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HEADLINES
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AP - UN issues urgent plea for Myanmar
AP - Myanmar junta detains 14 calling for release of Aung San Suu Kyi
AP - Myanmar's junta announces small reshuffle of Cabinet and military posts
AP - Cindy McCain blasts Myanmar junta on Asia charity trip
AP - Cindy McCain praises UN relief operation for Myanmar's cyclone survivors
AP - Myanmar farmers fret over post-storm rice harvest
AP - Myanmar cyclone threatens water birds in delta region
AP - EU leaders issue appeal to Myanmar regime to release pro-democracy leader
IRIN - Corina Samuel, Myanmar, "We're getting ready to build again"
AFP - Suu Kyi in good health after cyclone: party official
AFP - Five Asian nations branded 'worst' violators of refugee rights
Reuters - Thai PTTEP, Myanmar to sign deal on M9 gas field
Bernama - Mercy M'sia to help rebuild healthcare facilities in Myanmar
IRNA - B'desh decides to end offshore gas dispute with India, Myanmar
EARTHtimes.org - Lack of funding threatens Myanmar helicopter relief operation
DVB News - Police visit detained NLD members’ families

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UN issues urgent plea for Myanmar
Fri Jun 20, 10:06 AM ET

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - The United Nations warned Friday that it will be forced to ground helicopters that have been ferrying critical aid to Myanmar's cyclone survivors unless the international community urgently provides more funding. 

The U.N.'s World Food Program said it was facing a critical shortage of funds for its logistical operation in the country, including 10 helicopters that have so far delivered lifesaving materials to 60 locations in the devastated Irrawaddy delta.

The use of helicopters, trucks and boats will "grind to a halt by the end of this month unless we get additional funding now," Chris Kaye, WFP's country director in Myanmar, said in a statement.

The U.N. estimates that 2.4 million people were affected by Cyclone Nargis and has warned that more than 1 million still need help.

The WFP issued an appeal for $50 million to fund its logistical operation, of which the helicopters are the most expensive to run, but has so far received pledges and funding to cover just 60 percent, the statement said.

Myanmar's junta faced worldwide criticism after the May 2-3 storm for failing to speed aid to cyclone survivors and initially barring foreign aid workers from the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta.

Two weeks after the cyclone hit, the reclusive regime authorized the U.N. to use 10 helicopters inside the country.

The helicopters, which were chartered from South Africa, Uganda and elsewhere, provided a crucial boost to aid workers who had been unable to reach hundreds of remote villages in the Irrawaddy delta.

"Of those several hundred villages, we have now reached 60," said WFP spokesman Paul Risley. "We still have many more villages to reach."

The cyclone killed 78,000 people and left an additional 56,000 missing, according to Myanmar's government.

Separately, EU leaders appealed Friday for the regime to drop its restrictions on international aid agencies seeking to help the victims of the cyclone.

The declaration criticized Myanmar for holding a referendum on a new constitution just after the cyclone hit.

It also called on Myanmar's military leaders to release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

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Myanmar junta detains 14 calling for release of Aung San Suu Kyi
AP - Friday, June 20

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's ruling military junta detained 13 opposition party members who called for the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she marked her 63rd birthday, witnesses said.

The 13 people were taken into a truck after dozens of Suu Kyi's supporters gathered outside the National League for Democracy party's headquarters in Yangon on Thursday, witnesses said on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

Some of those detained were punched and beaten before being taken away, they said.

The protesters shouted slogans calling for the government to immediately release Suu Kyi "who has been unfairly detained."

A Buddhist monk was also arrested, according to a government official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press. The circumstances of his detention were not clear.

Last month, the junta extended the house arrest of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate for a sixth year, despite international protests.

The Suu Kyi supporters dispersed Thursday _ some running back into party headquarters _ after more than a hundred pro-junta thugs approached in six trucks.

Security was tight around both the party headquarters and near her home, with extra barricades at both locations.

Some 40 plainclothes security officials and other pro-junta men were stationed around the headquarters.

