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HEADLINES
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AP - UN says aid needed urgently for Myanmar farmers, though situation better than feared
AP - Myanmar says natural disaster rumors are work of 'destructive elements'
AP - Myanmar bloggers help build 'Budget Huts' for cyclone survivors
Reuters - FAO appeals for $83 million in Myanmar cyclone aid
AFP - New ASEAN emerging from response to Myanmar cyclone: Surin
AFP - WHO says Myanmar health system 'back on its feet'
AFP - World Bank backs ASEAN aid team in Myanmar
IRIN - 5,000 water buffaloes needed in cyclone-hit south, says FAO
IANS - Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar posed crucial test for Asean
IANS - Are India, Myanmar slowing Bangladesh's oil exploration bids?
Today Online - Volunteers help Myanmar cyclone victims still without foreign aid
Bernama - ASEAN receives US$850,000 grant from World Bank for Myanmar
EARTHtimes.org - Myanmar's monks call on EU to bring junta chief to court
UN News Centre - Popular UN-backed Internet word game feeds Myanmar’s cyclone victims
Asia Pulse - Most rice mills resume work in cyclone-hit areas in Myanmar
ReliefWeb - Myanmar cyclone: Burying the dead

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UN says aid needed urgently for Myanmar farmers, though situation better than feared
AP - Thursday, June 19

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ A United Nations agency warned Wednesday that time is running out to help Myanmar's cyclone-stricken farmers plant rice for the next growing season, even though damage to the nation's rice bowl is less than originally feared.

Some 52,000 farmers in Myanmar's storm-stricken Irrawaddy delta will be unable to grow a 2008 rainy season rice crop unless they are supplied with farming equipment and seed within the next two months, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said.

But while failure to do so will pose social and economic problems, it will cause just a 2 percent shortfall in projected national rice production, much less than previously feared, FAO consultant Albert Lieberg said at a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

The warning came as more attention is being turned toward recovery and rebuilding after initial emergency relief efforts to help survivors of the May 2-3 Cyclone Nargis, which Myanmar's ruling junta says killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 people missing.

In Bangkok, the FAO's deputy regional representative, Hiroyuki Konuma, said that without external support, the worst-off farmers and fishermen in the Irrawaddy delta “will suffer from hunger and poverty for a long time and they will remain dependent on external aid for a long time.”

“Time is not on our side,” he said, urging the adoption of FAO-drafted emergency assistance and rehabilitation programs budgeted at a combined US$83 million. “We have to take action. We cannot delay.”

Lieberg said 52,000 farmers will not be able to plant rice this season if they do not receive immediate aid, meaning that almost 450,000 acres (183,000 hectares) of farmland will go uncultivated. That would mean about half a million metric tons of rice will not be harvested, he said.

The projected shortfall would be about 2 percent of the country's annual production, he said, less than original estimates based on extrapolation. The greater delta area is generally estimated to produce more than 60 percent of the country's rice.

Lieberg led a three-week FAO assessment mission in Myanmar that targeted the worst hit areas of the 11 most severely affected townships. About 70 percent of land in the 11 townships was submerged in flood water, he said.

“We have seen areas where it is very difficult to get physically and where few have been,” Lieberg said.

He told reporters that that fears over flooding and salinity problems _ sea water contaminating the soil _ had been exaggerated.

“The real dimension of the issue is much smaller than thought in the beginning,” he said.

Most flooding beyond what is normal for the area's rice paddies had receded within 12 hours of the initial storm surge, said Lieberg.

Salt water from the surging sea was diluted because the soil was already wet when the storm struck, and heavy rains in the cyclone's aftermath acted as a cleanser.

Lieberg also said that his team estimated that about 30,000 people involved in fishing activities had died as a result of the cyclone. The group has been generally overlooked because of concern over farm production.

However, some of the worst fears concerning the aftermath of the storm seem to have been proven groundless.

Though supplies of food and shelter remain short in many affected areas, there apparently has been no “second wave” of deaths due to disease, malnutrition and exposure after the original casualties caused by the storm.

The U.N. World Health Organization in a report issued at the beginning of June cited an assessment by the U.N. Children's Fund _ UNICEF _ of conditions in hard-to-reach areas outside the town of Bogalay, one of the areas worst affected by the storm.

It quoted the assessment as saying “there were no post-cyclone deaths in any of the villages assessed,” as well as no signs of acute malnutrition. It also said suitable sources were found for clean water.

While the situation on the ground doesn't appear as bad as once feared, many survivors are still shaken by the cyclone and rumors have been spreading fast that more natural disasters will strike the country.

The military government warned Wednesday that the rumors were the work of its enemies seeking to create panic.

