Quake victims dying from treatable wounds as aid trickles through – Voice of America/Today FM/The Irrawaddy
January 20th, 2010
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/americas/decapua-haiti-sitrep-20jan10-82160902.html
http://audio.todayfm.com/1250125.wav
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17617
Simon Roughneen in PORT-AU-PRINCE – “You are the first foreigners we have seen here”, said Pierre Ronald.
Standing beside a group of thirty Haitians sheltering from the midday sun, Mr Pierre said in Carrefour, one of the worst-hit areas of Port-au-Prince, no aid had been delivered . Visibly agitated, he exclaims – “we need food, water, doctors – but one week after the disaster, nothing!”
“Do you know anyone who can help? Can you tell people we are here, without anything, please?”
Aidworkers are trying their best, after overcoming immense difficulties even getting into the country. The seaport is damaged, the airport has only one small runway, limiting access from outside. Haiti’s limited infrastructure has taken a hammering – blocked, or clogged with chaotic traffic, with most of the police not showing up for work since the earthquake. Many have been killed, and others are looking for missing family members.
Irish telecoms operator Digicel takes a hit. Downtown Port-au-Prince. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
The lack of police causes other problems for survivors. “We need security too”, says Arnaud, standing next to Pierre. Before the earthquake Arnaud made a living as an artist, and perhaps not known to many outside the country, Haiti had popular and thriving arts/culture scene prior to the disaster. But now he is more concerned about marauding thugs intent on looting and stealing.
“We have set up our own group here to protect women and children. At night, we all sleep here in the open”, pointing to a shabbily-painted playground close to the city’s harbor. (more…)
Haiti earthquake: time running out in nightmare republic – The Sunday Tribune
January 17th, 2010
http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2010/jan/17/time-runs-out-for-survivors-as-relief-operation-st/
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/jan/17/time-is-running-out-as-irish-aid-workers-struggle-/
Haitian refugees await flight to Canada at Port-au-Prince's international airport (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Simon Roughneen in PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI – In ‘The Comedians’, Graham Greene called Haiti the nightmare republic. For the last few days, truth has been more nighmarish than fiction, with an estimated 140,000 killed in last week’s earthquake according to the Haitian Government.
The international relief operation struggling, and time is running out for the estimated 3 million Haitians affected by the disaster – either injured, homeless, or without food and water. With only miracle rescues now possible for those still trapped alive under the rubble, the risk of disease grows by the hour.
In a land notorious for voodoo, the dust-covered corpses lying prone in the early-morning haze took on an eerie aspect, only overshadowed by the sheer scale of the tragedy that left so many dead – and dying – with medical supplies absent, and medical facilities obliterated.
And the stench – the retch-inducing waft of rotting corpses, with so many thousands still under the rubble – settled over the city, as dead as the heat marking the turn from dawn to morning.
Jean-Pierre, 26, said he had been digging for survivors, without food or water, or much of a break, for two solid days. ”We cannot keep going like this, we are trying to reach people, but they cannot last under the buildings.”
Bodies lay in rows or piled beside the streets, some being stacked as roadblocks. On Friday, Haitians began to dig mass graves to bury their dead, which include several leading politicians and the country’s leading Catholic cleric.
Chaos reigned on the streets of Port-au-Prince, with machete-wielding mobs forming road-blocks, and people looting whatever they could lay their hands on. People are visibly angry and baffled at the inability of foreign governments and major international organisations to come to their assistance quickly enough. (more…)
Karen Refugees Have a White Christmas in Ireland – The Irrawaddy
January 4th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=17519
CASTLEBAR, Ireland — After fleeing an army campaign of human rights abuses in eastern Burma, a group of Karen refugees celebrated a white Christmas this year in the snowbound west of Ireland.
Christmas in the west of Ireland (Photo - Simon Roughneen)
“Every now and then, the military comes through our village and asks my mother, ‘Where is your son?’” said Po Hta. His mother tells them that he is in Thailand.
But that’s no longer true.
As a teenager, Po Hta fled Burma in 1994, spending a couple of years in Bangkok before the Thai authorities moved him to Ban Don Yang refugee camp in the north. He spent 10 years there, before being sent to Ireland in 2007 under a UN refugee resettlement program
Now he calls a friend in Bangkok every few weeks, who keeps in touch with his mother, mother and son pass information back and forth through the friend.
Po Hta, who asked that his real name not be used, is part of a group of 100 Karen refugees who resettled in Ireland two years ago. Estimated to number around 7 million of Burma’s 56 million population, with another 400,000 Karen native to Thailand, the Karen are both Christians and Buddhists. Of the six Karen who met with The Irrawaddy in Castlebar, Po Hta was the sole Buddhist. (more…)
Bad cops, mean streets – Sunday Tribune/VoA/RTÉ World Report
December 13th, 2009
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/west/decapua-sierra-leone-kids-7dec09-78673062.html
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1213/worldreport.html
FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE – “The police stop us all the time. Sometimes they try to take money from us, sometimes they threaten to arrest us. But the usual trick is to check our handbags. They plant some drugs, then tell us to come with them to the station. The only way to get out is have sex with the policeman, otherwise we go to jail.”
Just 20 years old, Maryama* has lived on the ramshackle streets of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, for eight years.
Her father died when she was 10 – possibly from HIV-AIDS, although nobody knows for sure – leaving her mother unable to bring up their three children. This was at the height of Sierra Leone’s civil war, infamous for anti-government rebels who hacked off arms and hands to deter civilians from voting in elections.
Inside Freetown's Marbella slum. During the rainy season, the whole area is flooded due to poor/non-existent drainage and sanitation. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Government-allied militias believed that their magic rendered them invisible and invulnerable in battle against the rebels who funded their war with “blood diamonds” smuggled out of the country and sold on at profit. The mainstream diamond industry and its customers turned a blind eye to the suffering caused by the fighting.
Now the country is peaceful and the diamond trade better regulated. The 2007 elections saw an orderly transfer of control to the winning party, and the economy is growing at around 5% a year. War seems a distant memory, brought to mind only by the sight of war amputees on Freetown’s bustling streets. Their arm (and sometimes leg) stumps are a physical testament to what was a notoriously vicious war, fought at close quarters with AK-47s and sharp blades. Around 50,000 people were killed, mostly non-combatants. (more…)
For Now, Peace in Sierra Leone – ISN
December 11th, 2009
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=110478
Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war is a receding memory, but corruption and poverty need addressing to avoid any relapse
Lungi beach, running along the third-biggest natural harbour in the world at Freetown (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
By Simon Roughneen in Freetown for ISN Security Watch
The civil war in Sierra Leone was one of the most violent anywhere in the late 20th century. A death toll of around 50,000 did not tell the full story of a conflict where much of the fighting was carried out at close quarters.
Rebels were funded by diamond exports and supported by Liberian warlord-later-president Charles Taylor – who is now standing trial in The Hague at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Machetes were used to lop off hands and arms as a deterrent against voting; child soldiers were forced to kill family members; women were abducted and raped; cannibalism was a war ritual among some combatants; and foreign mercenaries dotted the land.
Then-president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared the war officially over in 2002, after the British Army intervened in 2000 to end eight years of carnage in its former colony. At one stage, despite being only around the same size as Ireland, the country hosted the world’s largest UN peacekeeping mission, with 18,000 blue berets in place.
Today, the country is at peace. A 2007 election saw a peaceful transfer of power from Kabbah’s Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) to the party that was in power back when the war started – the All Peoples Congress (APC), led by Ernest Bai Koroma.
The president was in London recently, where he was joined by former UK prime minister Tony Blair in touting the resource-rich West African state as an investment location. Blair was made an honorary paramount chief by Freetown in acknowledgement of the UK’s intervention, which was decisive in ending the war. (more…)
The People Nobody Wants – ISN
November 3rd, 2009
By Simon Roughneen for ISN Security Watch
Rohingya refugees in Nayapara camp (cc) Ruben Flamarique/Austcare/flickr
At its 15th summit held in Thailand two weeks ago, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations inaugurated the ASEAN Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission. It is the first time that the 10-state bloc has given institutional recognition to human rights.
What that means in practice is unclear. The body will merely promote human rights, and cannot sanction offenders or protect victims. With the Burmese junta nominating a representative to the 10-member commission, along with states such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, which have less-than-stellar records in this area, it seems the new body is there to pay lip service rather than act decisively.
Action for sure is needed. Malaysia does not recognize refugees as a category; communist Vietnam continues to make life hard for religious groups; and the majority of Burmese struggle under a military dictatorship.
Standing out for the wrong reasons
But of all the ethnic groups in the region perhaps one stands out as suffering the most. The Rohingya are a Muslim minority in western Burma, living mainly in Rakhine State close to the border with Bangladesh. Muslims make up around 4 percent of the country’s total population, and a majority of Burmese Muslims describe themselves as ‘Rohingya.’
