An update on recovery from 2008's Cyclone Nargis

From the Voice of America, the United Nations says that there are some successes in the recovery efforts from Cyclone Nargis that hit Burma in 2008.

A United Nations report on Burma's recovery from Cyclone Nargis says progress has been achieved in key areas such as child development and health care. But communities in the Irrawaddy Delta still struggle to sustain their livelihoods and rebuild homes lost in the 2008 storm.

The report issued Tuesday provides an upbeat assessment of recovery in the Irrawaddy Delta less than two years after Cyclone Nargis swept through the region in May 2008.

Cyclone Nargis left up to 140,000 people dead or missing. Over two million people were affected by the storm. Total losses were estimated at over $4 billion.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Burma's military government and the United Nations formed the Tripartite Core Group shortly after the storm to assess and coordinate the recovery effort.

The group's latest survey covered 1,400 households, and particularly focused on the most vulnerable, such as landless families and those headed by women.

The survey reported improvements in child mortality, and child nutrition, as well as greater access to health care and clean water.

Esben Harboe, a special assistant in the office of the U.N.'s resident coordinator in Burma, says the survey shows despite the gains, there is still much to do.

"The key message is progress is evident but there's still a lot more to do in terms of recovery and especially within two areas, which is [are] livelihood and shelter. These are the areas where the respondents in the survey said that they still need assistance," said Harboe.

The survey found that 50 percent of the shelters surveyed were judged to be safe, but over 80 percent of surveyed households considered their homes to be of poorer quality than before the cyclone.

Harboe says the delta region still faces challenges because of its lack of development and poverty. Burma is one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia.

"It's very positive we can record improvements within a number of areas but there's still - even it is back to a pre-Nargis situation - pre-Nargis it was very bad. So it's not to say that there's nothing more to do even if it's back to normal so to speak," said Harboe.

A reconstruction plan by the United Nations, ASEAN and Burma's military government has called for $690 million in aid. Aid workers have also say that additional international funds will be needed to fully rebuild Irrawaddy Delta communities.

Burma's isolated military government originally refused and blocked most foreign aid after the massive cyclone. It took the intervention of the United Nations and ASEAN to persuade the military to allow in foreign aid workers and donated supplies.

Mr. Stiglitz returns from Burma

Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz just completed his trip to Burma, also known as Myanmar. The nation run by a cruel military junta asked the economist to visit and help turn Burma's economic fortunes around. However, critics say that Stiglitz is just being used by the military to deceive it's public.

From the IPS, reporter Stanislaus Jude Chan attended a press conference where Stiglitz announced what he found.

At a press conference organised here Monday by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Stiglitz expressed optimism over the prospects for change in Burma’s rural economy. "In general, there is the hope that this is the moment of change for the country," Stiglitz said.

The former chief economist of the World Bank was in Burma last week to meet with the state’s Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Maj Gen Htay Oo and National Development Minister Soe Tha. He was part of a mission organised by ESCAP aimed at assessing and improving Burma’s rural economy.

ESCAP held a wide-ranging dialogue with the South-east Asian state to boost the country’s agricultural sector and to help it reclaim its status as the rice bowl of Asia. It was a "moment of hope," said Stiglitz.

"This is the moment of change for the country," opined the noted economist. "And it would be a mistake to miss this moment."

But some are sceptical about the changes that Stiglitz and ESCAP expect to bring to a country still ruled by a regime notorious for its oppression and secrecy. "The same as the junta’s sucker bait," charged one irate member of the audience, as he marched up to Stiglitz after the conference. The colloquial phrase suggests a scheme to deceive the ignorant.
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Based on his talks with farmers during his visit to Burma, Stiglitz identified the high cost of credit in the rural areas, with interest rates of at least 10 percent a month, as one of the issues Burma will have to overcome.

"Irrigation has increased the potential for productivity, but because many could not get credit to buy fertiliser and for hydro-electricity, the full potential could not be reached," he said.

He urged the Burmese government to promote access to appropriate agricultural financing, to boost access to seeds and fertilizers as well as spending on health and education, and create well-paid jobs in rural infrastructure construction in order to stimulate development and raise incomes and spending.

"If you don’t renew your human capital, it depreciates, just as fiscal capital depreciates," Stiglitz said as he urged the country to do more to bridge the demographic gaps in education in the country.

Political prisoners in Burma double in two years

Human Rights Watch released a report today that says that the number of political prisoners in Burma has doubled in only two years. Many of the prisoners were arrested after peaceful demonstrations in 2007, or for helping in the relief efforts after Cyclone Nargis in 2008.

The press release of the report from Human Rights provides more information of the cirumstances of the imprisonments. You can download the full report titled "Burma's Forgotten Prisoners," from their website.

Political opponents, activists and others with the courage to speak out against military rule or criticize government actions or policies have been routinely locked up in Burma's prisons for years. There are 43 known prisons holding political activists in Burma, while more than 50 labor camps where prisoners are forced to perform hard labor.

Repression increased after the popular uprising led in part by monks in August and September 2007 was crushed by the government. Closed courts and courts inside prisons have held unfair trials and sentenced more than 300 political figures, human rights defenders, labor activists, artists, journalists, comedians, internet bloggers, and Buddhist monks and nuns to lengthy prison terms. Some prison terms have been for more than 100 years. The activists were mainly charged under provisions of Burma's archaic penal code that criminalizes free expression, peaceful demonstration, and forming of independent organizations. More than 20 prominent activists and journalists, including Burma's most famous comedian, Zargana, were arrested for having spoken out about obstacles to humanitarian relief following Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma in May 2008.

The world was reminded of the brutality of the military government after the arrest, protracted and unfair trial and conviction of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in August after an American intruder broke into her house. Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party won the last Burmese elections in 1990, has been in prison or house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years.

"Gaining the release of Suu Kyi is important not just for her own well-being, but because it could facilitate a process that allowed the opposition to fully participate in elections and Burmese society," said Malinowski. "But Suu Kyi is not the only person facing persecution for her political beliefs. People like the comedian Zargana, imprisoned for criticizing the government's pathetic response to Cyclone Nargis, or Su Su Nway, a brave woman activist who led street protests, also deserve the world's attention."

