SAJAforum

BURMA: BuildBurma.org raises money for victims

From a note from filmmaker Smriti Mundra:

My friends Shruti Ganguly and Riddhika Jesrani have put together a fundraising organization called Build Burma in response to the recent disaster in Myanmar. They have a $10,000 fundraising target on behalf of Doctors Without Borders, a reputable aid organization with an infrastructure in Myanmar (read: the money goes directly to disaster relief, not a corrupt goverment or corrupt NGO). I sincerely hope you will all donate even $10 to the cause. There are 561 of you on this list so if everyone donates we will be more than half way to our goal. Just go to www.buildburma.org and follow the prompts.

To read more about the situation in Myanmar or show support, join the Facebook group (search BuildBurma.org) and check out the website.

Well, a lot more than 561 folks here, folks, so let's see if we can help. I just did my part and make a small donation - your turn, everyone.

Know of other ways to help? Have a comment? Post below.

Don't forget to check out BurmaEmergency.wordpress.com for the latest news and info about the aftermath. And the excellent coverage by GlobalVoicesOnline.org in its special cyclone section.

PS: As of this posting, the total raised is $956.00. Let's raise that total, everyone!

As of May 18: $3,133.00.
May 17: $1,100.00

BURMA: Republican Convention coordinator forced to resign because of junta ties

And now, the Burma cyclone affects the presidential campaign. From the AP/Yahoo story, "Leader of GOP convention quits after Myanmar ties reported":

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The man picked by the John McCain campaign to run the 2008 Republican National Convention resigned Saturday after a report that his lobbying firm used to represent the military regime in Myanmar. Doug Goodyear resigned as convention coordinator and issued a two sentence statement: "Today I offered the convention my resignation so as not to
become a distraction in this campaign. I continue to strongly support John McCain for president, and wish him the best of luck in this campaign." Goodyear, chief executive of lobbying firm DCI Group, resigned a few hours after Newsweek posted a story posted online that the company was paid $348,000 in 2002 and 2003 to represent Myanmar's junta.

Read the Newsweek piece, by Michael Isikoff. Post your comments - and any updates - below.
[Thanks to Jaya Kamlani for the alert.]

BURMA: Burma Cyclone blog launched

As we learned during the tsunami of 2004, blogs can be particularly helpful in spreading information about major disasters. A group of Columbia Journalism School students who had spent almost eight months documenting the lives of Burmese refugees in New York for their Master's Project [http://FromBurmaToNewYork.com/], have now built a useful blog about the Burma cyclone - the death toll appears to have crossed 100,000 now.

On the blog you will find everything from the latest news to how you can contribute directly to the victims to information about candelight vigils.

Please visit: http://BurmaEmergency.wordpress.com/

You can contact the students, Divya Gupta, Karen Zraick and Lam Thuy Vo, via divyagupta2[at]gmail.com

They are looking for journalists and others to contribute items.

Help them spread the word - and post your comments on their blog or below.

Earlier on SAJAforum:

• Coverage of the cyclone by Anup Kaphle

BURMA: Cyclone Death Toll Reaches Over 22,000

The state-run radio in Myanmar has confirmed that the death toll from cyclone Nargis has reached 22,464 with over 40,000 missing, the Associated Press reports.

The New York Times writes that if those numbers are accurate, the death toll would be the highest from a natural disaster in Asia since the tsunami of December 2004, which devastated coastlines in South Asia and claimed 181,000 lives.

“Stories get worse by the hour,” one Yangon resident, who did not want to be identified for fear of government retribution, said in an e-mail message. “No drinking water in many areas, still no power. Houses completely disappeared. Refugees scavenging for food in poorer areas. Roofing, building supplies, tools — all are scarce and prices skyrocketing on everything.”

Myanmar government officials have said that they would open the doors to international relief groups. But relief efforts have been hampered because of lack of the military government, according to the Times.

Also, most foreigners and all foreign journalists have been barred from entering the country. Several journalists are writing from Cambodia and Thailand as death tolls continue to increase.

