New Delhi (Mizzima) – The European Commission on Thursday said it will give another €40.5 million (US$ 58 million) of aid to Burma, particularly targeting victims of Cyclone Nargis, which swept through the country's southwestern coastal region in May.
The announcement, made in Brussels on Thursday, said €22 million of the allotted aid will be provided to cyclone victims while the remaining funds will be given to vulnerable populations inside Burma and to Burmese refugees in Thailand.
Louis Michel, EU Development Commissioner, in a press statement, said, "We have progressively developed very good cooperation with the authorities [Burma's ruling junta] on humanitarian access in the Irrawaddy Delta in the wake of the Cyclone Nargis."
The new funds will be distributed through non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies and the Red Cross and will reach an estimated population of at least two million people.
"The Commission will continue advocating for similar cooperation and access to other parts of the country," said Michel, iterating that the aid package is aimed at more than just the country's storm ravished delta region.
The EU also said it aims to raise funds to help vulnerable sections of the Burmese population, especially the hundreds and thousands of Muslim Rohingya in Arakan state in western Burma who are facing severe oppression by the military junta, including forced relocation, forced labor and denial of citizenship.
"I am particularly concerned about the forgotten crisis in northern Rakhine (Arakan) State, where some 800,000 Muslim Rohingya live in terrible conditions," said Michel.
The EU had earlier provided €17 million in funds for cyclone relief efforts related to shelter, food, water, sanitation, health, nutrition, protection and logistics. With the new funds, EU support for cyclone relief will total some €39 million.
More than seven months after Cyclone Nargis struck the country, victims still continue to lack adequate support according to the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), which performs periodic reviews and constitutes representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Burmese government and United Nations.
"The relief stage has not finished and more assistance is still needed, especially in the nutrition, food and shelter sectors," the TCG said in a press statement on Friday.
In its inaugural "Periodic Review" the TCG said that during its fact finding assessment conducted between 29 October to 19 November 2008, it found that 2,376 households in 108 communities in Irrawaddy and Rangoon Divisions are still struggling with temporary shelter and food and water shortages while confronting health obstacles such as fever and diarrhea.
"There was a need for increased support to livelihood recovery, in order for people to regain the level of self-sufficiency that they had prior to Cyclone Nargis," said the TCG.
Despite a United Nations appeal in the immediate months following the deadly storm for US$ 483 million to help survivors, thus far only 64 percent of the figure, or US$ 304 million, has been pledged.
Cyclone Nargis struck the country on May 2nd and 3rd of this year and affected more than 2.4 million people, leaving at least 130,000 people dead or missing.
A villager working in the salt business near the remote village of Wakone in Laputta Township, one of the hardest hit cyclone areas, said aid shipments to the beleaguered community have slowly petered out.
"Aid supplies are no more arriving to our place, the last one came about ten days ago," said the businessman, adding that the aid previously received was about five kilograms of rice per person.
He said it has also become extremely difficult for people to carry on business as workers demand more money – nearly three times the normal price. The situation, he claims, is due to the cyclone killing so many workers and people now experiencing a psychosis of fear in relation to working near the shore.
"We really need more money to be successfully running the business again, otherwise we cannot pay the employees," he said.
He added that before the cyclone workers were paid about 20,000 kyat (US$ 19) in advance, but now demand between four and five times that amount.
He went on to say that though the government has provided loans of 300,000 kyat per acre, businessmen are concerned they might not be able to pay the amount back in three years time, the deadline the government has fixed for reimbursement.
He also said that while a few aid agencies are still providing aid to villages with relatively large populations, small and remote villages no longer see any assistance, if in fact they ever did.
"Here people are living in small, temporary houses and it is very difficult to stay under the sun because it is too hot. We are in need of housing materials and continued food supplies," lamented one local villager.
