Patricia Karvelas; 14/4/08

All rural and remote Aboriginal children would be entitled to a bed in full-time hostels built by the federal Government beside new schools, under a radical proposal to be put to the 2020 Summit. West Australian Aboriginal activist and chair of the Northern Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance Peter Yu - a participant in the 2020 indigenous panel - said if the Rudd Government was serious about social change, it would invest millions into school-based infrastructure. Mr Yu, who is a previous leader of the Kimberley Land Council and made his name during the native title debates of the 1990s, believes the new hostels should be built in all regional centres and provide full-time mentors to indigenous students

See; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23534556-5013404,00.html

Patricia Karvelas; 14/4/08

All rural and remote Aboriginal children would be entitled to a bed in full-time hostels built by the federal Government beside new schools, under a radical proposal to be put to the 2020 Summit. West Australian Aboriginal activist and chair of the Northern Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance Peter Yu - a participant in the 2020 indigenous panel - said if the Rudd Government was serious about social change, it would invest millions into school-based infrastructure. Mr Yu, who is a previous leader of the Kimberley Land Council and made his name during the native title debates of the 1990s, believes the new hostels should be built in all regional centres and provide full-time mentors to indigenous students

See; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23534556-5013404,00.html

David Marr; 14/4/08

Powerful evidence of Mohamed Haneef’s innocence has emerged at the Old Bailey in London — evidence the Australian Federal Police and the Commonwealth Director of Prosecutions appear to have ignored in holding the Gold Coast doctor for questioning last year and then charging him with a terrorism offence. The case against Dr Haneef always centred on allegations that his second cousin Sabeel Ahmed, a doctor practising in England, was part of a terrorist organisation.

See: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/police-ignored-crucial-haneef-email/2008/04/13/1208024996168.html

David Marr; 14/4/08

Powerful evidence of Mohamed Haneef’s innocence has emerged at the Old Bailey in London — evidence the Australian Federal Police and the Commonwealth Director of Prosecutions appear to have ignored in holding the Gold Coast doctor for questioning last year and then charging him with a terrorism offence. The case against Dr Haneef always centred on allegations that his second cousin Sabeel Ahmed, a doctor practising in England, was part of a terrorist organisation.

See: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/police-ignored-crucial-haneef-email/2008/04/13/1208024996168.html

12/5/08

Betel nut chewing contributes to the degradation of coral reefs, was a message among others that stood out at the launch of the Pacific year of reefs 2008. People who enjoy chewing betel nuts were told to think twice about how much damage their habit has done to the reefs. An observer at the stall display pointed out that in the Maringe District of Isabel Province, people have damaged the coral reefs in order to produce the lime for betel nut chewing.

12/5/08

Betel nut chewing contributes to the degradation of coral reefs, was a message among others that stood out at the launch of the Pacific year of reefs 2008. People who enjoy chewing betel nuts were told to think twice about how much damage their habit has done to the reefs. An observer at the stall display pointed out that in the Maringe District of Isabel Province, people have damaged the coral reefs in order to produce the lime for betel nut chewing.

Erin O’Dwyer; 10/5/08;

Conversations With The Mob; Megan Lewis; UWA Press

When photo-journalist Megan Lewis won a Walkley award for her series on the Martu people of the Western Desert, photography critic Robert McFarlane described her work as detailed and heartfelt but “only intermittently touching”. “Her comprehensive essay” he wrote in the Herald, “on this rarely photographed, remote community is not helped by garish colour prints, so deeply saturated as to add an unnecessary air of unreality to an already exotic subject” It was stinging criticism and, I would argue, unwarranted. Conversations With The Mob is a stunning collection of more than 200 photographs and oral stories that capture the grief and joy of a community that see-saws between traditional and Western cultures. For the past few weeks, it has lain on my coffee table and I’ve dipped into it countless times. Lewis’s own stories of living with the Mob, as the Martu call themselves, are compelling, insightful and beautifully written, in a spare style that balances candour and colour.

