Burma hits out at cyclone reports

[The Smoking Man]

Burma hits out at cyclone reports

Burma's state-run media has strongly condemned media reports of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis.

An article in a state daily accused "self-seekers" of faking video footage of the destruction - and foreign media of using it to harm Burma's image.

Reports that survivors were living in dire conditions in the Irrawaddy Delta were exaggerated, it said.

Burma's leaders have been heavily criticised for their reluctance to accept help after the 2 May cyclone.

According to official figures, 78,000 people were killed and another 56,000 are missing. More than two million people have been affected, aid agencies say.

After an initial refusal, the military junta is now allowing some experts from UN agencies and South East Asian neighbours to help victims of the storm.

But earlier this week US Navy ships carrying much-needed helicopters and landing craft left Burma's coastline after 15 failed attempts to convince the regime to let them in.

'Made-up stories'

Some of the most shocking footage that has emerged from the storm-hit region has come from video shot by Burmese amateurs and circulated on DVDs.

In an article, the New Light of Myanmar condemned "self-seekers exploiting storm victims".

They were, it said, "shooting video films featuring made-up stories in the storm-affected areas... and sending the videotapes to foreign news agencies".

"Those foreign news agencies are issuing such groundless news stories with the intention of tarnishing the image of Myanmar (Burma) and misleading the international community," it said.

The daily also accused reporters of exaggerating the conditions in which victims were living, describing the coverage as "despicable and inhuman acts of local and foreign anti-government groups".

Burma is desperate to prove that it is in control of the relief effort and that it does not need large-scale foreign help, correspondents say.

It has done its utmost to prevent journalists entering the storm-hit region, setting up police checkpoints to stop people travelling into the area.

But aid agencies say they still do not have the unrestricted access they need to fully implement the kind of relief and reconstruction operation required.

The story came a day after Burma's most prominent comedian, Zarganar, was detained after leading a private effort to deliver aid to cyclone victims.

Many Burmese volunteers have been organising their own deliveries to the delta to help people who have not received any aid.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7439222.stm

Published: 2008/06/06 06:16:10 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

[The Smoking Man]

Excuse me but this jumped up little shit just call the head of the UN Ban Ki Moon a liar.

Ban did a flyover of the area while he was in the area and witnessed the devastation.

I'd say that is calling him a liar.

[The Smoking Man]

Here's the true aim of their ire and a true hero.

THIS guy should be leading the country and not the comedians they have in the palace now.

UN expert concerned about Myanmar comedian's arrest

By ELIANE ENGELER, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jun 9, 2:03 PM ET

The United Nations' expert on human rights in Myanmar said Monday he was very worried about the arrest of a well-known comedian who was trying to help survivors of last month's devastating cyclone.

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, a relative said.

"I'm very concerned because I don't know so far about his whereabouts," said Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N. Human Rights Council's new investigator for Myanmar.

Quintana, from Argentina, said he asked the government for clarification about Zarganar's arrest.

The relative said Friday that the family had heard nothing from Zarganar since the arrest and that the ruling military junta had given no reason for the arrest.

Zarganar was leading a team of around 40 people assisting cyclone victims, said Quintana, adding that other actors, comedians and writers were part of the group.

The U.N. estimates a total of 2.4 million people were made homeless or were otherwise affected when Cyclone Nargis hit May 2-3, and has warned that more than 1 million of those still need help, mostly in the hard-to-reach delta.

The 46-year old comedian and his team had made videos of their relief activities, and Zarganar gave interviews critical of the government's relief effort to foreign media, including the British Broadcasting Corp., whose news broadcasts are popular in Myanmar.

In an interview with the Thailand-based magazine Irrawaddy before his arrest, Zarganar was quoted as saying some areas in the delta had not been reached by the government or international aid groups. Zarganar said his group distributed food, blankets, mosquito nets and other aid.

