http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/21/content_11048335.htm
www.chinaview.cn 2009-03-21 19:54:52 Print
YANGON, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar is implementing a new hydropower project, Nancho, near the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw as part of its bid to add more electricity to the country, sources with the Electric Power Department said on Saturday.
The project, lying 25.6 kilometers east of Nay Pyi Taw, is targeted to complete by the year 2010, the sources said.
The Nancho power plant, equipped with two 20-megawatt turbines, can generate electricity of 152 million kilowatt-hours yearly after completion, the sources added.
According to the Myanmar authorities, since Myanmar worked out a series of state-level special projects which also include hydropower ones for implementation, six has been completed and 22 others are underway.
With installed capacity of a total of 442 megawatts (mw), the six completed hydropower projects up to 2008 are Zawgyi-2, Zaungtu, Thaphanseik, Monechaung, Paunglaung and Yenwe.
The 22 ongoing projects will add a total 16,599 mw more to the country's electric power installed capacity on completion, the department said earlier, adding that 15 more hydropower projects are being planned in addition.
The 15 hydropower projects with an installed capacity ranging from 48 mw to 2,800 mw, lie in seven divisions and states.
Of the projects, seven are located in the northernmost Kachin state, six of which range over 1,200 mw, the report said, adding that the rest of the projects are scattered in Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway and Bago divisions, and Rakhine and northern Shan states.
The 15 projects on completion in the future will add another 13,847 mw to the country's installed capacity.
Meanwhile, Myanmar claimed in its monthly statistical report that the country's electric power installed capacity reached a total of over 1,684 mw as of the end of 2008 and the power generated stood 6.603 billion kwh in 2007-08, up from 6.164 billion kwh in 2006-07.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Myanmar implements new hydropower project in new capital
Report urges more relief funds for Burma
http://www.mizzima.com/news/regional/1871-report-urges-more-relief-funds-for-burma.html
by Salai Pi Pi
Friday, 20 March 2009 22:08
New Delhi (Mizzima) –The international community should take up the opportunity of the ongoing relief process in Burma to inject more funds needed for humanitarian assistance of the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, a new report urged.
US-based Refugee International (RI), in its new report, entitled ‘Burma: Capitalizing on the Gains’ released on March 18, urged the global community including the United States, the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Burma is a member, to increase funding for development work in Burma.
Jake Kurtzer, who conducted the assessment on Burma’s humanitarian situation, in the report said, though Burma’s ruling military junta initially blocked humanitarian aid, with relief now being mobilized in Cyclone Nargis hit areas of the Irrawaddy delta, the international community should take advantage of the opportunity to inject more funds for humanitarian aid, in other parts of the country.
In its recommendation, the report urged the United States to join other donor nations in making a significant appropriation for humanitarian aid in Burma.
“It should allocate USD 30 million for FY10, with plans to increase its contribution to USD 45 million in FY11 and USD 60 million in FY12,” the report said.
The report said, while the Irrawaddy Delta remains the main focus of humanitarian assistance, after it was hit by Cyclone Nargis, other regions also need similar attention as they too were reeling under humanitarian crisis.
The report said it was necessary that the funding for INGOs’ operation to do assessment in the areas, outside the delta regions, such as drought prone areas of Magwey, Mandalay, Bago Division and the home of Rohingya people in northern Arakan state and the southern part of Chin state, which faces a shortage of food due to being infested by rats.
According to the report, northern Arakan State in Burma, which is home to the Rohingya Muslim minority, continues to be one of the areas of greatest concern.
“Deteriorating living standards, news of increased forced relocations, continuous restrictions on all aspects of normal life, and the expulsion of Rohingya refugees from asylum countries in the region, have focussed the attention of the international aid community there,” the report explained.
The report also urged ASEAN to apply the Tri-Partite Core Group model for use in the discussion of other issues of concern regarding Burma, such as the Rohingya.
RI also urged Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, by hiring a senior humanitarian advisor to strengthen support to the UN Country Team to receive support and adequate guidance.
India Bids to Rule the Waves: From the Bay of Bengal to the Malacca Strait
http://japanfocus.org/-Ramtanu-Maitra/1610
By Ramtanu Maitra
After years of hesitancy, India has now firmly acknowledged the strategic importance of the Andaman Sea. The Indian Navy is setting up a Far Eastern Naval Command (FENC) off Port Blair on the Andaman Islands - also known as the Bay Islands - located midway between the Bay of Bengal and the Malacca Strait - to give it "blue-water" status.
It is evident New Delhi believes that the new strategic command will remain vulnerable unless the entire Andaman Sea is brought under the full control of the Indian Navy.
A variety of factors led to New Delhi's full realization of the Andaman Sea's importance for overall regional security.
To begin with, the US's recent invitation to the Indian Navy to help patrol the Malacca Strait must have been viewed as an open US affirmation of its intent to bring India into the naval big league.
The Malacca Strait, thanks to the weakness of the Indonesian and Malaysian navies, has become a hunting ground of pirates. Bringing the Indian Navy to help patrol the strait would mean, according to some analysts, Washington's tacit approval of India's assertion of naval control over the Andaman Sea, the eastern mouth of the Indian Ocean and the waters that surround Sri Lanka.
