BIN LADEN: MUSLIMS MUST LEAD RELIEF EFFORT TO BURMA

AIRO, Egypt (AP) - In an audio tape posted on the internet, Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden said that Muslims across the world "must take action" to help the estimated 2.4 million Burmese affected by the tragic cyclone and subsequent flooding in Myanmar which left 125,000 people dead.
"Although our holy Jihad against Jews and infidels (may their stomachs roast in hell) is important," said Bin Laden, "even more important is the human tragedy in Burma. The Western nations natter and dither while innocents die because the Great Satan is indifferent to the fate of non-Christians. As Muslims, however, we do not have the luxury of indifference. Allah is a God of mercy and compassion. As his followers, we are compelled to be the instruments of that compassion."
"Many Muslim nations," continued Bin Laden, "are awash in oil wealth. In the name of Allah the all-giving and all-loving, we are obligated to use that wealth to the benefit of Allah's neediest children, no matter where they are, and even though they do not share our beliefs. There is a time for the sword, but there is also a time for the hand of mercy and charity to lift up those in their hour of greatest desperation. The decadent West has failed, and it is up to the world's Muslims to lift up the lamp of Islamic generosity to give hope to those who are now hopeless."
Surprisingly, the terrorist leader and most wanted man in the world has vowed to risk his own life to personally bring aid to the decimated areas of Burma. "Although I am not a prophet with the greatness of Mohammed (peace be upon him), I am still a man," said Al Qaeda's #1, "and my fellow man is crying in sorrow. I, myself, will lead an aid mission into Burma as a visible missionary of succor to this devastated nation, though it may mean having to dodge sniper fire like other emissaries of peace have done before me."
"I can only hope," concluded Bin Laden, "that the rest of the world will follow the Muslim example, set aside their petty squabbles, and do the right thing to save innocent lives."

THE FORCE OF RELOCATION FOR THE REFUGEES

United Nations officials on Friday warned the Burmese junta against premature resettlement of thousands of victims of Cyclone Nargis, warning that the policy could launch a second wave of the disasters.
Amid reports that the military regime is instructing thousands of people displaced by Cyclone Nargis to return to their places of origin, senior UN officials warned that the policy could lead to disease outbreaks and more hardships for the 2.4 million people already affected by the catastrophe.
"The real risk of people going back prematurely is that they will have no access to essential life-saving services," said Anupama Rao Singh, regional direction for UNICEF.
"They will pretty much become invisible to humanitarian workers, therefore facing all of us with a second wave of disease and disaster," Singh told a press conference in Bangkok.
In fact, tens of thousands of people have been invisible to an international aid relief programme for the past four weeks in the wake of the May 2-3 cyclone.
International aid has reached about 41 per cent of the estimated 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone, with many of them stranded in remote areas in the sprawling Irrawaddy delta, the area hardest hit by the storm that left an estimated 133,000 dead or missing.
Access to the delta remains an issue, almost a week after Burma's junta chief Senior General Than Shwe promised UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that he would allow access to all international aid workers.
Terje Skavdal, Asia-Pacific regional director for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, acknowledged that Burma had sped up visa approvals for UN experts from two weeks to two days, and had allowed about 20 international workers into the delta since Than Shwe's promise.
"While we welcome the government's approvals of more entry visas for UN staff, we still urge them to show that same flexibility for NGO staff as well," said Skavdal.
He said there was still no clear mechanism by which visas or travel papers into the delta were issued. Burma has allowed about 300 medical workers form Asian countries into the delta, but still blocks certain other foreigners from the area.
The Red Cross Red Crescent has been awaiting travel papers for six foreign experts on water-purification units desperately needed to provide clean water to survivors of the cyclone.
"There is a huge shortage of water in the delta," Red Cross Red Crescent spokesman John Sparrow said.
"We've already deployed our water purification units in the delta, able to produce 1 million a day, but they are still awaiting our experts to become operational.

NO MORE PROXIES IN BURMA BY THE REGIME

Technical changes have been made to prevent Internet users from using proxy servers to get around government controls, according to an announcement from Myanmar Teleport, one of the country’s two Internet service providers (ISPs).
In a notice to customers that was obtained by The Irrawaddy on Thursday, the company, formerly known as Bagan CyberTech, said that it had upgraded its service to remove the need for proxies.
.“As part of this upgrade, the use of web proxies is no longer required,” said the announcement. “Myanmar Teleport would like to cordially request you to reconfigure your web browser settings not to use proxies.”
When contacted, a technician at Myanmar Teleport confirmed that the move was intended to tighten control over access to unauthorized Web sites.
Burma has some of the world’s most restrictive Internet policies, banning blogs and exiled news providers critical of the country’s ruling junta. However, access to prohibited Web sites is often possible through use of proxy servers.
The upgrade was described as a measure to improve service with “more reliable and robust equipment.”
Burma has two Internet service providers—Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications and Myanmar Teleport. Myanmar Teleport/BaganNet was formerly owned by Ye Naing Win, the son of the ousted Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt.

VISA CLOSED BY FIRE

PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE

Fire damages Burma embassyFire broke out early Monday and seriously damaged the top floor of the Burmese embassy on Sathorn Road, but there were no injuries, police officials said.They said the fire, which occurred after sunrise, was brought under control within 30 minutes but that there was a significant amount of smoke.The roof of the building collpased during the blaze, prompting officials at the embassy to move their cars out of the area."The blaze broke out on the top floor, in a room full of documents and filing cabinets," firefighter Niwat Jootawong told a reporter of the AFP news agency. "That floor is basically burnt down. There's also a little damage on the ground floor.""It was an accident," said Pol Maj Thanyaboon Thonjalatwong. "There were no injuries, and we've ruled out sabotage."The embassy closed its visa section.The fire coincided with mounting confusion within the international aid community over whether the Burmese junta will follow up on commitments to grant more visas to aid workers seeking to enter the country to meet the desperate needs of some 2.4 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis.

witnesses said the fire, which occurred after sunrise, was brought under control within 30 minutes but that there was a significant amount of smoke.
An investigation is under way at the embassy, which is on a main thoroughfare in the Thai capital Bangkok.
"The blaze broke out on the top floor, in a room full of documents and filing cabinets," said firefighter Niwat Jootawong. "That floor is basically burnt down. There's also a little damage on the ground floor."
The fire occurred one day after an international conference on cyclone relief in Myanmar, where the junta has drawn worldwide criticism over its handling of the disaster that has left at least 133,000 dead or missing.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI UNDER HOUSE ARREST EXTENTION AND ASEAN OPENS A LITTLE BIG HIS MOUTH