Quintana, who on Friday presented a 16-page report to the U.N. council on the situation of basic rights in Myanmar, said he didn't have information about other members of Zarganar's team being arrested.

But "the detention of Zarganar concerns me a lot," he told reporters.

Zarganar, known for his anti-government jibes, has previously been arrested together with other actors for openly supporting demonstrations against the military junta.

U.N. officials and aid groups have criticized the regime for hindering cyclone relief efforts.

Quintana said if a government is unable to help its people after a disaster, it has to accept outside aid.

"All states have the obligation to guarantee their people all the rights with all the available means," he said. "If the means inside the country are not enough ... there is an obligation to use means from the international community."

[The Smoking Man]

Cyclone-battered fisheries worsen Myanmar's pain

Thu Jul 24, 12:50 PM ET

No matter how much she loved the river and sea that once provided her family's daily food, Tin Tin Latt now just wants to stay away from the water that widowed her, killed two of her children and destroyed the family's livelihood.

Tin Tin Latt is among thousands of widows of fishermen in Myanmar's cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta who have been forced to become breadwinners without land to farm or the means to earn money from the sea.

Cyclone Nargis, which struck in early May, killed 84,500 people and left 54,000 missing, according to the ruling junta, in the worst natural disaster in Myanmar's modern history and the world's fifth deadliest in the past 40 years. Of the dead, 27,000 were fishermen, the regime says, although aid workers believe the actual number is far higher.

The U.N. food agency says more than 100,000 fishermen have been affected and some 50,000 acres of fish ponds destroyed.

The storm also destroyed boats, nets, jetties and processing plants, crippling a top export revenue earner in one of the world's poorest nations. Last year, Myanmar exported some 350,000 tons of seafood to European and Asian countries, much of it from the vast delta with its long coastline and spider web of rivers.

The Myanmar government says it plans to build more than 9,000 boats and provide fishing nets to speed revival of the industry.

"We have started distribution to help those fishermen to regain their livelihoods," said Saw Lah Paw Wah, assistant director of Myanmar's Fisheries Department.

But even if those tools eventually make their way to fishing families, many no longer have the hands to do the job.

"In fishing families, there is a tendency for the men to be the providers. In the event that fishermen are killed, their families are in a far more difficult position than farming families," said Steve Marshall, the U.N. International Labor Organization representative in Myanmar.

This leaves families like Tin Tin Latt's with a great burden and an uncertain future. Some will have to wait until their surviving children grow up before they can take up their traditional occupation.

"I am afraid my only son will become a fisherman his whole life, following my husband," said the 33-year-old widow. "I don't want him to be killed by a storm like his father."

The destruction wrought by Nargis also destroyed many jobs in the fishing industry.

Marshall's organization and other agencies plan a 12-month project to offer 25,000 delta people jobs building a transport system linking jetties, markets and farms.

But agencies say they lack the funds to cover everyone affected. Two of Tin Tin Latt's three surviving children are under the age of 3, and it's hard to find work for women that generates money while leaving time to care for children, aid workers say.

More than 2 1/2 months after the cyclone struck, Tin Tin Latt's family depends on meager rice handouts from a local aid organization, and her husband's fishing nets lie empty. Rice and fish form the bulk of diets in Myanmar.

The situation for her and thousands of others in the delta still hangs in the balance, although villagers are quickly rebuilding their simple shacks and international aid workers, once barred from the region, offer additional assistance.

In the first full assessment of the disaster, the U.N., Myanmar government and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, this week warned of a second emergency unless $1 billion is forthcoming over the next three years from international donors.

It said 450,000 homes were destroyed, while 4,000 schools and 75 percent of health facilities were damaged.

"The worst of the crisis is over but we are still in a state of emergency. People live in a very precarious condition now. If we fail to sustain the recovery efforts, they may face a second emergency," said Puji Pujiono, a member of the ASEAN assessment team, citing shelter, water, sanitation and food as key priorities.

