“There is no protection for people, how can they go back?” – CNN Go
June 17th, 2011
http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/life/life-burmese-landmine-refugee-536453
Mae Sot, Thailand – With his crutches resting against the clinic bed, Than Tin rolls up his trouser leg, gingerly pointing to a heavily bandaged leg stump. “All I remember was being blasted up in the air”, recalls the 48 year old father of 5, hoisting both arms to suggest the impact of the landmine. “First was no pain, but half my leg was gone, but then it was like so bad burning.”
Mae La refugee camp, north of Mae Sot (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
He was logging in the forests around Myawaddy, a trading town on Burmese side of the border with Thailand and close to one of the world’s longest-running civil wars. Unknown numbers of landmines litter the hilly jungle terrain, on and off the beaten tracks close to where Government soldiers fight ethnic minority rebel militias and beleaguered civilians hide out in their tens of thousands, or make the hard trek to a precarious refuge in Thailand. (more…)
After an earthquake, confusion over storms in Burma – RTÉ World Report
March 27th, 2011
http://www.rte.ie/news/player.html?worldreport#programme=World%20Report
“We all ran outside, our windows fell in, the walls are cracked, most of the buildings in the town have been damaged”
That was the account given over the phone by a man in Tachilek in Burma’s Shan State, close to the epicentre of Thursday evening’s 6.8 earthquake. The disaster caused damage in northern Thailand, with one woman killed near the border with Burma.
By Saturday afternoon the death-toll in Burma itself was over 70, but, as ever, the lack of reliable information from inside the country means that it is difficult to gauge the full extent of the destruction, in a hilly and remote region. (more…)
Burma Sanctions Debate Intensifies- The Irrawaddy
March 9th, 2011
Despite recent calls from international think tanks for an end to sanctions on Burma, Western governments remain reluctant to change their policy, even as they increase aid to the country.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20902
BANGKOK — The Burma sanctions debate has intensified in recent weeks since the National League for Democracy (NLD) concluded that the various measures implemented by Australia, Canada, the European Union and the United States should remain in place until the Burmese government adopts political and economic reforms of its own.
Either side of the Feb. 8 NLD statement, well-known international think-tanks such as Chatham House—which lists Burma-invested oil companies such as Total and Chevron as backers—and International Crisis Group have weighed in, saying that sanctions should be removed as they have failed to loosen the Burmese military’s hold on power and have compounded the poverty experienced by the majority of the country’s people.
The Association for Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has similarly called for an end to Western sanctions on one of its ten member-states, while other leaders such as Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta have also come out against the measures. (more…)
EU official to visit Thailand, Discuss Burmese Refugee Camps – The Irrawaddy
March 1st, 2011
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20854
BANGKOK—The lead European Union (EU) official on humanitarian issues will visit Thailand next week to meet government officials and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to assess the situation in Burmese refugees camps in northern Thailand.
The visit by EU Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva comes after NGOs and Burmese exile groups complained of cuts in humanitarian aid to refugees in the camps. Many of the refugee camps have been in place since the 1980s and their population is around 150,000.
Mathias Eick, the Regional Information Officer for ECHO, the European Commission’s (EC) humanitarian arm, said that the EC’s funding “has remained more or less constant over the last few years, at around 12.5 million euros per annum.” (more…)
“I want my child to go to school here” – RTÉ World Report
January 16th, 2011
http://www.rte.ie/news/av/2011/0116/worldreport.html#&autoplay=true - audiostream
Shertiyo, Blue Nile State, Sudan (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Five and six hundred yards long queues form either side of the entrance to polling stations – men on one side, women on the the other. They wait in excitement and euphoria on the first day of polling — here — in what would be the new capital of an independent southern Sudan. The scenes have been repeated all across the region in voting this week to decide whether the region should remain part of Sudan or form the world’s newest country. (more…)
Vietnam: a development success story? – The Guardian
December 23rd, 2010
Vietnam has made huge economic advances over the past 10 years. But sustaining growth and ensuring everyone benefits from this progress will be challenging.
