Sep 1, 2008 (DVB)–A Mandalay marionette troupe is preparing to travel to cyclone-affected areas this week to donate aid materials worth 10 million kyat to survivors of Cyclone Nargis.
Aid donations to victims of the cyclone which swept the Irrawaddy delta area of Burma and killed more than 100,000 in early May have been gradually decreasing.
A member of the troupe said they planned to visit two villages in Kunchangone township to donate rice, blankets and mosquito nets to two hundred households over the coming week.
“We are not going there on a marionette show tour but as friends of the Mandalay marionette troupe,” the troupe member said.
“We donated 200,000 kyat from marionette shows at the onset of Nargis. This time, it is a donation from us and our friends,” she said.
“Yesterday, an abbot gave me some robes [for monks], and other people have given us clothes. We are taking them all.”
Mandalay is a popular destination for tourists and marionette shows are one of the city’s major attractions.
But the troupe member said that while the shows are performed daily in a playhouse that holds 60 people, not many young Burmese people are interested in attending.
“Foreigners are interested in our art. As for the Burmese, as you know, rock, rap and modern music are deeply ingrained among young people,” the troupe member said.
“We have to try very hard to keep the tradition going. I said in an interview that I am very disappointed by the fact that the applause of Burma is not as loud as that of the world,” she said.
“We are constantly performing around the world. It is an ancient art, it is very antique, so kids and young people age are not interested in it. It is such a pity,” she went on.
“There are puppets in every country, but Burmese puppetry is the best in the world and very well respected by people all over the world.”
Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw
Monday, September 1, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Authorities extort money from cyclone victims
Aug 25, 2008 (DVB)–Villagers in Irrawaddy division have complained that local authorities have continued to extort money from cyclone victims under various pretexts, despite a letter of complaint they sent to SPDC leaders to report the practice.
U Than Zin, chairman of Mangay Kalay village Peace and Development Council in Dadaye township, PDC members and U Khin Kyaw (also known as U Htin Kyaw) of the township land survey department extorted money from villagers for receiving aid from donors.
U Ba Kyi, a farmer from Mangay Kalay, said locals had been forced to pay for diesel fuel that had been donated to them.
“There were 1383 gallons of diesel, and they collected 500 kyat a gallon from us – so 919,000 kyat,” U Ba Kyi said.
“But these were actually given to us as donations.”
U Ba Kyi said each household was also told to pay money to help cyclone victims.
“They collected 500 kyat each from 432 families on the pretext of helping the storm victims,” he said.
“We had to pay 216,000 each time and we had to pay four times, totaling around 864,000.”
The authorities reportedly told villagers they needed to collect money to fund the accommodation and hospitality for donors.
“Not satisfied with that, they collected 8000 kyat each from 212 farmers in order to buy fertiliser from the state agricultural organisation – 742 bags of fertilizers – amounting to exactly 1,696,000,” U Ba Kyi said.
“They have been misappropriating the money they have collected.”
The villagers sent their letter of complaint, which they had each signed and given their national identity card number, to junta leader senior general Than Shwe, prime minister general Thein Sein, the social and relocation minister and hotel and tourism minister, and the commander of Western Command, but no action has so far been taken by the authorities.
Similarly in Talokehtaw village in Rangoon division’s Twante township, the village authority chairman and members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association and the Women’s Affairs Federation have been profiting from aid, a villager told DVB.
“In Twante’s Talokehtaw village, when they’re distributing rice or medicine, there have been incidents when they have failed to give out the aid or extorted money,” the villager said.
The villager said that goods had mainly been distributed to people who supported the authorities, while others had to pay to receive materials.
“One day, they gave things out using a raffle ticket system, but each house had to pay 300 kyat to enter the raffle,” the villager said.
“Even if you won something you had to pay 1500 kyat [to receive it],” he said.
“U Maung Thaung, U Aye Thaung and Daw Cho are the main people involved in that.”
Reporting by Aye Nai
U Than Zin, chairman of Mangay Kalay village Peace and Development Council in Dadaye township, PDC members and U Khin Kyaw (also known as U Htin Kyaw) of the township land survey department extorted money from villagers for receiving aid from donors.
U Ba Kyi, a farmer from Mangay Kalay, said locals had been forced to pay for diesel fuel that had been donated to them.
“There were 1383 gallons of diesel, and they collected 500 kyat a gallon from us – so 919,000 kyat,” U Ba Kyi said.
“But these were actually given to us as donations.”
U Ba Kyi said each household was also told to pay money to help cyclone victims.
“They collected 500 kyat each from 432 families on the pretext of helping the storm victims,” he said.
“We had to pay 216,000 each time and we had to pay four times, totaling around 864,000.”
The authorities reportedly told villagers they needed to collect money to fund the accommodation and hospitality for donors.
“Not satisfied with that, they collected 8000 kyat each from 212 farmers in order to buy fertiliser from the state agricultural organisation – 742 bags of fertilizers – amounting to exactly 1,696,000,” U Ba Kyi said.
“They have been misappropriating the money they have collected.”
The villagers sent their letter of complaint, which they had each signed and given their national identity card number, to junta leader senior general Than Shwe, prime minister general Thein Sein, the social and relocation minister and hotel and tourism minister, and the commander of Western Command, but no action has so far been taken by the authorities.
Similarly in Talokehtaw village in Rangoon division’s Twante township, the village authority chairman and members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association and the Women’s Affairs Federation have been profiting from aid, a villager told DVB.
“In Twante’s Talokehtaw village, when they’re distributing rice or medicine, there have been incidents when they have failed to give out the aid or extorted money,” the villager said.
The villager said that goods had mainly been distributed to people who supported the authorities, while others had to pay to receive materials.
“One day, they gave things out using a raffle ticket system, but each house had to pay 300 kyat to enter the raffle,” the villager said.
“Even if you won something you had to pay 1500 kyat [to receive it],” he said.
“U Maung Thaung, U Aye Thaung and Daw Cho are the main people involved in that.”
Reporting by Aye Nai
Cyclone Victims Turn to Towns for Handouts
A woman walks amongst the debris of homes still being occupied in the Irrawaddy Delta. (Photo: AFP)By AUNG THET WINE
The Irrawaddy News
RANGOON — Economic hardships have forced a growing number of survivors of Cyclone Nargis to leave their homes in rural parts of the Irrawaddy delta to seek assistance in Rangoon and other urban centers, according to local sources.
“I came to Rangoon to look for donors,” said a 50-year-old man from Kyone Chin, a village in Dedaye Township. “We don’t have enough food in our village, and our farming and fishing businesses have still not recovered. We need assistance badly.”
Kyone Chin village lost 50 of its 1,400 inhabitants and ninety percent of its structures in the deadly cyclone, according to the man. He added that food supplies and other assistance from UN agencies and the government have been dwindling over time.
“The whole village was terribly destroyed. The worst thing is that now we are facing hunger,” he said, explaining why he had come to Rangoon to find support for his village.
Private donors played an important role in the early stages of the relief effort, but nearly four months later, their numbers have fallen. Due in part to government efforts to control movements in the cyclone-stricken region, few trucks carrying privately donated relief supplies are now reaching remote villages, say local people.
Other cyclone-hit villages in Dedaye Township, including Leik Kyun, Hmae Bi, Lay Ywa, Mae Kanan, Taw Pone and Yae Pu Wa, are also facing severe shortages of foodstuffs and other basic supplies, according to local residents.
They are not alone in waiting for aid. A volunteer from Rangoon who has been involved in relief and rebuilding efforts in the delta said that many villages in Kungyangone Township, including Taw Kha Yan Gyi, Taw Kha Yan Kalay, Mayan, Maezali and Hti Pha, are also desperate for additional assistance.
“The situation is hard to say,” said the volunteer. “They do get a little assistance from the government and they have received some from UN agencies. But it’s not enough.
“There are still many people living under make-shift temporary shelters constructed with bamboo posts and tarpaulins sheets. Some can’t get rice to eat, so they are just surviving on what little food is available to them,” the volunteer added.
A local journalist who recently returned from Laputta Township said that farmers there were also struggling, as seeds planted late in the season have not been growing well. Fishermen are also worried about their future food security, as poor-quality nets and boats provided by the government have proven to be almost useless.
“In Laputta, there is no immediate concern about rice, since it is mainly provided by the UN,” said the journalist. “The problem is with rebuilding livelihoods. The farmers are not doing well because the tillers provided by the government are often broken, and seeds are not growing properly. Fishermen also have trouble because the boats they received after the cyclone often need fixing, and the nets are useless for fishing.”
The journalist added that much of the aid that does reach some of the more remote villages soon ends up in the hands of village officials, as little effort has been made to rein in widespread corruption.
Meanwhile, in Mawlamyainggyun Township, there are also reports of severe food shortages in the villages of Yae Twin Kone, Pet Pyae, Ta Zaung, Alae Yae Kyaw, Myit Kyi Toe and Pya Leik.
According to a resident of Alae Yae Kyaw, some local villages have sent small groups to Laputta to appeal for aid from local relief organizations based there. The results of their efforts have been disappointing, however.
“When we asked an NGO in Laputta for assistance, they provided just 3 pyi (about 750 ml) of rice per person for the whole month.”
Little aid ever reaches the villages of Mawlamyainggyun Township because of their inaccessibility. Villages located on the boundary of Mawlamyainggyun and Laputta townships, such as Yae Twin Kone, Pet Pyae, Ta Zaung, Alae Yae Kyaw, Myit Kyi Toe and Pya Leik, are especially deprived because they can only be reached by chartered boats and are reportedly not on the government’s list of villages eligible for support.
If villagers in these areas do not receive aid to rebuild their lives soon, the hunger and destitution they face now could result in more severe problems in the future, said a local volunteer who has witnessed the situation.
“Unless they receive some means of surviving, the hunger of these villagers could lead to killings and robbing. If we can’t heal a small sore now, we may face more serious harm in the long run,” said the volunteer.
