BS: Burma

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 13 May 08 - 09:07 PM

It's rather as I thought here though. If the U.S. were to invade we'd here the screaming start. If we just sit back and watch, like the rest of the world, we here the screaming start. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Poppagator, it remains to be seen if the Myanmar Junta can screw things up worse than our own did. Things still aren't "normal" in the affected areas of the Gulf coast nearly three years later. I do hope that we don't get the chance to find out.

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: beardedbruce
Date: 20 May 08 - 08:12 AM

Washington Post:

With the Junta or Without It
There's only one priority in Burma: aid for the thousands who have been abandoned.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008; Page A12

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.

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 May 08 - 10:48 AM

In the meantime, members of AVAAZ (which means "Voice") from 124 countries, have donated over 2 million dollars which have gone to the Burmese monks who are working directly to provide aid. You can read about it and watch a video HERE. It's really an incredible effort by seemingly ordinary folks like you and me.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: beardedbruce
Date: 30 May 08 - 08:03 AM

UN: Myanmar junta forcing storm victims from camps
Friday, May 30, 2008 6:45:19 AM

Myanmar's military government is removing cyclone victims from refugee camps and dumping them near their devastated villages with virtually no aid supplies, the United Nations said Friday.

In an aid agency meeting, the U.N. Children's Fund said eight camps earlier set up by the government to receive homeless victims in the Irrawaddy delta town of Bogalay had emptied as the mass clear-out of victims was stepped up.

"The government is moving people unannounced," said Teh Tai Ring, a UNICEF official, adding that authorities were "dumping people in the approximate location of the villages, basically with nothing."

Camps were also being closed in Labutta, another town in the delta, a low-lying area which took the brunt of Cyclone Nargis nearly a month ago.

About 2.4 million are homeless and hungry after the May 2-3 cyclone hit Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Centralizing the stricken people in the centers made it easier for aid agencies to deliver emergency relief since many villages in the delta can only be reached by boat or very rough roads.

Aid workers who have reached some of the remote villages say little remains that could sustain their former residents: houses are destroyed, livestock has perished and food stocks have virtually run out. Medicines are nonexistent.

The UNICEF official said that some of the refugees are "being given rations and then they are forced to move." But others were being denied such aid because they had lost their government identity cards.

A senior U.N. official in Bangkok, Thailand, said he could not confirm the camp closures but added that any such forced movement was "completely unacceptable."

"People need to be assisted in the settlements and satisfactory conditions need to created before they can return to their place of origins," Terje Skavdal, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters. "Any forced or coerced movement of people is completely unacceptable."

There had been previous reports of forced removals, but on a scattered basis. In some cases, people were reportedly sent away ahead of visits by foreign dignitaries, and in others people were sent from schools that were to be used as voting places during a recent national referendum on a new constitution. People were also cleared out of some Buddhist temples where they had taken shelter, but in those cases apparently had been transferred to official refugee camps.

Human rights and aid groups also complained Friday that Myanmar's military government was still hindering the free flow of international help for victims.

Some foreign aid staff were still waiting for permission to enter the Irrawaddy delta while the regime continues to review entry requests for 48 hours, the groups said.

One foreign aid worker attending Friday's meeting said that in practice it took at least four days to obtain permission from the Ministry of Social Welfare to travel to the delta.

"The longer you want to stay, the longer it takes," he said, declining to give his name for fear of government reprisals.

"The Burmese government is still using red tape to obstruct some relief efforts when it should accept all aid immediately and unconditionally," the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

The International Red Cross was waiting for permission to send 30 of its foreign staffers into the delta.

The regime has also barred naval vessels from the United States, France and Great Britain from entering Myanmar's waters, leaving them to wait offshore with their loads of humanitarian supplies. The French have been forced to dock in Thailand and turn over the relief goods to the United Nations for onward shipment into Myanmar.

"By still delaying and hampering aid efforts ... the generals are showing that, even during a disaster, oppression rules," Human Rights Watch said.

While welcoming millions of dollars from the international community for cyclone relief, Myanmar lashed out at donors for not pledging enough. State-run media decried donors on Thursday for only pledging up to $150 million -- a far cry from the $11 billion the junta said it needed to rebuild.

The isolationist government agreed to allow foreign aid workers in after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe last weekend.