The Sydney Morning Herald, No Internet Text
Importantly, the photojournalist’s own storytelling is mixed in with personal accounts from lawmen, elders and community members about the Dreamtime, payback, marriage, sexual abuse, death and even the footy
“Women would dream about their baby’s spirit before they go hunting, they see the baby’s jarrinypa [conception totem],” recalls one woman.
“It makes me angry” says elder Clarrie Robertson, speaking about sexual abuse. “One Aboriginal person does it and they think we all do it I have only known of one. It wasn’t dealt with properly - swept under the carpet.”
The book is driven by Lewis’s beautiful photography. Images of red dirt and big skies sit alongside daily life captured in intimate detail: a chubby baby named Shakira is bathed in a plastic orange fruit bowl on the way to another funeral; an old woman makes damper outside her house with an electric frying pan and an extension cord. The images are beautifully reproduced and well-captioned.
But praise aside, Lewis’s work raises difficult questions and what McFarlane really questions is the photographer’s honesty Has she manipulated her images, bumping up the contrast to create a cinematic quality? Has she glamorised her subjects? Romanticised their way of life?
These are relevant questions, not only because of the digital revolution, but because of the controversy press photographers frequently create. Think of Spencer Platt, who won the World Press Photo Prize in 2006 for a shot of “affluent Lebanese” in a Mini Cooper driving through a bombed-out suburb in Beirut. In fact, the four friends lived there, and it was the first time they been home to assess the damage. Who was really the voyeur?
Lewis, a former staff photographer with The Australian and a stringer for Reuters in Perth, would have been aware of these dangers when she embarked on the project in 2002.
True, the Walkley was an easy win. Done well, such an assignment will always reap rewards - and awards - because it reveals a mysterious minority rarely seen.
But Lewis spent more than two years living with the Martu people, in desert communities seven hours’ drive from remote Port Hedland in Western Australia. Patience gained her trust and she was granted unprecedented access to one of the last indigenous groups to come into contact with Europeans.
In her introduction, Lewis recounts a conversation with a Martu woman initially opposed to her project. “Now I see what you are doing” the woman says. “Your photos are making Martu look at themselves and think, what are we doing? Where are we going and are we doing the right thing? Now I see why you have to do this because Martu have to look at themselves?’Any criticism of Lewis and her work must surely be answered right there. 

Andrew Fraser;, 12/5/08,
Lawyers have presented a united front in a growing battle with the Rudd Government over access to documents that they claim are vital to the truth of the Mohamed Haneef affair being exposed. The Queensland Law Society has backed the former terror suspect’s legal team, which claims the Immigration Department is denying it documents needed for the inquiry ordered by the Rudd Government into the bungled case. Queensland Law Society president Megan Mahon has written to Attorney-General Robert McClelland disputing the Government’s argument that a royal commission for the inquiry into the Haneef matter was not necessary as all parties were co-operating with the Clarke inquiry, which began at the start of the month.

See: The Australian, No Internet Text
She said the First Assistant Secretary of the Immigration Department, Peter Vardos, had written to Dr Haneef’s lawyers saying that it would be “contrary to the public interest” to release sensitive emails and briefing notes.
“It is alarming that this department, on the virtual eve of the Clarke inquiry, should be feeding a public perception of a culture of secrecy and cover-up by refusing to provide all relevant documents which would be of significant assistance to Dr Haneef’s lawyers as they draft their submission,” she said in her letter. “It would appear to be completely at odds with your statement that you had assurances that agencies will co-operate with the inquiry and therefore bodes ill for its success or, at least, any public perception that the promised co-operation is being provided.”
Dr Haneef’s lawyers last week launched court action to overturn the Immigration Department’s decision to refuse the release of large numbers of documents claimed under Freedom of Information legislation, with the department arguing that it might put future investigations at risk and discourage bureaucrats from giving frank advice to ministers.
The inquiry, headed by retired NSW Supreme Court judge John Clarke QC, has been criticised by legal experts because it is being held behind closed doors and without powers to ensure the release of documents or compel potential witnesses to give evidence or face cross-examination.
The Law Council of Australia is adopting a “wait-and-see” approach over whether the Clarke inquiry needs more powers.
A spokesman for Mr McClelland said yesterday that if Mr Clarke wanted more powers, then they would be given to him. He said the matter of FOI material was one for the Immigration Department.