ASEAN CHIEF OPENS A LITTLE BIG HIS MOUTH TO SAY BURMA

The Burmese military regime must begin to allow foreign aid workers unhindered access to the areas hardest-hit by Cyclone Nargis soon if it hopes to keep the trust of the international aid community, Asean chief Surin Pitsuwan said Tuesday.
"What has to be delivered is real activities," said Surin, who is secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Asean, along with the United Nations co-hosted a pledging conference for the victims of Cyclone Nargis in Rangoon over the weekend and their reputations are on the line to help to deliver the junta's pledges.
While the conference, attended by about 500 delegates from 51 countries and UN agencies, failed to attract an outpouring of promises for Burma's post-cyclone reconstruction efforts, it was deemed an important first step in building trust between the international aid community and the country's notoriously paranoid military rulers.
The regime has been under intense criticism for hampering an international relief effort for the estimated 2.4 million people affected by Nargis, which swept the country's central coast on May 2-3, leaving at least 133,000 dead or missing.
More than three weeks after the storm hit, international aid has reached 40 per cent of the affected population, a poor performance generally blamed on the government's refusal to facilitate logistics and allow more international relief experts in the Irrawaddy Delta region, the area hardest-hit by the cyclone.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday won assurance from junta chief, Snr Gen Than Shwe, that his country would allow "all" aid workers unhindered access to the storm-affected areas, a message that was seemingly supported at Sunday's aid pledging conference.
Although there have been signs of speeding up visa approvals and allowing greater access to the delta for UN relief experts, there are still complaints of unnecessary delays to the big aid push.
"There are many low-hanging fruits that can be harvested, and those include accessibility, delivering of supplies already on the ground, monitoring, and the ability to admit and allow foreign aid workers into the field with less obstacles and less delay," Surin said of what was immediately expected of the junta.
He called on the international community to allow the regime a few more days before deciding whether it was reneging on its commitment to allow more foreigners in.
"I think we need to give it a week to say the curve is rising or the curve is being maintained at the same level or the curve of access is actually going down," Surin said a press conference.
Asean is to play a crucial facilitating role in the aid flow, especially for the reconstruction phase, by sending in teams to assess the amount of damage done by the cyclone and joining a tripartite "core team" with nine experts from Asean, the United Nations and Burma to overcome hurdles to the aid operations.
The United Nations wants a clear assessment of the cyclone's destruction and emergency aid needed by June 12, after which it was to launch another flash appeal for donations from the world community.
About 50 per cent of the $201 million flash appeal initially launched by the United Nations has been met by contributions and pledges.
"The tone struck by the major donors on Sunday was that they are ready to give significant assistance to a clear programme that is monitored and which can be implemented," said Richard Horsey, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Confidence in implementation would depend, once again, upon the degree of access by foreign experts who are allowed into the cyclone zone.
Several UN agencies, including the World Food Programme, have said they have been granted more visas and greater access to the delta since Friday although still with the need for permission on a case-by-case basis.
"Yesterday was a red-letter day with seven visas applied for and seven visas issued," said Paul Risley, a World Food Programme spokesman.
Over the weekend and for the first time, at least one foreign expert with the UN aid agency was allowed to tour the delta to assess food needs, and on Tuesday, it is to be permitted to fly its own helicopter to three remote destinations in the delta that were previously off-limits, Risley said.
But the Burmese bureaucracy continues to bog down the process.
"Every step of the way has been very difficult," said Risley. "Every step has required an agreement with the government, clearance from the government and approval from the government of virtually all of our actions."

HOW DO YOU BELIEVE FOR REGIME PROMISE

Junta's credibility gap keeps aid from cyclone victims
May 23, 2008
As the first Asean-UN International Pledging Conference approaches this Sunday, serious questions have been raised about whether the Burmese junta has enough credibility and accountability to handle the large amount of aid given to it by international donors.
Worst of all, the junta's leaders have told Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan that the rescue and relief phase of operations there has been completed. At a press conference yesterday, Surin asked Burmese authorities to provide solid facts to fill the current discrepancy gap between the figures being given by Rangoon and those of credible international organisations.
Burmese authorities put the death toll at 77,000, with 55,000 missing or presumed dead, while the international community puts the latter number at 133,000.
"The government must provide facts and data and [reveal] how it got these numbers," Surin said adding that it is a question of creditability and trust. Without this, it would be difficult to convince international donors to pledge sufficient funds. "If they do, they will come up with lots of conditions," he said.
Since the pledging conference is only two days away, the onus is on the junta to assure international donors of its plan of action in terms of how the rehabilitation and recovery effort will be carried out. In an improbable coincidence, the planned conference also falls on the same day that Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest should legally have come to an end, given the junta's own provisions when it extended her detention last year.Several Bangkok-based aid workers who were waiting to get a visa to enter Burma also responded cautiously to the announcement, noting that the regime has a history of not keeping its promises. Foreign aid workers already inside Burma need permission to travel outside of Rangoon—another hurdle that will need to be cleared before an effective response to the disaster is possible. But some Burma watchers regarded Than Shwe’s decision to allow foreign aid workers into the country—after weeks of refusing to even respond to telephone calls from the UN secretary general—as a genuine concession.

FREEDOM NOW IN BURMA

FREEDOM NOW
P.O. Box 30155 􀁸 Bethesda, Maryland 20824-0155 􀁸 +1 (202) 320-4135 (ph) 􀁸 jgenser@freedom-now.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jared Genser
+1 (202) 320-4135
FREEDOM NOW DEMANDS THE RELEASE OF BURMESE
DEMOCRACY LEADER AUNG SAN SUU KYI
UNDER BURMESE LAW, SHE MUST BE RELEASED FROM HOUSE ARREST
IN RANGOON AT MIDNIGHT, THE BEGINNING OF SUNDAY MAY 25, 2008
Washington, D.C. – Today, Freedom Now has demanded the release of the
world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of
Burma. Retained in 2006 by a member of her family, Freedom Now attorneys
Jared Genser and Meghan Barron successfully obtained Opinion No. 2/2007 on
May 8, 2007 from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that Ms. Suu
Kyi’s ongoing detention under house arrest was a clear violation of
international law and engaged in other advocacy activities on her behalf. As
explained in the enclosed legal memorandum, her ordeal should be coming to
an end.
Under Article 10(b) of Burma’s State Protection Law 1975, a person in Burma
who is deemed a “threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the
peace of the people” may be detained for up to a maximum of five years
through a restrictive order, renewable one year at a time. Initially detained
after the Depayin massacre in May 2003, Ms. Suu Kyi’s house arrest was last
extended on May 25, 2007. Therefore, her fifth and final year of house arrest
allowable under Burmese law (though found to be in violation of international
law) will expire at the end of the day on May 24, 2008.
“The timing couldn’t be better,” remarked Freedom Now President Jared
Genser. “If the Burmese junta abides by its own law, Aung San Suu Kyi will
be able to attend the international aid conference scheduled for Sunday May
25th in person. And if General Than Shwe refuses to release her, it will be a
slap in the face to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the ASEAN
diplomats who will be on hand to hear the junta’s request for $11 billion of
international assistance,” he added.
Previously, the Working Group issued three other opinions – 8/1992, 2/2002,
and 9/2004 – that Ms. Suu Kyi’s prior terms of house arrest were also in
violation of international law. After Ms. Suu Kyi’s political party and its allies
won the 1990 parliamentary elections in Burma with more than 80% of the
vote, she has spent more than 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, and
continuously since May 2003.

