Monday, 24 May 2010
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Junta Hampers Water Aid
Burma’s military government hinders aid during a severe drought. In a photo provided by a local resident, opposition National League for Democracy party members and other private donors distribute drinking water in Pegu, 50 miles north of Rangoon, May 13, 2010. The statement said that a large number of water tankers had been sent out around the region to supply water to people in need and that authorities are tapping underground wells in urban wards with the help of citizen aid workers to meet previous levels of water consumption. In a May 13 article published in an official newspaper, the government said that some residents of western Magway division and central Mandalay division were hospitalized due to high temperatures. Original reporting by Nay Rein Kyaw, Nay Linn and Aung Moe Myint for RFA’s Burmese service. Burmese service director: Nyein Shwe. Produced by Susan Lavery. Translated by Htar Htar Myint. Written for the Web in English by Joshua Lipes. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.2010-05-14
BANGKOK—Burma is suffering from a major water shortage during the annual dry season, but authorities are slowing relief efforts, according to residents in the hardest-hit regions of the country.Residents said the Burmese military government is attempting to project an image of maintaining control over the situation, even as the drought has led to several deaths in Rangoon and Pegu divisions.They added that the junta-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) is refusing to allow some aid donations and is forcing organizations that provide relief to mark their vehicles with the USDA flag.A young man from Dala township said local authorities were questioning aid workers and taking photographs of people who were distributing water earlier in the week.“USDA members stopped donors’ cars and asked them to place their flag on their vehicles. If the donors don't place their flag on the car, they won't be allowed to distribute water to the local people. They said this was a directive issued by their high-ranking officials,” the young man said.“Some donors placed the USDA flag on their cars. Others refused and drove their cars on another route. But now there are fewer donors in this township, and many monasteries are facing water shortages,” he said.“Local authorities are also distributing water, but they are only assisting their family members. They haven’t distributed water to the people. They even deny people water when they are asked for it.”A relief worker in Kwunchangone township said many villages in the area are also suffering from drought and that the water distributed there is not enough to meet demand.“Many villages in the area are suffering from severe water shortages after an accelerated evaporation of Burma’s ponds and reservoirs,” the worker said.“The donors have been questioned by the authorities. The government cannot help the people, but they also don't want others to provide aid. They are suspicious of well-wishers who try to help the people,” he said.“We are also afraid of an outbreak of disease because of the lack of drinking water and basic hygiene. There is no electricity in the city. It is difficult to pull water from the wells. How do we get water without electricity? We all have many problems.”Government response
Burma's military government, which calls the country Myanmar, released a statement acknowledging that abnormal heat had dried up lakes in Rangoon division, leaving locals with a shortage of drinking water.Of 11 hospitalized Magway division residents, seven died and four are receiving ongoing treatment, while no deaths have been reported from the 14 people hospitalized in Mandalay division, it said.The article said that the Ministry of Health is issuing daily instructions on steps the public can take to protect themselves against high temperature via TV, radio, newspapers, and journals. It cited an “unnecessary loss of lives as some failed to follow the notifications.”Not enough doneBut aid workers said that the government hasn't done enough to warn the public and to provide them with relief following the weeks of drought.Myo Myint Thein, a physician in Rangoon division, said the elderly are particularly vulnerable and need to be given better instruction on how to protect themselves from the heat.“Old people, especially between 60 and 70, have died of heat. Some people who drink alcohol have also died. The death toll has reached 37 within 12 to 13 days. The number is a bit high,” he said.“People lack awareness [of how to react] and they put wet blankets on their body to prevent heat. This is the wrong thing to do. You should not do things like that in this heat. Especially people in rural areas don't know about it. The death toll is only the number of people who died in urban areas.”Shwe Zee Kwet, a donor from the Free Funeral Service, an organization that provides burial services to the poor, said the public has been forced to act on its own to deal with the water shortage crisis.“We went to Pyawbwe village near Thakala Village in Bago division. They don't have safe drinking water. They only have polluted water. All the lakes are dried up. Villagers are trying to get water by digging wells, but there is no drinking water in them,” Shwe Zee Kwet said.“People from Bago division are distributing water by themselves. We gave them plastic containers to bring water. And they contributed their water and cars. We are also providing fuel and other expenses to people who distribute water in villages,” she said.“We try to distribute water twice a day, but sometimes we can do so only once a day.”Chairman of the Free Funeral Service Kyaw Thu said he had donated 1 million kyat (U.S. $156,000 according to the official exchange rate) from his prize money as aid to assist those in need.