Kay Latt

By Ron Corben Bangkok, 27 February 2009

A report led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Medicine has called for a United Nations investigation into Burma's handling of aid and assistance to cyclone hit regions last year, accusing the military government of crimes against humanity. Relief groups are calling on Asian countries and the international community to press Burma's military government towards greater transparency and accountability in receiving assistance.

The report, a joint project of aid workers from the Thai-Burma border and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, charges Burma's military government with abuse and corruption in its handling of aid and recovery to the devastated Irrawaddy Delta region hit by last year's cyclone Nargis.

The report charges Burma's military of resisting international and regional aid, interference in assistance, confiscation of aid and resale, arrest of aid workers, discrimination in aid along ethnic lines, forced labor and confiscation of land.

Chris Beyer, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says the key recommendation is for a United Nations investigation into the charges that may represent "crimes against humanity."

"Taken together there is an argument to be made for an assessment and we call for an investigation of crimes against humanity - that is based on the Rome Statute article 7-IK - essentially its based on the argument that there has been intentionally great suffering, mental and physical health," he said.

The project report, After the Storm: Voices from the Delta, was centered on interviews with relief workers and Burmese army defectors over several months after the devastation of the cyclone in May that claimed tens of thousand of lives.

Immediately after the cyclone, over 300 Burma aid workers from the Thai-Burma border worked as teams delivering assistance into the devastated Irrawaddy Delta region, often undercover to avoid military checkpoints and arrest.

Burma's military government has been widely criticized for its slow response to the disaster and restrictions it placed on access of assistance to the region, including direct aid from neighboring Asian countries.

Beyer says, based on the interviews with aid workers, the allegations of misconduct and abuse highlighted in the report appeared to be widespread throughout the Delta Region.

"We can say with some confidence that most of what was being reported was common," he said. "Force relocation, virtually everybody we interviewed reported forced relocation, forced labor was also common, forced child labor less common. The confiscation, thefts and resale of relief aid was ubiquitous - that appeared to be very much standard operating procedure throughout the area."

Dr. Cynthia Maung, who oversees a Burmese health clinic in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, said the Association of South East Asian Nations - ASEAN - and international community had to pressure the military to be held accountable in the delivery of aid.

"As you see in the report and as we found out in the information inside Burma - the relief effort should be more thorough and more accountable," she said. "Our aim is to how to become more effective to deliver assistance as well as for the reconstruction of the country, how to rebuild or broaden the cooperation between the community organization and the international comunity".

The report stands in contrast to a recent positive review by the tripartite U.N, ASEAN and Burma's military, that the leadership "had gained a higher degree of confidence" in working with the international community. The tripartite assistance group called for a further $700 million in funding over three years to assist in longer term recovery to cyclone affected regions.

Burma's regime deliberately blocked international aid getting to victims of last year's cyclone, a report has claimed.
By Thomas Bell, South East Asia Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:33PM GMT 26 Feb 2009

The first independent inquiry into the aftermath of the disaster has said the authorities should be referred to the International Criminal Court for stopping help getting through and persecuting survivors.

It found the Burmese leadership failed to provide adequate food, shelter and medical care in the wake of Cyclone Nargis which struck the Irrawaddy Delta on May 2 last year, killing at least 140 000 people.

Around 3.4 million people were effected by the disaster, which swept away homes, farms, granaries, livestock and wells.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in America and an organisation of Burmese volunteers called the Emergency Assistance Team – Burma (EAT) have documented what happened in the following weeks.

Military checkpoints were set up across the delta as the regime treated the disaster not as a humanitarian emergency but as a security crisis.

The report claims some people who attempted to distribute private aid were arrested. It details allegations of aid being stolen and resold by the military authorities.

The researchers also claim the army used forced labour, including of children, in the aftermath of the disaster.

According to one survivor: "[The army] did not help us, they threatened us. Everyone in the village was required to work for five days, morning and evening, without compensation. Children were required to work too.

"A boy got injured in his leg and he got fever. After two or three days he was taken to Rangoon, but in a few [days] he died."

There were also anecdotal accounts of people dying in the aftermath of the cyclone due to the actions of the army.

But restrictions in the country mean no one has been able to estimate how many died in a supposed "second wave" of deaths in the period after the cyclone.

Under international law, creating conditions where the basic survival needs of civilians cannot be adequately met, "intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health," is considered a crime against humanity.

The report concludes that the United Nations Security Council should refer the junta for investigation by the International Criminal Court.

Agence France-Presse Bangkok, February 27, 2009

Myanmar's military junta could be guilty of crimes against humanity for obstructing aid and hampering relief efforts after last year's devastating Cyclone Nargis, health groups said on Friday.

In a report, the US-based Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Thai-Myanmar border group the Emergency Assistance Team (EAT) document abuses after the disaster which battered Myanmar's southern delta last May.

"The report charges these abuses may constitute crimes against humanity," the groups said in a press release.

Chris Beyrer, director of Johns Hopkins' Centre for Public Health and Human Rights, said the junta in the country formerly known as Burma had violated international laws on humanitarian and disaster relief.

"The people of the delta told us how the Burmese military regime hindered cyclone relief efforts, confiscated aid supplies and land, and used forced labour, including forced child labour, in its reconstruction efforts," he said.

Cyclone Nargis left about 138,000 people dead or missing and 2.4 million severely affected through the loss of family members, homes or jobs.

But despite a massive international relief push, the secretive junta stalled on issuing visas to foreign aid workers and blocked some humanitarian supplies from entering the country, drawing worldwide condemnation.

The regime relented after a personal visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, but since the disaster has arrested Myanmar's most famous comedian and a sports writer after they organised independent aid deliveries.

Comedian Zarganar was sentenced to 45 years in prison in November while sports writer Zaw Thet Htwe got a 15-year jail term.

"It is inhumane that Burmese people have been jailed for offering charitable assistance and comfort to their suffering countrymen," said Cynthia Maung of the EAT, which sent aid workers into Myanmar after the cyclone.

In a press release, the groups say the junta "should be referred by the United Nations Security Council for investigation by the International Criminal Court for its human rights abuses in the wake of Cyclone Nargis."

The report contains interviews conducted between June and November 2008 with 90 relief workers and cyclone survivors, who listed problems including misappropriation and theft of aid supplies and forced relocation of cyclone survivors.

The United Nations said earlier this month that cyclone victims were still in desperate need of international help, and launched a three-year recovery plan costing 691 million dollars.

www.chinaview.cn 2009-02-27 13:33:06
By Feng Yingqiu

YANGON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A four-member mission of the Global Fund, led by William Paton, Director of Country Programs is currently visiting Myanmar to seek possibility to re-engage with its aid efforts in the country for fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

The mission of the Global Fund, which pulled out from Myanmar four years ago, is coordinating with a 29-member Myanmar Country Coordinating Mechanism (MCCM), headed by the health minister, for the move.

The MCCM includes 10 members from the government ministries, four from the United Nations agencies and four from international non-governmental organizations.

The global fund delegation, which has been visiting Myanmar since Tuesday for a four-day mission at the invitation of the Myanmar government, is holding discussions with the MCCM and the global organization is expected to make a formal comeback by 2010.

At a reception held here on Wednesday, Sun Gang, Country Coordinator of the UNAIDS, told Xinhua that respective parties are making their utmost efforts for fighting the AIDS, TB and malaria.

The global fund withdrew from Myanmar in August 2005, suspending its grants to Myanmar for the campaign.

In 2006, a new fund called the Three-Disease (3-D) Fund was developed as a compensation by a group of six donors -- the European Commission, Sweden's Sida, the Netherlands, United Kingdom's Department for International Development, Norway and Australia's Aus AID.

A five-year 3-D fund project to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, worth about 100 million U.S. dollars, started implementation in April 2006 under the guidance of the MCCM.

The 3-D fund was extended through the World Health Organization(WHO) which administers the program under a memorandum of understanding signed in 2007.

The 3-D fund provided the country with four million dollars for use in 2007-08 and 5.7 million dollars for use in 2008-09, earlier reports said.

In a recent report, the 3-D fund has provided nine non-governmental organizations in Myanmar this year with a total of 630,000 U.S. dollars to fight the three diseases.

The fund will be used for the projects in Kachin, Mon, Shan, Kayin, Rakhine, Yangon and Mandalay states and divisions.

Meanwhile, a latest report of the UNAIDS said that the number of people infected with HIV in Myanmar dropped to 240,000 in 2007 from 300,000 in 2001.

In the wake of the danger being posed by the three diseases on the public health, Myanmar has taken steps to control the three disease as a national duty.

In its efforts to control AIDS, the Central Committee for Control and Elimination of AIDS was formed in 1989.

As part of the project for control of AIDS and syphilis, efforts are being made for giving educative talks on AIDS, for 100-percent use of condoms in targeted groups in 170 townships in the country and for effective treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

Work is also underway for preventing spread of HIV among those who use drugs through injection and from mother to fetus at 37 hospitals and 106 townships, while preventing such spread through blood transfusion and introducing safe blood transfusion.

Besides, 13 strategies on preventive measures and rehabilitation are now being implemented under five-year national strategic plan (2006-2010) adopted collectively by the relevant ministries, local non-governmental organizations, UN agencies and community-based organizations.