When a group of Buddhist nuns stood outside the headquarters to pray, some security officials videotaped them.

Earlier in the day, the party celebrated Suu Kyi's birthday by offering meals to Buddhist monks at the headquarters, several miles (kilometers) from her home.

Suu Kyi offered yellow roses at Yangon's famous Shwedagon pagoda through a member of her political party.

Party member Myint Soe, who buys and brings food daily for Suu Kyi, offered 64 roses at the soaring Buddhist shrine, signifying the beginning of her 64th year, party sources said.

He also laid 64 yellow chrysanthemums at the tomb of Khin Kyi, Suu Kyi's mother and the wife of Myanmar independence hero Gen. Aung San. The tomb is located at the foot of the Shwedagon pagoda.

A neighbor said Suu Kyi spent a quiet birthday inside her lakeside compound.

"Her compound is quiet. So far no visitors have come to bless her, no monks have come to accept alms," said the neighbor, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.

Suu Kyi has spent more than 12 of the last 18 years under detention. Her party swept national elections in 1990 but the ruling junta refused to honor the results..

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Myanmar's junta announces small reshuffle of Cabinet and military posts
AP - Saturday, June 21

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's junta reshuffled three of its top-ranked officials Friday, giving one of the key ministers in charge of cyclone relief work more time to focus on his job.

The unexpected reshuffle was announced on state-run radio and television Friday. No explanation was given, as is customary for Myanmar's secretive military regime.

One of the key ministers handling post-cyclone management, Resettlement Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Maung Swe, previously held two Cabinet posts. His other portfolio, minister of immigration and population, was given to Maj. Gen. Saw Lwin.

The U.N. estimates that 2.4 million people were affected by the May 2-3 cyclone, which killed more than 78,000 and left another 56,000 missing.

Maung Maung Swe has been one of the junta's point men for coordinating with U.N. officials and diplomats in cyclone relief work. The change apparently was to allow him to concentrate on relief efforts.

Saw Lwin was previously one of the government's two industry ministers. That job, called Industry Minister Two, was transferred to Vice Admiral Soe Thein, the navy's commander in chief.

Naming a senior military commander to a lower-ranking Cabinet post is unusual, but Soe Thein is approaching 60, the age of retirement for a navy chief, said officials who spoke on customary condition of anonymity.

A new navy commander was not immediately named.

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Cindy McCain blasts Myanmar junta on Asia charity trip
By MARGIE MASON,Associated Press Writer
AP - Friday, June 20

HANOI, Vietnam - Cindy McCain blasted Myanmar's military junta and vowed to make improving human rights there a priority if she becomes America's next first lady.

She traveled to Asia this week, far from the U.S. presidential campaign trail and her husband, Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting Sen. John McCain, to showcase her charity work and get a close-up look at relief efforts for victims of last month's devastating cyclone in Myanmar.

She said she didn't even bother trying to get a visa to Myanmar, knowing it would likely be denied by the secretive government. Instead, the U.N. World Food Program in Thailand will brief her Friday about its work.

Cyclone Nargis killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing, according to the government, which has turned away some assistance offered by the United States and other countries.

"It's just a terrible group of people that rule the country, and the frightening part is that their own people are dying of disease and starvation and everything else and it doesn't matter," she said Thursday in Vietnam, while working with a charity that helps children born with facial deformities. "I don't understand how human life doesn't matter to somebody. But clearly, it doesn't matter to them."

Current first lady Laura Bush also has been a sharp critic of human rights abuses in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Cindy McCain said she would continue that push if she winds up in the White House. She has visited Myanmar twice, including once when her husband met with pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in detention for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

She also visited the Vietnamese coastal town of Nha Trang where about 100 children born with cleft palates and cleft lips were awaiting free surgery provided by the U.S. charity Operation Smile. The procedures will take place offshore on one of the U.S. Navy's hospital ships, the USNS Mercy.

She has made several trips to Vietnam, where her husband was shot down during the Vietnam War and held for more than five years as a prisoner of war.

