26 June 2008 : Burma News Extra
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Wanyin ill-informed choice for drug free project
Villagers flee to border to escape abuses by Burma Army
Hard to be innocent in Burma
Myanmar cyclone survivors proved tough, experts say
Burma blocks emergency telecoms
Burma survivors running out of food: UN
Brad Pitt, George Clooney launch Burma aid campaign
How to Handle Dictators
OCHA Situation Reports - Myanmar - Cyclone Nargis
United Nations Joint Logistics Center - Nargis operations News
Resettlement Of Myanmar Refugees From Thailand Tops 30,000 – Un Agency
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Wanyin ill-informed choice for drug free project
Shanland.org
26 June 2008
More than two years after the Yawngkha drug free project was abandoned by Thailand, Burma’s latest Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein, on his 29 April-1 May visit, reportedly proposed another project in a locality hitherto unknown to the outside world.
PaO Self-administered zone
The Yawngkha project, supported by the Thaksin administration, was launched in 2002 amid sharp reactions from its critics, among whom was Mom Chao Bhisatej Rajani, a member of the royalty and Director of the Royal Project in Doi Ang Khang on Chiangmai’s Fang border. “Was the area (Yawngkha) a poppy cultivation area (before the crop substitution project started)? It was not,” he told Bangkok Post, 19 February 2004. He added that while those who benefitted from the royal project he was working with were the people who had lived in the area for decades and had once earned a living from growing poppies, those in Yawngkha were Wa newcomers after the local people were forced out.
The Wa leadership had moved an estimated 125,000 people, according to a report by Lahu National Development Organization (LNDO), from the Sino-Burma border in northeastern Shan State to the Thai-Burma border, opposite Chiangrai, in the south between 1998 and 2001.
The project was also accused as a plot to remove the anti-junta Shan State Army (SSA) that is active in the area.
Three years later, the project was hastily suspended after the Wa’s 496kg heroin shipment was seized on 10 September, “although we are still sending them materials, whether they be seeds or medicines, when they ask for them,” according to a staff member of the Doi Tung Development Foundation established by the late HRH Princess Mother.
With 6 years of bitter experiences behind them, Thai authorities have agreed to make an orientation trip to the proposed area “at the earliest convenience,” according to Janya Sramatcha, head of the Thailand’s Office of the Narcotics Control Board northern sector.
Wanyin, also written Banyen, is a comfortable 35 miles (56km) south of the Shan State capital Taunggyi. During the British days, it was a 219 square mile princedom and a member of the Federated Shan States. Its famous son was Prince Sao Tun Yin, who was said to have won a distinguished medal for his valor during World War II. (SHAN’s cartoonist Harn Lay is his nephew).
After the princes’ relinquishment of their traditional powers to the elected Shan State Government in 1959, Wanyin became part of Hsihseng township, whose administrative seat is 30 miles (48km) further south.
In 2010, after the junta-drawn constitution comes into effect, Wanyin will be part of the PaO Self-Administered Zone, made up of Hopong, Hsihseng and Panglawng townships.
The Zone’s nominal head is expected to be Khun Aung Kham Hti, leader the ceasefire PaO National Organization (PNO), who reportedly believes he has “fulfilled my life’s mission” by achieving an autonomous status for the PaOs, who together with the Palaung have the second largest population in Shan State. He had concluded peace with the ruling military council in 1991 and had participated in the constitutional National Convention openly on the side of Burma’s generals.
One factor that Wanyin is different from Yawngkha is that its native inhabitants are involved in the cultivation and production of opium poppies. The area, since 2005 when the Wa declared itself opium free, has become Shan State’s biggest opium producer.
To add to that, the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) also appears to be in ample control of the area, unlike Wa, where junta authorities maintained only nominal presence. 4 light infantry battalions 423,424,425 and 426, are stationed in the township, the last two in Wanyin itself.
So far perfect for any crop substitution project. The only joker in the pack is the Shan State Nationalities People’s Liberation Organization (SNPLO), popularly known as “Red PaO” (in contrast to the PNO which is “White PaO” to the ordinary people), another PaO dominant ceasefire group that is active in Hsihseng township and the neighboring Mawkmai township in the east.