In cooperation with foreign organizations in the fight, Myanmar is actively taking part in implementing the ASEAN HIV/AIDS Control Plan, the HIV Prevention Plan in Mekong Region countries, and regional and central level plans of UN agencies.

Moreover, Myanmar is also cooperating with neighboring countries to combat and control TB and HIV/AIDS under a special plan.

HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria are the three major communicable diseases of national concern designated by Myanmar.

Myanmar treats the three diseases as priority with the main objectives of reducing the morbidity and mortality in a bid to meet the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.

In its prevention efforts against malaria, the Myanmar government has distributed 50,000 long lasting insecticidal nets annually since 2000 to hardly accessible areas of national races with up to 400,000 existing bed nets also impregnated with insecticide annually since then.

YANGON, 26 February 2009 (IRIN) - Most deaths of children under five are preventable or treatable in Myanmar, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The Under 5 Mortality Survey (2002-2003), conducted by the government and UNICEF, reported the main causes of early death as acute respiratory infection (21.1 percent), brain infection (13.9 percent), diarrhoea (13.4 percent), septicemia (10.7 percent) and prematurity (7.5 percent).

About three-quarters of all deaths occurred in the first year.

"Over two-thirds of child deaths could be prevented by inexpensive but proven high impact services like immunisation, better case management with antibiotics, insecticide-treated bed nets, supplementation of Vitamin A and other micronutrients," Osamu Kunii, chief of health and nutrition at UNICEF, told IRIN in the former Burmese capital, Yangon.

As part of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Myanmar has pledged to reduce its under-five mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015, from 130 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 43.

"To achieve the goals we need more internal efforts and external supports, especially resource mobilisation such as funding," Kunii said, emphasising the importance of better collaboration and coordination between government, UN and NGO partners before 2015.


Photo: Lynn Maung/IRIN
A woman in Yangon waits to have her child vaccinated
Greater awareness

But while the government and its partners work to expand health services to remote areas of the country, the public should also seek better healthcare for their children.

"We also have to put more focus on [the] behaviour change of families, and change the community towards supportive, healthy and hygienic environments for children and women,” he said, explaining that without parents’ cooperation, any initiative would be ineffective in reducing child mortality.

That applied to using treated mosquito nets, for example, as malaria is a major cause of infant death, and changing women’s diet. According to health personnel, traditionally many women avoid certain foods during pregnancy as well as during lactation in the belief they may harm the baby.

“Many women here avoid some foods which are in fact good for their babies, but eat other foods [that are] bad for babies. For instance, as a result of Vitamin B1 deficiency, so-called infantile beriberi occurs. It has been the major cause of infant deaths in this country," the UNICEF specialist said.

According to the State of the World's Children 2009, about 15 percent of infants are low birth-weight in the country. "Making mothers healthy is very crucial for saving children and making children healthier," Kunii said.

Importance of breastfeeding

He also suggested women should be encouraged to breastfeed exclusively as it is the simplest but most effective intervention to fight malnutrition and infectious diseases during the first six months of a child’s life.

However, only 15 percent of infants in Myanmar are exclusively breastfed. According to global research, increasing breastfeeding could reduce child mortality by 13 percent.

“We could save more children by mothers’ behavioural changes for infant and young children’s feeding practices.

“Just providing knowledge and raising awareness hardly changes people’s behaviour. To reduce individual risk behaviours, people need support from their family, peers, community and experts. We need to help communities create such environments to change individuals’ risk behaviours and protect children and women,” Kunii said.

In an effort to reduce the risk of child deaths, UNICEF is working with the government and other partners on immunisation drives, providing essential drugs and other supplies, Vitamin A supplementation and de-worming, the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, capacity building for basic and community health workers, and other critical child and maternal health activities.

“The emergency response to Cyclone Nargis has made us confident that all the partners can work together to achieve the same goals with the same vision. I’m sure we can do the same in achieving MDGs 4- for saving [a] child’s life,” Kunii said.

lm/ds/mw

Theme(s): (IRIN) Children, (IRIN) Gender Issues, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition

Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:19pm GMT
By Nopporn Wong-Anan

HUA HIN, Thailand (Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar has cut the timeframe for a post-cyclone recovery plan as the regime gears up for general elections in 2010, officials at a regional summit said on Friday.

A United Nations-ASEAN coordinating group said earlier this month the recovery from Cyclone Nargis, which left 140,000 people dead or missing and 2.4 million severely affected last May, would take three years and cost $700 million (495 million pounds).

But the regime has only agreed to extend the group's work to the middle of 2010, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told reporters after meeting his counterparts from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"The reason for a one-year extension is that there will be a general election next year and they didn't want to make a decision for the next government," Kasit said.
The military, which has ruled the former Burma in various guises since 1962, has promised elections in 2010 as part of its seven-step "roadmap to democracy."
Western governments have criticised the poll as a sham aimed at entrenching nearly 50 years of military rule.

It was not clear how Myanmar's decision would affect foreign aid groups working in the Irrawaddy Delta, where many people are still living in temporary shelters since the cyclone struck last May. Access to clean water also remains a challenge.
One foreign aid worker in Yangon told Reuters he did not think his group would be kicked out of Myanmar in 2010.

But he said it could hurt fund-raising efforts for the coordinating group's Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan (PONREPP) launched in Bangkok earlier this month.

The plan called for $700 million in aid over the next three years to improve nutrition, health and livelihoods in the delta.

The global economic crisis is squeezing foreign donor governments, which have been reluctant to provide aid to Myanmar over its dismal human rights record.

A new report by health care activists on Friday accused the regime of blocking aid to the delta, forced relocations, and using forced labour in reconstruction projects.

The report was based on interviews with 90 relief workers and cyclone survivors compiled by the U.S.-based Centre for Public Health and Human Rights and the Emergency Assistance Team, a group of aid workers based in Thailand.

It called on the U.N. Security Council and International Criminal Court to investigate the regime for rights abuses.

"The charge of crimes against humanity is a very grave and serious one," Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the U.S. centre at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told a news conference in Bangkok.

"But in the context of a relief effort like this, where you have evidence of forced labour, forced relocation and confiscation of relief aid, these are documented violations that need to be taken seriously," he said.

(Reporting by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Feb 27, 2009 (DVB)–Township authorities have been demanding money from farmers in Bogalay, Irrawaddy division, for fertilisers freely distributed by a charity called International Development Enterprise.

IDE distributed two bags of 'Paleh' (Pearl) fertilisers to each farmer in Nyinaung village tract for free, a farmer said.

"IDE gave fertilisers to 300 farmers. The village chair and secretary collected them, gave two bags each to farmers, and charged 1500 from each farmer."

The situation is the same at nearby Thitbyuchaung village group and surrounding areas, the farmer claimed. Farmers said it would be better for donors to give aid directly into their hands in the future.

Reporting by Naw Say Paw

By NEIL LAWRENCE Friday, February 27, 2009
In stark contrast to an earlier assessment of the Cyclone Nargis relief effort by Burma’s ruling junta and its international partners, a new report released today accuses the regime of widespread rights abuses that “may constitute crimes against humanity.”

The report, “After the Storm: Voices from the Delta,” is the first independent inquiry into the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma on May 2-3 last year, killing as many as 140,000 people.

A new report says that the Burmese junta’s response to Cyclone Nargis could constitute crimes against humanity. (Photo: www.allmyanmar.com)
Unlike the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report released last July by the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), consisting of the junta, the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the new report does not shy away from the issue of human rights abuses by the Burmese regime.

“We did not prompt this. We asked a number of questions about relief efforts and agencies, and what kept coming out was people trying to struggle and negotiate their communities’ relationships with the junta,” said Dr Chris Beyrer, director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which released the report.

The report is based on interviews with 90 private relief workers and cyclone survivors conducted between June and November 2008. The interviews were carried out by the Emergency Assistance Team—Burma (EAT), a social organization based on the Thai-Burmese border and staffed by community aid workers from cyclone-affected areas.

The interviews detail a pattern of abuses by the military authorities, including the misappropriation of relief supplies, forced labor and harassment and arrest of local aid workers.

“After one month, they came to the village, saw my supplies and started asking—they sent my information to Yangon [Rangoon] to investigate me. They were asking why there were so many supplies. They think it was anti-government. So I left; I don’t like prison,” recounted one relief worker who was interviewed for the report.

The authors of the report say that such abuses “may constitute crimes against humanity through the creation of conditions whereby the basic survival needs of victims cannot be adequately met,” in violation of Article 7(1)(k) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

“These allegations, taken together, may amount to crimes against humanity and may need to be investigated,” said Beyrer, adding that the case could be referred to the UN Security Council for consideration.

The report also highlights the international relief effort’s failure to engage community-based groups, and calls for a more thorough assessment of the situation in the cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy delta, including the junta’s role in obstructing aid.

“There are some [international] groups working directly with community organizations, but they have to be very careful about how they work together. It is very risky. That is why we want the UN and Asean to tell the government to allow the community-based organizations to work freely to do their humanitarian work,” said Dr Cynthia Maung, who serves as the chairperson of EAT.

