The Cyclone
In early May 2008 Cyclone Nargis struck lower Burma, leaving more than 150,000 people dead or missing. The overwhelming storm and the massive tidal surges devastated coastal regions, villages, towns, and the former capital Rangoon, directly affecting over 2.4 million people.
The military government’s initial response was to block and delay aid delivery to the affected Irrawaddy Delta during the crucial first weeks after the cyclone. An untold number of people died and suffered needlessly as the SPDC treated the cyclone as a national security problem instead of a natural disaster, demonstrating the shocking disregard they hold for the welfare of their own people. This was partly explained by the SPDC’s pushing ahead with its constitutional referendum, brutally prepared through intimidation and vote rigging for months, and held in most parts of the country only a week after the cyclone. The government claimed a 98 percent turnout and said that more than 92 percent had voted in favor of the new constitution.
In the crucial first weeks following the disaster, international assistance and technological expertise built up in Rangoon and neighboring Thailand, but were only slowly released following the visit of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in late May.
In the absence of government assistance and responsibility, Burmese civil society stepped in. In the thousands, individuals and communities raised money, collected supplies, and traveled to affected parts of the delta and the Rangoon area, helping shattered villages. Burmese community aid workers, private organizations, and citizens working for international organizations helped their people, often against roadblocks, obstructions, and impediments erected by the authorities.
Some observers suggested that the resurgence of civil society in the wake of the cyclone showed an opening of humanitarian space inside Burma. Yet for Burmese who attempted relief efforts independent of the authorities or spoke openly about their frustrations with the government, the threat of arrest or intimidation was all too real and has continued to the present.
In June 2008 alone, Human Rights Watch believes that 22 people were arrested for activities related to assisting victims of the cyclone, in many cases because they reached out to the international community or publicly criticized the SPDC’s performance. The most prominent of these is renowned Burmese comedian and activist Zargana, but many others, including former political prisoners, used the brief opening of freedom to help their countrymen.
Police arrested journalists Eine Khaing Oo, a 24-year-old reporter for Eco Vision Journal, and Kyaw Kyaw Thein, a former editor of Weekly Journal, after bringing cyclone survivors to Rangoon and interpreting for them at meetings with the ICRC and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Eine Khaing Oo will spend two years in prison and Kyaw Kyaw Thein received a seven-year prison term for trying to bring the voices of cyclone victims to the international community.
In a bizarre public relations exercise, the SPDC tried to tell the world that Burmese people “are not beggars,” and therefore did not need handouts. In one infamous line, the state-run media claimed that the Burmese didn’t need “foreign chocolate bars” to survive and that “large edible frogs are abundant” for survivors to eat. Burma’s military ruler, General Than Shwe, toured makeshift camps of survivors handing out DVD players to those without electricity, even as the government bargained with the international community over the costs of flying rights for helicopters, and while British, US, and French military vessels loaded with supplies waited in vain off Burma’s coast.
U Nay Win and Phyo Phyo Aung
UNay Win, a doctor who was imprisoned from 1989 to 2005 for his political activities, was arrested with his daughter Phyo Phyo Aung on June 14, 2008, for organizing to collect bodies of cyclone victims for burial. Father and daughter had started an organization called The Group that Buries the Dead. The SPDC threw both father and daughter, who had already spent 16 years of their lives apart, in prison. They were charged in early February 2009 under provisions contained in the Unlawful Associations Act that bans any “organizations that attempt, instigate, incite, abet, or commit acts that may in any way disrupt law and order, peace and tranquility, or safe and secure communications...or...that attempt, instigate, incite, abet or commit acts that may effect or disrupt the regularity of state machinery.” Phyo Phyo Aung was also charged under 505(b) of the Penal Code for making statements causing public mischief.