Split into three factions last year, one of them led by Khun Chit Maung surrendered to the SPDC on 6 May 2007. Another led by Khun Ti Hsawng and Khun Thurein went back to the armed struggle. The last faction led by the ageing old hands like Tarkeley, Sein Shwe and Soe Aung Lwin is still sticking to their guns and the ceasefire at their Nawng Htao base, southeast of Hsihseng.
One issue that cannot be overlooked is the bitter rivalry between the PNO and the SNPLO, which has deepened by the former’s apparent subservience to the SPDC. The SNPLO, especially the remaining ceasefire faction, is known to be highly motivated and was one of the 13 ceasefire groups that had called for more powers in order to manage the state’s affairs during the National Convention.
With the current volatile political atmosphere, intensified by reports of the ruling junta’s plan to subdue both the opposition parties and the ceasefire armed groups before 2010, the Wanyin project could be caught in the crossfire if launched prematurely.
The safe bet would be to launch the project only after 2010 and when it becomes clear that all the main political issues: democracy and state’s rights are resolved.
http://www.shanland.org/drugs/2008/wanyin-ill-informed-choice-for-drug-free-project
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Villagers flee to border to escape abuses by Burma Army
By Hseng Khio Fah
Shanland.org
No.17-6/2008 / 26 June 2008 / Human Rights
Villagers from Kunhing township, southern Shan State have been fleeing to Tachilek, Thai-Burma border to escape arrests and abuses committed by Burma Army following clash with Shan State Army last week, a Shan Herald reporter, Long Mai reports from the border.
Before the clash between 75-strong unit from Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 524 led by Lt Aung Win and 30-strong SSA troops from Brig 759 led by Cap Sai Ywe in Kunkwe village, Kunhing township, some civilians were arrested and tortured by members of LIB 524 for not reporting information about SSA operating in the area, according to villagers who arrived in Tachilek.
Long Kaw, 62, and Long Ta, 52 together with other three villagers from Papha village were arrested by LIB 524 before clash with SSA troops for half-an-hour in the morning of June 17. They were tortured by Burmese troops for not informing about SSA movement in the area, said one of the villagers.
He said, he was not sure when the five arrested would be released.
The next day after the clash, the LIB arrested the village headmen of Kunkwe, Sonkwe, Papha and Nagay villages, said the source.
“They were beaten every time when they were asked about the SSA. The villagers could no longer withstand the torture and told them where the SSA was located. But the Army did not follow the SSA. Then they told us to leave the village,” the source said.
The villagers were forced to leave their villages as a punishment for not informing the Burma Army about SSA operating in the area, according to Long Mai.
Sixteen villagers from Kunhing township arrived in Tachilek and more are still on their way to the border town, said the villagers.
“We just have to lead our lives here at the border. We dare not to go to Thailand too, because we don’t have any documents,” said one of the villagers.
http://www.shanland.org/humanrights/2008/villagers-flee-to-border-to-escape-abuses-by-burma-army
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Hard to be innocent in Burma
Shanland.org
No.16-6/2008 / 25 June 2008 / Drugs
“The government is bankrupt and the generals have all the money,” reported Mizzima News, 25 April, quoting a member of an International NGO in Rangoon.
Earlier, on 15 January, SF Chronicle quoted Xavier Bouan, UN illicit crop monitor based in Rangoon, “Everybody is involved in this trade in one way or the other. Insurgents, militia, government, ceasefire groups; for all of them, in a region where the economy is slowing down, it’s one of the only ways to survive and get cash.”
Reading carefully between the lines, nothing is more revealing than the above two quotes, when it comes to drugs, because that is what is actually taking place at the ground level, whatever happens in Rangoon with all the spectacular arrests of celebrities connected to the generals since the end of May.
Ordered to live off the land since 1996, army units in Shan State have been trying as best they can “to survive and get cash.”
Infantry Battalion 246, based in Kunhing, notorious for killing at least 150 people including a monk who was tied up in a sack and drowned during the infamous 1996-1998 forced relocation campaigns, is a perfect example.