“We would also like to recommend that the UN or the international community do a more thorough assessment,” she added. “Unless we get a proper assessment or report, it may be very hard to continue working to improve the situation [in the cyclone-affected area].”

The report was released as Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, speaking at the annual Asean summit being held in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin, revealed that the Burmese regime was set to extend the TCG’s role in the delta.

It is unclear how the regional grouping, which has generally closed ranks in defense of the Burmese junta in the past, will respond to the report.

“We hope that there is a positive and constructive response, not a response of denial or obfuscation, but rather that people will say, all right, these kinds of practices must cease and desist,” said Beyrer.

“These kinds of allegations simply cannot be ignored. The people of the Irrawaddy delta deserve to have a reconstruction effort that’s free of rights abuses,” he added.

By the IRRAWADDY
A visit to Burma this week by a Global Fund delegation could result in a resumption of the fund’s discontinued anti-AIDS program there, according to a report by the Chinese news agency Xinhua.

The four-member Global Fund delegation led by William Paton, director of country programs, arrived in Burma on Tuesday for a four-day visit. It has since met 29 members of the Myanmar [Burma] Country Coordinating Mechanism (MCCM), headed by Health Minister Kyaw Myint, Xinhua was told by Sun Gang, country coordinator of UNAIDS in Burma.

The MCCM includes 10 representatives of government ministries, four UN agency members and four from international non-governmental organizations.

In August 2005, the Global Fund, the world's leading funder of programs to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, terminated its anti-AIDS program in Burma. The five year program would have cost more than US $98 million.

Global Fund announced that its decision to terminate projects in Burma was made in the light of “the [Burmese] government’s newly established clearance procedures restricting access of the principal recipient [the UN Development Programme], certain sub-recipients, as well as the staff of Global Fund and its agents, to grant-implementation areas.”

In 2006, the Global Fund was replaced by the Three-Diseases (3D) Fund—developed as a substitute by the European Commission, the British, Dutch and Norwegian governments and two anti-AIDS organization in Sweden and Australia.

A five-year 3-D Fund project to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria is projected to cost about $100 million. The 3-D Fund reported recently that it has provided nine non-governmental organizations in Burma this year with a total of $630,000.

Xinhua reported that if this week’s negotiations are successful, the Global Fund is expected to make a formal comeback by 2010.

February 25, 2009

Dr. Surin Pitsuwan
Secretary General
ASEAN
70A Jalan Sisingamangaraja
Jakarta 12110, Indonesia
Via Facsimile: +62 21 739 8234

Dear Secretary General,

We write to urge you and ASEAN leaders to use the discussions during the summit meeting from February 27 to March 1 to address three crucial human rights concerns in the region. First, ASEAN should set a new standard to address the human rights situation in Burma. Secondly the recent tragedy surrounding the perilous exodus of Burma's Rohingya minority reveals glaring failures of ASEAN and its member countries on the treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers. Finally, the global economic downturn and the resulting impact on migrants' rights highlights how gaps in current labor and policy frameworks across the region have left millions of workers at high risk of mistreatment.

A test case for ASEAN's fledgling Human Rights Body

Burma's military government continues to deny its citizens' basic rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly. Repeated promises of democratic transition do not justify the subversion of these rights. The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) regularly arbitrarily imprisons political activists, journalists, and human rights defenders-the number of political prisoners nearly doubled following the September 2007 crackdown to more than 2,150. The government's pardoning of thousands of prisoners in September 2008 and February 2009 has resulted in only a handful of political prisoners being released, while dozens or hundreds more are arrested and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for peaceful political activities.

The Burmese military continues to violate the rights of civilians in ethnic conflict areas by committing extrajudicial killings, forced labor, and land confiscation without due process both as part of military offensives and in preparation for mega-infrastructure projects of foreign companies. The military government also worsened economic hardship and humanitarian crises in many parts of Burma by obstructing international assistance, including the ASEAN-led international humanitarian efforts to assist more than two million people affected by the devastating Cyclone Nargis.

The continuing serious violations of human rights in Burma reflects in part ASEAN's failure to devise concrete measures for the SPDC to adopt to improve domestic situations and conform to the core values of the ASEAN Charter, which came into effect on December 15, 2008. The ASEAN Charter commits member states to protect human rights. At the summit, foreign ministers will discuss the terms of reference for the ASEAN human rights body and this is an important opportunity for ASEAN leaders to create an independent and effective mechanism.

We urge that Burma be a priority in the AHRB's assessment of human rights situations in member countries. Findings and recommendations should then be presented and discussed during the ASEAN Foreign Minister Meetings and the ASEAN Summits so that there will be collective action of ASEAN to respond to Burma's serious violations of international human rights law and human rights provisions in the ASEAN Charter. In addition, we urge ASEAN to use the AHRB's mandate to encourage Burma on the following issues:

* Ratifying and implementing human rights and international humanitarian law treaties.
* Timely and adequate reporting to the United Nations human rights treaty-monitoring bodies.
* Opening the country to the United Nations Special Procedures and providing them with full assistance and access.
* Implementing recommendations of the United Nations treaty bodies and Special Procedures.
* Establishing national human rights institutions in accordance with the United Nations Principles relating to the status of national institutions (the "Paris Principles").
* Ensuring that human rights defenders can carry out their work unhindered.



Asylum Seekers and Refugees in ASEAN Member States

Recent events, when hundreds of Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers were found perished at sea trying to reach the coastlines of Thailand and Indonesia, are a wake-up call for ASEAN to change its approach in dealing with the exodus of people from Burma. The Rohingya are among millions of Burman and ethnic minority populations inside Burma who have for decades sought refuge in neighboring countries, hoping to be protected from persecution and abuses committed by Burma's military government.

As more and more people try to escape from deteriorating conditions in Burma, ASEAN member countries cannot look the other way and close the door to those in need of assistance and protection. Horrific examples include the policy adopted by Thailand to use navy warships and maritime militias to block Rohingya boats from entering its territorial waters and tow those boats back to the high sea, and then failing to provide sufficient food and water.

The 14th ASEAN Summit may discuss short- and medium-term measures in recipient countries to provide the Rohingya fleeing Burma shelter and access to the protection mechanisms of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). But given the trajectory of repression and hardship in Burma, those measures, while necessary, will not be sufficient. At present, only two ASEAN countries have ratified the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol despite Southeast Asia's long history of both refugees and assistance for refugees. Countries like Malaysia and Thailand, have in the past assisted many refugees, but currently make no real distinction between undocumented migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, and have at times committed refoulement, the forced return of refugees to places where they face persecution, a fundamental violation of international law.

We urge ASEAN member states to:

* Ratify the 1951 Refugees Convention and its 1967 Protocol without delay.
* Incorporate the international refugee definition into domestic law and introduce asylum procedures consistent with international standards that will give asylum seekers a fair opportunity to present their claims and protect them while their refugee claims are pending. Grant rights to residence, documentation, and work.
* In the absence of a domestic asylum procedure that enables Burmese to challenge the grounds for their deportation, end the practice of deporting Burmese without an opportunity for UNHCR to screen them to determine if they are asylum seekers or refugees.

Migration, Forced Labor and Trafficking

Millions of men and women from Southeast Asia work as migrants in both Asia and the Middle East, typically in domestic work, construction, manufacturing and agriculture. While migrants' labor and their earnings play a pivotal role in the economies of both their countries of employment and origin, few protections exist to avoid their exploitation. ASEAN has a critical role to play to ensure that governments establish and enforce standards to ensure that recruitment, employment, and repatriation take place respecting international human rights norms.

Trafficking within and emanating from Southeast Asia remains a serious problem, and harsh immigration enforcement measures have served to fuel additional abuses in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand. Many migrants are deceived about their working conditions, cheated out of the rightful wages, abused by their employers, and deported without access to redress. In Thailand, migrants are vulnerable to arrest and extortion by corrupt officials, and risk exploitation, abuse and death. Migrants have told Human Rights Watch how police routinely "shake down" undocumented migrants, threatening to arrest them if they do not pay up. Decrees in Ranong, Rayong, and Phang Nga provinces have made it unlawful for migrants to go out at night, carry mobile phones or ride motorcycles.

While some ASEAN countries have begun to establish regulations for labor recruitment, these remain inadequate and poorly enforced. For example, migrants from Indonesia are regularly charged illegal and exorbitant fees, often incurring debts at usurious interest rates. Prospective domestic workers are often locked up in pre-departure "training" centers for months. Agents sometimes deceive prospective workers about the nature and conditions of work they will perform, their wages, and the country in which they will be employed.

Countries that employ migrant domestic workers, such as Singapore and Malaysia have failed to ensure that these workers enjoy protections such as provisions for one day off per week, overtime pay, limits on salary deductions, access to labor courts, annual leave, and other benefits. Establishing standard contracts or separate laws with weaker protections than those in existing labor laws are not a substitute for providing domestic workers equal protection under the law.