"This is what I do, and this is what revitalizes me, personally," she said. "The campaign is extremely important, of course, but this is also important to me, and so you try to balance everything."

She also plans to visit Cambodia to participate in charity work there.

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Cindy McCain praises UN relief operation for Myanmar's cyclone survivors
AP - Friday, June 20

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Cindy McCain, wife of U.S. Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting Sen. John McCain, has praised the U.N.'s effort to help victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and panned the country's military regime for failing to welcome aid.

Cindy McCain, a philanthropist with long experience in humanitarian assistance, spoke Friday after touring a warehouse at an airport in the Thai capital, Bangkok, where the U.N.'s World Food Program collects supplies it then airlifts to Myanmar.

She praised the efficiency of the operation, saying that there are millions of well-meaning people willing to help out in such emergencies, “but unless it's organized ... it's all for nothing.”

She said she wished Myanmar's ruling junta “had been more caring of their own people,” and she was “disheartened' ' at the regime's reluctance to admit skilled foreign aid workers and helicopters that could deliver aid quickly to remote areas.

“There have been many, many people who died as a result of their lack of ability and their lack of interest in helping their own people,” she said.

The WFP consolidates aid from some 45 humanitarian and charity groups and flies it into Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, for onward shipment to areas affected by the May 2-3 storm.

Cindy McCain was briefed by WFP officials about the agency's operations worldwide, which often see it taking a leading role on logistics to ensure that its aid can get delivered, and was told that the program has developed a good relationship with Myanmar's government since it has been working there for 14 years.

“I'm very encouraged to hear that WFP has developed a relationship with Myanmar,” she said. “There's some trust back and forth now and I think that it's imperative not only for this particular situation but imperative from a global aspect for people to begin to trust and talk.”

She dodged a reporter's question of whether the WFP's engagement with the junta was more productive than the approach taken by the United States and other Western nations, which try to isolate the military regime by imposing political and economic sanctions against it. Her husband, like most mainstream U.S politicians, backs sanctions because of the junta's poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

“I can speak to this only as someone who's done relief work her entire adult life and I know from my own experience that people-to-people is what this is all about, and government-to- government _ I would suggest go talk to my husband about that.”

She was willing to comment however, on Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who's been in detention for more than 12 of the last 19 years. Her party swept national elections in 1990 but the ruling junta refused to honor the results.

John McCain met Suu Kyi in Myanmar during one of the periods when she was free, and came back from the experience with “inspiration, ” she said.

“How could you not be inspired by someone like that,” she said. “She's an amazing woman and certainly a glow of light in that part of the world.

Earlier in her Asia trip, Cindy McCain said she didn't even bother trying to get a visa to Myanmar, knowing it would likely be denied by the secretive government.

She arrived in Thailand from Vietnam, and will travel over the weekend to Cambodia, where she will visit another WFP operation on Monday.

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Myanmar farmers fret over post-storm rice harvest
AP - Friday, June 20

KYUNG GWIN, Myanmar (AP) - Farmer Zaw Naing was puzzled as he stared at the brand new, unassembled tilling machine - equipment not seen in most of Myanmar’s rice belt before the deadly cyclone.

Thousands of the tillers, donated by international and private aid donors, have been brought in to replace the water buffalo that once plowed the rice paddies but were killed by Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3.

The plan is for farmers in the devastated Irrawaddy delta to rebuild their livelihoods and begin producing the rice that feeds this impoverished country.

But time is running out.

The rice planting season should have started by early June, when farmers here typically plow their fields with water buffalo and prepare to plant new seeds for the October harvest. The delta produces most of Myanmar’s rice, and without immediate help, food security will be seriously threatened, international experts have warned.

The Agriculture Ministry has said 13,600 power tillers are needed to replace more than 280,000 cattle that died in the storm.

Some farmers say they have been lucky enough to receive the new machines but need to reassemble them since the tillers were shipped in several pieces.

“We don’t know how to put it together. We have to wait for a mechanic to come,” Zaw Naing said on a recent afternoon in the delta village of Kyaung Gwin as he unwrapped the plastic cover of the Chinese-made machine’s red engine. He watched as a neighbor tugged at the machine’s parts and pulled its gear shifts.