Aiding Burma's Recovery
VOA - 24 August 2008
Aiding Burma's Recovery - Download (MP3)
Aiding Burma's Recovery - Listen to (MP3)
As Burma recovers from the devastation of the May 2nd, Cyclone Nargis, the United States and other international donors continue to provide needed help. The worst disaster in Burma's recorded history, Cyclone Nargis killed up to one-hundred-thousand people. Thousands more are still missing. Damage is estimated at over four-billion dollars.
Relief agency officials say that by now almost all of the more than two-million survivors of the storm and seawater surge have received some food aid. About half of the estimated four-hundred-eighty-eight-thousand households have received some building materials. But the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that despite the delivery of more than twenty-five-thousand tons of food assistance, people in remote areas, "are still living in dire conditions."
To help those most in need, the U.S. Agency for International Development is supporting nonprofit partners, such as Church World Service and the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development, a non-governmental organization based in France, to resume agriculture and other kinds work in vulnerable areas.
Already, eight-hundred drinking ponds that were fouled with salt water have been filtered and cleared of debris, dead animals, and, most tragic, human bodies. Work is underway to repair nine-hundred schools and establish four-hundred temporary safe learning places for sixty-thousand children.
Relief workers are distributing fishing nets as well as seeds and other agricultural inputs in time for the monsoon-planting season, which will end this month. After a tardy response that put many Burmese at risk, the Burmese government has gradually opened the country to outside help.
The U.S. government has given fifty-million dollars in disaster aid to Burma. From May 12 to June 22, the U.S. flew one-hundred-eighty-five airlifts of U.S., Thai, United Nations and non-governmental organization relief supplies from Thailand to Burma. At an August 7 meeting with Burmese democracy activists during his visit to Bangkok, Thailand, President George W. Bush said he is "pleased that a lot of the aid that we paid for is actually getting to the people themselves."
Aiding Burma's Recovery - Download (MP3)
Aiding Burma's Recovery - Listen to (MP3)
As Burma recovers from the devastation of the May 2nd, Cyclone Nargis, the United States and other international donors continue to provide needed help. The worst disaster in Burma's recorded history, Cyclone Nargis killed up to one-hundred-thousand people. Thousands more are still missing. Damage is estimated at over four-billion dollars.
Relief agency officials say that by now almost all of the more than two-million survivors of the storm and seawater surge have received some food aid. About half of the estimated four-hundred-eighty-eight-thousand households have received some building materials. But the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that despite the delivery of more than twenty-five-thousand tons of food assistance, people in remote areas, "are still living in dire conditions."
To help those most in need, the U.S. Agency for International Development is supporting nonprofit partners, such as Church World Service and the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development, a non-governmental organization based in France, to resume agriculture and other kinds work in vulnerable areas.
Already, eight-hundred drinking ponds that were fouled with salt water have been filtered and cleared of debris, dead animals, and, most tragic, human bodies. Work is underway to repair nine-hundred schools and establish four-hundred temporary safe learning places for sixty-thousand children.
Relief workers are distributing fishing nets as well as seeds and other agricultural inputs in time for the monsoon-planting season, which will end this month. After a tardy response that put many Burmese at risk, the Burmese government has gradually opened the country to outside help.
The U.S. government has given fifty-million dollars in disaster aid to Burma. From May 12 to June 22, the U.S. flew one-hundred-eighty-five airlifts of U.S., Thai, United Nations and non-governmental organization relief supplies from Thailand to Burma. At an August 7 meeting with Burmese democracy activists during his visit to Bangkok, Thailand, President George W. Bush said he is "pleased that a lot of the aid that we paid for is actually getting to the people themselves."
Ghosts amid the wreckage in Myanmar
By Seth MydansAugust 25, 2008
BANGKOK (IHT): Nearly four months after the cyclone, the Irrawaddy Delta in Myanmar is a flat, dark expanse of ruin populated by dazed survivors, unburied bodies and visions of wandering, moaning ghosts.
The region seems to have avoided mass starvation and epidemic, and people are rebuilding their precarious lives in this vast and often flooded marshland where the margin between survival and death has always been thin.
Within that thin margin, recent visitors say, many of the survivors seem to have lost their spark of life, and some of the dead seem not yet to have disappeared as they haunt the minds of those they left behind.
"There is a weariness in people's eyes here," said a photographer who has been chronicling the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which struck on May 3. He spoke on condition of anonymity because access to the region is forbidden to foreign journalists.
"There's a lost feeling that you get," he said. "People are physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. Some of them don't have the strength to start over."
After an international furor over the government's refusal to admit foreign relief workers, a tightly controlled system has been put in place, and aid is reaching much of the area, where the United Nations says 2.4 million people were affected.
The cyclone left 138,000 people dead or missing and 800,000 homeless, according to UN figures, after tremendous winds and a storm surge that resembled a tsunami.
It leveled most of the fragile thatch homes in its path, uprooted trees, swept away the livestock and fishing boats that provided a livelihood and polluted many rice fields with salt.
For those fields that survived, this year's planting season has now passed, and experts say it may be more than a year before many people see their next decent harvest.
Although some houses are being rebuilt and some fields are being worked, the delta remains a vista of ruin and debris, where human and animal bones and the last decomposing bodies still cluster at the edges of waterways.
Fantastical tales circulate among the survivors, the photographer said, weaving a tapestry of stories from this world and the next.
There is the tale of the boy who survived by clinging to the back of a crocodile, and the story of the boatload of people stranded at low tide who sat waiting on the silt for the water to rise, surrounded by stranded corpses.
There is the story of the mother who was reunited with her baby after it was swept away in a washtub, and the story of the woman who gave birth as the cyclone hit and pulled her baby from the water by its umbilical cord.
And there are the stories of wandering ghosts, whose cries for help can be heard at night in haunted places that no villager dares to enter.
Among these phantoms and traumas, international relief workers have become the survivors' lifeline, delivering aid to all but the most remote parts of the delta.
More than 1,800 visas have been issued to these workers, aid officials say, though access to the hard-hit delta is slowed by an ever-more-complicated process of permissions and paperwork.
By now, most survivors have received aid, said Andrew Kirkwood, country director for the aid group Save the Children. "But very few people have received enough assistance to get them through the next three months, and almost no one has received enough assistance to enable them to rebuild their lives."
He said the reconstruction of schools, clinics and other infrastructure, which should be well under way by now, still lagged because of delays in delivering basic emergency assistance.
The xenophobic military junta that holds Myanmar in its grip prevented large-scale foreign aid deliveries for the first three crucial weeks after the cyclone, then loosened its controls only gradually and partially. It never did allow U.S. and French naval vessels to bring in tons of aid and equipment.
But despite the early demands from around the world that the government permit open deliveries of aid, the United Nations says that nearly half the assistance pledged by foreign donors has yet to appear. Recently it said it had received $339 million in international donations, a shortfall of $300 million.
But life has always been bitter for the people of the Irrawaddy Delta, with 8 out of 10 families living in poverty even before the cyclone, according to Save the Children.
For many people, the harshness of life today may not be so very different from the harshness of the life they have always known.
"They live on a thin line, every day of every year of every decade," the photographer said. "And that is what they are doing now. They just keep going, day by day by day."
Friday, August 8, 2008
Conditions in Delta Far Starker Than Portrayed by Regime
The Irrawaddy News-AP
RANGOON — A rare bird's-eye look at Burma's Irrawaddy delta shows the devastation still left from Cyclone Nargis—broken levies, flooded farm roads, the shattered remains of bamboo huts and trees strewn like matchsticks along the coast.
Conditions are far starker than reflected in the assessments from Burmese government and even in the recent optimism of some UN officials, The Associated Press has concluded from a review of data, a private flight over the delta and interviews with victims and aid workers.
Three months after a disaster that claimed nearly 140,000 lives, thousands of villagers are still getting little or nothing from their government or foreign aid groups.
"We lost everything—our house, our rice, our clothes. We were given just a little rice by a private aid group from Rangoon. I don't know where the government or foreign organizations are helping people, but not here," said Khin Maung Kyi, a 60-year-old farmer who lost six children to the killer storm.
Some areas have received help in the delta, Burma's rice bowl set amid a lacework of waterways. During a flyover, brand-new metal roofs atop reconstructed homes glittered in the tropical sunlight, farmers in cone-shaped hats worked in green rice paddies, and gangs of workers struggled to remove debris from canals and repair broken embankments.
But progress is slow and behind where it should be.
"The situation in Myanmar [Burma] remains dire," said Chris Kaye, who heads relief operations for the UN World Food Program. "The vast majority of families simply don't have enough to eat."
Some grim recent statistics from foreign aid agencies working in the delta:
_ A survey of families in 291 villages showed that 55 percent have less than one day of food left and no stocks to fall back on. Some 924,000 people will need food assistance until the November rice harvest, while around 300,000 will need relief until April 2009.
_ The fishing industry, the delta's second-most-important source of income and food, remains devastated. More than 40 percent of fishing boats and 70 percent of fishing gear were destroyed and very little has been replaced.
_ More than 360,000 children will not be able to go to elementary school in coming months because at least 2,000 schools were so badly damaged they cannot reopen anytime soon.
"The vast majority of people have received some assistance. But very few people have received enough assistance to get them through the next three months, and almost no one has received enough assistance to enable them to rebuild their lives," said Andrew Kirkwood, who heads the aid agency Save the Children in Burma.
Kirkwood said three months after such a disaster, aid agencies would normally be rebuilding schools, health clinics and other facilities. But in Burma, he said, the first phase of emergency distribution of food and basics is likely to continue for another three months.
More upbeat assessments have come from other quarters. Some have noted that a second wave of death from disease and starvation anticipated by some relief agencies never occurred.
"It has gone much better than anyone expected," said Ashley Clements, a spokesman for World Vision, an international Christian relief and development agency, citing the resilience of the victims and the speed of the aid response.
