M Y A N M A R

A LAND FULL OF ILLUSIONS

What do we know about Myanmar? The information that we have comes mostly from organisations that maintain a difficult relationschip with the country's leadership. They relate sometimes-extreme stories about the situation in the land, of wich without doubt many are true, but still there is an amount of scepticism attached. Forty years of dictatorship have left the people poor and repressed, but the opposition profits from the terrorising of the military and is therefore not the most reliable source.

In almost every village there is a monastery to be found, many of wich are are several hundred years old. These are beautiful teak wood buildings. Most of the monasteries are open to the general public. A donation is gratefully accepted but there is no one that chechs this. And why should they, it is all about your own karma. If you think that you can slip in ethout donating that it is your lost opportunity.

Lake Inle lies at 900 m high and is surrounded by mountain ranges. Is is all so beautiful but it is not the beauty of the lake that is the main attraction. The wonder of the lake is the people that live their whole life on the water, Amongst them the people known as the leg rowers. These fisherman balance on the prow of their small, flat-bottomed boats. They stand, like a large bird on one leg, holding behind the knee of the other leg, a paddle, with which they propel the boat along.

In the 39th street live the Moustache Brothers.Hanging on the walls are large photos of the opposition leader Aung San Suu kyi. They are huge fans of hers, but are fundamentally against her request for a boycott on economic and tourist trade. Who would be the victim of such a boycott? Who would be damaged the most? The people or the Junta? The American boycott is 10yrs old and what has it delivered except misery for the people.

 INDONESIA

Aid dispatched after hunger-related deaths in Papua

JAKARTA, 18 September 2009 (IRIN) - The Indonesian government said it will send a team to a poor district in eastern Papua Province after a rights group reported deaths from hunger and associated diseases there. Swadiatma, an adviser to the Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare, said the team of officials would be dispatched this week to the isolated district of Yahukimo in Papua to investigate reports of the deaths, and assess the long-term needs of the population.

“Our team will see for ourselves the situation on the ground, so we can take measures to achieve sustainable food security,” Swadiatma, who goes by one name, told IRIN. He said Minister Aburizal Bakrie had asked the provincial government to deliver food supplies such as rice, noodles and sugar to the affected areas. “Transporting them is not an easy task, given the rugged terrain, and they have to use a helicopter or a small plane,” he added.

Yahukimo District chief Ones Pahabol said food shortages had hit 25 areas in the district, and that 80 percent of Yahukimo's population lived in remote highland areas, and their staple food was sweet potato. Yomes Bomse, chairman of the People's Health Council, a community-based body in Yahukimo, set up by the Health Ministry, said 49 people had died in the past three months. “So far those affected have yet to receive adequate health care,” he said.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) NGO on 16 September said it had received information from local NGOs and civil society groups that 113 villagers had died in Yahukimo since January due to hunger and associated diseases after crop failures.

Harvest failure

“The harvest failure this year caused by climate change resulted in deaths,” the AHRC said in a statement. “Yahukimo is remote and isolated. Daily food sources come from home grown produce such as sweet potato or potato. If villagers fail to harvest enough produce to support their families, they immediately face starvation,” it said. The AHRC also accused the Indonesian government of neglect and said the lack of roads or public infrastructure aggravated food insecurity.

The recent food shortage is not the first to hit Yahukimo. In 2005, local media reported that 55 people died of starvation due to harvest failure, prompting the central government to send officials to the region. Twelve food storage facilities were built in the district in 2006 to help those who had suffered from crop failure, but AHRC said this was ineffective, because the warehouses were not suitable for storing sweet potatoes.

Swadiatma denied that the storage facilities had failed to help villagers, saying that food shortages this time had hit areas where such facilities had not been built.

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