Nargis victims continue suffering in Burma

By Nava Thakuria
Nava Thakuria is a Guwahati (Northeast India) based independent journalist whose focus area remains the socio-political developments taking place in Northeast as well as its neighbouring Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Burma and Bangladesh.
The devastating tropical cyclone that struck Burma (officially known as Myanmar) a year ago had shown the world the real face of the military rulers of the Southeast Asian nation. But the natural disaster had opened up the country to the international communities to some extent. The international exposure to the alienated Burmese, who have been living under military rule for over four decades, seems to play the role of a catalyst for a change in the coming days. Originated from the Bay of Bengal, the deadly cyclone hit the Burmese land on the night of May 2 and continued its devastation till the next morning. It left a trail of devastation in the entire Irrawaddy and Rangoon (Yangon) divisions of the country. Nargis also partially destroyed the areas under the Bago, Mon and Kayin region. With human casualties, the cyclone added to the damage of social infrastructures, killing of thousands of livestock and also causing flood, wiping out paddy fields, which were made ready for the country’s primary crops rice.
The cyclone claimed nearly 140,000 people and another few hundred thousand people went on missing. The United Nations estimated that Nargis  affected 2.4 million people and rendered thousands families homeless. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated the loss of nearly 300,000 water buffalo and cows, 7,500 goats, 65,000 pigs, 1.5 million chicken and ducks. Nearly 10,00,000 acres of farmland in Irrawaddy and 3,00,000 acres in Rangoon division were destroyed. Similarly Nargis damaged over  800 000 houses, including schools and hospitals.
Of course, the military government reported the final death toll as only 84,537 only. The government-run daily newspaper ‘The New Light of Myanmar’, revealed that the storm left 53,836 missing and 19,359 people injured. Burma has neither independent media nor easy internet access through out the country.
The ruling State Peace and Development Council not only wanted to hide the statistics of casualty, the group of Generals also initially prevented international aid workers to enter the country.
International agencies and local donors were stopped from entering the affected areas and also delivering aid, which was meant for hundreds of thousands of people in jeopardy. Soon the condemnation was poured on the military junta for its arrogant and inhuman behaviour and practices. The callousness of the junta was criticised by Suzanne DiMaggio of the Asia Society’s Social Issues Programme saying that for nearly five decades, Burma’s military rulers had systematically undermined the interests of their own citizens. Referring to Narigs, she stated that the junta-controlled news media failed to announce warnings about the approaching cyclone.
The military regime at its new capital Naypyidaw, which is north of Rangoon, had an apprehension that the massive flow of foreign aid workers to their country might create trouble for them in the coming days. Even the SPDC chief senior general Than Shwe got time to visit those victims only after international criticism came out in a bigger way.
The military rulers were softened only after the personal visit of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the middle of May. Slowly the communication between Naypyidaw and the international agencies got improved. Visas and travel permits were made little easier and faster for the foreign aid workers.
India, which maintains strategic relationship with Burma, was one of early supplier of aid to the cyclone victims. New Delhi launched Operation Sahayata to deliver more than 175 tonnes of relief materials including food supplies, tents and medicines. Moreover, the Indian government successfully pursued with the junta to accept the international aid. Later a team of 50 medical personnel was also sent by India to the Irrawaddy delta.
After 12 months of the disaster, the situation remained almost same. Now there are no refugees in the camps, as the military dismantled those nearly six months back. But the affected people are still living with acute shortage of pure drinking water and food, not to speak of proper shelter. More over most of the victims, who survived Nargis, are facing unending trauma.
An independent report (meaning free from censorship by the junta) released recently divulged the fact that the dictators failed to provide adequate food, water and shelter to the Nargis survivors and even then continued violating the rights of the victims as well as the local relief workers.
“The junta’s response was marred by failures to warn, failures to respond, limits on humanitarian assistance from independent Burmese NGOs and citizens, and limits on humanitarian assistance from international entities eager to assist,” said in the report, which was jointly released by the Center for Public Health and Human Rights of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Emergency Assistance Team –Burma (which was formed in  May last year by the Burmese community-based organizations dedicated to providing aid and assistance to the Nargis affected people).
Titled ‘After the Storm: Voices from the Delta’, the report also asserted that the junta obstructed relief to victims of the cyclone, arrested aid workers and severely restrained accurate information in the wake of the disaster.
The community-based assessment report of health and human rights in the wake of Nargis also added, “Relief workers witnessed systematic obstruction of relief aid, willful acts of theft and sale of relief supplies, forced relocation, and the use of forced labor for reconstruction projects, including forced child labor.”
Professor Chris Beyrer, director of Center for Public Health and Human Rights, said in an interview that the findings of the reports ‘are evidence of a wide array of abuses perpetrated by the ruling SPDC in the response to a disaster which is in violation of international humanitarian relief norms and legal frameworks for disaster relief’. Meanwhile, the UN has highlighted urgent needs for the cyclone affected people. Addressing a donor meeting in Rangoon during the first week of April, Bishow Parajuli, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, emphasized that there was still an imminent need for sustainable shelter and agricultural support ahead of the monsoon season.
Organized by the UN, the meting was attended by around 70 participants, including the Heads of Diplomatic missions, UN Agencies and National and International Non-Governmental Organizations.
Speaking to this writer from Rangoon, Astrid Sehl, the communication officer of United Nations in Myanmar, admitted that the level of humanitarian assistance that currently being provided in Burma was much lower than the actual needs of the people. She also revealed that there were no cyclone affected people living in the camps at his moment, as those were dismantled last year.
“Most people have returned to their villages of origin or relocated elsewhere, however, pockets remain in which a number of households have yet to find durable solutions remain and relocations or returns still have to be facilitated,” she added.

