http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSSEO3885220090403
SEOUL, April 3 (Reuters) -
South Korea's Daewoo International Corp said on Friday it had extended exploration rights to Myanmar's AD-7 oil and gas field despite other members of the project dropping out after the original exploration period ended in February.
Daewoo International (047050.KS) will have a 100 percent stake in the field under the new deal, from its previous 60 percent stake.
India's ONGC Videsh Limited had owned a 20 percent stake in the field, while another Indian firm, Gail (GAIL.BO), and state-run Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS) (036460.KS) each had 10 percent, it said.
(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Daewoo Int'l extends Myanmar field exploration
US should aim to lift Myanmar sanctions: senator
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h1-7_FE-Kox45ivWahFKJxSBhk7Q
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States should take a new approach of engagement with military-run Myanmar with an aim of lifting sanctions, a key senator said Friday.
President Barack Obama's administration is reviewing strategy on Myanmar, also known as Burma, whose ruling junta has crushed dissent and kept pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for 19 years.
Jim Webb, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Asia, said the United States needed an "aggressive diplomatic posture" on Myanmar but one that was more "constructive."
"Certainly the way that we approach it now I don't believe has had the results that people want it to have," Webb, a member of Obama's Democratic Party, told a luncheon at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"What I think we should be doing in Burma is trying to open up diplomatic avenues where you can have confidence builders ... and through that process work toward some way where you can remove sanctions," he said.
Webb said any diplomacy between the United States and Myanmar should closely involve other countries, particularly members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which includes Myanmar.
ASEAN nations, along with Japan and China, have maintained cordial relations and trade with Myanmar, distancing themselves from the sanctions policy of the United States and the European Union.
Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg said Wednesday the United States was seeking a common approach with Asia on Myanmar and said the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program could serve as a model.
Webb -- a Vietnam veteran who has also been a journalist -- said the United States should look at how it opened relations with China and Vietnam despite human rights and other concerns in the two communist states.
Webb said that when he returned to Vietnam in 1991 -- four years before Washington and Hanoi established relations -- the situation was "worse than the conditions I saw in Burma in '01."
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
BURMA: China’s Thirst for Oil Ignores Environment, Rights
http://democracyforburma.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/burma-chinas-thirst-for-oil-ignores-environment-rights/
2009 April 3
tags: Human Rights, Junta, Burma, Gas, Thugs and Thieves, oilby peacerunningBURMA: China’s Thirst for Oil Ignores Environment, Rights
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK, Oct 31 (IPS) - The largest island off Burma’s west coast is emerging as another frontier for China’s expanding plans to extract the rich oil and gas reserves of military-ruled Burma.
Initial explorations by a consortium, led by China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), has left a deep scar on Ramree Island, which is twice the size of Singapore and home to about 400,000 people. ‘’They have destroyed rice fields and plantations when conducting the seismic surveys and mining the island in search of oil,’’ says Jockai Khaing, director of Arakan Oil Watch (AOW), an environmental group made up of Burmese living in exile.
‘’The local communities have been directly and indirectly affected,’’ he Said during an IPS interview. ‘’Hundreds of people have been forced to relocate as a result of the drilling conducted near their communities. The locals hate the Chinese; their world has become crazy after the Chinese arrived.’’
CNOOC has been pushing ahead with its work since early 2005, with no attempt to consult the local residents and showing little regard to such notions as corporate social responsibility, adds Jockai. The Chinese company, which is listed on the New York and the Hong Kong stock exchanges, has ‘’not conducted the required environmental impact assessments and social impact assessments that are recognised internationally as a must before exploration work begins.’’
To dispose the waste from its drilling sites, ‘’CNOOC workers dug shallow canals designed to carry the (toxic) ‘drilling mud,’ or wastewater containing oil, away from the drilling sites and into Chaing Wa Creek, which curves past several local farms before flowing into the Bay of Bengal,’’ states a report by AOW, released in mid-October. ‘’This arbitrary disposal can make soil in surrounding areas unsuitable for plant growth by reducing the availability of nutrients or by increasing toxic contents in the soil.’’
Concerns about the cost of letting China tighten its grip on the natural resources in Burma (or Myanmar) has also been expressed by other groups, like EarthRights International (EI), a U.S.-based group championing human rights. There are 69 Chinese companies involved in 90 ‘’completed, current and planned projects’’ in the oil, gas and hydropower sectors in Burma, EI revealed in groundbreaking report released in late September.