The Rohingya number about two million people. Approximately 800,000 remain in Burma and 200,000-400,000 in Bangladesh. An estimated half million live in the Middle East as migrant workers, with around 50,000 in Malaysia.
Some are thought to be descendants of migrants who came east from what is now India and Bangladesh during British colonial rule. Others believe the Rohingya descend from Arab traders who settled in Rakhine more than 1,000 years ago. It is impossible to say exactly who came from where and when, but the Burmese junta maintains that the Rohingya are not among the country’s 135 recognized ethnic groups.
Since 1982, Rohingya have been denied citizenship. (more…)
Burmese migrants struggle in Malaysia – IRINnews
October 14th, 2009
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86574
PENANG, 14 October 2009 (IRIN) – In the tourist city of Penang in northern Malaysia, the Buddhist temple has become the locus of social and economic support for migrants from Myanmar.
“l was a contractor at home, but left Burma [Myanmar] 19 years ago, arriving in Malaysia after crossing from Thailand,” said Aung Tin, a foreman on the construction site of a new pagoda.
Burmese workers on the job at the new pagoda under construction at the Burmese Buddhist temple in Penang (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Penang is one of Malaysia’s main economic and industrial centres, and the Burmese Buddhist temple provides social and religious support for the Burmese community.
At the construction site, all 14 staff supervised by Aung Tin – who would only talk to IRIN using a pseudonym – are Burmese migrants. (more…)
Speaking up for migrant workers – The Irrawaddy
October 7th, 2009
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=16944
| By SIMON ROUGHNEEN |
At the global launch of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) 2009 Human Development Report in Bangkok on Monday, Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the report’s findings provide “guidance for policymakers around the world.”
The UNDP report calls on countries to focus on the economic benefits that migration can bring to a host country and recommends that recipient countries allow more unskilled workers to move more freely, based on transparent procedures, with access to education and health services, and with reduced transaction costs.
Thailand hosts an estimated 2 to 3 million Burmese economic migrants. The push and pull factors determining Burmese migration to Thailand are stark. (more…)
Regime rides above sanctions – Asia Times
August 18th, 2009
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/KH18Ae02.html
Burmese rubies (Democracyforburma,wordpress.com)
BANGKOK – Despite some buffeting by the global economic downturn, revenues from gas, oil, hardwood and gemstones continue to flow into Myanmar’s coffers, helping junta leader Senior General Than Shwe to maintain Southeast Asia’s largest standing army. An estimated 50% of the state’s revenues go towards maintaining the country’s 400,000-strong military.
While Western countries impose economic sanctions against the junta, including new measures imposed last week by the European Union against members of Myanmar’s judiciary and 58 other enterprises, Asian states are fiercely competing for oil and gas concessions. That promises even greater wealth for the ruling military junta, even as its international reputation plummets in the wake of last week’s sentencing of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in jail, later reduced to 18 months of house arrest.
Thailand and China were estimated to have provided US$850 million of the $980 million total that was invested in the country last year, in everything from oil and gas, to roads, along with gems and timber extraction. As of 2007, both countries accounted for over half of Myanmar’s exports and imports. Those figures should rise as new hydroelectric projects and a port-pipeline facility linking the Myanmar coast to western China get underway later this year. (more…)
Webb Hints Suu Kyi May Favor Engagement – The Irrawaddy
August 17th, 2009
http://www.irrawaddymedia.com/article.php?art_id=16582
BANGKOK—The fallout from US Senator Jim Webb’s controversial engagement with the Burmese junta continues. Today, Webb fuelled speculation that Aung San Suu Kyi favors the removal of some of the international sanctions applied by the US and EU.
U.S. Senator Jim Webb
Discussing the issue at a Bangkok press conference on Monday, Webb was coy, telling the media that “I don’t want to misrepresent her views, but my clear impression is that she is not opposed to the lifting of some sanctions.”
Despite the timing of his visit to Burma so soon after the verdict against the pro-democracy leader, the senator was tight-lipped. He spent around eight minutes fielding questions from journalists, before closing the Q&A session.
The visit may have been something of a missed opportunity. Sen Webb stated that he had a “frank” exchange with Snr-Gen Than Shwe, and said that he asked the regime to consider releasing Suu Kyi.
However, Webb did not raise the issue of Western sanctions or the recent allegations surrounding nuclear cooperation with North Korea during his meeting with the junta leaders.
“This is not the way to discuss these matters,” he told reporters before conceding that neither did he bring up the issue of the more than 2,100 political prisoners who remain in jail in Burma. (more…)
