-
-
UN to end Myanmar aid flights
The UN is to end aid flights to Myanmar at the beginning of August.
The UN said on Saturday that it was a routine step as the country shifts to rebuilding homes, buildings and schools destroyed by Cyclone Nargis.
The May cyclone devastated much of the region south of Yangon, killing 85,000 people and leaving 50,000 missing.
The announcement came as the country, formerly known as Burma, held a downgraded ceremony marking Martyrs' Day, commemorating the killing of General Aung San, the father of the detained head of the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) said that they had been told by the government not to hold the usual ceremonies, such as giving meals to monks.
'Forced relocation'
Soe Aung, from the National Council of the Union of Burma, an umbrella group for Myanmar's opposition, told Al Jazeera that resentment towards the military government has increased significantly since Cyclone Nargis.
UN plans to end its aid relief flights and scale back the help being given to Myanmar's victims will worsen the situation on the ground even further.
"It is very important that any aid operation in Myanmar should not stop at any stage because the people are still suffering.
"But more importantly the UN and international aid agencies [should focus on] the forced relocation or forced repatriation of the refugees, the cyclone victims in the area," Soe Aung said.
"Inside Burma, there are about 6,000 people who remain in three rehabilitation camps. They will be forced to move out early next month.
"The people are very angry in Burma because of the natural disaster but also the man-made disaster which is the military regime, the mismanagement, the mistreatment of the population, in ethnic and urban areas.
"Anger amongst the people is growing and the people may try to attempt to use any method to topple this regime." The UN is to end aid flights to Myanmar at the beginning of August. ... more -
Myanmar Cyclone: Karen refugees a 'forgotten story'
Nine refugee camps stretch along western Thailand's border with Myanmar, but Mae La, with a population of 43,000, is by far the largest.
"I came to the camp 10 years ago after the army burned our village and took our rice," one young mother told me.
Most of the camp's residents arrived after being forced to flee their homes due to the violence in Myanmar, as documented by the United Nations.
The refugees' stories were often identical: Direct military attacks by the Myanmar army, forced labor, destruction of homes and food crops, and enslavement.
The camps are overseen and run by the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), a union of 11 international non-governmental organizations that provide food, shelter and non food items to refugees and displaced people from Myanmar, also known as Burma.
The Mae La camp is situated about 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Mae Sot, a Thai border town known for its cross-border trade in gems and teak, and more recently, as the home to the Sylvester Stallone movie character, John Rambo.
The first view of the camp is spectacular -- hundreds of wooden houses with roofs made from leaves dot the lush, hilly landscape, as limestone cliffs rise steeply in the background.
There were no guards and little fuss while entering the camp, which somewhat reflects the plight of these displaced people.
The conflict between the Myanmar government and the Karen and other ethnic groups such as the Karenni, Mon and Shan is considered by many analysts as the longest-running civil war in the world. Yet, according to TBBC director Jack Dunford, it has become a "forgotten story."
The recent storm that hit Myanmar's delta region, killing at least 78,000, has raised the question of whether border camps will be inundated with new refugees.
But Saay Tae Tae, a coordinator with the Karen refugee Committee, believes it would take months, if at all.
"The Delta is where most of the Karens live, but it would be very difficult for them to get here. Travel is very restricted by the army, and the people have no money to pay for transport," Saay said. "It will take four or five months until we see the real picture." Nine refugee camps stretch along western Thailand's border with Myanmar, but Mae La, with a population of 43,000, is by far the larges... more -
'If we have guns we will shoot back'
Guardian reports from inside Burma on plans for a new uprising against the military regime, and hears some monks calling for more western intervention and an an armed insurrection. Guardian reports from inside Burma on plans for a new uprising against the military regime, and hears some monks calling for more west... more
-
Burmese opposition ready to escalate pro-democracy fight
Members of Burma's battered and disparate opposition are growing disillusioned with the old methods of the pro-democracy movement and are seeking ways to escalate their armed struggle with the help of covert western support.
"There is a very real debate among us about how to begin a more sustained armed struggle," an organiser of last September's failed uprising told the Guardian. "We are ready for that kind of action, if we can get the supplies and training that we need." Members of Burma's battered and disparate opposition are growing disillusioned with the old methods of the pro-democracy movement and ... more -
Burmese Woman Abused
Image of Malaysia’s secret immigration prison near the Thai-Malay border (Blantik Camp). (More than 120 Burmese are being detained here before deportation.)
Three Burmese women who went to work legally in Malaysia two years ago are being detained pending deportation after they lodged a complaint with police about sexual harassment and mistreatment in the workplace.
But on June 11, they filed a complaint with their local Brickfields police station that their kitchen supervisor had harassed and threatened them after they refused his sexual advances.