But delays continue, Human Rights Watch said.

Myanmar's government says the cyclone killed 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing.

The country's xenophobic leaders are leery of foreign aid workers and international agencies, worrying they could weaken the junta's powerful grip. The generals also don't want their people to see aid coming directly from countries like the U.S., which the regime has long treated as a hostile power.

In Singapore on Friday, Sen. Joseph Lieberman said regional superpowers India and China should exert their influence over Myanmar's military junta to push it toward democracy. Lieberman, who is in Singapore to attend a security conference, said he and other senators have met with the ambassadors of the two countries in Washington to convey this message.

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: beardedbruce
Date: 30 May 08 - 08:17 AM

Washington Post

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

Friday, May 30, 2008; Page A12

"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.

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: beardedbruce
Date: 06 Jun 08 - 08:13 AM

Myanmar attacks media for cyclone coverage 1 hour, 2 minutes ago



YANGON, Myanmar - Calling coverage of the aftermath of a devastating cyclone distorted, Myanmar's military junta lashed out at foreign media and its own citizens Friday.

The attack came after authorities detained a popular comedian who had just returned from helping survivors of the disaster and had said government aid was not reaching some victims.

Unconfirmed reports circulated Friday in Yangon that at least a dozen people involved in filming cyclone victims in the Irrawaddy delta have been arrested.

The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper, considered a mouthpiece for the junta, accused "self-seekers and unscrupulous elements" of working in collusion with foreigners to shoot videos with made-up stories in storm-ravaged areas in the delta.

"Those foreign news agencies are issuing such groundless news stories with the intention of tarnishing the image of Myanmar and misleading the international community into believing that cyclone victims do not receive any assistance," the newspaper said.

The military junta has been criticized by international agencies for holding up shipments of food, water and temporary shelter supplies to some 1 million desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

Well-known comedian Maung Thura — whose stage name is Zarganar — was taken from his home in Yangon by police Wednesday night after going to the Irrawaddy delta to donate relief items to survivors, his family said.

A family member said Friday that they had heard nothing from Zarganar and the junta has given no reason for his detention.

"We stopped our cyclone relief activities yesterday, but we will have to resume our relief assistance tomorrow," the relative said.

Zarganar, 46, known both for his anti-government barbs and his work for cyclone victims, was taken into custody after police searched his house and confiscated some belongings. He and his team had made video records of their relief activities and Zarganar gave interviews to foreign media.

A representative of the human rights group Amnesty International said Zarganar's detention illustrated human rights concerns in Myanmar.

"There's simply no doubt this was done for political reasons ... but has an extra element because it can presumed to be linked to the humanitarian assistance effort," Amnesty International researcher Benjamin Zawacki said.

In a report, the London-based group cited several cases of forced labor in exchange for food in the delta and accused the junta of stepping up a campaign to evict the homeless from shelters.

The group also said authorities in several cyclone-hit areas continue to divert aid despite the junta's pledge to crack down on the practice.

"Unless human rights safeguards are observed, tens of thousands of people remain at risk," it said in the report. "Respect for human rights must be at the center of the relief effort."

The government says Cyclone Nargis, which struck May 2-3, killed 78,000 people and left an additional 56,000 missing. The U.N. says more than 1 million survivors still desperately need food, shelter or medical care.

This week, Zarganar gave interviews to several overseas media outlets, including the British Broadcasting Corp., that were critical of the government relief effort.

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: beardedbruce
Date: 06 Jun 08 - 08:16 AM

US military extends aid offer to Myanmar

By JOCELYN GECKER, Associated Press Writer
42 minutes ago



BANGKOK, Thailand - The U.S. military has offered Myanmar 22 helicopters that could ferry relief to the majority of hungry and homeless cyclone survivors within three days — but the junta hasn't responded yet, military officials said Friday.

U.S. Navy ships laden with helicopters and emergency supplies sailed away from the coast of Myanmar on Thursday after being ignored by the junta for three weeks, but the American offer to help still stands, said Lt. Gen. John Goodman, commander of Marine Forces Pacific and head of the U.S. relief operation for Myanmar.

More than one month after Cyclone Nargis battered Myanmar, more than 1 million survivors are still in need of food, water and temporary shelter in the hard-to-access Irrawaddy delta, the U.N. says.