In February, a 20-plus strong unit commanded by Lt Tin Aye (real name withheld by request) was assigned a security mission at the village of Nam Oi, 3 miles west of Kunhing on the road to Namzang. It was at the end of the season’s opium harvest and the farmers were picking the dry poppy pods to be used as seeds for the next season. “The soldiers not only came to help us pick the seed pods,” said one of the Shan farmers there, “they even warned us that the fields were too near the motor road and we should move them away from it next time.”
IB 246 and its sister unit Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 524 lived by taxing on the farmers: 10-30% of the harvest depending on the size of each field.
Last December, SHAN interviewed villagers coming from Kehsi township, Loilem district. One of them gave SHAN the following account:
Earlier in 2007, villagers were attending a meeting called by IB287 based in Wanzing to receive directives for the plantation of physic nuts, one of the Senior General’s bees in the bonnet, when the commander asked, “Do you grow poppies? If you don’t, what are you going to eat? Only if you have enough to eat, we (soldiers_) can also eat.”
Top growers in the area are Lahu, who arrived from the North following the forced relocations. “Then we have Palaung, Lisu and us Shans. We also saw a number of soldiers tending their own fields,” said a villager.
Life certainly is harsh even for the junta personnel especially for those at the lower rungs of the strata.
Last September, 6 policemen from Homong, Mawkmai township, opposite Maehongson, deserted with 2 pistols and 2 walkie-talkies and the newly arrived head of the station was ordered to pay for the losses, priced at K1.2 million ($880) or the equivalent of Senior General Than Shwe’s monthly pay. The princely sum was eventually taken care of by Col Maha Ja, head of the local militia and for whom Thailand has issued an arrest warrant on drug charges.
The said officer has been in his debt since. “What could he do?”, asked a militia member rhetorically. “His monthly pay is just enough to buy two Hsins (sarong) for his wife.”
Maha Ja’s Shan State South (SSS) company trucks are reportedly never searched by the local Burmese authorities.
Understandably, the annual poppy lashing campaigns launched by the junta were carried out “only to put on official record,” according to a pro-junta militia leader in Mongton township, opposite Chiangmai. “But be careful no Wa fighters are on the destruction teams. These guys don’t just thrash the plants like us and the soldiers. They like to pull out the plants from the earth, roots and all.”
Likewise, some seizures which really deserve screaming headlines just went by without an audible sound.
Between 4-8 November 2007, a combined force led by police officer Ye Naing came across a heroin refinery located in a gully near the village of Htitan in Hsihseng township, 57 miles south of the state capital Taunggyi. The total haul was estimated to be K2.5 billion ($2million).
The refinery was reportedly owned by Khun Chit Maung, former leader of the ceasefire Shan State Nationalities Peoples Liberation Organization (SNPLO), “who had been paying K 5 million ($4,000) per month to the Eastern Region Command and K3 million ($2,400) to each of the light infantry battalions stationed in the area, LIB 425 and LIB 426,” according to a local source, who had proved to be reliable in the past.
It was not the only case worth mentioning. The year 2007 also saw other cases which were as much exciting if not more:
* On 22-28 January 2007, authorities seized 20 kg of heroin, 50 kg of raw opium, 1 million pills of methamphetamine, 2 million yuan, $38,400 and K50 million from the Panhsay militia in Namkham township. But its leader Kyaw Myint aka Li Yongqiang, who is said to be close to the regional commander, remains untouched.
* On 27 May, 5 officials who had detained Yaw Chang Wa (Yaw Chang Hpa), an officer in the ceasefire Kachin Defense Army on drug charges, were ambushed and killed. But the group remains scot free.
* On 18 September, a joint patrol of LIB 553 and LIB 554 waved down a four wheel drive between Punako and Mongtoom, Monghsat township, opposite Chiangrai. It found one slab of heroin (350gm, two slabs make one block, called jin in Chinese), which they were said to have brought as a sample to a prospective customer. The 5 militiamen on the truck were detained but were released on 5 October, when the group’s leader Ja Ngoi returned and met the authorities concerned.
