ASEAN to take lead in Burma relief

[Polly]

  How dare these tiny countries offend and frustrate the strategic geo-political ploy of the USA!

A small but meaningful step towards regional solidarity.  And what does it say about the might of the super-power?

______________________________________


SOUTH East Asian nations will take the lead in an international aid effort for cyclone-hit Burma, but the ruling military junta will not allow unfettered access for relief teams, the Association of South East Asian Nations said today.

"We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can flow into Myanmar (Burma),'' Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo said.

Burma - which is a part of ASEAN - repeated its willingness to accept foreign help, Mr Yeo said.

"For a start, the Myanmar Government has agreed to accept the immediate dispatch of medical teams from all the ASEAN countries,'' Mr Yeo said.

However, the entry of aid workers from outside ASEAN would be on a case-by-case basis.

..........

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23725621-23109,00.html

[The Smoking Man]

You have not been following the news, Polly.

The UN dude, Ban Ki Moon went in and basically told them that if they didn't do something, the USA, Britain, France and a few others had stationed invasion fleets off the coast if they did not allow aid workers in and the UN was moving to ratify a resolution that is allowed under the UN Charter when a government fails to protect it's people.

Don't be proud, Polly.

They tagged you because you are the lesser of two evils. (In their opinion)

That means they are accepting aid from the Philippines which only managed to muster a small medical team and no cash to the China Quake crisis.

Meanwhile, all of the aid organizations such as Oxfam, UN aid agencies, etc are STILL not allowed in with all their expertise and equipment.

Remember, even China, the economic superpower of the ASEAN countries got equipment aid after the quake in the form of donations of equipment and THEY are still short on thier own aid having to appeal to the rest of the world for tents in the current crisis.

You are talking a delta about 1/3 the size of Vietnam and many times the size of Hong Kong that is going to have to be cleared up by impoverished nations with little or no equipment.

Meanwhile sitting off the coast are heavy lift helicopters capable of moving industrial equipment personnel and supplies throughout the region.

They have medical teams from the French Doctors without borders with medicines and equipment and mobile hospital units.

Oxfam and Save the Children are specialists at short term shelter supply and long term emergency development.

This is not a moment to be patting yourselves on the back.

This is a compromise that keeps the real, skilled aid from entering the country.

[The Smoking Man]

Here's the rest of the article you didn't post:

ASEAN will work with the United Nations to hold an "international pledging conference'' in Burma's main city, Rangoon, on May 25 to pool together aid for the victims, Mr Yeo said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said the world body and ASEAN should together co-ordinate a ramped-up relief effort for the 2.5 million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma two weeks ago.

Ban was due to fly to Rangoon this week to tour the hardest-hit Irrawaddy Delta and is expected to meet with junta supremo Than Shwe, who refused to take a call from the United Nations' boss on the cyclone, which has left 134,000 dead or missing.

Humanitarian agencies say the death toll from Nargis, already one of the most devastating cyclones to hit Asia, could soar without a massive increase of emergency food, water, shelter and medicine to the Irrawaddy Delta.

Burma's military government has so far refused to admit large-scale foreign aid for fear it will loosen its 46-year grip on power.

However, Britain's Asia Minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, said yesterday diplomats may have turned the corner in brokering an aid deal that accommodated the generals' deep distrust of the outside world, in particular the West.

"Like all turning points in Burma, the corner will have a few 'S' bends in it,'' he said.

While aid has been trickling into the delta, the UN's World Food Program (WFP) says it has managed to get rice and beans to just 250,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are most in need.

While apparently convincing Burma to drop its resistance to large-scale foreign aid, the regional bloc also warned donors that "international assistance given to Myanmar, given through ASEAN, should not be politicised''.

"On that basis, Myanmar will accept international assistance,'' Yeo said.

Asked about Burma's estimate of cyclone damage, Yeo said the Burmese foreign minister told the meeting it was "well over $10.48 billion''.

With Reuters

So, they are planning a conference for this Sunday to figure out how they will approach the problem!?

They are going to let in medical teams without engineers to clean up the water supplies at the same time meaning the medical teams will be treating patients by the front door ... who will then go out the back door and become reinfected again ... only to return to the front door.