"Of the 1 million or 1.5 million people in need of relief support, we think that between 450,000 to 750,000 are in emergency need," Goodman said, adding that they could be reached "over the course of a three-day period" by American helicopters and landing craft.

The offer includes 10 helicopters aboard the USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship currently steaming toward Thailand, and another 12 at a makeshift headquarters in Utapao, Thailand, said Lt. Col. Douglas Powell, a spokesman for what has been dubbed operation Caring Relief.

With only seven Myanmar government helicopters flying, relief supplies are mostly being transported along dirt roads and then by boat. International aid agencies say boats able to navigate the delta's canals are scarce and efforts to import vehicles have been hampered by government red tape.

Myanmar's xenophobic military rulers have allowed Marine Corps C-130 cargo planes to fly 116 flights, delivering more than 2.2 million pounds of aid to Yangon, the largest city, Goodman said. But the relief effort lacks helicopters to access hard-to-reach areas in the devastated Irrawaddy delta.

The junta is particularly sensitive to letting in U.S. helicopters, which would highlight the American effort in a country where the people have been taught to see the U.S. as a hostile aggressor. Myanmar's state media have hinted that the junta fears a U.S. invasion aimed at seizing the country's oil deposits.

Goodman said he sought to dispel those concerns during two meetings in Myanmar, the most recent on Monday, with high-ranking junta official Lt. Gen. Myint Swe.

"We tried to address each and every one of their concerns in a logical fashion to help them find a way to say yes," Goodman said in a telephone interview from Utapao.

The U.S. offered to allow Myanmar officials aboard all American helicopters to monitor their routes and to unload relief supplies and said no U.S. soldiers would stay overnight in the country, Goodman said.

"We offered them everything you can logically think of, and they're still considering it," he said.

The junta official responded by saying "that his government felt they had the capability and capacity to provide the support for their country," Goodman said, adding that the meeting was pleasant and the two exchanged gifts.

Goodman said he gave the Myanmar official a porcelain candy dish emblazoned with the U.S. Marine logo.

"He gave me a picture of a man steering a boat through the delta," he said. "He thought that was appropriate."

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: beardedbruce
Date: 06 Jun 08 - 08:17 AM

Times OnlineJune 4, 2008

Rejected by junta, US aid ships sail from Burma

Joanna Sugden
They were anchored off the coast of Burma for almost a month waiting to deliver vital supplies to the devastated country. Now four US warships will sail away with their cargo of aid still aboard after the military junta repeatedly rejected their offers of help.

The UN says over a million people affected by Cyclone Nargis, which hit the country over four weeks ago, still have not been reached despite claims by the junta that the relief effort is over and reconstruction has begun.

The US Navy will withdraw the four vessels laden with helicopters, amphibious vehicles and water purifying equipment desperately needed by the survivors, after losing the battle with the secretive military regime to gain entry.

Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of US Pacific Command, said: "It is time for the USS Essex group to move on to its next mission. I am both saddened and frustrated to know that we have been in a position to help ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people and help mitigate further loss of life, but have been unable to do so because of the unrelenting position of the Burma military junta".

Related Links
Cyclone victims plead for food and new roofs
Burma junta drags its feet over aid visas
Burma junta faces challenge to its isolation
According to official Burmese figures, the cyclone left more than 133,000 people dead or missing as it ploughed across Burma on May 2, laying waste to vital farmlands and wiping villages off the map. Aid agencies say the death toll could be much higher.

The UN estimates that of the 2.4 million survivors in need of food and shelter, 1.1 million have not received any foreign aid.

Many of those people live in the remote and isolated Irawaddy delta, which is inaccessible by road.

For the first three weeks after the storm, the ruling generals stonewalled international efforts to deliver aid, yielding only after Ban Ki Moon, the UN chief, visited Senior General Than Shwe in person.

Even after this personal appeal, foreign relief groups which had struggled for weeks to even get staff into the country, let alone into the worst-hit areas, have only seen small gains.

France Hurtubise of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said that six of the group's foreign staff would enter the Irrawaddy Delta area for the first time today.

"For the tsunami we had 300 expats in within the first month -- compare 300 to six," she said, referring to the 2004 disaster which killed 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean.