Andrew Fraser;, 12/5/08,
Lawyers have presented a united front in a growing battle with the Rudd Government over access to documents that they claim are vital to the truth of the Mohamed Haneef affair being exposed. The Queensland Law Society has backed the former terror suspect’s legal team, which claims the Immigration Department is denying it documents needed for the inquiry ordered by the Rudd Government into the bungled case. Queensland Law Society president Megan Mahon has written to Attorney-General Robert McClelland disputing the Government’s argument that a royal commission for the inquiry into the Haneef matter was not necessary as all parties were co-operating with the Clarke inquiry, which began at the start of the month.

See: The Australian, No Internet Text
She said the First Assistant Secretary of the Immigration Department, Peter Vardos, had written to Dr Haneef’s lawyers saying that it would be “contrary to the public interest” to release sensitive emails and briefing notes.
“It is alarming that this department, on the virtual eve of the Clarke inquiry, should be feeding a public perception of a culture of secrecy and cover-up by refusing to provide all relevant documents which would be of significant assistance to Dr Haneef’s lawyers as they draft their submission,” she said in her letter. “It would appear to be completely at odds with your statement that you had assurances that agencies will co-operate with the inquiry and therefore bodes ill for its success or, at least, any public perception that the promised co-operation is being provided.”
Dr Haneef’s lawyers last week launched court action to overturn the Immigration Department’s decision to refuse the release of large numbers of documents claimed under Freedom of Information legislation, with the department arguing that it might put future investigations at risk and discourage bureaucrats from giving frank advice to ministers.
The inquiry, headed by retired NSW Supreme Court judge John Clarke QC, has been criticised by legal experts because it is being held behind closed doors and without powers to ensure the release of documents or compel potential witnesses to give evidence or face cross-examination.
The Law Council of Australia is adopting a “wait-and-see” approach over whether the Clarke inquiry needs more powers.
A spokesman for Mr McClelland said yesterday that if Mr Clarke wanted more powers, then they would be given to him. He said the matter of FOI material was one for the Immigration Department.

12/5/08

It’s appalling that both Peter Faris (”Kooris’ court a waste of money”, Legal Affairs, 9/5) and Chris Merritt (”Koori codswallop”, Legal Affairs, 9/5) can write in terms which so disparage the real needs of indigenous Australians. The Victorian Koori Court, like the Nunga Court in South Australia and the Murri Court in Queensland, will include other parties in sentencing processes, and do use language which is less formal. But how are these things negative? The innovation of these courts represent turning points in the ability of the legal system to listen properly to people of indigenous background, initiated by women and men who had long years of personal experience seeing the injustice which occurred when the law was applied to black people as if they were white.

See: http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/letters/index.php/ theaustralian/comments/appropriate_justice/
Kooris’ court a waste of money; Peter Faris;9/5/08; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23666993-17044,00.html

Koori codswallop
Chris Merrit; The Australian, 9/5/08; No Internet Text
Thank goodness for Peter Faris. Most lawyers would run a mile before taking on the politically correct cheer squad that has foisted a Koori county court on the taxpayers of Victoria. But really, you can’t fault the logic of his article in these pages. Racially based courts are an abomination
They ignore the principle that everybody should be subject to the same law administered in the same courts. Most lawyers would consider that to be the classical definition of the rule of law.
Aborigines should be the first to see the shortcomings of a patronising and separate system of justice. The unspoken assumption is that they are somehow unable to cope with the “real” courts. What codswallop.
Consider for a moment how this initiative would be viewed if we were talking about a special court designed to take account of the cultural sensitivities of, say, traditional Celts from the backblocks of Scotland who have trouble dealing with multicultural Australia.
Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls was clearly motivated by the best intentions when he pushed ahead with this scheme. But there must be better ways of spending taxpayers’ money. After the law and order and health disasters in the Northern Territory, it’s astounding that any Australian government could still find anything remotely attractive about allocating public services according to race.