Hanoi traffic during daytime (Photo: Simon Roughneen )
It’s 8am in Hanoi and already thousands of motorbikes, mopeds and scooters flow through the streets. Some sway with the weight of two or three passengers, boxes of merchandise, sacks of rice, or tied-down pieces of furniture that look heavier than vehicle and driver combined.
For the first-time pedestrian, crossing the road is a daunting experience, but, amid all the apparent chaos, the “system” works. The trick is to just walk when you can, and let the torrent of bikes flow around you. Don’t look left, don’t look right. Just walk. (more…)
Tough on graft, kind of – The Diplomat
December 8th, 2010
http://the-diplomat.com/2010/12/08/asia-gets-tough-on-graft-kind-of/
Thursday marks UN Anti-Corruption Day. There’s plenty of it to be worried about, reports Simon Roughneen from Bangkok.
Despite the supposed global nature of the economic crisis, a number of countries in Asia have managed to maintain robust enough growth rates to make the whole thing feel more like a Western story. But while the resource sector in energy-hungry China and the construction sector boom of new roads and high-rise buildings across the continent suggest the region should be well on its way to slashing poverty, there’s a potentially major obstacle to continued rapid growth: these booming sectors are chronically corrupt.
Speaking at the recent International Anti-Corruption Conference in Bangkok, Prof. Paul Collier said that increased corruption could undermine the opportunity for many of the about 900 million Asians living on less than $1.25 a day to climb out of poverty. ‘Commodities and construction are the two most corrupt sectors on earth,’ said Collier, a professor at Oxford University and author of The Bottom Billion.
Army abuses worsen health crisis in eastern Burma – The Irrawaddy
October 19th, 2010
Diagnosis: Critical – Health and Human Rights in Eastern Burma says that general health for people in eastern Burma is much worse than the national average. According to the document, which was released today at a press conference in Bangkok, abuses such as forced labour and displacement affected one-third of those surveyed, and “serve as major drivers of the health crisis as children in displaced families were three times more likely to suffer from acute malnutrition and 60% more likely of suffering from diarrhea”. In another startling finding, the report says that the odds of children dying before age one were doubled in households forced to provide labour during the preceding year.
The army’s “four cuts” policy was developed in the 1970 to undermine ethnic militia groups, often by targetting civilians. Tactics used include cutting off access to food, funds, information and recruits, with often devastating results. One-third of all households surveyed have experienced some form of human rights abuse, according to the report authors. Charm Tong of the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN) said today that “systematic rape and human rights abuses continue, which furthers the health crisis.” An estimated 446,000 people have been driven from their homes in eastern Burma, where they are thought to eke out a living in the regions’ dense jungles. (more…)
Lessons From Disasters – The Irrawaddy
October 13th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19716
Aftermath of Cyclone Nargis remains the prime example of how a government should not deal with a natural disaster.
Buildings down in Port-au-Prince, January 2010 (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Despite well-documented and sometimes unavoidable failings in disaster relief elsewhere, the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis remains the prime example of how a government should not deal with a natural disaster.
It was exactly one week after the Haiti earthquake leveled most of the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince when a man asked me: “Do you know anyone who can help? Can you tell people we are here, without anything?” The disaster killed more than 200,000 people.
The man claimed not to have seen an aid worker or official in the days since the earthquake, much less received any assistance. Slow aid delivery seems to be a common problem in emergency relief.
More recently, I heard similar stories around Sindh Province in southern Pakistan about three weeks after the monsoon floods left one- fifth of the country under water, with 8 to 9 million people homeless. (more…)
Letter from Hong Kong: cultures of giving – The Irrawaddy
October 4th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=19619
HONG KONG – The September 29 Beijing gathering chaired by American billionaire businessmen Bill Gates and Warren Buffett was billed in advance as futile a mission to try persuade stingy Chinese super-rich to part with their money.
The reality is more subtle, even if a mid-September survey by the UK-based Charities Aid Foundation ranked China 147th out of 153 countries when it comes to giving to charity or corporate philanthropy.
Lights over the harbour in Hong Kong (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
The two men were in China to follow-up on their much-publicised “Billionaire Pledge”, persuading people in that category of financial wealth to give up half their money to charity. There should be rich pickings – for want of a better word – for the two men. (more…)