Although India is not party to any security arrangement for the Malacca Strait, the immediate purpose of any joint patrols would be to prevent smuggling, piracy, drug and gun trafficking, poaching and illegal immigration in the region.
Oil-tanker traffic through the narrow strait, which already carries most of North Asia's oil imports, is projected to grow from 10 million barrels a day in 2002 to 20 million barrels a day in 2020 - much of that oil will be destined for the fast-growing market of China.
Even if it is true that it was Washington's wink and nudge that emboldened Indian authorities to stake control over the Andaman Sea, other reasons often debated in New Delhi's South Bloc were no less critical.
As one Indian analyst points out, in recent years, in addition to the US, whose navy has long had a presence in the Indian Ocean and has been stealthily sailing the waters of the Bay of Bengal, China has also shown a considerable interest in utilizing the Andaman Sea as an outlet to the Indian Ocean in the near future.
New command
There is little doubt that the FENC is a well thought out development. Indian naval officers have said that FENC, when fully developed by 2012, will have a chain of small anchor stations and three main bases.
As for models, Russia has a similar base in the Black Sea, and the US naval base at Hawaii comes close. FENC will be larger than the former US base in the Philippines at Subic Bay, spreading from Narcondam to Indira Point. Car Nicobar will serve as the vital link for various FENC stations.
The plan to set up FENC was set in concrete in 1995 following a closed-door meeting in Washington between then Indian prime minister, P V Narasimha Rao, and former US president, Bill Clinton. At the time, Pentagon officials made a formal request to the United Front coalition government in New Delhi to open the base, but for various reasons the Indian government did not respond.
The US is expected to partly fund FENC because it is considered part of a US-led security arrangement for Asia in which India plays a key role. US funding was cleared in 2000 when Clinton visited India.
FENC will have state-of-the-art naval electronic warfare systems that can extend as far as Southeast Asia. Also, the Russian Navy will likely assist in setting up a few armament projects.
The command will include submarines. The upgraded naval ship repair yard at Port Blair already refits minor war vessels. FENC will build and repair bigger ships. This will release more warships for operations and more operational space in alternative ports for fleet ships and submarines.
China bogey?
Some Indian naval authorities who are concerned over the increasing Chinese presence in these waters point out that with China controlling the Myanmar ports of Akyab, Cheduba and Bassein, India's approaches to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands could be threatened.
China is developing all these naval ports with facilities to handle ships considerably larger and more sophisticated than the Myanmar Navy currently possesses. A host of Indian naval analysts say that if India does not have a strong naval presence in the region, in an emergency China could enforce a sea denial on India by using its warships stationed in Coco and other islands leased from Myanmar.
Coco Island and the northern-most tip of the Andamans are separated by just 18 kilometers of sea. Officials say that Coco is visible from the Andamans, and plenty of Chinese fishermen can be seen in its port.
Others point out that the town of One Pagoda Point, located near the mouth of the Irrawady in Myanmar, is emerging as the main logistic point for the Chinese. One Indian naval analyst goes to the extent of claiming that if China acquired control over the northeastern Sri Lankan port of Trincomalee, Beijing would be in a position "to convert the Bay of Bengal into a veritable Chinese lake". Whether New Delhi sees the developments in that light is not clear. But it is likely that Washington might.
In New Delhi, there has always been a cacophony of voices concerning how to react to China's growing presence in Myanmar. While no one in New Delhi denies that China is becoming a significant military power, there are many who see no reason to push to develop an adversarial relationship with China.
They point out that the encroaching Indian naval presence in the Andaman Sea could threaten Beijing and create roadblocks in steadily developing Sino-Indian cooperation. They are not quite sure that measures undertaken by New Delhi to enhance the security of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands will not threaten, or antagonize, Beijing even if India's intent is clearly stated and underlined.
Other threats
The increased activities of Pakistan along the Myanmar coast have also troubled Indian authorities. According to Jane's Defence, Pakistan has supplied Myanmar with several shiploads of ordnance and other military hardware, such as 106mm M40 recoilless rifles and various small arms over the past decade, and regularly trains Myanmar's soldiers to operate Chinese tanks, fighter aircraft and howitzers.
Myanmar's officers attend Pakistan's Military Staff College at Quetta in Balochistan province. Since 2001, a full-time Pakistani defense attache has been posted in Yangon.
In 2001, three Pakistan Navy ships, including a submarine and a destroyer, called at Yangon, and this was followed by President General Pervez Musharraf's visit to Myanmar. The joint communique issued at the end of the visit mentioned the Jammu and Kashmir issue, raising concern in New Delhi as Myanmar, rarely, if at all, comments on third countries.
Security sources said that Pakistan was negotiating to build an airstrip in the Chin region of Myanmar, which is contiguous to Mizoram.