Police detained the women's supervisor on June 14, following the complaint. Local rights groups said they also found the electrical device which they alleged he used to threaten them. But then, the tables were turned once more, campaigners said.
"On the 17th, they revoked their work permits, and the immigration department arrested the women," he said.
Florida Sandanasamy, program coordinator for rights group Tenaganita, called on the government to justify sending the women for deportation.
"This is not against any of the immigration laws. However, not only did the immigration arrest them, they also put them in the immigration prison and are now even arranging for their deportation," Sandanasamy said.
Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia live at the mercy of international human-trafficking gangs who sell them back and forth as slave labor with the full knowledge of Malaysian and Thai immigration officials, according to a series of investigative reports by RFA's Burmese service.
Thousands of Burmese find themselves stuck in a human rights no-man's-land after losing their legal status, often because employers withhold passports or refuse to pay their return airfare.
Reports of mistreatment and substandard living conditions within Malaysia's little-known immigration prisons are rife, as undocumented migrants are detained for indefinite periods.
Conditions in the detention centers have sparked protests, complaints to Malaysia's human rights body, riots and breakouts. Immigration officers often stage raids on suspected illegal immigrants using volunteer security forces who have wide-ranging powers, the right to bear arms, and little professional training.
Image of Malaysia’s secret immigration prison near the Thai-Malay border (Blantik Camp). (More than 120 Burmese are being detained her... more -
Burmese Farmer's Debt Trap
“THE thought of crop failure worries me so much,” said Win Tun, an elderly farmer, squatting on a bank in his unplowed field under the scorching sun. “I’m afraid the next cyclone that hits us will be the spiral of debt.”
Win Tun is not alone. There are thousands of farmers in the Irrawaddy delta whose land has been inundated with seawater and who have lost their traditional “machinery”—cattle and buffaloes—in the cyclone that struck on May 2-3.
An estimated 780,000 hectares (almost 2 million acres) of agrarian land was ruined and more than 200,000 cattle and buffaloes died in the cyclone.
Normally, a farmer’s greatest fear is that a crop fails or yields a poor harvest. Missing a season is unthinkable. A farmer would have to work for nothing and buy everything on credit.
According to farmers, there should be an interval between plowing and planting. Traditionally they wait for several days after plowing so that the fields are in the best condition for seeds to grow. The last opportunity for planting this year was around the end of June. Farmers without seeds or the ability to plow their fields before the monsoon set in will miss out on a harvest in November—with dire financial consequences.
The next headache farmers face is employing workers to help in the fields. So many people were killed or have relocated since the cyclone that there is already a drastic shortage of labor. Others are too traumatized by the disaster and are afraid to return to farms and villages near the sea.
“Even if we offer higher wages for working on our farms, we will still not get enough laborers,” farmer Tint Lwin said.
Farmers often prefer to pay workers by giving them a certain number of baskets of rice. Without any rice in storage, this will be impossible this year.
Then there is the lack of fertilizer. Traditionally, many Burmese farmers spread the manure of cattle or buffalo on their fields. Without livestock or money, farmers have no natural fertilizer and are forced, yet again, to borrow.
If farmers have to buy rice seeds on credit, they encounter an additional dilemma. The seeds the authorities provide may be inferior or might not grow well in the delta conditions. Most farmers are not confident about working with different kinds of seeds.
To compound their misery, many farmers believe they will not be given loans if they have no equity. Normally they can guarantee a loan with their farm or equipment, but farmers who lost everything in the cyclone have nothing of value to use as collateral. “THE thought of crop failure worries me so much,” said Win Tun, an elderly farmer, squatting on a bank in his unplowed field under the... more -
Burmese Beg for Tourists to Return
When a taxi carrying two Westerners pulled up this past week at the Shwe Sin hotel at the Chaung Tha beach resort in Myanmar's cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy delta region, cheers rang out from local residents and workers.
The two were congratulated for being the first foreigners to set foot in town since Cyclone Nargis slammed ashore last month, wiping entire villages off the map and killing an estimated 78,000 people.
The disaster, and the military government's "stay-away" attitude toward foreign aid workers and reporters, has scared off tourists, adding to the area's woes.
With little prospect of filling his 41 empty seaside bungalows, Shwe Sin hotel's assistant manager Ko Tin Oo appealed to his sole foreign guests, an Australian and a French national, to encourage their friends and family to travel to Myanmar.
"Tell everyone you know that Myanmar people need foreign people," he said as he switched on the evening's entertainment, an amateur video of Cyclone Nargis featuring cyclone-toppled trees, crushed houses and bloated bodies floating in flood waters. When a taxi carrying two Westerners pulled up this past week at the Shwe Sin hotel at the Chaung Tha beach resort in Myanmar's cyclone... more -
Children's drawings of Cyclone Nargis
The Burmese children’s drawings bear silent eloquent witness to the devastating experiences that they and their families went through during the cyclone and its immediate aftermath.