In many cases, bilateral cooperation between ASEAN countries has failed to establish adequate protection for vulnerable migrant populations. For example, a memorandum of understanding between Malaysia and Indonesia fails to protect migrant domestic workers ability to keep their passports or to establish minimum labor standards. Regional cooperation and leadership from ASEAN can help to ensure minimum standards across the region that will avoid an unhealthy race to the bottom, as countries compete for jobs in a volatile economic climate. Furthermore, ASEAN can play an important role in facilitating mechanisms for complaints that cross international borders. In many cases, migrants are repatriated or deported before they have the opportunity to complain to authorities about mistreatment or crimes.

Such cooperation is also critical in the fight against human trafficking. Both Malaysia and Thailand have failed to investigate allegations of collusion between government officials and trafficking gangs on the Malay-Thai border. In 2008, Burmese migrants told Human Rights Watch of being sold to criminal gangs, who charged those with money to smuggle them back into Malaysia and trafficked those who could not pay. Human Rights Watch has interviewed Burmese migrants in Thailand who confirm the trafficking allegations. They said that others working alongside them on fishing boats have been trafficked by gangs working on the Malaysian border. Other Burmese had been in Thai police lock-ups, but brokers had paid police to release them, and then sold them to fishing-boat captains.

Immigration enforcement measures have compounded these issues. In Malaysia, enforcement of the Immigration Act 2002 has involved mass immigration sweeps without proper screening of migrants to detect individuals in need of protection-such as refugees, trafficking victims, and workers who have been subject to abuse-and to ensure that they are not subject to penalties imposed under the Act. Malaysia has failed to address abuses against migrants by the People's Volunteer Corps (Ikatan Relawan Rakyat or RELA), the government-backed force that apprehends irregular migrants and provides security for Malaysia's immigration detention centers. In 2008, Human Rights Watch documented a pattern of abuse by members of RELA, including physical assault, intimidation, threats, humiliating treatment, forced entry into living quarters, extortion, and theft perpetrated against migrants, asylum seekers and refugees.

We urge ASEAN member states to:

* End the use of government-backed civilian corps to apprehend migrant workers.
* Ratify the International Covenant on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families and bring domestic law and policy into conformity with the convention.
* Extend equal protection of the labor laws to domestic workers and create mechanisms for enforcement.
* Institute screening procedures to identify and assist trafficking victims and abused migrant workers.
* Strengthen regulations governing recruitment agencies, with clear mechanisms to monitor and enforce these standards, independent monitoring, substantial penalties for violations, and clear standards for recruitment fees or their complete elimination.
* End unlawful restrictions imposed on migrant workers freedom of movement and freedom of association.
* Ensure migrants have access to justice and support services-Including international cooperation to file complaints from migrants who have been repatriated or deported.

While ASEAN has recently declared its intention to address some of these issues through the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, ASEAN Declaration on Trafficking in Persons, Particularly Women and Children, and the Bali Process, concrete improvements on the ground are yet to be seen.

We look forward to your attention to these matters of concern.

Yours sincerely,



Elaine Pearson

Deputy Director

Asia Division

Nisha Varia

Deputy Director

Women's Rights Division

Feb 26, 2009 (DVB)–Film directors in Rangoon allege that state-run Myanmar Film Production has told private producers not to make films about poverty, claiming they damage the nation’s global image.

A film director under condition of anonymity told DVB that the letter sent by MFP claims most of the Burmese films shown nowadays on cinemas were damaging to the country’s credibility.

Well-known and respected actor and charity worker Kyaw Thu said he was shocked by the news.

“I would just rather not make any films at a time like this with a lot of regulations and limitations,” he said.

“Films are supposed to reflect the closest of what is happening in the real life of the people.”

Myint Thein Pe, chair of Myanmar Motion Picture Association, said the claims were wrong.

“There is only a regulation to make the plots relevant and close to reality when portraying the poor, but the MFP has never stopped anyone from making these films,” he said.

Some film directors in Rangoon were speculating whether the new regulation will profit the owners of posh mansions in Rangoon, often used as scene locations in films about the rich.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw

Feb 26, 2009 (DVB)–Funeral charities in Rangoon division, including the Free Funeral Service Society, have been told to park their vehicles at Yeway cemetery during the night, according to an order issued by the authorities.

The order, issued on 8 February, states that all funerary vehicles used by funeral services of all religions must be kept overnight at Yeway cemetery as of 28 February.

FFSS patron and former actor Kyaw Thu said funeral charities could face legal action if they did not comply with the order.

"Rangoon municipal office summoned all religious groups in Rangoon and told us to keep the cars in respective cemeteries,” Kyaw Thu said.

“If we don't, we will be prosecuted."

The order was issued on the basis of a 1920 colonial law. Kyaw Thu has asked Rangoon municipal authorities to help him solve the problems caused by the order but has received no response from them.

Apart from FFSS, there are at least six funeral services including Muslim, Hindu and Christian services that have been giving free help to bereaved people.

Kyaw Thu said that FFSS had 16 funerary vehicles, some of which were worth millions of kyat.

Keeping the cars in the cemetery overnight as ordered would put a stop to the activities of the FFSS, Kyaw Thu insisted.

"We can't just park our cars in the alleys at Yeway as some of them are quite expensive,” Kyaw Thu said.

“We bought them with money from donors. The cars need to have covers and security,” he said.

“We have decided to carry on as before."

Christian and Muslim funerary vehicles which have been parking at churches and mosques in local townships are also worried about keeping them in Yeway cemetery.

"If the cars are kept in Yeway cemetery, the drivers will face problems,” a Muslim funeral official said.

“There is no [proper building to park the cars] yet. We are still discussing it."

A local Hindu funeral organisation which already keeps its five funerary vehicles at the cemetery said it had no problems with the new regulation.

Reporting by Aye Nai

Feb 25, 2009 (DVB)–Forestry authorities confiscated 24 bulls and 46 bullock carts from farmers in Kyauktaga village in Daik-U township, Bago division, accusing the farmers of stealing timber and bamboo.

The incident occurred on 22 February when the farmers were out collecting the materials they needed for their farms, one farmer said.

"We went to collect wood and bamboo for the rainy season and people from the forestry department came and confiscated our carts near Baina reservoir," a farmer said.

"They came with elephants, fired shots and confiscated [our cattle and carts]."

The officials confiscated the animals and carts from the farmers, reportedly on the orders of the district forestry office, and demanded a fine, the farmer said.

"We went to see them at the school building as we were told. We were then told to go to the district office for negotiations,” the farmer said.

“We don’t know where to go and don’t know how to proceed,” the farmer said.

“We will have to pay them the amount they demand by selling off what we have."

Daik-U township forestry department could not be reached for comment.

Reporting by Ahunt Phone Myat

Feb 25, 2009 (DVB)–Six members of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions who were arrested last year after helping victims of cyclone Nargis have been granted permission to have legal representation in their ongoing trial.

The trial is being held in Insein prison special court, where Dr. Newin and his daughter Phyo Phyo Aung, Aung Kyaw San, Phone Pyi Kywe, Shane Yazar Htun and Aung Thant Zin Oo (aka James) are defending government allegations of sedition and the unlawful association acts.

They were arrested for collecting and burying rotting corpses in the aftermath of the cyclone.

Central court lawyer Khin Maung Myint, who has been representing the six since they were arrested, said he was allowed to enter the courtroom during a hearing session on yesterday.

“I was allowed to meet them at the trial [on Tuesday] and I had a talk with them – all of them seemed to be in good health,” he said.

“The next hearing is on 3 March and then I will have to present some necessary documents at the court to get permission to talk on behalf of them at the trial.”

Reporting by Nan Kham Kaew

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Date: 17 Feb 2009
Highlights
Early indications point to a reduction in global cereal output in 2009 from the previous year's record. Smaller plantings and/or adverse weather look likely to bring grain production down in most of the world's major producers.

In Low-Income Food-Deficit countries, prospects for the early 2009 cereal crops point to a lower output. Good crops are expected in North Africa. Although the early outlook has improved in southern Africa a lower maize crop is still expected; prolonged dry weather is adversely affecting wheat prospects in most of Asia, where much depends on the rice crop yet to be planted.

Latest information confirms an easing of the cereal supply/demand situation in the Low-Income Food-Deficit countries as a group in 2008/09, following above-average harvests in 2008.

Prices of food staples remain at high levels in several developing countries. In some countries where they have decreased following improved 2008 cereal outputs and lower international cereal prices, they are, however, well above their levels a year earlier.

Food crises persist in 32 countries around the world. The situation is of particular concern in the Gaza Strip as a result of the recent conflict. In Kenya, Somalia and Zimbabwe, the food security situation is precarious following drought-reduced crops, civil disturbance and/or economic crisis.

In South America, the 2008 wheat production was halved by drought in Argentina, and persistent dry weather is adversely affecting prospects for the 2009 coarse grains in the sub-region.

Source: Mizzima News
Date: 25 Feb 2009

The United Nations Human Rights expert Tomas Ojea Quintana, who recently concluded a six-day visit to Burma, said the release of 24 political prisoners along with over 6,000 other prisoners is not enough to dub it as a significant improvement in human rights.

Quintana, who for the second time visited Burma from February 14 to 19, said he did not find improvements in the human rights situation in Burma, and the regime needs to prove its willingness to address the human rights issues by implementing his recommendations.

But Quintana said, he will continue pushing the Burmese military junta in his next trip, probably in early summer this year, to implement his recommendations.