That number marks an over 200 percent increase in the number of Chinese energy developers thought to have had existed a year before. ‘’Given what we know about development projects in Burma and the current situation, we’re concerned about this marked increase in the number of the projects,’’ the rights lobby stated in the report, ‘China in Burma: The Increasing Involvement of Chinese Multinational Corporations in Burma’s Hydropower, Oil and Natural Gas, and Mining Sectors.
‘’China is using Burma’s military dictatorship to its advantage as it goes in search of oil and gas. There are no rules and regulations for Chinese companies to follow in Burma,’’ Ka Hsaw Wa, executive director of EI, said in an IPS interview. ‘’This will hurt the future of Burma.’’
Such criticisms come at a time when China has begun to show signs that the environment cost of its projects abroad cannot be ignored. ‘’The country lacked comprehensive environmental protection policies in its overseas projects, although investment had been expanding,’’ states a report released in mid-September by the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning (CAEP), according to the ‘China Daily’ newspaper.
‘’China’s overseas investment and aid mainly focuses on exploring oil and other resources, processing and manufacturing, and construction in African and Southeast Asian countries,’’ the English-language daily added. ‘’Without proper management, such projects are likely to cause environmental problems, the (CAEP) report said.’’
Burma, in fact, will prove to be an ideal testing ground, given that China emerged as the military-ruled country’s biggest investor in the country’s power sector. The money flowing in from such foreign direct investments and the sale of gas has helped to prop up a junta notorious for suppressing its people through many forms of abuse.
In 2006, the junta earned an estimated 2.16 billion U.S. dollars from sales of natural gas to Thailand, which accounts for close to half of Burma’s export earnings and is the single largest source of foreign earnings. In 2008, Burma is expected to earn 3.5 billion US dollars from export of gas, according to one estimate.
But little of these benefits trickled down to the country’s beleaguered people. Consequently, Burma ranks as one of the world’s least developed countries. And having an abundance of natural resources has not improved the power supply in the country for the people either. Regular blackouts are frequent in Rangoon, the former capital, and elsewhere.
The junta has profited in other ways, too, from China’s energy interest in Burma. ‘’Beijing has come to the junta’s rescue and protects it from criticism at international forums like the U.N. Security Council,’’ says Win Min, a Burmese national security expert teaching at a university in northern Thailand. ‘’A strong relationship of mutual benefit has developed since 1988.’’
In exchange for letting Chinese companies exploit its natural resources, the Burmese dictatorship has got military hardware from Beijing. They range from fighter jets and armoured carriers to small weapons, Win Min told IPS. ‘’The junta will open the country to China because the military regime needs Beijing more than the other way around.’’
(END/2008)
Russian firm after Uranium not gold in Kachin State
http://bnn-worldnews.blogspot.com/2009/04/russian-firm-after-uranium-not-gold-in.html
Friday, April 3, 2009
Uranium is being explored on the pretext of searching for gold and associated minerals by a Russian company, which arrived in Burma's northern Kachin State, last year, said local sources.
Russian mineral experts working for the company Victorious Glory International Private Ltd. based in Hpakant (Phakant) jade mining areas are exploring mainly Uranium, according to ethnic Kachin residents of Hpakant jade mining city.
Local eyewitnesses told KNG recently, they have seen strange-faced Russian people in Hpakant jade mining city since last year.
The Russian company is stationed in areas around Tarmakhan and Hongpa mountains where Uranium was explored during Burma's first elected Prime Minister U Nu's tenure from1948 to 1962, said a Kachin geologist in Hpakant.
On February 15, last year, Burmese ruling junta's Director-General U Win Ti of the Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration Department and Chairman Krivoshey Pavel of Victorious Glory International Private Ltd signed an agreement in the new jungle capital Naypyitaw for the exploration of such minerals along Uru River or Uru Hka between Hpakant in Kachin State and Homalin in Sagaing Division, according to the state-run "New Light of Myanmar".
The Russian geologists arrived in Hpakant one year before the agreement and a Russian geologist died of Malaria in Hpakant public hospital in early 2007, said sources in the hospital.
Jade miners in Hpakant said Chinese jade companies have been permitted to mine jade along Uru River for a long time. Here precious water-jade is produced.
