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HEADLINES
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AP - UN appeals for $33.5 million for Myanmar
Reuters - Myanmar court charges 14 for Suu Kyi protest
Reuters - U.N. official to visit Myanmar next week
IRIN - MYANMAR: Cyclone victims harness rainwater to survive
Dow Jones - Myanmar May Have Taken 'Defensive Positions' -Singapore Min
CNA - Seven members have ratified ASEAN Charter, says George Yeo
Express India - India plans to import 1 MT of pulses from Myanmar
Express India - PowerGrid Corp transmission network to light up Myanmar
ReliefWeb - Myanmar: Health cluster situation report no. 35, 17 Jul 2008
ReliefWeb - China/Myanmar: Safe hospitals save lives during and after crises
Opednews - Where is happiness in Burma for Waso festival ?
Monsters and Critics - ASEAN finally gets something right on Myanmar
Inner City Press - Myanmar Exchange Rate Is "Difficult," UN's Holmes Will Review in Yangon, Council July 24
Xinhua - UNICEF to set up amusement centers for Myanmar children
Irrawaddy - Charges of Forced Labor Emerge in Cyclone-Hit Areas
Mizzima News - Burmese junta profiting from aid funds?
DVB News - Low expectations for Gambari visit

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UN appeals for $33.5 million for Myanmar
AP - Friday, July 18

ROME - A U.N. food agency is appealing for $33.5 million to help small farmers and fishermen in cyclone-hit Myanmar.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said that 75 percent of farmers in the country's main food-producing region lack sufficient seed, with little time left before the end of the planting season in August.

The agency said over 50,000 small-scale farming households and 99,000 landless rural households need immediate assistance. More than 100,000 fishermen have also been affected.

FAO said in a statement Thursday that some 1,934,793 acres of rice paddy fields were submerged when Cyclone Nargis struck in May and up to 85 percent of seed stocks were destroyed.

Fish and rice constitute the key components of Myanmar's diet.

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Myanmar court charges 14 for Suu Kyi protest
Reuters - Friday, July 18

YANGON - A Myanmar court has charged 14 people for causing "public offence" during a protest marking the birthday of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a defence lawyer said on Thursday. The group, arrested by pro-junta thugs outside the headquarters of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy on June 19, were also charged with unlawful assembly on Wednesday, NLD lawyer Aung Thein said.

"Three lawyers have received powers of attorney to defend them," he told Reuters.

The group had demanded the release of Suu Kyi, whose house arrest was extended in May despite international pressure on the military, which has ruled the former Burma since 1962.

The Nobel peace laureate has been confined to her Yangon home for nearly 13 of the past 19 years, with her latest detention beginning in May 2003.

Last week, a popular local blogger was also charged with causing "public offence" by posting caricatures of the country's ruling generals on the Internet.

The junta was caught by surprise last year when bloggers and citizen journalists relayed pictures and video to the outside world of the regime's crackdown on monk-led protests against military rule and economic hardship.

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U.N. official to visit Myanmar next week
Reuters - Thursday, July 17

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said on Wednesday he would visit Myanmar next week to check on aid delivery to the isolated country that initially shut out foreign relief workers after a deadly cyclone in May.

Holmes told a news conference he would spend three days in Myanmar after a meeting in Singapore with officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Monday to assess the situation after the cyclone.

He said he would visit the Irrawaddy Delta, the area worst hit when Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2-3, leaving an estimated 138,000 people dead or missing. He also hoped to meet Prime Minister Thein Sein.

The United Nations appealed last week for more than $300 million in additional aid for Myanmar, on top of $178 million already provided by donors.

Myanmar's secretive military government lifted restrictions on foreign aid workers after a visit in late May by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Holmes, who accompanied Ban, is making his first visit to the country since then.

Holmes said he wanted to "reassess the situation for myself."

"The problems are not entirely disappeared but certainly containable for the moment," he said. "But we want to make sure they stay that way."

The United Nations said on Tuesday that Myanmar had invited Ban's special representative for the country, Ibrahim Gambari, to visit next month. Gambari, seeking to promote democracy in Myanmar, will be making his fourth visit since the ruling junta cracked down on monk-led protests last September.

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MYANMAR: Cyclone victims harness rainwater to survive
17 Jul 2008 12:37:30 GMT

PAWIN, 17 July 2008 (IRIN) - Viewed as a curse by those who lost their homes and loved ones to Cyclone Nargis, heavy rain in recent weeks is proving a saviour of sorts to thousands of cyclone survivors in need of safe drinking water.

"When it rains, I feel it is a blessing," Daw Khin, a woman in her early fifties in the village of Pawin outside Bogale Township at the far tip of the delta, said. "Now what I have to do when it rains is ensure it drains into a ceramic pot."

But Daw Khin - struggling to provide for her five-member family more than two months after the worst natural disaster in recent times to strike Myanmar - is still worried.

Should the heavy rains that continue to pummel her roofless home stop, so too would her one source of clean drinking water.

"The thought of no more rain kills me," she said.

An estimated 2.4 million people were severely affected by the category four storm that struck Yangon Division and parts of the Ayeyarwady Delta in southern Myanmar in early May, leaving nearly 140,000 people either dead or missing.

Inadequate access to water

A Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) in June by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the UN and the Myanmar government, revealed a significant number of households reporting inadequate access to clean drinking water.

