Military junta said on Wednesday that detained opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi deserved to be beaten like an errant child for threatening national security.

Seeking to justify the 62-year-old's latest stretch of house arrest, now in its sixth year, official newspapers said Suu Kyi and other detainees had been in contact with and had received cash from rebel guerrillas and foreign governments.

"Due to the crimes they have committed, they well deserve flogging punishment as in the case of naughty children," the papers said in Burmese and English-language editorials thought to reflect the thinking of the junta's top brass. The editorials added that the government was behaving like the "parent of the people" and exercising "great patience."

It detained Suu Kyi and others "in order that they will not be in a position to commit similar crimes again," they said.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won more than 80 percent of seats in a 1990 election, only to be denied power by a military that has ruled the former Burma since a 1962 coup.

As the daughter of independence hero Aung San, she exercises enormous personal political clout in the nation of 57 million. It is largely out of fear of this that the ruling generals have kept her in some form of detention for nearly 13 of the last 19 years.

The newspaper commentaries also sought to explain the specific security law under which Suu Kyi is being held, but they failed to clarify whether the extension of her detention order on May 27 was for six or 12 months.

The papers also cited Singapore, Malaysia and the United States as countries which had laws to "prevent those who pose danger to the state."

Reuters

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), have provided more than $27.6 million in emergency assistance for Burma in response to the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis. This, combined with the $7.5 million in assistance from the Department of Defense (DOD), brings the total USG assistance to Burma to $35.1 million. With this money USAID has funded 13 UN and NGO partners working in the affected areas to provide programs in 10 different sectors. These sectors focus on health, shelter, water and sanitation, and hygiene programs, as well as food assistance. The USAID-funded programs target more than 1 million beneficiaries in Burma.

USAID has also coordinated with the DOD to fly 116 C-130 sorties of relief commodities to Rangoon, Burma, 45 of which carried USAID commodities consigned directly to NGO, UN, and international organization (IO) partners, while 21 carried NGO and UN agency commodities.

Our partners have reported that the commodities, which included items such as plastic sheeting for shelter, water, blankets, hygiene kits, insecticide-treated bed nets, and boats to facilitate transport to remote areas, are having a significant impact. The USG commodity pipeline facilitated by DOD transport has been extremely successful in getting these desperately needed commodities to the Burmese people.

For more information about USAID's emergency humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, please visit: www.usaid.gov , USAID Keyword: Nargis or directly at www.usaid.gov/locations/asia/countries/burma/cyclone_nargis

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

The Burma Campaign UK published its Dirty List today aimed at exposing those companies that directly or indirectly support Burma's ruling junta.

The 50 new companies named include, BBC Worldwide, Toyota, Qantas, TOTAL Oil and Daewoo.

In total, 154 companies are named on the list.

"In an age where companies like to claim they behave ethically, this list exposes those corporations for whom corporate responsibility is just a hollow public relations exercise," said Johnny Chatterton, campaigns officer of the Burma Campaign UK.

"If you are serious about ethics, you don't fund dictatorships that rape five year old girls, shoot at peaceful protestors and leave storm victims to die."

The campaign group claims that 30 companies on the list are from the tourism sector and 33 are in the oil and gas sector.

Since the list was first published six years ago, over 100 companies have withdrawn from Burma, the group also declared.

Burma is still recovering from the devastating Cyclone Nargis which struck last month, killing 134,000 people and leaving 2.5 million displaced.

InTheNews.co.uk, UK
More: http://www.dassk.com/links.php?go=39079

Burma's southern Irrawaddy River Delta is in "critical'' need of aid after this month's cyclone and access for international teams trying to help 2.4 million survivors is slow, relief workers said.

"We have seen an improvement in terms of access to the delta'' with a small number of workers reaching the area, Veronique Terasse of Doctors Without Borders said yesterday in Bangkok, according to the United Nations' IRIN news agency. "The need for more experienced staff in the delta is and remains critical.''

Burma's military rulers pledged to lift restrictions on international relief workers before hosting a May 25 aid donors' conference. The government is slowing access by imposing conditions on such visitors, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

The UN estimates only 40 percent of people needing assistance in the delta have received aid since Tropical Cyclone Nargis struck almost a month ago. Donor nations are holding back on providing more funds for relief until the military makes good on its pledge to let aid workers into the region.

More than 130,000 people were killed or left missing by the storm in the country, the UN says. Doctors Without Borders has 250 workers, more than a dozen of them from outside Burma, operating in the delta, Terasse said, according to IRIN.

No Improvement: Other non-governmental organizations said there has been no improvement in getting access because workers are required to seek permission from government ministries, as well as from the military, and many have to travel accompanied by a liaison officer, IRIN reported.

The U.S. Navy said two days ago it will probably withdraw its ships from the coast of Burma because the junta turned down offers of help. The USS Essex and other ships will leave within weeks, Admiral Timothy Keating, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, told reporters.

Burma's government needs to allow the ships to dock now, Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said yesterday.

"Don't let those ships sail away while people continue to suffer needlessly because of the paranoia of the generals,'' he said, according to an e-mailed statement. "There's a race against time to save lives.''

