Burmese Activist Arrested

The Burmese military junta has arrested a Burmese activist who has been in hiding for over a year and are likely to subject her to torture and other forms of abuse, according to a statement by Amnesty International.

Saffron Revolution, One Year Later

A year after Burma’s beloved monks took to the streets to support a popular uprising, the junta is said to be working hard at keeping a lid on any expressions of dissent.

One more detention in Burma

You read it here less than two weeks ago: Burma’s military government detained a noted comedian, Zargana, after he went on a private mission to aid millions of victims of Cyclone Nargis. Now they have detained a prominent journalist who was working with Zargana, Zaw Thet Htwe.

Burma: Buddhist relief efforts expand

RFA’s Burmese service had this interview with Thigadu Sayardaw, a senior figure in Burmese Buddhism, whose organisation is helping as much as possible with the relief effort for those made homeless by Tropical Cyclone Nargis:

Interviewer: Could you please tell us the situation of the cyclone victims that the Thidagu group is helping?

Sayadaw (senior monk): We started on May 9. On June 9, our aid work completed one month. So I made the end-of-the-month list. We have been helping Bogalay, Mawlamyaing Gyun, Pyapon, Amah, Kungyan-gon, and Day-da-yeh townships. When we’re done with Day-da-yeh, we will have worked with over one thousand monasteries. Also in the villages that are in the area of the monasteries, we assign one monk and one leader of the village and distribute through the monks for the use of everyone in the village rice, oil, salt, chili peppers, onions, blankets, mosquito nets, and clothing.

Who’ll stop the pain? Part 2

“The most suffering animal on the earth invented for itself: laughter.”—Nietzsche

I’ve often wondered what makes people laugh in the more repressive or deprived countries on this Earth. After 18 years of work on Burma and North Korea, among other Asian countries, I still don’t have an answer—although I do know of one man who gets a lot of laughs in Burma. His legal name is Maung Thura, and he makes a living as a dentist. His stage name is Zargana, and on stage is where he comes alive as a comedian. His is deeply, darkly funny, and much of his humor translates emphatically and hilariously into English. Little of what Zargana does, however, amuses the military government, which has for weeks stalled and obstructed delivery of international aid to victims of Tropical Cyclone Nargis, which struck May 2-3, killing 78,000 people and leaving a further 56,000 missing. Zargana was whisked from his home in recent days by officials working for the Burmese junta, after he spent days collecting and distributing aid for the millions of Burmese left homeless or alone after the storm.

Burma: “They’re faking it everywhere”

They’re faking it everywhere. They fake it by video taping, and then leaving that area. They’re just looking for an opportunity to video tape when authorities come. People are suffering from the storm. They are building elaborate stages, with velvet backdrops, and writing things like who is donating what for the storm victims. They want to make it elaborate. They don’t actually look after the people who are suffering. The generals are on these stages, looking grand, with guns around their waists. — Resident of Pyapon, Irrawaddy delta

From a recent interview by RFA’s Burmese service:

Interviewee: Pyapon hasn’t got any aid yet. Social organizations, such as Rice Merchants Association, keep going from Rangoon, taking aid materials and food for their regions.

Burma: Refugees ‘told to leave shelters by May 14’

More recent interviews from RFA’s Burmese service:

Announcer: The storm victims, who lost their houses, are now facing severe starvation, but they cannot enjoy the help from the international community right away. Instead the families of the military are getting the help first. A person close to the military families in the airforce in Mingaladon, Rangoon told RFA this. The anonymous woman told RFA as follows that some of the families from the Mingaladon airforce lost their roofs in the storm, and the engineering troops from GE unit put up new zinc sheets and made roofing and walls, as well as distributed food:

Burma: Donated food ‘sold at high prices’

The dried noodles that came from abroad, that we’ve never seen before, — you can now buy them at City Mart. Also, in Nyaung-bin-lay Market, I’ve seen cans of condensed milk that we’ve never seen before. These are the things donated by foreign countries. You can buy those packets of dried noodles. It’s 600 a packet. These dried-noodle packets were donated. I don’t know what happened that they didn’t get to the victims, but ended up in Nyaung-bin-lay Market and City Mart. — U Thuya

From a recent interview with RFA’s Burmese service:

Burma: Interview with Shari Villarosa in Rangoon

Photo by luisrene on Flickr.

Speaking as the United Nations announced it would cease aid flights into Burma until officials released two planeloads of emergency food supplies they were holding, the top U.S. diplomat in Burma has called on the military junta to allow the international community in.

http://www.rfa.org/english/villarosa/inline.html

“Take in good faith the desire of the international community to come in and help the millions of Burmese victims of this terrible storm,” Shari Villarosa, Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon, said in an interview with RFA’s Burmese service.

Burma: Devastation in Laputta township

The above video shows scenes from Rangoon during the onslaught of Tropical Cyclone Nargis, courtesy of Blogger Thura on YouTube. According to a recent report from RFA’s Burmese service, cyclone victims from Laputta township area, in Irrawaddy delta, which was hit the hardest by the cyclone, and from Hmaw-gyun region, have been arriving in the city of Myaung-mya continuously, starting the evening of May 6 until today. People have set up rescue centers for these storm victims in classrooms in Myaung-mya. There are a total of about 20,000 victims. U Aung Kyin reports from Myaung-mya: