The Main Page

LATEST. New Guidelines trip up aid agencies.

Myanmar's military government presents aid agencies with a gift bound in red tape.


It gets worse

Padi fields are still flooded. This means farmers could miss planting season this year and there will be no rice to harvest and even more will starve.


Help is on the way

The rundown on aid organisations working on the ground to get supplies to the thousands of desperate people abandoned by their government?


Diplomatic License

How far does talking to the Myanmar military government go in actually helping to get things done?


There's really another way to look at it

A highly-respected Myanmar academic explains the puzzling behaviour of the country's military rulers.


Could all this have been avoided?

Were lives lost because the government did not listen to warnings of an approaching cyclone?



WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Browse through the archives for weekly updates on the aid delivery and situation from the affected regions.

The government hogs the limelight

Two and a half million of its people are facing starvation. Aid agencies are trying to get basics like food and water to them. Yet it is Myanmar's military government that is getting all the attention from the international media. And for all the wrong reasons.

For a start, it has created a buzz within the international aid agencies working within the country. They are now required to apply for yet more permits before they can reach the cyclone-affected Irrawaddy Delta region. Permission is required from

- relevant government ministries,
- the joint Myanmese, UN, and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Tripartite Core Group, acting as a coordinating agency.

Township Coordination Committees that direct aid deliveries, need to be informed.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, sources in the Myanmese capital say approval must also be sought from divisional and local level military commanders, and that government officials must accompany all travel by foreign aid workers to the Irrawaddy Delta.

Aid agencies say they are already having to bribe soldiers with rice and cooking oil to get access. Do these new rules mean more pay-offs need to be made for the new middlemen now involved?

China's official Xinhua news agency now says the government has granted visas to some 900 aid workers. That works out to a ratio of 1:2,667 survivors. Even if they all manage to get to those in need, they are still constituting truly a drop in the delta.


Bad publicity is bad publicity

If the government keeps getting bad press it is because of unscrupulous nationals and foreign media. They denied reports that they were taking 10% of overseas donations. The state Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank has a practice of taking 10% from all foreign currency deposits. The government says it will not do that for donations for cyclone relief.

Then there are DVDs of gore and tragedy being sold off the streets of the Myanmar capital, showing the devastation and aftermath of Nargis, starring dead bodies. The government says the footage is painting a false picture. The locals beg to differ. Wanting to learn about the situation from a non-government source. they are snapping the US$1 discs up.

See Reuters' report on the DVD.


Grey Areas

No matter how bad they are (allegedly) behaving, Myanmar's miitary government has managed to get a "get-out-of-jail-free" card from its regular critics. The European Union has stated clearly that its aid to cyclone relief will have no strings attached. This is what its special envoy Pierro Fassino had to say:

"As far as access to the country the situation has actually improved in the past week..."

"The tripartite system that is being established I think is an extremely interesting opportunity to foster a new atmosphere of mutual trust and following this humanitarian emergency, the more we can work in the future on this new climate of trust (the better)."

The EU has donated 87.4 millions euros (US$135 million).

Thanks to its suffering masses, Myanmar can now just about do no wrong. Other despotic states should take note.

Broken rice bowls

This time every year rice farmers in Myanmar have two months to prepare their fields and start planting, so that they will have a harvest at the end of the year.

This year, a lot of these fields are under water, flooded after the cyclone, and at the end of the year, the already dire shortage for food could become desperate.

65 % of the the rice in Myanmar comes from the Irawaddy Delta. According to the International Development Enterprises (IDE), an international NGO working to boost agricultural productivity in the area, around 150,000 households do have good land on which they can plant. However flooding remains in the areas worst hit by the cyclone, where families had converted mangrove swamps into arable land. And many of these families barely have enough to feed themselves.

Even if the floods were gone, the farmers will need special salt resistant seeds for cultivation in soil that has been under sea water for so long. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 20 % of the land will need rehabilitating. What NGOs are doing now are analysing and distributing appropriate seeds for the the farmers and giving out Chinese-made hand tillers, to replace the animals lost in the disaster which traditionally plough the land.

