Chiang Mai - A new report launched on Thursday reveals that Burma's military rulers have abused the rights of victims of Cyclone Nargis by blocking aid supplies, among other wrongdoings.
The report, entitled 'Post-Nargis Analysis: The Other Side of the Story,' was released on Thursday by nineteen Burmese organizations and reveals that the junta continues to violate the rights of natural disaster victims by blocking aid supplies and forcibly confiscating land.
Ko Shwe, a Karen environmentalist who visited the delta in the aftermath of the cyclone, said: "The report mainly highlights the human rights abuses committed by the junta against the victims, abuses which are not included in the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA)."
The report, evaluating PONJA and jointly conducted by the United Nations, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Burmese regime, reveals that the junta's rights violations worsened a rights situation already made vulnerable by the cyclone that hit Burma on May 2-3.
Ko Shwe said the PONJA report failed to describe the obstruction of aid and human rights abuses committed by the military regime in areas affected by the cyclone.
"So, as independent civil society organizations, we felt the need to tell the other side of the post-Nargis story by producing this report," he said in a media advisory released by organizers of a press conference to mark the report's release.
The report said PONJA distorted the nature of the response by the military government in the aftermath of the cyclone. It also recommends that information on aid distribution and the PONJA report be made available to the public while establishing an independent system to monitor the distribution of aid.
"Given the limited access to independent information under the regime's censorship, we believe our input and recommendations offer a crucial and substantive contribution to the post-Nargis recovery," said Khin Ohmar, Coordinator of Burma Partnership and one of the organizers of and speakers at the press conference.
Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, the General Secretary of ASEAN, was invited to the press conference in Jakarta on Thursday to receive a copy, but canceled his appearance.
"Maybe he [Surin] wants to avoid press coverage on evaluating PONJA," speculated Ko Shwe.
According to Imelda Sari of the National Press Club of Indonesia, who co-organized the conference, Kraisak Choonhavan, President of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, and Yuki Akimoto, Director of the Burma Information Network, also spoke at the press conference – each of whom assisted in the compilation of the report.