Most farmers in the delta have not managed to get a mechanical tiller. But once they do, they face further challenges: farmers can’t afford the diesel fuel to power the machines and don’t know how to operate them.

“I don’t know how to use this machine. We only used buffalo in the past,” said Zaw Naing, who lost his home in the cyclone as well as the 10 water buffalo that plowed his fields.

He has been told by local authorities to share the tiller with five other farmers in his village, which is south of the town of Labutta in one of the hardest hit areas. The cyclone killed some 78,000 people and left 56,000 more missing.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in an assessment last week that the delta normally produces about 60 percent of Myanmar’s rice and the outlook for this year’s crop is “very uncertain” after the storm flooded paddy fields with sea water, damaged irrigation systems and destroyed seed supplies.

“Little to no actual progress has been made to restore or rehabilitate damaged lands and infrastructure,” the report said. “Farmers are yet to be supplied with sufficient food, viable seed, tools, livestock or replacement mechanical tillers and fuel.”

Myanmar’s Agriculture Ministry says it is sending experts to train farmers and will send 140,000 baskets of salt-resistant rice seed - the equivalent of 2,900 tons - to the delta, a fraction of what is needed.

Once the world’s top producer, Myanmar has seen rice exports drop from nearly 4 million tons to about 40,000 tons last year, after four decades of military rule and disastrous economic policies. Its exports are so small these days that few expect the cyclone will have any impact on world rice prices; the people of Myanmar consume most of the rice the country produces.

U.N. Undersecretary- General Noeleen Heyzer issued an urgent plea Friday for donations of 1 million gallons of diesel fuel to help farmers run the tillers.

Myanmar’s agriculture minister, Maj. Gen. Htay Oo, told Heyzer that the fuel is needed to run some 5,000 tillers donated by Thailand, China and other countries. Private donors and aid agencies have contributed additional machines.

“The window of opportunity is very short,” said Heyzer, the senior U.N. official in Asia. After the planting season ends in July, it will be too late, she said, warning of “disastrous consequences for food security in Myanmar.”

The sense of urgency - and frustration - was shared by rice farmer Tin Yein, whose wife, five farm hands and eight buffalo were killed in the cyclone. He spent a whole day recently lined up with 200 other farmers in Labutta, where dozens of donated tillers were being stored in a government warehouse waiting to be distributed.

“I didn’t get one today, but maybe I will get it tomorrow,” said Tin Yein, sitting at a tea shop in town after a day of dealing with red tape. Farmers applying for the mechanical tillers must be accompanied by their village headmen, said Tin Yein, and his local official arrived too late to process the request that day.

“Normally, planting season starts May 15. I’m already a month late,” said the farmer, who has 70 acres of land. Each harvest produced about 30,000 baskets of rice, enough to feed his family and bring in some $9,000 a year in income.

Tin Yein wonders how he’ll afford to use the mechanical tiller. He says he’ll need to hire eight men and a boat to transport the machine to his village, about an hour away and accessible only by narrow waterways.

Each machine uses two gallons of diesel per acre and government rations restrict each person to five gallons of fuel every few days. Fuel is available on the black market but for twice the official price of $2.70 per gallon.

“I have no money for diesel because every day I struggle just to buy food,” Tin Yein said “I’m not hopeful of planting before the rainy season is over.”

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Myanmar cyclone threatens water birds in delta region
AP - Friday, June 20

YANGON, Myanmar - Water birds in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta are under threat because much of their habitat was destroyed by Cyclone Nargis, a report said Thursday.

The swamps and mangrove forests in the vast delta are home to a variety of water birds, including cranes, cormorants and bronze-winged jacana.

But the birds, which feed on crabs, fish and shrimp, are being threatened by the dramatic changes in their habitat caused by the May 2-3 cyclone, said the Eleven journal, a weekly magazine.

