Burma: Buddhist relief efforts expand

Jun 132008
 

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RFA’s Burmese service had this interview with Thigadu Sayardaw, a senior figure in Burmese Buddhism, whose organisation is helping as much as possible with the relief effort for those made homeless by Tropical Cyclone Nargis:

Interviewer: Could you please tell us the situation of the cyclone victims that the Thidagu group is helping?

Sayadaw (senior monk): We started on May 9. On June 9, our aid work completed one month. So I made the end-of-the-month list. We have been helping Bogalay, Mawlamyaing Gyun, Pyapon, Amah, Kungyan-gon, and Day-da-yeh townships. When we’re done with Day-da-yeh, we will have worked with over one thousand monasteries. Also in the villages that are in the area of the monasteries, we assign one monk and one leader of the village and distribute through the monks for the use of everyone in the village rice, oil, salt, chili peppers, onions, blankets, mosquito nets, and clothing. Continue reading »

Sichuan: Pingwu primary school devastated

May 212008
 
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This video shows the main gate and dormitory area of what used to be a primary school in Pingwu county, Sichuan. Children’s drawings are still taped to the wall. Continue reading »

Burma: "They're faking it everywhere"

May 152008
 

They’re faking it everywhere. They fake it by video taping, and then leaving that area. They’re just looking for an opportunity to video tape when authorities come. People are suffering from the storm. They are building elaborate stages, with velvet backdrops, and writing things like who is donating what for the storm victims. They want to make it elaborate. They don’t actually look after the people who are suffering. The generals are on these stages, looking grand, with guns around their waists. — Resident of Pyapon, Irrawaddy delta

From a recent interview by RFA’s Burmese service:

Interviewee: Pyapon hasn’t got any aid yet. Social organizations, such as Rice Merchants Association, keep going from Rangoon, taking aid materials and food for their regions. Continue reading »

Sichuan: Video and interviews from Dujiangyan

May 152008
 

RFA Mandarin service Hong Kong-based reporter Lin Di reports from Dujiangyan, Sichuan province:

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These forces are specialists in getting people out from under collapsed building, this officer says. They are usually stationed in Yunnan. They have been in Dujiangyan for three days.  “There are forces here from Sichuan, Yunnan, and many other provinces,” he says. The bright lights are running off generators; they brought them along with them. There is no power at all in the city; only vehicle headlights.

In Dujiangyan, the stench of dead bodies fills the air. Most people here are wearing masks. I clamber over the rubble of a collapsed building that must have been four or five-storeys high. A rescue worker tells me that there are still more than a dozen bodies buried underneath the debris.  “We checked,” he says. “They are all dead.” Continue reading »

Burma: Donated food 'sold at high prices'

May 132008
 

The dried noodles that came from abroad, that we’ve never seen before, — you can now buy them at City Mart. Also, in Nyaung-bin-lay Market, I’ve seen cans of condensed milk that we’ve never seen before. These are the things donated by foreign countries. You can buy those packets of dried noodles. It’s 600 a packet. These dried-noodle packets were donated. I don’t know what happened that they didn’t get to the victims, but ended up in Nyaung-bin-lay Market and City Mart. — U Thuya

From a recent interview with RFA’s Burmese service: Continue reading »

Burma: Interview with Shari Villarosa in Rangoon

May 092008
 

Rangoon after Nargis Photo by luisrene on Flickr.

Speaking as the United Nations announced it would cease aid flights into Burma until officials released two planeloads of emergency food supplies they were holding, the top U.S. diplomat in Burma has called on the military junta to allow the international community in.

[audio http://www.rfa.org/english/villarosa/inline.html]

“Take in good faith the desire of the international community to come in and help the millions of Burmese victims of this terrible storm,” Shari Villarosa, Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon, said in an interview with RFA’s Burmese service.

Burma: Devastation in Laputta township

May 092008
 
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The above video shows scenes from Rangoon during the onslaught of Tropical Cyclone Nargis, courtesy of Blogger Thura on YouTube. According to a recent report from RFA’s Burmese service, cyclone victims from Laputta township area, in Irrawaddy delta, which was hit the hardest by the cyclone, and from Hmaw-gyun region, have been arriving in the city of Myaung-mya continuously, starting the evening of May 6 until today. People have set up rescue centers for these storm victims in classrooms in Myaung-mya. There are a total of about 20,000 victims. U Aung Kyin reports from Myaung-mya: Continue reading »

Burma: Urgent call for aid from survivors

May 092008
 

General Aye Khaing, a member of the military junta, is from Hpya-pone city. He’s from 55 Division 9. His father’s house totally collapsed too. Also, General Maung Maung Aye from Division 66. His older brother Ko Hla Soe drowned in Byaing-ga-zee village. Other villages and people died horrifically, and there are many deaths. There are corpses floating in a row along the Hpya-pone river. We can’t find my sister-in-law’s body.

– Surviving resident of cyclone-hit area

This former resident of Hpya-pone, right in the delta area worst hit by Cyclone Nargis at the weekend, describes looting and the threat of starvation in the city in the wake of the storm, which aid workers say may result in the deaths of 100,000 people. He told RFA’s Burmese service about the scenes of devastation in the towns and villages of the Irrawaddy delta: Continue reading »

North Korea: Change to Official View of the Disabled

Mar 032008
 

Wonhee Lee, February 18, 2008, translation by Greg Scarlatoiu:

The North Korean authorities are undergoing a change in perception regarding the people living with disabilities. North Korea is now no longer reluctant to request assistance for the disabled.

For a long time now, it has been known that it’s impossible to see or meet disabled people on the streets of Pyongyang. Los Angeles-based Shalom Disability Ministries has been distributing wheelchairs to the disabled of North Korea. For a while now, this organization has been telling the world that North Korea is embarrassed to even admit the existence of its disabled, but Shalom representatives have recently told RFA that views on the disabled appear to be changing in the reclusive communist state. Continue reading »