OMG, you won't believe this

Aung San Suu Kyi

Court rejects Suu Kyi appeal

How could anyone have seen this coming? Life is just full or inexplicable surprises.

Myanmar supreme court rejects opposition leader's appeal against extended house arrest.

The long-awaited ruling was delivered on Friday in the former capital, Yangon.

Her lawyers had earlier said they were optimistic that the court would rule in their favour, although court judgements in military-ruled Myanmar rarely go in favour of the opposition.

Following the supreme court rejection, she can make one final appeal to Myanmar's chief justice.

The appeals of two female assistants against similar periods of detention were also thrown out.

The Nobel peace laureate was sentenced last August to an additional 18 months under house arrest after being convicted of breaking the terms of her detention by sheltering an uninvited American man who swam to her lakeside villa.

She had initially been sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour, but that sentence was immediately commuted to 18 months of house arrest by Senior General Than Shwe, the head of Myanmar's ruling military.

[snip]

Aung San Suu Kyi has already spent most of the past 20 years in jail or under house arrest.

...
Note: Headline links to source. Clicking on image will enlarge it (usually).

Four US ships to leave Myanmar coast after snub

Update below.

Here we go with the next fucking round in Myanmar.

Four US Navy ships which had been stationed off cyclone-hit Myanmar with relief supplies and aircraft will return to normal duties after the junta rejected their help, US officials said Wednesday.

But...but...but...

Myanmar denies delays to cyclone aid, as relief effort lags

Myanmar denied Tuesday any delays to cyclone aid, but the United Nations said the operation to help 2.4 million survivors is still moving too slowly one month after the deadly storm.

Both of these headlines and subsequent stories can't be true. Can they? Just asking.

I don't know what four ships they are or what their configurations, but I bet they have helicopters which could bring aid where its needed most &ndash to areas which are still inaccessible.

Update: I now know a little more.

After more than two weeks of waiting for a green light that never came, four U.S. warships laden with supplies and 22 helicopters set sail on Thursday for Thailand from internatioanl waters near the delta. [emphasis mine]

So my guess was right about the choppers.

Note: Headline links to source.

Myanmar aid effort stalls as French ship turns back

French Navy ship FS Mistral
This is really starting to piss me off just in case anyone gives a shit.

Any reasonable individual, apparently a foreign concept among Myanmar's military regime, should be able to distinguish between a military vessel used in warfare and its being used as a fucking cargo ship. What the hell do they think the ship is gonna do; tie up in port and start shelling the country? Look closely at the photo and tell me how many big guns you can spot. Like nothing, zero, none, zilch, null, nada, zip, nil, nuttin?

The junta is "governing" the country. Governing should not be allowing your people to suffer and die for lack of aid supplies. The job is to HELP YOUR FUCKING PEOPLE!

Efforts to deliver life-saving aid to Myanmar's cyclone victims hit trouble Monday as France turned back a ship laden with supplies, citing its shock at the resistance of Yangon's military regime.

The military vessel carrying 1,000 tonnes of aid for the battered Irrawaddy Delta was instead sent to Thailand to be handed to the World Food Programme for distribution, the French defence and foreign ministries said in a statement.

The move was a further blow to the international community's attempts to help desperate survivors still short of food, water and shelter more than three weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit the country.

The French ship, the Mistral, had been poised to deliver enough aid to help 100,000 people.

The ministries said they were "particularly shocked that the Myanmar authorities did not accept that 1,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid... could not be directly unloaded and distributed."

"Nothing... can justify the victims of a catastrophe being denied the basic right to the necessary aid," the ministerial statement said late Sunday.

This all makes me highly suspicious. The junta keeps asking for foreign aid (in the form of money) and readily accepts it, but not tangible supplies that can help the people immediately? Sounds to me like they can't have the level of corruption they require from bottled water as opposed to cash.

I think all monetary aid should be denied them from any countries turned away when they arrive with supplies. Make that simple stipulation before sending cash.

Note: Headline links to source.

Myanmar opens door to help from Asian neighbors

File under: Its about fucking time.

Jesus H Christ in a rowboat, you'd think the moron in the White House was in charge of relief efforts.

Myanmar's junta, facing global outrage for spurning international assistance, appeared to relent Monday, saying it would allow its Asian neighbors to oversee the distribution of foreign relief to cyclone survivors.

It also approved a visit by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and prepared to host a meeting of aid donors, while claiming that losses from the May 2-3 disaster exceeded $10 billion.

A three-day official period of mourning was to begin Tuesday for the dead, which numbered more than 78,000, according to official figures. Another 56,000 people are missing.

Note: Headline links to source.