“The only damage caused by the incident was the removal of the refinery to a new location,” said an informed businessman from Tachilek. “It is just one and a half miles north of Hpak Ha village, which is guarded by LIB 553. It therefore seems inconceivable the Burma Army knows nothing about it.”
It appears that the longer the generals so needlessly continue expanding their armed forces, the drug problem is here to stay.
http://www.shanland.org/drugs/2008/hard-to-be-innocent-in-burma
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Myanmar cyclone survivors proved tough, experts say
AP
BY GRANT PECK, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago
Dire warnings that cyclone survivors in Myanmar might fall prey to disease and starvation failed to take into account the survival instincts of those affected, aid agencies and disaster experts say.
The resilience of the people — along with the skills of Myanmar citizens working for local and international humanitarian agencies — proved to be the most critical survival weapons and helped mitigate the limited access allowed to foreign disaster experts, they said.
U.N. agencies and private humanitarian groups agree a feared second wave of post-cyclone casualties did not take place. And barriers the junta put in the way of foreign aid appears not to have caused a measurable increase in deaths from illness and lack of food.
"These parts of Myanmar are visited by cyclones almost every year, although not of the same scale," said Ramesh Shrestha, the UNICEF representative in Myanmar. "Hence people were quite able to adapt to this sudden impact."
Myanmar's government said this week that a survey undertaken jointly with the U.N. and the regional Association of Southeast Asia Nations found no post-cyclone deaths related to lack of assistance, though the findings are preliminary.
No one is saying Cyclone Nargis was not a tragedy of epic proportions or that Myanmar's military government was justified in turning aside offers of outside aid.
The images of swollen bodies lying unattended weeks after the May 2-3 storm and lines of desperate refugees camped along roadsides waiting for food handouts testify to the failures of the initial relief effort.
The government's official death toll now stands at 84,537 dead, with 53,836 missing.
But almost all the casualties appear to have been caused directly by the cyclone — surprising in view of warnings circulated immediately after the storm, when most foreign assistance and foreign aid workers were kept out of the disaster zone.
"The stories that were coming out after the disaster were very focused on what wasn't getting in," said Melanie Brooks, a spokeswoman in Bangkok for the humanitarian agency CARE.
Journalists could not get permission to enter the country, and those who sneaked in faced tight restrictions in reporting. Consequently, much of the news came from Thailand, where the main story was how the junta was rejecting outside aid.
The media were able to quote some important people to make the case that a second disaster was in the making in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "We have an intolerable situation, created by a natural disaster. It is being made into a man-made catastrophe by the negligence, the neglect and the inhuman treatment of the Burmese people by a regime that is failing to act."
And U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: "Unless more aid gets into the country — quickly — we face the risk of an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dramatically worsen today's crisis."
But relief experts now acknowledge the risks were probably overstated.
"Predictions by some agencies of epidemics were not borne out by the facts," said two London-based disaster researchers, Ben Ramalingam and John Mitchell. "Some agencies may well have overreacted."
There is a reason why "aid agencies jump up and down and warn of a secondary wave of deaths or an outbreak of disease," said CARE's Brooks. "We do need to get in there and make sure that people have access to clean water and proper sanitation."
But she and others in the relief community acknowledge that the worst-case scenario didn't come to pass.
"There are no signs of second wave of death as a result of Nargis," said UNICEF's Shrestha. "The incidences of diseases seen are not different from the usual disease burdens seen in the country."
Aid organizations, wary of jeopardizing relations with Myanmar's military regime, point out that any government would have had trouble coping alone with a disaster of such scale.
But independent observers speak more frankly.
"The local populations were probably not expecting much and they probably did not receive much," said Ramalingam and Mitchell, who work for the Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action but were commenting in a personal capacity.
"In terms of accepted humanitarian standards and principles, assistance was clearly not proportional to need," they said in an e-mail. International aid couldn't have saved those who died in the storm, "but aid could have helped speed up recovery if properly managed."
The issue of foreign aid workers being denied visas overshadowed the work of the many Myanmar nationals working for U.N. and private agencies, the aid agencies said.
