100,000 Dead: Regime Still Blocks Aid, China Complicit

Here's What You Can Do

Dear Friends,

The news is staggering and in many ways unfathomable. Yesterday, Shari Villarosa, the leading US diplomat in Burma said that 100,000 may have died and 95% of the buildings in the affected areas could be wiped out. The death tolls could increase as water born diseases such as cholera are beginning to spread, and in these worst hit areas aid has not to arrive.

The Burmese regime's blocking of aid is beyond horrendous. Minimal aid is being allowed in. There are still many people and supplies waiting to go, but the Burmese regime continues to deny access. Yesterday, the French government launched a push in the UN to try and enforce aid delivery, but China blocked the effort. If you haven't already, email UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and urge him to step in. Yesterday, within hours after thousands of our members writing in, Ban Ki-moon did start speaking out about Burma. However, more must happen.

In situations as grave as this, many people cannot sit by and watch.

Here's what you can do

Hold a fundraiser. Many of you are already working on this, and we greatly appreciate it. While the Burmese regime isn't allowing international aid in, you can fundraise. We will then send the money directly to trusted Burmese organizations inside who are working to help the people. You can send checks to us or make online donations.

Get your community involved. Here are some events that are going on around the country. Check out the page on our website about the cyclone, for updated news, other info about the situation, and word about upcoming events. On that page at the bottom you can easily add a comment about what you are doing.

Please let us know what you are planning so we can post it on our site. This is a very difficult time, but we can work together to try and save lives.

- Aung Din, Jeremy, Jennifer and Thelma

Support 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma.
Become a member of the United States Campaign for Burma today.

Burma Action Ireland actively supports the following campaigns:

SHWE GAS MOVEMENT – protests against the involvement of international companies and capital in the exploitation of Burmese people in the development of the Shwe Gas Field.
The sale of the natural resource to foreign companies and governments enriches the Burmese generals but produces no real benefits for the people of Burma where the infrastructure necessary to deliver benefits is lacking.
Furthermore, the Burmese military junta facilitates the development of the gas fields by forced relocation of local populations and the use of forced labour, and it allows wholesale destruction of the natural environment without attempting to conserve or even monitor the loss of irreplaceable habitats of rare animals and plants.
For full information about this campaign and to sign the on-line petition, please click on

www.shwe.org

SALWEEN DAMS MOVEMENT – protests against the construction of dams along the Salween River. These dams will provide hydro-electric power for people outside Burma, but will produce no tangible benefit to them as the junta plans to profit by selling the energy abroad.
The wholesale destruction of the natural riverine habitat involved in this development endangers over a hundred different rare species of wild-life
Forced relocation of ethnic minority people has already precipitated large flows of refugees, both across the border into Thailand and internally inside Burma itself. The internally displaced people (IDPs) are continually at risk of further depredations by the Burmese military. Among the tactics used by the military against these people are rape, burning of villages, burning of crops, forced labour of men, women and children, landmining, forced porterage for the Army and summary execution.
For full information about this campaign, please click on

www.salweenwatch.org

POLITCAL PRISONERS – Burma Action Ireland supports the Association for the Assitance of Political Prisoners in Burma (AAPB). This organization produces reliable reports on the use of torture in Burmese prisons and on deaths in custody.
The two most recent reports are available in full on this website (click on Events) and on the AAPPB website

www.aappb.org