CYCLONE RELIEF EXTENDED

The massive international relief effort in Burma in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, coordinated by the United Nations and the Southeast Asian countries, has been extended for another 12 months. With the anniversary of the devastating cyclone only two months away, the Burmese government has agreed to allow the operations of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), the informal body which oversees the relief and reconstruction efforts in the country's cyclone-hit areas, to continue for another year.

There has been a massive international relief and reconstruction effort in Burma following Cyclone Nargis, which devastated large parts of the country at the beginning of May 2008, especially the Irrawaddy delta, to the west of the former capital Rangoon. More than 140,000 people were reportedly killed and some 2.5 million left homeless.

The TCG brings together representatives of the UN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the Burmese government to coordinate and monitor international efforts to rebuild the areas that were devastated by the cyclone. The extension of the TCG was formally agreed at the recent regional summit of Southeast Asian leaders in the Thai beach resort of Hua Hin two weeks ago.

"The [TCG's] extension reflects Asean's confidence that the mechanism is working efficiently in facilitating the distribution and utilisation of assistance from the international community to support the government of the Union of Burma's relief and recovery efforts," the group's chairman, Kyaw Thu, was quoted as saying in a press release issued from Rangoon a week later. "It also shows the government of Burma's trust in the TCG partners to continue helping the cyclone-affected people," he added.

The TCG is a forum for dialogue and a mechanism for the government, UN, international and local non-government organisations and Asean to come together and discuss post-Nargis needs and the best way to provide them, according to Asean diplomats involved in the process.

Recently there had been considerable concern within Asean countries that the Burmese government may no longer be interested in keeping the group going. It was originally set up last June, after the international donor pledging meeting chaired by the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in Rangoon to assess the cyclone damage in the Irrawaddy delta, help funnel funds from the international donors and monitor progress.

"The TCG has proven to be an invaluable mechanism to help coordinate and facilitate the efforts on the ground, and the extension of this partnership will further facilitate and quicken the recovery phase," UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Burma Bishow Parajuli told Spectrum. "Nevertheless, it remains a continuous challenge to get sufficient funding for the country's large-scale recovery needs," he added.

When the group announced its three-year recovery plan - the Post-Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan (Ponrepp) - last month and appealed for fresh funding, most major donors said their continued support for the reconstruction efforts in the Burma was contingent on the TCG being extended, at least for one year. The detailed plan was costed at some $691 million (24.7 billion baht).

"The UN in Burma, as well as the humanitarian community, is positive that the donors will continue supporting the Nargis-affected communities, and even more so now that the TCG mandate has been extended," Mr Purajuli said.

But many donors remain cautious. "The EU has provided considerable support to the victims of Cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy delta, and the delivery and monitoring of this aid has been greatly facilitated by the TCG," David Lipman, ambassador of the European Commission to Thailand, Burma, the Lao PRD and Cambodia, told Spectrum. "While our support is not directly dependent on the extension of the TCG we are as a consequence more comfortable to continue our work to assist recovery."

While the joint blueprint drawn up by the international group working in Burma provided a detailed plan for the future, the key concerns are obvious, according to the UN. "Increasing people's access to clean drinking water, restoring livelihoods and building communal shelters before the next cyclone season beginning in May, are some of the key priorities," said the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator. "There is also a continued need to rebuild physical infrastructure including schools, health facilities and cyclone-resistant shelters, with a strong emphasis on disaster-risk reduction in all efforts."

Many NGOs though fear that the international community's humanitarian efforts in Burma are being hijacked by the needs of the reconstruction in the delta. But the UN chief in Rangoon dismisses these concerns and suggests that actually the joint post-cyclone experience may provide a model for development assistance elsewhere in Burma.

"There is an acute need for assistance and support in other areas of the country and I believe that the collaborative achievements in the delta can serve as an example for the provision of relief and development support also in other parts of the country," Mr Purajuli told Spectrum.