In order to find out more about his recent trip and the situation of human rights assessed by him, Mizzima's reporter Solomon talks to Quintana in an exclusive interview.

Q:What do you think of the human rights situation in Burma and are you satisfied with your recent trip to Burma?

A: What I can say is that the human rights situation in Myanmar [Burma] has not improved, that is what I said in my first press conference in Yangon [Rangoon]. However, considering the programme, I am satisfied in some points of the programmes, like establishing an understanding with the Chief Justice, during our discussion about the Independent judiciary. He accepted my recommendation.

Q:What was the main objective for this mission and what were you able to achieve?

A: This is my second mission, and as I have requested to the government, it is particularly to assess the human rights situation inside the country. I went to Insein Prison and I spend in Insein, more than 4 hours and 2 hours interviewing political prisoners. One of the goals of my mission was to gauge the reaction and to measure the level of willingness of the government to implement my recommendations.

And one of my recommendations was the release of prisoners of conscience. I was very clear that it should start right now.

Q:As you were able to meet some of the political prisoners, what is your assessment of their situation?

A: Well, as I said, in my opinion, at the moment, the human rights situation has not improved. The government should address all the human rights situation in the country, it's not only the question of prisoners of conscience, it is also the situation in frontier Kayin [Karen] state, where there is an armed conflict, which may affect civilian, and also the situation in North of Rakhaing [Arakan] State, concerning the Muslim residents. So that is my general opinion, however, I will like to address standard issues during my presentation to Human Rights council in March.

Q:Were you able to go to all the places that you wished to go and were you able to meet with all the people that you wanted to?

A: My problems, as I said, there are some of my requests that were not accepted by the government, and some of them were accepted. So, I am still working on this, I am already starting to discuss my next mission during this year. So I think that this is the way to that end, right now deterring my mandate, it is very important for me to go inside the country to have a firsthand evidence and then, as I said, to discuss with the government implementation of recommendations to improve the human rights situation.

Q:When is your next mission?

A: I don't have any dates in this regard. But, as I said, during my second mission I started discussion about a third mission to the country during this year, may be in early summer.

Q:Do you feel that your trip was controlled by the government?

A: Well, the problem is a question of negotiation with the government. But as far as my visit is concerned, I visited two prisons - one in Karen State Pa-an Prison and also Insein Prison - and I had discussions with concerned authority regarding my recommendations. I think it was a programme that somehow fulfilled some of my expectations but of course I am looking forward to have a better programme during my next mission.

Q:What do you think of the prison conditions in Burma?

A: Well, there are situations particularly concerning, the general prisoners count on their family members to support in terms of food and other supplies, this is a problem because some of the prisoners don't have family and they fail to get supply of food and others.

Q:Did you also request to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi?

A: I requested to meet Aung San Suu Kyi but the government did not accept this request. But I will again request during my next mission.

Q: Why do you think the government refused to allow you a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi?

A: I cannot say, because the government didn't give any reasons. But Aung San Suu Kyi, as I say in my report, she is under arbitrary arrest, against not only international human rights standards but also even against the national law. During this mission, I was explaining that she is under arbitrary detention and she was not granted any access to the court. So, this is part of my mandate as human rights expert from the human rights council to verify arbitrary detention.

Q:Did you also request to meet the leaders of the National League for Democracy?

A: I requested a meeting with many representatives of different political parties including the NLD but this was not granted.

Q: What do you think of the government's decision to grant Amnesty to more than 6000 prisoners? Do you see it as a development after your visit?

A: Well, I think so one of my recommendations is the progressive release of prisoners for conscience. So the decision of the government to release many of these prisoners of conscience is part of the fulfillment of this recommendation but of course I still give in my last report that there are more than 2000 prisoners for conscience. So, as far I know, the information that I received, only 24 are included in this 6000 people who were released.

As a human rights envoy, I have to address the questions of freedom - freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, and freedom of political participation – prescribed in the Universal declaration of Human Rights. And so I am addressing the question of prisoners of conscience to have the rights to exercise these liberties.

Q: What do you suggest to the Burmese regime to do in order to improve the situation of human rights in Burma?

A: Well, you can see in my report, I reported to the human rights council and to the General Assembly. In my report, I stated that the government should start releasing prisoners of consciences. Secondly, the government should reform the judiciary because at the moment, the judiciary is not independent and not impartial. So, the rule of law shall apply in the country, so it should start right now to reform the judiciary. The third, the government should review all matters of the legislation which is against the human rights law, and the fourth is that the government should start reform of the military and the police, in order for them to respect human rights. As I said, in the regional parts of the country, where human rights are at a stake, and in other circumstances we have the military and the police may be involved in human rights violation. So these are my recommendations.

Q: What kind of improvement do you see and what is the government's reaction to your recommendations in your first visit?

A: As I always said human rights in the country [Burma] has not improved. After I left the country, the government released more than 6000 prisoners including 24 political prisoners, this I would say is important, but of course not enough.

Q: During your trip to Karen state, it is reported you met Karen ceasefire groups, but did not meet the Karen National Union. Why did you not meet the KNU or did you try meeting the KNU?

A: It is right that I went to Karen State to try to access the situation of the armed conflict. So during this mission, I only met groups, who had a cease-fire agreements with government but I will try to meet the KNU during my next mission.

Q: Is there anything else that you would like to add?

A: As I said, after I left the country, the government decided to release prisoners but that is not enough. We should all be working together with the government and neighbouring countries including the ASEAN, which is a powerful regional group, to work with the [Burmese] government to improve the human rights situation in all fields.

Source: United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
Date: 25 Feb 2009

Background

The United Nations (UN) has been present in Myanmar since the country gained its independence in 1948. Through a number of agencies, the UN is providing assistance, particularly to vulnerable populations, in line with humanitarian principles and global development goals. Some of the UN agencies also have a mandate to address specific rights and protection issues. The UN works in cooperation with national and international humanitarian organizations, community-based organizations, national authorities and others, supported by donors.

UN Country Team

The UN in Myanmar is present through the following agencies: FAO, ILO, UNAIDS, UNEP, UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, UN-HABITAT, UNHCR, UNODC, WFP and WHO. IOM, OCHA, UNIAP, UNOPS, MIMU and UNIC are also a part of the UN family in Myanmar. Additionally, the non-resident agencies UNESCO and UNIDO have programmes in Myanmar. The UN country-level coordination processes are managed by the UN Country Team (UNCT) that consists of heads of all resident UN agencies in Myanmar, and is led by the UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator. The UNCT has embarked on a strategic planning process to develop a longer-term, common UN vision, strategy and framework for Myanmar.

Cyclone Nargis

Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar on 2-3 May 2008, affecting some 2.4 million people living in the Ayeyarwady and Yangon Divisions. Almost 140,000 people were killed in what was the worst natural disaster in the history of Myanmar. The UN Revised Appeal, covering relief and early recovery needs up to April 2009, has been met by 65% (USD 309 million) of the USD 477 million required, according to OCHA's Financial Tracking Services (FTS). Agriculture is currently the least funded sector with only 28 per cent of the requirements covered. Also the Early Recovery sector continues to experience significant shortfall in funding.

The overall results on the ground prove that there have been many humanitarian achievements, such as no significant increase in morbidity and mortality. During the first six months; emergency shelter assistance was provided to 1.7 million people; food aid delivered to more 880,000 people; and, education support provided to over 500,000 children.

Nine months into the humanitarian response, as the immediate humanitarian needs are increasingly met and early recovery is underway, the focus now shifts towards medium-term recovery. The Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan (PONREPP) is a response to this progression, outlining an indicative three-year recovery plan at a cost of about USD 700 million. The plan takes a people-centred community based approach of promoting productive, healthy and protected lives.

The Tripartite Core Group (TCG) that was established in late May, comprising of the Government of Myanmar, ASEAN and UN, continues to play a crucial mechanism to facilitate humanitarian response and recovery efforts. The TCG is chaired by the Chairman of the Civil Service Selection and Training Board, H.E. U Kyaw Thu and meets on a bi-weekly basis.

By MIN LWIN (IRRAWADDY) Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A Rangoon-based social welfare organization, the Free Funeral Services Society (FFSS), has been ordered by the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) not to park hearses in Rangoon municipal areas.

The YCDC ordered the funeral services society to relocate from Rangoon to the outskirts of the city before February 28.

Kyaw Thu, a member of the FFSS, said the YCDC also ordered it not to park its hearses at Byamma Vihara Monastery in Thingangyun Township in Rangoon, and instead park in a government cemetery outside Rangoon. The FFSS offices are located at the monastery.

Kyaw Thu said 16 hearses carry more than 50 coffins to burial or cremation sites every day in Rangoon, the former capital of Burma.

The FFSS provides free burial or cremation services for people who can not afford to pay burial or cremation fees for family members.

The FFSS has asked the YCDC to provide an area where the society can build a garage to keep the hearses, said Kyaw Thu. The YCDC has yet to reply to the request.

Kyaw Thu told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, “If they don't respond, we will work as usual until they seize the hearses, punish us and stop the free funeral services.”