It quoted naturalist Soe Nyunt, chairman of the Myanmar Bird and Nature Society, as saying many birds, including cranes and wild ducks, perished in the storm, which cut a swath of death and destruction through the delta. More than 130,000 people were killed or are missing, according to the government.

Soe Nyunt said 50 to 70 painted storks were spotted in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, in early June after migrating from their usual habitat in the delta. He said the birds usually don't move to new habitats.

"We have to study if these water birds will remain in the delta. We have to rebuild the damaged ecology once the rescue and relief work of cyclone victims is over," Soe Nyunt was quoted as saying.

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EU leaders issue appeal to Myanmar regime to release pro-democracy leader
AP - Saturday, June 21

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - EU leaders appealed Friday to Myanmar's military leaders to release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

The 27 European leaders also called on the regime in Myanmar to drop its restrictions on international aid agencies seeking to help the victims of the May 2-3 Cyclone Nargis.

The declaration criticized Myanmar for holding a referendum on a new constitution just after the cyclone hit.

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MYANMAR: Corina Samuel, Myanmar, "We're getting ready to build again"
20 Jun 2008 12:23:24 GMT

INSEIN, 20 June 2008 (IRIN) - Seven weeks after Cyclone Nargis pummelled southern Myanmar - leaving over 130,000 dead or missing and 2.4 million destitute - survivors are struggling to pick up the pieces. While most of the damage was in the country's southern Ayeyarwady Delta, even those in Yangon, the former Burmese capital, did not escape its wrath. In Insein, a suburb of the city, Corina Samuel, 43, told IRIN the horror of finding her home gone.

"When I saw the house I felt my soul had just left me. I was empty. It was a shock, a big shock, a disappointment, and then a bigger headache.

"But we were lucky. We weren't home when it happened. My two brothers were. The wind and the rain were terrible. The roof was torn off and the whole house semi-collapsed at about 2am. It was pitch dark. No electricity and everything was flying around in the dark. And then the rain poured in on everything in the house. And we lost it all - books, papers, appliances - everything.

"Yet no one was hurt so we were lucky.

"We had planned for some weeks to visit relatives in another part of the country, and so we were not far from Mandalay [Myanmar's second largest city] when I heard the news.

"Should I rebuild the house? Or should I tear down what's left and rebuild it? I felt so hopeless looking at the remains.

"We aren't farmers. And no, we don't live in the Ayeyarwady Delta. We live in Yangon, not far from the airport, and we live on high ground. Our extended family lives in two traditional wood and bamboo houses. Four years ago we put tin roofs on our houses, instead of the leaves we used before and which we had to change every two years. It cost a lot of money; over a year's family income. We live - I should say lived - comfortably, in a traditional wood and bamboo house.

"But now the roof and the house are not there - just a few posts. We are clearing away what's left of the house; we're getting ready to build again."

"We have three fish ponds, and fruit trees and vegetables. We raise a few pigs, chickens and ducks. We don't plant rice, but we mostly live off our land. We sell our fish, and always share with our neighbours. And we traded. We traded grass for milk and yoghurt from a neighbour.

"We lost our rice supplies in the storm, and could not cook. Neighbours brought us food. We had to go to the city to buy water to drink.

"I'm back in university now, 20 years after I graduated, but now with a five-year-old. She lost her teddy bears, dolls and other stuffed animals, her friends. But we were lucky. We were not here when the cyclone struck.

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Suu Kyi in good health after cyclone: party official
Fri Jun 20, 1:36 AM ET

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was in good health when her personal doctor visited her after last month's deadly cyclone, a senior official with her party told AFP on Friday.
Her doctor is one of the only people the military junta allows to see the Nobel Peace Prize winner inside her lakeside home, where she has been under house arrest for most of the last 18 years.

"Her doctor was allowed to visit her last month after the cyclone. It was his first visit in four months," the party official said.

"As far as I know, her health condition is fine," he added.

Part of the roof of her house in the main city Yangon was damaged when Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar seven weeks ago, killing more than 133,000 people and leaving 2.4 million in need of humanitarian aid.

