BurmaNet News Jan 5, 2005

[Editor]

January 5, 2005, Issue # 2629

INSIDE BURMA
IHT: Impact on Myanmar called minimal
CNN: Rocky shoreline helped Myanmar
AP: International aid agencies say own survey backs Myanmar government
claims of few tsunami casualties
AFP: Myanmar fishermen, fearing new tsunami, keep their boats ashore
Xinhua: Myanmar undertaking storm, tidal surge forecast project
Xinhua: Death toll rises to 64 by tsunami in Myanmar: official

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Big Relief Effort for Burmese Tsunami Victims
Xinhua: China expresses wishes to provide meteorological aid for tsunami-
hit countries

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Tsunami: Why did Burma get off so Lightly?
Inter Press Service: Burma 'Spared' or Junta Covering the Truth?

PRESS RELEASE
Senator Mitch McConnell on the Asian tsunami

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 5, International Herald Tribune
Impact on Myanmar called minimal – Thomas Crampton

The United Nations on Thursday will issue the first independent report on
tsunami damage to Myanmar and will declare that it had minimal impact with
several thousand affected and little more than 50 confirmed dead,
according to the top UN official in the country.

The assessment contrasts sharply with heavy losses in parts of neighboring
Thailand and contradicts a statement on Monday by the World Food Program
that 30,000 people in Myanmar were in need of care.

"Today, for the first time, I can confidently state that the scale of the
tsunami's impact on Myanmar was minimal," said Charles Petrie, the
Yangon-based resident coordinator for the United Nations, in a telephone
interview. "We need to move on to other issues here because there are many
more important humanitarian issues to deal with right now."

Obtaining facts about the situation in Myanmar has proved virtually
impossible because of media censorship and travel restrictions imposed by
the nation's highly secretive military government. In previous natural
disasters the isolationist government has reacted by denying high death
tolls, declining foreign aid and insisting on homegrown reconstruction
efforts.

Petrie said this atmosphere likely prompted the exaggeration of casualties
into the thousands by some foreign-based opposition groups, but the
Myanmar government's own estimates were actually fairly accurate.

"Conjecture fueled by the experiences in neighboring countries created a
major and dangerous disconnect with reality," Petrie said. "We now hope to
get out the correct message that Myanmar can cope with the disaster by
reallocating existing resources."

The findings of the United Nations report are supported by wave modeling
done by scientists at the U.S. government's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
in Hawaii.

"Looking at the north-south fault line you can clearly see how the waves
would be pointed towards Thailand on one side and Sri Lanka on the other,"
said Barry Hirshorn, a geophysicist at the center. "When we saw the fault
line's direction we were more concerned about warning the governments in
Somalia and Kenya than Myanmar."

Although the center did not issue any warnings in time for Sri Lanka or
Thailand, they did attempt to alert several other countries.

This tsunami science is clearly visible on the coast when traveling south
on a boat from Myanmar toward Phuket in Thailand, according to Jim Styers,
a marine biologist based near the border between Thailand and Myanmar.

"You certainly can see some damage and high water marks in southern
Myanmar and in the border region," said Styers, who sent a vessel from his
Myanmar Dolphin Project on a four-day reconnaissance of the area. "But
when you go further south into Thailand the landscape changes and you can
see tremendous damage."

Among those Styers found battered by the storm in Thailand was a dolphin
swept about a kilometer inland to a freshwater pond. "The dolphin was
actually doing fine," Styers said. "But it really brought home the force
of what hit further south in Thailand."

Petrie of the United Nations experienced the force of the tsunami himself
while on Christmas holiday with his 15-year-old son at the beach resort of
Nwe Saung, west of Yangon. "The earthquake we felt on the way to
breakfast, but the tsunami was harder to notice," Petrie said. "We saw the
water go very far out and leave the fish dry, but it was like a strange
tide."

Petrie and other beachgoers in Myanmar only became aware of the tsunami
from news reports out of Sri Lanka.

Perhaps the country's largest single loss of life in a single incident
took place near the border with Thailand in the town of Kaw Thoung when
about 20 people gathered on a half-kilometer long wooden bridge stretching
across tidal flats to watch the wave. The bridge, made of wood and perhaps
bamboo, was entirely swept away, Styers said.

Overall the greatest loss of life and damage took place in the lower
reaches of the flat Irrawaddy River delta, a more heavily populated region
than Myanmar's rugged southern coast. One township, Lapputta, reported 34
dead.

The tsunami's impact on Myanmar may not be limited to the damage within
the country's borders. Hundreds of Myanmar nationals working on Thai
fishing vessels may have been killed, according to the report.