The fact that the Russian company agreed to explore for gold and associated minerals in Uru River with the junta is a load of nonsense because all the companies in Hpakant jade mining areas are only mining jade, according to local jade miners.
At the moment, no one except workers of the Russian company is allowed to visit the Russian base in the mountains and disturb Russian mineral explorers by Burmese army soldiers who stand guard, residents of Hpakant said.
kachinnews
ビルマのお正月「ダジャン水かけ祭」開催のお知らせ＜2009年4月12日・井の頭恩賜公園＞
【転送歓迎】
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ビルマ市民フォーラム メールマガジン 2009/4/3
People's Forum on Burma
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いよいよ今年も４月１２日（日）、ビルマのお正月「ダジャン水かけ祭」が行われます。
今年は例年の場所を変更し、吉祥寺の井の頭恩賜公園 で行われます。
（お間違いないよう、ご注意ください。）
みなさまお誘い合わせの上、ぜひお出かけください。
◆ダジャン「水かけ祭」とは？♪♪♪◆
ビルマのお正月はビルマ暦をもとにしているために4月に新年を迎えます。
お正月の最大行事がダジャン「水かけ祭」です。新年を迎えるとき、一年の
悪いことや汚れを水で洗い落とし、きれいに迎えるという意味で、互いに水を
かけあいます（ちなみに、東京では水はかけあいません）。
ダジャンは一年で最もにぎやかなお祭りです。東京でも在日ビルマ難民が
ふるさとを思い、毎年開催しております。
当日はビルマの歌や伝統舞踊が披露され、とっても美味しいビルマ料理の
屋台もたくさん並びます。
ビルマ市民フォーラム事務局
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ビルマのお正月 ダジャン水かけ祭 開催のお知らせ
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■日 時： ２００９年 ４月 １２日（日) 午前１０時３０分～午後５時
■場 所：井の頭恩賜公園
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今年も、東京でビルマのお正月を祝う“ダジャン水かけ祭り”を開催することに
なりました。今年で18回目になります。
ビルマでも一番にぎやかなお祭りであることから、在日ビルマ人が多く集まります。
当日は、ステージ上で一日中ビルマの歌や踊りが披露されます。お祭り会場では
ビルマの食べ物の屋台が並び、お正月に食べる特別なお菓子などもあります。
またビルマの織物や民芸品などの店もあり、ビルマの文化を堪能するひと時と
なるでしょう。
私たち在日ビルマ人のみならず、日本の皆さまにも参加していただけることで
今年も続ける事ができます。これもひとえに皆さまからの多大なるご理解とご支援の
おかげです。この場をかりて心よりお礼を申し上げます。
今年も会場周辺の桜が満開になる時とかさなると予想されています。
皆さま、どうぞお誘い合わせの上、是非ご来場ください。
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Myanmar: Web Slowdown Hurting Myanmar Businesses
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/22845?tid=37
Foreign 2009-04-03 13:38
YANGON, MYANMAR: Disruptions to Myanmar's Internet service will continue indefinitely, a state-owned service provider warned Friday (3 April), saying it does not know when it will complete repairs to an undersea cable.
The slowdown has hit local businesses hard, causing some Internet cafes to close their doors and prompting travelers to cancel trips to the impoverished nation.
State-owned Myanmar Teleport blamed the problems on maintenance it has been doing since 21 March on a cable in the Bay of Bengal. Teleport initially said work would be finished on 25 March but now says it does not know when the repairs will be completed.
"Currently we do not know the schedule for repair completion," Teleport said in a statement.
The junta in Myanmar aggressively censors the Internet and routinely blocks politically sensitive Web sites such as those promoting human rights. During a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Sept 2007, it cut all access to the Internet and shuttered many cybercafes.
But this time around, there is no indication that government meddling is behind the slowdown. While hard to confirm, business owners said they believed the problem was technical. (AP)
MySinchew 2009.04.03
World leaders pledge US$1-trillon in aid
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1456114
Simon Kennedy and Kitty Donaldson in London, Bloomberg
Published: Thursday, April 02, 2009
Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty ImagesBritish Prime Minister outlines the outcome of the G20 summit in London on Thursday. Leaders signed off on plans to commission blacklists of tax havens and tighten financial rules to bring hedge ...
World leaders agreed on a regulatory blueprint for reining in the excesses that fed the worst financial crisis in six decades and pledged more than US$1-trillion in emergency aid to cushion the economic fallout.