On top of all this, the ASEAN announces that the giving of aid should not be politicised!?

Fuck me Polly, the military dictators won't allow aid in because THEY don't trust Oxfam or save the Children ... those two highly charged political dynamos!?

And that Doctors without borders ... well, if there was EVER a subversive group of individuals, Eh... Polly? Why ... It's almost COMMUNISM the way they give out medical aid for free.

A lot of American conservative Rednecks are already saying 'Fuck Burma. Let them all die!' because of the political actions of their government in this crisis.

A lot of us also realize that these cunts are keeping aid from the true victims though.

You must be so proud ... only 3 more days before the 'meeting to decide what to donate'. Three more days of drinking what could lead to Cholera, dysintary, dengue fever, etc.

And then how many days to 'set up the mechanism' which they are just going to create now.

Polly, there are stocked relief boats off the coast now.

Polly, YOUR politically gleeful statement displays your pleasure at damaging the reputation of the USA (even thought this covers all western countries) at the cost of innicent lives and health.

Haven't there been enough pictures of PLA soldiers, Burma's Wen Jia Bao, and the local detestation to touch your heart yet and get that Buddhist Compassion thing working overtime inside you?

When did politics take over you so much that you can no longer recognize what it is to 'do the right thing'.

Go and read the 8 strands of the brocade again and kick your own ass.

[Drive By]

i call it parasitical. if ever a country deserved the full force of a combined army with bayonets attached it is burma. my only hope is that those vampires that help the army now get it well and proper when the elcted leader su kyi gets back into her rightful position. now that will be funny.

[The Smoking Man]

And as far as this government saying they don't want to politicise this event???


THEY RAN A FUCKING GOVERNMENT REFERENDUM DURING THE DISASTER TO CHANGE THE CONSTITUTION SO THEY COULD REMOVE THE ELECTED LEADER THAT DRIVEBY MENTIONS IN THE ABOVE POST.

[Art]

How dare these tiny countries offend and frustrate the strategic geo-political ploy of the USA!

A small but meaningful step towards regional solidarity.  And what does it say about the might of the super-power?

______________________________________


SOUTH East Asian nations will take the lead in an international aid effort for cyclone-hit Burma, but the ruling military junta will not allow unfettered access for relief teams, the Association of South East Asian Nations said today.

"We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can flow into Myanmar (Burma),'' Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo said.

Burma - which is a part of ASEAN - repeated its willingness to accept foreign help, Mr Yeo said.

"For a start, the Myanmar Government has agreed to accept the immediate dispatch of medical teams from all the ASEAN countries,'' Mr Yeo said.

However, the entry of aid workers from outside ASEAN would be on a case-by-case basis.

..........

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23725621-23109,00.html

This post displays a degree of heartlessness that surprises and disappoints me

[The Smoking Man]

Anyone else not surprised by the fact that even this is being held in Rangoon rather than Yangon, the purpose built new capital (Read BUNKER) housing the military Junta???

[The Smoking Man]

Glad you're proud Polly because the local people and students seem to be getting pissed.

UN head to urge more aid in Burma


Cyclone victims in Dedaye, 130 km south-west of Rangoon
Many people are still waiting for aid to arrive

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon is travelling to cyclone-hit Burma to tour the devastated Irrawaddy Delta and meet with military ruler Gen Than Shwe.

Mr Ban said the focus should be on saving lives, not on politics.

Burma's rulers have blocked large-scale international aid but have now agreed to allow some UN helicopters to carry supplies to survivors.

Aid agencies say they are delivering about 30% of what they would like, 20 days after Cyclone Nargis struck.

'Critical moment'

The death toll from Cyclone Nargis currently stands at 78,000 dead, with another 56,000 missing.

Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes and the UN says that less than a quarter of the 2.4 million people affected have received aid.

Ships from the British, French and American navies are standing by off the Irrawaddy Delta but they have not been allowed to deliver it.

"We must do our utmost for the people of Myanmar [Burma], Mr Ban said after arriving in Bangkok, in neighbouring Thailand.

"This is a critical moment for Myanmar. The government itself acknowledges that there has never been a disaster on this scale in the history of their country."