REGIME ACCEPTS AID WORKERS AFTER THREE WEEKS LATE

Naypyitaw - After forcing cyclone victims and survivors to wait exactly three weeks for aid, the Burmese military junta on Friday agreed to allow all aid workers in to the reclusive country, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.
Chastised for the past three week for hindering a disaster relief programme for cyclone victims in his own country, Burmese military supremo Snr Gen Than Shwe finally made the concession during talks with Mr Ban, said a UN pool report.
"He has agreed to allow in all the aid workers," Ban said after the meeting with Than Shwe, who heads the so-called State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the dictatorship council calls itself.
Cyclone Nargis swept over the southwestern delta on May 2-3, leaving 133,000 dead or missing. Since then, the regime has been accepting trickles of humanitarian aid, and has allowed almost no foreign experts into the country.
Even those few visas passed out have been on a selective basis.
Asked if Than Shwe had indeed agreed to grant visas to "all" aid workers, Ban replied, "I think so, he has agreed to allow all aid workers regardless of nationalities," adding, "He has taken quite a flexible position on this matter."
Than Shwe has also agreed to allow Rangoon, the former capital, to be used a logistical hub for aid distribution.
Ban arrived in Rangoon on Thursday, where he held talks with Prime Minister Thein Sein and visited the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta.
In addition to the deaths, the UN estimates that the storm left another 2.4 million people in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medicine. Almost three weeks after the storm, international aid has reached only 25 per cent of the affected people, a poor performance that is largely blamed on the Burmese rulers.
Ban, who on Thursday was flown by military helicopter to the Kyondah relief camp, about 75 kilometres south of Rangoon in the delta, has refrained from publicly criticising the regime's performance, while stressing his "solidarity" with the Burmese.
"The United Nations is here to help you. The whole world is trying to help," he told one woman at Kyondah, who had lost her home and entire family to the cyclone.
"He has agreed to allow in all the aid workers," Ban said after the meeting with Than Shwe, who heads the so-called State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the dictatorship council calls itself.
Cyclone Nargis swept over the southwestern delta on May 2-3, leaving 133,000 dead or missing. Since then, the regime has been accepting trickles of humanitarian aid, and has allowed almost no foreign experts into the country.
Even those few visas passed out have been on a selective basis.
Asked if Than Shwe had indeed agreed to grant visas to "all" aid workers, Ban replied, "I think so, he has agreed to allow all aid workers regardless of nationalities," adding, "He has taken quite a flexible position on this matter."
Than Shwe has also agreed to allow Rangoon, the former capital, to be used a logistical hub for aid distribution.
Ban arrived in Rangoon on Thursday, where he held talks with Prime Minister Thein Sein and visited the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta.
The junta maintains that the "rescue and relief" phase of the emergency assistance for the cyclone victims is over, an outlook that clashes with that of the international aid community.
It is hoped that the regime will backtrack on its stance before a pledging conference is held on Sunday, co-hosted by the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Burma is a member.
The disaster has put the spotlight on the Burmese rulers, a military dictatorship that has lorded over its people for the past 46 years, earning the country pariah status among Western democracies and proving an embarrassment for even its closest Asian allies.
The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the junta styles itself, has drawn international criticism for failing to facilitate international aid for its own people in the aftermath of the cyclone, and for refusing to hand out more visas to foreign aid experts and workers. Even those inside the country have mostly been banned from working in the most affected areas such as the Irrawaddy Delta.
Ban was to return to Bangkok on Friday evening, and to talk on Saturday with Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and other Thai ministers.
Thailand has become into the main storage centre for aid that is piling up, as well as the logistical and organisational hub for the current international relief effort.
Mr Ban and many diplomats are to go to Rangoon on Sunday to preside over the UN-Asean aid-pledging conference, for the cyclone victims' short-term and long-term needs.
Last Monday, Asean agreed to act as a liaison between the international aid community and the junta. Burma now estimates it will take $11 billion to rehabilitate areas hit by the cyclone. There is no information where this figure came from.

Burma's leaders to face court in ICC

Call for Burma's leaders to face court
From correspondents in Strasbourg
May 22, 2008 07:47pm
THE European Parliament has called for Burma junta leaders to be brought before the international court in The Hague if they continue to prevent aid from reaching cyclone-stricken regions.The euro deputies, meeting in Strasbourg, voted overwhelmingly - 524 votes for, three against with 13 abstentions - in the non-binding resolution that "if the Burmese authorities continue to prevent aid from reaching those in danger, they should be held accountable for crimes against humanity before the ICC (International Criminal Court)".The MEPs also called on EU member states to push the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution to refer the matter to the court "for investigation and prosecution" .The assembled MEPs strongly condemned the "unacceptably slow response to this grave humanitarian crisis by the Burmese authorities, which have put preservation of their own power before the survival of their citizens".The resolution came before Burma voters in the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta region are asked to approve a new constitution Saturday, even with two million people still hungry and homeless three weeks after the killer storm. The regime has already declared a 92.4 per cent victory in the first round of voting on May 10, which was held in regions that were spared by the cyclone. The European Parliament deplored "the distorted priorities of the regime in pushing ahead with its so-called referendum on the sham constitution and rejects the implausible outcome at a time when a large part of the country has been devastated and millions are suffering from what has been aptly described as a natural disaster turned into a man-made catastrophe" .Burma's secretive military junta has stunned the world by refusing a full-scale foreign relief effort that could save countless lives. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon left today for a personal look at the disaster area, on the first day of a visit aimed at pushing for a full emergency relief effort after Cyclone Nargis.
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Junta Wants $11 Billion in Aid

IT IS NOT SURE TO SAVE CYCLONE REFUGEES, BUT FOR MILITARY REGIME
Asean and the UN will co-chair an international aid pledging conference in Rangoon on Sunday, both organizations announced in separate press releases. “The ASEAN-UN International Pledging Conference will support efforts to alleviate the devastating impact of Cyclone Nargis on the country and widespread suffering caused to the people of Myanmar [Burma],” said the UN statement.
Both organizations said the meeting was called “in recognition of the outpouring of international solidarity and support.” However, critics say the main agenda of the ruling Burmese generals at the conference will be securing US $11 billion for aid and reconstruction, which is the amount the junta is calling for, according to Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan, who visited Burma on May 20-21. A potential dilemma that could arise at the conference is the chasm in concept between the donors and the military regime. While donors, particularly in Western countries, insist on transparency and accountability within a relief mission, the junta strives mainly to control foreign relief workers and to line their own pockets, say critics. Richard Horsey, the spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Bangkok, said, “The donor conference will be a good opportunity for a detailed discussion between the Burmese regime and Asean leaders, as well as the UN, on what is needed right now for relief efforts—what the obstacles are, how to overcome those obstacles—which means not only financial pledges.” He also said that the recovery would be focused on aspects such as the rehabilitation of the agriculture sector in the delta, which was totally destroyed by Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3. The main thing about the donor conference is for the international community to see the Burma’s relief needs are met in the short, the medium and the long terms, said Larry Jagan, a British journalist in Bangkok who specializes on Burma. Expected at the conference is United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who arrived in Rangoon on Thursday. He is due to travel to the areas worst hit by Cyclone Nargis before meeting the head of the Burmese junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, on Friday. “Aid in Myanmar should not be politicized. Our focus now is on saving lives,” said Ban. The UN’s highest ranking humanitarian officer, John Holmes, said on Wednesday that the Burmese regime must either say “yes” or “no” to the relief mission. “The scene is set to move in the directions we have spoken about, but we need to see that happening on the ground before we can be absolutely certain about it,” he said. UN agencies estimate as many as 100,000 people died or missing and at least 2.5 million people have been affected by the tropical cyclone Nargis. Ahead of Ban Ki-moon trip to Burma, the main opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said in the May 21 statement that it welcomed the UN secretary-general to Burma. Asean foreign ministers, including Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win, held a special meeting on Burma’s crisis on May 19 in Singapore. During the meeting, ministers agreed to establish a task force that will closely work with the UN as well as a central coordinating body to be set up by the Burmese regime. The task force would also “realize the Asean-led mechanism.” At the same time, the regional body called on the Burmese junta to allow more international relief workers into the stricken areas. However, Debbie Stothard, coordinator of the Alternative Asean Network (Altsean), said that the big problem is getting a commitment of aid, because everyone knows the Burmese regime is the one of the most corrupt one in the world. “The latest report by Transparency International said Burma and Somalia are the most corrupt countries in the world,” she said. Stothard said Asean may not be able to do everything, but it must assume leadership and then the rest of the international community could participate. “Asean’s role is to make sure the aid goes to where is needed”, she said. “If not, the donor conference in Rangoon on Sunday will be only a nice tea party without an outcome.”
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UN CHIEF CAN NOT GET WIN- WIN POLICY SO GORDON BROWN HINTS