A commentary in the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper, which is generally regarded as a government mouthpiece, said people unhappy with the country's achievements were predicting floods, earthquakes and other calamities at a time when some well-known astrologers were actually making upbeat predictions for the nation's future.

Many people in Myanmar are superstitious and seek advice from fortune tellers and astrologers.

“The rumormongers are none other than a group of certain destructive elements who are not happy with the significant success the nation has achieved, resulting from the efforts of the State, the people and the Tatmadaw (military) have been making in concert,” said a commentary in Wednesday's edition.

“Destructive elements” and similar phrases are usually used in the state press to refer to the country's pro-democracy movement and other critics of the military regime.

“People should be well aware of the fact that there are those who are creating unrest by spreading groundless rumors with ulterior motives,” the commentary warned.

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Myanmar says natural disaster rumors are work of 'destructive elements'
AP - Thursday, June 19

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military government warned Wednesday that its enemies are seeking to create panic by spreading rumors that more natural disasters will strike the country after last month's Cyclone Nargis.

A commentary in the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper, which is generally regarded as a government mouthpiece, said people unhappy with the country's achievements were predicting floods, earthquakes and other calamities at a time when some well-known astrologers were actually making upbeat predictions for the nation's future.

Many people in Myanmar are superstitious and seek advice from fortune tellers and astrologers. Predictions that there will be more natural disasters have been spreading since the May 2-3 Cyclone Nargis, which the government says killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 people missing.

"The rumormongers are none other than a group of certain destructive elements who are not happy with the significant success the nation has achieved, resulting from the efforts of the State, the people and the Tatmadaw (military) have been making in concert," the newspaper commentary said.

"Destructive elements" and similar phrases are usually used in the state press to refer to the country's pro-democracy movement and other critics of the military regime.

The newspaper commentary warned against listening to the rumors.

"Rumors are usually spread in streets and markets," it said. "People should be well aware of the fact that there are those who are creating unrest by spreading groundless rumors with ulterior motives."

The commentary also cited a well-known fortune teller, San Tin Aung, as having predicted that 2008 will be a significant year for Myanmar because the nation will find ways to overcome all difficulties and stand tall among the international community.

Rumors directly of a political nature _ including that the month of August will see a regime change _ have also been spreading lately, though the commentary did not address them.

Myanmar has been in a political deadlock since 1990, when the junta held a general election, but refused to hand over power when the National League for Democracy party of Aung San Suu Kyi topped the polls.

The military instead stepped up harassment of pro-democracy activists and announced its own program for restoring democracy, which is supposed to culminate in a new election in 2010.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, remains under house arrest.

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Myanmar bloggers help build 'Budget Huts' for cyclone survivors
AP - Wednesday, June 18

LABUTTA, Myanmar - Bloggers may find their messages blocked by Myanmar's military regime, but that hasn't stopped blogger Nyi Lynn Seck from raising tens of thousands of dollars for cyclone survivors through his Web site.

The 29-year-old IT specialist and his friends are getting their hands dirty and putting the donations to work by helping to build "Budget Huts" in the Irrawaddy delta, a region still reeling from the May 2-3 killer storm.

Days after Cyclone Nargis hit, Nyi Lynn Seck traveled from Yangon to the delta to document the survivors' stories. He posted their accounts and his photographs on his Web journal.

"I have been blogging for quite a long time and many overseas Myanmar citizens read it. They wanted me to go to the delta and help out," he said.

Nyi Lynn Seck quit his job as a manager at a software solutions company to lead six volunteers, including four other bloggers, on a mission to aid villages around Labutta. They have been here since May 9.

He is just one example of a grass-roots movement that has emerged in Myanmar. Many of those doing private relief work are highly critical of the government effort that followed the storm.

Private efforts have filled a lot of gaps in the relief effort, especially in the early weeks after the storm, when the junta turned back most foreign relief workers. After pleas from the U.N., the junta agreed to international aid, but it still limits foreigners' activities.

Nyi Lynn Seck said most of the US$30,000 received by the group came from Myanmar expatriates in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, but that money had come in from as far away as Europe.

Myanmar's military government, which strictly controls all media including the Internet, blocks most blogging sites. However, they are sometimes accessible by using a server that masks the site's true origin.

Bloggers played a major role in ensuring the free flow of information during anti-government protests in Myanmar last fall and the violent crackdown that followed. At least one blogger, Nay Phone Latt, remains in prison.

Nyi Lynn Seck's blog has in the past included personal observations, advice for would-be bloggers and news items. It has not been seen as anti-government.