He will tour devastated regions on Thursday and then fly to the remote capital, Nay Pyi Taw, for talks with General Than Shwe on Friday.

Mr Ban will also attend a donor conference in Burma's commercial capital, Rangoon, on Sunday.

Pressure on generals

His visit follows that of the UN humanitarian co-ordinator John Holmes.

Mr Holmes has described his negotiations with the Burmese government as painful and frustrating.

He also said he was very worried about the lack of reliable information from the disaster zone, and that he could still not be sure how many survivors were waiting to be reached.




He added that a lot was riding on the meeting between Mr Ban and the Burmese leadership.

There are signs that the generals are feeling pressure to do more for their people, says a BBC correspondent in Burma.

World Food Programme (WFP) officials said the military had agreed to allow the UN agency to use 10 helicopters to deliver aid.

But the helicopters have to chartered, flown to Bangkok and assembled before they can be put into operation.

A WFP official said they had permission to fly directly to cyclone-hit areas with supplies, rather than unloading them at the airport in Rangoon for the Burmese authorities to distribute.

The government also agreed to allow more foreign aid workers in - from its neighbours in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Burma has been criticised for the slowness and inefficiency of its response to the cyclone and its reluctance to accept international offers of help.

There are signs that people in Burma are angry with their government. Some students have threatened strikes and protests if more help is not accepted from wherever it is offered, says our correspondent.

[Drive By]

the only sad thing about it smokie is i dont beleive (nor do any of the experts in the area of burma ) belevie that this will trigger any real change. people are too unorganised for that. the only one with food is the army. than again st petersburg sunday bloody sunday led to revolution. lets hope.

[Polly]

How dare these tiny countries offend and frustrate the strategic geo-political ploy of the USA!

A small but meaningful step towards regional solidarity.  And what does it say about the might of the super-power?

______________________________________


SOUTH East Asian nations will take the lead in an international aid effort for cyclone-hit Burma, but the ruling military junta will not allow unfettered access for relief teams, the Association of South East Asian Nations said today.

"We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can flow into Myanmar (Burma),'' Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo said.

Burma - which is a part of ASEAN - repeated its willingness to accept foreign help, Mr Yeo said.

"For a start, the Myanmar Government has agreed to accept the immediate dispatch of medical teams from all the ASEAN countries,'' Mr Yeo said.

However, the entry of aid workers from outside ASEAN would be on a case-by-case basis.

..........

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23725621-23109,00.html

This post displays a degree of heartlessness that surprises and disappoints me

Huh? Really? *goes into reflection*

[Drive By]

there is only one industry in burma. logs logs and more logs . the chinese are ripping the country to shreds in an effort to make it look like a moon landscape (as they are doing in laos). the thai army is up to its neck in it and the heroin trade. they want the status quo. australia has been rejecte din atttmetpign to assist. what could we possibly want from them. our former foriegn affairs minister wrote an article i support. invade the mongrels with an international army and hang them from highest tree.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/time-for-an-aid-invasion/2008/05/18/1211049061508.html

no person with a heart at all could support these evil dictators not under any circumstances.

[The Smoking Man]

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I give you the economic powerhouse that is known as the ASEAN member states:

Brunei Darussalam
Cambodia
Indonesia
Laos
Malaysia
Myanmar
Philippines

These are the only official members.

[The Smoking Man]

UN head tours cyclone-hit Burma
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has arrived in cyclone-hit Burma to tour the devastated Irrawaddy Delta and meet military ruler Gen Than Shwe.

Mr Ban hopes to persuade the government to accept more aid for cyclone victims.

UN officials say Burma's PM Thein Sein told Mr Ban the relief phase was ending and reconstruction would now begin.

But a BBC correspondent travelling with Mr Ban says the UN secretary general is in Burma to say more people need to be helped by international aid workers.

Mr Ban was flown by helicopter to a tidy camp with very few people in it and brand new tents, some of which were empty.

He denied his visit being used by the junta to give a misleading picture of the crisis in the country, which is also known as Myanmar.

He said: "I say now what I have said before: issues of assistance and aid in Myanmar should not be politicised. Our focus now is on saving lives."

'Drinking from puddles'

Our correspondent Laura Trevelyan says Mr Ban is concerned that aid is only reaching a quarter of those in need.