Meanwhile, the military junta has agreed to delay voting for the much-awaited new constitution in the areas that are most affected by the cyclone. International governments had earlier criticized Burma for using newspaper and radio ads asking people to vote rather than informing them of the dangers of the cyclone.

You can watch a raw video here. (Make sure you allow pop-ups on your computer to watch the video). Also, for a comprehensive round up, video and graphics, check out the BBC's coverage here.

What are your thoughts on the cyclone in Burma? Please post your thoughts below.

AWARDS: Adrees Latif wins Pulitzer Prize for Photography

This year's Pulitzer Prizes have just been announced. The one South Asia connection I see is that the Breaking News Photography prize has gone to Pakistan-born and Bangkok-based photojournalist Adrees Latif of Reuters.

He won for his photo of a Japanese videographer being attacked in Myanmar (see below).

From the citation:

For a distinguished example of breaking news photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an album, in print or online or both, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
Awarded to Adrees Latif of Reuters for his dramatic photograph of a Japanese videographer, sprawled on the pavement, fatally wounded during a street demonstration in Myanmar.

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Mahmud Hams of Agence France-Presse for his picture of a missile, caught in mid-air, as it falls on a target in the Gaza Strip while young Palestinians scramble for safety, and the Los Angeles Times Staff for its powerful and often unpredictable photos that captured wildfires devastating California.

From his biography:

Born in Lahore, Pakistan on July 21, 1973, Adrees Latif lived in Saudi Arabia before immigrating with his family to Texas in 1980. Latif worked as a staff photographer for The Houston Post from 1993 to 1996 before joining Reuters. Latif graduated from the University of Houston in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. Latif has worked for Reuters in Houston, Los Angeles before moving to Bangkok in 2003 where he covers news across Asia.

See excellent coverage of Latif, including lots of photos by him, at Pakistaniat.

See the full list of winners and finalist in this PDF or on Pulitzer.org.

Manish Vij of Ultrabrown reports:

Fiction winner "Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz has several desi refs.
http://www.ultrabrown.com/posts/revenge-of-the-dominican-nerds

See SAJA's collection of South Asia and the Pulitzer Prize over the years:
http://www.saja.org/resources/pulitzers.html

And SAJAforum's coverage of the 2007 awards ceremony.

Post your comments below.

PRESS FREEDOM: CPJ on Attacks on the Press in 2007 in South Asia

The year 2007 was not the best year for South Asian journalists. As we reported earlier, this was in fact the bloodiest year in South Asian history.

In his analysis, "Amid South Asian Conflict, Remarkable Resilience," CPJ's Asia Program coordinator Bob Deitz says that despite increased violence upon press in countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, news media are far from being daunted - instead they have done a remarkable job.

"The changes can be rapid, depending on leaders’ ambitions, the state of the economy, or a worsening security situation. But the media’s persistence, resourcefulness, and cohesion have often formed a bulwark against attacks.
<snip>
"Failed governments have come and gone. Their executives, legislatures, and judiciaries are easily and regularly corrupted, but South Asian journalists have persevered to uphold a higher ideal."

From the analysis, which is part of CPJ's Attacks on the Press in 2007:

Traffic is sparse during a late-night run to the Bandaranaike International Airport north of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. Because of insecurity caused by war between the Sinhalese-dominated government and Tamil separatists in the country’s north and east, the streets are given over to police and army checkpoints. On this September night, the air still foggy from the day’s monsoon, reporter Iqbal Athas rides in a rental car, on his way to catch a Thai Airways flight that would take him to Bangkok. An award-winning defense columnist for the English-language Sunday Times, Athas is leaving the country for his own safety: His recent reports on arms sales irregularities have drawn threats, harassment, and, on one occasion, an unruly mob of protestors outside his home. “The harassment and threats have come and gone in the past,” Athas says, “and I have to assume they will again.” He would return to Colombo in less than two weeks.

