In an effort to make the people believe the government propaganda that all is well, the junta is now forcing refugees back into uninhabitable areas. 

 

From MSNBC:

 

'Myanmar’s military government is forcing cyclone victims out of shelters and refugee camps and sending some back to their devastated villages with virtually no aid supplies, United Nations and church officials said Friday.

Eight camps set up by the government for homeless victims in the Irrawaddy delta town of Bogalay are “totally empty,” UNICEF official Teh Tai Ring told a meeting of aid groups.
...

Singapore’s prime minister said Friday Myanmar’s military rulers are afraid to let in international aid workers to help cyclone victims because it might expose their own powerlessness.

“The military leaders surely know that foreign aid will save lives and help to rebuild the devastated areas,” Lee said in a speech opening a three-day Asia-Pacific security conference. “But they also fear the political consequences of opening up the disaster zone to international aid teams. This might show up their own incapability, and undermine their credibility and legitimacy.
...

An estimated 2.4 million people remain homeless and hungry after the May 2-3 cyclone hit Myanmar, also known as Burma. Myanmar’s government says the cyclone killed 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing.'

Full Article 

"Burma's military junta yesterday extended the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi , the opposition leader, a move likely to dismay Western nations who promised millions of dollars in aid after Cyclone Nargis.

Officials drove to the Nobel laureate's lakeside home in Rangoon to read out a six-month extension order , said a government official, who asked not to be named. However, a diplomat based in the city said it was for a year.

Ms. Suu Kyi, 62, whose National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a 1990 election landslide only to be denied power by the army, has now spent nearly 13 of the past 18 years under some form of arrest."

More...  

Amazing.

 

"Human rights and aid groups complained Friday that Myanmar’s military government was still hindering the free flow of international help for victims of Cyclone Nargis

 ....

'By still delaying and hampering aid efforts ... the generals are showing that, even during a disaster, oppression rules,' Human Rights Watch said.

...

The country’s xenophobic leaders are leery of foreign aid workers and international agencies, worrying they could weaken the junta’s powerful grip. The generals also don’t want their people to see aid coming directly from countries like the United States, which the regime has long treated as a hostile power."

More...

Informative news report about the Cyclone

 

Google has been great and set up a page here that allows you to quickly and easily donate to help out the victims of the cyclone.  Every penny counts!

Apparently a cyclone isn't enough to stop the referendum.

 

 

full article here . 

After all of the words condeming the regime after the crackdown, apparently ASEAN would like to get back to pretending Burma is just another member nation.  Lots of articles on their recent weak reaction to Burma, including this one in the Sydney Morning Herald .  Selected bits:

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Burma's new Prime Minister, Thein Sein, was expected to face heavy criticism at the summit in Singapore, just weeks after the regime's crackdown on monks. Instead, he will walk away with a victory.
...
But observers said the credibility of the Association of South-East Asian Nations had been shattered by the abrupt cancellation of UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari's planned briefing to its leaders on Monday.

"Certainly, this is a victory for Myanmar," said Hiro Katsumata from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

"What is lost is the reputation of the association," he said.

"It is just dreadful. It was a terrible decision," said Sean Turnell, a Burma expert from Macquarie University. "At least the meeting with Gambari could have sent a signal that ASEAN was concerned."

Singapore had invited Mr Gambari to brief the leaders of 16 Asian countries including China and Japan on the results of his two visits to Burma, since the regime's crackdown on pro-democracy protests in September.

But during heated talks at dinner on Monday, Thein Sein objected to the event which some other South-East Asian leaders also opposed on the grounds it had been taken outside the ASEAN forum.

A South-East Asian diplomat said that at one point, the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a retired army general, stood up and raised his voice, asking how ASEAN had come to such a point of discord.

Thein Sein had been expected to face a grilling over the regime's bloody campaign to suppress dissent, which left 15 dead. But instead his neighbours quickly caved in.

Interesting article in the Irrawaddy describing China's efforts to speed Burma's path to democracy.  Selected portions:

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China has called on Burma to speed up democratic reforms, state media reported Saturday, in an unusual move for Beijing which has traditionally refrained from criticizing the country's military junta.
...
Yi also expressed support for United Nations-brokered attempts to reconcile the junta and the country's suppressed democracy movement led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the newspaper reported.

China, the junta's main political ally, does not usually publicly criticize the military government, reaffirming its position of strict noninterference in the internal affairs of the country.

But in recent weeks, it has been credited with working behind the scenes to pressure Burma to embrace democratic reforms.

China had provided important backing for the mission of Ibrahim Gambari, the UN secretary general's special envoy on Burma, by supporting a Security Council declaration and helping persuade Burma to allow him to visit twice since the military's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in September.