"The message I want the world to know is that the government, UN agencies and other organizations ... are making good progress," said Ramesh Shrestha, a UN representative in Rangoon.
However, almost at the same time the UN's humanitarian news service, IRIN, published a report about conditions in the delta titled "Life is totally bleak." Chronicling the plight of several families, it noted that many people lack food and shelter.
Some foreign aid workers caution that their agencies refrain from exposing problems for fear the government will curb or halt their access to victims.
"Our operations are contingent on having a positive relationship with the government," said Kaye, the UN World Food Program chief in Burma. "So we have to work out a fine balance, so that the difficult issues are dealt with, but in a spirit of cooperation.
What we have learned over the years is that direct confrontation with the government is not the way to solve problems."
The United Nations' humanitarian chief, John Holmes, recently noted that the process of getting to the delta is "still more bureaucratic and unpredictable than in the ideal world." The extent of the devastation also remains unseen because access is most difficult further south and away from the main townships, areas that can only be reached through narrow waterways with very small boats.
"I think that's where the needs still are quite considerable and that's where we'll focus the relief efforts over the next few months," he said.
The recovery has been slowed by the military government's xenophobia and poor performance, the difficulties of operating in the delta and in one of the world's poorest countries, and the sheer magnitude of the calamity.
The United Nations says the government's foreign exchange system has resulted in the loss of as much as 25 percent of relief aid. This is because Burma requires the conversion of foreign aid money into Foreign Exchange Certificates at a set price and then into the country's national currency, the kyat. The certificates have been worth as much as 25 percent less than the market value of an equivalent number of dollars.
"This is a big concern," said Dan Baker, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Burma. "The donors aren't going to give us money if they know they will (lose) a percentage of that."
To date, relief funds from foreign donors have come to US $339 million, according to the United Nations.
Victims complain about the dearth of official assistance. The real post-cyclone heroes have proved to be individual donors, small private groups and Buddhist monks—some of whom have been harassed, curbed and sometimes arrested by the junta for their efforts.
The scale of the disaster would put even the most advanced nations to a severe test. According to a recent assessment, total damage in the delta and parts of Rangoon is estimated at $4 billion.
Meanwhile, many villagers continue to suffer—and are far less diplomatic about the military regime than some aid workers.
"I don't expect any help from the government. I just know that if I ask them for help I would have to give them something in return. But I have nothing now," said Khin Maung Kyi, the farmer from the delta area of Kungyangone.
All the storm left him were six acres of rice fields. But he no longer has children to work in the fields, and he and his wife are weak from the lack of food, blistering sun and monsoon rains.
"We have no plan for the future," he said. "The only thing we have to think about now is how to find food for tomorrow. Having enough food to eat like we had before seems to be a dream now."
RANGOON — A rare bird's-eye look at Burma's Irrawaddy delta shows the devastation still left from Cyclone Nargis—broken levies, flooded farm roads, the shattered remains of bamboo huts and trees strewn like matchsticks along the coast.
Conditions are far starker than reflected in the assessments from Burmese government and even in the recent optimism of some UN officials, The Associated Press has concluded from a review of data, a private flight over the delta and interviews with victims and aid workers.
Three months after a disaster that claimed nearly 140,000 lives, thousands of villagers are still getting little or nothing from their government or foreign aid groups.
"We lost everything—our house, our rice, our clothes. We were given just a little rice by a private aid group from Rangoon. I don't know where the government or foreign organizations are helping people, but not here," said Khin Maung Kyi, a 60-year-old farmer who lost six children to the killer storm.
Some areas have received help in the delta, Burma's rice bowl set amid a lacework of waterways. During a flyover, brand-new metal roofs atop reconstructed homes glittered in the tropical sunlight, farmers in cone-shaped hats worked in green rice paddies, and gangs of workers struggled to remove debris from canals and repair broken embankments.
But progress is slow and behind where it should be.
"The situation in Myanmar [Burma] remains dire," said Chris Kaye, who heads relief operations for the UN World Food Program. "The vast majority of families simply don't have enough to eat."
Some grim recent statistics from foreign aid agencies working in the delta:
_ A survey of families in 291 villages showed that 55 percent have less than one day of food left and no stocks to fall back on. Some 924,000 people will need food assistance until the November rice harvest, while around 300,000 will need relief until April 2009.
_ The fishing industry, the delta's second-most-important source of income and food, remains devastated. More than 40 percent of fishing boats and 70 percent of fishing gear were destroyed and very little has been replaced.
_ More than 360,000 children will not be able to go to elementary school in coming months because at least 2,000 schools were so badly damaged they cannot reopen anytime soon.
"The vast majority of people have received some assistance. But very few people have received enough assistance to get them through the next three months, and almost no one has received enough assistance to enable them to rebuild their lives," said Andrew Kirkwood, who heads the aid agency Save the Children in Burma.
Kirkwood said three months after such a disaster, aid agencies would normally be rebuilding schools, health clinics and other facilities. But in Burma, he said, the first phase of emergency distribution of food and basics is likely to continue for another three months.
More upbeat assessments have come from other quarters. Some have noted that a second wave of death from disease and starvation anticipated by some relief agencies never occurred.
"It has gone much better than anyone expected," said Ashley Clements, a spokesman for World Vision, an international Christian relief and development agency, citing the resilience of the victims and the speed of the aid response.
"The message I want the world to know is that the government, UN agencies and other organizations ... are making good progress," said Ramesh Shrestha, a UN representative in Rangoon.
However, almost at the same time the UN's humanitarian news service, IRIN, published a report about conditions in the delta titled "Life is totally bleak." Chronicling the plight of several families, it noted that many people lack food and shelter.
Some foreign aid workers caution that their agencies refrain from exposing problems for fear the government will curb or halt their access to victims.
"Our operations are contingent on having a positive relationship with the government," said Kaye, the UN World Food Program chief in Burma. "So we have to work out a fine balance, so that the difficult issues are dealt with, but in a spirit of cooperation.
What we have learned over the years is that direct confrontation with the government is not the way to solve problems."
The United Nations' humanitarian chief, John Holmes, recently noted that the process of getting to the delta is "still more bureaucratic and unpredictable than in the ideal world." The extent of the devastation also remains unseen because access is most difficult further south and away from the main townships, areas that can only be reached through narrow waterways with very small boats.
"I think that's where the needs still are quite considerable and that's where we'll focus the relief efforts over the next few months," he said.
The recovery has been slowed by the military government's xenophobia and poor performance, the difficulties of operating in the delta and in one of the world's poorest countries, and the sheer magnitude of the calamity.
The United Nations says the government's foreign exchange system has resulted in the loss of as much as 25 percent of relief aid. This is because Burma requires the conversion of foreign aid money into Foreign Exchange Certificates at a set price and then into the country's national currency, the kyat. The certificates have been worth as much as 25 percent less than the market value of an equivalent number of dollars.
"This is a big concern," said Dan Baker, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Burma. "The donors aren't going to give us money if they know they will (lose) a percentage of that."
To date, relief funds from foreign donors have come to US $339 million, according to the United Nations.
Victims complain about the dearth of official assistance. The real post-cyclone heroes have proved to be individual donors, small private groups and Buddhist monks—some of whom have been harassed, curbed and sometimes arrested by the junta for their efforts.
The scale of the disaster would put even the most advanced nations to a severe test. According to a recent assessment, total damage in the delta and parts of Rangoon is estimated at $4 billion.
Meanwhile, many villagers continue to suffer—and are far less diplomatic about the military regime than some aid workers.
"I don't expect any help from the government. I just know that if I ask them for help I would have to give them something in return. But I have nothing now," said Khin Maung Kyi, the farmer from the delta area of Kungyangone.
All the storm left him were six acres of rice fields. But he no longer has children to work in the fields, and he and his wife are weak from the lack of food, blistering sun and monsoon rains.
"We have no plan for the future," he said. "The only thing we have to think about now is how to find food for tomorrow. Having enough food to eat like we had before seems to be a dream now."
Conditions in Delta Far Starker Than Portrayed by Regime
The Irrawaddy News-AP
RANGOON — A rare bird's-eye look at Burma's Irrawaddy delta shows the devastation still left from Cyclone Nargis—broken levies, flooded farm roads, the shattered remains of bamboo huts and trees strewn like matchsticks along the coast.
Conditions are far starker than reflected in the assessments from Burmese government and even in the recent optimism of some UN officials, The Associated Press has concluded from a review of data, a private flight over the delta and interviews with victims and aid workers.
Three months after a disaster that claimed nearly 140,000 lives, thousands of villagers are still getting little or nothing from their government or foreign aid groups.
"We lost everything—our house, our rice, our clothes. We were given just a little rice by a private aid group from Rangoon. I don't know where the government or foreign organizations are helping people, but not here," said Khin Maung Kyi, a 60-year-old farmer who lost six children to the killer storm.
Some areas have received help in the delta, Burma's rice bowl set amid a lacework of waterways. During a flyover, brand-new metal roofs atop reconstructed homes glittered in the tropical sunlight, farmers in cone-shaped hats worked in green rice paddies, and gangs of workers struggled to remove debris from canals and repair broken embankments.
But progress is slow and behind where it should be.
"The situation in Myanmar [Burma] remains dire," said Chris Kaye, who heads relief operations for the UN World Food Program. "The vast majority of families simply don't have enough to eat."
Some grim recent statistics from foreign aid agencies working in the delta:
_ A survey of families in 291 villages showed that 55 percent have less than one day of food left and no stocks to fall back on. Some 924,000 people will need food assistance until the November rice harvest, while around 300,000 will need relief until April 2009.
_ The fishing industry, the delta's second-most-important source of income and food, remains devastated. More than 40 percent of fishing boats and 70 percent of fishing gear were destroyed and very little has been replaced.
_ More than 360,000 children will not be able to go to elementary school in coming months because at least 2,000 schools were so badly damaged they cannot reopen anytime soon.