The Group of 20 policymakers, meeting in London, called for stricter limits on hedge funds, executive pay, credit-rating firms and risk-taking by banks. They tripled the firepower of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and offered cash to revive trade to help governments weather the turmoil resulting from the surge in unemployment. They avoided the divisive question of whether to deliver more fiscal stimulus to their own economies.
The statement amounts to an effort to rewrite the rules of capitalism to address an integrated world economy that has outgrown the ability of nations to keep it in check. The assembly echoed -- on an international stage -- the introduction in the U.S. of securities regulation after the 1929 crash.
"By any measure the London summit was historic," President Barack Obama said after the talks. U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, "we have reached a new consensus that we take global actions together to deal with the problems we face."
The measures to fight the recession and reform finance helped push U.S. stocks up, extending a global advance, and Treasuries down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average exceeded 8,000 for the first time since Feb. 10, before settling up 216.48 points, or 2.79%, at 7,978.08, while the S&P 500 rose 23.30 points, or 2.87%, to 834.38. In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index rose 131.32 points, or 1.47%, to close at 9,073.14, marking its highest closing level since Jan. 9.
Even as the G-20 leaders said they will maintain power over their own markets and companies rather than cede it to a cross-border regulator, they closed ranks behind "greater consistency and systematic co-operation" to flesh out a new regulatory order first outlined at a November meeting in Washington.
The crackdown is "a major step forward," Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, said in an interview. "It's a historic moment when the world came together and said we were wrong to push deregulation."
Blaming "major failures" in regulation as "fundamental causes" of the credit crunch, the G-20 said national regulators will be revamped to better monitor threats to the international system.
A new Financial Stability Board will be established to unite regulators and join the IMF in providing early warnings of potential threats. Once recovery is underway, work will begin on new rules aimed at avoiding excessive leverage and forcing banks to put more money aside during good times.
Hedge funds that are "systemically important" will be subjected to greater oversight, as will all key financial instruments, markets and instruments, the G20 said. That signals a setback for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who wanted all of the investment funds brought under the spotlight.
That didn't stop the funds' lobby from complaining the US$1.4-trillion industry had been made a "scapegoat" for the market meltdown. "Although we agree that any entity that provides banking services should be regulated as a bank, the vast majority of hedge funds do not fall into this category," Andrew Baker, chief executive of the London-based Alternative Investment Management Association, said in an interview.
Principles will also be introduced on pay and bonuses to create "sustainable compensation schemes" after concern that executive remuneration rewarded short-term risk-taking over the long-run interests of companies. Accounting-standard setters were urged to improve valuation methods and credit-rating companies will be forced to meet a code of good practice.
Having proved a sticking point at the talks, the G20 said it will impose sanctions on tax havens that do not provide enough information. Officials split over the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development publishing a list of such nations, agreeing in the end not to block it after Mr. Obama and Mr. Sarkozy hashed out a deal with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
After bilateral meetings around London on Wednesday, Thursday's summit was held at East London's barn-like Excel Center, within sight of the Canary Wharf, which houses Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank, Barclays PLC, HSBC Holdings Plc and Bank of America Corp. After a one and a half hour breakfast meeting, the group spent most of its time in a circular room, taking breaks for one-on-one chats in a separate lounge, a U.K. official said.
During the plenary sessions, the leaders wore microphones and got simultaneous translations for any of the 13 languages spoken. When one wanted to speak, he or she pressed a button, set off a light and waited for his or her turn.
After a lunch of filet of beef and talks that went 30 minutes beyond schedule, the room erupted in applause when the final text was agreed upon.
The G20's pact to impose tougher regulation marks a narrowing of differences after Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy entered the summit demanding Mr. Brown and Mr. Obama endorse a more detailed response to the crisis than that initially planned.
"We never thought we would find an agreement this large," Mr. Sarkozy said. Ms. Merkel called it a "victory for common sense."
Having committed US$2-trillion in fiscal packages to save their economies, the leaders said Thursday they would "deliver the scale of sustained fiscal effort necessary to restore growth," while ensuring sustainable budgets and price stability in the long term. With banks still bogged down by toxic assets, the G20 promised "to take all necessary actions" to restore the availability of credit and protect major institutions.