In Myanmar, government work brings in about US$30 a month. Most poor families spend around 60-70 % of their income on food. They are being impacted by hikes in global food prices caused by bad harvests, low stocks and rising demand.

According to a Reuters report dated June 2, 2007

A 50 kg bag of rice now sells for 38,000 kyat, or about $34.50, up from 27,000 kyat

...Peanut oil, used for cooking, has jumped nearly 40 percent to 5,500 kyat for a 2 kg container.

It must seem ludicrous that people living in the main rice-producing areas of a region which produces more than half of the world's rice are in a situation where they are unable to feed themselves.

Face to face with Myanmar's government on the crisis

Frustrated by weeks of having aid supplies blocked, donor nations confronted Myanmar's government at a high-level security conference in Singapore when they came face to face with the country's representative.

The Shangri'La Dialogue was attended by Myanmar's Deputy defense Minister, Major General Aye Myint. He had told those present that Myanmar will "welcome any assistance and aid which are provided with genuine goodwill from any country or organization provided that there are no strings attached, or politicization involved."

It will accept help "in accordance with our (Myanmar's) priorities".

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called the military government's policies of controlling access to aid “akin to criminal neglect” of its people.

Even ASEAN ministers who adhere to a rather non-interfering position when it came to member nations made their points.

"At the risk of offending my colleague here, I would certainly speak on behalf of ASEAN countries, we would like to play a bigger role in the context of the tragedy of Myanmar."

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Mohd Najib

"If they are not able to provide for it, then it is their responsibility to see what other resources they can garner to help provide for their people."

Singapore Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean

Ultimately though, it was French parliamentarian Pierre Lellouche who plainly underlined the moral imperative for all present.

In a quote that went largely unreported in various media, he stated,

"We need a system of sanctions to stop this scandal of having hundreds of thousands of people dying with help waiting outside and having a lecture about non-interference in domestic affairs.

"I'm sorry, maybe, to change the tone of this very polite international gathering, but I think it is my duty to do so."

The international community loses any moral high ground it holds if it fails to stand up to Myanmar's military government in this time of crisis for the 2.5 million it is holding hostage, sans aid.

Myanmar's other Humanitarian Crisis

Long before Cyclone Nargis, NGOs have been struggling to bring relief to another crisis in Myanmar.

The country is made up of various ethnic groups which have been embroiled in extended conflict for years. Thousands have been displaced in refugee camps and with more adding to that number from the cyclone, coupled with rising food prices, the situation could get out of hand.

Read a first-hand account from a Myanmar national who escaped the situation to tell of the harrowing experiences he had during the conflict.

According to an agency involved, the Thailand Burma Border Consortium,

... soaring global rice and oil prices during the past few months have left the primary provider of food aid US$6.8 million (EUR 4.3 million) under-funded for 2008. Unless additional funds are urgently secured, rations will have to be reduced to half the international minimum standard of 2,100 kcals/ person/ day from August.

‘This would have a very destabilising affect on the camps and within a couple of months we could expect to see significant increases in malnutrition,’ explained Jack Dunford from the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC). ‘The protective community structures afforded by the camps would be undermined and refugees forced to supplement their food by leaving the camps at considerable risk of abuse and exploitation’, he warned.

‘The months ahead are fraught with uncertainty for Burma after Cyclone Nargis. Millions of Burmese have been affected. Huge numbers of people have been displaced and there must be considerable doubts about how quickly the economy can be restored. It is likely that the whole humanitarian response for Burma will have to be re-thought including support to refugees, internally displaced and migrants’, commented Mr Dunford.

‘During these uncertain times, it is important to maintain stability in the border areas. Allowing assistance programmes to collapse at this point would only add to the human suffering. Unlike the situation in Burma, mechanisms for delivering effective assistance to the refugees are well established. Resolving the rice price crisis now will ensure stability in the short term enabling a more strategic response to be developed in the post-cyclone context’, he appealed.

More information on the situation can be obtained from TTBC.