"Burma's Forgotten Prisoners" spotlights the cases of political prisoners including:

* Zargana: In November 2008, a Rangoon court sentenced prominent comedian and social activist Zargana to 59 years in jail - a sentence later reduced to 35 years - for disbursing relief aid and talking to the international media about his frustrations in assisting victims of Cyclone Nargis. Zargana was previously detained for a year following the 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations in Burma, and jailed for four years in 1990-94 for making political speeches. Police rearrested Zargana in September 2007 for publicly supporting the protests by monks, and detained him for 20 days. Zargana is serving his sentence in a prison in Myitkyina, Kachin State, in northern Burma, which is known for its bitterly cold winter and is difficult for relatives to reach. His mother Daw Kyi Oo died in March 2009, while Zargana was in prison.
* U Gambira: On November 4, 2007, Burmese authorities arrested 28-year-old U Gambira, one of the main leaders of the All-Burma Monks Alliance, which had spearheaded the September 2007 protests. On the day of U Gambira's arrest, the Washington Post published an opinion piece in which he wrote: "The regime's use of mass arrests, murder, torture and imprisonment has failed to extinguish our desire for the freedom that was stolen from us so many years ago." On November 21, 2007, U Gambira was sentenced to a total of 68 years in prison (since reduced to 63 years), including 12 with hard labor. His brother Aung Ko Ko Lwin received 20 years in prison for hiding him, and was sent to Kyaukpyu prison in Arakan state, while his brother-in-law Moe Htet Hlyan was also jailed for helping him while he was being pursued by the authorities.
* Su Su Nway: In 2005, labor rights activist Su Su Nway became the first person to successfully prosecute local officials for the imposition of forced labor, a common human rights violation in Burma. Su Su Nway, who suffers from a heart condition, was subsequently sentenced to one and a half years of imprisonment in October 2005 on charges of "using abusive language against the authorities." In 2006, she was awarded the John Humphrey Freedom Award by the Canadian human rights group Rights and Democracy. She was rearrested in November 2007, after leading peaceful protests earlier that year. In November 2008, she was sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in prison after being charged with treason and "intent to cause fear or harm to the public."

WFP blames food shortages and poverty for Rohingya flight

In recent months, a Muslim minority of Burma has been fleeing the country to find opportunity elsewhere. Instead the Rohingya Muslims have been captured and put in refugee camps or forced to turn back. Thailand has recently come into controversy for their treatment of the Rohingya.

The World Food Programme is now on record for blaming food shortages and poverty as the reasons for the Rohingya fleeing Bangladesh and Burma. Ron Cohen of the Voice of America received the reasons why from an WFP spokesman.

Paul Risley, WFP's regional communications advisor, says the levels of food shortages and malnutrition is adding to a sense of desperation among the Rohingya community.

"Poverty is still the greatest challenge," he said. "The people in Rakhine State are often found to be without food between harvests. There is a growing sense of desperation that's measured by the very high malnutrition rates we found in the recent assessment."

Recent WFP briefing papers say one third of Burma's children under five are underweight, with over 100,000 of them dying each year.

Currently the WFP plans to provide some 1.6 million people across northern Rakhine state, Shan state and the Magway Division - covering Chin and Kachin states - with food assistance.

The WFP is already providing food relief for over one million people in the Irrawaddy Delta region devastated by cyclone Nargis in May last year. The cyclone claimed thousands of lives.

Risley called on Burma's authorities to ease restrictions on the movement of goods and food from elsewhere in the country where the WFP and other non-government organizations are currently operating.

Haunted wasteland saps spirits, lives after cyclone

from the Boston Globe

8 out of 10 families lived in poverty before the cyclone hit Burma. The devastation can still be seen in the area, and many things have not been restored. - Kale

By Seth Mydans,

BANGKOK - Nearly four months after the cyclone, the Irrawaddy Delta in Burma is a flat, dark expanse of ruin populated by dazed survivors, unburied bodies and visions of wandering, moaning ghosts.

The region seems to have avoided mass starvation and epidemic, and people are rebuilding their precarious lives in this vast and often flooded marshland where the margin between survival and death has always been thin.

Within that thin margin, recent visitors say, many of the survivors seem to have lost their spark of life, and some of the dead seem not yet to have disappeared as they haunt the minds of those they left behind.

"There is a weariness in people's eyes here," said a photographer who has been chronicling the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which struck on May 3. He spoke on condition of anonymity because access to the region is forbidden to foreign journalists.

"There's a lost feeling that you get," he said. "People are physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. Some of them don't have the strength to start over."

After an international furor over the government's refusal to admit foreign relief workers, a tightly controlled system has been put in place, and aid is reaching much of the area, where the United Nations says 2.4 million people were affected.

The cyclone left 138,000 people dead or missing and 800,000 homeless, according to UN figures, after tremendous winds and a storm surge that resembled a tsunami.

It leveled most of the fragile thatch homes in its path, uprooted trees, swept away the livestock and fishing boats that provided a livelihood and polluted many rice fields with salt.

For those fields that survived, this year's planting season has now passed, and experts say it may be more than a year before many people see their next decent harvest.

Although some houses are being rebuilt and some fields are being worked, the delta remains a vista of ruin and debris, where human and animal bones and the last decomposing bodies still cluster at the edges of waterways.

Fantastical tales circulate among the survivors, the photographer said, weaving a tapestry of stories from this world and the next.

There is the tale of the boy who survived by clinging to the back of a crocodile, and the story of the boatload of people stranded at low tide who sat waiting on the silt for the water to rise, surrounded by stranded corpses.

There is the story of the mother who was reunited with her baby after it was swept away in a washtub, and the story of the woman who gave birth as the cyclone hit and pulled her baby from the water by its umbilical cord.

And there are the stories of wandering ghosts, whose cries for help can be heard at night in haunted places that no villager dares to enter.

Among these phantoms and traumas, international relief workers have become the survivors' lifeline, delivering aid to all but the most remote parts of the delta.

More than 1,800 visas have been issued to these workers, aid officials say, though access to the hard-hit delta is slowed by an ever-more-complicated process of permissions and paperwork.

By now, most survivors have received aid, said Andrew Kirkwood, country director for the aid group Save the Children. "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."

He said the reconstruction of schools, clinics and other infrastructure, which should be well underway by now, still lagged because of delays in delivering basic emergency assistance.

The xenophobic military junta that holds Burma in its grip prevented large-scale foreign aid deliveries for the first three crucial weeks after the cyclone, then loosened its controls only gradually and partially. It never did allow US and French naval vessels to bring in tons of aid and equipment.

But despite the early demands from around the world that the Burmese government permit open deliveries of aid, the United Nations says that nearly half the assistance pledged by foreign donors has yet to appear. Recently it said it had received $339 million in international donations, a shortfall of $300 million.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Refugee Doctor 'Making a Difference' for Thousands in Burma

from Voice of America

By Luis Ramirez

Part of VOA's new Making a Difference series. Each week, VOA introduces a different individual - famous or lesser-known - working to help others.

Thousands of people flee Burma each year, escaping poverty, oppression, and civil war.The nearest escape for most is Thailand, where they experience both despair and hope. Burmese refugee, Dr.Cynthia Maung, runs a small, modest public health clinic near the border in Thailand, and is making a difference in her community by providing essential services not available to most residents of the poor region.

Mothers line up with children, waiting for immunizations. In another line, couples with newborns wait for documents certifying their children were born in Thailand. The documents take the place of birth certificates Thailand refuses to issue.These people are refugees, and in the eyes of Thailand's authorities, they do not exist.