Mr. Obama and Mr. Brown have pushed for more spending, only to run into resistance from Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy, who argue they've done enough, have bigger social-safety nets and don't want to bust budgets. The IMF will gauge the policies taken, which should accelerate the recovery of the global economy to its long-term trend, the G20 said.
Inundated with record requests for loans from troubled economies, including Pakistan and Hungary, the IMF was told its war chest will be boosted by US$500-billion and it will receive another US$250-billion in special drawing rights, the agency's synthetic currency. Multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, will be enabled to lend at least US$100-billion more.
"It's historic, there's no question about it," said Colin Bradford, an economist at the Brookings Institution in Washington.In return for their contributions, emerging markets such as China and Brazil will receive more of a say in the fund, the G20 said. The IMF will also use revenue from sales of its gold reserves to aid the world's poorest countries, and its next leader will no longer automatically be a European.
The G20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United States, the U.K. and the European Union. Officials from Spain and the Netherlands were also present. The leaders will meet again in New York in September, Mr. Sarkozy said.
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US wants Myanmar out of isolation
http://burmadigest.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/us-wants-myanmar-out-of-isolation/
Posted by burmadigest under News
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According to AFP news:
The United States wants to forge a common strategy with Asia to coax military-run Myanmar out of isolation, a senior official said yesterday, suggesting six-way talks with North Korea could be a model. President Barack Obama’s administration has launched a review of policy on Myanmar, also known as Burma, where a US official last week paid the first visit by a senior envoy in more than seven years.
Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg said the United States wanted a “collaborative and constructive” approach on Myanmar, saying nations with sway over the junta should avoid “recreating a mini version of the Great Game.” “Viewing relations with a notorious authoritarian regime like Burma as a zero-sum game is in no nation’s interest,” Steinberg told the National Bureau of Asian Research, a think-tank.
“We want to discuss a common approach with ASEAN, with China, with India and with Japan to find a policy that will improve the lives of the people of Burma and promote stability in this key region,” he said.
Asian nations including those in ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, have mostly tried to engage with Myanmar.
Myanmar to punish performances against traditional culture in water festival
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/02/content_11120144.htm
www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-02 15:29:33
YANGON, April 2 (Xinhua) -- The Myanmar authorities have warned of severe action to be taken against performances and singing deemed as not conforming to Myanmar culture in the upcoming Myanmar traditional water festival, the leading local weekly Yangon Times reported Thursday.
The authorities have issued rules for artists to abide by when launching the water festival, calling for staying away from dressing in a decadent way, dressing with political sign and singing in an uncultured manner.
Video tape records covering the event will serve as evidences to charge those who broke the rules, the state-organized Myanmar Music Association said, warning that rule breakers will be revoked with their business license and vocalists be banned from singing if so found.
This year's Myanmar traditional Thingyan Water festival will start from April 13 and will run for four days until April 16 before the new year day ushers in on April 17 according to the Myanmar lunar calendar.
The Myanmar water festival represents a unique and entertaining event, and people of all ages, especially the young ones, have started making plan to spend the long holidays.
Editor: Fang Yang
U.S. donates rice for Myanmar cyclone survivors
http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSBKK209031._CH_.2400
LABUTTA, Myanmar, April 2 (Reuters) - The United States has donated more than 16,000 tonnes of rice to help survivors of last year's devastating cyclone in military-ruled Myanmar, officials said.
The rice is part of a $28 million American food aid package distributed through the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) to survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which left 140,000 people dead or missing and 2.4 million people severely affected last May.
"The United States government is the WFP's single largest donor for the cyclone victims," said Chris Kaye, the U.N. agency's country director, speaking to Reuters on Wednesday at a WFP distribution camp near Labutta in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy Delta. Nearly a year after the cyclone struck, many people are still living in temporary shelters and access to food and clean water remains a challenge.
The U.S.-donated rice is expected to benefit 350,000 people. Some of it is being distributed under food-for-work projects managed by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to support the rebuilding of roads and dykes.
Larry Dinger, U.S. charge d'affaires in Myanmar, said Washington had provided a total of $74 million in humanitarian assistance to Nargis survivors "as part of America's commitment to the welfare of the Burmese people". Over the years Washington has tightened sanctions on the military, which has ruled the former Burma for more than four decades, to try to push the regime toward political reform and improving human rights.
But sanctions have not worked, and neither has a policy of engagement by Myanmar's regional neighbours.