Despite the devastation, Myanmar's junta last month extended Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest by another year, brushing off complaints from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party that her detention is illegal.

Fourteen people were arrested Thursday after a small protest held to mark her 63rd birthday, where her supporters shouted for her freedom on the sidewalk outside NLD's headquarters.

Aung San Suu Kyi led her party to a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but has never been allowed to govern.

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Five Asian nations branded 'worst' violators of refugee rights
by P. Parameswaran

WASHINGTON, June 20, 2008 (AFP) - China, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Bangladesh have been identified as among the worst violators of refugees' rights in a global survey released ahead of Friday's World Refugees Day.

They joined Iraq, Kenya, Russia, Sudan and Europe as the 10 worst places for refugees last year, according to the World Refugee Survey 2008 released in Washington on Thursday.

The annual study, conducted by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), a non-governmental group, also showed the total number of refugees growing to 14 million at the end of 2007, the largest it has been since 2001.

Driving the growth again were Iraqi refugees, with more than 550,000 fleeing their country. In all, more than two million refugees from the insurgency-wracked nation are awaiting an end to violence in their homeland.

The worst places for refugees list was based on violators turning refugees away to face further persecution, violence, and possibly death, or letting them enter a country and subjecting them to deprivation and stultifying limbo, USCRI said.

"We've tried to call attention to these countries because they have been particularly egregious in their treatment of refugees," USCRI president Lavinia Limon said.

"Some of them have forced refugees back into dangerous situations, some of them have warehoused refugees in camps for decades, and some of them have done their best to make sure refugees never enter their territory. Some of them have done all of the above," she said.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has made refugee protection the theme of this year's events marking World Refugee Day.

In a report card, where countries are graded from A to F and that formed the basis for the USCRI worst violators' list, China, Malaysia and Thailand received an F grade following a study on forcibly returning refugees to their homes and physical protection of refugees.

Some of the North Korean refugees repatriated by China have reportedly been executed.

Malaysia forcibly sent refugees from Myanmar to Thailand, where "some of them were sold into slavery -- men to fishing boats and women to brothels," said Merrill Smith, USCRI director of international planning and analysis.

Thailand also forced refugees to return to Myanmar and Laos, he said.

Malaysia and Thailand also got an F grade together with Bangladesh and China in a study on conditions in which refugees were detained and provided access to courts.

In the category where freedom of movement of refugees was gauged, Thailand and Bangladesh received the worst grade. "Thailand confined about 140,000 refugees in special refugee camps where they are not allowed to leave -- mostly those from Myanmar and Laos," Smith said.

Malaysia, Bangladesh and Nepal also received the worst grade in a study on whether governments allowed refugees to earn a livelihood.

One of the reasons that India was listed as among the worst places for refugees was because of its "radically discriminatory treatment of refugees," said Smith.

"They treat refugees depending on their nationality -- at the better end of the spectrum would be the Tibetan refugees, they are treated the best. Sri Lankans not so well but worst of all would be the Chin ethnic group from Myanmar," he said.

Smith pointed out that treating refugees well did not mean that they would remain permanently in their host countries, citing Malaysia as an example.

He said that Malaysia in 2005 issued documents to refugees from neighboring Indonesia's Aceh province allowing them to work and move about freely following the tsunami disaster that devastated the province.

Of the 32,000 Acehnese who received those documents, only 6,000 remained in Malaysia as of this year while the others returned home, Smith said.

"The interesting part about that is that treating refugees well does not cause them to stay," he said.

Western nations were also criticized in the report, including the United States and the European Union which received grades of F and D, respectively, for their poor physical protection of refugees including the forced repatriation of some asylum-seekers.

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Thai PTTEP, Myanmar to sign deal on M9 gas field
Reuters - Saturday, June 21

BANGKOK, June 20 - Thailand's PTT Exploration & Production PCL <PTTE.BK> will sign a heads of agreement on Monday with the Myanmar government to develop the offshore Block M9 natural gas project, a Thai ministry official said on Friday.