Nyi Lynn Seck said he became an aid worker because he felt the junta's response to the storm _ which killed 78,000 people and left 56,000 more missing _ was inefficient.

"The government doesn't rely much on a system or technology and they don't know what to do. They work only on paper, so the help was really delayed," he said.

Nyi Lynn Seck picked up his black leather laptop bag and pulled out a stack of slides he shows to would-be donors. He also has two models of wood-and-blue plastic shelters, dubbed "Budget Huts."

The group, which calls itself "Handy Myanmar Youths" because it wants to lend a hand to survivors, has put up 88 huts in delta villages.

Such volunteerism is not always welcomed by the junta. A popular comedian was taken from his Yangon home by police this month after going to the delta to help survivors.

Many Myanmar volunteers and the local staff of foreign aid agencies pack their vehicles with food, water and other supplies when heading into the delta; several have reported being harassed by police or having their vehicles impounded.

Nyi Lynn Seck said the government approved his group's project after they detailed their plans to authorities in Labutta and declared that no foreigners were directly involved.

The group makes five- to six-hour boat rides to coastal villages to deliver materials and tools to build the huts and supervise the construction, which is done mostly by survivors.

Due to tides, the volunteers are unable to return to Labutta on the same day, so they usually spend at least one night sleeping on the bare ground without shelter from mosquitoes. Several have fallen ill.

The blogger said the group's most pressing concerns were about sustaining the project despite the high price of materials and transportation.

"Now the biggest problem is that we're having trouble finding wood in Labutta, and the wood is also getting very expensive," Nyi Lynn Seck said.

"As long as there are funds and donors, hopefully we can keep this up for another two to three months here," he said. "But I'm not so sure about the future."

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FAO appeals for $83 million in Myanmar cyclone aid
Reuters - Thursday, June 19

BANGKOK - More than 50,000 farmers in cyclone-hit Myanmar will be unable to plant a new rice crop by August unless they receive immediate aid, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said on Wednesday.

In the first major assessment of the damage wrought by the May 2 cyclone on Myanmar's rice bowl, the FAO said 570,000 hectares of land was submerged in 11 badly-affected townships surveyed by the U.N. agency and government officials.

"We are talking about 52,000 farmers which, if they are not supported, will not be in a position to come back for the cultivation of paddy monsoon crop in 2008," FAO specialist Albert Lieberg told a news conference.

That translated into a potential loss of 183,000 hectares of rice paddy, equivalent to 500,000 tonnes of rice or 2 percent of the country's total output, he said.

The FAO launched a fresh appeal for $83 million (43 million pounds) in emergency and long-term agricultural assistance nearly seven weeks after the storm left 134,000 dead or missing and 2.4 million destitute.

Some $32 million will go to meet the immediate needs of farming families, such as providing rice seed, ploughing animals and other materials to help them plant a new crop.

The storm surge wiped out up to 85 percent of rice seed stockpiled by farmers and killed 120,000 draught animals. The FAO said it hoped to find 5,000 new animals within Myanmar.

"If the programmes are implemented there is a possibility that these people might make it," Lieberg said.

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New ASEAN emerging from response to Myanmar cyclone: Surin
AFP - Thursday, June 19

SINGAPORE, June 18, 2008 (AFP) - ASEAN's response to Myanmar's devastating cyclone showed the bloc is ready to shoulder its responsibilities, the head of the Southeast Asian group bloc said Wednesday.

Cyclone Nargis pounded the southwest Irrawaddy Delta and the main city of Yangon in early May, leaving more than 133,000 people dead or missing.

Myanmar's isolated military regime largely barred foreign aid workers from the delta, sparking worldwide outrage, but relief workers have slowly moved in after the junta began to ease restrictions and asked its fellow ASEAN nations to coordinate the international effort.

"We have been able to open the humanitarian space," Surin Pitsuwan, who is secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, told a forum in Singapore.

"I think that's the success of ASEAN. I think that's the resiliency of ASEAN. I think that's a new ASEAN ready to take on the responsibility placed on it, expected of it," he added.

The 10-nation bloc has often been criticised for not dealing firmly enough with the junta, but Surin said nearly 300 ASEAN assessment team volunteers were now in the delta working "with full support, collaboration from the government of Myanmar."

"It just so happened that we are being baptised by the Cyclone Nargis. That is the test of our new ASEAN," Surin said.

Describing himself as "the cheerleader in chief" of ASEAN, Surin said the spirit of the bloc's new charter "has a lot to do with the way in which we are now operating."

At its annual summit last year in Singapore, ASEAN leaders signed a charter which committed member states to notions of democracy and human rights and for the first time set out principles and rules for the group.