When the storm struck, the U.N. Development Program in Myanmar already employed more than 1,000 staff, mainly Myanmar nationals. World Vision, the largest private foreign humanitarian group, had 580 local staff, and like most groups, quickly hired more.
"It was the national staff that really led the response," said CARE's Brooks. "They speak the local language, they know the area, they know how to get things done."
Filling the gaps were the survivors themselves.
"They weren't just waiting around for help to come and bemoaning their fate, they were going out and picking up the pieces of their thatch houses, and they were starting to rebuild," said Brooks. "This idea of disaster survivors being helpless victims is just simply not true. These are some of the most resilient people that you'll ever meet."
When outside assistance came, said Ashley Clements, a spokesman in Yangon for World Vision, "it gave them an extra leg up and helped them avoid the worst of the crisis."
Past experience, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, shows that "virtually all the life saving work in the first 48 hours or so after a sudden impact emergency like this one is undertaken by the survivors," according to the researchers in London.
The concept of "helpless victims" is a myth the disaster relief community has been trying to dispel since at least the 1990s, said Alistair Henley, regional head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies based in Malaysia.
"We talk a lot about lessons learned, but I think there's also lessons forgotten or lessons rediscovered," he said.
Although the immediate threat may have passed, relief workers warn against complacency.
"The destruction in terms of loss of public and private infrastructure, including continued flooding of cultivable land, contamination of thousands of drinking water wells and destruction of thousands of schools causing more than a million children to stay out of schools, are all very serious concerns," warned UNICEF's Shrestha.
On the Net:
Myths and realities in disaster situations:
http://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/ems/myths/en/
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Burma blocks emergency telecoms
BBC News
25 June 2008
By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News
|
TSF KITLIST 
BGan satellite link (data and voice: 496kbps). Primary connection Gan M4 satellite link (data and voice: 64kbps). Used as backup At least two satellite phones including a mobile device Power packs including car batteries and solar panels |
Two teams of foreign aid workers dedicated to delivering emergency telecoms in disaster areas have been forced to leave cyclone-hit Burma.
The members of Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) left the country after attempts to reach affected areas were blocked.
The charity, which described the situation as "unprecedented", said it had no other choice but to leave.
TSF finally reached Burma on 1 June after waiting nearly a month to be granted visas to enter the country.
"The frustration is that we were allowed into the country but not allowed to deploy," TSF spokesman Oisin Walton told BBC News.
Many international charities were allowed into Burma following a visit to the area by UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon.
But repeated attempts to get the necessary authorisation to visit affected areas such as the Irrawaddy Delta, were met with a wall of silence.
"We got no reply at all," said Mr Walton.
Time lags
TSF is a specialist agency which works with the UN to provide communication support to aid agencies and local people. Its presence was requested by Unicef following Cyclone Nargis on 2 May.
But despite being granted visas to enter the country - one month after the event - the teams were held in Rangoon.
In the meantime other charities were given the go ahead to deploy to the worst affected regions.
Mr Walton believes that TSF was blocked because of the nature of its work.
"They obviously didn't want us in the affected areas with telecommunications equipment," said Mr Walton.
Some charities have had communications equipment held at the border, he said. Limited facilities are currently being provided by Unicef and the World Food Programme (WFP).
"Aid agencies are doing a wonderful job but the government is not helping," he said.
Had the charity reached the disaster, teams would have set up communications centres for other charities and organisations.
These contain all the telecoms and IT equipment found in a normal office - including printers, scanners, laptops and phones - housed in a tent or temporary shelter.
Connections are made via satellite links.
In addition, it offers "welfare" calls to affected people, allowing them to make contact with friends and family.
The charity has a commitment to the UN to deploy within 48 hours but is generally in the field within just 24 hours.
"We are an emergency response NGO," said Mr Walton. "But it's not really an emergency response two months after the event."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7473972.stm
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Burma survivors running out of food: UN
Wednesday June 25, 09:22 PM
http://au.news.yahoo.com/080625/2/17fsw.html
Nearly three quarters of those who survived Burma's devastating cyclone lack enough food to last more than a week and remain in desperate need of help, the United Nations says.
More than 138,000 people were killed or remain missing in the wake of Cyclone Nargis hitting southwest Burma on May 2 and 3.