Thai Energy Minister Poonpirom Liptapanlop will fly to neighbouring Myanmar on June 23 to sign the agreement, a senior ministry official Kurujit Nakornthap told reporters.

"It will be a signing between PTT and Myanmar Oil and Gas along with PTTEP," Kurujit said.

PTTEP would also sign a heads of agreement with top oil and gas firm PTT PCL <PTT.BK> for a natural gas supply deal.

The company is expected to supply an early 300 million cubic feet per day from M9 of which 240 mmcfd would be delivered to Thailand and the rest 60 mmcfd to Myanmar.

PTTEP owns 100 percent of Block M9, which is still under exploration in the Gulf of Martaban, south of the main city, Yangon.

The project is expected to be in operation in 2012.

The gas supply deal was targeted to rise to 400 mmcfd in the future, he said.

PTTEP's subsidiary is also the sole operator of offshore Blocks M7 and M9 after signing production sharing contracts with the state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise in 2003.

On Friday, PTTEP shares closed up 1.48 percent at 172.15 baht while the main stock index <.SETI> rose 3.56 percent to 768.90 points.

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Mercy M'sia to help rebuild healthcare facilities in Myanmar
Bernama - Saturday, June 21

KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 (Bernama) -- Mercy Malaysia is working to help rebuild and equip at least five healthcare facilities in Delta Irrawaddy,

Myanmar, which were destroyed in the May 3 Cyclone Nargis.

Mercy Malaysia president Datuk Dr Jemilah Mahmood said the non-governmental organisation was discussing with Myanmar's Health Ministry to identify the areas and needs.

"Things are moving quite fast for us in Myanmar and we are getting the support from the government too. Their Health Ministry is helping us to identify the five areas that we can go in and help," she told
Bernama after the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) here today.

Mercy Malaysia was among the first foreign aid agencies to respond to the distress of the May 3 disaster that killed some 100,000 people and almost wiped out the whole Irrawaddy Delta.

To date, Mercy Malaysia had set up a mobile clinic in Mawlamnyinjun and trained about 200 local doctors there.

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B'desh decides to end offshore gas dispute with India, Myanmar
Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, June 20, IRNA
Bangladesh-India- Myanmar-Gas

Bangladesh has decided to end offshore gas dispute with India and Myanmar through dialogue as the two neighbours raised objections against exploration in several blocks bordering their maritime boundary.

According to PTI report, the state-run Petro-bangla prepared a letter to be sent to New Delhi and Yangon seeking to hold tripartite talks immediately as India recently categorically objected to exploration in eight offshore blocks close to its maritime border while Myanmar generally objected Bangladesh's exploration attempts in areas close to its maritime boundary.

"Bangladesh suggests that all exploration and extraction in the Bay of Bengal by the countries should be suspended until a decision is made. If India and Myanmar continue work and do not respond to our letter, Bangladesh will resume its activities as well."

Petrobangla chairman Jalal Ahmed said they sent the draft letter to the Energy Ministry for review ahead of sending it to the two neighbouring countries through Foreign Ministry.

"The dispute should come to an end through discussion. Neither we nor they (India and Myanmar) will explore in disputed areas until a solution is found through talks," Chief Adviser's Special Assistant to Energy Ministry M Tamim said.

The objections came as energy-starved Bangladesh initiated a move to explore the offshore blocks launching its first offshore bidding round earlier this year amid growing demands for gas and power.

Seven international oil companies last month submitted bids for 15 offshore blocks but Petrobangla sources said India recently also conveyed its objections in letters sent to the companies who submitted bids in the offshore blocks.

The exploration companies forwarded these letters to Petrobangla seeking explanation.

But the Foreign Ministry officials said the bidding process was unlikely to be frustrated despite the objections as disputes could be settled through negotiation as fixing maritime borders would take time to be finalised.

"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," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

"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 added.

Bangladesh announced the off-shore bidding round in February with 20 deep sea blocks and eight shallow water blocks -- each having exploration area cover between 3,000 and 7,000 square kilometers.