“Yesterday the funeral service took care of 70 dead people. Normally we provide services for 40-50 people each day. Now the number has reached 70. Old people, young car drivers, and rickshaw drivers are dying from heat stroke.”Nargis precedentBurma’s military government is wary of both international and domestic aid groups and has routinely blocked relief efforts seeking to assist citizens affected by natural disasters.The junta blocked aid and imprisoned members of NGOs providing assistance to homeless Burmese after Cyclone Nargis tore through the south of the country in 2007, leveling infrastructure and killing some 140,000 people.Villagers in the worst-hit regions said they have been unable to rebuild their lives in the wake of the storm, which left millions with no home or livelihood.Local and overseas aid workers said Burma’s ruling military junta deliberately blocked aid to victims of Nargis, and failed to ensure that fields were ploughed in time for the harvest. It has also jailed a number of private citizens, some of them well-known, for aiding cyclone victims.The junta at the time was preoccupied with a national referendum on a new Constitution. It went ahead with the vote May 10, and announced that the constitution had been overwhelmingly approved. Amid an international outcry, the junta let relief agencies into the country almost four weeks after the storm.
Dissident Jail Term Exteded
A Burmese student leader will spend five more years in jail. Burma's junta chief Than Shwe reviews an honor guard from his car in the capital of Naypyidaw, March 27, 2009.2010-05-21
BANGKOK—A prominent Burmese student leader has been sentenced to an additional five years of incarceration while currently serving time in prison, according to his attorney.Kyaw Ko Ko, a member of the 2007 New Generation Student Leaders who participated in Burma’s September 2007 “Saffron Revolution” as a fifth-year economics student, was handed a five-year prison sentence May 21 by two Kyauk Tada courts in the former capital of Rangoon.Lawyer Aung Thein said Kyaw was given “three years for illegal association, according to Article 6, and another two years according to Article 505 B.” The provisions of the latter article were unclear.Kyaw Ko Ko was given the additional prison term based on “criminal acts” authorities discovered he had committed after he had already begun serving his initial sentence, according to Aung Thein.“This kind of judicial procedure [occurring after a trial] negatively affects defendants because they are not given a maximum term of jail time to serve for their offenses,” Aung Thein said.“It’s not just Kyaw Ko Ko who faces this kind of treatment—many other do as well,” he said.“Now he will be forced to face eight years in jail.”Kyaw Ko Ko was originally arrested by Burmese authorities on March 16, 2008 and sentenced to three years in prison in February 2009 for “video acts,” on the order of the Mingala Taung Nyunt township court in Rangoon.Prosecution for “video acts” can sometimes refer to the possession of or distribution of video materials deemed politically sensitive by Burma’s ruling military junta.Political 'threat'Burmese officials remain wary of the country’s opposition more than two years after the monk-led Saffron democracy movement of 2007 was suppressed in a military crackdown by the junta.Protests that began Sept. 18, 2007, were led by thousands of Buddhist monks, until security forces moved in Sept. 26.The monks later said they hadn't expected soldiers to fire on them as they prayed unarmed during a campaign for change near Shwedagon Pagoda.Public and civil organizations joined the movement the next day in a show of support for the country’s revered monastic community.Burmese authorities systematically plotted to crush the movement, hiring thugs to stage military-style raids on monasteries on the night of Sept. 27.The actions of the government forced the monks to scale back their protests out of fear that the public would suffer.But Burma's Buddhist monks are still highly politically active despite the military crackdown.Witnesses have cited increased security in Burma to discourage protests in connection with anniversaries of the Saffron Revolution, in which monks and lay people took to the streets in the biggest show of opposition to the junta since 1988.The United Nations has estimated that at least 31 people, including a Japanese photojournalist, were killed when the army suppressed the protests. Hundreds were arrested, and many others fled Burma or went into hiding.Burma’s military has ruled the country without interruption since 1962. The NLD, led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, won a general election in 1990 but was barred from taking power.The regime has confirmed that elections will take place in 2010, although no official date has been set. The polls will be the first since 1990.In comments to mark Burma’s Independence Day, junta leader General Than Shwe called the junta’s seven-stage "road map" to democracy “the sole process for transition.”Original reporting by Nay Linn for RFA’s Burmese service. Burmese service director: Nyein Shwe. Translated by Nyein Shwe. Written for the Web in English by Joshua Lipes. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
Sunday, 16 May 2010
Suu Kyi airs concerns over water crisis
Suu Kyi airs concerns over water crisis
Saturday, 15 May 2010 01:22 Salai Han Thar San
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burma pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi voiced concerns over the water crisis facing the country yesterday and urged her National League for Democracy party to do more to help the people.