12/5/08

It’s appalling that both Peter Faris (”Kooris’ court a waste of money”, Legal Affairs, 9/5) and Chris Merritt (”Koori codswallop”, Legal Affairs, 9/5) can write in terms which so disparage the real needs of indigenous Australians. The Victorian Koori Court, like the Nunga Court in South Australia and the Murri Court in Queensland, will include other parties in sentencing processes, and do use language which is less formal. But how are these things negative? The innovation of these courts represent turning points in the ability of the legal system to listen properly to people of indigenous background, initiated by women and men who had long years of personal experience seeing the injustice which occurred when the law was applied to black people as if they were white.

See: http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/letters/index.php/ theaustralian/comments/appropriate_justice/
Kooris’ court a waste of money; Peter Faris;9/5/08; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23666993-17044,00.html

Koori codswallop
Chris Merrit; The Australian, 9/5/08; No Internet Text
Thank goodness for Peter Faris. Most lawyers would run a mile before taking on the politically correct cheer squad that has foisted a Koori county court on the taxpayers of Victoria. But really, you can’t fault the logic of his article in these pages. Racially based courts are an abomination
They ignore the principle that everybody should be subject to the same law administered in the same courts. Most lawyers would consider that to be the classical definition of the rule of law.
Aborigines should be the first to see the shortcomings of a patronising and separate system of justice. The unspoken assumption is that they are somehow unable to cope with the “real” courts. What codswallop.
Consider for a moment how this initiative would be viewed if we were talking about a special court designed to take account of the cultural sensitivities of, say, traditional Celts from the backblocks of Scotland who have trouble dealing with multicultural Australia.
Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls was clearly motivated by the best intentions when he pushed ahead with this scheme. But there must be better ways of spending taxpayers’ money. After the law and order and health disasters in the Northern Territory, it’s astounding that any Australian government could still find anything remotely attractive about allocating public services according to race.

12/5/08

The Pentagon’s top legal adviser in the Office of Military Commissions has been disqualified from participating in the prosecution of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A naval officer ruled late last week that the adviser exerted improper influence over a team of prosecutors and may have compromised the case’s fairness. Captain Keith Allred, who is presiding over hearings in preparation for the military’s trial of an alleged driver for Osama bin Laden, determined that air force Brigadier-General Thomas Hartmann was too closely tied to prosecutors. He is supposed to be a neutral adviser to the official directing the commissions.

See: http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/guantanamo-adviser-barred/2008/05/11/1210444240345.html

12/5/08

The Pentagon’s top legal adviser in the Office of Military Commissions has been disqualified from participating in the prosecution of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A naval officer ruled late last week that the adviser exerted improper influence over a team of prosecutors and may have compromised the case’s fairness. Captain Keith Allred, who is presiding over hearings in preparation for the military’s trial of an alleged driver for Osama bin Laden, determined that air force Brigadier-General Thomas Hartmann was too closely tied to prosecutors. He is supposed to be a neutral adviser to the official directing the commissions.

See: http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/guantanamo-adviser-barred/2008/05/11/1210444240345.html

11/5/08

Many more underage Australians believe it is acceptable to drink alcohol on a regular basis today than they did 16 years ago, according to a national survey. The Dolly Youth Monitor, which has surveyed thousands of teenagers between the age of 10 to 17 since 1992, found there has been a sharp increase in the numbers that approve of alcohol use. The latest edition of the bi-annual survey found that 80 per cent believed regular drinking was acceptable, while back in 1992 only 64 per cent thought so.

See: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=560960&rss=yes

Pop goes the alco-tax as they weasel out of it
Julian Lee; 12/5/08
Opportunistic alcohol manufacturers are free to sell alcopops made from malt or low-grade wine as cheaper alternatives to ready-to-drink spirits because of a loophole in the law. While the drinks are not yet available in Australia, some alcohol retailers and manufacturers expect that cheap drinks made using alcohol derived from beer and wine - which are less heavily taxed than spirits - will be sold in bars and bottle shops. Sales of alcopops and other premixed spirits drinks are predicted to fall by 7 to 10 per cent after the Federal Government’s surprise decision three weeks ago to increase taxes on them by 70 per cent.
See: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/pop-goes-the-alcotax-as-they-weasel-out-of-it/2008/05/11/1210444244257.html

Andra Jackson; 12/5/08

Coming to Australia after 18 months held in the Manus Island detention centre — 10 of them by himself — Aladdin Sisalem felt he had finally found a new beginning.Instead, the stateless Kuwaiti-born Palestinian found that he had merely exchanged one form of living in limbo for another. He was placed on a temporary protection visa that banned him from applying for permanent protection for five years.He has spent the past four years not knowing if he would have to uproot himself and try all over again to find another country to take him at the end of next year.