Burma cyclone orphans nobody wants

AYE Myat Mon and her little brother, Ye Htet Kyaw, who clung together during the terrifying hours of Cyclone Nargis, are two among a multitude of lost children in Burma.

Across the Irrawaddy Delta, countless parents and children were pulled apart by winds strong enough to uproot trees and waters that rose above the roofs of their bamboo houses.
Children spent the night huddling in branches, drifting for hours in boats, or clinging on to driftwood to end up kilometres from where they began.
Those who survived were given over to aid workers.
A little more than a year later, Aye Myat Mon, 6, and Ye Htet Kyaw, 3, are the only remaining orphans of the storm.
Their story is part of a greater and unexpected success: an example of how, despite the intransigence of Burma's dictatorship, foreign and local organisations achieved what once would have seemed miraculous.
They found homes for the children separated from their families by Cyclone Nargis: all except two.
Aye Myat Mon remembers clearly the night the storm came.
"It was so noisy, as loud as the sound of a car," she says.
"Dad was outside and mum went out to look for him. But the storm got stronger and stronger, and we were all separated. And then the house fell down and my big sister and little brother and me ran outside."
The three children took shelter and when the storm receded their parents and house were nowhere to be seen.
The uninjured siblings walked back into the devastated village of Pan Chin.
About 140,000 people died in the storm.
Aye Myat Mon and her siblings were taken to the regional capital, Labutta, where their names were added to a long list of children separated from their parents.
The Government reluctantly admitted organisations such as Unicef and Save the Children to work with the local Red Cross in sorting through 1000 names gathered for the Labutta district alone.
Many parents had given up their children for dead and of the 535 families reporting missing children, numerous matches were made.
Names were consolidated into a database containing as much detail as could be extracted from the children: names of village, parents, relatives and photographs of the children.
Armed with these, a team of 30 locals travelled by boat, scooter and on foot to track down anyone who knew the lost children.
"There were many, many cases where they went into a village, showed a photograph and found a mother who thought her child had died," an aid worker said.
In half the cases, both parents were found to have died but relatives and friends were identified and many of those were willing to take care of, and in some cases, adopt a child.
But no one could find relatives of Aye Myat Mon and her siblings.
The problem was not just that they were almost certainly dead, but they had been migrant workers without strong local roots.
The children were well looked after in the care home in Labutta.
They went to school for the first time and had more toys, better food and more attention than they would have had in their village, and Ye Htet Kyaw was found to have tuberculosis.
Then something happened that was a blessing and a sadness: older sister Aye Aye Soe, 12, was reunited with her father.
Although only a half sister to her younger siblings, she had lived with them all their lives, and her natural father wanted her to go with him.
At first she resisted leaving her sister and brother, but last month she moved to the village of her father and stepmother, leaving Aye Myat Mon and Ye Htet Kyaw on their own.
Aye Myat Mon says she does not miss her big sister, but carers say she cries sometimes and calls out her name.
The database has been shut down and soon they will be sent to a foster home or orphanage.
"No one wants to be their guardian," an aid worker said.
"They're the last kids left. It's sad."
Aye Myat Mon does not want to leave. She likes it in the big empty house with her red cuddly hippo and brother.
She does not know why her parents do not come, but believes they are alive and that one day they will all be together and happy again.
The Times

Repression Continues After Burma Cyclone

WASHINGTON, May 4 - "One year after the devastation of Cyclone Nargis, the Burmese military government should release all those imprisoned for independently providing humanitarian aid to victims and for criticizing the government's response," urges an international human rights watchdog.