On 10 July the UN reported that 74 percent of people in the cyclone areas had inadequate access to clean water, with rainwater collection viewed as critical in reducing the risk of disease outbreaks.

Most people in the delta today find themselves reliant on rainwater as their primary source of safe drinking water.

Ponds, the traditional source of drinking water in the area, became heavily salinated when a three-metre tidal surge inundated much of the low-lying area, devastating homes and crops across a 23,500 square kilometre area (almost twice the size of Lebanon).

Today those same ponds are avoided by area residents for fear of water-borne diseases like diarrhoea - prompting them to look to the sky for help, which so far has delivered as part of this year's rainy season.

To harness what nature provides, residents, particularly in more remote areas, make do with what they can find - including bamboo, or plastic sheeting donated by the government or non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to funnel the water, while others use handmade drains made of zinc.

"My drain is made of plastic. But it's good enough for three households," Hla Htay, a Pawin resident who shares her water with her neighbours, told IRIN.
"It'd be a disaster, if we have no more rain," she said.

Water purification

International organisations and UN agencies, including the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), are working to provide water purification tablets and kits, as well as water filters, to ensure the water is clean.

Various water purification systems in the storm-affected area have also been put in place - in an effort to mitigate the risk of water-borne diseases - an approach that so far appears to be working.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), to date there have been no reported outbreaks of water-borne disease.

Moreover, significant efforts are now under way to pump contaminated water out of ponds so that they can be replenished with this year's monsoon rains.

Keeping traditional water ponds for drinking and household needs is the best way to mitigate the problem of water shortages, according to Waldemar Pickardt, chief of water and environmental sanitation for UNICEF/Myanmar in Yangon, the former Burmese capital.

Time running out

Most of the pumps used to drain the ponds are small. This allows for greater mobility into more remote areas by boat, but the pumps' capacity is limited. Pumping out the ponds is a race against time. In some places, local volunteers are stepping forward to clean them up. However, many ponds have yet to be touched, even though the heaviest rains normally end in August.

"I'm afraid we won't finish cleaning all the water ponds before the rainy season goes out," UNICEF's Pickardt told IRIN, pointing out that they now had only one month to make the ponds ready to fill with rainwater for the year ahead.

"I'm afraid the next hardship will be to get safe water," Pickardt warned. "Water shortages would be more likely to happen in those areas [the storm-affected Ayeyarwaddy Delta] when the rain stops," the UNICEF official said, adding that a water shortage was likely in the dry season around January and February.

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Myanmar May Have Taken 'Defensive Positions' -Singapore Min
-By En-Lai Yeoh, Dow Jones Newswires

SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- Myanmar's military may have adopted defensive positions to repel what it saw as a possible foreign invasion when U.S. warships laden with aid for victims of Cyclone Nargis anchored outside its waters, Singapore's Foreign Minister said.

"We received reports that troops, instead of being sent down to help the victims, they were sent into defensive positions," George Yeo said in a recent interview.

"When warships bearing supplies anchored outside Myanmar waters...the government was...quite paranoid about it," Yeo said.

The minister was speaking ahead of a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, in Singapore.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Australia's Stephen Smith, North Korea's Pak Ui-chun, Japan's Masahiko Komura, and Myanmar's Nyan Win are among the 30-odd top diplomats who will be in Singapore for the Asean Regional Forum from Friday.

The meeting is Asia's largest security gathering, and Myanmar's political and humanitarian situations are among the topics on the table. As many as 2 million victims still need assistance, aid groups say.

A joint U.N.-Asean-Myanmar assessment will be presented Monday at the Forum, Yeo said.

He also said that Myanmar will officially accede next week to the Asean Charter, the 41-year-old group's first legally binding document designed to help it become a E.U.-type trading bloc but without a single currency.

"That leaves Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, " Yeo said. "With a united Southeast Asia, we can deal with the major powers on some basis of equality."
The charter needs to be ratified by Asean's end-of-year summit in Bangkok, or it may be junked.

Myanmar's junta had initial objections to its human rights chapters.

All of Asean's 10 members, who represent a mix of the world's political systems, have faced criticism for alleged rights violations.

The bloc comprises democracies Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Singapore; communist Laos; socialist Vietnam; military-ruled Myanmar and an absolute monarchy in Brunei.

Asean has a combined GDP of $1.3 trillion and a population of nearly 600 million. The grouping admitted Myanmar against pressure from the U.S. and the E.U. in 1997, and has also been criticized for its ongoing engagement with the junta, led by Senior General Than Shwe.

International civic and rights groups slammed the junta for the glacial pace of its response to victims of Cyclone Nargis, which tore through the country's rice-producing Irrawaddy Delta early in May. As many as 80,000 people were killed and over 50,000 missing.

The U.S. military sent its USS Essex Ready Group and Marines to positions offshore, where they waited weeks for approval from Myanmar to deliver supplies. It never came.

Myanmar has been military ruled since 1962, and observers have said the generals ruling the country are worried about preserving power. Many believe they resisted military help for weeks after Nargis struck because of invasion fears.

Some "had hoped that this would be the final push to bring down the regime. If that (push) had been done, we'd be playing with people's lives," Yeo said.