Here are the 2007 country summaries and press freedom reports on India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Burma.

Please post your thoughts below.

Earlier on SAJAforum:

• Afghani Journalist Faces Death Sentence for Blasphemy
• Nepali Journalist's Hand Cut Off
• Two Nepalese Dailies Disrupted by Maoists
• Cartoonist Jailed Over Mohammad Cartoons
  
• 25 Journalists Killed in South Asia During 2007 

MOVIES: "Rambo" in Burma

Add Sylvester Stallone and "Rambo" to the list to things I never thought we'd mention on SAJAforum. Turns out the new "Rambo" movie, 20 years after the "Rambo III" misadventures in Afghanistan, is set, in part, in Burma. From A.O. Scott's review in the NYT:

When we first encounter him, this weary warrior has retreated from geopolitics, passing the time at a remote river station in the Thai jungle, where he hunts poisonous snakes and dabbles in blacksmithing. Old Rambo seems kind of depressed, to tell the truth, until his wrath is stirred by the viciousness of the Burmese Army.

Burma? But why not Burma? (In this movie, no one calls it Myanmar.) As a precredit montage of actual news clips reminds us, the military government of that nation has been engaged not only in widespread authoritarian abuses but also in a brutal, long-running campaign against the Karen ethnic minority. And it is with the Karen that Rambo, once roused from his weary cynicism, throws in his lot. No longer the bloody avatar of wounded American pride, he seems more inclined toward humanitarian intervention — a one-man N.G.O. with a machete. Will he show up in Darfur next?

Post your comments below.

PRESS FREEDOM: Burmese government suspends newspaper, arrests poet

The Burmese government has suspended the publication of a weekly magazine Myanmar Times for one week because it published what Burmese government qualifies as "unauthorized news."

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists:

Burma’s Press Scrutiny Board ordered the temporary closure because of the newspaper’s January 11 Burmese-language edition, which included an article about the government’s decision to raise satellite fees from 6,000 kyat (US$4.80) to 1 million kyat (US$800), The Associated Press reported. Many Burmese citizens have privately installed satellite dishes in recent years to receive foreign news broadcasts instead of the heavily censored, government-controlled fare.   

The newspaper apparently did not  receive prior government permission to publish the news item, which was first  reported by Agence France-Presse. All news publications in Burma publish as weekly editions because of a time-consuming pre-censorship process which systematically ensures that nearly no news critical of the government is published.   

Meanwhile, The Miami Herald reports that the Burmese government has arrested Saw Wai, a poet known for his ode to love, after he published a Valentine's Day poem with a hidden criticism against Than Shwe, the country's military junta leader.

BURMA/MYANMAR: India policy towards Burma should change, suggests HRW researcher

A lot has been written about India's military policy towards neighboring country of Pakistan. But in a recent article published in openDemocracy, Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch (and former Time South Asia correspondent for many years), says that doing the right thing in Burma, could be the beginning for India to take leadership role in global politics.

This is an opportunity for India to show leadership. Under pressure from the international community, India has suspended military assistance to Burma. India should insist to the generals that they show flexibility and begin serious negotiations for a return to civilian rule. The regime has allowed the United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari and human-rights envoy Paulo Pinheiro to visit Burma. But these tightly controlled visits will mean little for a regime that is determined to consolidate its repressive rule. 

India can no longer afford embarrassing friendships. It should say that without tangible progress on democracy, release of political prisoners and accountability for violations in recent crackdown, all business deals (and not just military sales) will be put on hold. Given the massive poverty in Burma - remember, the spark for the protests was a sharp rise in fuel prices that meant that many were paying more than half of their daily wage just to take the bus to work - and the plundering of the country's wealth by the country's leaders, it should be clear that doing business with Burma is not helping average Burmese. Instead, it is lining the pockets of the elite.

Ganguly writes that while little is expected of China and Thailand in terms of attempt to change military policy in Burma, it is unusual to see India continue to do business as usual.