Indian naval intelligence also claims that it is through these waters that guns are run into south Bangladesh and the northwestern coast of Myanmar, to arm Naga insurgents in India and the Rohingiyas of Myanmar along the Arakan Coast, as well as the Karens and the Kachins of northern Myanmar.
In addition, India's northeast, which has remained in deep turmoil for decades, has nurtured secessionist rebels using the waters of the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. Neighboring Myanmar has a number of powerful insurgent groups that are interlinked with the Indian northeastern rebels.
A large portion of illegal lethal weapons that come into northeast India originate in Cambodia. The underground route to South Asia is said to begin on the Ranong islands off the Thai coast, from where the arms are shipped through the Andaman Sea to Cox's Bazaar along the Bangladesh coast. From here, the weapons are divvied up into smaller consignments and carried to various destinations in Myanmar and northeastern India through different routes.
In early April 2004, on a tip-off, Bangladeshi joint forces seized 10 truckloads of submachine-guns, AK-47 assault rifles and other firearms and bullets in a swoop on the Karnaphuli coast in the port city of Chittagong. It was the largest-ever arms haul. Police and coast guard forces found the new submachine guns, AK-47 rifles, submachine carbines, Chinese pistols, rocket shells and launchers, hand grenades and bullets stuffed in about 1,500 wooden boxes.
But long before the big haul was reported, it was widely known that international arms smugglers were active in the coastal belts in Chittagong and Cox's Bazar. The vast coastline in the bay near Ukhia in Cox's Bazar and border points between Bangladesh and Myanmar had become a sanctuary for arms smugglers, mainly in the absence of an adequate security watch. The smugglers were bringing in sophisticated firearms, including pure military hardware such as AK-47 and M-16 rifles, long-range pistols, revolvers and grenades, among other items.
Naval diplomacy
But India's strengthening of its presence in the Andaman Sea is not just derived from negative developments in the region. New Delhi's interest in and involvement with Southeast Asia has been growing steadily over the past decade, and its concern for development of the Andaman basin has grown accordingly.
An agreement was signed in 2003 in Yangon by the foreign ministers of India, Myanmar and Thailand to develop transport linkages between the three countries. When complete, a 1,400-kilometer road corridor will be a highway of friendship linking the peoples of South Asia and Southeast Asia. India also reached agreement in principle with Myanmar and Bangladesh on the construction and operation of a pipeline that will bring natural gas from Myanmar to India via Bangladesh, according to reports by the Alexander Gas & Oil company newsletter.
The pipeline, which is likely to cost more than US$1 billion, will carry natural gas from the Shwe fields in Myanmar's Rakhine or Arakan state, through the Indian states of Mizoram and Tripura, and into Bangladesh before finally crossing back into India, all the way up to Kolkata.
India's planned building of a deep-sea port in Dawei in Myanmar, together with a new highway connecting it to Kanchanaburi in Thailand, will no doubt contribute further toward closer trade and commercial links between the two regions.
India's economic ties with Sri Lanka and Thailand, meanwhile, are growing. The Indo-Sri Lanka Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement spanning trade, services and investment will advance this further. A land bridge has been proposed across the Palk Strait that separates India from Sri Lanka. This could also carry transmission lines to hook up Sri Lanka to India's Southern Region Electricity Grid, with the Kudankulam nuclear power plant serving as a base-load station, an observer pointed out.
These developments can also be put under India's broad "Look East" policy involving the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the "rim" states farther a field - like Japan and South Korea. It can be argued that India's diplomatic success with these nations is in large part due to India's naval diplomacy.
Eye in the Sky
Last month, the Malacca Strait's littorals - Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia - together with Thailand launched a joint air patrol initiative called "Eye in the Sky" over the strait.
While the initiative signals the continuing determination of the Malacca Strait's littorals to take care on their own the patrolling of this strategic waterway, countries such as India, which have stakes in the strait, believe that they have a role to play in its security system.
The Eye in the Sky initiative is part of the larger Malacca Strait's Security Initiative (MSSI). India is among the countries that are keen to participate in the MSSI.
After all, India is very much a part of the Malacca Strait security system, points out Vijay Sakhuja, a former officer in the Indian Navy and now senior fellow at the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation.
Sakhuja draws attention to the fact that although India might not be a littoral, it is contiguous to the strait. Indira Point - the southern tip of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands - is about 90 nautical miles from Indonesia's Banda Aceh.
The Indian Navy has been exercising with its counterpart in Singapore for more than a decade, with the Indonesian Navy since last year and with the Thai Navy since August. The naval exercises with Indonesia were held at the mouth of the Malacca Strait.
In a briefing paper "Cooperative Security in the Strait of Malacca: Policy Options for India" brought out in August, Sakhuja draws attention to the positive impression that India's naval patrolling has had on the Malacca littorals. "Many regional countries have seen the Indian Navy's vessels patrolling the Malacca Strait and are confident about its cooperative approach and its capability to challenge forces inimical to the safety and security of maritime enterprise in the Strait of Malacca. The Indian Navy has managed to play a highly positive and balanced role, fully cooperating with and augmenting the regional efforts, but always, as it were, from behind - from a secondary position. In fact, the Indian Navy's adaptable approach has won the confidence of the regional nations on the viability and the efficacy of coordinated patrols with the Indian Navy."