TBBC
12/5 Convent Road
Bangrak,
Bangkok 10500
Thailand

Email: tbbcbkk@tbbc.org

Pledges from the Donor Conference held 25 May in Yangon

NGO/IGO CONTRIBUTIONS

RED CROSS: 200,000 Swiss francs ($189,000). Launching appeal for 53 million Swiss francs ($50 million) to help 500,000 people.

- American Red Cross: $100,000 in funds and supplies.

- Myanmar Red Cross: Distributing insecticide-treated bed nets and water purification tablets. Government to give 5 billion kyats ($4.5 million) for relief and resettlement.

UNITED NATIONS: About 50 nations pledge $50 million at U.N. donor conference. Most will go to the U.N.'s $201 million three-month appeal. The U.N. World Food Programme and partners have dispatched more than 700 tonnes of rice and food aid to at least 71,800 people.

WORLD VISION, AUSTRALIA: A$3 million ($2.8 million). 25 medical/other specialists to boost 600 staff already in Myanmar.

STATE CONTRIBUTIONS

AUSTRALIA: A$25 million ($24 million), up from previous A$ 3 million, A$1 million of that to aid agencies for shelter, water purification and food.

BANGLADESH: Two planeloads of humanitarian materials and food, sending five-member military team.

CAMBODIA: US$250,000

CANADA: C$2 million ($1.98 million) to organisations such as the United Nations, Red Cross and the World Food Programme.

CHINA: US$11 million, up from a previous 30 million yuan ($4.3 million), on top of $500,000 cash and $500,000 worth of tents, blankets and supplies.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION: 2 million euros ($3 million) of fast-track humanitarian aid.

FRANCE: 200,000 euros (about $320,000) in aid. Plane carrying 40 tonnes of food/other aid arrived in Yangon on Thursday; Navy ship with 1,000 tonnes of drugs, food, tents ordered to head for Thailand after not being allowed to unload in Myanmar.

GERMANY: One million euros (around $1.55 mln) to German aid organisations for shelter, drinking water, relief materials.

GREECE: $300,000 cash, plane carrying aid.

INDIA: Two naval ships of food, tents, blankets, clothing and medicines to Yangon. Two transport aircraft to take supplies.

INDONESIA: $1 million; and food, medicine, humanitarian aid.

JAPAN: $10 million aid, on top of 28 million yen ($267,570) worth of tents, power generators and other supplies.

NEW ZEALAND: NZ$1.5 million (about $1.1 million) to aid agencies/United Nations.

THE PHILIPPINES : US$20 million

SINGAPORE: $200,000 in humanitarian assistance; offering rescue and medical teams.

SOUTH KOREA: $2.5 million in addition to an initial $100,000 in aid and material, such as tents and medicine.

SPAIN: 500,000 euros (about $775,000) to World Food Programme.

SWEDEN : 12.6 million euros

TAIWAN: $200,000 direct aid; sent 8-member rescue team.

THAILAND: Several flights of food, blankets and medicine.

TURKEY: $1 million aid. Turkish Red Crescent sending team.

UNITED KINGDOM: 12 million pounds ($23.34 million), on top of up to 5 million pounds given for initial emergency relief. Sending emergency field team.

UNITED STATES: $20.5 million to date. U.S. military is making about five flights a day to Yangon with supplies.

Source: Reuters

Weekly update: May 24 - 31

May 24

China pledges US$10 million in aid to Myanmar. It is the military government's closest ally.


May 25

Desperate times, desperates measures

A donor conference opens in Myanmar, sponsored by ASEAN and the United Nations. About 45 countries and organisations will be attending. The UN is asking for US$201 million. Ensuring access to the affected areas will also figure high on the agenda. The world body estimates that aid workers have managed to reach only 23% of the 2 million affected ( 470,000).


Human rights groups say the poorly-paid Myanmar military is turning to looting in already turbulent border regions privy to local ethnic militia battles. Locals in these areas who have been subjected to extortion by military stationed there say the situation has worsened with the soldiers afraid that the pittance they are being paid - US$12 a month - will be channelled to cyclone relief.

According to a Reuters report,

"The military has no sympathy for the people," said one government clerk who did not want to be named. "They have no emotion or human feelings. They behave like animals."