The Myanmar regime has been condemned for alleged human rights violations and the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has spent 12 of the past 18 years under house arrest.

The U.S. and the E.U. have slapped sanctions on Myanmar, which sits on large oil and gas reserves and holds some of the world's biggest gem deposits.

Myanmar only met its Asean counterparts three weeks after the cyclone - the region's worst natural disaster since the Asia-wide tsunami of 2004.

"I was not optimistic because they seemed so beleaguered, the Myanmar government," Yeo said of the May 19 meeting. "It was quite a dramatic encounter because the other Asean Foreign Ministers confronted our Myanmar counterpart asking him: 'Look, what does Myanmar mean to us, and what do we mean to you?'"

Asean's response toward the regime has been unusually blunt recently, especially after last September's pro-democracy crackdown. Bloc members have said Myanmar would respond better to engagement rather than isolation.

"In the end, we agreed that Asean should help to build a bridge of trust between the Myanmar government and the international community so that it'd be an Asean-led international assistance effort," Yeo said.

The U.N. launched a fresh appeal for Nargis victims July 10, saying aid agencies need nearly half a billion dollars for the relief effort.

Yeo said the aftermath of Nargis wasn't as bad as many initially thought.

"The general conclusion is the situation is not as bad as we have feared - no mass starvation or outbreak of epidemics," Yeo said. "But of course, it is very difficult for those affected."

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Seven members have ratified ASEAN Charter, says George Yeo
Channel NewsAsia - Friday, July 18

SINGAPORE: Seven ASEAN members, including Myanmar, have ratified the grouping’s Charter so far. The Charter is aimed at making ASEAN a rules—based organisation.

Speaking to the Singapore media ahead of next week’s ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Singapore, Foreign Minister George Yeo is hopeful the remaining countries, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, will do so by the end of the year.

It has been an eventful one year for ASEAN. Its strong response to last September’s crackdown on demonstrations in Yangon surprised even the foreign ministers, said the current ASEAN chairman from Singapore.

Mr Yeo said: "It was the right thing to do. After that, we had (United Nations Special Envoy Ibrahim) Gambari visiting Myanmar, (extending the good offices of the UN.) I have received word recently that Myanmar has invited Gambari back to Myanmar to continue his good work later this year, after August 15. That’s a spot of good news."

In addition, there were valuable lessons from ASEAN’s humanitarian response in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, among them, the need to quickly build up a disaster assistance mechanism.

ASEAN’s foreign ministers will also receive a comprehensive report from the task force that has been coordinating the humanitarian and relief efforts in Myanmar following Cyclone Nargis.

Mr Yeo said the progress so far has been encouraging.

He said: "No starvation, no outbreak of epidemics. Yes, still a lot to be done, people are suffering, food supplies are meagre, livelihoods have got to be restored.

"We feared the worst initially. But it turned out not to be an "F" grading. Certainly not an ’A’ or ’B’, but I would say on the whole, with ASEAN assistance and ASEAN taking the lead in bringing humanitarian assistance into Myanmar, we could give ourselves a "C" grading.

"We are still in the relief and recovery stage, we still have to go on for many more months. We don’t want to talk about reconstruction because the moment we talk (about this), some international agencies and some Western countries are averse to it as they see that as shoring up a government which they don’t like."

But an immediate challenge is to complete the ASEAN Charter ratification process.

Mr Yeo said: "If we don’t achieve that by the end of the year, then that would be a setback. But, I am not pessimistic.

"I believe that the reason why we have come this far is not that we are doing each other favours, but that because ASEAN is important to each and every one of us.

"Every country in ASEAN knows that (if) each does better, each is more competitive, each is more secure by there being a stronger ASEAN than there not being one. Despite domestic problems in many countries, the will to push on the ASEAN construction remains strong and unwavering."

Singapore will be handing over the ASEAN chairmanship to Thailand after next week’s ministerial meeting.

Minister Yeo said that although the new Thai foreign minister has yet to be named, he is confident the Thai Foreign Ministry remains a strong institution to take on the ASEAN chair.

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India plans to import 1 MT of pulses from Myanmar
Express India
Sanjay Jog
Posted online: Thursday , July 17, 2008 at 02:33 hrs

India has taken up the issue of importing about 1 million tonne of pulses from Myanmar for partially meeting domestic demand due to shortfall in production.

Union minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday met his Myanmarese counterpart and discussed the issue of pulse imports. Sources told FE that India is looking at Myanmar for the import of pulses as it produces 2.7 million tonne while the domestic consumption only 0.5 million tonne.

“Wednesday’s discussion was about the possibility of import of an assured quantity of pulses – urad, tur and moong from Myanmar at reasonable rates. Myanmar has a scheme of band of minimum export price of different quantities of pulses,” sources said.

The total production of pulses in India is in the range of 14 to 14.5 million tonne.

However, the domestic consumption is to the tune of 17-17.5 million tonne. The gap of 3 million tonne is filled through imports. About half the imports are of yellow peas primarily from Canada. The other imports are from Australia and some African countries as well as some European countries.

Sources said a medium term arrangement of import of pulses from Myanmar is likely to augment on an assured basis, availability of pulses in the Indian market.