Aid agencies also say that staff are only being given permission to travel to the hard-to-reach delta for one week at a time, while getting that permission in the first place is a lengthy process.

"We're happy that we're seeing people getting into the field, but we're not overly joyful," Ms Hurtubise said.

"People are in very remote islands. If we don't have enough boats, those people will remain without any help," she added.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has said that helicopters are also now needed to reach the final survivors in the remotest regions.

But the one WFP helicopter in the country was only given permission to leave Rangoon on Monday, despite having been ready to fly for eight days.

Nine more helicopters are sitting on the tarmac in Thai airports. They are due to fly into Burma later this week, but it remains unclear if and when they will be allowed into the delta.

Paul Risley, the WFP's regional spokesman, said it was "truly unfortunate" that the US ships and helicopters had to leave.

"Important heavy-lifting capability in the delta would have been a standard operating procedure for relief agencies in the response," he said.

Robert Gates, US Defence Secretary, warned on Sunday that more people would die unless the junta changed tack, and aid workers say all aspects of the relief operation need to be scaled up to reach the needy.

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: beardedbruce
Date: 06 Jun 08 - 08:18 AM

Pentagon chief Gates rules out forcing aid on Myanmar


He calls the regime's barring of most foreign relief 'criminal neglect' that will cause more deaths, but says regional officials agree force is not an option.

By Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 2, 2008
»
BANGKOK, THAILAND -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates painted a bleak picture Sunday of the prospects for delivering international aid to suffering villagers in Myanmar's devastated Irrawaddy River delta, saying he was probably just days away from ordering an American naval group waiting off the coast to leave the area.

Speaking ahead of meetings here with Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej of Thailand, Gates said that most aid being delivered to Myanmar's main city, Yangon, was not making it to the hardest-hit areas because of inundated roads, making helicopters the only viable way to transport food.

Calling the regime's behavior "criminal neglect," Gates said the United States had made more than 15 overtures to Myanmar's leadership to allow the use of the Essex's helicopters to deliver aid, but all had been rejected. Without a change in policy, Gates said, thousands of villagers will die.

"The only alternative is for the international community to force its way, and I think there was unanimity among the defense ministers . . . that we will not do that," Gates said of his meeting with regional defense officials in Singapore, where he spent three days before traveling to Bangkok.

Myanmar's deputy defense minister, Maj. Gen. Aye Myint, said Sunday at the security conference in Singapore that his government had responded quickly after the cyclone hit, and insisted that the regime was open to international aid.

"In carrying out the relief, resettlement and rehabilitation tasks, we will warmly welcome any assistance and aid which are provided with genuine goodwill from any country or organization, provided there are no strings attached," Myint said.

Myint attended a lunch Saturday with Gates and other defense ministers in Singapore, and the U.S. defense chief said several attendees expressed their frustration at the Myanmar government's refusal to allow aid to flow more freely.

Thai Prime Minister Samak also voiced deep frustration with the Myanmar regime in his meetings with Gates, according to senior U.S. officials. Samak told Gates that he had visited with Myanmar's leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, three times in recent months and that the leadership remained insular and would probably view the introduction of foreign aid workers as a military invasion.

Gates arrived in Thailand after a week of anti-government protests here that have sparked fears the recently elected prime minister could be overthrown in a military coup similar to the one that unseated the government in 2006.

Before the meeting, Gates said he intended to press the United States' opposition to any military intervention in the civilian Thai government, and one senior U.S. official who attended the summit said Gates pushed the message in front of more than a dozen senior Thai military leaders, some of whom had served in the government after the 2006 putsch.

"It's one of the reasons the secretary's here, to reaffirm the military's relationship is based upon shared democratic values," the official said. "The message was clear and respectful."

On Sunday, protests had subsided and central Bangkok was free of the crowds that had flooded the streets.

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jun 08 - 08:26 AM

Then bring the Junta to justice before the World Court.

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: beardedbruce
Date: 06 Aug 08 - 12:33 PM

Washington Post:

Burma Without Blinkers

Some help is arriving in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, but for the Burmese the real disaster is a despotic government.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008; Page A16

ON THE OPPOSITE page today, we publish the views of a senior U.N. official, John Holmes, on progress in Burma since a devastating cyclone struck more than three months ago. His rather upbeat assessment comes as President Bush and first lady Laura Bush, during a visit to Thailand, are about to draw the world's attention to persistent problems in Burma (also known as Myanmar), Thailand's neighbor in Southeast Asia.