Gordon Brown hints at aid drops


As millions face starvation and fears of cholera grow, Britain's Prime Minister rules nothing out
Gordon Brown has raised the prospect of Britain carrying out unauthorized emergency aid drops into Burma as a last resort if its government continues to exclude foreign help.
Amid evidence that cholera is already taking hold in parts of the stricken country and UN warnings that a 'second catastrophe' of disease and starvation could be worse than the initial cyclone, the British Prime Minister made clear that he would rule nothing out.
Brown used an address to Church of Scotland leaders yesterday (17MAY) to accuse the Burmese junta of being an 'unnatural dictatorship' that cares more about its survival than its own people's.
Privately diplomats see aid drops as a desperate last resort. One Whitehall source said there were 'huge problems' with such tactics. Experience shows that barely a fifth of aid dropped in such a way reaches the people who most need it, much of it rotting where it falls.
The option will remain on the table in the hope of increasing pressure on the Burmese military government. It emerged last night that France is in talks about a possible delivery of aid. The French government said its Mistral navy helicopter carrier was in waters south of the storm-ravaged Irrawaddy delta, with supplies to feed 100,000 people over 15 days and shelter at least 60,000 people.
Yet in this devastated land there remains little evidence of any government help. This weekend hundreds of people were lining the roads which run south of Rangoon, peering expectantly into passing cars and begging for help.
'We walked a long way to get here - our men are home trying to rebuild the house,' an exhausted-looking woman said, sitting among the debris of former homes. 'In the past five days we have received just a little rice and some condensed milk from the government. We wait here all day, hoping someone may bring some help.'
All across the delta, carrying their few salvaged possessions in bundles, the new homeless travel by foot and by boat, navigating around the bodies that still clog the waterways of the Irrawaday, unclaimed and left to rot.
The regime has sought to seal off the delta, setting up a grid of police and military checkpoints and turning back foreigners, including those seeking to help. The military leaders are determined to prevent the outside world from knowing the scale of the tragedy - or to discover that because of its own neglect this has become a man-made disaster, where starvation is now facing more than two million affected by the cyclone.
Disease is also a growing possibility and doctors believe that cholera could take hold if the water supplies become very badly contaminated. Some doctors in Rangoon have already begun to try to treat children for it in case it does take hold.
In an area near Kungyangon, south of Rangoon, where uncollected bodies are washed up in a paddy field, the stench of putrid flesh assaults the senses. One witness told The Observer they had received only a few bags of rice. 'Forty dead here,' he said. 'Most of them children.'


Junta arrests 13 opposition youth

The Burmese military junta in a bid to keep the opposition in disarray on Thursday arrested 13 prominent youth leaders of the country's main opposition political party – the National League for Democracy - a senior party member said. Thirteen important leaders of the NLD were rounded up by Rangoon's police of the Special Branch and officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs early on Thursday from their homes, a NLD senior member Aung Thein told Mizzima.A relative of Ohn Mar, one of the arrested youth leader's said, a group of officials including the police from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the SB came to their house at about 3:15 a.m. and took her away. "They said they wanted to talk to her and took her away. They clarified that they were not arresting her but she has not returned till now," a family member of Ohn Mar told Mizzima over telephone. The family member, who declined to be named, said she saw several other NLD youth members including Ma Pah Pah, Ma Cho, and Ko Lay Lwin on a Hylux light-truck that the officials came in. The NLD youth leaders including Tun Zaw Zaw, Khin Tun, Ohn Mar, Ma Pah Pah, Ma Cho, and Ko Pauk have been playing a pro-active role in trying to help cyclone victims in Rangoon and Irrawaddy division and were planning to leave for Dae Da Ye town for relief work, the family member said. "We are terribly worried and her mother could not even eat," the family member said. The NLD youth leaders including Tun Zaw Zaw, Khin Tun, Ohn Mar, Ma Pah Pah, Ma Cho, and Ko Pauk were also playing a pro-active role in trying to expose the regime's unfair practices in the May 10, referendum. While the reason for the arrest of the NLD youth leaders is still not clear, Aung Thein said it may be connected to the visit of the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the country today. The world body chief on Thursday arrived in Rangoon on a mission to persuade the ruling junta to allow relief supplies and aid workers access to the cyclone affected regions of Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon division. A young NLD party member in Rangoon, speaking to Mizzima on condition of anonymity said the arrested youth leaders have been secretly working to expose the junta's unfair practices in the referendum. "These people are key members of the NLD youth and they have been also working undercover to expose the junta's unfair means to win supporting votes in the constitutional referendum," the NLD youth said. The junta on May 15, five days after the nation-wide referendum, declared that the constitution had been supported by 92.4 percent of voters. However, due to the killer Cyclone Nargis' lashing the country on May 2 and 3, the junta postponed the referendum date in 47 townships in the affected areas to May 24.

MIZZIMA NEWS

LETTER TO US PRESIDENT

PLEASE CLICK ALL YELLOW IMAGES TO BE CLEAR

POSTED BY ANH

World Bank Says No Aid to Burma

The World Bank says it will not provide aid or loans to Burma in the wake of a deadly cyclone.
The bank said Tuesday that new loans are impossible because the military government has made no payments on outstanding debts since 1998, and has failed to enact economic and other reforms.
Next week the United Nations and ASEAN will host a joint conference in Rangoon to seek international support and financial aid for those affected by Cyclone Nargis.
The meeting also will focus on longer-term recovery efforts. Burmese officials say losses from the storm could be up to $10 billion.
Burmese officials say the death toll from Nargis is nearly 78,000, and that nearly 56,000 more people are missing.
Burma began a three-day mourning period today. Flags are to be at half-staff for the mourning period, which was announced by state media Monday.
Also Monday, Burma agreed to let its Southeast Asian neighbors oversee an international effort to bring foreign medical teams and aid to areas hard-hit by the storm. That breakthrough came during an emergency meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore.
Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo said that while Burma has agreed to accept nearly 300 medical personnel from ASEAN countries, it does not mean there will be uncontrolled access.
Burma has been resisting requests to send in foreign aid workers, and international aid officials warn more relief is needed to prevent starvation and disease.

MILITARY REGIME MOURNING IS TOO LATE TO BELIEVE

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Burma goes into belated mourning after Chinese mourn on eve of UN chief's arrival