This positive impression and its close naval engagement with these countries notwithstanding, India has been moving cautiously with regard to carving a larger role for itself in the security of the Malacca. Sakhuja told Asia Times Online that the Indian government's approach has been to impress on the littorals that India will not force itself on them but will be "ready to provide assets when asked for".
Outlining the kind of role that the Malacca littorals would like India to play, Lawrence Prabhakar, associate professor at the Madras Christian College and research fellow at the maritime security program at the Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, points out that they would prefer joint exercises with the Indian Navy and Coast Guard in the region.
"Such an Indian role would have to be non-intrusive, cooperative and benign in operations," he told Asia Times Online, adding that this "would be most preferred in the event of a contingency or crisis resulting from maritime terrorism/piracy incidents rather than a staying presence".
Sakhuja said there were several ways in which India could contribute to the MSSI that would not threaten the sovereignty concerns of the Malacca littorals. Drawing attention to the outdated radar equipment for reconnaissance that is currently in use in the Malacca Strait, he suggested that India, which manufactures this electronic equipment, could supply it to the littoral states.
What it needs now is an invitation from the Malacca Strait littoral countries, not just the US.
Expanding reach
Indian naval diplomacy has now gone beyond the western shores of ASEAN. The October 3 visit to New Delhi by a Vietnamese defense delegation led by Lieutenant General Nguyen Thinh, head of the Vietnamese Defense Research Center, opened up new possibilities. Thinh is expected to ask for Indian help and technical assistance in acquiring a missile production capability.
Should India agree, what it would ask in return is a moot question. One analyst claims that Hanoi should be persuaded to allow the Indian Navy a basing option in Cam Ranh Bay, the finest natural deep water harbor in Asia.
All these developments underline the strategic importance - and, in particular, its recognition in New Delhi - of India's island territories, more particularly the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which command the Malacca Strait and the sea lanes that carry vast quantities of Gulf oil to Pacific destinations.
Additional reporting by Sudha Ramachandran, an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.
This article appeared in Asia Times on October 19, 2005. Posted at Japan Focus on October 27, 2005.
China's stimulus plan lauded
http://www.thestar.com/World/Columnist/article/606027
OECD chief says Beijing could have 'very positive effect' on the world's economic recovery
Mar 21, 2009 04:30 AM
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Bill Schiller
ASIA BUREAU
BEIJING – Don't expect China to grasp "a sword and shield" and single-handedly smite the international recession, the head of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development says.
"Not even China can do that," OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria told a briefing here yesterday.
"But it can have a very, very positive effect" on the world economy, the Mexican economist added, hoping to nudge China along.
Yesterday, Gurria added his voice to a growing chorus of international experts trying to temper expectations about just how much China can help to pull the world out of recession.
He said the OECD expects China's economy to grow "between 6 and 7 per cent" this year – down from the 8 per cent the organization had predicted as recently as November.
Most economists say the country must grow by 8 per cent to avoid an eruption of social unrest over rapidly rising unemployment.
This month, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao assured the country that if everyone pulled together, China could achieve that figure.
But just this week, the World Bank also cut China's growth forecast, saying the country's economy would grow by 6.5 per cent in 2009 – down from the 7.5 per cent it had predicted earlier.
A 6.5 per cent growth rate would mark a precipitous decline: the Chinese economy grew at a scorching 11.4 per cent in 2007.
Gurria said the OECD will release more precise figures for 2009 at the end of the month.
China's export-driven economy has been hit hard since the economic downturn took hold last September.
Thousands of factories have closed and more than 20 million Chinese migrant workers have been thrown out of work as Chinese exports continue to plunge.
Almost all of those migrant workers have returned to the countryside, where life can be far tougher than in China's urban areas.
"The current recession has put into harsh relief the low level of the social safety nets and the livelihood of migrant workers," Gurria warned.
He praised China for its $730 billion stimulus package but said Chinese policymakers should be poised to take further action to stimulate the economy if necessary.
In just weeks, the Chinese economy will see more than 6 million new graduates entering the labour market looking for work.
Just to absorb those numbers – "to break even," Gurria said – China must have a far higher "cruising speed" than other countries, meaning a higher rate of growth.
But China's challenges on the job front are by no means unique: the spectre of unemployment is rising everywhere, Gurria noted.
"Jobs is the name of the game now," he said.
"It was a financial crisis, that has become an economic crisis and (is) now a jobs crisis – and therefore a human crisis."
But despite its challenges, China still has a role to play, he said.
The world economy's traditional "locomotives" were all "in the repair shop," Gurria observed.
"So we need more locomotives – and we need the aggregate demand of China and countries like India."
But at the same time, everyone needs to be realistic, he suggested.
"Even the positive growth of India and China isn't going to be able to offset the negative growth" of the developed world, he said.
"I don't think we're suggesting that China should save the world," he noted, "just that if China does very well – it will help the world."