"The vast majority of people have received some assistance. But very few people have received enough assistance to get them through the next three months, and almost no one has received enough assistance to enable them to rebuild their lives," said Andrew Kirkwood, who heads the aid agency Save the Children in Burma.
Kirkwood said three months after such a disaster, aid agencies would normally be rebuilding schools, health clinics and other facilities. But in Burma, he said, the first phase of emergency distribution of food and basics is likely to continue for another three months.
More upbeat assessments have come from other quarters. Some have noted that a second wave of death from disease and starvation anticipated by some relief agencies never occurred.
"It has gone much better than anyone expected," said Ashley Clements, a spokesman for World Vision, an international Christian relief and development agency, citing the resilience of the victims and the speed of the aid response.
"The message I want the world to know is that the government, UN agencies and other organizations ... are making good progress," said Ramesh Shrestha, a UN representative in Rangoon.
However, almost at the same time the UN's humanitarian news service, IRIN, published a report about conditions in the delta titled "Life is totally bleak." Chronicling the plight of several families, it noted that many people lack food and shelter.
Some foreign aid workers caution that their agencies refrain from exposing problems for fear the government will curb or halt their access to victims.
"Our operations are contingent on having a positive relationship with the government," said Kaye, the UN World Food Program chief in Burma. "So we have to work out a fine balance, so that the difficult issues are dealt with, but in a spirit of cooperation.
What we have learned over the years is that direct confrontation with the government is not the way to solve problems."
The United Nations' humanitarian chief, John Holmes, recently noted that the process of getting to the delta is "still more bureaucratic and unpredictable than in the ideal world." The extent of the devastation also remains unseen because access is most difficult further south and away from the main townships, areas that can only be reached through narrow waterways with very small boats.
"I think that's where the needs still are quite considerable and that's where we'll focus the relief efforts over the next few months," he said.
The recovery has been slowed by the military government's xenophobia and poor performance, the difficulties of operating in the delta and in one of the world's poorest countries, and the sheer magnitude of the calamity.
The United Nations says the government's foreign exchange system has resulted in the loss of as much as 25 percent of relief aid. This is because Burma requires the conversion of foreign aid money into Foreign Exchange Certificates at a set price and then into the country's national currency, the kyat. The certificates have been worth as much as 25 percent less than the market value of an equivalent number of dollars.
"This is a big concern," said Dan Baker, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Burma. "The donors aren't going to give us money if they know they will (lose) a percentage of that."
To date, relief funds from foreign donors have come to US $339 million, according to the United Nations.
Victims complain about the dearth of official assistance. The real post-cyclone heroes have proved to be individual donors, small private groups and Buddhist monks—some of whom have been harassed, curbed and sometimes arrested by the junta for their efforts.
The scale of the disaster would put even the most advanced nations to a severe test. According to a recent assessment, total damage in the delta and parts of Rangoon is estimated at $4 billion.
Meanwhile, many villagers continue to suffer—and are far less diplomatic about the military regime than some aid workers.
"I don't expect any help from the government. I just know that if I ask them for help I would have to give them something in return. But I have nothing now," said Khin Maung Kyi, the farmer from the delta area of Kungyangone.
All the storm left him were six acres of rice fields. But he no longer has children to work in the fields, and he and his wife are weak from the lack of food, blistering sun and monsoon rains.
"We have no plan for the future," he said. "The only thing we have to think about now is how to find food for tomorrow. Having enough food to eat like we had before seems to be a dream now."
RANGOON — A rare bird's-eye look at Burma's Irrawaddy delta shows the devastation still left from Cyclone Nargis—broken levies, flooded farm roads, the shattered remains of bamboo huts and trees strewn like matchsticks along the coast.
Conditions are far starker than reflected in the assessments from Burmese government and even in the recent optimism of some UN officials, The Associated Press has concluded from a review of data, a private flight over the delta and interviews with victims and aid workers.
Three months after a disaster that claimed nearly 140,000 lives, thousands of villagers are still getting little or nothing from their government or foreign aid groups.
"We lost everything—our house, our rice, our clothes. We were given just a little rice by a private aid group from Rangoon. I don't know where the government or foreign organizations are helping people, but not here," said Khin Maung Kyi, a 60-year-old farmer who lost six children to the killer storm.
Some areas have received help in the delta, Burma's rice bowl set amid a lacework of waterways. During a flyover, brand-new metal roofs atop reconstructed homes glittered in the tropical sunlight, farmers in cone-shaped hats worked in green rice paddies, and gangs of workers struggled to remove debris from canals and repair broken embankments.
But progress is slow and behind where it should be.
"The situation in Myanmar [Burma] remains dire," said Chris Kaye, who heads relief operations for the UN World Food Program. "The vast majority of families simply don't have enough to eat."
Some grim recent statistics from foreign aid agencies working in the delta:
_ A survey of families in 291 villages showed that 55 percent have less than one day of food left and no stocks to fall back on. Some 924,000 people will need food assistance until the November rice harvest, while around 300,000 will need relief until April 2009.
_ The fishing industry, the delta's second-most-important source of income and food, remains devastated. More than 40 percent of fishing boats and 70 percent of fishing gear were destroyed and very little has been replaced.
_ More than 360,000 children will not be able to go to elementary school in coming months because at least 2,000 schools were so badly damaged they cannot reopen anytime soon.
"The vast majority of people have received some assistance. But very few people have received enough assistance to get them through the next three months, and almost no one has received enough assistance to enable them to rebuild their lives," said Andrew Kirkwood, who heads the aid agency Save the Children in Burma.
Kirkwood said three months after such a disaster, aid agencies would normally be rebuilding schools, health clinics and other facilities. But in Burma, he said, the first phase of emergency distribution of food and basics is likely to continue for another three months.
More upbeat assessments have come from other quarters. Some have noted that a second wave of death from disease and starvation anticipated by some relief agencies never occurred.
"It has gone much better than anyone expected," said Ashley Clements, a spokesman for World Vision, an international Christian relief and development agency, citing the resilience of the victims and the speed of the aid response.
"The message I want the world to know is that the government, UN agencies and other organizations ... are making good progress," said Ramesh Shrestha, a UN representative in Rangoon.
However, almost at the same time the UN's humanitarian news service, IRIN, published a report about conditions in the delta titled "Life is totally bleak." Chronicling the plight of several families, it noted that many people lack food and shelter.
Some foreign aid workers caution that their agencies refrain from exposing problems for fear the government will curb or halt their access to victims.
"Our operations are contingent on having a positive relationship with the government," said Kaye, the UN World Food Program chief in Burma. "So we have to work out a fine balance, so that the difficult issues are dealt with, but in a spirit of cooperation.
What we have learned over the years is that direct confrontation with the government is not the way to solve problems."
The United Nations' humanitarian chief, John Holmes, recently noted that the process of getting to the delta is "still more bureaucratic and unpredictable than in the ideal world." The extent of the devastation also remains unseen because access is most difficult further south and away from the main townships, areas that can only be reached through narrow waterways with very small boats.
"I think that's where the needs still are quite considerable and that's where we'll focus the relief efforts over the next few months," he said.
The recovery has been slowed by the military government's xenophobia and poor performance, the difficulties of operating in the delta and in one of the world's poorest countries, and the sheer magnitude of the calamity.
The United Nations says the government's foreign exchange system has resulted in the loss of as much as 25 percent of relief aid. This is because Burma requires the conversion of foreign aid money into Foreign Exchange Certificates at a set price and then into the country's national currency, the kyat. The certificates have been worth as much as 25 percent less than the market value of an equivalent number of dollars.
"This is a big concern," said Dan Baker, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Burma. "The donors aren't going to give us money if they know they will (lose) a percentage of that."
To date, relief funds from foreign donors have come to US $339 million, according to the United Nations.
Victims complain about the dearth of official assistance. The real post-cyclone heroes have proved to be individual donors, small private groups and Buddhist monks—some of whom have been harassed, curbed and sometimes arrested by the junta for their efforts.
The scale of the disaster would put even the most advanced nations to a severe test. According to a recent assessment, total damage in the delta and parts of Rangoon is estimated at $4 billion.
Meanwhile, many villagers continue to suffer—and are far less diplomatic about the military regime than some aid workers.
"I don't expect any help from the government. I just know that if I ask them for help I would have to give them something in return. But I have nothing now," said Khin Maung Kyi, the farmer from the delta area of Kungyangone.
All the storm left him were six acres of rice fields. But he no longer has children to work in the fields, and he and his wife are weak from the lack of food, blistering sun and monsoon rains.
"We have no plan for the future," he said. "The only thing we have to think about now is how to find food for tomorrow. Having enough food to eat like we had before seems to be a dream now."
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Myanmar Cyclone Survivors Living in `Dire Conditions,' UN Says
``We have seen significant progress being made in the affected areas,'' Daniel Baker, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, said yesterday, according to the UN. ``Much more urgently needs to be done in remote areas where affected communities are still living in dire conditions.''
--Read More: here
--Read More: here
Disaster Lessons
By John Holmes
(WP)-Three months have passed since Cyclone Nargis and an accompanying tidal surge swept across Myanmar's fertile Irrawaddy Delta region, claiming nearly 140,000 lives and devastating the livelihoods of many more people. All told, some 2.4 million people were seriously affected by Nargis, ranking it among the worst cyclones in Asia in the past 15 years and the worst in Myanmar's history.
I recently completed my second trip to Myanmar, where I was again sobered by the immensity of the tragedy but was also cautiously hopeful about relief efforts. In May, government reluctance to allow international aid workers into the affected region sparked a storm of international criticism.
We have made a lot of progress since then. Touring the delta by helicopter, I could see that many houses had been repaired one way or another. There was agricultural activity in the fields and commercial activity on the waterways. Schools are in session, in tents if not permanent classrooms. And hundreds of international aid staffers are now working in the delta. The promises about access made to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when he saw Myanmar's head of state, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, in late May have essentially been kept.