But to Dr. Cynthia Maung, they do matter. Dr. Cynthia is a Burmese physician and a refugee herself. She makes a difference for thousands of her fellow refugees in Thailand and for many more inside Burma. For example, the Burmese physician founded the Mae Tao Clinic, a safe haven where miracles happen every day.

Dr. Cynthia fled Burma in 1988 following an army crackdown on those who demonstrated for democracy and justice.

"I joined with the demonstration group and then when the military seized power, people started disappearing, or missing, or fled to the border. I myself also decided to come to the border to continue struggling or working for political change," she says.

In a two-room shack, she started doing amputations and delivering babies using instruments sterilized in a rice cooker. Young volunteer medics trained by Dr. Cynthia treat everything from landmine injuries to gastroenteritis.With donations from NGO's and foreign governments, including the United States, Dr. Cynthia's work has a reputation for a making a little money go a long way.One hundred 50 thousand people come here for treatment each year. Those who can, pay under a dollar.

Dr. Cynthia lives in modest quarters next to the clinic. She could have immigrated to the West and be making a huge salary. But for Dr. Cynthia, this is a greater calling.

"When we live here, we are not only treating illnesses, we can also educate young people who can go back and work in their community and who are very willing to promote the health activities in their village. So it is a very good opportunity for young people to give education and to give more hope," she says.

The clinic trains volunteer medics who fan out into the ethnic Karen and other isolated areas of Burma. Some of the volunteers are former patients who, once desperate for help, are now the ones helping. It is they who embody Dr. Cynthia's vision.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Burmese farmers face rice shortage

from The Daily Express

A United Nations agency has warned that time is running out to help Burma's cyclone-stricken farmers plant rice for the next growing season.

Some 52,000 farmers in Burma's storm-hit Irrawaddy delta will be unable to grow a 2008 rainy season rice crop unless they are supplied with farming equipment and seed within the next two months, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.

But while failure to do so will pose social and economic problems, it will cause just a 2% shortfall in projected national rice production, much less than previously feared, FAO consultant Albert Lieberg said.

The warning came as more attention is being turned toward recovery and rebuilding after initial emergency relief efforts to help survivors of the May cyclone. More than 78,000 people were killed and another 56,000 are missing.

The FAO's deputy regional representative, Hiroyuki Konuma, said that without external support, the worst-off farmers and fishermen in the Irrawaddy delta "will suffer from hunger and poverty for a long time and they will remain dependent on external aid for a long time."

Mr Lieberg said 52,000 farmers will not be able to plant rice this season if they do not receive immediate aid, meaning that almost 450,000 acres of farmland will go uncultivated. That would mean about half a million metric tons of rice will not be harvested, he said.

Mr Lieberg led a three-week FAO assessment mission in Burma that targeted the worst hit areas of the 11 most severely affected townships. About 70% of land in the 11 townships was submerged in flood water, he said.

He said that that fears over flooding and salinity problems - sea water contaminating the soil - had been exaggerated.

[Comment] The Burma dilemma

from The International Herald Tribune

By Thant Myint-U

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon arrives in Yangon on Thursday at the invitation of Myanmar's ruling generals, the first official visit by a UN chief in over 40 years. He will tour the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy River delta and work to persuade the government to allow greater international access to the hundreds of thousands of people in need of life-saving assistance.

But he will not just be visiting a country reeling from its worst natural disaster ever. He will be in a country only now emerging from decades of armed conflict, where aid has long been politicized and where the urgent tasks of emergency relief may soon be coupled with the immeasurably more complex challenges of recovery and reconstruction.

As early at 1990, Rolf Carriere, then Unicef director in Yangon argued that there was a desperate need for humanitarian and development aid in Myanmar, and that it could not wait for democratic change.

His call went largely unheeded. The military government pleaded for assistance, especially from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to reform the economy. But Western governments had just begun to impose sanctions in the hope of nudging the junta towards democracy, and nearly all aid - including through the UN - was cut off.

Only in the last several years have things begun to change. Several UN agencies and international charities have tried hard to expand help to the country's most vulnerable people, with support from a few governments like Britain and Norway. But it's hardly been enough.

Myanmar is one of the poorest nations in the world, with millions living in extreme poverty. But the average Myanmar citizen receives less than $2 a year in international aid - about a 10th of per capita aid to Vietnam and a 20th of per capita aid to Laos and Cambodia. Thousands, mainly children, die every year from treatable diseases like malaria.

Though the government had once looked forward to aid, it eventually became suspicious, especially when allegations of a humanitarian crisis in Myanmar were used to press for UN Security Council action. The government worried that humanitarian issues would serve as camouflage for a "regime-change" agenda and that aid workers themselves were a "fifth column." They knew that foreign funds were also helping pro-democracy dissidents both at home and abroad, and feared that aid programs were part of a conspiracy to unseat them.

Many of the regime's opponents were also suspicious, believing that any aid would further entrench the status quo. They pointed to the government's long record of economic mismanagement. A fierce debate ensued. At the very time the UN was trying to scale up assistance, Myanmar's authorities began to tighten restrictions.

Cyclone Nargis struck at a time of particularly sensitive relations between the junta and the aid community.

The outrage felt at the lack of international access is more than understandable. Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake. But the actions of the generals should also come as no surprise.

Myanmar's ruling junta is not simply a military government. At its core is a security machine developed over a half- century of civil war and foreign intervention. Everything is viewed through a security lens.

The idea of throwing open the country's borders to international aid teams goes against the most basic instincts of the men in power. It will never happen.

If the diplomacy around securing access seems tough, the dilemmas around any future recovery may be thornier still. Once the immediate crisis is over, the Irrawaddy delta will require a gargantuan reconstruction effort, lasting months if not years. Entire towns have been wrecked, millions displaced, livelihoods ruined. With rice prices sky-high, the lives of millions more could become untenable.

Should the United Nations and others only provide emergency humanitarian aid and then leave? Or can the world help revive the Irrawaddy delta, once Asia's greatest rice exporter? Can there be any logic to maintaining sweeping U.S. and European economic sanctions on aid, trade and investment while also trying to rebuild the devastated areas?

And what of the rest of the country? The delta is obviously the priority, but huge numbers of other people live in terrible poverty. Should not aid be increased for them as well? The north and the east - especially the uplands inhabited by Myanmar's many ethnic minorities - have suffered from decades of war, with enormous humanitarian challenges of their own.

Can any rehabilitation of the delta's economy be possible without a more general vision of Myanmar's economic development? What sorts of reforms are needed and what kind of economic dialogue is possible with the ruling junta?

There are of course political challenges as well, until recently the nearly sole focus of international attention. Myanmar's generals will want to push ahead with their new constitution, one that ensures the military a dominant position, like past constitutions in Indonesia and Thailand. Dozens of ethnic-based insurgent armies have agreed to ceasefires with the Myanmar army, but there is no permanent peace and moves towards disarmament and demobilization are just beginning.