Rangoon - Flags were flying at half-mast at all government buildings Tuesday as Burma officially launched three days of belated mourning for some 133,000 victims of Cyclone Nargis which smashed in to the country's central coast 18 days ago.
State media announced three days of mourning for the catastrophe's victims Monday night, without providing an explanation as to why the government had taken so long to publicly grieve for the estimated 133,650 left dead or missing by the cyclone, which swept over Burma's central coast on May 2 to 3. The public show of grief has coincided with the visit of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday evening, and UN humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes, who arrived in Burma Sunday and visited three towns in the storm-devastated Irrawaddy delta on Monday.Although Holmes was not granted an audience with government officials on Monday, a Buddhist holiday in Burma, we was to meet with senior officials including, possibly, Prime Minister Thein Sein on Tuesday."He's meeting some government officials and possibly the prime minister as well," said Aye Win, spokesman for the United Nations Information Centre in Yangon.There are hopes that these high-level UN visits will put pressure on Burma's ruling junta to ramp up the international disaster relief effort for their own people, some 2.4 million of whom have been affected by the storm, according to UN estimates.
More than two weeks after Cyclone Nargis, the World Food Programme (WFP) has only been able to reach about one third of the 750,000 people deemed in desperate need of food aid.
The international aid community wants to see Burma's military regime ease restrictions on the massive logistical pipeline needed to get emergency supplies to the remote areas in the Irrawaddy delta where most of the cyclone's victims are.The junta is also under pressure to grant more visas to foreign relief experts, and to allow more international aid workers into the Irrawaddy delta, which is currently off-limits for the vast majority of foreign aid workers. Ban, who has been unusually outspoken over the last week about Burma's refusal to allow outside help in, was scheduled to leave New York Tuesday and arrive in Yangon on Wednesday for a meeting with Burma's senior government officials, spokeswoman Michelle Montas said.
"The secretary general was invited to come," Montas said, adding that the invitation was forwarded to Ban by Burma's UN ambassador.
Following the talks in Yangon, Ban will be in Bangkok for discussions with Thai officials on the Burmese situation and then return to Rangoon on Sunday for the UN-Asean conference, which was designed to scale up relief activities that have been so far restricted by the military junta in Burma.
The UN and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) have urged governments to send ministers to the meeting in Rangoon, hoping that their presence would increase pressure on Burma to open its doors to international relief aid and workers.
"The conference will focus on the needs of those affected by the cyclone, and seek international support and financial assistance for the international humanitarian response to meet the most urgent challenges, as well as longer term recovery efforts," the UN said.
Both the UN and Asean urged the international community "to rise to the occasion and translate their solidarity and sympathy into concrete commitments to help the people of Myanmar emerge from the tragedy and rebuild their lives.

British PM: British PMLONDON (AFP)

- Burma's military regime is acting inhumanely by continuing to block foreign aid for cyclone victims and should be held accountable, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in an interview Saturday."This is inhuman," he told BBC World Service radio in his strongest comments since the cyclone hit on May 2-3, leaving at least 133,000 people dead or missing. "We have an intolerable situation, created by natural disaster."It is being made into a man-made catastrophe by negligence, the neglect and the inhuman treatment of the Burmese people by a regime that is failing to act and to allow the international community to do what it wants to do."He added: "The responsibility lies with the Burmese regime and they must be held accountable."Dozens of Asian doctors headed into Burma Saturday to treat survivors but with some 2.5 million people in need, aid agencies say more help is required and soon to prevent disease and provide food, water, shelter and medical care.Brown's comments echo those from senior diplomats across the world but stopped short of those from France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner who said Thursday that the situation was approaching "a crime against humanity".Navy ships from France and the United States, among others, were positioned off the Burmese coast stocked with food and emergency supplies awaiting entry.US lawmakers have asked President George W. Bush to consider "humanitarian intervention" to help those in the stricken Irrawaddy Delta region.The British prime minister said nothing was being ruled out to resolve the situation forced, including forced air-drops, although he accepted that aid agencies believe they could be counter-productive.

Jane Birkin to march for Burma at Cannes film festPARIS (AFP) -

British-born singer and actress Jane Birkin will join a protest on the sidelines of the Cannes film festival Monday to highlight the critical ordeal of the two million survivors of Burma's cyclone disaster."We are trying to touch people, we will go to Cannes, we will take to the streets, where important people from around the world are gathered," Birkin told a support rally in Paris on Saturday.Some 50 people including Birkin's daughter the actress Charlotte Gainsbourg and members of the pressure group Info Birmanie gathered at the foot of the Eiffel Tower under banners reading "Solidarity with the Burmese people"."They are dying. We implore the United Nations, the international community to act now. Please support us, please help us," Ashim Sopaka, a monk from Myanmar, told the crowd.Burma's military regime has been heavily criticised for a slow-moving relief effort after Cyclone Nargis, two weeks after the cyclone left nearly 78,000 people dead and 56,000 missing.The junta Saturday allowed in nearly 80 Asian medics to help, one of the first significant movements of foreign aid workers into the disaster zone.The head of this year's Cannes jury, US actor-director Sean Penn, took aim at the junta's response as the festival opened on Thursday."When these things happen, all these governments, and I include mine, their control over people ... their keeping people from getting help when they need it, they've got to be pushed out of the way by people," he told reporters.Info Birmanie said it had contacted several actors and directors at Cannes for them to join Monday's protest.

Myanmar junta leader Than Shwe visits a refugee camp outside Yangon on Sunday.

YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Two weeks after Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar, the country's reclusive junta leader Than Shwe visited a refugee camp outside Yangon, according to video broadcast on state television.
Myanmar junta leader Than Shwe visits a refugee camp outside Yangon on Sunday.
Surrounded by fellow junta members dressed in olive-green military suits, Shwe walked through streets talking with the people who lined up outside their neatly constructed tents.
The 75-year-old military ruler touched the cheeks of young survivors held by their mothers.
The junta leaders -- who traveled about 320 km (200 miles) south to Yangon from the new capital Naypyidaw -- looked on as aid workers at the camp opened plastic cases filled with relief supplies. Watch Myanmar leader's visit »
The visit comes on the day that United Nations humanitarian chief John Holmes arrived in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, to assess the scope of the disaster.
Video from the scene show Holmes, flanked by troops, touring a hospital and speaking with doctors and cyclone survivors.
He will meet with the country's rulers and try to convince them that a disaster of such magnitude cannot be handled by one nation alone, said spokeswoman spokeswoman Amanda Pitt.
Last week, Holmes said the death toll from the cyclone which struck the country on May 2-3 could be "in the region of 100,000 or even more." Millions more are homeless.
Don't Miss
The official death toll provided by Myanmar's government is much lower.

UN STEP IN FOR AID AND GHOSTS ARE SHOUTING

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Burma to accept foreign medical workers

Cyclone -stricken Burma will accept foreign medical workers to help with the relief effort, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said Monday.
"Myanmar (Burma) will accept international assistance," Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo told a news conference.
Burma also agreed at today's emergency Asean meeting in Singapore to let its Southeast Asian neighbours coordinate foreign assistance for cyclone victims, Yeo said.
Burma's government had estimated losses from the disaster at more than $US10 billion ($A10.5 billion), Yeo said after meeting with Asean counterparts, including Burma's Nyan Win.
Yeo said Burma planned to hold a donors' meeting in Rangoon on May 25 to discuss its needs.
Ghosts shouting for 'help' among cyclone survivors

In the middle of the night, in the worst-hit areas of the cyclone, villagers hear voices from the fields."Hey …. help us, Hey … help us," the voices say. But when villagers search the fields with their torch lights, no one can be seen."We believe it must be the ghosts of those who died, because they died unnaturally in the cyclone," said a villager from Peinneakone village in Laputta Township, Irrawaddy Division, where Cyclone Nargis struck May 2-3.Most Buddhists believe that the spirits of those who died in accidents are restless and continue to dwell near their loved ones."I heard people say they see their friends and family who died in the cyclone still sitting beside them," said a social worker who visited Kun Chan Kone Township in Rangoon Division."The spirits just stayed and move around their children as if they were still alive."Many survivors were traumatized after they lost parents, children and belongings before their eyes.A volunteer physician in Rangoon who is helping cyclone survivors in the Delta region said, "I think the survivors of the Cyclone have been mentally traumatized and they tend to lose control and see things and images and hear sounds. It might seem normal in the daylight but when night falls, people tend to hear the voices of their loved ones and see them.""So, they might think it is spirits or ghosts," said the doctor.Many dead bodies were floating on the water while survivors tried to escape from villages to get food and water near the township.Burmese believe the ghosts cannot harm them, only haunt them.One of the ghost stories being told goes like this: A soldier had a dream last week that the ghost of a woman slapped him, complaining that the soldier took her body away before her family had a chance to see it, and to confirm that she was dead. She also complained that the soldier took her body away without any clothing – in full view of the public.