See: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/the-door-opens-for-aladdin-sisalem/2008/05/11/1210444243820.html

Labor ‘tougher’ on asylum seekers
Andra Jackson; 12/5/08
Rejected asylum seekers are being deported in increasing numbers as the new Immigration Minister refuses last-ditch appeals at an unprecedented rate, refugee support groups claim. Refugee advocates say the minister, Senator Chris Evans, is refusing to intercede in asylum seekers’ appeals to remain in Australia on compassionate grounds at a higher rate than his Liberal predecessors. Over the past two weeks the Labor Government has deported five asylum seekers from Sydney’s Villawood detention centre, the NSW Refugee Action Collective says.
See: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/labor-tougher-on-asylum-seekers/2008/05/11/1210444243814.html

Aung Hla Tun; 12/5/08

Desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis poured out of Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta yesterday in search of food, water and medicine as aid workers warned that up to 1.5 million faced death if emergency supplies did not get through soon. Buddhist temples and schools in towns on the outskirts of the storm’s trail of destruction were now makeshift refugee centres for women, children and the elderly as millions of dollars in emergency aid was stalled on airport tarmacs pending permission to enter the country and hundreds of relief specialists were waiting for visas. The reclusive military government is accepting aid from the outside world, including from the UN, but has made clear it will not let in the foreign logistics teams needed to transport the aid into the inundated delta.

See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23681111-2703,00.html
1.5 million left clinging to survival; Graeme Jenkins; 12/5/08; http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/15-million-left-clinging-to-survival/2008/05/11/1210444240317.html
As Burma’s junta counts its fake votes, photos show the reality; 12/5/08; http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/as-burmas-junta-counts-its-fake-votes-photos-show-the-reality/2008/05/11/1210444244358.html

Australia lifts Burma aid to $25m
Elizabeth Gosch & Anthony Klan; 12/5/08
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has announced Australia will boost its aid commitment to Burma more than eight times to $25million in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. The latest funding promise includes the original $3million pledged in the days following the devastating May 3 cyclone that hit southern Burma, killing about 100,000 people and leaving at least 1.5 million people homeless. In Perth yesterday, Mr Smith said that the increased funding would be split equally between the UN flash appeal and Australian non-government organisations.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23682045-2702,00.html

Grief is compounded by desperation
Harry McKenzie; 12/5/08
Burma’s great Irrawaddy river runs flat and muddy. It twines and forks through kilometres of rich delta and has always given nurture and good fortune to the people of southern Burma. But in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, death and sickness have replaced the captivating beauty of this triangle of fertile land. A terrible sadness has settled in. In many places, not a living thing moves - not even a thread of smoke from a village fire. It is deathly still. The pinnacles of the pagodas that dot the landscape have toppled in the wind. Bodies float in the water like chunks of wood. Trees are down, houses are flattened and everywhere in the inundated rice fields of this devoutly Buddhist land is an unbearable sense of loss.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23680480-25837,00.html

Tear down Burma’s bamboo curtain
Editorial; 12/5/08
There seems to be no underestimating the brutality of Burma’s regime as millions of people struggle to stay alive in the wake of the world’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. Parts of the Irrawaddy Delta have been turned into a mass graveyard, with bloated bodies strewn across the devastated landscape. Estimates of those killed in the days since Cyclone Nargis slammed into the Burmese coast on the night of May 2 range from the official figure of 22,000 (unchanged for almost a week) to 400,000. Now aid officials are bracing for a second, potentially greater disaster with up to two million people at risk from malnutrition and disease.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23681224-16741,00.html

Editorial; 28/4/08
The announcement by representatives of Papua New Guinea and Australia on the future of the Kokoda Track is already generating disagreement. There was a sense of relief when the environment ministers for PNG and Australia issued a joint declaration about the Kokoda Track, one that ensures the future of both the wartime icon and of the people who live nearby. Reports were carried in The National last week; suffice it to say that it has been agreed that there will be no mining exploration in the Owen Stanley ranges. The issue threatens to become controversial because an Australian mining company, Frontier Resources, has declared that any refusal by PNG to renew the exploration licence would be viewed as “expropriation” by the company. Frontier’s stance on the issue is predictable but deeply unfortunate.