Can the UN both push for political change and be the institution working on humanitarian and development issues? As Rolf Carriere questioned years ago, does help for the poorest have to wait for democracy? Does a policy of further isolation make sense?

Thant Myint-U is the author of "The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma."

"Invisible" Burmese migrants face poverty and deportation

from IRIN

Charm Tong does not remember fleeing into Thailand - she was only six years old when her parents took her across the border from Myanmar.

Her home in Shan State - Myanmar's largest region - was a conflict zone, with government troops battling rebels of the Shan State Army.

Tong was educated in northern Thailand at a Catholic orphanage. She speaks English, Thai, Chinese and Burmese, and now in her mid-20s, runs a school in Thailand that offers counselling, education and support to other migrants.

Tong’s story is happier than many of at least a million people who left Myanmar for Thailand.

"[Migrants] can be deported at any time because they have no documents," said Tong. "It is a difficult life for them - they have to live in hiding.”

The Migrant Assistance Programme (MAP), a Thai NGO, estimates that 1.5 to 2 million Burmese live in Thailand.

The Thai government considers most to be economic migrants, rather than political refugees, and requires them to obtain registration cards to stay legally. In practice, only a small number can afford the registration fees or produce the necessary documentation, so their lives are a constant battle to avoid government detection, according to MAP. Many live and work illegally and have no access to education, healthcare or basic services.

According to Tong, some live in the forests near the border in makeshift settlements to avoid police detection.

Refugee status

However, the fear of violence, and not just the prospect of jobs and opportunity, drove many Burmese into Thailand, according to a report by Tufts University, Invisible in Thailand. It stated that a significant number of Burmese migrants should be classified as refugees and granted asylum.

"Many Burmese have credible, well-founded fears of persecution …The Thai government, however, steadfastly refuses to acknowledge international legal standards governing refugees," stated the report, produced with the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

More than 1,700 migrants in three locations near the border were interviewed and the report found that many should be entitled to refugee status.

"Only a small number of Burmese who warrant refugee status and attendant services actually receive any aid or protection from the Thai government or international agencies," stated the report.

Migrants were unwilling to talk about possible political reasons for their departure. “Respondents would not answer questions about their political views or specific activities in Burma because they worried that their families would get into trouble.”

Lack of rights

"The situation of Burmese migrants in Thailand is pretty abysmal," said David Mathieson, a New York-based consultant for Human Rights Watch. "Only one-quarter to one-third are registered [with the Thai government] and even for the registered ones, there is a limit to what they can do," he said.

According to Jackie Pollack, director of MAP, unregistered Burmese effectively have no access to healthcare, education or protection under Thai law. Many are forced to work in sweatshops, or in high-risk jobs on construction sites and fishing boats. It was not uncommon for employers to simply refuse to pay wages, or to subject them to workplace abuse.

Even documented workers were susceptible as employers often confiscated their passports and registration papers, said Pollack. Undocumented workers were particularly vulnerable. "If they report [workplace] violations, they are arrested and deported for being in Thailand illegally."

22,000 feared dead in Myanmar

from Balita

Cylcone Nargis devastates large areas of what was known as Burma.

THE Burma Campaign UK has reported on Tuesday, May 6, that Cyclone Nargis may have killed more than 22,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

One of the groups responsible for promoting democracy in the military junta-run country said the Irrawaddy Delta of Myanmar bore the brunt of the cyclone, that was largely inhabited by farmers and fisher-people who live in bamboo huts held together with dried grass. Cycline Nargis hit the country that used to be called Burma on Saturday, May 3, packing winds of more than 120 miles per hour, the Burma Campaign UK said.

The Burma Campaing UK said in their official website that most people have no electricity and most roads are made from dirt and in bad condition. “Delivery of aid would be extremely challenging even if the government was co-operating,” it said.
It said that what little communications infrastructure that exists has been severely damaged, making contact in the low lying Irrawaddy Delta around Rangoon difficult. “It is this area where the worst devastation is likely to have occurred, with most people living in homes made of bamboo that would struggle to survive torrential rains and strong winds,” the group said.

It added, “Sea levels could also have risen by up to 3.5 metres (about four yards) in coastal areas, causing severe flooding. In addition to potential loss of life, livestock, food stocks and crops are likely to have been severely damaged.”
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said it is providing an initial $250,000 for emergency relief assistance to help those who have been affected by Tropical Cyclone Nargis. USAID said it also pre-positioned emergency response experts nearby and is prepared to deploy a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to assist the people of Burma.
The Burma Campaign UK said it fears the death-toll in Burma will escalate dramatically unless aid is delivered to victims in the next few days. Most people already live in poverty, and have no resources to cope with a disaster on this scale, it said. The group also said what makes rescue and relief efforts very difficult is due to the government’s “severe restrictions on the delivery of aid, and this has largely gone unchallenged by the international community.”
“This is a major humanitarian disaster,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of the Burma Campaign UK. “The British government must provide extra aid to help cope with this crisis. We also need to see the United Kingdom and other governments do more to challenge restrictions on the delivery of aid. Unless aid arrives soon thousands more will die.”
Reports said that although the regime has said it will accept aid, there is no information on what aid it will allow and where it can be delivered. It is highly unlikely that the regime will allow aid to be delivered freely on the basis of need.
Burma Campaign UK said, “It is essential that aid is delivered through independent agencies such as the UN and aid agencies, rather than the regime, which is likely to misuse or steal aid.”
“Thousands more will die unless the international community insists on immediate access for aid, and then puts its money where its mouth is,” said Farmaner. “We appreciate the challenges there are in delivering aid in Burma, but given the scale of this disaster the response from the United Nations and governments is pathetic, and the people of Burma will pay with their lives.”
In its official website, the Burma Campaign UK condemned the regime in Burma for what it claimed as “failing to give adequate warnings to the population about the cyclone that hit Burma on Saturday, and failing to adequately help victims.”
“This is yet another example of how the regime ignores the welfare of the people of Burma,” said Farmaner. “Instead of warning people about the potential danger, state-owned newspapers were full of propaganda telling people that they must vote for a sham constitution that will keep the military in power.” The regime is holding a referendum on Saturday 10 May on a constitution that the military has designed to give a civilian face to continued military rule.
Burma Campaign UK said its sources reported devastation in Rangoon, with roofs torn from buildings and widespread damage. It said aid to states with ethnic minorities face even more restrictions, especially in the east of Burma where the regime is engaged in a war against ethnic Karen, Karenni and Shan populations.
“We know the regime won’t look after people, and instead is likely to block delivery of aid. The international community must stand up to the regime and insist that aid is allowed to be delivered to those in need.”
Over 90 percent of the population of Burma are believed to live in poverty, while the regime spends around half of its income on the military. Aid agencies are not allowed to operate freely in the country. Several agencies have been forced out of Burma, including the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, which was forced to withdraw from the country because of unacceptable conditions by the military. The regime also restricted humanitarian access following the 2004 tsunami, and does not allow aid in areas of Eastern Burma where it is engaged in a war of ethnic cleansing.
As the death toll in Burma rises to at least 22,000, new satellite maps released by the United Nations show the devastating scale of floods affecting Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta.
The maps show large swathes of the South coast under water. Residents in these areas mainly live in bamboo huts that would not be able to withstand the force of the floods.
“Most of the attention so far has been on Rangoon, but this shows that it is difficult to reach areas on the coast that have been most badly affected,” said Johnny Chatterton, Campaigns Officer at Burma Campaign UK. “Helicopters and boats are urgently needed to deliver aid, but it is unlikely the regime will agree to this kind of assistance unless more pressure is put on them.”
According to Burma Campaign UK, India has confirmed it had given two days notice to the regime about the cyclone, but the authorities did virtually nothing to warn the population and put aid in place.