Now the problem facing the Cyclone victims is getting rice seed, getting their fields cleaned and ready for planting, they have to do this even while there are still carcasses of dead animals and some of the bodies of their community members still lying in the fields and their homes are not yet rebuilt. The Burmese children’s drawings bear silent eloquent witness to the devastating experiences that they and their families went through ... more -
Dozens die in Myanmar ferry sinking
A ferry sank in a river in Myanmar's cyclone-battered Irrawaddy delta, killing nearly 40 people, state-media reported Friday.
The motorized ship sank in the Yway river Tuesday after water entered its stern section, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported. The report did not give details on how the accident happened.
The newspaper said 38 people were killed and 44 others rescued.
The ferry, named "Myo Pa Pa Tun," was traveling from Pakeikkyi village to Myaungmya, about 94 miles west of Yangon, the newspaper said.
Myaungmya was not badly affected by Cyclone Nargis, which left a swath of death and devastation in the delta when it struck in early May. More than 84,000 died in the storm.
People living in Myanmar's vast delta region often travel and transport goods by boat because of the lower cost and inaccessibility of many areas by road.
Boat accidents are common in the river deltas and coastal regions of Myanmar. In May, a ferry collided with another passenger boat in Twantay canal near Yangon killing at least 6 people.
A ferry sank in a river in Myanmar's cyclone-battered Irrawaddy delta, killing nearly 40 people, state-media reported Friday. ... more -
Why one girl refuses to remember
Nway pretends that it never happened. The storm didn't come. The wind didn't tear her home to pieces. The cyclone didn't sweep her mother and father away.
In those brief moments, when she tunes out the questions, the 7-year-girl from Myanmar can step back in time -- before May's Cyclone Nargis took everything away.
That's the girl aid workers from World Vision International, a Christian humanitarian group, found when they met Nway in her demolished village a month after the cyclone.
"When she was asked about the cyclone, she turned away and said she didn't remember anything about it, and left," says Ashley Clements, a World Vision worker who met Nway.
International relief groups know how to rebuild devastated countries like Myanmar. But how do they rebuild the lives of children like Nway? That's the challenge faced by groups trying to help child survivors of natural and manmade disasters.
Aid workers who deal with these children say the experience can drain their souls. They try to comfort children in Darfur, Sudan, who have seen their mothers raped; children in China who have seen their parents buried under rubble; children in Louisiana who watched their homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
No matter where they encounter these children, these aid workers face the same question: How can a child remain a child after experiencing a tragedy?
Rose Kimeu, a disaster response specialist for World Vision in African and Latin America, says many children don't know how.
"They don't laugh. They don't smile," Kimeu says. "They have this look in their eyes that's very sad... It's something that breaks my heart over and over."
---**Go to the link to read the full story, the next section is called "How they become a child again" Nway pretends that it never happened. The storm didn't come. The wind didn't tear her home to pieces. The cyclone didn't sweep her m... more -
Myanmar journalist arrested for burying cyclone dead
Aung Kyaw San, editor of the Myanmar Tribune, was arrested on June 15 along with 16 other people who had volunteered to help bury the cyclone dead, Aung Kyaw San, editor of the Myanmar Tribune, was arrested on June 15 along with 16 other people who had volunteered to help bury the ... more
-
Burma blocks emergency telecoms
Two teams of foreign aid workers dedicated to delivering emergency telecoms in disaster areas have been forced to leave cyclone-hit Burma.
The members of Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) left the country after attempts to reach affected areas were blocked.
The charity, which described the situation as "unprecedented", said it had no other choice but to leave.
TSF finally reached Burma on 1 June after waiting nearly a month to be granted visas to enter the country.
"The frustration is that we were allowed into the country but not allowed to deploy," TSF spokesman Oisin Walton told BBC News.
Many international charities were allowed into Burma following a visit to the area by UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon.
But repeated attempts to get the necessary authorisation to visit affected areas such as the Irrawaddy Delta, were met with a wall of silence.
"We got no reply at all," said Mr Walton.
Time lags
TSF is a specialist agency which works with the UN to provide communication support to aid agencies and local people. Its presence was requested by Unicef following Cyclone Nargis on 2 May. Two teams of foreign aid workers dedicated to delivering emergency telecoms in disaster areas have been forced to leave cyclone-hit Bu... more -
The real disaster in Burma
Ricky Gervais features in this video showing why "The Real Disaster In Burma is The Government".
In the wake of the devastating Cyclone Nargis that hit Burma on 2 May, more than one million people are homeless, up to 128,000 killed. This natural disaster was turned into a man-made catastrophe by Burma's brutal regime. They blocked international aid and left thousands without food, shelter or medicine. The real disaster in Burma is the government.