See: http://www.thenational.com.pg/042808/lead_editorial.htm

Exactly where is the Track
Steve Marshall; 28/4/08
This time two years ago I presented a documentary on the Kokoda Track for the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent Program. Given the tracks surge in popularity with Australian tourists, I posed the question as to whether the track was in danger of being loved to death. Back then villagers were gearing up for a new season that would see close to 4000 people pass along the WW2 trail. This year more than 6000 will set out on the week long walk with a staggering 800 timing their pilgrimage with ANZAC day. The increase in traffic is placing the track under incredible pressure and stirs up fears about its long term sustainability. At the time of writing, a Kokoda Track task force is preparing to table a report at the Ministerial Forum that was held in Madang earlier this week.

See: http://www.thenational.com.pg/042808/wkender6.htm

Editorial; 28/4/08
The announcement by representatives of Papua New Guinea and Australia on the future of the Kokoda Track is already generating disagreement. There was a sense of relief when the environment ministers for PNG and Australia issued a joint declaration about the Kokoda Track, one that ensures the future of both the wartime icon and of the people who live nearby. Reports were carried in The National last week; suffice it to say that it has been agreed that there will be no mining exploration in the Owen Stanley ranges. The issue threatens to become controversial because an Australian mining company, Frontier Resources, has declared that any refusal by PNG to renew the exploration licence would be viewed as “expropriation” by the company. Frontier’s stance on the issue is predictable but deeply unfortunate.

See: http://www.thenational.com.pg/042808/lead_editorial.htm

Exactly where is the Track
Steve Marshall; 28/4/08
This time two years ago I presented a documentary on the Kokoda Track for the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent Program. Given the tracks surge in popularity with Australian tourists, I posed the question as to whether the track was in danger of being loved to death. Back then villagers were gearing up for a new season that would see close to 4000 people pass along the WW2 trail. This year more than 6000 will set out on the week long walk with a staggering 800 timing their pilgrimage with ANZAC day. The increase in traffic is placing the track under incredible pressure and stirs up fears about its long term sustainability. At the time of writing, a Kokoda Track task force is preparing to table a report at the Ministerial Forum that was held in Madang earlier this week.

See: http://www.thenational.com.pg/042808/wkender6.htm

Aung Hla Tun; 12/5/08

Desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis poured out of Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta yesterday in search of food, water and medicine as aid workers warned that up to 1.5 million faced death if emergency supplies did not get through soon. Buddhist temples and schools in towns on the outskirts of the storm’s trail of destruction were now makeshift refugee centres for women, children and the elderly as millions of dollars in emergency aid was stalled on airport tarmacs pending permission to enter the country and hundreds of relief specialists were waiting for visas. The reclusive military government is accepting aid from the outside world, including from the UN, but has made clear it will not let in the foreign logistics teams needed to transport the aid into the inundated delta.

See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23681111-2703,00.html
1.5 million left clinging to survival; Graeme Jenkins; 12/5/08; http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/15-million-left-clinging-to-survival/2008/05/11/1210444240317.html
As Burma’s junta counts its fake votes, photos show the reality; 12/5/08; http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/as-burmas-junta-counts-its-fake-votes-photos-show-the-reality/2008/05/11/1210444244358.html

Australia lifts Burma aid to $25m
Elizabeth Gosch & Anthony Klan; 12/5/08
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has announced Australia will boost its aid commitment to Burma more than eight times to $25million in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. The latest funding promise includes the original $3million pledged in the days following the devastating May 3 cyclone that hit southern Burma, killing about 100,000 people and leaving at least 1.5 million people homeless. In Perth yesterday, Mr Smith said that the increased funding would be split equally between the UN flash appeal and Australian non-government organisations.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23682045-2702,00.html