Some international aid agencies and several Western donors though were less sanguine. It is much harder to work in some parts of the country, they confided privately. In the minority areas, especially Shan state, the military authorities have been more restrictive than usual and their aid efforts more closely monitored. "The concentration on the much-needed reconstruction effort in the delta has meant that other problems - particularly the acute food shortages and rat infestation in Chin state - have gone relatively unheeded," according to a Western diplomat who monitors Burma from Bangkok and regularly visits the country. The World Food Programme has begun a relief effort there, but sources in Chin state say the needs are far greater than the aid being supplied.

Critically however, in recent weeks there have been major criticisms levelled against the post-Nargis relief and reconstruction efforts in the Irrawaddy delta by two independent and respected academic institutions, the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in the US and Burma Economic Watch at Macquarie University in Australia.

"The people of the delta told us how the Burmese military regime hindered cyclone-relief efforts, confiscated aid supplies and land and used forced labour, including forced child labour, in its reconstruction efforts," Dr Chris Beyer, who coordinated the Johns Hopkins University study, told Spectrum.

The Australian study says virtually all reconstruction is dominated by the government in a "top down" role that excludes the private sector and is condoned by the Ponrepp. "It is a throwback to the state-driven, planning mindset that in the 1950s and '60s condemned countless developing countries to stagnation and retreat," said Sean Turnell, a professor of economics who heads Burma Economic Watch.

"In short, the recommendations set out in Ponrepp would condemn Burma, in our view, to a continuation of the policies and programmes that have impoverished this once prosperous and hopeful country," he insisted.

The UN and others involved in the TCG have dismissed these claims out-of-hand. There are procedures in place to track the funds and ensure full accountability and transparency, according to the UN chief in Rangoon. The process has been constantly monitored and scrutinised. The first crucial review was conducted six months after the cyclone hit, and another has just commenced to coincide with the anniversary of the cyclone, to be completed by July, he said.

"The whole approach to enhancing coordination by the Ponrepp has taken a bottom-up perspective, looking through the lens of maximising the impact of recovery assistance in the field to the beneficiaries, and working upwards while seeking better ways to strengthen field operations," said Mr Purajuli.

"While the TCG reports, like the Periodic Review I, confirm that the assistance has reached even the most remote villages, at the same time, it is obvious that much more needs to be done."

But the one area that continues to concern the international community and seems to get little attention from UN officials and other international aid agencies is the continued arrest of community workers who have been engaged in aid work in the cyclone-hit areas. The junta has arrested at least 21 aid volunteers, including well known comedian Zargarnar and former sports journal editor Zaw Thet Htwe, for their involvement in the distribution of aid supplies to cyclone victims, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP-B) - a Burmese human rights group that monitors Burma's political prisoners from Thailand.

Days after the junta agreed to the TCG's extension, they locked up another activist who had been actively distributing aid independently of the government. Min Thein Tun was arrested in July 2008, while distributing relief materials to victims of Cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy delta - he was sentenced to 17 years for his effort.

Both UN and Asean officials in Rangoon dodged Spectrum's questions on this issue. Suggestions that this must at least be embarrassing for Asean with its new policy of involving the region's civil society in Asean activities were also deflected. "Our Community-based Early Recovery Projects, which have been completed in one location and are under way in another two locations in the delta, are run importantly by Asean volunteers in conjunction with Myanmar [Burmese] NGOs," Ambassador Bansarn Bunnag, who heads the Asean team in Rangoon, told Spectrum.

"These volunteers come from many Asean countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines and Myanmar. Many of them have links with NGOs from their respective countries. The work of Asean volunteers surely strengthens the people-centred approached enshrined in the Asean Charter," he said.

Few of the Thai NGOs contacted by Spectrum shared the ambassador's views. Most agreed with Dr Beyer when he said: "The UN, Asean and international aid agencies should all be demanding the immediate release of these activists, who all selfishly gave their time and money in response to the enormous human tragedy they saw in the delta."