Without question, the international response has helped save lives and reduce suffering. While it is impossible to be sure all survivors have been reached, I am confident that the overwhelming majority have received help, even if many still need a good deal more.
Crucially, a much-feared second wave of deaths from starvation or disease has not happened -- no small achievement, given that 75 percent of hospitals and clinics in the affected areas were destroyed. The people's resilience has been remarkable, as was the degree of help and solidarity from individual citizens and organizations in Myanmar.
Challenges remain, of course, including over issues such as aid exchange rates, and it would be unwise to gloss over them. But the main priority now is to help remote communities further and to ensure that assistance is continued systematically until all concerned can feed themselves and rebuild their lives.
So, what can we learn from this crisis?
First, no nation, rich or poor, can go it alone when confronted by a natural disaster of the magnitude of a Cyclone Nargis. It would have been much better, not least for the survivors, if the government of Myanmar had recognized the value of an international presence from the start. I encourage Myanmar's leaders to continue down the path of cooperation, including in response to other humanitarian challenges, based on the universal principle of the impartial provision of aid.
Second, we must stay focused on the goal: assisting people in crisis. From the first, the aid operation in Myanmar -- as is true everywhere we work -- had to be about helping vulnerable people in need, not about politics. In this post-Iraq age, I am concerned that humanitarians are often pressured to choose between the hammer of forced intervention and the anvil of perceived inaction. Was there a realistic alternative to the approach of persistent negotiation and dialogue that we pursued? I do not believe so. Nor have I met anyone engaged in the operations who believes that a different approach would have brought more aid to more people more quickly.
This is not to say that there can never be a role for humanitarian intervention, even in natural disasters. But it must be the last resort, when all else has been tried and the only alternative is death and suffering on a mass scale.
Third, Nargis showed us a new model of humanitarian partnership, adding the special position and capabilities of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to those of the United Nations in working effectively with the government. This may prove the most important -- and, I hope, enduring -- lesson of the cyclone response, with implications for how we respond, anywhere, in the future.
ASEAN's leadership was vital in building trust with the government and saving lives. In recent years, ASEAN members have significantly stepped up participation in the humanitarian arena. Given that eight of the 10 worst natural disasters last year occurred in Asia, this represents a lifesaving investment, where the United Nations is helping to build local capacity.
Fourth, Nargis demonstrated once again the importance of disaster risk reduction and preparedness. Simple, low-cost measures -- local evacuation plans, shelters, community early-warning systems -- have saved tens of thousands of lives in neighboring Bangladesh when it has been faced with similarly devastating cyclones. We need to help the people of Myanmar strengthen their resilience and reduce their vulnerability. Building back better, to minimize future disaster risks, is a top priority.
In coming years we can expect to see more, and more intense, weather-related natural disasters as the effects of climate change become more pronounced. We must be better prepared and must cooperate as neighbors and an international community in meeting this challenge. The need for effective global humanitarian partnerships has never been more apparent -- or more necessary.
The writer is U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.
(WP)-Three months have passed since Cyclone Nargis and an accompanying tidal surge swept across Myanmar's fertile Irrawaddy Delta region, claiming nearly 140,000 lives and devastating the livelihoods of many more people. All told, some 2.4 million people were seriously affected by Nargis, ranking it among the worst cyclones in Asia in the past 15 years and the worst in Myanmar's history.
I recently completed my second trip to Myanmar, where I was again sobered by the immensity of the tragedy but was also cautiously hopeful about relief efforts. In May, government reluctance to allow international aid workers into the affected region sparked a storm of international criticism.
We have made a lot of progress since then. Touring the delta by helicopter, I could see that many houses had been repaired one way or another. There was agricultural activity in the fields and commercial activity on the waterways. Schools are in session, in tents if not permanent classrooms. And hundreds of international aid staffers are now working in the delta. The promises about access made to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when he saw Myanmar's head of state, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, in late May have essentially been kept.
Without question, the international response has helped save lives and reduce suffering. While it is impossible to be sure all survivors have been reached, I am confident that the overwhelming majority have received help, even if many still need a good deal more.
Crucially, a much-feared second wave of deaths from starvation or disease has not happened -- no small achievement, given that 75 percent of hospitals and clinics in the affected areas were destroyed. The people's resilience has been remarkable, as was the degree of help and solidarity from individual citizens and organizations in Myanmar.
Challenges remain, of course, including over issues such as aid exchange rates, and it would be unwise to gloss over them. But the main priority now is to help remote communities further and to ensure that assistance is continued systematically until all concerned can feed themselves and rebuild their lives.
So, what can we learn from this crisis?
First, no nation, rich or poor, can go it alone when confronted by a natural disaster of the magnitude of a Cyclone Nargis. It would have been much better, not least for the survivors, if the government of Myanmar had recognized the value of an international presence from the start. I encourage Myanmar's leaders to continue down the path of cooperation, including in response to other humanitarian challenges, based on the universal principle of the impartial provision of aid.
Second, we must stay focused on the goal: assisting people in crisis. From the first, the aid operation in Myanmar -- as is true everywhere we work -- had to be about helping vulnerable people in need, not about politics. In this post-Iraq age, I am concerned that humanitarians are often pressured to choose between the hammer of forced intervention and the anvil of perceived inaction. Was there a realistic alternative to the approach of persistent negotiation and dialogue that we pursued? I do not believe so. Nor have I met anyone engaged in the operations who believes that a different approach would have brought more aid to more people more quickly.
This is not to say that there can never be a role for humanitarian intervention, even in natural disasters. But it must be the last resort, when all else has been tried and the only alternative is death and suffering on a mass scale.
Third, Nargis showed us a new model of humanitarian partnership, adding the special position and capabilities of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to those of the United Nations in working effectively with the government. This may prove the most important -- and, I hope, enduring -- lesson of the cyclone response, with implications for how we respond, anywhere, in the future.
ASEAN's leadership was vital in building trust with the government and saving lives. In recent years, ASEAN members have significantly stepped up participation in the humanitarian arena. Given that eight of the 10 worst natural disasters last year occurred in Asia, this represents a lifesaving investment, where the United Nations is helping to build local capacity.
Fourth, Nargis demonstrated once again the importance of disaster risk reduction and preparedness. Simple, low-cost measures -- local evacuation plans, shelters, community early-warning systems -- have saved tens of thousands of lives in neighboring Bangladesh when it has been faced with similarly devastating cyclones. We need to help the people of Myanmar strengthen their resilience and reduce their vulnerability. Building back better, to minimize future disaster risks, is a top priority.
In coming years we can expect to see more, and more intense, weather-related natural disasters as the effects of climate change become more pronounced. We must be better prepared and must cooperate as neighbors and an international community in meeting this challenge. The need for effective global humanitarian partnerships has never been more apparent -- or more necessary.
The writer is U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Bogalay authorities demand construction tax
Aug 4, 2008 (DVB)–Residents of Irrawaddy's cyclone-devastated Bogalay township have complained that local authorities have been pressuring them to pay a construction tax for repair work on their houses.
A Bogalay resident said municipal officials had told locals to apply for construction permits to repair damage caused by the cyclone and charged them between 100,000 and 200,000 kyat depending on the size of the house.
"Whenever they see a pile of bricks and sand in front of someone's house, they think they can make some money," she said.
"Our houses were damaged by the cyclone and they should not charge us for repairing them."
The resident said those who paid the tax were not given receipts by the officials.
Reporting by Naw Say Phaw
A Bogalay resident said municipal officials had told locals to apply for construction permits to repair damage caused by the cyclone and charged them between 100,000 and 200,000 kyat depending on the size of the house.
"Whenever they see a pile of bricks and sand in front of someone's house, they think they can make some money," she said.
"Our houses were damaged by the cyclone and they should not charge us for repairing them."
The resident said those who paid the tax were not given receipts by the officials.
Reporting by Naw Say Phaw
Cyclone Nargis response enters a new phase in relief and early recovery
Fourth Press Release of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG)
Yangon Myanmar (Relief Web), 30 July 2008 - The Government of Myanmar organised a field trip involving more than 148 representatives of foreign missions, UN agencies, international non-governmental organisations, relief organisations and the media to the cyclone Nargis-affected areas in the Ayeyarwady Delta using six Myanmar Air Force helicopters on 29 July 2009.
‘This is to reassure that access to the disaster-affected areas continues to be unimpeded and is expanding. This is also to give first-hand information to encourage the international community to work with us to intensify the emergency relief and early recovery for the affected communities,’ explained U Kyaw Thu, Myanmar’s Deputy Foreign Minister and TCG Chairman. He also expects the field trip will bring forward and provide complementary support to the government’s 50-billion-kyat recovery programme. Other TCG members also joined the field visit.
The field trip follows the release of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) Report on the sidelines of the 41st ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Singapore on 21 July and concurrently in Yangon. US$303 million is urgently needed to intensify the relief and early recovery efforts as presented in the 10th July Revised Appeal by the UN, while recovery needs are estimated at US$1 billion over the next three years as assessed in the PONJA Report.
On the ground, the TCG reported that all of the disaster-affected communities have received relief assistance at least once. Bishow Parajuli, UN Resident Coordinator and also a member of the TCG said, ‘Now, we have double challenges, one, sustaining the relief and two, advancing the support for early recovery in terms of livelihood and subsequently local level recovery on the ground. There is progress in the ongoing farming recovery activities. However there is still a lot to do and we are concerned that many farmers may be unable to catch up with the fast-ending monsoon paddy crop planting season, with their subsequent future food security concern’.
The TCG has facilitated more than 2,000 visas for humanitarian workers involved in Nargis-related tasks. Humanitarian clusters continue to deliver aid together with the line ministries and local governments.
Along that line, the TCG recently launched a Community-Based Early Recovery Pilot Project at Seik Gyi in Kungyangon Township. This TCG special project will focus on early recovery efforts, such as community infrastructure repairs including monasteries and cleaning of community dug wells; and livelihood stimulation support such as planting of betel leaves, building fishing boats and providing fishing nets for the affected communities.
