RANGOON—People along Burma's western coastal areas should pay close attention to weather reports of cyclones and storms in the Bay of Bengal during the early monsoon season in April and May, experts have warned.Children carry buckets filled with fishes on the beach on way back home near Thaunglay Village in Irrawaddy delta. (Photo: AP)
Meteorologist Htun Lwin said government authorities will soon release announcements regarding storm precautions.
A state-run newspaper, The Mirror, recently carried an article written by Chit Kyaw that warned about storms in April and May.
Life-threatening storms broke out 32 times in April during the past 100 years, with 15 striking Burma's coast, the article said. It said storms broke out 92 times in May over the past 122 years, with 27 striking the coast.
The article stressed that storms this time of the year can be very powerful because of the heat rising in the air during hot season.
“Every storm will not come straight towards Burma's coast,” Chit Kyaw said, noting that they frequently change course and head for other South Asia countries.
Htun Lwin, however, said Burmese in coastal areas should stay alert and exercise caution.
“According to the record, nearly 50 percent of the storms in April in the Bay of Bengal hit the country. This is not a small amount,” said Htun Lwin.
Burma was hit by storms before the rainy season in 2006, 2007 and 2008, successively.
In 2008, Cyclone Nargis devastated the country, killing more than 100,000 people and leaving millions homeless.
Meanwhile, the Washington-based Human Rights Watch has called for renewed international pressure on the Burmese government to gain the release of imprisoned local aid workers and other political prisoners and to ensure humanitarian aid reaches the entire country.
“Two years after one of the world’s worst natural disasters, local aid workers still feel the brunt of continued repression by the military authorities,” said Elaine Pearson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Intense international pressure pushed the military government to open the door to foreign aid agencies, but Burma’s generals have kept it shut for domestic critics, many of whom remain in prison for speaking out for fellow citizens in need.”
The 102-page report, “‘I Want to Help My Own People’: State Control and Civil Society in Burma after Cyclone Nargis,” based on 135 interviews with cyclone survivors, aid workers and other eyewitnesses, details the Burmese military government’s response to Nargis and its implications for human rights and development in Burma, It describes the government’s attempts to block assistance in a desperate three- week period after the cyclone hit and the concerted response from increasingly assertive Burmese civil society groups to overcome governmental restrictions to providing assistance.
The report details continuing violations of rights to free expression, association and movement against Burmese aid workers and their organizations. In the months following the cyclone, the Burmese regime arrested scores of Burmese activists and journalists who publicly spoke out about the government’s poor response to Nargis. More than 20 people active in cyclone relief efforts remain in prison, including one of Burma’s most popular comedians, Zargana, who received a 35-year prison sentence.
In the face of the government’s callous response, Burmese civil society groups and individuals raised money, collected supplies and traveled to the badly hit areas of the Irrawaddy Delta to help survivors in shattered villages.
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