MAJORITY CIVILIANS' DREAM WILL HAVE TO COME TRUE

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US lawmakers have asked President George W. Bush to consider "humanitarian intervention" in cyclone-hit Myanmar after its military rulers refused to allow foreign experts to direct relief efforts despite rising deaths.

Forty-one members of the House of Representatives wrote to Bush on Thursday asking him to "strongly consider" backing efforts by France, Britain, Germany, Denmark and other nations to gain entry into the devastated Irrawaddy Delta region "to provide urgent life-saving humanitarian aid."
From both sides of the aisle, the lawmakers asked the US leader to "immediately and urgently" consult with the French, British, German, Danish and other supportive and regional governments as Myanmar's military junta said Friday more than 133,000 people were dead or missing in the cyclone disaster.
The new toll -- nearly double Thursday's official figure of 71,000 and two weeks after the storm left the country's rice-growing south in ruins -- came as the junta again rejected calls to let foreign experts direct the massive relief effort for 2.5 million needy survivors.

The lawmakers said Bush should pursue the talks to determine the extent to which the United States could provide support for a "peaceful international humanitarian intervention and life saving humanitarian aid" to Cyclone Nargis victims amid "the military regime's intransigence."

The junta has insisted it can manage the catastrophe alone, despite urgent international pleas to open up their doors and avert a second wave of death among desperate victims short of food, water, shelter and medical care.

The generals have accepted hundreds of tonnes of relief supplies but have all but sealed off the disaster zone, keeping out most foreigners and insisting that the country can rebuild on its own.

The American lawmakers said it now appeared that China would block any move by the UN Security Council to authorize relief because of the objections of Myanmar's junta.

US helicopters, ships, trucks, and airplanes filled with life-saving supplies meanwhile sit unused in Myanmar's neighboring countries, they noted.

"We now face the possible death of 2.5 million people in Burma (Myanmar). Thirteen days after the cyclone hit, there is no more time to wait," they warned in the letter, a copy of which was made available to AFP.

Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu has also written to Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, saying the UN Security Council should authorize immediate shipments of aid to Myanmar "over the objections of the military regime."

"The refusal of the Burmese military regime to accept full, adequate humanitarian aid from the international community is nothing short of criminal, and unprecedented in recent history," said the former South African archbishop.

He said that the Myanmar regime had "effectively declared war on its own population and is committing crimes against humanity."

Citing possible objections by China and Russia at the UN Security Council, Tutu warned that the world could make "the same mistake it made on Rwanda, accepting solutions that were guaranteed to fail."

Jean-Maurice Ripert, the French envoy to the United Nations, called on the world body Friday to take stronger action to persuade Myanmar to open up to foreign assistance, warning that hundreds of thousands more people could die.

He told reporters in New York that he appealed during a UN General Assembly session for the United Nations "to finally react strongly, very strongly" to the Myanmar military regime's defiance.

"Tens of thousands of lives have been lost, hundreds of thousands could be lost," he said.

Junta insists aid effort running smoothly

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Junta insists aid effort running smoothly

RANGOON (Reuters) - Burma's military government said on Thursday its cyclone relief effort was moving along swiftly even as foreign powers warned of starvation and disease among up to 2.5 million people left destitute by the storm. The European Union's top aid official met government ministers in Rangoon and urged them to allow in foreign aid workers and essential equipment to prevent more deaths. But his trip did not yield any breakthroughs."You know, relations between Myanmar and the international community are difficult," Louis Michel told Reuters. "But that is not my problem.""The time is not for political discussion. It's time to deliver aid to save lives."Earlier, the reclusive generals signaled they would not budge."We have already finished our first phase of emergency relief. We are going onto the second phase, the rebuilding stage," state television quoted Prime Minister Thein Sein as telling his Thai counterpart this week.Separately, the junta announced an overwhelming vote in favor of an army-backed constitution in a referendum held after the cyclone despite calls for a delay in the light of the disaster.Nearly two weeks after the storm tore through the heavily populated Irrawaddy delta rice bowl -- leaving up to 128,000 people dead -- supplies of food, medicine and temporary shelter have been sent in dribs and drabs to devastated communities.In the delta town of Bogalay, where around 10,000 people are thought to have died, people complained of forced labour and low supplies of food at state-run refugee centers."They have to break stones at the construction sites. They are paid K1,000 ($1) per day but are not provided any food," said Ko Hla Min, who lost nine family members in the storm.Along the river in Bogalay rotting corpses remain tangled in the scrub. Villagers fish, wash and bathe in the same river.The United Nations has said more than half a million people may now be sheltering in temporary settlements.The United Nations has increased its estimate of the number of people in urgent need of aid to 2.5 million, and called for a high-level donors' conference to deal with the crisis.U.N. spokeswoman Michel Montas told reporters on Thursday that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's deputy, U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes, would go to Burma in the next five or six days, where he hoped to persuade the junta to grant U.N. workers more access to the delta region."Inconsistent access to the flooded delta region, damage to infrastructure and communications, and heavy rainfall pose serious logistical challenges, so the level of assistance is still falling far short of what is required," she said."Concern is deepening over the growing risk of outbreaks of disease, especially with people migrating outwards from the affected area in search of basic necessities," Montas said.Burma's state television raised its official death toll on Thursday to 43,328, while leaving the injured and missing figures unchanged at 1,403 injured and 27,838 respectively. Independent experts say the figures are probably far higher.POLITICAL PRESSURE Despite calls to postpone its constitutional referendum after the disaster, the junta went ahead on May 10 in areas not seriously affected by the cyclone.It said on Thursday more than 92 percent of the ballots cast were in favour of the charter. The military sees the constitution as a key step in its democracy roadmap, but critics say it will only entrench their rule because it gives the military an automatic 25 percent of seats in parliament and control of key ministries. "This referendum was full of cheating and fraud across the country," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy.A vote in the cyclone-hit areas is set for May 24. The junta has consistently resisted outside calls for faster and more transparent moves to democracy, and since the cyclone has rebuffed calls for a full-blown international aid effort.TIN ROOFS The United States and other countries continued to fly aid into Rangoon on Thursday despite unconfirmed reports some supplies were being diverted by the army.The United States has completed 13 flights with water, food and other supplies. The U.S. military plans more flights for Friday but has not received clearance from Burma yet."To the best of our ability, to date, we have not seen any U.S. assistance that has been diverted," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. France and Britain said they were sending emergency supplies to Burma to help victims of Cyclone Nargis. In Bogalay relief materials were being held in storage waiting for distribution and government officials sold tin-sheets for roofs at K4,900 ($5) apiece, far above the budget of most.Po Aung, who survived the tidal wave that tore through his village by clinging onto a tree, just wants to go home."Those dead are gone. But, we the remaining want to return to our own place," said the 57-year old, one of 80 survivors from a village of over 500. "We are very sad and disappointed too. We just don't know what to do."

YOU WILL SEE HOW THE REGIME DENIES

The Burmese military junta is instrumental in making a mockery of human tragedy. Over 100,000 lives were lost and two million rendered homeless by cyclone Nargis and yet relief material donated by the international community and aid agencies have found their way into the markets. Such is the scale of corruption in Burma.

Tissue boxes with Red Cross labels, believed to have been pilfered, on sale in Mingalar market in Rangoon on Wednesday, May 14, 2008.

Local residents said they saw foreign made biscuits, dried meat, instant noodles, tarpaulins and plastic sheets on sale in Nyaunpinlay market, Mingalar market, Bogale market, Theingyi market and other markets in Rangoon.

"I bought biscuits with labels like CNE (green), MCS, PMUS, DIS, IT --- brands made in Thailand, Japan and China, and ready to eat meat, instant noodles that I have never found in these markets before," a man who bought the stuff from Bogale market told.