BURMA: Two reports - Internet Shutdown & Human Rights

[A timeline of how the Burma government shutdown the Internet. From an ONI report.]

Two reports about the goings-on in Burma. One, from the OpenNet Initiative's "Pulling the Plug: A Technical Review of the Internet Shutdown in Burma," begins:

This bulletin examines the role of information technology, citizen journalists, and bloggers in Burma and presents a technical analysis of the abrupt shutdown of Internet connectivity by the Burmese government on September 29, 2007, following its violent crackdown on
protesters there. Completely cutting international Internet links is rare. Nepal, which severed all international Internet connections when the King declared martial law in February 2005, is the only other state to take such drastic action. Although extreme, the measures taken by the Burmese government to limit citizens' use of the Internet during this crisis are consistent with previous OpenNet Initiative (ONI) findings in Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, and Tajikistan, where authorities controlled access to communication technologies as a way to limit social mobilization around key political events. What makes the Burmese junta stand out, however, is its apparent goal of also preventing information from reaching a wider international audience..."
Read the full report here. ONI contact info here.

Two, a  joint report from the International Trade Unions Confederation and the International Federation of Human Rights about a Mission to Burma, begins:

After the September crackdown on peaceful protests in Burma, the International Trade Unions Confederation (ITUC) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) decided to send a joint international fact-finding mission on the Thai border with Burma to collect first-hand information on the wave of repression. The objective was also to discuss with Burmese pro-democracy and human rights groups about possible international strategies to contribute to the democratization of the country.
Read the full report here.
Availability for interviews :
Olivier De Schutter : +32 (0) 2.640.42.95
Gaëtan Vanloqueren : +32 (0) 472.331.771
ITUC – Mathieu Debroux : + 32 (0) 476 621 018

Post your comments below. See SAJAforum coverage of Burma Crisis.

BURMA: A South(east) Asian crisis, and India's muted response

Burma is one of those sleepy, business-as-usual dictatorships that no one in the West pays much attention to until something exceptionally horrible happens, such as the violence inflicted on anti-government protesters this past week. Pakistan and India have both commemorated their 60th anniversaries this year as states freed from the British Empire and we should not forget that Burma, which is in others way so very different, will celebrate that same milestone in 2008.

Burma, or rather Myanmar — we’ll come to that in a moment — is not usually considered part of South Asia, according to the Asia Society, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and many other organizations. However, it comes very close: Burma shares a long border with India and Bangladesh and is set along a once-lucrative trade route between India and China. During the centuries when Indian culture and trade dominated Southeast Asia, Burma was geographically at the center of things and as a result, Buddhism remains the most common religion in the country. (In a truly surreal twist, the military junta justifies its brutal rule with the claim that it is protecting Buddhism.) India still has a significant interest in trade with Burma, including in petroleum, which is comparatively scarce in India, and this has been suggested as the key reason India has maintained silence over the Burmese regime’s abuses. India sees itself in competition with China over the Burmese energy sector, as the Hindu reported in 2005.

Though they are now split by the magical line dividing South Asia from Southeast Asia, India and Burma were amalgamated in the 19th century thanks to colonialism. The history is a bit complicated but basically Burma was absorbed into India as the British fought three wars of conquest against Burmese rulers between 1824 and 1885. George Orwell spent time as a civil servant in Burma and he famously hated it. It inspired Rudyard Kipling to write one his worst poems. In short, Burma was just the eastern frontier of British India.

BURMA: Another Crisis in the Region - the Saffron Revolution

Add Burma/Myanmar to the list of countries in the South Asian region that are in crisis. We are still watching the crackdown and its aftermath in Bangladesh, but now the military leaders in Yangon have launched a crackdown of their own on what's being called the "Saffron Revolution" in reference to the robes of the Buddhist monks (see USAToday's editorial about the monks). From Wednesday's AP report, via Yahoo:

YANGON, Myanmar - Security forces in Myanmar opened fire on demonstrators Wednesday, and witnesses said police beat and dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks. The government said at least one person was killed, while dissident groups and media reported up to eight dead. The military junta's announcement on state radio and television was the first acknowledgment of the use of force against protesters and its first admission of bloodshed after a month of mostly peaceful demonstrations against the government.