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PowerGrid Corp transmission network to light up Myanmar
Express India
Sanjay Jog
Posted online: Thursday , July 17, 2008 at 23:45 hrs

The state-run PowerGrid Corporation of India has embarked upon a plan to set up transmission line in Myanmar. The power ministry and PowerGrid Corporation, which is a central transmission utility in India under the Electricity Act, have already held talks in this regard. The power ministry has asked the PowerGrid Corporation to send a delegation to Myanmar in regard to the execution of the transmission works there.

Sources at the power ministry and PowerGrid Corporation told FE, “PowerGrid Corporation will be the executing authority for three transmission lines in Myanmar. The Centre has supported Exim Bank of $64.07 million to Myanmar for setting up of the transmission infrastructure. The distribution of this credit amount among different transmission network is as follows. Thahtay Ghauung-Oakshitpin 230 kv transmission line ($13.577 million), Thahtay Chaung-Thandwe- Maei-Ann 230 kv transmission line ($30.5 million) and Thandwe-Athoke 230 kv transmission line ($20 million).”

It must be mentioned here that PowerGrid Corporation is currently involved in the setting up of transmission network in Afghanistan. The company had made an attempt to take the control of transmission network in Phillipines. However, it did not work finally. Besides, the PowerGrid Corporation has also evinced its interest in Nigeria and other African countries.

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Health cluster situation report no. 35, 17 Jul 2008
Source: World Health Organization (WHO)
Date: 17 Jul 2008
ReliefWeb - Myanmar:

HIGHLIGHTS

Disease surveillance data from the Ministry of Health and NGOs have been integrated into the health cluster’s Early Warning, Alert and Response System (EWARS).
The Myanmar Revised Appeal launched by the UN on 10 July includes US $65 million for health cluster activities.

Coordination of health activities is being strengthened at the field level to expand immunization work, identify unreached areas, and fill any gaps in providing medical services.
HEALTH ASSESSMENT AND SITUATION UPDATE

UN OCHA in Myanmar plans to establish six hubs in Yangon and Pathein, Bogale, Labutta, Mawlamyineguine and Pyapon townships in the delta area to strengthen existing coordination activities. These hubs will support training to the township focal points.

Government health specialists including psychiatrists, eye specialists and paediatricians continue to provide free healthcare services in the affected areas.

HEALTH CLUSTER RESPONSE

1. Disease Surveillance
MOH data as well as NGO data for disease surveillance is now integrated into the early warning, alert and response system (EWARS) of the health cluster.
Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) cases show a decreasing trend.

2. Health Action
WHO’s malaria guidelines have been distributed to health partners.

WHO has provided additional drugs and medical supplies to six rural health centres and one station hospital in Ka Mar Ka lu, Bogale.

WHO teams are assisting government health officials in routine immunization activities, disease surveillance and outbreak investigation, as well as health education on personal hygiene and environmental sanitation.

UNICEF is providing support in immunization of children, nutrition services including food supplementation, transportation facilities to government health staff and supply of health and hygiene kits for health promotion.

UNFPA has been providing reproductive health assistance such as supply of oral contraceptive pills, condoms and emergency contraceptive pills for birth spacing.

Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is providing supplementary feeding for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children. Their mobile clinics are providing care as well as psychosocial support in remote affected areas.

3. Funds
The Myanmar Revised Appeal launched by the UN on 10 July includes US $65 million for health cluster activities.

According to revised flash appeal, 66% of the health sector requirement has not been met.

HEALTH COORDINATION

Township level coordination:
Labutta
- Merlin will lead in data management for various partners.
- Health partners will undergo training on nutrition based on guidelines recommended by the Government of Myanmar.
- Standard case definitions prepared by MoH and WHO will be used for any outbreak investigation.
- Budget estimates are being prepared for hospital repair and renovation.
- A Type C laboratory has been upgraded to a Type B laboratory to improve case diagnosis, response capacity and quality.
- Nurses will be transported from the town hospital to camps by health partners including UNICEF, Merlin and Malteser.

Bogale
- Unreached areas in the south of the township urgently need primary healthcare and outreach programmes.
- IOM has provided medical coverage in North Bogale and South Bogale. No serious health problem has been reported in these areas, most cases are of seasonal illnesses.
- The Leprosy Mission International (TLMI) was set up in Bogale to support disabled patients. They have assisted nearly 200 disabled patients in Amara and Ywar Thit Trip. Their plan is to protect 1200 disabled adults and 1800 children.
- PACT medical teams reported that 30-40% of patients suffered from hypertension in one field visit.
- Action Contre le Faim (ACF) has completed Nutrition Assessments in 70 villages.
- UNFPA has finished the supply system of the Safe Delivery Kits, Napkins, and Dignity Kits.
- AFXB (Association François-Xavier Bagnoud) is providing home visits for care, particularly for HIV/AIDS patients, in 12 targeted areas. They aim to visit 50 houses per township.
- The Myanmar Red Cross Society has begun public health activities in seven villages.

OTHER RELATED CLUSTERS
WASH Cluster:
- Fifteen water purification plants are now functioning in Bogale, Dedaye, Labutta, Mawlamyingyune, Ngapudaw and Pyapon Township.
- INGOs including CESVI, Merlin and World Vision have constructed 308 new latrines and renovated another 814 latrines in Pyapon Township.
- More than 4800 bags of lime powder have been used for cleaning ponds and for hygiene promotion in affected areas.