Another local resident said that the biscuits put on sale in the market are the same as the ones distributed to cyclone victims on May 11 in South Dagon Township by the local authority.

some correspondents in Rangoon said tissue packets with Red Cross labels were seen in a store in Mingalar market.

Another local resident in Rangoon said he saw army trucks from the Navy Supplies Depot, in Mingaladon, Syriam and Labutta bringing the relief materials to the markets.

"I found the same biscuits in the Nyaungpinlay market and the shopkeeper was shouting -- 'foreign biscuits available',"they said.

Similarly, he said he saw foodstuff, part of the relief supplies, at the residence of his friend who works at the airport.

"When I visited my friend's house on Tuesday, I saw a dozen tins of sardines and about five packets of biscuits in his home. When I asked him, he said he got it from his work place."

An aid worker expressing concern told Mizzima that relief supplies donated for the cyclone victims are on sale in Rangoon markets.

"The aid workers have got photographic evidence of these supplies being put on sale in the markets. The rice sacks and condensed milk tins with 'World Food Program' (WFP) logos and Japanese flags are on sale," said the aid worker.

The aid worker added that mosquito nets with (UNH) logos were also spotted at the corner of Bar Street, in Rangoon. Instant noodles are being sold at Kyat 600 per sachet as the price tag in Nyaungpinlay market. Moreover US made makeshift tents designed for patients are available at Kyat. 87,000 per unit in Mingaladon market, the aid worker rued.

But, Paul Risley of the World Food Program said the organization has not received any reports regarding the aid materials being sold in the markets instead of being distributed among cyclone victims.

Regime Wins 92 Per Cent in Forced Referendum

'Huge turnout' for Burma's referendum
A referendum on a new constitution held last weekend in Burma has been approved by 92 per cent of voters, the country's state media has reported.
It said there was a 99 per cent turnout for the vote, held in areas not affected by the cyclone, Al Jazeera online.
The announcement on Burmese state television came as the forecast for survivors of the cyclone is getting increasingly bleak.
Relief supplies still have not reached the people who need them most and now bad weather is threatening aid distribution, the online news agency said.
The military government's decision to press ahead with the May 10 poll, a week after the deadly cyclone hit, was sharply criticised by aid agencies who said the government should instead be concentrating its resources on helping cyclone survivors and preventing disease.
Regions devastated by the cyclone, are set to vote on May 24, even though the United Nations estimates that around two million people are still in desperate need of food, water and shelter.
Burma's government has said 66,000 are dead or missing from the cyclone, but the Red Cross has said it believes the death toll could be in excess of 100,000.
The new constitution, which took 14 years to draft, has been heavily backed by the military government and state media.
It says the 194-page document will form the basis for democratic elections to be held sometime in 2010.
Al Jazeera correspondent Tony Cheng, who crossed secretly into the Burma border town of Myawaddy during the Saturday's vote, found few people who had read the constitution or supported it.
Many people he spoke to said they planned to put an X in the 'No' box. Critics have denounced the constitution as a sham, designed only to institutionalise the military's grip on power.
Under its terms the military will be guarantied a quarter of all seats in a future parliament, while another clause allows the president to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency.
Activists who have spent time in jail because of their opposition to the military government will be barred from standing for election because of their criminal records.(THE NATION)

Time to Invoke ‘Responsibility to Protect’: Burmese Activists
By LALIT K JHA
Thursday, May 15, 2008, -->
The UN is being urged by the Burmese expatriate community to invoke the "responsibility to protect" principle to save the lives of people stranded in the Irrawaddy delta 12 days after Cyclone Nargis devastated the area.
Expatriates have also called upon the United States, Britain and France—the three permanent members of the Security Council—to unilaterally provide aid and relief to the affected people even if it means bypassing the UN and Burma's military government.
"Now is the time to act. You have helicopters, ships and supplies ready and waiting. Stop waiting for China or the Burmese regime's approval and send aid now," wrote Aung Din, the director of the US Campaign for Burma, in a letter addressed to the heads of state.
Meanwhile, another key activist group, the Burma Campaign UK, will hold demonstrations on Saturday at the embassies of the US and France as well as the UK foreign office.
Mark Farmaner, the director of the Burma Campaign UK, said: "We have to face up to reality. Every day of delay is costing lives. The UK, USA and France have ships off the coast that could save lives today. Are we really going to let thousands die just a few miles from life-saving food and medicine sitting unused on our ships?"
A group of Burmese monks began a three-day hunger strike in front of the United Nations in New York on Thursday, while other expatriates launched letter campaigns to the prime minister of Britain and the presidents of France and the US.
On Wednesday, representatives of Burmese monks in the US delivered a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging him to travel to Burma to assess the situation.
"We are not eating because our people are not eating,” said Ashin Nyaka, a monk and visiting professor at Columbia University. “They are starving while the world waits and the Burmese generals steal the food aid. Maybe when the UN sees hungry people outside its door, it will act more decisively."
The Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) will hold a rally in three Canadian cities—Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver—on Saturday to urge stronger action from the UN and leading Western countries.
"When the military junta fails to provide proper protection for its own citizens, there is a responsibility of the world community to protect the vulnerable people facing the dire situation on the ground," said Tin Maung Htoo, the executive director of CFOB. (THE IRRAWADDY)

UN warns of 'second wave of deaths' as Myanmar braces for new cyclone

Another powerful storm headed toward Myanmar's cyclone-devastated delta, where so little aid has reached that the U.N. warned on Wednesday of a "second wave of deaths" among an estimated 2 million survivors.
The U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said there is a good chance that "a significant tropical cyclone" will form within the next 24 hours and head across the Irrawaddy delta area.
The area was pulverized by Cyclone Nargis on May 3, leaving at least 34,273 dead and 27,838 missing, according to the government. The U.N. says the death toll could exceed 100,000. An estimated 1.5 to 2 million survivors of the storm are still in need of emergency aid. But U.N. agencies and other groups have been able to reach only 270,000 people so far.
In a sign that Myanmar may allow outside help, Dr. Thawat Sutharacha of Thailand's Public Health Ministry said Wednesday that the junta has given permission to a Thai medical team to go to the cyclone-hit delta.
If the team is able to go as scheduled on Friday, it will be the first foreign aid group to work in the ravaged Irrawaddy delta.
Bottlenecks, poor logistics, limited infrastructure and the military government's refusal to allow foreign aid workers have left most of the survivors living in miserable conditions without food or clean water. The government's efforts have been criticized as woefully slow.
"The government has a responsibility to assist their people in the event of a natural disaster," said Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs.
"We are here to do what we can and facilitate their efforts and scale up their response. It is clearly inadequate and we do not want to see a second wave of death as a result of that not being scaled up," she said.
The news of a second cyclone was not broadcast by Myanmar's state-controlled media. But Yangon residents picked up the news on foreign broadcasts and on the Internet.
"I prayed to the Lord Buddha, 'please save us from another cyclone. Not just me but all of Myanmar,'" said Min Min, a rickshaw driver, whose house was destroyed in Cyclone Nargis. Min Min, his wife and three children now live on their wrecked premises under plastic sheets.
Prof. Johnny Chan, a tropical cyclone expert with City University of Hong Kong, said the new cyclone would likely not be as severe as Nargis because it is already close to land, and cyclones need to be over sea to gain full strength.
"There will be a lot of rain but the winds will not be as strong," he told The Associated Press.
Soldiers have barred foreign aid workers from reaching cyclone survivors in the hardest-hit areas, but gave access to an International Red Cross representative who returned to Yangon on Tuesday.
Bridget Gardner, the agency's country head, described tremendous devastation but also selflessness, as survivors joined in the rescue efforts.
She said she saw volunteers giving medical aid to hundreds of people a day even though they themselves were homeless. In one location, she saw 10,000 people living without shelter as rain tumbled from the sky.
The military, which has ruled since 1962, has taken control of most supplies sent by other countries, including the United States, which began its third day of aid delivery Wednesday as five more giant C-130 transport planes loaded with emergency supplies headed to Myanmar.
The U.S. operation's spokesman, Lt. Col. Douglas Powell, said a total of 197,080 pounds (89,394 kilograms) of provisions have been sent into Myanmar on the eight U.S. military flights that have been cleared to go.
Most of the provisions have been blankets, mosquito nets, plastic sheets and water.
Myanmar also agreed to attend an emergency meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers next Monday to discuss problems in getting foreign aid the country, Asian diplomats said Wednesday.
Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej also flew into Yangon Wednesday to try to persuade the junta to grant visas to international disaster experts.
Joining other individual and institutional donors around the world, Hollywood stars have donated $250,000 (€163,000) for survivors through Save the Children. The global aid agency said Not On Our Watch, a nonprofit group founded by actors George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and others, has also pledged more donations over a one-year period.