The Nobel Peace laureate’s comments came during a two-hour meeting with her lawyers Kyi Win and Nyan Win from 1 p.m. at her residence.
“She [Aung San Suu Kyi] is deeply concerned over the water crisis currently being faced by the people,” Nyan Win told Mizzima. “She asked us to expand our [NLD’s] assistance programmes to give those affected as much as we can”.
Since the end of last month, dry wells and ponds in Rangoon, Pegu, Sagaing, Magwe, Irrawaddy divisions and Arakan (Rakhine), Mon and Shan states have forced tens of thousands of villagers to rely on donated water for drinking and hygiene needs.
Earlier reports said that a late monsoon and very high daytime temperatures were at the heart of the problem that had left at least 180 villages in urgent need of water supplies.
NLD women’s wing members led by Dr. May Win Myint donated 1,100 20-litre drinking water bottles on Tuesday to more than 60 villages in Pegu, Waw, Thanatpin, Kawa, Daik Oo in the eastern Pegu Division, one of the regions hardest hit by the crisis.
The meeting also covered party social-work issues. “She told us the NLD party would never diminish among members and the people so we needed to study all procedures for social welfare programmes to make them more effective”, lawyer Nyan Win said.
Also discussed were the seven grounds that form the basis of her special appeal to the Supreme Court against the 18-month extension of the house arrest imposed on her over the uninvited visit last year of American John Yettaw to Suu Kyi’s crumbling lakeside villa. The grounds had to be presented to the court for it to assess their admissibility.
Meanwhile, she also called the forming of the breakaway National Democratic Force party by renegade party leaders undemocratic as they had failed to follow the principle of the minority following the wishes of the majority, Nyan Win said.
“She told us that in democratic principle, a minority must abide by and respect a decision reached by a majority. ‘They are acting against the majority decision simply because, as the minority, they do not agree … This is undemocratic’,” he added, quoting Suu Kyi.
Saturday, 15 May 2010
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Burma News in Spring 2010
NEWS IN BRIEF
OFFICIALS SENTENCED TO DEATH
Two Burmese officials have been sentenced to death for espionage after they were found guilty of leaking details of secret regime visits to North Korea and Russia, as well as information on the regime's tunnel project near the capital, Naypyidaw.
Major Win Naing Kyaw (in Photo) &Thura Kyaw, aka Aung Aung, of the ministry of foreign affairs office was also sentenced to death under the state emergency act/
BURMA TO BUY RUSSIAN FIGHTER
Russia has signed a contract to deliver 20MiG 29 fighter planes to Burma in a deal worth 570 million US Dollars. Russia is Significant arms supplier to the Burmese regime. In 2001 the regim used its first down-payment for gas exports from TOTAL's gas project to buy 10MIG jets from Russia.
OPIUM CULTIVATION IN BURMA INCREASES
United Nations' Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) latest report opium poppy cultivation in South - East Asia revels that opium poppy production in Burma has risen by almost 50% since 2006 and has increased by 11% from a year ago.
BURMA 3RD MOST CORRUPT COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
The corruption watchdog Transparency international says Burma is the third most corrupt country in the world in its 2009 report. The report also placed Burma at the bottom of the list as South East Asia's most corrupt country.
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