Ricky Gervais features in this video showing why "The Real Disaster In Burma is The Government". ... more -
Grisly wildlife trade exposed: National Geographic
An activist uses a video camera to expose what many would consider a grisly illegal wildlife trade in Myanmar.
WARNING! Extremely Graphic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjtEJHQluCQ#
OR
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/?source= 4001 An activist uses a video camera to expose what many would consider a grisly illegal wildlife trade in Myanmar. ... more -
A Clip from today's Myanmar Newspaper
My wife is coordinating the relief efforts in Myanmar and her team there just scanned this page from today's newspaper. It's sobering to see how the government is still trying to manipulate its people after they've been through so much. My wife is coordinating the relief efforts in Myanmar and her team there just scanned this page from today's newspaper. It's sobering ... more
-
Myanmar: General asked to quit for son’s drug trade
In a rare instance, the Myanmar Army general whose son was arrested for dealing in drugs was asked to quit. The order to resign came from Myanmar’s military junta supremo senior general Than Shwe who seemed extremely annoyed..
In an instance, which is rare in military ruled Myanmar, a senior general was asked to resign. Lt gen Ye Myint, the head of the Special Operation Bureau (I) had to go because his son was arrested recently for being involved in drug trade.
The Myanmar junta supremo senior general Than Shwe had wanted the general to resign with immediate effect, the Myanmar media in exile reported.
Aung Zaw Ye Myint, the general’s son was picked up by the police on June 7, by a joint force of the military intelligence and the special branch of the police from his office Kyi Myin Dine Township. He owns the Yetagun Construction Company and was involved in executing government construction projects.
Besides drugs, a handgun, handcuffs and several million in Burmese currency notes were seized from his office. Several film celebrities, including actresses and a young tycoon, among one of the richest in Myanmar, were also nabbed on suspicion of being part of the drug ring. The film world people are out on bail. The general’s son was suspected to be supplying all kinds of drugs to the glamour crowd in Myanmar’s film world. Ecstasy, Yaba, Heroin and Methamphetamine among other drugs is said to be in high demand in the Myanmar film fraternity, media reports added. In a rare instance, the Myanmar Army general whose son was arrested for dealing in drugs was asked to quit. The order to resign came f... more -
Myanmar says US aid can't be trusted
There are so many valid reasons to be this suspicious of U.S. intentions. How many lives will be lost over this distrust?
-
Adam Ferguson (His Lens on Manipur)
Adam Ferguson was born in Australia in 1978 and graduated from Griffith University with a Bachelor of Photography in 2003. In 2004 he was awarded a Peace Scholarship from Griffith and traveled to South East Asia to document Peace Art Project Cambodia, a European Union public awareness campaign aimed at curbing small arms. After working for regional newspapers in Australia and Mexico, he moved to Paris in 2006 and interned with VII Photo Agency. In 2007 he moved to New Delhi, India, where he is currently based as a freelance photojournalist. Adam’s work has been published in Time Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, The Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg News, Courrier International, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian.
About the Photograph:
With the ‘Golden Triangle’ stretching between Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China, a porous Indian border leaves India’s northeastern states like Manipur vulnerable to an illegal heroin trade. Ongoing tribal insurgencies, corruption and a disregard for India’s northeastern states from New Delhi, render communities like Churachandpur in Manipur politically volatile and economically stifled. High unemployment and minimal opportunity cause a high number of youth to turn to drugs to escape poverty. But with Myanmar as a rogue neighbor, and corruption making the stifling of the heroin trade almost impossible, heroin trafficking goes on and little hope is left for any action to stop the free flow of heroin that devastates lives in India’s volatile northeast. Adam Ferguson was born in Australia in 1978 and graduated from Griffith University with a Bachelor of Photography in 2003. In 2004 he ... more -
Myanmar detains activist Comedian
U Maung Thura, a popular comedian in Myanmar was detained by police after carrying out private campaigns to help survivors of last months cyclone. Police raided his house and seized computer files which showed things the military government would prefer the world doesn't see, including videos of the cyclone victims and also video of the "Champagne and diamonds" wedding of a senior general's daughter. U Maung Thura, a popular comedian in Myanmar was detained by police after carrying out private campaigns to help survivors of last mon... more
-
Cyclone Nargis Fundraiser
We are launching an Appeal, to raise $500,000 (CDN) online for emergency aid in response to the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis. You can use the link below to donate by credit card, so that those in need will receive your money faster. If you are a Canadian taxpayer, the government will match $1 to every dollar of your donation until June 11th, 2008 at no extra cost to you. We are launching an Appeal, to raise $500,000 (CDN) online for emergency aid in response to the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis. ... more
-
related topics
Myanmar
Contributors (314)
Myanmar