Next month's arrival of the monsoon rains, which makes the jungle-clad mountainous region's dirt roads impassable, is adding to fears about a shortage of staples such as rice, salt and edible oils, causing ordinary people to stock up.

Soldiers have put up check points on roads and are charging vehicles up to 100,000 kyats to pass.

"There is complete lawlessness here. Whatever the army says is the law," another Kalaymo resident said.

Security personnel are everywhere in the town, armed with automatic rifles and walkie-talkies.

May 26

Giving aid


Attendees at the donor conference in Myanmar have pledged close to US$50 million.

Individual contributions



The World Health Organisation says that relief has reached 42% of the 2.5 million affected. However in the 15 worst-affected townships, 77 % of the people remain unreached. About 470,000 have received food aids.

Medical teams from at least seven countries are working in the affected areas. A 30-member team from the Philippines will arrive later today with Indonesia, Japan and Belgium sending teams in the next few days. So far there have been no outbreaks of diseases. The WHO and medical teams are monitoring the situatio for malaria and dengue fever.


May 27

The Myanmar government has found time in the midst of a massive relief operation to tighten controls on pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. There has been increased police presence as her current house arrest sentence was extended by another six months. She has spent 12 of the last 18 years detained in her own home. Neighbours say power was cut off to her house when the cyclone struck. It is not clear if it has been restored.

International donors have reacted to the news, saying that it will not detract from relief operations at hand.


May 28

Expert speak

Jemilah Mahmood, a veteran aid worker with the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination gives her verdict on the post-Nargis situation, saying it is worse that the 2004 tsunami.

"Arriving in Yangon, you don't really see the full extent of the destruction. Of course there are damaged buildings and uprooted trees, but it's not until you reach the delta that you see the true scale of the disaster.

Flying over the affected area, I couldn't help but think this is worse than the 2004 Asian tsunami; so many deaths and displacement over such a large area. The flood surge was certainly much wider - up to 35km in some areas compared with 5km or 6km in the tsunami.

But a lot of the areas I could visit in the delta, including Labutta and Mawlamyinegyun townships, were obviously not the worst.

Although hospitals were badly affected, the hospitals I visited in both areas were up and running. Both Labutta and Mawlamyinegyun were badly hit and you could see a lot of damaged homes and displaced people in camps, but the worst affected areas were farther south.

It's here in the rural and more isolated parts of the delta - much of which remains inaccessible - that the real challenge lies."

May 29

When you are Myanmese you learn not to count on the government

The Myanmar government has sent refugees in a tented city 30 km from Yangon packing with four bamboo poles and a canvas sheet. Plus an unlikely promise of a monthly rice ration.

No explanation was given.

The state newspaper says the cyclone victims can "stand by themselves", and lashed out at foreign donors for "chocolate bars" given.


May 30

"The major threat in health now is communicable disease... It was also the monsoon season in Myanmar, a time when malaria, dengue fever and cholera outbreaks tend to occur."

World Health Organisation assistant director-general Eric Laroche, after visiting the region.

More camps set up to help those displaced by the cyclone have been emptied. A government official interviewed noted that "It is better that they move to their homes where they are more stable." These families were being evicted with bamboo poles and canvas sheets, presumably to build these homes where they will feel more stable.


The estimated 1.1 million children affected by the cyclone will continue to have their schools shut to them for possibly another month. About 3,00 schools were destroyed, leaving students without school supplies, classrooms and teachers.

International aid agencies emphasise that it is important for the children to get back to being in an organised environment to help restore some semblance of normalcy to their lives . School-in-a-box kits that include textbooks, crayons, notebooks, balls and skipping ropes have been distributed and open spaces have been set up where they can play under supervision.


May 31

The International Labour Organisation warns that the Myanmar government may resort to forced labour to handle the massive reconstruction projects at hand. It pointed to the " increased risk of incidences of forced labour, child labour, human trafficking and migrant labour as the authorities and individuals come to grips with the sheer size of the tragedy."

The military government had passed a decree in October 2000 abolishing forced labour but it is still occurring and victims are allegedly prevented from coming forward.