Residents in the area say the government has long worried about the influence and popularity the FSSS enjoys among the public. Founded in 2001, the FFSS is a nongovernmental, apolitical organization that relies on donations from inside and outside Burma. Most donations come from Burmese living in Japan, Taiwan, England and the United States.

Media coverage of the FFSS was banned by the military government after leading members of the FFSS were involved in the 2007 pro-democracy uprising.

“We will continue the free funeral serviceKyaw Thu, a member of the FFSS, said the YCDC also ordered it not to park its hearses at Byamma Vihara Monastery in Thingangyun Township in Rangoon, and instead park in a government cemetery outside Rangoon. The FFSS offices are located at the monastery.

Kyaw Thu said 16 hearses carry more than 50 coffins to burial or cremation sites every day in Rangoon, the former capital of Burma.

The FFSS provides free burial or cremation services for people who can not afford to pay burial or cremation fees for family members.

The FFSS has asked the YCDC to provide an area where the society can build a garage to keep the hearses, said Kyaw Thu. The YCDC has yet to reply to the request.

Kyaw Thu told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, “If they don't respond, we will work as usual until they seize the hearses, punish us and stop the free funeral services.”

Residents in the area say the government has long worried about the influence and popularity the FSSS enjoys among the public. Founded in 2001, the FFSS is a nongovernmental, apolitical organization that relies on donations from inside and outside Burma. Most donations come from Burmese living in Japan, Taiwan, England and the United States.

Media coverage of the FFSS was banned by the military government after leading members of the FFSS were involved in the 2007 pro-democracy uprising.

“We will continue the free funeral servis,” Kyaw Thu said. “It is not our own business. We will do for the people.”

20 Feb 2009 13:40:19 GMT
Source: IRIN
YANGON, 20 February 2009 (IRIN) - Aid agencies working in the cyclone-hit Ayeyarwady Delta are scrambling to provide tens of thousands of people with water as the peak of the dry season approaches.

The delta's water storage ponds, which traditionally tided villagers over the dry season, were contaminated with salt water when Cyclone Nargis hit on 2 and 3 May 2008, bringing with it a wall of seawater. Traditional clay storage jars were also destroyed or washed away.

Now survivors of the cyclone will need help to meet their water needs until the monsoon rains return in late April or May, humanitarian workers told IRIN.

"People are using up what stores they have quickly, which indicates there will be a problem at the end of the dry season in April," said Than Myint, head of Save the Children's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme in Myanmar. "Some villages will run out of water."

Humanitarian agencies are implementing several measures - from working with local water vendors to ensure water reaches the most needy villages, to installing high-tech reverse osmosis machines to remove the salt from brackish water.

However, Waldemar Pickardt, WASH chief at the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), which leads the cluster of government representatives, UN agencies and NGOs dealing with water issues, said it was important not to overstate the problem.

"We are all concerned, but we don't want to create a crisis by exaggerating the current situation," Pickardt told IRIN. "We have made a very good assessment of the water situation throughout the delta and we know exactly where the areas of potential shortage are when the dry season reaches its peak."

He said panic buying and hoarding of water could make the problem worse, and the price of water in the delta had already nearly doubled in recent months, from 20 kyats (2 US cents) for a 30 l container to 35 kyats (3.5 cents).

Khin Maung Win, WASH cluster chief and UNICEF representative, said all villages in the delta had been categorised according to their water needs, and each settlement had been assigned an NGO to help it cope with potential shortages.

The government was also active, he noted, requesting divisional commanders work closely with the WASH cluster and offering water trucks, tanks and boats.

In addition, humanitarian agencies are trying to ensure the delta's inhabitants are able to store enough water during the next rains for the dry season of 2009-2010.

"Our aim is two-fold: to take care of the water shortage and to put infrastructure in place for the next rainy season – to replace earthen pots and to repair ponds," said Pickardt.

Solutions

Save the Children was one of the agencies to raise the alarm about a potential water crisis last September, and built 2,600 temporary rainwater tanks to capture the last of the monsoon rains.

"We built the tanks using coconut trees, which had fallen in the cyclone, and tarpaulins," Than Myint told IRIN. "Now people are starting to use the water, but in fact they are using it earlier than we thought, which is a bad sign."

Save the Children has installed treatment plants in its project areas in Mawlamyinegyun and West Labutta to treat fresh water from creeks and irrigation canals. It has also dug 10 tube wells to a depth of more than 152m to prevent saline or arsenic contamination and is due to deliver 10 reverse osmosis (RO) machines.

Such machines may be part of the solution to the water shortage, said a UNICEF field worker, but their heavy use of energy makes them an unsustainable long-term solution.

However, Dan Collison, head of Save the Children's Nargis response, said relying on water vendors and redistributing supplies could hurt livelihood recovery in the shattered delta.

"Through a wide range of means, we need to provide more water," he told IRIN. "If people have to use their meagre incomes to buy water, they'll have less to restart their livelihoods.

"Put simply, there's a difference between surviving the dry season and emerging from the dry season with the means to build a future."

rr/bj/mw

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org

Tuesday, 24 February 2009
by Mizzima News
Prome (Mizzima) – Despite the authorities banning the sale and transportation of poultry and eggs following the outbreak of the Newcastle disease in Prome, the sale of banned items thrive in the black market.

With the ban lasting nearly two months, the prices of poultry and eggs fell to half and sale of the products began in the black market.

"The poultry products are not being sold in the market openly. But we can buy them if we want and its sale thrives. Most of the buyers are from low income groups of daily wage earners and odd job workers. Earlier, they could not afford to buy them. The prices of poultry products fell to Kyat 200 per 10 ticals (5.76 oz) from Kyat 350-400. The price of an egg is Kyat 80," a local resident said.

Poultry farm owners are transporting chickens and eggs to Naypyitaw and Rangoon markets on the sly to cover the expenses incurred by daily chicken feed, chicken meat shop owners and chicken feed shop owners said.

In the Rangoon market, chicken can fetch at least Kyat 4,000 per 1 viss (3.6 lbs) and an egg is Kyat 100.

The outbreak of avian flu was first reported in Mandalay and Sagaing Divisions, and then it was detected in Pegu, Rangoon in the second round. Finally the severe Newcastle disease (twisted neck disease) outbreak was first reported in Prome.

At least 9,000 chickens and quails have been culled in poultry farms in Myothit, Prome.

"The authorities instructed poultry farm owners to cull all the birds in the farms including meat chicken. Only some egg chicken farms in Prome town area were spared culling. Now the culling drive has been extended to rural area in Prome. Over 9.000 chickens and quails have been culled in town areas alone, excluding the numbers culled in rural areas," a staff from a chicken feed shop said.

During the outbreak of the diseases, MRC Company owned poultry farms in Nyaung Nha Pin, outskirt of Rangoon which had 20,000 chickens was burnt down in a bushfire, an Animal Husbandry Department announcement said.

The Animal Husbandry Department is planning to move all poultry farms in Pyinmana, Naypyidaw areas to outside the town areas by the last week of this month.

Feb 19, 2009 (DVB)-Farmers in Irrawaddy division's Eine Mae township have been sued by a fertiliser company after refusing to pay for fertiliser they used in last season's failed crop.

Soe Myint, the sole distributor of Pakokku-based company Shwe Thee Hnan in Eine Mae, convinced farmers in Kyat Khat Khut village earlier this year to buy the fertiliser.

According to locals, the company promised them they would make more profit if they used it, and that if it didn't work they wouldn't have to pay.

One farmer, who claims that the crop failed in the last agricultural season after using Soe Myint's fertiliser, said:

"The farmers refused to pay for the fertiliser as they had this agreement made with Soe Myint, and they complained about the whole thing to different levels of government administrations in the region.

"But then the company tried to convince the township Peace and Development Council by pointing out a lot of reasons why the crop had failed, and they are now suing the farmers who didn't pay them."

He added that some village officials who were disappointed with the lack of justice on the case had resigned from their posts.

"Now the farmers are struggling with their livelihoods as they made no profit from the crop and also they are very likely to appear in court very soon," he said.

Reporting by Ahunt Phone Myat

Source: Church World Service (CWS)

Date: 23 Feb 2009

Myanmar (Burma)

We like our new school," says a shy little boy, while taking an apple as a reward for speaking up. The rest of the students, who will soon be able to study in the new school, laugh."

The school, located in the community of Dedaye in the Irrawaddy Delta, is being built by CWS in collaboration with a local partner, and replaces a school that was destroyed by Cyclone Nargis last year.

The school--60 feet long and 30 feet wide--will accommodate 60 students in three classrooms. It is built to resist cyclones and stands on a raised concrete foundation with reinforced concrete columns. The windows and doors are reinforced with iron bars welded and bolted to the steel structure, while the zinc sheet roof is hooked with steel bars to the roof truss. The local community will use the school as shelter during storms.

By March 9, CWS and its partner will have finished building two schools in Dedaye township. CWS and its partner plan to build eight more schools and provide school supplies and uniforms in the near future.

Since the cyclone, CWS has worked in partnership to reach more than 323,000 people with water supplies. In addition, CWS helped provide emergency shelter to 41,000 families, and is assisting more than 20,073 vulnerable farm families with seed stock and fertilizer, power tillers and fuel.