Burmese victims face peril from enemy within

from The Scotsman

By EMILY PYKETT
A CHILD orphaned by Cyclone Nargis sits crying in Pathein, right at the heart of the flooded Irrawaddy delta zone.
He desperately needs help if he is to survive.

Nine hundred miles away, British Red Cross workers fret impotently at a warehouse in Kuala Lumpur.

Planes loaded with shelter kits, tarpaulins and jerry cans are scheduled to fly to Rangoon the next day.

Will the vital supplies reach survivors of Cyclone Nargis in time? Or will they be seized by Burma's military rulers, who see everyone as a potential enemy – even foreign aid workers?

Aid agency flights into Burma were temporarily halted yesterday by the State Peace and Development Council. In some cases authorities refused to grant clearance for them to land and have rationed aid trucks to just two litres of fuel each.

Charities say their hands are tied because of delays caused by visa backlogs. And US defence chiefs have ruled out air drops of aid, claiming they are bound to respect sovereignty of Burma's airspace.

The Burmese junta is made up of 11 reclusive, paranoid, xenophobic generals who despise the western world.

They are currently building a brand-new sprawling capital city 300 miles north of Rangoon at Naypyidaw, known as the Abode of Kings. It has reliable electricity and water supplies, eight lane motorways and luxurious government buildings.

But while the junta leader General Than Shwe lives in a massive military complex and is happy to pay £25 million for his daughter's wedding, 90 per cent of Burma's population live on 50p a day.

The army recruits boy soldiers and is not afraid to deploy its stocks of antiquated military equipment to quell any uprisings, whether that is Buddhist monks peacefully demonstrating or the Karen ethnic minority defending themselves against state-sponsored massacres in the jungle.

The armed forces – and former rebels co-opted by the government – have been accused of large-scale trafficking in heroin, of which Burma is a major exporter.

Despite the military might, experts say the junta is afraid of everything – internal uprisings, a US invasion, globalisation and its capacity to dilute traditional Burmese culture.

International commentators agree that denying access to US military planes and withholding visas for aid workers all fits the same pattern – the military regime simply cannot reconcile the need for a massive international aid programme with the openness necessary to direct it.

Sean Turnell, a Burma expert at Australia's Macquarie University, said: "The military regime is extraordinarily xenophobic. If they can't handle the situation and they let westerners come in with helicopters, this will demonstrate to their own people the shortcomings of the military. They are more concerned with control and maintaining an omniscience in front of their people than saving lives."

Josef Silverstein, a retired Rutgers University professor who studied Burma for more than a half century, said aid workers could also be seen as a threat.

"From the junta's perspective, aid workers could be carrying weapons to give to the people, they could give them ideas of how to overthrow the government. They're afraid that if foreign soldiers come in they are the spearhead for revolution," he said.

Mark Farmaner, the director of Burma Campaign UK, said: "The council is basically dictatorship by committee.

"They have doubled the size of the army and spend half their annual budget on defence. They have never allowed free access – why should they start now?"

The junta has long mistrusted the western world, stemming from more than a century of British colonial rule that ended in 1948, with Burma deciding not to join the Commonwealth.

A parliamentary democracy survived until the ruthless dictator General Ne Win seized power in a 1962 coup.

During his 26-year rule, Ne Win's regime curtailed human rights and political opposition and closed the country off to outsiders.

Tourists were not allowed in for years until the 1970s when visitors were given strict, seven-day visas.

These days, tourists get one-month visas, but journalists are welcome only during carefully scripted occasions, such as the annual celebration of Armed Forces Day.

Burma, which used to be called "the rice bowl of Asia", is full of natural resources which mean it should be one of the continent's richest nations.

Before the cyclone destroyed the harvests, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation expected 600,000 tonnes of rice exports from Burma this year.

Yet 90 per cent of the population were living in poverty.

The government does not care about an economy already crippled through decades of military rule, and it does not care about the people.

Professor Bill McGuire, the director of the Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre at University College London, said: "This was a disaster waiting to happen, with millions of people occupying poorly built homes on a river delta barely above sea level and in the cyclone belt. Clearly, the government will have known about the approaching storm, but seems to have chosen to do nothing about it."

But although other large-scale natural disasters have acted as political catalysts, Cyclone Nargis will not help to change the Burma regime, according to observers.

And even under this level of international scrutiny, it is doubtful the catastrophe will persuade the government to open up the borders.

In fact, it could even play to their advantage, says Robert Heath, associate professor from the school of management at the University of South Australia.

The consultant in risk, intelligence and crisis and emergency management said: "The Burmese government junta may see this event as a politically convenient way to account for people who may be missing and dispossessed for other reasons including social decay."

So what can be done next to try to break down the barriers in Burma?

Dr Kerry Brown, an associate fellow on the Asia programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House, said: "They are pretty introverted and have been very enclosed for many years. They have not got a great deal of contact with the outside world.

"We have tried applied pressure through the United Nations, tourism embargoes, breaking off political contact.

"Perhaps we should be pressing for the Chinese to talk to them – they seem to listen."

Dr Gareth Price, his colleague at Chatham House, added: "The cyclone has made some two to three million people homeless. Even with Burma's 500,000 strong army, the co-ordination and delivery of aid is lacking, the junta needs international organisations to step in.

"If the military is unable to provide food and shelter to those affected, it could see renewed protests on a much larger scale. But thus far, the junta has appeared immune from foreign pressure."

Andrew Kirkwood, Save the Children, Rangoon

OUR staff are treated like spies. Even under normal circumstances, all our staff need travel permits to go outside Rangoon, and we have to be accompanied by officials from the ministry of welfare and health.

But now, possibly because of international pressure to get aid out there to survivors of Cyclone Nargis, those rules seem to be relaxed. A number of international staff are being allowed to leave the capital.

Save the Children continues to stress that issuing visas for humanitarian workers and easing customs rules for the delivery of aid as soon as possible will greatly enhance the international community's ability to meet the needs of people who survived the cyclone.

However, in my view, it's not the lack of international people on the ground that has been the major constraint – the lack of logistics has hampered us most. The infrastructure is simply not there.