You may recall that after Cyclone Nargis swept through Burma's Irrawaddy Delta on May 2, leaving 138,000 people dead or missing, Burma's dictator, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, refused almost all offers of international aid. U.S. Navy ships loaded with tents, food and other humanitarian supplies steamed in circles offshore but were never given permission to help. After weeks of begging and pleading, Than Shwe allowed more aid workers to enter, and they have been at work since. Having traveled to Burma twice, Mr. Holmes, who is U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, reports the good news that "the overwhelming majority" of survivors "have received help, even if in many cases they still need a good deal more."

It is difficult to know the true conditions in the delta, since the regime won't let foreign journalists look and imprisons any Burmese journalists who seek to report accurately. Just this week, a popular Burmese comedian and blogger and a sports journalist were brought up on charges -- "disturbing public order" -- that could bring two years in prison because they tried to help cyclone victims and talked about their plight. Aid agencies, meanwhile, tend to play down negative news because, understandably, they want to preserve their access. Still, a joint assessment last month, including from U.N. agencies, reported that most households in the hardest-hit delta region still lacked access to clean drinking water, a situation posing a risk of disease, and that more than half had food stocks for one day or less and faced "an increasing risk of acute malnutrition."


We agree with Mr. Holmes that the United Nations did the best it could -- for the simple reason that countries with influence in Burma, such as China, Thailand and India, were more interested in preserving their commercial and military ties to the Burmese regime than in pressing it to allow its people to be helped. We also understand Mr. Holmes's desire to separate humanitarian considerations from politics. But Burma, before and after the cyclone, was and is a humanitarian disaster because of politics: because its regime systematically impoverishes much of the population, conscripts children into forced labor, sends its army on internal campaigns of mass rape and ethnic cleansing, and persecutes monks and others who seek to help their fellow citizens. To consider such issues, or the criminal neglect of cyclone victims, as separable from politics is similar to hailing visits of U.N. human rights ambassadors as successful simply because they take place, even as the number of political prisoners -- 1,900 at latest count -- steadily rises.

So we think it is highly useful that Mr. Bush will meet with Burmese exiles tomorrow while Mrs. Bush visits a camp that houses 40,000 Burmese refugees. We hope their visit will be a reminder that by almost every measure of human misery and political repression, Burma in the past year has gone backward. Friday will mark the 20th anniversary of Burma's massacre of 3,000 democracy protesters. We hope that when Mr. Bush travels onward to Beijing, he will tell his Chinese hosts that history will not judge kindly their unstinting support of Burma's misrule in the 20 years since that black day.

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: beardedbruce
Date: 27 Aug 08 - 03:12 PM

U.N. Farce

Diplomacy comforts the dictators of Burma.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008; Page A12

IT HAS BEEN ALMOST a year since the world was stirred by thousands of Burmese monks and ordinary people taking to the streets to demand freedom -- and being bloodily crushed by one of the world's cruelest regimes. Governments everywhere proclaimed that such violence and repression could not stand, and they insisted that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon do something. Mr. Ban sent his special envoy on a mission with explicit goals: Secure the release of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, and help the National League for Democracy (NLD) to reopen offices throughout the country. The envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, just finished sixth fruitless mission to Burma, and it is clear now that U.N. diplomacy has become a cover for inaction, not a pathway to reform.

Aung San Suu Kyi performed an extraordinary act of bravery during Mr. Gambari's most recent trip. The daughter of Burma's independence hero, she led the NLD to overwhelming victory when the regime last permitted elections in 1990s. The junta refused to recognize the results and has kept Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for most of the years since. Last fall the regime promised Mr. Gambari that it would begin a dialogue with the democracy leader and allow her to meet with NLD colleagues. But supreme leader Gen. Than Shwe reneged on even that meager concession, and she refused to see the U.N. envoy on his latest trip, even as he hobnobbed with one regime crony after another. Since Aung San Suu Kyi is permitted no communication from her confinement, we can only guess at what motivated this snub. But it is likely that the indomitable Nobel Peace Prize winner decided, even at the price of intensifying her own frightful isolation, not to give further legitimacy to a process that was only dignifying the regime.