The Obama administration announced in February that it was conducting a review of its policy towards Myanmar to find new ways to sway one of the world's most reclusive regimes. (Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Editing by Darren Schuettler)
Six-party Talks on Burma Proposal Gets US Support
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By WAI MOE
Thursday, April 2, 2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The US is prepared to tackle the Burma issue by joining six-party talks along the lines of those held to discuss North Korea ’s nuclear program, according to a senior State Department official. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg told the National Bureau of Asian Research think tank on Wednesday that the US wanted a “collaborative and constructive” approach on Burma , saying nations with sway over the junta should avoid “recreating a mini version of the Great Game.” Steinberg said: “Viewing relations with a notorious authoritarian regime like Burma as a zero-sum game is in no nation’s interest. We want to discuss a common approach with Asean [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations], with China , with India and with Japan to find a policy that will improve the lives of the people of Burma and promote stability in this key region.” The US was open to setting up new “flexible” frameworks similar to the six party talks on Pyongyang ’s nuclear program, Steinberg said. Some analysts are skeptical, however, pointing out that the six-party talks on North Korea had not halted Pyongyang ’s nuclear program. The talks brought together the US , China , Japan , Russia and the two Koreas . “I do not think it [six party talks on Burma] is a promising idea to resolve the issues, but it could be very useful in making sure that this is an issue that gets the global attention it deserves,” said Jeff Kingston, professor of Asian Studies at Temple University, Japan. Kingston said he was not optimistic that the US could forge a common strategy with Asia, given that its concerns about human rights and democracy are not shared by India , China and Asean. President Barrack Obama’s administration is conducting a review of US policy towards Burma .
Migrants' journey of hope ends in tragedy
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/611581
Africans seeking new life in Europe feared dead as overloaded boat sinks
Apr 01, 2009 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (1)
Olivia Ward
FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER
Hope has been abandoned for about 300 missing African men, women and children, who are feared to have drowned on a perilous voyage from Libya to Italy seeking economic survival at a time of growing global desperation.
"The search has stopped, and we have no more information on their fate," said Michele Bombassei, head of technical co-operation for the International Organization for Migration in Tripoli, Libya.
A boat said to be carrying 356 people – but designed to hold just 75 – capsized Sunday near an oil platform 50 kilometres off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea.
Libyan coast guard officials retrieved at least 23 bodies and rescued 23 survivors before halting the search.
Two other vessels lost radio contact in turbulent weather; the Geneva-based group said it was unclear whether they were local fishing boats or other shipments of migrants.
An Italian-Libyan pact to patrol the Libyan coast will be launched May 15. But it is unlikely to stem the flow of thousands of illegal migrants trying to escape starvation, war and political persecution in Africa.
A recent report by the British government says the impoverished continent faces economic decline because of the global financial downturn, driving many to seek riskier escape routes.
"Smugglers often use unseaworthy and overcrowded boats to carry migrants who have had to pay large sums for their journey," the migration group said, adding that last year nearly 36,000 people arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a beachhead for migrants seeking work in Europe. The numbers more than doubled since 2007.
In Geneva, migration group spokesperson Jean-Philippe Chauzy told reporters that migrants heading for Italy often face appalling conditions.
"There's no safety equipment on those boats – no buoys, dinghies or anything – because the purpose is to cram (in) as many people as possible ..."
Those who make it to Lampedusa – the closest Italian point from Libya – get a hostile reception. It is home to swelling numbers of migrants who once were removed to the mainland for detention, but are placed in a full-to-bursting camp.
Italy, hard hit by the economic shock, is hoping the sea patrols will prevent a catastrophic migration crisis. More than 600 new arrivals were found along Italy's southern coast this week alone.
In a phone interview from Tripoli, Bombassei said many of the migrants who arrive in Libya stay there if they find jobs in the oil-rich country. With a small population of 6.2 million, it has labour shortages at a time when other countries are grappling with unemployment.
"Notwithstanding the (low) price of oil, Libya is in an economic boom," Bombassei said. "The government has started an important program of refurbishing cities, and news of jobs travels quickly."
Some migrants find construction work or more skilled employment. But the majority have a day-to-day struggle for survival, and the discouraged try to move on to Europe.
Early spring marks the beginning of the smuggling season in the Mediterranean Sea, said Ron Redmond, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The sea is generally warmer and calmer during this time of year, though strong storms still occur.
With files from the Star's news services
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