Only 45 per cent of survivors are getting food from international aid agencies, according to a report by the United Nations and the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN, which conducted a detailed assessment of the worst-affected areas.
"Considering that 42 per cent of all food stocks were destroyed, continued food assistance is required," the UN said in a statement.
More than 28 per cent of people affected by the storm said they have no food supplies, while 18 per cent said they had enough food for one day. Around 25 per cent said their stocks would last for up to a week.
The Irrawaddy Delta region, a key rice-growing and agricultural area, bore the brunt of the storm and is home to most of the 2.4 million people the UN says were affected.
About 60 per cent of households still do not have adequate access to clean water, the report said, while many farmers are out of work after their fields and livestock were wiped out.
"More immediate, life-saving relief needs remain to be provided ... humanitarian relief efforts should continue to cover unmet needs," the UN said.
While no major outbreak of disease was found, the assessment teams discovered that 22 per cent of people were suffering from psychological stress.
ASEAN sent about 250 people into Burma earlier this month to assess the damage, after weeks of stalling by Rangoon's military regime.
The junta was heavily criticised after the cyclone for its delays in letting foreign aid in to the isolation nation.
It took a personal visit from UN chief Ban Ki-moon to prompt a relaxation of their stance, including permission for the ASEAN teams to do their work.
The ASEAN-UN report released Wednesday was compiled with half the data collected from their mission. A full report has been promised on July 3.
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Brad Pitt, George Clooney launch Burma aid campaign
http://www.tonight.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Tonight&fArticleId=4473220
June 25, 2008
Brad Pitt and George Clooney
Photo: AFP
Jakarta - Hollywood stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt joined forces with Asian political figures on Tuesday in an advertising campaign calling on the region to push Myanmar's/Burma' s junta to allow in more cyclone aid.
A full page advertisement in Indonesian English language daily Jakarta Post by US-based pressure group Not On Our Watch said Asia must pressure the reclusive regime to fully open its doors to foreign aid after Cyclone Nargis.
"Burma's neighbours have the power to help victims who remain desperately in need," said the advertisement, signed by former and current regional leaders and Nobel laureates, referring to Myanmar/Burma by its previous name.
Signatories included former Philippine president Corazon Aquino, East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and former Czech president Vaclav Havel.
The advertisement said Myanmar's/Burma' s regime is risking thousands of lives by holding out on aid, although the junta has been giving increasing access to foreign relief workers despite its initial refusal to cooperate.
The May 2-3 cyclone left around 138 000 people dead and missing in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta region, according to the junta, and the UN estimates 2,4 million people are in need of aid.
The junta has refused most offers of Western aid but allowed in a 250-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) backed assessment team on June 2.
Jakarta is the home of the secretariat of ASEAN, which has been criticised for failing to strongly press Myanmar's/Burma' s government to allow full foreign aid.
The advertisement in the Jakarta Post was funded by the board of New York-based Not On Our Watch, which includes Clooney, Pitt and fellow actor Matt Damon.
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How to Handle Dictators
Letters to the editor
- The Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/24/AR2008062401541.html
Wednesday, June 25, 2008;
Page A12
In a June 22 Outlook commentary,
"The Only Answer to the Mugabes of the World May Be a Coup," Paul Collier advocated encouraging coups to topple dictators and achieve "improved governance" in "such sad little states as Zimbabwe and Burma."
For him, those countries' governments are equivalent to their leaders, President Robert Mugabe and Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
But history shows that coups beget counter-coups. While living and working in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, I witnessed sprees of illiberal governance that only worsened the prospects for democratic rule in those places. And if developed countries were to adopt Mr. Collier's recommendation, Mr. Mugabe would be likely to interpret that approach as vindicating his contention that neocolonial rule is the cause of Zimbabwe's ills.
The government in a country such as Zimbabwe or Burma is not merely a strongman but a collection of interests and groups.
Western countries should step up external pressure on the ruling cliques and support local initiatives that promote good governance.
This course is morally right and politically wise.