We've just heard that the French oil firm Total can give us the use of two helicopters, with pilots, two days a week. I am speechless – that is great news.

Once the immediate aid efforts are over, we need to start looking at the long term.

More than 3,000 primary schools have been destroyed – that means half a million students have no prospect of going back to school.

We have been working with Unicef to assess damage to schools and are starting to plan for education to resume on 1 June.

JUNTA

This term is used to refer to the ruling body of a country where it is considered the government, normally made up of military officers, who take power after a revolution or coup d'état. A junta normally governs in a dictatorship. It can also mean a council or assembly that deliberates in secret.

MYANMAR

The country achieved independence from the UK on 4 January, 1948, as the Union of Burma. It became the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma in 1974, before reverting to the Union of Burma in 1988. The following year the government adopted the name Union of Myanmar, but the controversial name change has not been not recognised by the opposition groups and many English-speaking nations, as the government which decreed it is unrecognised.

Mark Farmaner director, Burma Campaign UK

THE most senior general, Than Shwe, is 73, very sick – and quite crazy. Many people hope that when he dies the regime will shift, but we think the generals under him are just as hardline.

So there is no real option but for the junta in Burma to be forced to change. We need the United Nations Security Council to overrule it. Trade embargoes, sanctions, the "softly-softly" diplomatic approach – nothing else has worked so far. It is time for individual governments to start getting in there. By this, I mean infiltrate Burma if they have to – we can't wait for permission any more.

Agencies should start delivering aid to cyclone survivors regardless of the junta's position because the alternative is to stand by and watch thousands of people die.

The international community is making the same mistake as it has done for the past 20 years: assuming that somehow reason and logic will work.

But these are brutal generals who are more concerned with fighting in the jungle so they can wipe out civilians and ethnic minorities.

They are not diplomats or politicians; they will not come round and realise people are really suffering.

Will Burma's leaders let aid in?

from the BBC

By Philippa Fogarty
BBC News, Bangkok

In the days after the 2004 Asian tsunami, military rulers in Burma said that they did not need any international help.

Highly suspicious of foreign aid agencies, the regime said that it could provide for the thousands left homeless without any external aid.

But it appears as though the sheer magnitude of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis could perhaps force a shift.

With the death toll from the disaster an estimated 15,000, and with hundreds of thousands without shelter, Burma's government looks more willing to accept overseas help.

Shantha Bloemen, a Bangkok-based spokeswoman for Unicef, described the situation in Burma as an "enormous emergency".

"The scale of this disaster is - as we have been discovering in the last 48 hours - just immense," she said.

"It will require a big emergency response with the right equipment and staff - which is a challenge in any situation, but particularly in a situation like this."

"The good thing is that the government has indicated that it welcomes international assistance - that's a good sign.

"The focus now is on getting out there and assessing the scale and nature of the damage."

'Wiped out'

Andrew Kirkwood, Save the Children's country director for Burma, said that responding to the devastation would be a major logistical feat, requiring boats, helicopters and trucks.

"There are seven townships in the southwest of the delta region in which we think 90 to 95% of homes have been wiped out," he said.

"The problem is that no-one can get there. There are no roads in the region that are functional so access is primarily by boat, but many boats have been destroyed."

"The main needs that we can estimate right now are for shelter, food, essential drugs, mosquito nets and water purification tablets."

Burmese troops were a visible presence in the main city, Rangoon, where they were trying to get the power back on, he said.

"But local authorities in the areas most affected are probably completely affected like everyone else."

Aid agencies in Burma currently face a difficult operating environment.

Most of their work in the country is done by local staff, because visas for foreign nationals are restricted.

In-country travel is also restricted, and agencies must apply in advance for official permission. In some cases, ministry representatives sit in on agency meetings.

But Mr Kirkwood said that there were signs of flexibility.

"It is unclear to us the extent to which normal operating protocols will have to be followed at this time," he said.

"Every indication is that everyone realises that this is an unprecedented event in Myanmar's [Burma's] history and the government is much more open to international assistance than it has ever been."

'Can't wait'

Aid agency World Vision said it had reached an agreement with the Burmese government on visa applications.

"Last night the government said we could send in extra humanitarian help," said an Australia-based spokeswoman for the organisation.

"Normally it takes one month to organise a visa - but obviously with the crisis we can't wait one month - so they have agreed that on a case by case basis they will try to get us visas in two to three days."

She described the move as very positive. But at the moment the agency's priority is working out what needs to be done.

"We know roughly what to expect but every situation is different," she said. "We know we will need food, shelter, we'll have to provide clean water. We certainly won't be calling on people to go in until we have identified exactly what we need."

The motives of the Burmese government in allowing aid are unlikely to be completely altruistic. Turning down international offers of help could have serious repercussions.

The main trigger for last September's anti-government protests was poverty - something that the cyclone will have made worse. Any failure by the authorities to act could potentially lead to further demonstrations.

Moreover, refusing desperately-needed foreign aid would be seen as indefensible in the eyes of the international community - which is, for the most part, already deeply critical of the military regime.

The extent to which the aid agencies will be allowed to operate freely in cyclone-hit regions remains to be seen - especially in certain ethnic-minority areas.

At a news conference in Rangoon, the message was mixed.

"We are greatly thankful to friendly countries that are giving assistance to us,"said Information Minister Kyaw Hsan.

But Social Welfare Minister Maung Maung Swe said foreign aid teams would still need to negotiate with ministry officials for access, the French news agency AFP reported.

Face-to-face with AIDS, poverty and conflict in Burma

from the Somerset County Gazette

A CROWCOMBE man is helping distribute aid in one of Asia's poorest countries, coming face to face with AIDS, poverty and conflict.

Richard Butterworth is working with the Government's Department for International Development, which manages Britain's aid to poor countries and works to end extreme poverty.

He moved to Burma with his wife and their son in August last year - just weeks before thousands of Buddhist monks started protests against the military government.

He said: "At first it was quite exciting, as though this was the moment where things were going to change for the better.

"But after that it got quite scary and very disappointing that nothing was going to change.

"Then there was the aftermath where there was a major crackdown by the military - there was a curfew and a lot of local people were under investigation by the secret police."

He added: "But it's not going to change here overnight, it's going to be a long and arduous task."

Burma has been under military rule since 1962 and receives very little aid with public investment in education and healthcare among the lowest in the world.

DFID does not provide any support to the military regime in Burma with all its cash going through organisations including Save the Children Fund or UN agencies like UNDP and UNICEF.

Richard's work involves everything from projects to help reduce childhood mortality and tackling the country's HIV and AIDS problem to supplying Burmese school children with basic equipment.

Burma Has Second Highest Child Mortality Rate in Asia

from The Irrawaddy News Magazine

by Min Lwin and Associated Press

San San Aye, a farmer living some three miles from town, had no idea why her two-year-old son was suffering from chronic diarrhea. She took her child by foot to see the doctor at the government hospital nearest her town, Pale, in Sagaing Division of upper Burma. However, her baby died on the way.