The OECD's 30-member countries – of which Canada is one – will experience "very negative" growth this year, Gurria said.
But he wouldn't be drawn on specifics ahead of the G20 meeting in London in April.
Why aid workers put their lives on the line
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090321.waidessay21/BNStory/International/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20090321.waidessay21
The recent kidnapping of Canadian nurse Laura Archer and four colleagues serves as a stark reminder of just how dangerous this work can be. Steve Dennis of Médecins Sans Frontières sheds light on why he keeps revisiting the world's most troubled places
Article Video Comments (14) STEVE DENNIS
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
March 21, 2009 at 12:05 AM EDT
When I first applied six years ago to work overseas with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), I wrote on my application that my goal was to help the world become a better place. I didn't really know what that meant or how I would do that, but it sounded like a good answer at the time.
I hadn't even arrived at my first project location before I started seeing the dark side of my chosen line of work. A month before I left on my first mission in 2002, MSF worker Arjan Erkel was kidnapped in Dagestan, a troubled Russian republic on the Caspian Sea. For the next 20 months while he was held hostage, I met anxiously with my team members to discuss the weekly updates about either progress on his release or silence about his fate. I felt outraged and betrayed because the risk Mr. Erkel faced went beyond what I had expected when I signed up.
This feeling came back to me last week when I heard about the kidnapping of Canadian nurse Laura Archer and four other staff with MSF in the Darfur region of Sudan.
How could this happen to people bringing aid to a country in distress?
Laura Archer is seen in a July, 2007 photo.
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When Arjan Erkel was finally released, I breathed a sigh of relief, as did many of my fellow aid workers. Still in my early years of humanitarian work, I felt order had been restored. But that feeling was short-lived.
Just two months later, five MSF staff members were ambushed and killed in Afghanistan. My outrage turned to disbelief and cold numbness. For me, the illusion I had been living of bulletproof principles had been shattered, and order would not be restored this time.
As aid workers have increasingly fallen victim to kidnappings, sexual assaults and killings over the past decade, it's only natural to wonder how we justify taking such risks. The answer is far from simple.
THE PAYOFF
One fact that many aid workers will tell you is that being part of an organization that is in the business of saving lives and restoring dignity feels good; you are reminded that success is possible. This was reaffirmed for me in 2006, when I was in Ivory Coast working on a large hospital project.
Since the prevalence of HIV is as high as 15 per cent in some parts of the country, MSF started many HIV activities there. We established a voluntary counselling and testing centre, but in the first couple of months, fewer than a dozen people came. We worked hard to tell the community about these services, and this number quickly rose. We optimistically set the budget for an average of 300 consultations per month over the year. We reached that number in March, and by October more than 900 people were visiting the centre for counselling each month.
The demand for other activities related to HIV/AIDS rose as well.
We started a program to stop mother-to-child transmission of the virus, so HIV-positive mothers could safely deliver and care for their HIV-negative babies. And antiretroviral drugs were offered to an increasing number of patients, turning around their deteriorating conditions.
In the town, we made contact with people at school assemblies, orphanages, rebel battalions and local groups providing non-medical care for people living with HIV/AIDS. And on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, more than 600 people came out for the events, including races, speeches from local authorities, live music, dramas and game-show-style quizzes all about HIV.
I believe that our HIV/AIDS intervention in that community significantly improved the lives of thousands of people.
But after working in various projects for six years and seeing the longer-term results of what I had been part of, I realize that it isn't always apparent how our efforts make a difference. I remember one cold day on vacation when I received three e-mails with disheartening news about how my previous work had been erased. One described how a compound I had helped build in south Sudan was looted and destroyed, another how the international team of a tuberculosis project I had started had to be evacuated for their safety, and the third one reported that fighting had broken out, ending a four-year ceasefire in Sri Lanka, where I had earlier helped wrap up our mission in peaceful times. The world I had worked so hard to make a better place had taken two steps backward.
I had a similar feeling when I heard that MSF withdrew staff in Darfur after the kidnapping of the MSF staff members last week. This act will be a devastating blow to the survival of hundreds of thousands of people there.
To many people in towns, villages, refugee camps and city slums, aid organizations do more for the populations than provide food, clean water or health care. For many people defeated by the effects of a conflict, the presence of aid organizations gives hope and restores some dignity by recognizing their plight. Conversely, the evacuation of an aid organization from an area needing its service and recognition, can extinguish that light.
TOO GREAT A RISK
In my most recent posting with MSF, I took over as co-ordinator of an emergency surgical program in Kismayo, Somalia, when three MSF staff had been killed there. In the months after the incident, after the memorials and funeral services, the organization made the difficult decision to end the project. The risk was too great.
The surgical program had given women with labour complications life-saving Caesarian sections. During the eight-month duration of the project, more than 400 (principally obstetric) surgeries and 1,200 emergency consultations were performed by the MSF team of six international and 35 Somali staff.
After MSF closed the program, patients had to pay $350 U.S. for a Caesarian section. For many Somalis, this lifesaving service became financially inaccessible, so a population of 100,000 people were left without this essential service.
