The 102-page report, "‘I Want to Help My Own People': State Control and Civil Society in Burma after Cyclone Nargis," is 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 today. The report describes the government's attempts to block assistance in the desperate three weeks after the cyclone, which struck Burma's Irrawaddy Delta on May 2, 2008, and the concerted response from increasingly assertive Burmese civil society groups to overcome government restrictions to providing assistance.
In the ensuing months, the SPDC 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 remain in prison today, including Burma's famous comedian, Zargana, who received a 35-year sentence.
Human Rights Watch pointed out that there are continuing difficulties of reconstruction in the delta including access to water and sanitation, housing, health needs and livelihoods which especially affect the area's farming and fishing communities. The SPDC is failing to adequately support reconstruction efforts that benefit the population, contributing only paltry levels of aid despite having vast sums at its disposal from lucrative natural gas sales.