This disturbing story is just one of hundreds of tragedies that happen in Burma every day.

Dr Osamu Kunii, a nutrition expert in Burma with the United Nations Children's Fund, said that between 100,000 to 150,000 children under five years of age die every year in Burma. That’s between 270 and 400 daily—and many are dying from preventable diseases.

Kunii was speaking Wednesday at the launch by UNICEF of its annual report, "The State of the World's Children." The report rated Burma as having the 4th highest child mortality rate in the world, surpassed in Asia only by Afghanistan, which has the third-worst record after Sierra Leone and Angola.

Burma’s unenviable position comes despite the fact that the death rate for young children in Burma had been reduced by 1.6 percent between 1990 and 2006. The under-5 mortality rate is considered a critical indicator for the well-being of children.

According to a child specialist in Monywa Township in Sagaing Division, most infants die from septicemia, diarrhea and tuberculosis. The lack of basic medical supplies and equipment is also a contributing factor for the high death rate, she said.

In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked Burma's overall health care system as the world's second worst after war-ravaged Sierra Leone. Tens of thousands of people in Burma die each year from malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS, dysentery, diarrhea and other illnesses.

The most vulnerable areas are, of course, in the rural and remote parts of Burma.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Thursday, Dr Thiha Maung from Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand, said: “Some of these diseases are preventable, but the public health system does not reach [rural areas in Burma].”

Poor incomes, malnutrition and a shortage of clean drinking water also affect child mortality rates among the rural poor, added the doctor.

Eighty percent of Burmese people live in rural areas and continue to live in poverty, even lacking proper water supplies. Early rains and flooding increase the risk of malaria and dengue fever in rural areas, including Burma’s borders.

Most of Burma's health care is funded by international sources, with the government spending only about 3 percent on health annually, compared with 40 percent on the military, according to a report published this year by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University.

Government bows to pressure to boost aid for Burma

from the Guardian

Tania Branigan, political correspondent

The government has promised to double the amount it gives in aid to Burma after coming under pressure from MPs, but will still provide only half the funding the Tories have pledged.

Douglas Alexander, the international development secretary, announced Britain's support for health, education and humanitarian support schemes would rise from £9m this year to £18m by 2010.

But the Conservatives immediately attacked the "disappointing" increase and pledged to raise aid four-fold if they won the next election, in line with the recommendation of a recent Commons report.

Andrew Mitchell, the shadow development secretary, said he was disappointed by the government's failure to act on the international development committee's advice and promised the Tories would quadruple funding by 2013.

He said: "Cambodia is receiving £12m; Vietnam, a country that is storming out of poverty, is receiving £52m from the British taxpayer; and China, which had a trade surplus last month of $24bn, is receiving £40m this year and, I think, next year. We do not think that that set of priorities is correct."

The GDP per capita is only $1,027 in Burma and 15 million of its 52 million citizens are believed to live on less than $1 a day.

All aid is delivered through the United Nations or non-governmental organisations rather than via the military regime, which last month suppressed peaceful protests by monks and pro-democracy demonstrators.

But the Conservatives point out that Department for International Development figures show Burma gets one of the lowest levels of international assistance. In 2002, it received £1 per person in 2002, 10 times less than EU aid to Zimbabwe.

Zoya Phan, an exiled Burmese human rights campaigner who works with the Burma Campaign UK, said he hoped the Tory commitment would "ramp up the pressure on Gordon Brown to do the right thing". Ministers argue that increasing funding must be done with care because of the problems in delivering aid when it cannot be channeled through the regime.

Mr Alexander said yesterday: "Doubling UK aid for Burma will allow us to help more children go to school, treat more people suffering from malaria, tuberculosis and HIV, and tackle humanitarian needs. We will also continue to support civil society groups addressing the development needs of Burma. All our work is monitored carefully to ensure it reaches those most in need.

"The military regime must take this opportunity to embrace national reconciliation. If they are willing to undertake the fundamental reforms sought by their people, then the international community will consider further financial and political support."

That would be likely to include a significant increase in international aid, debt write-offs and support for trade and investment as well as backing for political reform.

This year's funding includes a one-off contribution of £1m to deal with humanitarian problems arising from the human rights protests.

Poverty driving Burmese workers east

from the BBC

By Philippa Fogarty

Zaw Aung left Burma because he could not afford to feed his family.

The 31-year-old worked as a farm labourer near the new capital, Naypyidaw.

But his wages did not cover basic necessities for his wife and three young children, and he could not find a better job.

So two years ago he paid a broker just over $400 (£200) for passage to Thailand.

With 40 others, he sailed across the Chan river estuary in southern Burma to the Thai town of Ranong.

Then he made his way to Mahachai, a port city about an hour south of Bangkok, where he found a job in a seafood processing plant.

The hours are long and he misses his children, but he has no regrets. "If I'd stayed in Burma, I don't think the situation would ever have got better," he said.

Eastern exodus

Zaw Aung is not alone in his decision to seek a better life abroad. In recent years, the flow of people out of Burma has become one of South East Asia's largest migration movements.

Exact figures are hard to pin down.

Thousands are thought to have gone south to Malaysia. Others have gone north to India and China, while more than 200,000 of the Rohingya minority group live in Bangladesh to the west.

But by far the biggest group - two million people, by most estimates - have headed east, to Thailand.

Some of these are refugees - members of minority groups like the Karen and Karenni who have for years been fleeing fighting and persecution at the hands of an increasingly brutal military.

Others are economic migrants like Zaw Aung, driven by the desire to escape Burma's grinding poverty and hardship.

Many people, of course, fall into both groups. And in recent years, more and more of them have been coming.

"This has been a broad trend over many years," says David Mathieson, a Thailand-based consultant for Human Rights Watch. "There's been a sad, slow decline in living standards in Burma, while the Thai economy has been getting better."

Burmese workers have been filling unpopular, low-paid jobs, he says, often ending up doing "incredibly dangerous or dirty work".

Many end up working in mining, construction and road building, as well as on factory production lines and in the textile industry.

The Thai government offers one-year migrant worker permits - albeit with restrictions and conditions - to those that can afford them. Many people, however, choose to take their chances and work illegally, leaving them vulnerable to unscrupulous employers.

'Not beautiful, but better'

Tens of thousands of Burmese migrants have found work in Mahachai, mainly in the seafood processing industry.

Zaw Aung lives at Taladkung, a large fish market where all the workers are Burmese. Around 75% are from minority groups, the rest are majority Burman.

Many live in cramped concrete blocks at the site, sharing small rooms with six or seven other people. Stalls selling traditional medicines, clothes and food fill the little communal space there is.

The men work overnight at a nearby plant, unloading and sorting the catch. They deliver it early in the morning to the women, who shell it for 6 baht (about 20 cents; 10p) a kilo.

One group of women shelling fish were Mon, a minority group from southern Burma. Some had been in Thailand for more than 10 years. A few had work permits, but others did not.