The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization has appealed for $33.5 million, saying 75 percent of farmers in the country's main food-producing region lack sufficient seed, with little time left before the end of the planting season in August.

The Rome-based agency says more than 50,000 small-scale farming households and 99,000 landless rural households need immediate help.

When interviewed, Tin Tin Latt said she had only enough rice for six days and didn't know if her children would have anything to eat after that. Although afraid, she said she had no choice but to send her 15-year-old son to learn how to handle a boat at sea.

"I wish I could move deeper inland, and find a new way to raise my kids rather than let my son become a fisherman," she said as she dissolved into tears. "Every morning, when he goes aboard the boat, I pray for him not to be taken away as happened to my beloved husband."

[The Smoking Man]

Myanmar detains comedian who delivered cyclone aid

Sat Aug 2, 5:23 AM ET

A famous Myanmar comedian and three other activists who helped deliver relief supplies to cyclone victims could be imprisoned for two years on charges of causing public unrest, his lawyer said Saturday.

Comedian Zarganar and the others appeared in court inside Insein prison on Wednesday, according to Aung Thein, their attorney. They included a sports writer identified as Zaw Thet Htwe and Thant Zin Aung.

Aung Thein said he has not met his clients and was unable to confirm the charges. But he believes they will be accused of breaking a law that makes it illegal for "anyone to circulate a statement or rumor with intent to cause alarm to the public."

Zarganar, the country's most popular comedian, was arrested in June after he gave interviews to foreign media in which he criticized the military regime's slow response to the May 2-3 cyclone that killed more than 84,000 people.

Zarganar said he and more than 400 entertainers in Myanmar volunteered to aid victims of the cyclone, making several trips to hard-hit areas to help some of the more than 2 million survivors.

The day after he was arrested, the junta began publishing daily warnings in state-controlled media against people who send "video footage of relief work to foreign news agencies." Many believe the government suspects Zarganar and his co-workers of providing videos from their relief missions to anti-junta groups.

Zarganar has been imprisoned several times. Most recently, he was held for three weeks for providing food and other necessities to Buddhist monks who spearheaded anti-government protests in Yangon last September.

Zaw Thet Htway, formerly an editor of a popular sports newspaper, was arrested in 2003 for allegedly plotting to "overthrow the government through bombings and assassinations."

He was convicted of high treason and sentenced to death but was later given a reduced sentence and released in 2005 after serving 18 months.

[The Smoking Man]

Conditions in Myanmar starker than portrayed

Thu Aug 7, 1:31 PM ET

A rare bird's-eye look at Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta shows the devastation still left from Cyclone Nargis — broken levies, flooded farm roads, the shattered remains of bamboo huts and trees strewn like matchsticks along the coast.

Conditions are far starker than reflected in the assessments from Myanmar's government and even in the recent optimism of some U.N. officials, The Associated Press has concluded from a review of data, a private flight over the delta and interviews with victims and aid workers.

Three months after a disaster that claimed nearly 140,000 lives, thousands of villagers are still getting little or nothing from their government or foreign aid groups.

"We lost everything — our house, our rice, our clothes. We were given just a little rice by a private aid group from Yangon. I don't know where the government or foreign organizations are helping people, but not here," said Khin Maung Kyi, a 60-year-old farmer who lost six children to the killer storm.

Some areas have received help in the delta, Myanmar's rice bowl set amid a lacework of waterways. During a fly-over, brand-new metal roofs atop reconstructed homes glittered in the tropical sunlight, farmers in cone-shaped hats worked in green rice paddies, and gangs of workers struggled to remove debris from canals and repair broken embankments.

But progress is slow and behind where it should be.

"The situation in Myanmar remains dire," said Chris Kaye, who heads relief operations for the U.N. World Food Program. "The vast majority of families simply don't have enough to eat."

Some grim recent statistics from foreign aid agencies working in the delta:

• A survey of families in 291 villages showed that 55 percent have less than one day of food left and no stocks to fall back on. Some 924,000 people will need food assistance until the November rice harvest, while around 300,000 will need relief until April 2009.

