Myanmar Votes as Junta Curbs Cyclone Relief

By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: May 11, 2008

YANGON, Myanmar — The military junta continued to restrict foreign aid shipments to survivors of last week’s devastating cyclone but forged ahead on Saturday with a constitutional referendum intended to cement its power after a campaign of arm-twisting and intimidation.

The junta is refusing to grant entry to foreign aid workers that relief officials say are crucial to preventing further deaths from disease among an estimated 1.5 million victims.

By Saturday, the military had not released two United Nations World Food Program aid shipments that arrived on Friday, according to a spokesman for the program. Several aid flights have landed in Yangon or are en route, the spokesman said, and supplies from other countries were also on the way. But the aid amounted to about one-tenth of what is needed, along with a major logistical operation, said Paul Risley, a spokesman for the World Food Program.

The focus for the military junta was on the referendum for a constitution that is designed to legitimize and perpetuate military rule. Residents said the vote followed a campaign of coercion mixed with propaganda. The military appeared to be diverting some resources from cyclone victims to the referendum. A resident of Yangon, speaking by telephone, said that refugees seeking shelter in schoolhouses were evicted so they could be used as polling places. She said refugees had also been evicted from other buildings. In Datgyigone, a farming village 35 miles north of the capital, a precinct captain burst into laughter when asked if he thought most people would vote for the constitution. “Everyone will vote yes,” he said after he had controlled himself. “Of course yes. Hundred percent.”

But he said most of the voters had no idea what they were voting for, and that neither he nor most people he knew had actually read the proposed constitution.

“The government says vote, so we vote,” he said with a shrug. He spoke openly, but asked that his name not be used for fear of government retribution.

Most villagers, when asked about their votes, declined to speak. A man selling batteries, combs and flip-flops from a small pushcart hurried off when he was asked about the referendum. “I cannot speak about this,” he said over his shoulder. “I’m afraid.”

There were a number of reports of “pre-balloting,” in which employees of enterprises or government offices were required to vote ahead of time under the eye of their supervisors.

The product of a 14-year stop-and-start convention, the referendum is intended to lead to a multiparty election and a nominally civilian government. But it allots 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military, gives the military control of key ministries and allows the military to seize control in a time of emergency. It would also bar Aung San Suu Kyi, an opposition leader whose party won a general election in 1990, from public office. She has been under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years.

There was no obvious police or military presence in Datgyigone or at another dozen polling stations visited during the day.

The polls closed at 4 p.m., just as a torrential rainstorm was lashing the area.

Thousands of soldiers were on the roads and in towns near the village, using axes, machetes and two-handled cross-cut saws to clear trees from towns and roadways. Long convoys of green Chinese-made military trucks hauled away stumps and branches.

Small groups of residents in the main city, Yangon, banded together to distribute aid, but one of them said authorities were sometimes confiscating their relief supplies.

The Yangon resident said that some victims sheltered in Buddhist monasteries, which had been a target during the violent suppression of protests, led by monks, last September. Monks cooked and distributed donations of fish and rice.

The United States was preparing to send in its first aircraft with relief supplies on Monday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross sent its first aid flight to Myanmar on Saturday, loaded with pups, generators, water treatment material and medical equipment.

But these deliveries were tiny in the face of a such widespread destruction. Relief officials warned of an epidemic of cholera and said there is generally a 10-day window after a disaster before the death rate rises steeply.

While major shipments of supplies remained blocked, the local staffs of international agencies struggled to coordinate their work and to distribute the limited emergency stocks available in the country.

State television showed military officers handing out supplies, to the applause of bystanders. It also broadcast a video of two women singing a pop song whose lyrics translated as: “Let’s go to cast a vote. With sincere thoughts for happy days. Let’s go to cast a vote.”

The government mouthpiece The New Light of Myanmar devoted much of its front page to photographs of military leaders distributing aid and comforting survivors, under the headline: “Lt.-Gen. Myint Swe provides food, medicines to storm-hit regions.”

But above the pictures was a reminder: “To approve the state constitution is a national duty of the entire people today. Let us all cast ‘Yes’ vote in the national interest.”
got it from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/world/asia/11myanmar.html?ref=world