Even being spared by the tsunami has its frustrations, with Myanmar hotel
operators joining their Thai counterparts in battling the perception that
the entire industry has been wiped out.

_____________________________________

January 5, CNN
Rocky shoreline helped Myanmar

The reclusive country of Myanmar was "incredibly fortunate" not to have
suffered more from the December 26 tsunamis, Joanna MacLean of the
International Federation of the Red Cross says.

According to various reports from the United Nations, local agencies and
the IFRC, 86 people in Myanmar, formerly Burma, are confirmed dead and the
death toll is not expected to exceed 100, MacLean said.

"It is really amazing," she said. "I, in fact, was in Thailand at the time
and came back immediately afterwards because I feared the worst."

MacLean said Myanmar's military government has been cooperative in the
wake of the aftermath.

She credited Myanmar's rocky shoreline and the angle of the coast with
preventing the damage that killed over 5,000 in Thailand and thousands
more on India's Andaman Islands, which are about 200 miles (320 km) off
the coast of mainland Myanmar.

Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta south of Yangon was hit the hardest, MacLean said.

However, the loss of life was stemmed, according to eyewitness accounts,
because survivors fled for higher ground after the first wave hit.

The three waves "were half an hour apart, which meant the people who
already saw the first wave and then even saw the second had time to go to
the monasteries, which are always on higher ground, and to the schools,"
MacLean said.

Between 5,000 and 6,000 people were left homeless, but many have returned
to their villages because they fled out of fear.

"This is not an emergency situation," she said.

____________________________________

January 5, Associated Press
International aid agencies say own survey backs Myanmar government claims
of few tsunami casualties -  Aye Aye Win

Myanmar appears to have been spared major damage and casualties from the
tsunami that devastated other countries on the Indian Ocean, U.N. and
private aid agencies said Wednesday after undertaking their own survey.

The proximity of parts of the country to the epicenter of the Dec. 26
earthquake off northern Sumatra that triggered the destruction had raised
fears that Myanmar might have been badly hit.

Because Myanmar's military government curbs press freedom and restricts
the flow of information, official accounts of limited damage had been met
with skepticism.

The Myanmar Red Cross Federation had said 86 people were killed, 45
injured, 10 missing and 5,272 persons homeless. Nearly 150,000 people have
been reported killed region-wide, including more than 5,200 in neighboring
Thailand.

"From the verified figures that we have, our (appraisal of the) scale and
scope of the disaster is very much in line with that of the authorities,"
Joanna Maclean of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies said Wednesday.

The IFRC is a coordinating body for all international agencies carrying
out assessment and relief work in Myanmar's tsunami-hit areas.

Maclean and representatives of other agencies spoke after undertaking the
first independent assessment of the damage, in areas believed most
affected by the tsunami. Information about other areas remained sketchy.

According to the Swiss branch of the private relief agency Medicins Sans
Frontieres - Doctors Without Borders - about 90 people died nationwide.

"In the southeast along the coast, there are very few casualties," said
MSF's Stephan Jooris. "Southeastern Tanintharyi coast is very slightly hit
and has very few casualties,"

MSF already had a team in the area before the disaster carrying out
anti-malaria work.

IFRC's Maclean said the fact that Myanmar seemed to suffer so little
damage was incredible.

"Maybe somehow, geographically Myanmar has been protected by the angle of
the coast, by the trajectory of the waves, by the fact that that the
islands along the coast are a little bit rocky and they are not flat
islands as in the case in some areas where the waves could more easily
flow over the land," she said.

Exile groups opposed to the ruling junta, which is ostracized by many
nations for its poor human rights record and failure to restore democracy,
had accused the government of covering up casualty figures.

____________________________________

January 5, Agence France Presse
Myanmar fishermen, fearing new tsunami, keep their boats ashore – Kha Pyat
Thaung

Fishermen who saw much of their seasonal fishing village swept away by the
Indian Ocean tsunamis said Wednesday they were too scared to return to
sea, fearing a repeat of the deadly disaster.

"We dare not go fishing yet," said Mya Mya Win, 47, a mother of four who
said she lost all her possessions when the killer waves struck on December
26.

"We have had to share. That's not to say that we are demanding assistance,
but we have nothing to eat," she said.

The tsunami killed 17 people, mostly children playing on the beach, when
it hit this seasonal fishing village.

The village, 220 miles (352 kilometres) southwest of the capital Yangon in
Ayeyarwaddy division, sprang up barely a month ago as families built
bamboo and thatch huts for the post-monsoon fishing season.