Burmese junta moves refugees out of monasteries to stem monks' influence.

It isn't like I needed something else to piss me off...

The longstanding tensions between the two largest organizations in Burma (Myanmar) - the military and the Buddhist clergy - are finding new outlets as both groups confront the devastating aftermath of cyclone Nargis.

The monks have temples sheltering victims in the delta - and have begun to organize funding and supplies for victims, which they hope to deliver via an underground network of sympathetic citizens and exiles worldwide and in Thai border areas such as Mae Sot.

But nearly two weeks since the storm struck, the military, unquestionably, has the upper hand, with guns, helicopters, and relief supplies. And now, it is starting to force cyclone victims out of monasteries into tent camps, prompted by concern that the monks could help spur protests.

Benjamin Zawacki, a researcher in Bangkok with Amnesty International, says the government has the right to relocate people for their well-being in an emergency. "But if they are being moved on account of being associated with the monks," he says, "it's emblematic of the last 40 years, where the government is putting its survival over the survival of their people. Their rights are already being violated. As good Buddhists, people are used to hanging out in monasteries."

Note: Headline links to source.

Local heroes step in to help cyclone victims

Myanmar volunteers serve a free breakfast to
children at a temple after the destructive
Cyclone Nargis on the outskirts of Yangon,
Myanmar, Monday, May 12, 2008. AP photo.
Does it always have to be the good with the bad?

In an apparent attempt to maintain absolute control over Myanmar, the junta is denying its own people. One word comes to mind besides "fuck" and its the far more polite "reprehensible".

One often believes a military made up our sons, daughters, friends could never do this to us, but you just never fucking know.

From shopkeepers handing out free rice porridge to medical students caring for the sick, ordinary people in Myanmar are stepping in to help cyclone victims as the military regime severely restricts international aid.

Taxi drivers, factory owners, college students, teachers and other Yangon residents — many of whom lost their own homes — are among those organizing grueling trips into the Irrawaddy delta, the hardest-hit region.

"They are true humanitarian heroes," said Bridget Gardner, International Red Cross representative in Myanmar, after touring an area where volunteers were giving first aid to the injured.

They are taking up collections at businesses and donating food, clothes and water. Some who are too poor to give money or supplies are offering their labor to help clear debris and rebuild villages leveled by the May 3 cyclone.

"We feel sympathetic to the cyclone victims and want to help them in our own way," said Daw Mya Win, who runs a small grocery in a northern Yangon suburb where many bamboo shanty houses were destroyed.

The 49-year-old woman cooks rice porridge every day to feed anyone who comes. She also sends pots of the thick viscous mixture of rice, water and seasonings to some of the thousands of homeless who have sought shelter in the country's Buddhist monasteries.

Others have taken refuge in Catholic churches where priests and nuns are caring for the hungry and homeless.

Note: Headline links to source.

Myanmar's junta holds referendum despite cyclone crisis Myanmar's junta holds referendum despite cyclone crisis

God, please deliver us from small, insecure men.

Myanmar's military rulers held a referendum Saturday aimed at solidifying their hold on power while brazenly turning cyclone relief efforts into a propaganda campaign. In some cases, generals' names were scribbled onto boxes of foreign aid before being distributed.

Note: Headline links to source.

Aid on the way to devastated Myanmar but so is heavy rain

In an earlier post I referred to an "Oh man!" moment in movies. The character has survived various catastrophes and thinks he's seen the last of them when one last one comes along. Its funny in a movie which is fiction. Not so in the real world.

Myanmar's people need heavy rains like you need an extra foot. Cyclone Nargis devastated the country. Heavy rains which are also terribly destructive are something the people customarily deal with, but not now.

More aid is on the way to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar — but so is the heavy rain. A week after Cyclone Nargis flattened low-lying villages and killed whole families at a time, the military junta finally agreed Friday to allow a U.S. cargo plane to bring in food and other supplies to the isolated country. Myanmar gave the green light after confiscating other shipments, prompting the U.N. to order a temporary freeze in shipments.

The U.N. agreed to resume flights but relief workers, including Americans, were still being barred entry.

With phone lines down, roads blocked and electricity networks destroyed, it was nearly impossible to reach isolated areas in the swamped Irrawaddy delta, where the stench of unburied and decaying bodies added to the misery.

Heavy rain that is forecast in the next week is certain to worsen the plight of almost 2 million people awaiting food, clean water, shelter and medicine.

Diplomats and aid groups warned that the number of dead could eventually exceed 100,000 because of illness and said thousands of children may have been orphaned.

Survivors in one of the worst-affected areas, near the town of Bogalay about 20 miles inland, were among those fighting hunger, illness and wrenching loneliness.