Six ASEAN members have ratified the charter and Surin told reporters he is "very confident" the other four will endorse it in time for the group's summit in Bangkok later this year.

ASEAN said in early June that its team had begun to deploy in the Myanmar delta to start a long-awaited assessment of those affected by the storm.

It said then that its advance teams would compile a first-hand "progress report" for a round-table meeting in Yangon on June 24.

A day later, the bloc's humanitarian task force will also meet in Myanmar's main city, Surin said.

The ASEAN team is working under a tripartite arrangement with the United Nations and the government in Myanmar, which has frequently embarrassed its neighbours with its refusal to shift toward democracy.

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WHO says Myanmar health system 'back on its feet'
AFP - Wednesday, June 18

GENEVA (AFP) - - The World Health Organisation said Tuesday that the health system in cyclone-battered Myanmar was "back on its feet," but warned that disease risks remained.

"I think we were able to provide a response that helped the health system back on its feet," said WHO health cluster coordinator Rudi Coninx, who has just spent several weeks in the country.

The WHO said it had played a key role in a comprehensive impact assessment conducted by the UN, the regional ASEAN grouping and Myanmar's military government.

The military junta faced heavy criticism for several weeks after Cyclone Nargis first struck in early May for not allowing international aid workers full access to the country.

But the situation has now improved and "we have our teams with international staff going now everywhere," Coninx told journalists.

The WHO said that in the first week of June, it recorded some 685 cases of acute respiratory infections, 117 cases of bloody diarrhoea, 542 cases of acute diarrhoea, 337 cases of trauma or injuries, five cases of malaria and three of suspected dengue fever.

Dengue fever remains a particular concern and the WHO along with the Myanmar government and other health partners has drawn up a 766,000 dollar (494,272 euro) action plan for the next four months targeting around 8.5 million people.

The first priority of the plan is to target 2.5 million people living in 11 townships in Yangon division with the highest dengue case reporting rates.

Thereafter the plan will focus on 1.9 million people in Ayeyawaddy division, and then 3.9 million people in all other Yangon partnerships.

Dengue is endemic in Myanmar, and around half of all cases occur in the Yangon and Ayeyawaddy regions.

"We identified a considerable increase in the risk of transmission of dengue due to population movement and displacement in urban areas" following the cyclone, said WHO expert Michael Nathan.

The WHO's action plan will seek to both cut the number of mosquitoes -- who transmit the disease -- through environmental management and insecticide, and strengthen disease surveillance and case management.

More than 133,000 people were killed or are missing after the cyclone struck six weeks ago. Many were washed out to sea as a tidal surge wiped out their villages.

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World Bank backs ASEAN aid team in Myanmar
AFP - Wednesday, June 18

JAKARTA, June 17, 2008 (AFP) - The World Bank has handed 850,000 dollars to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations team working to assess the impact of Myanmar's cyclone Nargis, ASEAN said Tuesday.

The cash will go to ASEAN's Emergency Rapid Assessment team, which was sent into the devastated Irrawaddy Delta region early this month to gauge the damage, the regional grouping said in a press release.

The Bank money would be spent on "the coordination of international response and senior-level dialogue on recovery planning as well as (the) training of ASEAN technical staff in damage and loss assessment," it said.

ASEAN has come under fire for taking a soft approach to Myanmar's military junta, but has had more success than most international organisations in gaining access to the country.

The deployment of the ASEAN team earlier this month came a day after the United States gave up trying to convince the junta to allow aid-laden warships stationed off the delta to deliver their vital supplies.

Cyclone Nargis pounded the southwest Irrawaddy Delta and the main city of Yangon on May 2-3, leaving more than 133,000 people dead or missing.

The United Nations estimates that while 2.4 million people need emergency aid, about one million have not yet received any foreign assistance.

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MYANMAR: 5,000 water buffaloes needed in cyclone-hit south, says FAO
18 Jun 2008 13:18:47 GMT

BANGKOK, 18 June 2008 (IRIN) - Five thousand water buffaloes are urgently needed to help farmers in the Ayeyarwady Delta prepare for planting after a massive loss of draught animals and other livestock in last month's cyclone, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

More than 120,000 mature draught animals – as well as 66,000 pigs, 498,000 ducks, nearly 7,000 goats and more than a million chickens - perished when the Category 4 storm, and its powerful tidal surge, pummelled the region on 2 and 3 May, an FAO report released on 18 June stated.

The lost draught animals would have been used to plough about 120,000 hectares of paddy-land per season to prepare it for planting, the report stated, and their loss is a major setback for the area's rice-production potential.