Grief is compounded by desperation
Harry McKenzie; 12/5/08
Burma’s great Irrawaddy river runs flat and muddy. It twines and forks through kilometres of rich delta and has always given nurture and good fortune to the people of southern Burma. But in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, death and sickness have replaced the captivating beauty of this triangle of fertile land. A terrible sadness has settled in. In many places, not a living thing moves - not even a thread of smoke from a village fire. It is deathly still. The pinnacles of the pagodas that dot the landscape have toppled in the wind. Bodies float in the water like chunks of wood. Trees are down, houses are flattened and everywhere in the inundated rice fields of this devoutly Buddhist land is an unbearable sense of loss.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23680480-25837,00.html

Tear down Burma’s bamboo curtain
Editorial; 12/5/08
There seems to be no underestimating the brutality of Burma’s regime as millions of people struggle to stay alive in the wake of the world’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. Parts of the Irrawaddy Delta have been turned into a mass graveyard, with bloated bodies strewn across the devastated landscape. Estimates of those killed in the days since Cyclone Nargis slammed into the Burmese coast on the night of May 2 range from the official figure of 22,000 (unchanged for almost a week) to 400,000. Now aid officials are bracing for a second, potentially greater disaster with up to two million people at risk from malnutrition and disease.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23681224-16741,00.html

Aung Hla Tun; 12/5/08

Desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis poured out of Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta yesterday in search of food, water and medicine as aid workers warned that up to 1.5 million faced death if emergency supplies did not get through soon. Buddhist temples and schools in towns on the outskirts of the storm’s trail of destruction were now makeshift refugee centres for women, children and the elderly as millions of dollars in emergency aid was stalled on airport tarmacs pending permission to enter the country and hundreds of relief specialists were waiting for visas. The reclusive military government is accepting aid from the outside world, including from the UN, but has made clear it will not let in the foreign logistics teams needed to transport the aid into the inundated delta.

See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23681111-2703,00.html
1.5 million left clinging to survival; Graeme Jenkins; 12/5/08; http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/15-million-left-clinging-to-survival/2008/05/11/1210444240317.html
As Burma’s junta counts its fake votes, photos show the reality; 12/5/08; http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/as-burmas-junta-counts-its-fake-votes-photos-show-the-reality/2008/05/11/1210444244358.html

Australia lifts Burma aid to $25m
Elizabeth Gosch & Anthony Klan; 12/5/08
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has announced Australia will boost its aid commitment to Burma more than eight times to $25million in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. The latest funding promise includes the original $3million pledged in the days following the devastating May 3 cyclone that hit southern Burma, killing about 100,000 people and leaving at least 1.5 million people homeless. In Perth yesterday, Mr Smith said that the increased funding would be split equally between the UN flash appeal and Australian non-government organisations.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23682045-2702,00.html

Grief is compounded by desperation
Harry McKenzie; 12/5/08
Burma’s great Irrawaddy river runs flat and muddy. It twines and forks through kilometres of rich delta and has always given nurture and good fortune to the people of southern Burma. But in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, death and sickness have replaced the captivating beauty of this triangle of fertile land. A terrible sadness has settled in. In many places, not a living thing moves - not even a thread of smoke from a village fire. It is deathly still. The pinnacles of the pagodas that dot the landscape have toppled in the wind. Bodies float in the water like chunks of wood. Trees are down, houses are flattened and everywhere in the inundated rice fields of this devoutly Buddhist land is an unbearable sense of loss.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23680480-25837,00.html

Tear down Burma’s bamboo curtain
Editorial; 12/5/08
There seems to be no underestimating the brutality of Burma’s regime as millions of people struggle to stay alive in the wake of the world’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. Parts of the Irrawaddy Delta have been turned into a mass graveyard, with bloated bodies strewn across the devastated landscape. Estimates of those killed in the days since Cyclone Nargis slammed into the Burmese coast on the night of May 2 range from the official figure of 22,000 (unchanged for almost a week) to 400,000. Now aid officials are bracing for a second, potentially greater disaster with up to two million people at risk from malnutrition and disease.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23681224-16741,00.html