"All my 28 family members have died," said Thein Myint, a 68-year-old fisherman who was overcome by tears and trauma as he tried to explain how the May 3 cyclone swept away the rest of his family. "I am the only survivor."

Survivors were sleeping amid the debris of their splintered homes in Bogalay, where more than 95 percent of the houses were destroyed.

Thank God the junta is now allowing aid to come in. Particularly from the US which is something I doubted would happen.

Note: Headline links to source.

US envoy says toll from Myanmar cyclone might reach 100,000 (AP)

Open message to Myanmar's junta: Don't follow Bush's model for NOLA. Help your people as fast as possible. Please.

Hungry people swarmed the few open shops and fistfights broke out over food and water in Myanmar's swamped Irrawaddy delta Wednesday as a top U.S. diplomat warned that the death toll from a devastating cyclone could top 100,000.

The minutes of a U.N. aid meeting obtained by The Associated Press, meanwhile, revealed the military junta's visa restrictions were hampering international relief efforts.

Only a handful of U.N. aid workers had been let into the impoverished Southeast Asian country, which the government has kept isolated for five decades to maintain its iron-fisted control. The U.S. and other countries rushed supplies to the region, but most of it was being held outside Myanmar while awaiting the junta's permission to deliver it.

Note: Headline links to source.

If you want to help the people of Myranmar

Stolen whole from Brilliant at Breakfast because its important shit.

When I donate to charitable and relief organizations, I look for those with the least amount of money put into exorbitant executive salaries, fancy offices and other overhead; and that don't plow a sizable percentage of donations back into additional fundraising. In looking for such groups to help the Myanmar relief effort this morning, I found a few of them:

One relief group with a high fund-raising efficiency (and #2 on Forbes' list with 99% charitable services after expenses) that has already issued a press release outlining its efforts is Direct Relief International, which has already contacted its partners in the area about helping.

International Medical Corps is #7 on the Forbes list, with 94% charitable services after expenses). IMC is already targeting donations to Myanmar cyclone relief.

Brother's Brother Foundation, a nonsectarian foundation whose mission is "to promote international health and education through the efficient and effective distribution and provision of donated medical, educational, agricultural and other resources.
All BBF programs are designed to fulfill its mission by connecting people’s resources with people’s needs." They deal primarily in donated medical and related supplies, but also accept cash donations to help purchase containers and pay shipping costs. Forbes Magazine profiled the foundation last December, calling it "as efficient as they come on our list of the country's 200 largest-by-private-donation nonprofits." I don't know what programs they specifically are doing for Myanmar, but you could contact them and find out.

Usually the American National Red Cross is first out of the gate at times like this, but it is one of the least efficient charities. So I thought it'd be worth the investment of time to come up with some where your money actually has a shot at going to help the people who need it instead of the executives running the foundation.

Please don't get me wrong. The Red Cross does great things, but they come at huge costs never helping anyone except the Red Cross.

Note: Headline links to source.

Georgette W. Bush

While this dismal blogger is crying about Myanmar, the people who actually can do something about it and those covering them are practically ignoring it. Shit!

Please go to the link. The "Georgette" in the headline is NOT a typo.
Note: Headline links to source.

Myanmar cyclone death toll soars past 22,000: state radio

Now I have to cry. The initial reports of 350+ dead was bad enough.

The cyclone death toll soared above 22,000 on Tuesday and more than 41,000 others were missing as foreign countries mobilized to rush in aid after the country's deadliest storm on record, state radio reported.

Up to 1 million people may be homeless after Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian nation, also known as Burma, early Saturday. Some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out, the World Food Program said.

Images from state television showed large trees and electricity poles sprawled across roads and roofless houses ringed by large sheets of water in the Irrawaddy River delta region, which is regarded as Myanmar's rice bowl.

"From the reports we are getting, entire villages have been flattened and the final death toll may be huge," Mac Pieczowski, who heads the International Organization for Migration office in Yangon, said in a statement.

Buddhist monks and Catholic nuns wielding knives and axes joined Yangon residents Tuesday in clearing roads of ancient, fallen trees that were once the city's pride. And soldiers were out on the streets in large numbers for the first time since the cyclone hit, helping to clear trees as massive as 15 feet in diameter.

President Bush called on Myanmar's military junta to allow the U.S. to help. The White House said the U.S. will send more than $3 million to help cyclone victims, up from an initial emergency contribution of $250,000.

"We're prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who have lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation. But in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country," he said.

Bush spoke at a ceremony where he signed legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Burmese democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar's military regime has signaled it will welcome aid supplies for victims of a devastating cyclone, the U.N. said Tuesday, clearing the way for a major relief operation from international organizations.