• The fishing industry, the delta's second-most-important source of income and food, remains devastated. More than 40 percent of fishing boats and 70 percent of fishing gear were destroyed and very little has been replaced.

• More than 360,000 children will not be able to go to elementary school in coming months because at least 2,000 schools were so badly damaged they cannot reopen anytime soon.

"The vast majority of people have received some assistance. But very few people have received enough assistance to get them through the next three months, and almost no one has received enough assistance to enable them to rebuild their lives," said Andrew Kirkwood, who heads the aid agency Save the Children in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Kirkwood said three months after such a disaster, aid agencies would normally be rebuilding schools, health clinics and other facilities. But in Myanmar, he said, the first phase of emergency distribution of food and basics is likely to continue for another three months.

More upbeat assessments have come from other quarters. Some have noted that a second wave of death from disease and starvation anticipated by some relief agencies never occurred.

"It has gone much better than anyone expected," said Ashley Clements, a spokesman for World Vision, an international Christian relief and development agency, citing the resilience of the victims and the speed of the aid response.

"The message I want the world to know is that the government, U.N. agencies and other organizations ... are making good progress," said Ramesh Shrestha, a U.N. representative in Yangon.

However, almost at the same time the U.N.'s humanitarian news service, IRIN, published a report about conditions in the delta titled "Life is totally bleak." Chronicling the plight of several families, it noted that many people lack food and shelter.

Some foreign aid workers caution that their agencies refrain from exposing problems for fear the government will curb or halt their access to victims.

"Our operations are contingent on having a positive relationship with the government," said Kaye, the U.N. World Food Program chief in Myanmar. "So we have to work out a fine balance, so that the difficult issues are dealt with, but in a spirit of cooperation. What we have learned over the years is that direct confrontation with the government is not the way to solve problems."

The United Nations' humanitarian chief, John Holmes, recently noted that the process of getting to the delta is "still more bureaucratic and unpredictable than in the ideal world." The extent of the devastation also remains unseen because access is most difficult further south and away from the main townships, areas that can only be reached through narrow waterways with very small boats.

"I think that's where the needs still are quite considerable and that's where we'll focus the relief efforts over the next few months," he said.

The recovery has been slowed by the military government's xenophobia and poor performance, the difficulties of operating in the delta and in one of the world's poorest countries, and the sheer magnitude of the calamity.

The United Nations says the government's foreign exchange system has resulted in the loss of as much as 25 percent of relief aid. This is because Myanmar requires the conversion of foreign aid money into Foreign Exchange Certificates at a set price and then into the country's national currency, the kyat. The certificates have been worth as much as 25 percent less than the market value of an equivalent number of dollars.

"This is a big concern," said Dan Baker, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Myanmar. "The donors aren't going to give us money if they know they will (lose) a percentage of that."

To date, relief funds from foreign donors have come to $339 million, according to the United Nations.

Victims complain about the dearth of official assistance. The real post-cyclone heroes have proved to be individual donors, small private groups and Buddhist monks — some of whom have been harassed, curbed and sometimes arrested by the junta for their efforts.

The scale of the disaster would put even the most advanced nations to a severe test. According to a recent assessment, total damage in the delta and parts of Yangon is estimated at $4 billion.

Meanwhile, many villagers continue to suffer — and are far less diplomatic about the military regime than some aid workers.

"I don't expect any help from the government. I just know that if I ask them for help I would have to give them something in return. But I have nothing now," said Khin Maung Kyi, the farmer from the delta area of Kungyangon.

All the storm left him were six acres of rice fields. But he no longer has children to work in the fields, and he and his wife are weak from the lack of food, blistering sun and monsoon rains.

"We have no plan for the future," he said. "The only thing we have to think about now is how to find food for tomorrow. Having enough food to eat like we had before seems to be a dream now."