During the first TCG’s visit to the village on Saturday, 26 July 2008, H.E. Bansarn Bunnag, Thailand’s Ambassador to Myanmar and senior ASEAN member of the TCG explained, ‘This project will serve as the model for an integrated relief and early recovery that we could replicate quickly in other places in the affected areas’.
* Note: The TCG is an ASEAN-led mechanism to facilitate trust, confidence and cooperation between Myanmar and the international community in the urgent post-Cyclone Nargis humanitarian relief and recovery work. The TCG started its work on 31 May 2008 and has been meeting at least once a week in a spirit of mutual understanding, trust and cooperation. It has been working closely with the National Disaster Preparedness Central Committee chaired by His Excellency Prime Minister General Thein Sein, Union of Myanmar.
The TCG comprises three members from the Myanmar Government: (Deputy Foreign Minister H.E. U Kyaw Thu who is the Chairman; Acting Director-General, Ministry of Social Welfare and Resettlement U Aung Tun Khaing; and, Deputy Director-General, Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation U Than Aye); three members from ASEAN (Thailand’s Ambassador to Myanmar H.E. Bansarn Bunnag; Dr Puji Pujiono, a senior UNDP officer seconded to the ASEAN Secretariat; and, Dr. Anish Kumar Roy, Director of Bureau for Resources Development of the ASEAN Secretariat alternating with Ms. Adelina Kamal of the ASEAN Secretariat); and three from the UN (UN Humanitarian Coordinator Mr Daniel Baker; UN Resident Coordinator Mr Bishow Parajuli; and, a rotating UN agency representative).
For further information, please contact:
Ms. Adelina Kamal
Head, Coordinating Office for the ASEAN Humanitarian Task Force
Phone No.: +951 544500 ext 417
E-mail: akamal.aseanhtf@gmail.com
Yangon Myanmar (Relief Web), 30 July 2008 - The Government of Myanmar organised a field trip involving more than 148 representatives of foreign missions, UN agencies, international non-governmental organisations, relief organisations and the media to the cyclone Nargis-affected areas in the Ayeyarwady Delta using six Myanmar Air Force helicopters on 29 July 2009.
‘This is to reassure that access to the disaster-affected areas continues to be unimpeded and is expanding. This is also to give first-hand information to encourage the international community to work with us to intensify the emergency relief and early recovery for the affected communities,’ explained U Kyaw Thu, Myanmar’s Deputy Foreign Minister and TCG Chairman. He also expects the field trip will bring forward and provide complementary support to the government’s 50-billion-kyat recovery programme. Other TCG members also joined the field visit.
The field trip follows the release of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) Report on the sidelines of the 41st ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Singapore on 21 July and concurrently in Yangon. US$303 million is urgently needed to intensify the relief and early recovery efforts as presented in the 10th July Revised Appeal by the UN, while recovery needs are estimated at US$1 billion over the next three years as assessed in the PONJA Report.
On the ground, the TCG reported that all of the disaster-affected communities have received relief assistance at least once. Bishow Parajuli, UN Resident Coordinator and also a member of the TCG said, ‘Now, we have double challenges, one, sustaining the relief and two, advancing the support for early recovery in terms of livelihood and subsequently local level recovery on the ground. There is progress in the ongoing farming recovery activities. However there is still a lot to do and we are concerned that many farmers may be unable to catch up with the fast-ending monsoon paddy crop planting season, with their subsequent future food security concern’.
The TCG has facilitated more than 2,000 visas for humanitarian workers involved in Nargis-related tasks. Humanitarian clusters continue to deliver aid together with the line ministries and local governments.
Along that line, the TCG recently launched a Community-Based Early Recovery Pilot Project at Seik Gyi in Kungyangon Township. This TCG special project will focus on early recovery efforts, such as community infrastructure repairs including monasteries and cleaning of community dug wells; and livelihood stimulation support such as planting of betel leaves, building fishing boats and providing fishing nets for the affected communities.
During the first TCG’s visit to the village on Saturday, 26 July 2008, H.E. Bansarn Bunnag, Thailand’s Ambassador to Myanmar and senior ASEAN member of the TCG explained, ‘This project will serve as the model for an integrated relief and early recovery that we could replicate quickly in other places in the affected areas’.
* Note: The TCG is an ASEAN-led mechanism to facilitate trust, confidence and cooperation between Myanmar and the international community in the urgent post-Cyclone Nargis humanitarian relief and recovery work. The TCG started its work on 31 May 2008 and has been meeting at least once a week in a spirit of mutual understanding, trust and cooperation. It has been working closely with the National Disaster Preparedness Central Committee chaired by His Excellency Prime Minister General Thein Sein, Union of Myanmar.
The TCG comprises three members from the Myanmar Government: (Deputy Foreign Minister H.E. U Kyaw Thu who is the Chairman; Acting Director-General, Ministry of Social Welfare and Resettlement U Aung Tun Khaing; and, Deputy Director-General, Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation U Than Aye); three members from ASEAN (Thailand’s Ambassador to Myanmar H.E. Bansarn Bunnag; Dr Puji Pujiono, a senior UNDP officer seconded to the ASEAN Secretariat; and, Dr. Anish Kumar Roy, Director of Bureau for Resources Development of the ASEAN Secretariat alternating with Ms. Adelina Kamal of the ASEAN Secretariat); and three from the UN (UN Humanitarian Coordinator Mr Daniel Baker; UN Resident Coordinator Mr Bishow Parajuli; and, a rotating UN agency representative).
For further information, please contact:
Ms. Adelina Kamal
Head, Coordinating Office for the ASEAN Humanitarian Task Force
Phone No.: +951 544500 ext 417
E-mail: akamal.aseanhtf@gmail.com
Friday, August 1, 2008
Private donations for cyclone victims in Burma petering off
Zarni
31 July 2008
Rangoon (Mizzima)- Three months after the killer cyclone lashed Burma's coastal regions, survivors said aid from private donors is slowly petering off, though a few international aid groups are still seen operating.
A university student in Rangoon, who has been actively involved in collecting donations and helping survivors, said collecting donations has become extremely difficult as donors are weary.
"Earlier, we had a lot of people coming up to donate, but now it seems that people have become tired as time passes," said the young man, who on last Sunday went to the delta and donated about 200,000 Kyat (US$ 170) worth of aid materials.
He added that unless they are able to generate more funds from donors he and his small group might have to stop their aid operations.
A boatman in Rangoon division's Kun Chan Kone township said he had noticed few private donors coming to help survivors, while only a few international non-government organizations are seen.
"As far as I have noticed, private donors have become fewer these days," said the boatman, who regularly transports aid workers from Kun Chan Kone to Dedaye Township in the Irrawaddy delta.
Another local aid group led by the famous Burmese actor Kyaw Thu is also reportedly ceasing its operation for the month of August due to severe shortage of funds.
Kyaw Thu in an interview over telephone told Mizzima, "We are halting our operations for the month of August because of shortage of funds."
The actor, who also heads the Free Funeral Service in Rangoon, said his group operated on their own donations as well as funds from other generous donors.
"Now that three months have passed, donors seem to be tired and are getting back to their usual business. So it is difficult to get funds," Kyaw Thu added.
Dr. Myint Oo, a medical doctor in Rangoon who is also actively involved in social work, said with aid groups focusing on reconstructing and rebuilding the lives of survivors, private donors think that their role in supplying emergency relief is over.
"They [private donors and volunteers] tend to leave the task of reconstruction to NGO and INGOs and seem to think that their role is over," Dr. Myint Oo told Mizzima in an earlier interview.
Impacts on Survivors
But the impact of the decline of private donations, volunteers and social workers are being borne by survivors, who after three months are still not in a position to stand on their own with out aid.
A village elder in Dedaye Township told Mizzima that they have enough stocks of rice until September, as they were given by an international aid group, Save the Children.
But he said, there is no other way of self-generation of food, as the rice that they have just completed planting will only yield by January next year.
"We don't know what to do after this stock of rice is finished," said the village elder.
The villagers in Dedaye Township are some of the lucky survivors of the cyclone as they have enough stocks of rice until September, but in other parts of the delta several villagers said they do not have enough to eat everyday, as it is difficult for aid groups to reach them.
A villager in the township of Bogale said, he and his fellow villagers have to go to Bogale town and look out for aid groups to help them as no aid groups could reach them.
"We have to come almost every week to ask for food," the villager told Mizzima over telephone.
An aid worker in Bogale town, who has been helping the villagers meet aid groups including World Vision, said, "I received many villagers from several different villages and helped them meet donors."
He said with the decline in private donations and volunteers several villages in Bogale Township remain out of reach.
Weather factor
With incessant rain since last week, a University student from Rangoon, who visited a village in Dadeye Township last Sunday, said their boat was flooded by the waves and nearly capsized.
"All relief materials that we brought got wet, but luckily we survived," she added.
The university student said the deteriorating weather conditions could also be a major factor for private donors to stop going to the delta to help survivors.
Additional reporting and writing by Mungpi
--Read More: here
31 July 2008
Rangoon (Mizzima)- Three months after the killer cyclone lashed Burma's coastal regions, survivors said aid from private donors is slowly petering off, though a few international aid groups are still seen operating.
A university student in Rangoon, who has been actively involved in collecting donations and helping survivors, said collecting donations has become extremely difficult as donors are weary.
"Earlier, we had a lot of people coming up to donate, but now it seems that people have become tired as time passes," said the young man, who on last Sunday went to the delta and donated about 200,000 Kyat (US$ 170) worth of aid materials.
He added that unless they are able to generate more funds from donors he and his small group might have to stop their aid operations.
A boatman in Rangoon division's Kun Chan Kone township said he had noticed few private donors coming to help survivors, while only a few international non-government organizations are seen.