We feared that many women would probably die.
Imagine in your home country a collapse of all systems and structures of authority and governance. Imagine violence chasing you and your family out of your homes to walk 100 kilometres to a safer, but desolate area. Imagine carrying some clothes, some food and a cooking pot. Imagine food running out. Imagine drinking water from a dirty river. Imagine children dying from diarrhea. Imagine simple infections leading to amputations or death. Imagine women dying in childbirth. Imagine that all of this is happening while people with the power to do something hold meetings and decide not to intervene.
People shouldn't die from the lack of a 50-cent medication or vaccine. People shouldn't die from the lack of clean water or soap. People shouldn't die from the lack of a proper shelter. But they do.
Over the years, I have seen that a medical and logistics team of just five people supplied with basic medicines, and materials can save the lives of thousands of people.
I have begun to realize that our simple actions do change the world from the perspective of each individual patient who is carried into a clinic and walks out some days afterwards.
The troubles of the world will continue, and my contribution is to be engaged in bringing life-saving aid to individuals in desperate need. The reason for taking action couldn't be any clearer. I accept a degree of personal risk, because I can't accept standing aside in the face of another person's suffering.
I fear that Laura Archer and her colleagues may not be the last aid workers to be kidnapped or harmed, but fortunately their ordeal ended with their release. For most of the aid workers going overseas every year, no critical security incidents will occur and they, too, will return home safely. Though, because of the risks they take, millions of people in precarious situations will be given a better chance of surviving that year. Walking away from this kind of accomplishment would be too hard for many people to justify.
Steve Dennis is an aid worker with Médecins Sans Frontières. When he is not working abroad, he lives in Toronto.
World Water Day: Critical water shortages in Myanmar need to be addressed
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/218926/73a20713c1f0d19b3e964dd07a48fc6c.htm
20 Mar 2009 14:40:11 GMT
Source: Merlin - UK
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
On World Water Day 2009, Merlin would like to draw attention to the critical clean drinking water shortages in the Irrawaddy Delta in Myanmar.
Clean drinking water has always been a scarce resource in the Delta, but these shortages have been exacerbated by the devastating effects of Cyclone Nargis in May last year. The fact that the height of the dry season is fast approaching means that water shortages will peak imminently.
The Delta opens out onto the Bay of Bengal, meaning that southern stretches of the river are saline whilst the more northern parts are fresh water. As the dry season advances, what is known as the salt/fresh water interface moves up the Delta, as less fresh water arrives from inland rivers. Waterways in the affected area become progressively more saline as the dry season wears on.
Each year, many communities' water ponds are insufficient to last throughout the dry season, and villages without access to freshwater sources are faced with the challenge of importing water from other villages with more extensive ponds. Pre-cyclone, it was usually just a case of buying water from the nearest village, and a whole industry of boat-borne water vendors thrived during the season.
However, many of the boats used by the villagers and by water vendors were destroyed in the cyclone and those who still have transport will probably have to go much further afield to find water. More critically still, people just don't have the resources they normally do to buy water, having had their assets and livelihoods destroyed by Cyclone Nargis.
Andre Steele, Merlin’s Water and Sanitation Technical Manager, says: “The immediate need is to provide clean drinking water. And in the long-term, communities need support to be able to capture and store the abundant amount of rain that falls in the wet season.â€
Since Cyclone Nargis, Merlin has carried out an extensive programme to clean community drinking water ponds, rebuild damaged water tanks and distribute jerry cans and water filters.
The water and sanitation team, consisting of two expatriates and 33 national staff, has installed and is running one water treatment unit and six reverse osmosis machines. Reverse osmosis machines are able to produce drinking water from otherwise contaminated sources including river water. Using 12 cargo boats, Merlin is distributing water to 90 villages, with a total population of 40,000 and to date has distributed 1,115,000 litres of purified water.
Dr Paul Sender, Merlin’s Country Director in Myanmar, says: “This life-saving intervention will reach all members of all households, with a particular emphasis on the most vulnerable population groups, including children, the elderly and disabled. Children are particularly important, as they are most at risk of contracting water-borne diseases. In order to provide a comprehensive and sustainable approach to the problem, we are simultaneously addressing the issue of poor sanitation.â€
Merlin is adopting an approach called Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), a process devised to mobilise a community into building and using latrines and to stop open defecation by creating an understanding amongst villages of the risks associated with poor household level waste disposal.
Sanitation teams visit villages to talk about the dangers of open defecation and support and encourage people to change their behaviour and start building latrines. This approach has rarely been tried in the aftermath of such a large-scale natural disaster but has proved to be a highly effective intervention and so far this activity has been completed in 25 villages out of the 90 villages receiving water distribution.
All of the above programmes are having an immediate impact, in terms of reducing water-borne diseases, but more sustained investment is needed to make a real difference in the long-term.
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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
European Union wants role in Myanmar polls, special envoy tells Bangkok
http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-7344.html
Bangkok, Mar 20 : The European Union(EU) would like to be involved in observing Parliament elections, scheduled for the next year in Myanmar, the EU Special Envoy for the Southeast Asian country said here.