If the police came, they said, they hid. And if they were picked up, they paid a 5,000 baht bribe, because it was cheaper and easier than obtaining the permit.

Living in Taladkung, they said, was alright. In Burma, they worried every day about having enough to eat, but in Thailand, they earned enough to buy food. There was electricity and there was water.

As one woman put it, life was not beautiful, but it was better.

Family ties

Six months ago Zaw Aung paid for his wife to join him in Mahachai. She shells fish and together they earn just over $340 a month.

After rent and food, and once they have finished paying the broker, there will be money to send back to their parents in Burma, who are looking after the children.

Zaw Aung's employer treats him decently, but he knows of others who are not so fortunate. "Sometimes people shell 10kg of fish but then the boss says it only weighs 8kg - things like that happen," he says.

He has been stopped by police several times but his employer makes sure he has the one-year permit, so he has not had to pay a bribe.

He keeps in touch with events in Burma, and was horrified by the recent violence there.

But although he fears further unrest, his long-term plan is to save up and go home because, he says, being away from his children is too hard.

Experts say that it is too early to tell whether recent events in Burma will accelerate the flow of people out of the country.

But it is certain that as long as Burmese people struggle to feed themselves and their families, many will continue to leave in search of hope elsewhere.

Porous border between poverty and hope fuels rich trade in migrant misery

from The Guardian

Unofficial deportations, extortion and poverty thrive in Thai frontier town

Ian MacKinnon in Mae Sot

The Guardian

Two trucks with cages crammed with Burmese migrant workers halt abruptly beside the Thai-Burmese frontier's river landing stage. Detainees, standing and sitting, are pressed hard against one another and the wire mesh that is their temporary prison.

The deportees appear resigned to their fate. When the doors fly open, 140 men and a lone woman file out and down steep steps on the Thai side of the border to a waiting barge. No guards are needed. Fifteen metres across the muddy, fast-flowing Moei River they are back in their native Burma.

Uniformed men herd them into a bamboo stockade of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a rebel splinter group that has made peace with the Burmese junta. To win their liberty back in their homeland, each must pay the equivalent of £25, a vast sum for impoverished labourers.

Each year up to 100,000 deported migrants pass back this way. Social workers believe the DKBA is in league with corrupt Thai immigration staff who get a cut of the profits from these unofficial deportations.

Burmese people-trafficking preys on the most desperate of people, fleeing conflict and poverty. It is a small part of a vast murky trade that buoys the Thai economy. At least 1.5 million Burmese work in Thai construction, fisheries and agriculture, filling poorly paid jobs shunned by Thais. Just a third are legally registered, leaving a million vulnerable to raids, deportation and extortion.

In a safehouse in Mae Sot, a Thai border town awash with Burmese migrants, Moe Swe shelters those rescued from the DKBA's clutches and others who fled abusive employers. It is a perilous business. He briefly fled Thailand himself two years ago, after receiving death threats from powerful vested interests.

"We suspect the Thai officials get money from the DKBA for the deported migrants," he said. "There are 20 landing stages on the river, but the workers are only released at the one known as Pier 999, opposite the DKBA's so-called reception centre."

Two hundred garment factories and thousands of farms in Mae Sot thrive on cheap labour that floods across the porous border. Some of the 100,000 migrants here have work permits, but many do not. A squad of armed Thai border police last week staged a 4am raid 20 miles outside the town in Waylay village, a collection of bamboo shacks without running water or electricity. Half the 100 inhabitants, without work permits, ran. Four were caught and immediately deported.

Wai Lin Oo, 18, heard no warning. It was a costly mistake. His mother Khin Thet, 40, rescued him by slipping across into Burma herself, but had to pay nearly £10 from the family's meagre savings for a day-pass to bring him back.

With other villagers, he scrapes a living planting roses, earning £1 a day - half the minimum wage. Yet he is luckier than 11-year-old Win Htat Thu who gets work erratically laying chemical fertiliser around the roses without any protective clothing.

Daily swoops

"We came because we hadn't enough money," said the boy, who receives no schooling. "But here there's not enough either; just enough food. If any of us gets sick, there's no money for medicine."

Bangkok's building sites and factories are the most lucrative workplaces. Although migrants there are paid as little as their rural cousins, the work is steadier, giving greater opportunity to earn. But getting a work permit is a minefield. Just 485,925 are registered, leaving a million Burmese working illegally. Hundreds are caught in daily swoops and held in Bangkok's immigration detention centre before being taken to Mae Sot, fuelling the corrupt trade in deportations from Pier 999 - whose suspicious operators did not welcome prying eyes.

"No pictures," hissed one, as the Guardian watched the caged trucks arrive and unload their human cargo, the fifth and sixth shipments of the morning. "Who are they and what do they want?" whispered another to the Burmese social worker accompanying us, who has seen the trade at first hand.

Years in jail

A month ago the plight of Kyaw Pha Dae, 15, led the social worker to the DKBA camp to buy his freedom. Capture could have cost her years in jail. She found him in the Bangkok detention centre and followed him when he was deported.

Kyaw Pha Dae last saw his family a year ago after he was sent to work on a Thai fishing boat in the Andaman Sea. The boy, from the Karen village of Kyat Ma Out, had never seen the sea.

"When I went on the boat I was scared that I would fall overboard," he said, now in the Mae Sot safehouse. "I got seasick too. But I was really afraid after the boat owner dropped me on a pier in Bangkok. I had no idea what was going to happen next."

The flow of Burmese migrants across the lengthy border that cuts through jungle-clad mountains is just one part of the equation. It is mirrored by huge business investments that wealthy Thais have made in Burma.

One fly in the ointment is the drug yaba - a meta-amphetamine - produced in Burmese jungle laboratories and smuggled in vast quantities into Thailand. But the desire for the smooth running of big business ensures tensions never get too strained.

The ousted Thai prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who himself had vast business interests in Burma, invested much political capital trying to bring Burma's rulers into the international fold. But despite his failure, the interlinked business interests keep relations stable and border tensions - on an official level, at least - to a minimum.

Backstory

Mae Sot is every bit the frontier town, the wild west of Thailand - but with an almost entirely Burmese cast. It is filled with migrants trying to make ends meet, dissidents fleeing the Burmese junta, and its conspicuous "spooks". Markets by the riverside sell every conceivable kind of smuggled duty-free commodity, though cigarettes are the favoured currency.

A Friendship Bridge crosses the Moei river with a checkpoint and the odd car. Spoil from construction has formed river islands that have become disputed territory. But crammed boats ply Mae Sot's numerous piers across the border river, with not an official in sight. The far bank's Karen state is controlled by the Burmese junta, known as the State Peace and Development Council, and the DKBA, which split from the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). The state capital, Manerplaw, fell in 1995 to DKBA forces backed by the junta. But sporadic fighting continues as the army attacks the KNLA, driving refugees and migrants across the border.