"As far as I have noticed, private donors have become fewer these days," said the boatman, who regularly transports aid workers from Kun Chan Kone to Dedaye Township in the Irrawaddy delta.
Another local aid group led by the famous Burmese actor Kyaw Thu is also reportedly ceasing its operation for the month of August due to severe shortage of funds.
Kyaw Thu in an interview over telephone told Mizzima, "We are halting our operations for the month of August because of shortage of funds."
The actor, who also heads the Free Funeral Service in Rangoon, said his group operated on their own donations as well as funds from other generous donors.
"Now that three months have passed, donors seem to be tired and are getting back to their usual business. So it is difficult to get funds," Kyaw Thu added.
Dr. Myint Oo, a medical doctor in Rangoon who is also actively involved in social work, said with aid groups focusing on reconstructing and rebuilding the lives of survivors, private donors think that their role in supplying emergency relief is over.
"They [private donors and volunteers] tend to leave the task of reconstruction to NGO and INGOs and seem to think that their role is over," Dr. Myint Oo told Mizzima in an earlier interview.
Impacts on Survivors
But the impact of the decline of private donations, volunteers and social workers are being borne by survivors, who after three months are still not in a position to stand on their own with out aid.
A village elder in Dedaye Township told Mizzima that they have enough stocks of rice until September, as they were given by an international aid group, Save the Children.
But he said, there is no other way of self-generation of food, as the rice that they have just completed planting will only yield by January next year.
"We don't know what to do after this stock of rice is finished," said the village elder.
The villagers in Dedaye Township are some of the lucky survivors of the cyclone as they have enough stocks of rice until September, but in other parts of the delta several villagers said they do not have enough to eat everyday, as it is difficult for aid groups to reach them.
A villager in the township of Bogale said, he and his fellow villagers have to go to Bogale town and look out for aid groups to help them as no aid groups could reach them.
"We have to come almost every week to ask for food," the villager told Mizzima over telephone.
An aid worker in Bogale town, who has been helping the villagers meet aid groups including World Vision, said, "I received many villagers from several different villages and helped them meet donors."
He said with the decline in private donations and volunteers several villages in Bogale Township remain out of reach.
Weather factor
With incessant rain since last week, a University student from Rangoon, who visited a village in Dadeye Township last Sunday, said their boat was flooded by the waves and nearly capsized.
"All relief materials that we brought got wet, but luckily we survived," she added.
The university student said the deteriorating weather conditions could also be a major factor for private donors to stop going to the delta to help survivors.
Additional reporting and writing by Mungpi
--Read More: here
Cyclone-hit Burma Struggling to Find Its Feet
BANGKOK (Irrawaddy-Reuters)— Three months after Cyclone Nargis slammed into army-run Burma, people in the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta are still in dire need of food and clean water, hampering efforts to rebuild their lives, aid agencies say.
According to a joint assessment by the United Nations, Burma and Southeast Asian governments, three quarters of households have inadequate access to clean drinking water, making water-borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery a constant threat.
In addition, more than 40 percent have little or nothing by way of food, having lost their stocks in the May 2 storm and the sea surge that smashed into the delta, leaving 138,000 people dead or missing.
Another 800,000 were displaced in a disaster that the UN says affected 2.4 million people in the former Burma, where most people rely on farming for a living.
"The window of opportunity for planning crops has now closed. Farmers will have to wait until November 2009 for their next decent harvest and will struggle to find enough food," leading charity Save The Children said.
While UN children's agency UNICEF said malnutrition was not yet a cause for concern, Save The Children said that if food and employment needs were not addressed, the number of malnourished youngsters could rise to emergency levels.
Fears of funding shortages have been compounded by recent revelations that aid agencies are losing money due to Myanmar's distorted official exchange rate. The United Nations admitted this week it had lost $10 million so far.
Worst Asian Cyclone Since 1991
The cyclone, the worst to hit Asia since 1991 when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh, has been compared to the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, in which 230,000 people were killed. Around 170,000 of these were in the Indonesian province of Aceh.
However, unlike the tsunami, the aid effort has been plagued from the start by a lack of access for aid workers and donors.
The military junta only admitted international relief workers grudgingly and three weeks after the cyclone hit following talks between UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and army supremo Senior General Than Shwe.
It rejected offers of help from French and US ships.
Access has improved slightly over time, although aid workers say travel permits for the delta still take four days to approve.
However, with the closure of a UN "air bridge" between Bangkok and Rangoon on August 10, aid agencies will have to rely on slower sea and land routes to transport supplies.
Funding remains a major problem, with the UN's World Food Program saying it is facing a shortfall of about 52 per cent, despite recent donations from the UK and Australia amounting to $16 million.
According to Save The Children, people affected by the tsunami received an equivalent of $1,249 in aid. By comparison, the victims of Nargis have so far received $213 so far.
Even before Nargus struck, life in the delta was tough, with a minimum healthy diet for an average family of five costing $1.15 a day compared to an average daily wage of $1.04.
--Read More: here
According to a joint assessment by the United Nations, Burma and Southeast Asian governments, three quarters of households have inadequate access to clean drinking water, making water-borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery a constant threat.
In addition, more than 40 percent have little or nothing by way of food, having lost their stocks in the May 2 storm and the sea surge that smashed into the delta, leaving 138,000 people dead or missing.
Another 800,000 were displaced in a disaster that the UN says affected 2.4 million people in the former Burma, where most people rely on farming for a living.
"The window of opportunity for planning crops has now closed. Farmers will have to wait until November 2009 for their next decent harvest and will struggle to find enough food," leading charity Save The Children said.
While UN children's agency UNICEF said malnutrition was not yet a cause for concern, Save The Children said that if food and employment needs were not addressed, the number of malnourished youngsters could rise to emergency levels.
Fears of funding shortages have been compounded by recent revelations that aid agencies are losing money due to Myanmar's distorted official exchange rate. The United Nations admitted this week it had lost $10 million so far.
Worst Asian Cyclone Since 1991
The cyclone, the worst to hit Asia since 1991 when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh, has been compared to the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, in which 230,000 people were killed. Around 170,000 of these were in the Indonesian province of Aceh.
However, unlike the tsunami, the aid effort has been plagued from the start by a lack of access for aid workers and donors.
The military junta only admitted international relief workers grudgingly and three weeks after the cyclone hit following talks between UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and army supremo Senior General Than Shwe.
It rejected offers of help from French and US ships.
Access has improved slightly over time, although aid workers say travel permits for the delta still take four days to approve.
However, with the closure of a UN "air bridge" between Bangkok and Rangoon on August 10, aid agencies will have to rely on slower sea and land routes to transport supplies.
Funding remains a major problem, with the UN's World Food Program saying it is facing a shortfall of about 52 per cent, despite recent donations from the UK and Australia amounting to $16 million.
According to Save The Children, people affected by the tsunami received an equivalent of $1,249 in aid. By comparison, the victims of Nargis have so far received $213 so far.
Even before Nargus struck, life in the delta was tough, with a minimum healthy diet for an average family of five costing $1.15 a day compared to an average daily wage of $1.04.
--Read More: here
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Soe Soe, Myanmar: "Life is totally bleak"
"That night I went into labour in a small bamboo, thatched house on the banks of the Pyapon River to deliver my first child. But as the wind roared, my husband and I struggled outside only to see our home destroyed right before our very eyes.
--Read More: here
--Read More: here
Monday, July 28, 2008
Myanmar’s storm survivors get new eco-friendly homes
Dozens of construction firms have arrived in the cyclone-hit region to take on government-subsidised house building projects
NEARLY three months after a cyclone devastated Myanmar’s southern Irrawaddy delta, local firms are helping survivors replace their makeshift shelters with eco-friendly modern homes.
--Read More: here
NEARLY three months after a cyclone devastated Myanmar’s southern Irrawaddy delta, local firms are helping survivors replace their makeshift shelters with eco-friendly modern homes.
--Read More: here
Friday, July 25, 2008
Food top priority for Burma's cyclone victims
Nearly three months after the killer Cyclone Nargis played havoc in Burma's southwestern coastal region, hundreds of thousands are still not getting enough food, the United Nations World Food Programme said on Friday .
"The situation remains dire in Myanmar [Burma] ," said Chris Kaye, WFP's Country Director for Burma on Friday. "The vast majority of families simply don't have enough to eat."
Kaye said hunger is a huge threat and that comes in the way of victims concentrating in other fields of reconstruction and rebuilding their lives.
"Hunger remains a very real threat, and if people are hungry, they can't focus on restructuring their livelihood," Kaye said.
--Read More: here
"The situation remains dire in Myanmar [Burma] ," said Chris Kaye, WFP's Country Director for Burma on Friday. "The vast majority of families simply don't have enough to eat."
Kaye said hunger is a huge threat and that comes in the way of victims concentrating in other fields of reconstruction and rebuilding their lives.
"Hunger remains a very real threat, and if people are hungry, they can't focus on restructuring their livelihood," Kaye said.
--Read More: here
700,000 Myanmar children need long-term aid: UNICEF
The United Nations and the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) have estimated that it will cost about US$1 billion in total to rebuild Myanmar after the cyclone. -- PHOTO: APGENEVA - AROUND 700,000 children are in need of long-term aid in Myanmar due to the devastating effects of May's Cyclone Nargis, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.
'While we have observed a gradual improvement in the situation for children, and have avoided the emergence of major epidemics, we must maintain our efforts,' added UNICEF's Myanmar representative Ramesh Shrestha in a statement.
The agency has launched an appeal for just over US$90 million (S$122.5 million) it needs for operations through to April 2009. To date, it has raised less than half of that sum.
The United Nations and the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) have estimated that it will cost about US$1 billion in total to rebuild Myanmar after the cyclone left more than 138,000 people dead or missing and over two million survivors in need of aid.
In the crucial days after the cyclone hit, Myanmar's notoriously secretive leadership blocked access for foreign relief workers, raising fears thousands more people would die after being denied life-saving aid.