One foreign doctor told the BBC many were drinking water from puddles, while children and old people were suffering from dysentery, dengue fever and dehydration.

Burma's rulers have blocked large-scale international assistance since Cyclone Nargis struck on 2 May, leaving 78,000 dead and another 56,000 missing.

Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes and the UN says that fewer than a quarter of the 2.4 million people affected have received aid.

The generals have agreed that some UN helicopters can join the aid effort, but British, French and American naval vessels are still standing by off the Irrawaddy Delta, having been refused access to the area.

The first of 10 helicopters to be sent by the UN's World Food Programme arrived in Burma on Thursday, the AFP news agency reports, and will be used to ferry supplies to remote areas.

Prior to meeting with Burma's Prime Minister, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visits Rangoon

Before heading to the delta region, Mr Ban told officials in Rangoon he had brought a "message of hope".

He made an offering for cyclone victims at the Shwedagon Pagoda, the holiest Buddhist shrine in Burma.

The secretary general also held a short meeting with the prime minister and signed a book of condolences.

On Friday, Mr Ban will fly to the nation's remote capital, Nay Pyi Daw, for talks with Burma's leader, Than Shwe. He has previously been unwilling to speak to the UN head.

Mr Ban will also attend a donor conference in Burma's commercial capital, Rangoon, on Sunday.

His visit follows that of the UN humanitarian co-ordinator John Holmes.

Mr Holmes has described his negotiations with the Burmese government as painful and frustrating, and said a lot was riding on Mr Ban's meeting with the Burmese leadership.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda added his voice on Thursday to the chorus of calls for Burma's leaders to accept foreign help.

"I strongly hope that... Myanmar [Burma] will accept openly the international community's goodwill and engage in disaster relief and reconstruction in partnership with the international community," he said, quoted by AFP.

Meanwhile, members of the European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution calling for Burma's military leaders to be brought before an international court in The Hague "if they continue to prevent aid from reaching those in danger".

There are signs that the generals are feeling pressure to do more for their people, says a BBC correspondent in Burma who cannot be named for security reasons.

As well as allowing World Food Programme helicopters to deliver aid, the government has agreed to allow in more foreign aid workers from its neighbours in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

In a sign of frustrations being felt within Burma, some students have threatened strikes and protests if more help is not accepted from wherever it is offered, says our correspondent.

Another man told our correspondent: "Whether the military government gives permission or not, we want the US and French to help us."

[The Smoking Man]

Here is what is happening in China with the WHO involvement:

http://chinathetimes.com/forum/index.php/topic,2537.msg13094.html#msg13094

How do you propose that ASEAN address these problems in Myanmar?

Still happy you're shutting out those nasty Americans?

[The Smoking Man]

There is the answer Polly:

UN chief tours still-flooded Myanmar delta

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 10 minutes ago

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon flew over Myanmar's flooded Irrawaddy delta on Thursday, where the ravages of a cyclone stretched as far as the eye could see: Villages were empty of life, flattened huts dissolved into vast areas of water and people perched on rooftops.

Nearly three weeks after the storm, life was grim even at a refugee camp showcased by Myanmar's junta during the carefully scripted tour.

"I'm very upset by what I've seen," Ban said, visibly shaken by the firsthand look at the devastation, even though the areas to which he was taken were far from those worst-hit by Cyclone Nargis.

Before his helicopter flyover, Ban had said he was bringing a "message of hope," to Myanmar's people following the May 2-3 cyclone, which claimed more than 78,000 lives, according to government figures, and left more than 56,000 missing.

Myanmar's military rulers have been eager to show they have the relief effort under control despite spurning the help of foreign disaster experts, and much of the tour was taken up by statistics-laden lectures to make that point.

The U.N. says up to 2.5 million cyclone survivors face hunger, homelessness and potential outbreaks of deadly diseases, especially in the low-lying areas of the Irrawaddy Delta close to the sea. It estimates that aid has reached only about 25 percent of victims.

The four-hour tour Thursday included two stops — one at Mawlamyinegyun, an aid distribution point stocked with bags of rice and cartons of bottled drinking water and the other at a makeshift camp where 500 people huddled in tents in the village of Kyondah, about 45 miles southwest of Yangon.