Myanmar agricultural authorities and international aid agencies are distributing mechanised power tillers so some farmers who lost their animals can still plough their fields in time for the crucial monsoon planting season, which is supposed to be under way.

But the FAO stated that 15 percent of the cyclone-affected paddy lands – or around 122,782 hectares – are so-called "deep water rice production systems", and cannot be ploughed effectively by mechanised tillers, due to the nature of the soil and its high water content.

"Because of the high water levels in the paddy fields, even during the normal monsoon period there is little alternative to replacing the draught cattle and buffaloes, as mechanical implements are considered not suitable," the report stated.

Myanmar authorities are trying to bring 6,000 water buffaloes from other parts of the country into the delta.

But the FAO is appealing for international donors to provide an additional 5,000 draught animals, along with a three-month supply of animal feed, to small farmers so they can be in a position to plant at least 10,000 hectares of rice.

The estimated cost of the initiative, plus additional animal feed for those draught animals that survived but are now too weak and hungry to work, would be about US$3.56 million

The FAO is also recommending that the international community spend $1.86 million to supply ducks and chickens to around 15,000 particularly vulnerable, landless households or female-headed families, for which livestock rearing is a major part of their livelihood.

Targeted assistance

The FAO's appeal follows a needs assessment for the farming, livestock, fisheries and forestry sector in the Ayeyarwady delta in the wake of the cyclone.

Over a three-week period, FAO technical experts, accompanied by senior technical specialists from relevant government ministries, travelled extensively in the delta, including very remote areas.

Their mission was to gauge the cyclone's impact on local livelihoods, and map out an emergency plan to help the most vulnerable families get back on their feet through targeted assistance.

"We have seen areas very difficult to get to physically – where very few people have been," Albert Lieberg, the team leader, said. Its recommendations are therefore based on an "appropriate picture of reality in the delta".

Overall, the FAO is calling for donors to support a $32 million short-term emergency package, which also includes distributing agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertiliser to around 30,500 of the poorest households in the delta, and providing fishing and processing equipment and boat tools.

The FAO has also outlined a $51 million longer-term recovery and rehabilitation plan to help further boost productivity.

Lieberg warned that without outside assistance, around 52,000 households would be unlikely to be able to plant their monsoon crop this year.

"If the international community has the means, that funding is needed for whoever can help these 52,000 farm families," he said.

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Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar posed crucial test for Asean
Wed, Jun 18 02:07 PM

Singapore, June 18 (IANS) A new Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) has emerged from its achievements in cyclone-swept Myanmar, showing the world that the regional body is able to 'rise to the occasion', Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said Wednesay.

'We are being baptized by Cyclone Nargis,' he told the 5th Asean Leadership Forum in Singapore.

It has been more than six weeks since the cyclone hit Myanmar leaving a trail of devastation followed by three weeks of international outrage as the military junta obstructed foreign aid and volunteers.

Recalling the frustration and anguish of the World Bank and many Western countries which sent ships and planes packed with relief supplies, Surin said he was repeatedly asked, 'Can Asean do something?'

'With 2.4 million people teetering between survival and death,' Asean became the mechanism for getting aid to the worst-hit areas such as the Irrawaddy Delta in the south, helping sort out objections to helicopters and sending in nearly 300,000 volunteers,' Surin told government and business leaders in addition to civil society groups.

'The teams have been given full support and reached the areas where they wanted to go,' Surin said. 'That's a new Asean ready to take on responsibility. '

Aid workers said thousands of survivors of the storm are yet vulnerable to sickness and many are without adequate food and supplies.

A meeting of Asean volunteers will be held July 24 to collect information from their experiences 'for the future', Surin said. 'We have achieved a certain degree of competence.'

Amid the concerns of the international community, 'we have made progress', he said.

Asean, which groups Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar, has long been labelled as ineffective by critics.

Surin expressed confidence that the Asean Charter could be approved by all members by the time of the Bangkok summit at the end of the year. Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia have yet to approve the document designed to unite the countries into an economic bloc, set democracy as a goal and create a human rights body.

Asean 'must continue to work as a cohesive body and integrate quickly, so as to provide member countries with the ability to respond to external challenges with greater resilience and unity,' said Lee Yi Shyan, Singapore's minister of state for trade and industry.

He cited rising oil prices, increased food costs, global warming and worsening pollution as some of the long-term challenges facing the region.

'In addition, we continue to face ongoing security threats in the form of terrorism and pandemic flu,' Lee said. 'If we are not prepared, we risk our countries becoming disoriented from the resulting shocks.'