But U.N. workers were still awaiting their visas to enter the country, said Elisabeth Byrs of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"The government has shown a certain openness so far," Byrs said. "We hope that we will get the visas as soon as possible, in the coming hours. I think the authorities have understood the seriousness of the situation and that they will act accordingly."

The appeal for outside assistance was unusual for Myanmar's ruling generals, who have long been suspicious of international organizations and closely controlled their activities. Several agencies, including the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, have limited their presence as a consequence.

Allowing any major influx of foreigners could carry risks for the military, injecting unwanted outside influence and giving the aid givers rather than the junta credit for a recovery.

However, keeping out international aid would focus blame squarely on the military should it fail to restore peoples' livelihoods.

Note: Headline links to source.

Myanmar junta says weapons seized from Buddhist monastaries

With no evidence or information to substantiate my position, I just don't believe this. It doesn't jibe with my experience.

Myanmar's military leaders stepped up pressure on monks who spearheaded pro-democracy rallies, saying Sunday weapons had been seized from Buddhist monasteries and threatening to punish all violators of the law.

Then there's this headline:

Junta eases up on security in Myanmar

The details are as follows:

Myanmar's junta removed the last barricades in Yangon on Sunday, apparently confident it would face no further mass protests against military rule, but the streets remained unusually quiet and arrests continued.

Duh! Mass arrests and executions will tend to limit protests. No surprise there.

Via IHT.

Why China has it wrong on Myanmar

This is a good point. China is missing a golden opportunity and it doesn't make any sense on the surface.

This could be the best international PR coup for China in years and they're letting it slip through their fingers.

China, in the face of the latest unrest in Myanmar, has reverted to its traditional stance of non-interference in another country's internal affairs, despite its extensive clout and commercial interests there. The opportunity exists, though, for Beijing to enhance its image considerably by putting pressure on the generals, and in the process distinguish itself from regional rival India, which prefers to look the other way.

Via Asia Times.

'Thousands of monks seized' by Burma junta

Stories are starting to come out and, unfortunately, my earlier post and this one seem to be accurate.

Thousands of monks, who played a leading role in pro-democracy demonstrations last week, have been disrobed and shackled by Burma's military junta and will be moved to prisons hundreds of miles from Rangoon, it was reported last night.

Via Telegraph News.

You can't have it both ways.

Update below.
Headline at IHT: Envoy meets Myanmar junta leader

A United Nations envoy met with the leader of Myanmar's junta, according to a diplomat in Yangon, as authorities continued a crackdown.

Headline at Seattle Times: U.N. envoy waiting to meet junta leaders

As the military tightened its grip on Myanmar, the United Nations said its envoy hopes to meet today with the junta's top generals to repeat international calls for restraint.

UPDATE: Headline at AlertNet: UN envoy leaves Myanmar capital, no word on meeting

United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari left Myanmar's new jungle capital on Tuesday, where he was to have met military junta chief Than Shwe, a Yangon-based diplomat said.

However, there was no word on whether Gambari's scheduled audience with the bespectacled 74-year-old Senior General had actually taken place.

Hell, I'm not even there and can be this accurate.

Burma: Thousands dead in massacre of the monks dumped in the jungle

I certainly hope this report is untrue, but it probably isn't.

Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed.

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."

Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. He has now reached the border with Thailand.

Via Daily Mail.

H/T The Crone.

Gotta do this

The crackdown on monks in Myanmar is something I've not commented on. My bad.

The government said its security forces opened fire today on demonstrators who failed to disperse, killing one person, and witnesses said police beat and dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks in the most violent crackdown in a month of protests in Myanmar.

While dissident groups reported as many as five dead, including monks, the military junta's announcement on state radio and television was the first acknowledgment that force has been used to suppress the protests and the first admission that blood had been shed.

The United States and the European Union condemned the attacks and called on the military rulers to open a dialogue with pro-democracy leaders, according to a joint statement on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

I've never been to Myanmar, but have had experiences and conversations with Buddhist monks in Thailand and Malaysia.

Folks, these people are so serene, warmhearted, spiritual, you (or at least I) feel very calm in their presence.

A funny side note; we had a nice talk with a monk who advised us on marriage. Quite an ironic discussion to say the least.

Its impossible to picture soldiers gassing, beating, arresting such gentle people let alone killing even one. But I'm unsophisticated in such things, I guess.

Also have to do this.

Of course this is de rigueur with the Bush administration. Stomp on the dissidents. Don't allow anyone to challenge authority. Put them in a "free speech zone" and keep the fuckers away from the podium where they might be heard.

Via Seattle Times.