GAPS AND NEXT STEPS
Health Cluster partners are continuing to organize and work on strengthening the field level coordination through regular meetings to enhance immunization, identify unreached areas and fill gaps in health services.

WHO will assist the Government of Myanmar to revitalize the healthcare system and monitor and evaluate health programmes. It will also support Government in providing essential health and medical services.

Many remote areas continue to lack regular access to healthcare as they are difficult to access, the only means being long boat rides.

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Safe hospitals save lives during and after crises
Source: World Health Organization (WHO)
Date: 16 Jul 2008
ReliefWeb - China/Myanmar:

Myanmar's Cyclone Nargis and China's magnitude 8.0 earthquake in May 2008 caused mass human casualties. They also devastated many health facilities, hampering post-crisis healthcare and raising questions on how best to reconstruct the health infrastructure.

Such tragedies reinforce the need to ensure all health facilities are designed and built to withstand disasters, protect patients and health workers, and keep providing life-saving services after emergencies.

Earthquake survivors in a temporary health care centre in China.

"Hospitals are the most important buildings in a community," says engineer Tony Gibbs, an expert in increasing the resilience of health facilities and a member of the WHO team that travelled to China in June. "Their services are vital in the immediate aftermath of a severe natural event such as an earthquake, hurricane, cyclone or volcano eruption."

WHO advocates the concept of safe hospitals globally. The 2008-2009 World Disaster Reduction Campaign of Hospitals safe from disasters: reduce risk, protect health facilities, save lives is promoting the need to safeguard hospitals, rural health centres and other facilities from disasters. WHO is organizing the campaign jointly with the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and the World Bank.

Hospitals, clinics and other infrastructure of health systems in many countries are vulnerable to disasters. Structures are poorly built despite repeated incidents of hospitals collapsing or having roofs torn off, injuring patients and medical staff, plus halting health services to survivors.

Steps can be taken to ensure health facilities withstand earthquakes or cyclones. Cost implications for building such disaster-proof structures are small if appropriate safety measures are considered during the design phase. "The most costly hospital is the one that fails," Mr Gibbs adds.

In cyclone-prone Bangladesh, clinics, shelters and other emergency facilities have been built on stilts or on higher ground to withstand sea surges, flooding and high wind. In Japan and Chile, where earthquakes have caused untold damage in the past, hospitals are now built using "base isolation" techniques to absorb the shocks caused by temblors.

Awareness in communities and governments for resilient health facilities is key. Then a detailed design process, including independent assessments of architectural and construction plans, is required to identify gaps. Building and seismic codes must be adhered to.

A man recovering medicines from the ruins of a hospital destroyed in Pakistan earthquake.

WHO provides guidance on hospital preparedness programmes, emergency response plans and mass casualty management systems, which are essential for health care facilities to manage internal and external risks, and to ensure that they continue to function after a disaster strikes.

Cyclone Nargis damaged or destroyed about half of health facilities in southern Myanmar. In some regions, almost all health facilities were lost, leaving thousands of survivors without immediate access to healthcare. WHO and its partners launched a joint action plan that calls for "strengthening and repairing systems' and developing disaster preparedness capacities.

A five-member WHO team, including Mr Gibbs, visited health facilities at the Chinese earthquake's epicentre in Sichuan province. Many hospitals were damaged and destroyed, forcing thousands of patients to be transferred to other areas. Numerous structures were beyond repair, but some were still standing due to being properly designed and built. The team advised Chinese authorities on whether to vacate damaged health facilities, strengthen or retrofit existing ones and to design and construct new healthcare structures.

"This was an opportunity for WHO to cooperate with China on key issues regarding the safe hospitals initiative," says Dr Eric Laroche, Assistant Director-General for WHO's Health Action in Crises. "I am positive about the Chinese commitment to rebuilding its health infrastructure with the safe hospitals concept in mind."

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Opednews - Where is happiness in Burma for Waso festival ?
July 17, 2008 at 04:06:04
by Ashin Mettacara

Today is the full moon day of Waso. The day of Waso marks the day of the Buddha's first sermon and the start of a monsoon season retreat.

In Burma,the full-moon is for contemplation, and monks do not travel. In this special day, the Buddha tried to spread His teaching of peace and happiness to all mankind. The Waso festival, a popular Burmese celebration, is thus an important occasion to commemorate the teachings of Lord Buddha. The monks, also called Sangha, as the important pillar of Buddhism, play an important role during the festival.

This day marks the beginning for Buddhist monks of a retreat which will last at least three months. During the Waso festival people offer flowers to the Buddhist imagem ushering all their devotions. One of the most important events in the course of the Waso is the offering of robes to the Monks which they generally wear during their retreat .

People also offer them candles, known as the "Waso candles".

Waso is also the time for people to do meritorious deeds, practise contemplation and self-denial. Every one makes it a point of fasting and observes special precepts one day in the week. Even habitual drinkers take a vow of abstinence, for the season, at least, and practise in these days self discipline.

Marriages are taboo during the retreat. However, this has nothing to do with any religious concept. Monsoon season is a busy time for people and it is more convenient to celebrate weddings after the harvest... Thus the impatient lovers rush off to wedlock before the Waso begins.

Therefore the full moon day of Waso is the holiest day for all Buddhists to make an opportunity to do meritorious deeds.