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Are India, Myanmar slowing Bangladesh's oil exploration bids?
Wed, Jun 18 01:42 PM

Dhaka, June 18 (IANS) India and Myanmar are hindering Bangladesh's exploration bids by raising objections on oil and gas exploration in several blocks bordering their maritime boundaries, say officials here.

This may slow down state-owned Petrobangla' s bid to find hydrocarbon resources offshore in the Bay of Bengal, The Daily Star said Wednesday.

Petrobangla and Bangladesh foreign ministry sources said while India categorically objected to exploration in eight offshore blocks close to its maritime border, Myanmar had raised objections in general terms earlier this year.

The oil companies on Tuesday drew Petrobangla' s attention to India's views. Nevertheless, Petrobangla and the foreign ministry believe these would not totally stagnate the bidding process.

'Fixing maritime borders like these take time to finalise. It cannot be done overnight. Differences of opinion concerning our maritime boundary may exist. There is a certain formula that has to be applied.

Then we negotiate with neighbouring countries and strike an agreement,' the newspaper quoted an unnamed foreign ministry high official.

'But we do not think that it would stop the bidding process. There might be disputes and objections about a few blocks but we can go ahead with the rest,' he said.

International laws allow each country to enjoy the rights of 200 nautical miles to the sea from its coast. However, this is a tricky matter as the coasts of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar follow a curve, overlapping maritime territory. As per international practice, in such a case the neighbours should inform each other and reach a mutual understanding.

In the recent past, both India and Myanmar awarded different companies offshore blocks close to the Bangladesh maritime border. During the process, neither India nor Myanmar informed Bangladesh about their initiatives in the Bay.

The officials here maintain that Bangladesh followed the same norm.

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Volunteers help Myanmar cyclone victims still without foreign aid
Today Online - Posted: 18-Jun-2008 10:20 hrs
Wednesday • June 18, 2008

Cyclone Nargis almost destroyed the remote village of Kyon Ka Nan, but residents are now rebuilding their homes and their food stocks, aided by a resilient group of Myanmar volunteers.

In this village of 300 homes, only six houses were left after the cyclone hit nearly seven weeks ago. Residents say 114 people died, many of their bodies washed into the freshwater ponds once used for drinking water.

Residents in Kyon Ka Nan say they have yet to receive any international aid, and official assistance has been meagre.

But they are slowly piecing together their shattered lives with the help of a resourceful network of local volunteers, who have delivered enormous amounts of aid despite their meagre resources and restrictions imposed by the military regime.

The latest shipment filled a cargo ship and a small boat, carrying 22 tonnes of rice, 100,000 tins of fish, and a team of doctors.

As the boat docked, men from the village helped unload 500 bags of rice, each weighing 100 kilos (225 pounds), and carried them to the Buddhist temple, which has become the focal point of the relief effort.

Many of the surviving villagers are living with the monks, as they rebuild their homes with bamboo and whatever they can salvage from the wreckage.

Villages like this one in the Irrawaddy delta bore the brunt of the cyclone's power, with more than 133,000 dead and 2.4 million in need of humanitarian aid.

Myanmar's regime has limited the scope of the international aid operation, and the UN says one million people have yet to receive any foreign assistance.

Even local volunteers -- often of modest means themselves -- struggle to skirt military roadblocks, and two prominent leaders of the aid movement have been arrested.

Despite the obstacles, Lae Lae, a 39-year-old helping to deliver the aid to Kyon Ka Nan, said they have reached more than 40 villages in this area southwest of Yangon.

"The donations came from several different sources -- monks, private companies or our friends working overseas," she said.

"They donated money through us and we have tried to reach villages where not much aid has arrived."

This is the group's fourth visit to Kyon Ka Nan. The volunteers hope to leave them with a month's supply of food, so the villagers can focus on reviving their rice fields.

The volunteers have organised themselves by specialty.

Five young volunteer doctors set up a temporary clinic at the monastery to treat people with injuries from the storm, as well as minor illnesses and in some cases trauma among people who watched their loved ones die.

A second group headed to the freshwater ponds that were once used for drinking, but were filled with debris and rotting corpses.

The bodies have already been cremated and the wreckage cleared, but residents are too afraid to drink from the ponds and have relied on rainwater instead.

The volunteers assure them they will take samples back to the main city of Yangon for testing, to see if the water is safe. But they will likely need to find a pump to empty the ponds and let the monsoon rains refill them.

A third group begins distributing the food, including rice, fish, cooking oil, beans and onions. The villager's leader had already made a roster of the families, and called out each family to receive their share.

"Ever since Nargis, we have lived on food donated from local groups. Otherwise we wouldn't have survived," said Win, one of the women lining up for food.