INTERNATIONAL VOICE AND ACTROCITIES IN BURMA

Burma aid increasing as casualties rise
The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, has said he is immensely frustrated at what he called the unacceptably slow delivery of aid to the victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma.
Mr Ban also warned that an outbreak of infectious diseases could dwarf the current crisis, unless more aid got into the country very quickly.
Although there appears to have been a significant increase in the relief effort, a BBC correspondent in the country says many people in coastal areas far from Rangoon are still in desperate need of assistance, and that heavy rain continues in the worst hit areas.
The Burmese authorities now say almost thirty-two thousand people died in the cyclone and almost thirty thousand are still missing.

Diplomatic pressure on Burma continues
Relief for those affected by the cyclone has been slow to arrive
The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has urged the Burmese authorities to provide immediate and unfettered access for humanitarian agencies.
Mr Brown said it was estimated that two million people faced famine or disease as a result of what he called the lack of cooperation from Burmese authorities and Britain was determined to push for action by the United Nations Security Council.
Mr Brown said a British plane carrying tents was leaving Dubai for Burma and that a Royal Navy ship had been dispatched.
The US ambassador to Thailand, Eric John, told the BBC that China and the countries in the south-east Asian grouping, ASEAN, were all urging Burma's generals to accept more relief supplies and more foreign experts in aid distribution.

Kick Burma Out of the U.N.
OpinionWall Street JournalMay 10, 2008
The United Nations this week said the refusal of Burma's government to allow workers into the country's devastated agricultural region was unprecedented in the history of humanitarian relief. The human catastrophe produced by Burma's refusal to permit aid in the wake of Cyclone Nargis has stunned the senses of a world that has watched this spectacle for a week.There are uncounted numbers of persons dead, homeless and orphaned. Bodies still float in water. The World Health Organization has warned there could be outbreaks of cholera and especially malaria. U.N. member-state India warned the junta the deadly cyclone was headed toward Burma on May 1, two days before it hit. Yesterday, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said food relief hasn't yet reached the region because "regrettably" the junta won't talk to him.It's time to kick Burma out of the United Nations. If the U.N. does not put in motion a process to suspend Burma from its U.N. membership, then, clearly, nothing is forbidden.Chapter II of the U.N. charter provides for the suspension or expulsion of member states by the Security Council, which can also restore membership. We leave it to the lawyers to find words suitable for such a motion. Maybe there's something somewhere in the U.N.'s Declaration of Human Rights, which celebrates its 60th tattered anniversary this year.Some will say that China, the junta's friend, almost surely would veto any such motion. Then let it do so, on the eve of its torch-besieged Summer Olympics.Some will say if Burma, then why not Sudan? Good question.The person to press this point is John McCain, who has suggested creating a league of genuine democratic states willing to act when the U.N.'s "universal" membership fails.Booting Burma out of the U.N. would be symbolic. But a whole world watching Burma's generals let their people die of hunger and disease is symbolic of something worse. If the U.N. can do nothing about Burma, it should at least do something about its own self-respect.

ALL SUPPLIES AND UN ARE LAYING UNDER REGIME BLOCK

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The United States delivered its first relief supplies to Burma yesterday, as the United Nations urged the reclusive nation to open its doors to foreign experts who could help up to two million cyclone victims facing disease and starvation. The unarmed military C-130 cargo plane, packed with supplies, flew out of U-tapao in Chon Buri and landed in Rangoon, capping prolonged negotiations to persuade Burma's military government to accept US help. Burmese government spokesman Ye Htut said the aid, which was transferred to Burmese army trucks, would be ferried by air force helicopters to the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta later yesterday. Two more US air shipments were scheduled to land today. The official death toll from the May 3 cyclone Nargis is 28,458 with another 33,416 still missing. But UN assistant secretary-general Catherine Bragg said it could be 62,000 to 100,000, ''or possibly even higher than that''.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) representative Terje Skavdal said in Bangkok yesterday that much more assistance was still needed to help the survivors as rapidly as possible. 'Much aid has arrived [in Burma] over the weekend, but in fact it has been limited. People are getting into a much worse situation. We need to receive more cooperation [from the international community],'' said Mr Skavdal, who oversees the UN's key humanitarian agency. Though international assistance has started trickling in, the authoritarian government has barred most foreign experts experienced in humanitarian crises.

BURMESE MILITARY OFFICERS ARE STEALING RELIFE AID

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Burmese military officers and village heads are stealing relief supplies in many areas following Cyclone Nargis, according to Rangoon sources.
Sardines, clothe, high energy biscuits and other relief aid sent to the survivors of the cyclone are being sold at markets, shops and even teashops, said a cyclone survivor..
Burmese line up to receive free rice on the outskirts of Rangoon on Monday. (Photo: AP)Meanwhile, in Kawhmu, southwest of Rangoon Division, cyclone victims still have not received any relief aid. A Kawhmu resident, now in Rangoon, told the The Irrawaddy that “local officers and our villager headman only distributed about 30 percent of the aid to the people, and they kept 70 percent.”
Such reports underscore the importance of the dispute over the past week between the military regime and international relief agencies, who say they must have their own staff on the ground to oversea aid distribution. However, the junta is still saying it will not let foreign aid workers into Burma and will handle aid distribution itself.
According to a Rangoon-based journalist, citizens are not allowed to deliver aid supplies themselves and must give their donations to members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association or local firefighters.
“People who collect the relief supplies are using the items and eating food that is meant for survivors,” he said.
Rangoon children line up to receive rice after Cyclone Nargis. (Photo: AP)A Rangoon resident said, “The donations from the authorities are just for propaganda and to show off. The authorities took relief supplies back with them after they shot video in Hlaing Tharyar and Shwe Pyi Thar townships.”
A local World Vision office in Thanlyin Township in Rangoon asked for permission from local authorities to hand out rice, and was told to donate 10 bags of rice to the authorities to be able to give rice to the people, said a staff member of World Vision.
Meanwhile, the authorities have allowed some wealthy citizens and movie stars to pass out aid, but prevented some private citizens for political reasons.One example, Kyaw Thu, a movie star and well-known supporter of the demonstrations led by monks in September of last year, was harassed by thugs carrying knives and clubs when he tried to distribute rice to people in Thanlyin Thowship in Rangoon. Kyaw Thu is also chairman of a social welfare association, the Free Funeral Services Society, which helps people who can not afford funerals for their family members.