Piero Fassino, the EU Special Envoy for Myanmar, stated this during a meeting with Thailand's Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Panich Vikitsreth.
The EU is keen to see progress towards political reconciliation in Myanmar based on dialogue among all stakeholders, the Special Envoy told Bangkok.
The Thai Vice Minister emphasised that Thailand was engaging Myanmar to promote economic development and democratisation within that country.
Pro-democracy activists and others have expressed skepticism about Myanmar's declared intent to usher in democracy with the 2010 general elections.
They cite continued suppression of civil liberties and freedom of speech in the country with reports that a lawyer defending pro-democracy activists in Myanmar was sentenced yesterday to four years in jail.
--- UNI
The Right to Privacy and the Value of Legal Reform as a Left Strategy
http://republic-of-teesside.blogspot.com/2009/03/right-to-privacy-and-value-of-legal.html
Friday, March 20, 2009
Traditionally in the UK, a key feature of the common law protection of civil liberties was the absence of a right to privacy. Indeed even today such writers as Noam Chomsky regard the comparative weakness of liable laws in the USA as an example of domestic freedoms and protection of democracy.
However, the right to respect for private and family life has been a part of the European Convention of Fundamental Freedoms and Human Rights since the 1950s, and since the passing of the Human Rights Act 1998 in this country incorporating it has become enshrined in our law.
What should be immediately striking to any layperson who reads Article 8, where that right is contained, is that it is subject to a long list of qualifications and restrictions. Interferences with the exercise of the right by a public authority are permitted under Article 8(2) provided they are in accordance with law and necessary in a democratic society in the interests of ‘national security’, ‘public safety’ or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of ‘disorder’ or crime, for the protection of ‘health or morals’, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
The first four of these justifications are obviously going to ring alarm bells when viewed through a pair of left-wing spectacles. In 1978 the European Court of Human rights held that the mere existence of legislation in Germany allowing telephone tapping by state authorities involved ‘a menace of surveillance that strikes at freedom of communication’ and therefore constituted an interference with the right to privacy contained in Article 8, however as it contained safeguards they held that it was both lawful and proportionate.
In Malone v UK in 1984, the Court held that as UK domestic law on telephone tapping was obscure and open to differing interpretations it did not satisfy Article 8(2). In sharp response to this the Thatcher Government passed the Interception of Communications Act 1985 in order to place the practice on a statutory footing.
Article 8 is therefore toothless in terms of protecting, for example, trade unionists, anti-war or other demonstrators, and anyone else MI5 might consider undesirable from being spied upon by the state. It was appalling, though not remotely surprising, when earlier this month it was revealed that major construction companies had paid for information on their employees as part of a rampant blacklisting culture.
What, however, of the justification on the grounds of ‘protecting public morals’? This appears to serve two functions:
Firstly, the requirement of capitalism to control workers by dividing them along social grounds. This has always been done on many grounds, notably nationality, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation and even minor drug users have been painted as ‘the undeserving poor’. This is essential to create cheaper pools of labour, and to ‘play-off’ one set of workers against another in order to drive down wages and conditions. It is important, therefore, that not only employers are able to discriminate within the law, but also that other Establishment players such as the media should be free to push such agendas.
Even in Naomi Campbell’s famously successful action against the Daily Mirror for printing the details and photographs of her attendance at Narcotics Anonymous, it was still nevertheless held that there was a public interest in publishing the fact that she was a drug addict.
Let’s consider for a moment Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre’s incredulous reaction to Max Mosley’s successful lawsuit last year. In a speech to the Society of Editors’ Annual Conference denounced Mr Justice Eady for coming to an ‘arrogant and amoral’ judgment, which ‘inorexably and insidiously’ imposed a privacy law on British newspapers. Also, Tom Crone, the legal manager of News International, who was of the opinion that ‘these judgments risk outlawing the traditional role of the media in exposing the moral shortcomings of those who wield power’.
Compare however the Daily Mail articles covering the Moseley affair, which included screaming headlines such as ‘What Price Morality? Judge Champions Max Moseley’s right to hold S&M Orgies’ and ‘A Man without Shame: How Can Sex Scandal F1 Boss Max Moseley paint himself as the Injured Party?’ ,with the generally more sympathetic tone towards privacy rights in an article covering the leaking of BNP members’ personal details.
Second is control, through out and out blackmail having already defined a framework of morality and having established a so-called public interest as above. This is not simply a fictional conspiracy, even though this is precisely a tactic employed by the protagonists in A Very British Coup. We have seen very real attempts to bring down controversial (i.e. left-wing) politicians through the exposure of their private lives, including notably Tommy Sheridan, George Galloway and John Prescott.
What is also notable about Article 8 is its ambiguity, which in turn leaves it with flexibility. The state, for example, was happy to prosecute a group of consenting homosexual adults in the Brown case for engaging in sado-masochistic acts, and in its eagerness to resist the removal of the DNA records of hundreds and thousands of innocent people from police records, and in the reclassification of cannabis. Within the language of Article 8, it can do so legally. Yet at the same time Article 8 has been invoked to prevent any intrusion into family life to deal with domestic violence and child abuse, with public authorities insistent on an individualistic prognosis.