The junta only eased its stance after a personal visit by UN chief Ban Ki Moon, but aid groups say access to the worst-hit southern delta remains patchy. -- AFP
--source: Strait s Times
ASEAN: Political Situation in Burma Still Impeding Aid
By Ron Corben
Bangkok
25 July 2008
Burma will continue to require international aid to ensure communities hard hit by the devastation from Cyclone Nargis are able to avoid starvation. But, as Ron Corben reports from Bangkok, despite the help from the United Nations and Association of South East Asian Nations, senior ASEAN officials says the political situation in Burma continues to hinder their efforts.
The Association of South East Asian Nations, or ASEAN, is warning that the international community needs to continue to maintain support for relief operations in Burma.
Burma needs at least $1 billion in emergency relief and reconstruction over the next three years for the hardest hit areas in the Irrawaddy delta region that bore the brunt May 2 cyclone.
More than 130,000 people were killed or remain missing from the cyclone, with the total cost of rebuilding estimated at more $4 billion.
ASEAN, together with the United Nations and Burma, formed the Tripartite Core Group after the international community pressured the Burmese government to open the country for more assistance.
Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN secretary general, told reporters Friday that recovery efforts are ongoing.
"The emergency, the recovery is still with us," he said. "That is solid. We are not going into any long-term planning."
The tripartite group this week released the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report, based on surveys conducted by 250 officials and volunteers of the worst affected regions.
Puji Pujiono, a senior United Nations Development Program (UNDP) officer, said that while the political situation in Burma is impeding aid efforts, there has been some success in helping the hardest hit communities.
"Where we are standing now our colleagues, the political complication remains there, it will continue to be there for the months to come," he said. "The suffering is still there, people still lacking food, shelter and so on. But we have the mechanisms; we have done something right in this tripartite core group."
The storm wiped out around 4,000 schools and about 75 percent of health facilities and damaged or destroyed about 800,000 houses and more than 600,000 hectares of farmland.
Don Baker, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in Burma, says the international community's continuing efforts remain vital for recovery.
"Nobody has died since the cyclone from starvation but when we did the PONJA survey more than half of the population at that time only had food supplies for one day," he said. "So we have to keep the food going until the next harvest and even beyond because this next harvest is not going to be a full one."
The New York-based Human Rights Watch, while commending the Tripartite Core Group, warned assistance to victims was still being hampered by the military government.
Human Rights Watch said large numbers of people are still not receiving aid and face food shortages, shelter needs, lack basic sanitation and face grave psychological consequences from the cyclone's impact.
--Source: VOA
Bangkok
25 July 2008
Burma will continue to require international aid to ensure communities hard hit by the devastation from Cyclone Nargis are able to avoid starvation. But, as Ron Corben reports from Bangkok, despite the help from the United Nations and Association of South East Asian Nations, senior ASEAN officials says the political situation in Burma continues to hinder their efforts.
The Association of South East Asian Nations, or ASEAN, is warning that the international community needs to continue to maintain support for relief operations in Burma.
Burma needs at least $1 billion in emergency relief and reconstruction over the next three years for the hardest hit areas in the Irrawaddy delta region that bore the brunt May 2 cyclone.
More than 130,000 people were killed or remain missing from the cyclone, with the total cost of rebuilding estimated at more $4 billion.
ASEAN, together with the United Nations and Burma, formed the Tripartite Core Group after the international community pressured the Burmese government to open the country for more assistance.
Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN secretary general, told reporters Friday that recovery efforts are ongoing.
"The emergency, the recovery is still with us," he said. "That is solid. We are not going into any long-term planning."
The tripartite group this week released the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report, based on surveys conducted by 250 officials and volunteers of the worst affected regions.
Puji Pujiono, a senior United Nations Development Program (UNDP) officer, said that while the political situation in Burma is impeding aid efforts, there has been some success in helping the hardest hit communities.
"Where we are standing now our colleagues, the political complication remains there, it will continue to be there for the months to come," he said. "The suffering is still there, people still lacking food, shelter and so on. But we have the mechanisms; we have done something right in this tripartite core group."
The storm wiped out around 4,000 schools and about 75 percent of health facilities and damaged or destroyed about 800,000 houses and more than 600,000 hectares of farmland.
Don Baker, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in Burma, says the international community's continuing efforts remain vital for recovery.
"Nobody has died since the cyclone from starvation but when we did the PONJA survey more than half of the population at that time only had food supplies for one day," he said. "So we have to keep the food going until the next harvest and even beyond because this next harvest is not going to be a full one."
The New York-based Human Rights Watch, while commending the Tripartite Core Group, warned assistance to victims was still being hampered by the military government.
Human Rights Watch said large numbers of people are still not receiving aid and face food shortages, shelter needs, lack basic sanitation and face grave psychological consequences from the cyclone's impact.
--Source: VOA
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Fifth of Burmese aid cash lost to exchange rate trick
International aid agencies helping the victims of the devastating cyclone in Burma are losing as much as a fifth of the money that they bring into the country because of arbitrary foreign exchange rules imposed by the military dictatorship.
Foreign non-governmental organisations and United Nations agencies, such as the UN Development Programme and the World Food Programme, are compelled to exchange US dollars for convertible vouchers known to expatriates as “Monopoly money” before they are changed into local currency for as much as 20 per cent below the market rate. The money lost in these transactions could otherwise have been spent on the millions of people who lost homes and livelihoods in Cyclone Nargis, which killed about 138,000 when it struck the Irrawaddy Delta on May 2.
The UN humanitarian chief, Sir John Holmes, raised the matter with the ruling generals yesterday but reached no agreement. “We need a solution and we need a solution quickly,” he said in the main Burmese city, Rangoon. “They did not say exactly how but they said they would try to find ways by which we could get round the problem.”
This week a joint report by the Burmese Government, the UN and South-East Asian governments said that $1 billion (£500million) one billion US dollars would be needed over the next three years to recover from the cyclone.
In the early weeks the generals were reluctant to allow foreigners to enter the disaster zone. The situation has eased, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent by the UN agencies, including $54 million (£27 million) from the British Government. Most of that does not need to be converted into Burmese kyats because it is spent outside the country on imported food, medical supplies and blankets. However, as the aid operation progresses from emergency relief to recovery, agencies will increasingly have to source their supplies locally.
The official exchange rate is six kyats to a dollar but this is a fiction used only in government accounting. The black market rate varies around 1,200 kyat to a dollar, and although this is the rate used in day-to-day transactions, Burmese are not allowed to hold dollars and changing them on the black market is illegal. Aid organisations are compelled to purchase foreign exchange certificates, the so-called “Monopoly money”, printed by the Burmese Government and exchanged at a rate of one dollar for one FEC. When these are changed into kyat at the government-controlled Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank, they are bought at an exchange rate significantly below the market rate for the dollars that were used to purchase them.
On July 9, according to information supplied by foreign diplomats, the dollar-to-kyat rate was 1,185 but the FEC-to-kyat rate was 980, a gap of 17.3 per cent. At other times the fluctuation in the FEC price has widened the gap even further. “It's a major problem and a huge concern for all of us, affecting all of the donor community,” the head of the World Food Programme in Burma, Chris Kaye, told The Times. “But the solution is not going to be easy, because the FECs are an important part of the way the government structures its economy.”
--Source: Times Online
Foreign non-governmental organisations and United Nations agencies, such as the UN Development Programme and the World Food Programme, are compelled to exchange US dollars for convertible vouchers known to expatriates as “Monopoly money” before they are changed into local currency for as much as 20 per cent below the market rate. The money lost in these transactions could otherwise have been spent on the millions of people who lost homes and livelihoods in Cyclone Nargis, which killed about 138,000 when it struck the Irrawaddy Delta on May 2.
The UN humanitarian chief, Sir John Holmes, raised the matter with the ruling generals yesterday but reached no agreement. “We need a solution and we need a solution quickly,” he said in the main Burmese city, Rangoon. “They did not say exactly how but they said they would try to find ways by which we could get round the problem.”
This week a joint report by the Burmese Government, the UN and South-East Asian governments said that $1 billion (£500million) one billion US dollars would be needed over the next three years to recover from the cyclone.
In the early weeks the generals were reluctant to allow foreigners to enter the disaster zone. The situation has eased, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent by the UN agencies, including $54 million (£27 million) from the British Government. Most of that does not need to be converted into Burmese kyats because it is spent outside the country on imported food, medical supplies and blankets. However, as the aid operation progresses from emergency relief to recovery, agencies will increasingly have to source their supplies locally.
The official exchange rate is six kyats to a dollar but this is a fiction used only in government accounting. The black market rate varies around 1,200 kyat to a dollar, and although this is the rate used in day-to-day transactions, Burmese are not allowed to hold dollars and changing them on the black market is illegal. Aid organisations are compelled to purchase foreign exchange certificates, the so-called “Monopoly money”, printed by the Burmese Government and exchanged at a rate of one dollar for one FEC. When these are changed into kyat at the government-controlled Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank, they are bought at an exchange rate significantly below the market rate for the dollars that were used to purchase them.
On July 9, according to information supplied by foreign diplomats, the dollar-to-kyat rate was 1,185 but the FEC-to-kyat rate was 980, a gap of 17.3 per cent. At other times the fluctuation in the FEC price has widened the gap even further. “It's a major problem and a huge concern for all of us, affecting all of the donor community,” the head of the World Food Programme in Burma, Chris Kaye, told The Times. “But the solution is not going to be easy, because the FECs are an important part of the way the government structures its economy.”
--Source: Times Online
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Letter to donors on reconstruction after Cyclone Nargis
Human Rights Watch remains deeply concerned about the dire plight of Burmese severely affected by Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta on May 2-3, 2008. The United Nations estimates that the cyclone left at least 140,000 persons dead or missing and that approximately 2.4 million more were severely affected, many of whom are still in need of urgent and sustained humanitarian assistance.
--Read More: here
--Read More: here
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