JAMES H. MITTELMAN
Bethesda
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OCHA Situation Reports - Myanmar - Cyclone Nargis
http://ochaonline. un.org/MyanmarSi tuationReports/ tabid/4600/ Default.aspx
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United Nations Joint Logistics Center - Nargis operations News
Common Transport Services
Yesterday, June 25, 2008, 10:35:00 PM | wakaster
Shipping instruction for BL (Sea Freight) and Cargo Manifest
Yesterday, June 25, 2008, 8:53:50 PM | wakaster
Change in Shipping Instruction for cargo arriving via sea into Bangkok.
Helicopters Operation update - 25th June 2008
Yesterday, June 25, 2008, 5:52:47 PM | wakaster
Pouch Booking Procedures
Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 11:49:52 PM | wakaster
Logistics Consolidated Situation Report - 24th June 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 11:45:52 PM | wakaster
Logistics Consolidated Situation Report - 23rd June 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 12:04:59 AM | admin
Logistics Consolidated Situation Report - 22nd June 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008, 5:09:33 AM | admin
Logistics Consolidated Situation Report - 21st June 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008, 4:52:20 AM | wakaster
Sling Operations
Sunday, June 22, 2008, 4:43:54 AM | wakaster
Passenger booking on helicopter flights in Myanmar
Saturday, June 21, 2008, 3:59:37 PM | wakaster
Logistics Consolidated Situation Report - 20th June 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008, 11:20:02 PM | wakaster
Logistics Consolidated Situation Report - 19th June 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008, 7:00:00 AM | admin
Logistics Consolidated Situation Report - 18th June 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008, 12:49:50 AM | wakaster
Township - Affected Areas
Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 12:35:21 AM | wakaster
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RESETTLEMENT OF MYANMAR REFUGEES FROM THAILAND TOPS 30,000 – UN AGENCY
New York, Jun 25 2008 4:00PM
The number of Myanmar refugees that have left Thailand to begin new lives in third countries since January 2005 topped 30,000 this week, marking a major milestone in the world's largest resettlement operation, the United Nations refugee agency said today.
Almost all of the 30,144 men, women and children that have left since the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (<"http://www.unhcr. org/news/ NEWS/486242242. html">UNHCR) began the resettlement programme were living in nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border after fleeing fighting and oppression in their homeland.
"Some of the refugees have been here for nearly two decades. Some were born in refugee camps, grew up there and are now raising their own families in refugee camps," said UNHCR Regional Representative Raymond Hall. "For them, resettlement offers a way out of the camps and the opportunity for a fresh start in life."
The majority of those that have left – 21,453 – have gone to the United States, while Australia has received 3,405 and Canada 2,605. The rest have gone to Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
"We are very grateful to resettlement countries for making it possible for so many refugees to get a new chance at building productive lives," Mr. Hall said.
UNHCR noted that some 300 Myanmar refugees leave Thailand every week for resettlement, and nearly 8,000 more could leave by the end of this year.
Nearly 124,000 refugees and asylum-seekers remain in the nine camps along the border.
Meanwhile, relief efforts are continuing in the wake of the deadly cyclone which battered Myanmar in early May and left as many as 2.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that a joint relief and early recovery assessment team, involving 250 staff from UN agencies, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and 18 Government ministries, has confirmed the need for continued relief efforts to cover unmet needs.
One component of the survey – the Village Tract Assessment – showed that nearly three quarters of households do not have enough food to last more than a week, and nearly half are dependent on humanitarian aid to eat. "Considering that 42 per cent of all food stocks were destroyed, continued food assistance is required," the team noted.
Meanwhile, 60 per cent of households say their access to clean water is inadequate, and many are now depending on rainwater since ponds are full of salt water. In addition, while there has been no major disease outbreak to date, preliminary data show that open defecation has more than doubled, posing serious risks for the spread of diseases.
The assessment will be used to revise the humanitarian appeal, which is set to be issued in early July. The $201 million appeal launched following the cyclone is currently 66 per cent funded.
More than 134,000 people are dead or missing as a result of Cyclone Nargis and the subsequent tidal wave which struck the South-East Asian nation, causing the greatest damage to Ayeyarwady Delta area and Yangon, the country's most populous city.
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