• 
  Cleaning up after cyclone. © TZA (flickr)
  
  At least 21 community aid workers were unfairly tried and imprisoned by the Burmese government after trying to assist survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which hit Burma's Irrawaddy Delta region in May last year. Moreover, Burma's military government "obstructed initial efforts by humanitarian agencies to send in relief and gain access to affected communities," says Human Rights Watch. The international monitor is now calling on the government to release those imprisoned for trying to help survivors and commit to reconstruction efforts, while urging international donors to certify that aid is reaching those most in need. (See the full story below.)
  
• "One year after Cyclone Nargis struck the Burmese delta on May 2, a sustained effort is still needed to ensure that aid operations continue to assist the Burmese people," appealed Refugees International. The humanitarian group is calling on the United States to commit $30 million in 2010 for food, basic health care, and education. The country originally provided Burma with $75 million in aid, up from the previously budgeted $3 million.
  
• Nearly 80 humanitarian groups have provided emergency relief to people affected by Cyclone Nargis. "As a result," reports Refugees International, "the United Nations says that one million people received food aid, nearly 200,000 households got agricultural support, and half a million children received help in education." To read more about what groups responded and how, see OneWorld.net's Burma cyclone crisis alert. 
  
• "Burma, also known as Myanmar, is ruled by a military junta which suppresses almost all dissent and wields absolute power in the face of international condemnation and sanctions," says the BBC News Burma country profile. "The generals and the army stand accused of gross human rights abuses, including the forcible relocation of civilians and the widespread use of forced labour, which includes children."
  

One Year After Cyclone Nargis: Aid to Burma Still Crucial

Source: Refugees International - USA

Vanessa Parra

Website: http://www.refugeesinternational.org/press-room/press-release/one-year-after-cyclone-nargis-aid-burma-still-crucial

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

Washington, D.C. - One year after Cyclone Nargis struck the Burmese delta on May 2, a sustained effort is still needed to ensure that aid operations continue to assist the Burmese people, Refugees International said today. Nearly 80 humanitarian agencies responded effectively to the disaster by restructuring their programs to meet the most pressing needs and successfully training thousands of new Burmese staff in humanitarian operations. As a result, the United Nations says that one million people received food aid, nearly 200,000 households got agricultural support and half a million children received help in education. "The Burmese regime is one of the most repressive in the world, but the people of Burma shouldn't be punished for the actions of the generals," said Joel Charny, Vice President of Refugees International. "Secretary Clinton indicated several weeks ago that the administration was undergoing a review of U.S. policy towards Burma. Now that it is clearly possible to provide aid inside the country transparently and effectively, any change in U.S. policy should reflect the needs of the Burmese people and show a strong and ongoing commitment to assist them." After Cyclone Nargis struck the delta, the U.S. ended up providing a total of $75 million for aid inside Burma, a tremendous increase over the previous $3 million budget, which was primarily focused on HIV/AIDS programs. Refugees International is calling for a commitment of $30 million in 2010 to help provide food, basic health care and education to people throughout the country. "The delta region is rebuilding, but access to clean water is a challenge and many families are still living in temporary shelters that cannot withstand the effects of another storm," Charny said. "Further, attempts to expand assistance to the rest of the country are struggling. Funding from the international community for the emergency is now drying up, but health, education and agriculture programs should continue in the delta region and throughout the country." In addition to needs in the delta, Northern Rakhine State, home to the Rohingya Muslim minority, continues to be an area of great concern, with deteriorating living standards, forced relocations and extreme repression. An ongoing food crisis in Chin State, a drought running through the center of the country, and increased internal displacement in eastern Burma require greater attention. Burma also has the highest HIV rates in Southeast Asia, and malaria, a treatable and preventable disease, is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity. Refugees International is a Washington, DC-based organization that advocates to end refugee crises. In February of 2009 the organization traveled to Burma to assess the humanitarian situation inside the country and released a field report in March, "Burma: Capitalizing on the Gains". For more information, go to http://www.refugeesinternational.org/burma. ### Contact: Vanessa Parra, 202-828-0110 ext. 225; vanessa@refugeesinternational.org

