da mya byo da mya

Junta Hijacks Social Group Donation
By Aung Lwin Oo
March 23, 2007

A Rangoon-based social welfare organization has been effectively
robbed of donations by local Burmese authorities, according to a
senior member of the welfare group.

Kyaw Thu, a well-known actor and vice president of the Free Funeral
Services Society, said on Friday that local officials seized donations
by local residents made on Wednesday for the support of FFSS.
He said the organization was invited to receive the donations at a
religious ceremony in Rangoon, but a local official later told him not
to attend.

"I got a call when I was about to reach the ceremony, and a local
official told us not to come and receive the donation," Kyaw Thu said.
"Instead, donors were to give the donation at our office."

The donors never showed up, and the group was later informed that the
money had instead been given to local officials.

Kyaw Thu said local authorities have been questioning local residents
in Pathein Nyunt, on the outskirts of Rangoon, about his activities
with FFSS after an earlier donation in February.

"Just a few days after, residents were questioned about what I was
doing and whether I was trying to organize people," Kyaw Thu said.

The FFSS, founded in January 2001, provides free funeral services for
people who can not afford burial or cremation of their family members.
An FFSS staff member said the association has provided nearly 60,000
free funeral services since its founding.

The organization also came under fire in August last year after Kyaw
Thu and the organization's Secretary-1 Than Myint Aung attended the
18th anniversary commemoration of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising,
which was organized by former student leaders. Since then, official
media coverage of the group and its activities has been banned.

The government-affiliated Union Solidarity and Development
Association, a pseudo-social organization also announced its founding
of a similar body to FFSS late last year. Though USDA officials
claimed they were not trying to replace the funeral service, Kyaw Thu
said the group has routinely adopted their methods and activities.

"We are not engaging in politics, but are just trying to provide
genuine assistance to the needy," Kyaw Thu said. "We don't know what
the USDA has in mind."

The FFSS-a non-profit, non-governmental and apolitical group-has
relied on donations from various people inside and outside Burma for
its operational costs. Some donations come from Burmese living in
Japan, Taiwan, England and the US.

The FFSS expanded its work by establishing a clinic in Rangoon in
early March, which provides free healthcare for the poor. The group
says it treats up to 100 patients each day.

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