In the six weeks since the storm, Win says the only official aid she has received was 13 cups of rice and a few potatoes, plus a tarpaulin sheet from the local Red Cross Association.

Like most families in the delta, Win and her husband make their living by fishing and working as tenant farmers in the rice paddies.

She said the villagers already know how to supplement their diets with fish and wild vegetables, but she said their own supplies of rice were washed away.

"We mainly need rice. Fish and vegetables can be found easily," Win said.

The volunteers say they hope that if the village's most basic needs are cared for, the residents will be able to focus on farming

"We think that if they have enough food, then they can get back to work," said one of the volunteers. "So we are thinking about donating farming and fishing equipment next time." — AFP

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ASEAN receives US$850,000 grant from World Bank for Myanmar
By Mohd Nasir Yusoff
Bernama - Wednesday, June 18

JAKARTA, June 17 (Bernama) -- The ASEAN Secretariat today received a US$850,000-grant (US$1 = RM3.2) from the World Bank for disaster assessment and recovery activities in cyclone-hit Myanmar.

ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General Dr Soeung Rathchavy and World Bank Country Director for Indonesia, Joachim von Amsberg, signed the grant agreement this afternoon, according to the secretariat.

The grant from the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery is to support ASEAN's leadership role in the humanitarian efforts in Myanmar.

Under the grant, the World Bank would fund US$850,000 to strengthen the capacity of the ASEAN Secretariat in the coordination of international response and senior-level dialogue on recovery planning, as well as training of ASEAN technical staff in damage and loss assessment.

"We would like to thank the World Bank which is among the first few agencies to have come forward to extend assistance to Myanmar through ASEAN," said Dr Rathchavy.

Besides the grant, the World Bank has sent its technical experts to Myanmar to assist with the Post Nargis Joint Assessment and recovery planning.

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Myanmar's monks call on EU to bring junta chief to court
EARTHtimes.org
Posted : Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:17:01 GMT

Yangon - The Council of the European Union should use their meeting in Brussels Thursday to back a call to bring Myanmar's junta chief to be tried in the international court for crimes against humanity, Myanmar's activist monks said in a statement Wednesday. "We request the EU to bring Than Shwe, leader of Burmese military junta, before the International Criminal Court to be tried for his crimes against humanity, as recommended by the European Parliament," said the All Burma Monks' Alliance, one of the driving forces behind the monk-led anti-regime demonstrations held in Yangon last September.

The alliance also appealed to the 27 Heads of State from the EU Council "to assist Burma's democracy movement led by detained leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi."

Thursday, the day the EU council gathers in Brussels, also marked Suu Kyi's 63rd birthday.

She will celebrate her birthday in her Yangon family compound where she has been kept under house detention in near complete isolation for the past five years.

Myanmar's military regime on May 27 extended Suu Kyi's house arrest for at least another year.

The junta, headed by Senior Geenral Than Shwe, drew international fury for its brutal crackdown on Buddhist monks last September and more recently for its callousness in handling disaster relief for some 2.4 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis, that smashed in to the country's central coastal region on May 2-3 leaving at least 133,000 people dead or missing.

Although Myanmar has accepted international aid, during the first two weeks of the cyclone catastrophe, authorities placed tight restrictions on granting visas for foreign relief experts, apparently concerned that an inflow of foreigners might affect their national referendum held on May 10 and 25 to endorse a new constitution that institutionalizes military rule in the country.

"The Burmese military junta has used the devastated situation of the people of Burma after the attack of Cyclone Nargis to consolidate its grip on power, and to exploit the generosity of the international community for its own benefit," said the All Burma Monks' Alliance.

"Some international actors assume that this is the time to save the lives, not to talk about the politics. Some even think that any harsh words or actions against the generals will jeopardize their humanitarian effort," the alliance said.

"This is totally wrong, morally, principally and practically. The Burmese military junta and their policies are responsible for all bad things happening in Burma, all the crises overloading the shoulders of the people of Burma," it added in its message to the EU Council.

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Popular UN-backed Internet word game feeds Myanmar’s cyclone victims
UN News Centre

17 June 2008 – Survivors of the cyclone which ravaged Myanmar last month will soon be receiving rice generated by the popular United Nations-backed Internet game that allows players to expand their word skills while helping to feed the world’s hungry.

FreeRice.com, in which players donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) every time they answer a question correctly, has already generated over 36 billion grains of rice – enough for more than 3.7 million meals.

Two consignments of rice for Myanmar have been paid for by YUM! and Unilever, the latest companies to help fund the FreeRice initiative.

WFP will be distributing the rice to many of the 755,000 people it is aiming to feed as part of relief efforts across Myanmar in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which struck the South-East Asian nation on 2-3 May.