But this year Waso in Burma will not be celebrated happily. Many people recently were killed by Nargis cyclone. Many people lost everything, are still hungry and without hope. Many monks were killed in last year's Saffron Revolution. Some are now unable to continue their religious studies at monasteries and are rejected because of their leading roles in last year's Saffron Revolution.

Where is happiness in Burma for Waso festival ?

I was born in Wun Tho, Sagaing Division, Burma in 16/04/1982. I was ordained a novice in 1994 and a monk in 2000. I studied Buddhism at Khanti Pariyatti Monastery (Wun Tho, Sagaing Division, Burma), Wayalet Pariyatti Monastery (Rangoon, Burma) and Man Aung Monastery (Rangoon, Burma). I passed Buddhist examinations known as Pathamange, Pathamalatt, Pathamagyi in Burma. I arrived Colombo, Sri Lanka on 9th May, 2004. I studied B.A and M.A programme in Colombo, Sri Lanka and has successfully completed B.A and M.A from the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka. While I was studying in the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka, in September 2007, there was a Saffron Revolution in Burma. The military regime cracked down the peaceful protestors who mostly are Buddhist monks. As I could not reconcile myself with the current military regime's brutal crackdown to our Buddhist monks, peaceful protestors and human rights abuses, I became involved in the Burmese politics as an exile.

http://ashinmettacara-eng.blogspot.com/

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Monsters and Critics - ANALYSIS: ASEAN finally gets something right on Myanmar
By Peter Janssen Jul 17, 2008, 6:28 GMT

Bangkok - The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has had little to brag about with its handling of bad-boy member Myanmar over the past 11 years.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, joined the club in 1997 and has been a constant embarrassment since, to the extent of raising serious questions about the relevance of ASEAN as a regional-problem solving forum.

Then came Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3, which devastated Myanmar's central coastal region, including the rice-rich Irrawaddy Delta and the former capital of Yangon, leaving some 140,000 people dead or missing.

Myanmar's military junta, in their inimitable style, turned the natural disaster into a diplomatic one, by initially blocking the free-flow of international aid and aid workers to the devastated areas while pushing ahead with a national referendum designed to cement their political dominance over any future elected government.

The international community was outraged, the United Nations was frustrated, humanitarian organizations furious, and ASEAN, arguably for the first time it is history, actually took the initiative.

Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN's newly appointed secretary-general, held an impromptu meeting in Singapore in the wake of the cyclone calamity and pushed through a tri-partite mechanism including ASEAN, the UN and Myanmar government that essentially created a 'diplomatic umbrella' under which an emergency relief operation could operate despite the junta's knee-jerk distrust of the international community.

Under the ASEAN initiative, a tri-partite core group of ASEAN-UN-Myanmar bureaucrats has meet regularly in Yangon since June to deal with on-the-ground issues affecting the relief work and over the past six weeks has compiled an assessment report of the amount of damage wrought by Cyclone Nargis that will be presented at the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Singapore on July 21-24.

The announcement of the Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) report will hopefully lead to an outpouring of donor contributions to the UN's revised flash appeal for 480 million over the next year in emergency relief for the million-plus people whose lives and communities have been affected by the cyclone.

The situation today is a lot different than what it was in mid-May, when international aid workers were warning of a second catastrophe of starvation and epidemics if relief supplies and international expertise was not allowed in soon.

Over the past two-and-a-half months the World Food Programme (WFP) has successfully delivered 20,924 tons of food to some 684,000 beneficiaries, much of it through an emergency air cargo hub at Bangkok's Don Muaeng Airport.

There were no outbreaks of epidemics, or none worse than the normal rates of dengue, malaria and typhoid that plague Myanmar's neglected population under normal circumstances.

Since the tri-partite core group got started, access to the hardest-hit areas was essentially eased, although getting official permission for travel still accounts for 90 per cent of the logical hassles, according to aid workers.

UN officials closely involved in the cyclone relief effort from day-one attribute this relative success to the ASEAN initiative.

'It's been the make or break issue on the response,' said one UN official who required anonymity. 'I think it provided a convenient solution for everyone.'

For the UN it provided access to Myanmar's advice-adverse military rulers, for the regime it provided a face-saving way to change its initially disastrous approach to the disaster. For ASEAN it may have provided a new mission in life.

'In some respects this is the most effective thing ASEAN has done,' said David Mathieson, the Myanmar expert for Human Rights Watch. 'But in praising the mechanism we shouldn't forget that the reason for creating it was because of the barbarity of the junta.'

It is a good development that ASEAN is playing a lead role, at least diplomatically, in coping with Myanmar's humanitarian crisis.

And there are hopes, within the international aid community, that ASEAN will use the Cyclone Nargis experience to enhance its operational skills in regional disaster relief.

But Myanmar still poses serious challenges. It remains to be seen to what extent the international community responds to the UN flash appeal for 480 million dollars. The response to the initial appeal, for 200 million, was about 60 per cent.

Aid to Myanmar, even when it is humanitarian aid going directly to the people through international agencies, is always a sensitive political issue for Western democracies, as it should be.

'The aid has got to be transparent and accountable and has to empower the local communities, ' said Mathieson. 'And one of the biggest challenges for ASEAN and the UN is going to be integrating human rights reporting into the aid mechanism.'