Santos International of Australia appeared as the top bidder, making a total investment proposal of USD 852 million under three Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) for six blocks in partnership with British Cairn Energy it it is selected.

US-based company Conoco Phillips submitted four bids for eight deep sea blocks as the company intends to sign four production sharing contracts, each for two blocks.

A US-China joint venture, Longwoods Resources, has bid for a shallow sea block and two deep sea blocks.

Analysts earlier called this round of bidding crucial for Bangladesh's energy sector as the country desperately needs to find new gas reserves as the gas crisis is projected to be acute after 2011.

The industries have long been complaining about the gas shortage hampering the production while concerns were increased last week with a government statement announcing restrictions of new gas connections in view of dwindling reserves.

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Lack of funding threatens Myanmar helicopter relief operation
EARTHtimes.org
Posted : Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:05:01 GMT
Author : DPA

Yangon - Lack of international funding is threatening a helicopter operation providing vital emergency relief to 2.4 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned Friday. "WFP is leading the way in moving life-saving supplies to distressed communities by boat, truck and air - but it will all grind to a halt by the end of this month unless we get additional funding now," said Chris Kaye, WFP country director for Myanmar.

To date, only about half of the 50 million dollars required for the WFP's logistical operation has been secured and much of that money has already been spent, Kaye said.

Cyclone Nargis smashed in to Myanmar's central coast on May 2-3, leaving more than 133,000 people dead or missing and another 2.4 million in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medicines.

The initial disaster relief effort for the country was hindered by the ruling junta's restrictions placed on incoming aid supplies and international aid workers.

A major "breakthrough" was achieved on May 16, when the military regime gave the UN the go-ahead to bring in 10 WFP helicopters to speed up the delivery of emergency supplies to some of the remote areas of the watery Irrawaddy Delta, which was hard hit by the storm that left thousands without access to basic necessities.

The helicopters were finally delivered last week, and are now running into problems with sufficient funding.

Myanmar, a pariah state among Western democracies because of its atrocious human rights record and refusal to free Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, has been cut off from most sources of international aid since 1988, when the army cracked down on pro-democracy protestors killing some 3,000 people.

While many donors have put politics aside to assist the millions affected by the cyclone, there has been a reluctance to provide aid directly to the government, especially as there is still no authoritative assessment of the damage wrought by the cyclone.

The UN's flash appeal for some 200 million dollars has yet to be met, almost six weeks after the cyclone hit.

WFP's emergency operation to provide food assistance to 750,000 people in Myanmar is also struggling for funds, after receiving only 45 percent of the 69.5 million dollars required, said Kaye.

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Police visit detained NLD members’ families

Jun 20, 2008 (DVB)–Police officers and members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association warned the families of National League for Democracy members detained yesterday not to talk to anyone about the arrests.

Dr Win Naing, the NLD’s Rangoon division information coordinator, confirmed the names of the 10 people arrested yesterday during an event held to mark party leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s 63rd birthday.

An NLD member who witnessed the incident yesterday named those detained as Bahan NLD secretary Ko Htun Myint, Hlaing Tharyar NLD campaigning wing member U Hla Aye, Ko Maung Maung Thein of Mingalardon, an unnamed woman and a monk now identified as U Myint Swe.

Win Naing added the names of Bahan NLD joint secretary U Soe Oak, U San Baw and U Chit Khin of Ton Tay, U Maung Sein of Insein and Wah Khe Ma NLD deputy chairman U Htay Aung to this list.

The ten were arrested at NLD headquarters yesterday after members of Swan Arr Shin and the USDA turned up at the event and began beating members of the crowd.

Win Naing said police officers and USDA members had visited the detainees’ families later in the day.

"Police and USDA members went to the houses of those who were arrested yesterday evening and informed their families of the arrests,” he said.

“They warned them not to talk to anyone about it."

The NLD coordinator blamed the government for the authorities’ heavy-handed actions in suppressing the event.

"Some of the people were not arrested in front of the NLD headquarters, but while they were travelling to the event site," he said.

"This unlawful act of the USDA and SAS members who beat up and arrested our members was under direction from the government."

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