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Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Monks, not military, help clean up Burma
 From The Australian
IT is being left to Burma's monks to help residents clear roads of fallen trees and other debris caused by killer tropical cyclone Nargis.
The gathering of cinnamon-robed monks was one of the largest groups seen in Burma's main city since September when they led mass anti-government protests that were violently put down by security forces.
"We are now relying on monks to clear this road," said one middle-aged woman who lived in the neighbourhood of western Rangoon.
"Of course we were hoping the authorities would come, but they haven't shown up yet. These monks came after the storm to help the people to clear the streets and to remove the trees," she said.
Witnesses have reported seeing few soldiers or police joining the relief effort after the weekend cyclone, which killed 22,000 and left 41,000 missing.
"We didn't see any military at all, just police in armoured cars. On Saturday afternoon, we did see some vans, but most of the guys were standing around smoking," said 32-year-old Pip Paton, who was travelling in Rangoon with her family when the cyclone struck.
An abbot leading the monks said monasteries in the city had also been damaged in the storm, but residents had ensured they still had enough to eat.
Buddhist monks in Burma rely on donations from the public for their meals, in an act of alms-giving that earns spiritual "merit" for devotees.
Also in The Australian an analysis of what sort of effect the damage caused by Cyclone Nargis might have on the Myanmar regime. Not enough, apparently.
GENERAL Than Shwe's military junta may be showing signs it fears for its survival in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, but Burmese activists, academics and regional analysts say the disaster is unlikely to spell the end of the rogue regime.
The highly unusual call for international aid organisations to enter Burma and run the relief effort shows the paranoid and secretive generals are "clearly worried", said Win Min, who fled Burma after leading the 1988 student protests.
It (the cyclone's aftermath) is a very big problem but it is not the end for the military regime," said Min. "Right now people are just trying to survive, they are trying to find food to eat and trying to rebuild their houses.
"But in the coming weeks, if the people continue to see that the soldiers and the military are doing nothing to help them, and there is hunger and the spread of diseases such as cholera, they could organise themselves to protest."
Malcolm Cook, program director East Asia at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, agrees with Burmese analysts that Cyclone Nargis alone is unlikely to topple the junta, which seized power in 1988.
"That is unless the typhoon weakens the state's ability to keep control, including through oppression."
Posted on 1:57 AM by Esmerelda Weatherwax
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