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Myanmar Exchange Rate Is "Difficult," UN's Holmes Will Review in Yangon, Council July 24
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, July 16 -- In Myanmar in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the UN system had "serious losses of 20%" exchanging currency with the military government, as well as making inflated purchases from state-owned petroleum enterprises, record seen by Inner City Press show. A week after asking head UN humanitarian John Holmes to describe how currency is converted in Myanmar, on Wednesday he said he will be in Yangon next week and will check on the issue.

 Holmes re-launched a Consolidated Appeal for funding on Wednesday, alongside Rudy Von Bernuth of the International Save the Children Alliance, who said that Save the Children following Nargis has received $29 million from the UN for its Myanmar work. Afterwards, Inner City Press asked Von Bernuth how and at what rate Save the Children exchanges money in Myanmar. "You have to ask our London office," he answered. We have, but the answer is strange, from International Save the Children Alliance just after a statement at the UN about receiving $29 million from the UN.

 Another humanitarian who passed through the UN on Wednesday was Eric Laroche, now at the World Health Organization, previously humanitarian coordinator in Somalia, and further back with UNICEF in Myanmar.  While he has committed now to explain how WHO exchanges money in Myanmar, when Inner City Press asked if he thinks it legitimate to accept a low exchange rate from a government in order to have access, he stayed silent for a full eight seconds before saying, "It's a very difficult question, and a more difficult answer. It has to do with principles." Video here, from Minute 51:46. He said that when he was in the country with UNICEF, auditors were told about the exchange rate arrangements with the government.

Pending Sir John Holmes' report-back from Myanmar, it can also be reported that internal UN documents show that much of the rice purchases by the UN after the cyclone was bought from Myanmar itself. Later a shift was made to imports, attributable to "government image and not availability" of rice, according to the records.

Footnote: This month's Vietnamese president of the Security Council stated on Wednesday that an agreement has been reached for the Council to have a briefing on Myanmar before the end of the month. Inner City Press is told it will be on July 24

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UNICEF to set up amusement centers for Myanmar children
www.chinaview. cn  2008-07-17 19:08:16

YANGON, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) plans to set up at least 100 amusement centers for survived children in Myanmar's two cyclone-hard- hit divisions, the local-language weekly Myanmar Times reported Thursday.

Secured environment will be selected for the location of the amusement centers in Ayeyawaddy and Yangon divisions which will be managed by aid workers and respective village dignitaries, the report said.

Arrangement will also be made for providing health care and education services for the children, it added.

There were 51 children amusement facilities in the two divisions, of which some were closed after storm.

According to the report, the UNICEF has also helped establish information center in Laputta, one of the hardest-hit townships in the Ayeyawaddy delta, and find 428 missing people with 15 family members getting reunified with them.

Meanwhile, the government is also building two orphanages in Phyapon and Laputta in the delta region to each house 300 orphans.

Deadly cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states on last May 2 and 3.

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

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Charges of Forced Labor Emerge in Cyclone-Hit Areas
The Irrawaddy - Thursday, July 17, 2008
By SAW YAN NAING

Thousands of people in hundreds of villages are being forced to labor for free under a military-led reconstruction effort in the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta, according to sources in the area.

Villagers in the hard-hit townships of Laputta, Bogalay, Pyapon and Dedaye say that local people, including children, have been told by Ward Peace and Development Councils and military troops that they must provide labor on a rotating basis.

The work they are expected to do includes serving as porters, cutting bamboo and trees and cleaning up roads and villages. Some have also been put to work on construction sites, the sources said.

The villagers, many of them living in camps for cyclone survivors, said that the duties imposed on them were preventing them from rebuilding their own homes or tending to their fields.

“They [farmers] said that for the past month, they have been forced to work in rotation for the authorities. People who don’t work when it’s their turn have to pay a fine of 1,500 kyat (US $1.26),” said a source in Laputta. 

A refugee from the village of Kyar Chaung said that the authorities call on 100 men each day to carry sacks of rice. “Those who do not obey the order are driven out of the refugee camps,” he added.

Another refugee, from the village of Kaing Thaung, said: “The authorities accuse people who don’t want to work for them of being lazy. They say that they are opportunists who are just waiting around to get everything for free.”

There have been a number of reports of people in the camps being beaten and forced to leave. Some say that the authorities are looking for excuses to throw people out of the camps.

Meanwhile, fishermen in the area have been ordered to catch prawns and fish for Burmese troops, said one fisherman in Ywe, a village in Laputta Township.

The Burmese army unit responsible for recovery and reconstruction efforts in the Irrawaddy delta is Light Infantry Division 66, under the command of Brig-Gen Maung Maung Aye. As a commanding officer of Infantry Battalion 70 in Pegu Division and Karen State in the early 2000s, Maung Maung Aye was notorious for pressganging civilians into road construction.

Sources in the camps for cyclone victims say that they have been told not to discuss the use of forced labor with visitors, and to inform the authorities about the presence of any unknown people in the camps.

Burma’s military regime has been strongly condemned by international rights groups for its use of forced labor in building army camps and constructing basic infrastructure such as roads and bridges. Refusal to work on any of these projects has resulted in documented cases of detention, torture and execution.