A strongly worded editorial in the NYT - "The Despotism Formerly Known as Burma" points out the role that India and China have to play:

By dispatching troops into the streets and imposing a curfew, Myanmar’s cruel military junta has set the stage for a serious clash with pro-democracy activists. A firm and united international response along the lines outlined by President Bush and the European Union at the United Nations yesterday offers the best hope of encouraging peaceful change in a nation that has endured a 19-year reign of fear. The question is whether the countries with the greatest influence on Myanmar’s generals — China, Russia and India, which all sell weapons to the army, as well as the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that are Myanmar’s immediate neighbors — have the good sense to condemn the repression and exert the pressures only they can wield with any hope of positive effect. It is essential that they step up to the plate, and fast, before blood is spilled.

The Asian Centre for Human Rights, based in New Delhi [+91-11-25620583, 25503624; website: www.achrweb.org; Email: achr_review@achrweb.org], sent out this message:

"Burma: Member States of the UN must intervene" It is available at
http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2007/186-07.htm

As we upload this issue of ACHR WEEKLY REVIEW, reports have been pouring
in that the Burmese riot police today used baton and tear gas against the
Buddhist monks and civilian protesters at Shwedagon pagoda, the holiest
Buddhist place in Rangoon. The demonstrators were reportedly beaten up
while many were arrested. At least one Buddhist monk has been beaten to
death by the riot police.

The international community must intervene. The European Union, the United
States and others must immediately instruct their Permanent
Representatives at the United Nations Offices in New York and Geneva to
sponsor necessary resolutions to hold (i) a special discussion at the
ongoing 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly; (ii) an
Emergency Session at the Security Council; and (iii) a Special Session at
the ongoing 6th session of the UN Human Rights Council on the prevailing
situation in Myanmar.

I spent part of this morning sending out e-mails trying to locate journalists, fixers and others inside the country, with no luck. One of my contacts says that it's hard to find freelance journalists there, because of the current situtation: "There are many 'informants,' not professional journos who could pinch hit." I have never come across this situation where finding a local journalist is impossible, so I am going to keep trying. Tips, leads and more welcome at saja[at]columbia.edu.

I lived in Burma in the early 1980s for a few months and was then a place with no political freedom, thanks to the ruling junta, but we never saw anything like this.

See SepiaMutiny coverage and comments, "Bharat Backs Burma, Bad!"

Your comments and news links below, please.

EARLIER ON SAJAforum:

• BURMA: Himal Mag Looks at a Neighbor - item about a special issue of Himal magazine

MYANMAR: Himal Mag Looks at a Neighbor

[ Sept. 2007: Coverage of the Saffron Revolution ]

SAJA does not count Myanmar/Burma as part of South Asia officially (it's more a part of Southeast Asia, poltically and culturally), but this neighboring country has been affected greatly by (and affected) its desi neighbors over the centuries. Himal, the only truly pan-South Asian magazine, is running a special issue on the country. Note they call it "Burma Special" and not Myanmar.

Himal Southasian, February 2007 issue
BURMA SPECIAL

ARTICLES
* Gandhi and the general, by Amar Kanwar
* Reframing the 'Burma Question', by Thant Myint-U
* The distasteful Burma-India embrace, and
* The victims of Operation Leech, by Soe Myint
* Oil in the eyes, by Kim

PHOTO FEATURE
Naypyitaw: Dictatorship by cartography, by Siddharth Varadarajan

All can be downloaded at http://www.himalmag.com/2007/february/index.php 

The writer Amitav Ghosh, whose "The Glass Palace" looked, in part, at the India-Burma relationship under colonialism, discusses the connection in this AsiaSource interview.

Should Burma be considered a part of South Asia? Your thoughts on that or any other topic Burma-related are welcome in the comments section below.