Not surprisingly, as Than Shwe has intensified the crackdown in his own country -- and, let's not forget, refused international aid for victims of Cyclone Nargis this spring -- U.N. and other international officials have decided to blame the victim. The prime minister of Thailand, which cultivates its own ties with the corrupt regime, on Monday urged other leaders to forget about Aung San Suu Kyi. A fig leaf of international process comforts the regime, those who trade with it -- and those who give flowery speeches about democracy but resist action, such as an arms embargo. It is time for Mr. Ban to say that he won't allow the United Nations to be exploited and humiliated in this way.

Subject: RE: BS: Burma
From: beardedbruce
Date: 30 Mar 10 - 01:23 PM

Decision time in Burma for democracy's advocates


By U Win Tin
Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Burma's military regime has forced our party, the National League for Democracy, to make a tough decision on whether we will continue to operate legally.

The ruling generals, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), issued a set of unjust electoral laws this month that threatened to abolish our party if we did not re-register at the election commission within 60 days.

We know the cruel nature of the regime. We did not expect the electoral laws it established would offer a semblance of fairness. But we also did not expect that the regime would use its laws to remove our leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and all political prisoners from the political process. Once again the regime has defied the will of the people of Burma and the international community by disregarding their call for transparent, free and fair elections that include all parties.

The Political Party Registration Law bans all political prisoners from participating in elections by voting and contesting, forming a political party, or joining a party. Parties must make sure that political prisoners are not included in their membership and must pledge in writing that they will obey and protect the country's constitution and abide by its election laws. They are also required to participate in the election. Failure to comply with these restrictions will lead to abolishment of the party.

For me, the decision was simple: No. We cannot expel Aung San Suu Kyi and others who are or have been imprisoned under this corrupt and unfair legal system. Without them, our party would be nothing. They are in prison because of their belief in democracy and the rule of law. Their immediate release and participation in Burma's political process are necessary for a credible democratic process.

We do not accept the regime's unilaterally drafted constitution, designed to legalize permanent military dictatorship. The referendum to ratify this constitution was conducted on the heels of Cyclone Nargis in 2008; it was "approved" by force and fraud. Our objective is to reject this sham constitution and create one that will guarantee democracy, human rights, justice, the rule of law and equality among all ethnic nationalities through an all-inclusive, genuine political dialogue. We cannot pledge to obey the sham constitution. True democracy will not come from this process.

It is not easy to make such a decision for an organization. Aung San Suu Kyi said she would "not even think" of registering her party for the polls. Yet as a leader who believes in democracy, she stressed that she would let the party decide for itself. On Monday, all of my colleagues agreed to confront these injustices together.

Some believe that the continued legal status of our party is more important. If our party is not legal, the thinking goes, how can we work for the people of Burma? The United Nations and some countries have asked the regime to change these unfair laws and to allow Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners to participate in the election. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held a meeting of his "Group of Friends on Myanmar" to discuss the situation in Burma. We have also heard that the U.S. government is "closely considering" the recent report and recommendations made by U.N. Special Rapporteur Tomás Ojea Quintana, including his suggestion that the United Nations establish a "commission of inquiry" to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in our country. This latent support from international voices may not be enough. My colleagues may have justifiable concerns that international voices and statements are not complemented by effective measures to change Burma's political crisis.

Our party was born out of the 1988 popular democracy uprising with the noble intention to carry out the unfinished work of those who sacrificed their lives for freedom, justice and democracy.

We won a landslide victory in the 1990 election and have been the leader of Burma's democracy movement for more than two decades. But because we refuse to bow to these unjust election "laws," our party will be abolished by the regime soon. Still, the NLD will not disappear. We will be among the people, with the people. We will continue to fight for democracy, human rights and equality among all ethnic nationalities, by peaceful means.

I hope the international community will stand with us. The governments of the world should declare that they reject the regime's election and prearranged outcome, and pressure the regime to make substantive and positive change for Burma, beginning with the immediate release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and the cessation of the regime's military campaign against ethnic minorities. The regime should negotiate with Burma's democracy forces, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and ethnic representatives for a peaceful solution toward national reconciliation and true democracy.

U Win Tin is a member of the Central Executive Committee and a founder of Burma's National League for Democracy party. He was a political prisoner from 1989 to 2008.