The sanctions carousel

By Benedict Rogers

In February, I wrote an article entitled Burma's policy debate: polarization and paralysis, in an attempt to try to move the debate about solutions for Burma’s crisis beyond the age-old arguments about sanctions versus engagement. Some people, such as Derek Tonkin, failed to seize the olive branch implicit in my arguments, and instead saw it as another opportunity to launch a flawed critique of sanctions. Others, however, responded with more mixed attitudes, and I was pleasantly surprised to read Morten Pedersen's piece in which it seems we are in more agreement than expected. It was good to read that Morten Pedersen, a previous prominent and vociferous critic of sanctions, actually agrees that “further sanctions, strictly targeted and flexibly applied, may be appropriate”. He also concedes that “sanctions can be useful, to some extent, to keep change on the agenda both inside and outside Burma”. Even if he goes on to contradict himself later in the article, by rehashing the line that “sanctions may feel morally just” but are “neither effective nor even ethical,” that argument is countered powerfully earlier in the article. He accuses me of having “expropriated much of the traditional language of sanctions critics, who for years have been calling for better targeting of sanctions, greater diplomatic engagement and increased aid.” That last bit is certainly news to me – these have been the recommendations of the democracy movement for some years, expressed in the paper Pro-Aid, Pro-Sanctions, Pro-Engagement. I am pleased to know that Pedersen has at least had a change of heart and come on board with these ideas. Where Pedersen and I certainly have some difference, however, is his suggestion that aid has been “subjugated” to the democracy agenda. I completely agree that aid should not be politicized. But we should ask ourselves the question, who is politicizing aid? Surely, it is the regime. Who imposed restrictions on international aid organizations? The regime. Who refused, then subsequently restricted and diverted, aid in the post-Cyclone Nargis crisis? The regime. Who has blocked aid to the victims of the Chin famine? The regime. Who is blocking aid to the internally displaced peoples in eastern Burma? The regime. If aid has been subjugated to anything, it is to the regime and the international community’s policies of appeasement, not the democracy movement. Pedersen also critiques “the mere listing of human rights violations.” I agree with him that simply documenting violations is not enough. The problem, however, is that too many commentators, academics, diplomats, NGOs and UN officials fail even to list the human rights violations. There is an extraordinary tendency to ignore, or at best downplay, the scale of the situation. That needs to change. The international community needs to be confronted with the full picture of the regime’s savagery. Then, of course, it needs to act. At the moment, it is neither fully acknowledging the suffering nor taking steps to address it. After the genocide in Rwanda, Kofi Annan boldly declared “Never Again.” While the term ‘genocide’ may be debatable, what is happening in Burma surely amounts to crimes against humanity. And if we do not say so, and act, it will be “never again,” all over again. Benedict Rogers is a writer and human rights activist with Christian Solidarity Worldwide. He has made almost thirty visits to Burma and its borderlands, is the author of A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma’s Karen People (Monarch, 2004), and is currently writing two new books on Burma.

Funding Death and Tyranny

Saturday, March 7, 2009
By Carlos(Buffalohair)Guevara

No incident spells out Than Shwe’s greed better than Cyclone Nargis. Though it is becoming popular to say sanctions have not worked in Burmese politics one must realize sanctions have not been fully implemented. With a host of major corporations contributing massive amounts of money to the criminal regime in spite of sanctions, it is clear sanctions were not given an opportunity to work. Much of the aid donated for Cyclone Nargis was sold into the black market like so much other aid the country received over the years. That is common knowledge and it is surprising so many people who’ve traveled into Burma never made that connection.

Insiders within Burma repeatedly said that people who voted against the Constitutional Referendum or were pro democracy received no aid at all in spite of world relief efforts. Religious persecution was rampant in the aftermath as well as the continual killing of the Karen and other tribal people. Than Shwe’s continued crimes against humanity has gone unabated even during the cyclone. People who volunteered to bury the dead were arrested and tortured as bodies were left to rot in waterways, trees and every where else. Tribal people were left to fend for themselves while he sold food stuffs and building supplies on the black market. It was also reveled that outside observers were taken to photo-ops and strategically placed relief efforts to “show” how much Than Shwe cared for his people. It was all a sham since he failed to show the observers the actual suffering that was caused by not only Cyclone Nargis but from his ambivalence and murderous death squads.

The cyclone yielded Than Shwe an abundance of orphaned children to use as slaves and child soldiers. The bounty that was given to Burma from a concerned world was used to complete his jungle capital (Naypyidaw) as well as his cyber city Yadanabon. Weapons and hard cash was also the end product of cyclone aid which went into the pockets of his inner circle. Giving Than Shwe and his criminal regime more aid and money would only fill the coffers of his elaborate money laundering machine and not the people it was intended for. The black market has always been Than Shwe’s choice when it came to aid of any kind and the suffering people continually were left to fend for themselves.

Aid to this criminal regime would have horrific consequences for the civilian population his military is murdering at this juncture. He would spend it on more advanced military equipment so he can resupply his killing machine. Rockets and more land mines would be purchased as well as bullets and more military hardware. Of course his jungle capital and his cyber city would benefit from such a bounty, that is a given. And to think the Burmese people looked to the outside world for help when this criminal mad man decided to ignore the election results. Now the people of Burma fear the outside world will fund their continued systematic demise as the world turns a deaf ear on their cries for democracy. There is no excuse for the stupidity of world leaders and their economic development minions who purported the advantages of an illegal election. Or were they in the deep pockets of Than Shwe all along?

Your Devil’s Advocate