By Thet Khaing (Myanmar Times)

A THREE-YEAR recovery plan for cyclone-damaged areas in Ayeyarwady and Yangon divisions was launched last Monday and will focus on rebuilding the livelihoods of about 2.4 million people.

The government has welcomed the Post-Nargis Response and Preparedness Plan, which also provides for building houses and cyclone shelters before the start of the next cyclone season in May.

The plan, released in Bangkok, was compiled by the Tripartite Core Group and is based on a needs survey it conducted late last year.

The TCG was formed soon after Nargis hit last May to oversee relief and recovery work and comprises representatives of the Myanmar government, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the United Nations.

“The close collaboration between the government and the international community over the last nine months has been vital to the relief and early recovery efforts,” the chairman of TCG, U Kyaw Thu, who also heads the Civil Service Selection and Training Board, was quoted as saying in a statement released by the group after the launch.
He said the plan, which was commissioned by the group, was a result of the collaboration on all sides.

The group had also promoted complementarities between the government’s reconstruction plan and the Post-Nargis Response and Preparedness Plan (PONREPP), said U Kyaw Thu, who attended the launch along with ASEAN Secretary General Mr Surin Pitsuwan, other TCG members, and international aid donors and members of international NGOs working on cyclone relief in Myanmar.

The recovery plan outlined by the post-Nargis plan identifies eight areas of activity, including rebuilding houses, as well as educational and healthcare infrastructure, and providing microfinance and other income-generating schemes, until the end of 2011.

The plan says at least US$691 million would be needed for rebuilding work, which will be in addition to other funding appeals by the UN and international aid organisations.

“[PONREPP] underlines the importance of cash grants and micro-credit as components of recovery assistance. It highlights the urgent need to continue the construction of improved household and community shelters, as well as disaster risk reduction initiatives before the onset of the next cyclone season in May 2009,” the statement said.

The UN resident/humanitarian coordinator, Mr Bishow Parajuli, who represents the UN on the TCG, said education and healthcare were other major areas of recovery identified by the plan.

“The recovery strategy further aims at restoring the local education and health systems, through the repair of damaged and destroyed schools and health facilities, and improving household and community facilities and access to safe water and sanitation,” Mr Parajuli was quoted as saying in the statement.

“It addresses the specific needs of children, women, elderly and the disabled, as well as issues such as psychosocial support and return, resettlement and re-integration,” he said.

In an interview with The Myanmar Times last week, Mr Parajuli said the plan signals the continued smooth cooperation between the government and the international community in helping cyclone victims.

“The strategy proposed in the PONREPP has been embraced by the national authorities, humanitarian community and the donors,” Mr Parajuli said.

“I think the launch [of PONREPP] emphasised that there has been good cooperation with the government and also that huge needs exist, so there is still need for assistance and international support is necessary,” he said.

“It is important to note that the success of this plan can only be achieved if the stakeholders remain committed to support and implement the strategy proposed,” Mr Parajuli said.

He said the level of support from international aid donors so far was better than many had anticipated.
“Myanmar received good support, and the international donor community has been very generous,” Mr Parajuli said, adding that the UN had received 65 percent of the $477 million targeted in the UN Revised appeal launched last July.

He said managing the recovery effort would require the continued effective role of the TCG, the mandate of which expires in July.
“The whole coordination of the PONREPP will depend on the TCG, so it is definitely expected that TCG should continue its work,” Mr Parajuli said.
“Its role will continue to be to facilitate the delivery of relief effort and advocate on the need and to ensure transparency, accountability and efficiency,” Mr Parajuli said.

The government said it would consider on extension of the group’s mandate in June. The TCG’s continuation is also one of the conditions set by many international aid donors to provide further funding support.

The British ambassador to Myanmar, Mr Mark Canning, whose country is the largest single donor to the cyclone relief effort, has praised the role of the group.
“The TCG has demonstrated the value of a mechanism which is able to make rapid decisions and to cut through problems when they arise,” Mr Canning told The Myanmar Times last week.

“It has helped to promote understanding of how the development community works and, I hope, has also showcased to those that were perhaps unfamiliar with its excellent work what it can do,” he said.

Mr Canning said Britain was considering providing more assistance for rebuilding livelihoods, as well as for healthcare and education.

“Our role in the delta was consistent with what we have been doing in the humanitarian sector here for some time,” he said.
“We have never subscribed to the view that it is not possible to deliver humanitarian support in this country,” Mr Canning said.

He added that apart from $90 million for cyclone relief work, Britain has also contributed $40 million to the Three Diseases Fund, to combat tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria in Myanmar.

Mr Canning said he hoped the release of the post-Nargis plan would encourage more potential donors to provide funding.

“It has in effect a menu from which donors can choose, according to their resources and priorities but in the knowledge that their contribution will be in sync with what others are doing. It should therefore maximise the impact of every donor dollar,” Mr Canning said.

He said Britain would encourage other donors to increase their support to meet the growing need for humanitarian assistance in Myanmar.
“It may not always be the easiest place to operate but good work can, and is, being done,” Mr Canning said.

The plan has proposed the establishment of three bodies under the supervision of the TCG to ensure that the relief effort is efficient, accountable and effective.

They include a Recovery Forum, whose members will comprise representatives from the government, donors and the UN and other aid agencies. The RF’s role will include information sharing, minimising the duplication of tasks and fund mobilisation.

“The RF would be a deliberative, not an executive body, but its recommendations should carry considerable weight in related policy-setting bodies,” the plan said.
Another proposed body is a Recovery Coordination Centre, which will be based in Yangon and provide information to aid agencies on international funding support and areas where there are shortfalls.

The plan said the third proposed body is a Township Coordination Committee, to supervise field operations by aid agencies.

Tine Gyaw

Feb 10, 2009 (DVB)–When the British ruled Burma, the living standard of farmers was very low due to the monopolization of the rice trade by the colonial power and the impact of Chettiar money lenders brought in from India by the British.

Now, history has come full circle and Burmese farmers are facing the same fate under the ruling State Peace and Development Council.

But this time, the ‘blood-suckers’ are no longer Chettiars, who monopolised the money lending market with high interest rates, but companies owned by the children of army officers and their cronies.

The main problem the farmers faced before Cyclone Nargis hit Burma was the rice milling period, between the times when it was harvested and when it could be sold. Farmers are not allowed to mill, store, ship or sell rice freely. Rice prices have always been unstable for these reasons. Normally, the price of rice tends to drop when harvested rice is in the hands of farmers and it goes up when it is in the hands of merchants. Therefore farmers do not reap the benefits of high rice prices. Companies owned by the army and by the children of top army leaders are the main exporters of rice and reap most of the benefits.

During the 2008-2009 financial year, farmers in the Irrawaddy delta were in completely ruined when Cyclone Nargis hit the region. Paddy fields were destroyed. Rice mills collapsed and rice barns were ruined. Both Burmese people and the international community were worried that there would be a rice shortage. Therefore, the military instructed that rice needed for cyclone victims should not be bought from sources within the country. That is why UN agencies had to buy rice from abroad at higher cost.

On the other hand, rice was allowed to be exported secretly. During 2008-2009 financial year, more than 127,000 tons of rice were exported with the permission of the military. The army's Myanmar Economic Corporation was the highest exporter with 35,000 tons. The other exporters were those owned by the children of army officers and their cronies, Shwenaingan East company, First Rice Trading company, Irrawaddy Rice Trading company, Myanmar Chindwin company and so on. These companies were also awarded new export permits.

It is clear that it was only these companies making profits in the whole process of rice production and sales. The farmers are now facing extremely low price for rice now. If the farmers have to sell their rice at current rates they are bound not to make profits, but will lose money to the extent that they are unable to buy fertilisers for summer paddy. One of the reasons for the low price is that these companies are not making any effort to buy rice or export it, so some farmers who refuse to sell their rice due to the low price are selling and pawning their family jewellery to survive.

Knowing this, the companies are waiting to pounce on their victims, the farmers. Their slogan is contract farming – which they claim is cooperation between regional military command and local people. Among those involved in this are the Tayza-owned Htoo company, Asia World company, owned by opium warlord Lao Sit Han's Tun Myint Naing, Yuzana company owned by Htay Myint, Shwe Nagarmin owned by Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry chairman Win Myint, Myanmar Rice Traders’ Association chair Aung Than Oo's Pinle Koe Thwin company and Win Aung's Dagon International company. The companies will provide rice seedlings, diesel, labour costs, electricity, water supplies and other costs. According to UMFCCI chairman Win Myint, there has been an agreement that the companies will receive 60 percent of the profits while the farmers will get the rest in return for their labour.

A contract farming system is to be introduced on 3000 acres paddy fields in Barlar Sanpya village, Hlegu township and Hmawbi and Mingaladon townships by Myint Aung Myat company director Aung Maw. He has said he will give the farmers five tin of rice per acre to borrow their farms and the farmers must provide seedlings, tractors and labour costs. The company will provide fertilisers and other agricultural supplies. The company and the farmers will divide the profits 50-50. But there has still been no response from farmers. The farmers have no right to express their opinions through domestic broadcast media, and they have been told their farms will be confiscated if they do not accept the terms of the contracts.