The junta is still "using red tape to obstruct some relief efforts,'' the New York-based group said. The generals are enforcing a 48-hour period before workers receive permission to go to the delta, showing that ``even during a disaster, oppression rules.''

Bloomberg

Canadian women Tuesday launched a Panties for Peace! campaign to send their undergarments to the Burmese military junta to frighten it into ending suppression.

At a press conference in Montreal, feminists and civil groups, working under the Rights & Democracy Student Network and the Quebec Women's Federation, urged Canadian women to inundate the Burmese embassy in Ottawa with panties to unsettle the military rulers in the south-east Asian nation.

"The Panties for Peace! campaign is basically aimed to play on the military junta's superstitious fear that contact with a woman's undergarment will rob them of their power," organizer Mika Levesque of the Rights & Democracy Student Network told IANS.

She said, "We appeal to every Canadian woman to clean up her drawer, choose one piece of panties, glue a picture of the military rulers on it or scribble some slogan or message for the junta and then register it with us before sending it to the Myanmar embassy in Ottawa. Registering with us will help us to keep track of how many panties have been sent to the embassy."

Levesque added, "Like all other cultures, there was a superstitious fear of female undergarments in Myanmar. Its military junta fears that any contact with panties will spell disaster for them. So ours is a non-violent method to force change in Myanmar."

She said Canadian men "should also prevail upon their wives, mothers and sisters to send panties to make this movement a huge success."

Panties for Peace! was first launched last year by Lanna Action for Burma (LAB), a women's organization based on Burma's border with Thailand.

Women in Australia, Singapore, the Philippines, Brazil and across Europe have joined it since then, sending their panties to Burmese embassies in their respective countries to express solidarity with the suffering women of Burma and protest against human rights violations by the military regime.

Levesque, who is also the Asia regional officer of the Rights and Democracy Student Network, said their Panties for Peace! Campaign will continue till August 8.

"August 8 marks the twentieth anniversary of the popular 8888 (Aug 8, 1988) uprising in Myanmar. We want to tell the women of Myanmar that their sisters in the rest of the world think of them. Panties for Peace! will get good a huge response as we have support of 30 groups in Quebec province and 40 student groups across Canada," she said.

"Myanmar women have suffered the most at the hands of the military junta. They bring women to barracks, rape and brutalize them and then dump them back in their villages. The world should enforce sanctions on them and try them for human rights violations," Levesque said.

Panties for Peace! organizers also plan to raise funds for the victims of the recent cyclone in Burma.

Michele Asselin, president of the Quebec Women's Federation, said, "This is a unique and important opportunity for women to help raise funds and awareness about the military regime's systematic use of rape and other brutalities against our sisters from Burma (Myanmar)."

IANS

Myanmar Cyclone: Women and Children Make up More than Half of Victims - UNICEF

Hundreds of thousands more at risk because of lack of shelter and unsafe drinking water Powerful Cyclone Nargis, which slammed into the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar over the weekend, killed and injured many women and children in its wake. However, in a country where more than 60 percent are women and children, hundreds of thousands more lives are at risk due to lack of shelter and unsafe drinking water.

"Our biggest fear is that the aftermath could be more lethal than the storm itself," said Caryl Stern, President and CEO, U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

Preliminary reports suggest that 10,000 people have been killed and almost 3,000 more are missing. This would make it the world's deadliest storm since a 1999 cyclone in India. About 100,000 are homeless in the wake of the Myanmar cyclone.

UNICEF is moving quickly to respond -- today deploying five assessment teams.

UNICEF will also take the lead in water and sanitation and hygiene, child protection, and education. Immediate needs include: water purification tablets, plastic sheeting, cooking sets, bed nets, emergency health kits, and food. A major priority is ensuring safe water supplies, especially to vulnerable children.

Detailed information on the impact is not yet available due to downed communications and blocked roads. The southwest of the delta region is believed to be the worst-hit area and was affected both by strong winds and a sizable storm surge. The authorities have indicated that many villages in this area have been completely flattened.

Electrical lines are down, affecting delivery of service, blocking roads and access to rescue vehicles.

"This is clearly a disaster of immense proportions and as is frequently the case children will bear the brunt of it -- in terms of loss of life, injuries, displacement and interruption to schooling," said Stern. "As with any disaster, UNICEF will do whatever it takes to save children's lives.

With an on the ground presence since 1950 in Myanmar we are well positioned to respond to this tragedy."

UNICEF has had a presence on the ground in Myanmar since 1950, with nine zonal offices and a head office in Yangon. Prior to the disaster, UNICEF had stockpiled crucial supplies.

To donate to the Cyclone Nargis disaster, please go to: http://www.unicefusa.org/myanmar.

About UNICEF: For more than 60 years, UNICEF has been the world's leading international children's organization, working in over 150 countries to address the ongoing issues that affect why kids are dying. UNICEF provides lifesaving nutrition, clean water, education, protection and emergency response saving more young lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world. While millions of children die every year of preventable causes like dehydration, upper respiratory infections and measles, UNICEF, with the support of partnering organizations and donors alike, has the global experience, resources and reach to give children the best hope of survival. For more information about UNICEF, please visit http://www.unicefusa.org.

SOURCE UNICEF: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-05-2008/0004806806&EDATE=