What this shows is that we should never seek to depend on laws written by and for capitalists. But is that to say there is no value in attempting to reform the law and bringing legal challenges in the courts? Certainly not, and in fact where necessary left groups and unions should devote resources to doing precisely this. We should simply do so having acknowledged that laws can be interpreted in many ways and that the power to do this lies with judges, who are political appointments and thus represent the domestic power base (capital). Rather than legal action we should rely instead on political movements. This has been the historic method of achieving successful reform by the labour movement. As explained in Raymond Challinor’s brilliant biography of W.P. Roberts (the miners’ attorney):
“How was this accomplished? Not on the basis, at least directly, of the strength of the workers’ case. Rather it was on the strength of the workers themselves...”
Posted by Joe at 12:06 PM
Regime Stops Fast-Tracking Visas for Relief Workers
http://www.abitsu.org/?p=4243
March 21, 2009
Irrawaddy News: Foreigners involved in the Cyclone Nargis relief effort will no longer be given preferential treatment when applying for Burmese visas, according to diplomatic sources in Rangoon.
The sources said that shortly after agreeing to extend the mandate of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) in late February, the Burmese junta ended a program to expedite visa applications for foreign aid workers involved in Nargis-related projects.
The TCG, which consists of representatives of the regime, the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is the main body responsible for coordinating Nargis-related relief efforts.
The move means that foreign employees of international NGOs must now follow the complicated and time-consuming visa application process that was in place before and immediately after Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy delta last May.
Permission for NGO staffers to work in Burma must come not only from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but also from other key ministries, including the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.
Relief workers and diplomats said the visa fast-track program and other measures to streamline the relief effort were put in place by Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu, who was also the acting chairman of the TCG.
In early February, Kyaw Thu was reassigned to head the Civil Service Selection and Training Board, an inactive ministerial position.
At the recent Asean Summit in Thailand, Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein and Foreign Minister Nyan Win told delegates that the regime agreed to extend the TCG’s mandate for one more year, to July 2010.
The announcement was welcomed as a sign of improved cooperation between the junta and the international community. But aid workers said the decision to tighten visa restrictions on foreign experts was a serious setback for the relief effort.
Topics: Daily News |
Burma on the Edge
http://www.morungexpress.com/editorial/17657.html
It is not for nothing that Burma has long been the center of international attention and concern in the Asian Pacific region. Its transition from a growing democracy to a military state, and from being the rice bowl of Asia to its now present position of poverty and extreme shortages of rice does puts into historical perspective the political conditions that have caused the present crisis in Burma. Since the take over by the military junta in 1962 and the continued repression that led to the non-violent 88 pro-democracy uprising and the subsequent military crack down, Burma has been on the edge. The continuing protests by pro-democracy groups in the face of the 2010 elections indicate the polarization that exists. These political acts of defiance are demanding a new political reality.
The struggle for democracy in Burma is however just the tip of the iceberg. There are greater fundamental issues of freedom challenging the people of Burma. These issues go back into history and like most colonies, the demand for self-determination by indigenous nations continue to pose a serious political dilemma. While it is the Burmans that have wrested political power and military control over Burma since its inception as a state, it is the struggles of the various political communities such as the Kachin, Shan, Chin, Mon, Karen, Karenni, Arakan and the Nagas that have continuously questioned the legality and legitimacy of Burma as a state. Most of these groups are fighting either for autonomy or complete independence from Burma.
To an extent the political aspirations of different nationalities in Burma has been constructed as a conflict of interest with the Burmans, whose ultimate desire is to uphold the territorial integrity of Burma. And while the pro-democracy movement headed by National League for Democracy Party has some participation from the different political nationalities, it is for most part a Burman political party. Aung San Suu Syi, the leader of the party herself is a Burman, and there have been concerns around whether the negotiating process with the junta would fully reflect and represent the political aspirations of all the nationalities of Burma. There is skepticism. And considering the painful and divided history in which the Burman worldview violently suppressed all other worldviews in Burma, there are doubts whether NLDP can embody the political aspirations of the different nationality groups.
However for now, the politics of pragmatism prevails. Considering that the world opinion and solidarity for Burma has been shaped in the form of Aung San Suu Syi, due to her dedicated leadership and profound commitment to non-violence, leaders of the different resistance movements in Burma will have to unite together and evolve some basic points of consensus with the Burman leadership. This consensus can be found in their mutual acrimony with the junta. While it is self evident that Aung San Suu Syi is surrounded by the old school of advisors, it remains to be seen, whether the new generation of Burman activists will take this opportunity to reach out to the different nationalities and dialogue with them in creatively finding news ways to build a new Burma, in which the rights of all nationalities – not just Burmans – will be recognized and respected.
Burma is sitting on the edge. And apparently it is not just because of democracy, it is also because Burma is denying the different nationalities the right to decide their own political destiny.
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