In June, the International Labor Organization said it was concerned that the Burmese military regime might use forced labor in reconstructing cyclone-devastated areas.

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Burmese junta profiting from aid funds?
Mizzima News - Thursday, 17 July 2008 21:40
Mungpi

New Delhi - Even as cyclone victims reel under the devastating impact of Nargis, the military rulers are lining their pockets from the aid funds donated by the international community including the UN. The money is being made by way of a twisted currency exchange mechanism – dollar to local Burmese kyat, a source in the Burmese military establishment said.

Following the killer Cyclone Nargis lashing Burma on May 2 and 3, several international non-governmental organizations as well as UN aid agencies rushed in to help cyclone victims.

The source, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal, said the ruling junta is making a huge killing from these donations by keeping a margin in the conversion rates – from foreign currency to Burmese Foreign Exchange Certificates (FEC).

According to the source, the government-owned Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank is the principle bank that is used by aid agencies for transferring funds. And when aid agencies withdraw their money from the MFTB, it is given in the form of Foreign Exchange Certificates (FEC), which is treated as equivalent to the US dollar.

While the information cannot be independently verified, the source said the difference in exchange rates between the dollar and FEC is the margin that the government makes.

A businessman in Rangoon, who is into exchanging foreign currency in the black market said, currently a US $ is worth 1,175 Kyat while the FEC is valued at 850 Kyat. While the rates continue to fluctuate depending on the market, the US Dollar and FEC have never been treated equally in the market.

"The rate between the FEC and Dollar is only equal in the government exchange rates but here in Burma things are done only in the black market," the businessman told Mizzima.

The source, who is also close to the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank, said, while the bank retains the in coming foreign exchange, it also profits from the marginal difference in the conversion.

The UN World Food Programme, one of the largest UN agencies currently involved in helping cyclone victims in Burma, however, declined to comment on it.

But Paul Risley, the WFP spokesperson in Bangkok admitted that it uses the MFBT to transfer funds to Burma.

UN Humanitarian Chief, John Holmes, who is scheduled to visit Burma next week, on Wednesday, told reporters at a news conference in New York that he would look into the issue of aid money going into the coffers of the ruling junta through a twisted currency exchange mechanism.

But reports quoted him as saying, "My impression from what I heard is that there is not a significant problem. There may be moments when the difference between the dollar and FEC is significant, but by and large it is not."

The source, however, said the Burmese military generals have made millions of Kyat from the exchange margin.

"For every dollar, if the junta is profiting about two to three hundred Kyats, you can imagine how much they will have pocketed since aid agencies made their way into Burma," the source said.

Burma's military junta has asked for US $ 11 billion in aid for emergency relief as well as for reconstruction work to be done in cyclone hit areas of Irrawaddy and Rangoon division.

The regime, in an article carried in its mouthpiece newspaper early this month, even challenged the international community particularly the US, UK, French, and Japan for failing to come up with more donations to help cyclone victims in Burma while spending huge amounts of money on wars.

The UN, last week, launched a fresh appeal urging governments to donate US$ 300 million more to keep humanitarian efforts in Burma going.

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Low expectations for Gambari visit

Jul 17, 2008 (DVB)–Opposition figures and a political analyst have expressed doubts over whether the planned visit of United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to Burma in mid-August will bring about any positive outcomes.

U Nyan Win, spokesperson for the National League for Democracy, said the party did not have high expectations for the envoy’s visit.

"The only thing this shows is that Mr Gambari's role, as a negotiator for national reconciliation in Burma on behalf of the UN Security Council and General Assembly, still exists," Nyan Win said.

"Whether or not this will be a successful mission doesn't depend on the UN's efforts alone,” he said.

“But we can still hope for the success if everyone starts participating – Mr Gambari, the UN and everyone who has a concern.”

U Chan Htun, a veteran politican and former Burmese ambassador to China, said the government had approved the trip in order to push its own agenda on issues such as the constitution and 2010 elections, and to press Gambari to encourage opposition groups to participate in the elections.

"They invited Mr Gambari because they have confidence that they can get something they want,” he said.

“Our government doesn’t do anything without being sure of the outcome; they know only what they want and they do not care about anyone else."

Burma analyst Aung Naing Oo said he had little hope for the efforts by Gambari and the UN.

"[Gambari] would just keep going to Burma until the end of his term or until the Burmese government stops allowing him into the country," Aung Naing Oo said.

“If he doesn’t want to go, a new person will be appointed to continue this work. So he'll just have to go there regardless what outcome is going to result.”

Aung Naing Oo said no noticeable successes had come out of the special envoy’s previous trips.

"A very common question from both inside and outside Burma is what he is going to do seeing as the government's road map for democracy is going forward," he said.

"In Mr Razali Ismail's era, people used to have some hope from his trips to Burma because there was always something to hope for,” he went on.

“But with Mr Gambari, a lot of people are starting to think he is only being used by the Burmese regime for their own ends."

Razali Ismail, the former UN special envoy to Burma, said that it was important to keep channels of communication with the junta open.

“The ability to talk to the regime must be maintained in all aspects, including the political,” he said.

“I don’t think the people of Myanmar should lose hope in the UN. The UN is doing the best it can,” he went on.

“When I was working there, I was doing the best I could, but finally it is up to the government and the people of Myanmar to make all the necessary changes.”

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw

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