Still, the destruction in the region was relatively mild compared to Labutta and Bogalay to the south, where the Red Cross said rivers and ponds were full of corpses and many people have received no aid. Officials gave no explanation for why Ban was not taken to those areas, where most of the dead and missing were reported.

By contrast, Kyondah — which has electricity and clean water — is somewhat of a showcase and was selected for visits by senior junta members, foreign embassy officials and international aid organizations last week.

At the camp, the secretary-general was given a detailed explanation by Maj. Gen. Lun Thi of how Kyondah, formerly a cluster of seven villages with a population of 5,228, has expertly handled relief efforts. The village had 122 dead and missing, he said.

He displayed charts saying the camp had 300 bags of rice, 64 boxes of instant noodles, 1,500 eggs, 12,000 bottles of drinking water and 1,240 pieces of preserved meat. Also listed were napkins, steel bowls, blankets, T-shirts, tarps and men's and ladies' underwear.

While the general spoke, Ban sat in the front row of an elaborately constructed sitting room where bowls of fruit and soda were served. Ban ate and drank nothing.

Once the lecture was over, Ban strode into the camp, stopping at tents to look in on the homeless families, some with children as young as a day old.

"The whole world is trying to help Myanmar," he told one family in the camp, where inhabitants had cooking pots and blankets that appeared to be new stacked neatly in their tents. Some smiled at him, but said little.

An idea of the storm's destructive force was more obvious from the air.

The two helicopters carrying Ban's party flew over seemingly endless fields surrounded by flood waters, villages with destroyed houses, rivers swollen past their banks, people huddled on rooftops or in makeshift tents, or moving around in boats.

In some areas, the flooding stretched as far as the eye could see, with people living in damaged homes that looked completely cut off.

So far, no one at the U.N. has ventured an estimate of how long the delta is expected to remain submerged. But on Thursday, Ban said he expected the relief operations to be needed for at least six months.

The question of pumps and levees, and whether they could be used to make the flooding less extensive, is an issue U.N. officials say they might raise at a regional aid conference Sunday.

Much of the area is normally planted with rice, but the water level is far too high for that and the paddies are inundated with damaging salt water, U.N. officials said.

The monsoon, bringing seasonal rains, is part of the normal cycle, but doesn't usually cause flooding in the delta, they said.

Heavy rains have followed the cyclone, bringing more flooding and hardship to survivors, but Ban expressed hope the rain might also cleanse the rice paddies of the salt water.

"I praise the will, resilience and the courage of the people of Myanmar. I bring a message of hope for the people of Myanmar," he said.

U.N. officials traveling with Ban said they were discussing with Chinese authorities whether Ban could tour the earthquake zone in Sichuan after leaving Myanmar. The officials requested anonymity, citing protocol.

Such a trip would give Ban a chance to compare the two countries' responses and urge China — Myanmar's biggest ally — to put its weight behind opening the flow of aid workers.

Ban tried to keep political issues off his plate.

Activists called on the U.N. chief to meet with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and seek her release. The Nobel Peace prize laureate has been confined to her Yangon villa for most of the last 18 years and her current period of detention is due to expire Monday. But a meeting with Suu Kyi was not on Ban's official itinerary.

In a meeting earlier Thursday with Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, Ban stressed international aid experts should be rushed in because the crisis is too much for Myanmar to handle alone, according to a U.N. official at the talks.

"The United Nations and all the international community stand ready to help to overcome the tragedy," Ban said.

Thein Sein said the relief phase of the government's operation was ending and that the focus had shifted to reconstruction, according to the U.N. official at the talks who requested anonymity for reasons of protocol.

U.N. official Dan Baker said junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe would meet with Ban on Friday at Naypyitaw. Ban earlier said Than Shwe had refused to take his telephone calls and did not respond to two letters.

Yangon citizens did not seem optimistic that Ban's visit would make a difference.

"Don't just talk, you must take action," said Eain Daw Bar Tha, abbot of a Buddhist monastery on Yangon's outskirts. "The U.N. must directly help the people with helicopters to bring food, clothes and clean water to the really damaged places."