.  Dr Surin described these
developments as “signs of good progress”.

The composition of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), which will be the main
operational arm of the Task Force, is firming up.  Singapore’s Ambassador
to Myanmar, Robert Chua, has been appointed ASEAN’s leading member of the
TCG, while the UN system will be led by Dan Baker, the UNDP Resident
Representative in Myanmar.  The TCG is chaired by Myanmar’s Deputy Foreign
Minister Kyaw Thu.

The representatives from the TCG will meet Mr Kyaw Thu as soon as possible
to discuss the TCG work plan, including providing support to the ERAT in
its upcoming field assessment and visa facilitation.

The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and ASEAN Dialogue Partners
have pledged their support for this ASEAN humanitarian initiative.

The third meeting of the Task Force is scheduled on 25 June 2008 in
Yangon.  The ASEAN Emergency Rapid Assessment Team will conduct field
assessments in the cyclone-hit areas in June and will provide a more
comprehensive report in time for the third meeting of the Task Force.