According to the law drawn up by the Burma Socialist Programme Party, State Law and Order Restoration Council, SPDC, farmers are entitled to work on land but they do not have the right to own the land. Using this legal loophole, companies are bullying and inflicting cruelty on farmers with the help of the military authorities. The army is giving them back-up support and no one believes that the unilateral contract farming system will be fair. Furthermore, no one believes there will be fair arbitration when there are problems between the farmers and companies.

Some companies started big projects to cultivate wilderness land and grow rice before 2000 without success, incurring losses. They tried to tame the virgin land with the help of heavy machinery and form the paddy fields using private labour. But now they are instead confiscating cultivated farmland, forcing farmers to sign agreements, paying them a pittance and making them work like slaves, sucking their blood to make profits.

If the government wants to improve the agricultural sector, it could do some sensible things. Improve the banking system. Allow farmers to get loans from banks easily. Allow fertilisers and other agricultural materials to be imported freely and not monopolised by the SPDC generals' children’s companies, so that farmers can buy them at affordable rate. Allow farmers to mill, store, carry, sell, buy and export rice freely in accordance with free market principles. If these actions were taken, they could bring about good results and fruitful production.

But if the junta allows the companies to suck the blood of farmers in the name of contract farming, the lives of farmers will become as dire as those under the Chettiars.

(From DVB)

www.chinaview.cn 2009-02-13 14:51:50

YANGON, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) will provide 700 million U.S. dollars in the 3-year period of 2009-2011 as humanitarian assistance for the cyclone-hit victims, the local weekly 7-Day News journal reported Friday.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will support 220 million dollars for this move, the report quoted the Ministry of Social Welfare Relief and Resettlement as saying. The assistance will be mainly used for the education and health sectors in the cyclone-affected regions.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will build seven quake and storm resistant schools in Myanmar's cyclone-hit regions to enable students to pursue education in a safe environment in case of disaster.
The quake and storm resistant schools, designed by the international professional architects and to be built by the local engineers, will also provide shelters for local people.

Furthermore, the UNICEF also planned to open at least 100 amusement centers for survived children in Myanmar's two cyclone-hard-hit Ayeyawaddy and Yangon divisions which will be managed by aid workers and respective village dignitaries.

Deadly cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states -- Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon andKayin -- on last May 2-3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructure damage.

The storm has killed 84,537 people and left 53,836 missing and 19,359 injured according to the latest official death toll.

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

YANGON, 11 February 2009 (IRIN) - Last year's Cyclone Nargis dramatically altered the humanitarian landscape in Myanmar, with almost double the number of NGOs now operating in the Ayeyarwady Delta.

In the weeks and months following the 2 and 3 May disaster, about 40 international NGOs were given permission to operate in the Nargis-affected areas.

"That almost doubled the number of NGOs here, in a short space of time," said Kerren Hedlund, the NGO liaison officer in Yangon, Myanmar's commercial capital.

Much of this is credited to the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) comprising the government, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the UN, which has helped build trust between the various parties working to help those in need.

The experience of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which runs a US$10 million programme building schools and shelters in Labutta Township, is typical.

"We came here after Nargis in June and made an assessment, came back in July and followed up, and then back in August and signed an agreement with the minister [of Social Welfare], " NRC country director Joern Kristensen told IRIN. "It was a very smooth process," he said.

While most of the NGOs operating in Myanmar before the cyclone did so under agreements with the Ministry of Health, the new NGOs working in the delta liaise with the Ministry of Social Welfare, which has coordinated post-Nargis rehabilitation.

"We have been very impressed with the cooperation and support from the government," said Kristensen. "No stumbling blocks - it's been like this ever since we started."

Better access

Existing NGOs have also seen an easing of restrictions in the delta, the result of new arrangements negotiated within the TCG.

"The TCG has been critical in improving access," said Andrew Kirkwood, country director for Save the Children, which runs a recovery programme in the delta as well as health and education programmes across Myanmar, where it has operated for 14 years.

"International staff can travel alone to the delta, without a government liaison officer, and permission takes one week. In the rest of the country permission to travel takes four weeks and we still travel with a liaison officer," Kirkwood said.

In addition, some agencies without official permission to operate in Myanmar have channelled funds to a growing number of local NGOs that have been given greater freedom to operate under agreements reached by the TCG, say aid workers.

Challenges

"The infrastructure is poor. It is an aquatic environment and difficult to move goods and materials around there," said Kristensen. In addition, agencies often struggle to recruit qualified staff.

However, the number of people employed in the humanitarian sector has probably doubled since the cyclone struck, say aid workers.

Save the Children's staff numbers increased to 1,600 from 500 and dozens of international staff were relocated to Myanmar, both on long and short-term contracts.

"Most of our new staff had never worked for NGOs or done humanitarian work so there was a huge amount of learning and training," Kirkwood explained.

"One of the legacies of Nargis is a much broader base of humanitarian workers in the country," he added.

Outside the delta

The issue for many humanitarians is whether positive aspects of the Nargis response can bring a permanent improvement to the operating environment across Myanmar.

Expected donor funding for a three-year $691 million recovery plan for cyclone-affected communities, launched on 9 February, will be largely contingent on the extension of the TCG mechanism beyond June 2009 and possibly to other areas of the country.

"Donors will be concerned that the freedom to operate will shrink without the TCG, and they won't have the confidence that their donation would have the same impact," Hedlund noted.

Yet access is not the only factor marking out the delta from the rest of the Myanmar.

Other needy regions receive little development aid. "In money terms, a little over $100 per person per year is now being spent in the delta. That compares to $2.50 per head in the rest of the country," Kirkwood noted.

"While it's right and proper that we spend that money in the delta we also need to focus on increasing that $2.50 figure. The needs are overwhelming," he said.

rr/ds/mw

[END] A selection of IRIN reports are posted on ReliefWeb. Find more IRIN news and analysis at http://www.irinnews.org

Une sélection d'articles d'IRIN sont publiés sur ReliefWeb. Trouvez d'autres articles et analyses d'IRIN sur http://www.irinnews.org

This article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. Refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use.

Cet article ne reflète pas nécessairement les vues des Nations Unies. Voir IRIN droits d'auteur pour les conditions d'utilisation.

Khin Myat and Myint K Khine

THE annual meeting of National NGO Network on HIV and AIDS was held at the Chatrium Hotel from January 26 to 28.

The “3N”, which comprises local NGOs working on HIV/AIDS activities in Myanmar, was formed in January 2008 with the aim of exchanging information about HIV/AIDS in Myanmar and to enhance capacity-building among local NGOs.

U Myint Swe, the president of the Ratana Metta Organisation, as well as of 3N, said the aim of the meeting was to review experience and difficulties among the organisations in 2008 and to strengthen the network.

“In some townships, there are about five local organisations operating. If they carry out HIV/AIDS activities together, the work will be more effective and efficient,” he said.

He also said the meeting was helpful for the organisations.

“Some of the organisations want to work on HIV/AIDS activities, but they are weak in implementation. The meeting enhances their capacity-building.”

“In some areas, we found that organisations working on HIV/AIDS are overlapping and in some remote areas there are gaps. That was something we wanted to discuss,” he said.

The meeting was attended by 120 local organisations – 80 from Yangon and 40 from the rest of the country.

(Myanmar Times)

Mon Feb 9, 2009 8:45am EST

BANGKOK, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar needs around $700 million in aid over the next three years to recover from last year's devastating cyclone, an aid coordinating group said on Monday.

The appeal, focused on eight key areas including nutrition, health and livelihoods, comes at a time when many governments are being squeezed by the global economic crisis.

Foreign donors are also reluctant to provide aid to the former Burma, under military rule since 1962 and isolated internationally over its dismal human rights record.

A $477 million appeal for aid after Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy delta last May has raised $309 million so far, the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), which drafted the new 3-year plan, said in a statement.

But officials from the United Nations and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), who along with the Myanmar government form the TCG, were confident donors would help.

"It is a very, very modest support request compared to the magnitude of the disaster," Bishow Parajuli, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, told reporters in Bangkok.

He said the recovery budget for Cyclone Nargis, which left 140,000 people dead or missing and 2.4 million severely affected, was small compared to the $5.1 billion donated for recovery in Indonesia's Aceh after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Nearly a year after the cyclone swept away their villages, survivors are still struggling to find permanent shelter. A survey of 2,000 households in October found one in three living in temporary conditions.

Access to clean water also remains a challenge. Aid agencies are using reverse osmosis machines to purify the water but it is labour-intensive and costly.

"We're in the middle of the dry season in Myanmar and around half of the affected areas in March will experience salty streams at high tide," said Andrew Kirkwood, country director for the charity Save the Children.

"Basically it means getting fresh drinking water this time of the year is extremely difficult," he said.

A lack of credit and access to markets have also saddled many delta farmers with heavy debts, said Chris Kaye, country director for the U.N.'s World Food Programme.

Myanmar's junta was criticised for resisting international assistance in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, but ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said a certain level of trust had been achieved with the regime.

The TCG is chaired by senior Myanmar official Kyaw Thu, who did not attend the news conference, but in a statement praised the international community's efforts.

"The close collaboration between the government and the international community over the last nine months has been vital to the relief and early recovery efforts," he said.