The disaster caused the greatest damage to the Ayeyarwady Delta area and the country’s most populous city, Yangon. More than 134,000 people are dead or missing as a result, and as many as 2.4 million people were affected and need humanitarian assistance.

In recent weeks WFP has dispatched at least 11,000 tons of food assistance in the country and now has 10 chartered helicopters flying in the Delta, enabling the delivery of vital relief supplies to those who need it most.

In a related development, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said today that Myanmar’s health system is “back on its feet” following last month’s tragedy thanks to an all-out response by the Government, the UN and the international community.

The agency noted that within the first 10 days of the disaster, medical supplies had been provided to all major hospitals. Since then, teams have fanned out beyond the major centres and were now examining patients in some of the remote areas.

At the same time, WHO said that a major health concern continues to be the quality and availability of water. The agency is disinfecting some 6 million litres of water daily, enough for approximately 2 million people.

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Most rice mills resume work in cyclone-hit areas in Myanmar
Tuesday June 17, 2008, 3:21 pm

YANGON, June 17 Asia Pulse - Most of the rice mills in Myanmar's Yangon division, which were destroyed in a cyclone storm early last month, have resumed operation after prompt repair, the local weekly Flower News reported Tuesday.

Of the 110 over-15-ton rice mills in Yangon division, nearly 100 have returned to normal operation since the beginning of this month, the report said quoting the Myanmar's Rice Millers Association.

However, of the 170 rice mills in the cyclone-hard- hit Ayeyawaddy delta region, only 50 could run.

The private rice millers are endeavoring to put all the 280 rice mills in both divisions into full production by the beginning of next year, the report added.

Meanwhile, according to Tuesday's official newspaper New Light of Myanmar, 32 main rice mills of 25-ton capacity in the delta region's Mawlamyinegyun township have been reoperating normally after renovation.

Ayeyawaddy division was traditionally known as the "rice bowl" of Myanmar.

In the cyclone disaster, over 1 million acres (405,000 hectares)of cultivable lands were flooded with sea water in 7 townships in Ayeyawaddy division, 3 in Yangon division, 2 in Bago division and 3 in Mon state during the storm with over 200,000 draught cattle killed, according to official statistics.

Meanwhile, a month after the storm Nargis, surviving farmers in a number of cyclone-hit townships in Ayeyawaddy delta and Yangon division, including Kungyangon, Laputta, Ngaputtaw, Mawlamyinegyun, Bogalay and Dedaye, have started ploughing monsoon paddy using powered tillers provided in place of storm-swept draught cattle.

Besides the rice mills, fish and prawn breeding ponds in Yangondivision' s Twantay, Kayan and Kyauktan townships as well as those in Ayeyawaddy division's Dedaye township were much destroyed by the storm Nargis.

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

The storm has killed 77,738 people and left 55,917 missing and 19,359 injured according to the official-released death toll.

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Myanmar cyclone: Burying the dead
ReliefWeb (press release)
Source: World Relief
Date: 17 Jun 2008

The sight of dead bodies strewn across the landscape is horrific.

Myanmar’s people – weighed down by trauma and grief in the wake of Cyclone Nargis – can barely cope with the images of death surrounding them.

With 133,000 dead or missing, thousands of bodies remain uncollected and unburied. In many communities ravaged by the cyclone, there are more dead than living.

Survivors asked World Relief’s partners on the ground to make burying the dead a top priority.

Members of our teams – consisting of local Christian volunteers – continue to collect bodies and bury them with dignity.

It’s a grim task – but it helps the survivors deal with their overwhelming trauma and loss.

‘It’s a sad and gruesome job, but one that the survivors themselves have made a priority,’ reports a worker at the scene. ‘We are respecting that desire.’

Relief Aid Goes On

Meanwhile, World Relief’s partners aim to reach nearly 100,000 survivors with vital supplies, including food, tarps and hygiene items.

Teams working with our key partner agency – World Concern – include medical workers and trauma counselors.

Hundreds of local volunteers have been trained to help with relief efforts.

‘Some of the volunteers themselves are showing the wear and tear of seeing terrible suffering,’ an aid worker reports.

Long Term Recovery

Relief aid is still urgently needed, but our teams are also turning their attention towards long term recovery.

Many survivors are farmers and fishermen. They need support to replant their fields and replace lost fishing boats and nets.

World Relief’s partners aim to help in various ways – repairing irrigation and water systems, providing oxen for plowing, supplying seeds and tools, and replacing fishing equipment.

In villages where bamboo homes were torn apart by the cyclone, teams will help build storm shelters – providing safety in the event of future cyclones.

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