"I do not want to ever see or hear of a disaster like this. I cried even
though I am a mature man," said U Thaung Sein, 54, whose daughter-in-law
was killed by the tsunami.

Fears ran so strong of a repeat of the undersea earthquake and giant waves
that authorities were now worried about fires, as astrologers advised
residents to light candles to ward off another quake.

"The authorities are worrying about people's safety because of these
rumors. Most people have followed the astrologers' advice by lighting
candles in front of their homes at night to avert the earthquake," said
one women in the town of Labutta.

The death toll in the Labutta region stood at 22, while some 1,300 lost
their homes, according to a Red Cross official in Labutta.

"Most people were killed while they were watching the tidal wave, which
they had never seen before," Maung Maung Myint said.

In the town of Labutta, only a few old buildings and a historic pagoda
known as Shin Saw Myat were damaged by the tsunami.

The UN's World Food Program estimated the total number of dead in Myanmar
at between 30 and 60 people, the agency's Asia director Anthony Banbury
told reporters in Bangkok.

"The exact number of deaths are certainly less than 100 as far as we
know," he said. "The devastation has been very limited."

WFP also had identified about 10,000 people in the Ayeyarwaddy division
who needed assistance and said many more people further along the coast
would likely need aid.

"There are probably several thousand people who would benefit from food
assistance there," he said.

The WFP coordinates UN relief actions in the region along with the
International Federation of the Red Cross.

Satellite images of isolated Myanmar's shoreline reveal it was not as
badly damaged by the deadly tsunami as other countries in the region, US
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday while touring hard-hit areas
in neighbouring Thailand.

____________________________________

January 5, Xinhua
Myanmar undertaking storm, tidal surge forecast project

Myanmar is undertaking a coastal storm and tidal surge forecast project
for better weather prediction services, the local Myanmar Times reported
in its latest issue.

The project involves the utilization of a numerical prediction method to
provide advance warnings of storm and tidal surge, the Meteorology and
Hydrology Department was quoted as saying.

The project, being implemented with the assistance of the Honolulu-based
PACON International (the Pacific Congress on Marine Science Technology),
was proposed in 2003 when a member of the PACON visited Myanmar and fund
is being sought from non- governmental organizations (NGOs), the report
said.

PACON, a non-profit NGO professional organization dedicated to sharing
scientific and technical information among those interested in the future
of the world's oceans, especially the Pacific, has chapters throughout the
Asia Pacific region, including the one set up in Myanmar in 2003.

According to official reports, the violent tsunami triggered by a deadly
Indian Ocean earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004, killed 59 people with three
missing and 43 injured so far in Myanmar's coastal areas. The tidal wave
destroyed 592 houses in 17 villages, leaving 3,205 people homeless in some
of the regions in the country.

Meanwhile, a special ASEAN summit scheduled for Thursday in Jakarta would
discuss setting up a stand-by arrangement as well as an early warning
system across border in the region of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN).

_____________________________________

January 5, Xinhua
Death toll rises to 64 by tsunami in Myanmar: official

Myanmar confirmed Wednesday that 64 people were killed by aftershocks of a
powerful Indian Ocean earthquake which triggered a tsunami on Dec. 26.

At a Wednesday's donation ceremony for victims, Major-General Sein Htwa,
Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, disclosed that, of
the 64 dead, 10 are in Tanintharyi division, 32 in Ayeyawady division and
22 in Rakhine state.

The tidal wave, triggered by the quake, injured 56 and destroyed 29
villages, leaving 3,460 people homeless in the country's some coastal
regions, Sein Htwa said.

There was no heavy number of casualties as some foreign media reported and
estimated, he was cited, saying that there was no any casualties in
Cocogyun island where 976 people live.

Rescue operation is underway by the Myanmar government, he added.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 5, Irrawaddy
Big Relief Effort for Burmese Tsunami Victims - Aung Lwin Oo/Phang Nga

Leading Burmese dissidents, humanitarian groups and students are joining
in relief efforts for Burmese victims of the December 26 tsunamis.

Khun Marko Ban, Minister of Federal Affairs of the Burmese government in
exile, the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, or NCGUB,
said a team was now working in stricken areas of Thailand, assessing the
plight of Burmese victims there. The NCGUB appealed on January 2 for
urgent help for Burmese communities hit by the tsunamis.

Migrants from Burma gather at an evacuation center in Takua Pa town in
Phang Nga, Thailand.

The Washington-based US campaign for Burma, the Human Rights Education
Institute of Burma, or HREIB, and Burmese students at Thai universities
also plan to assist Burmese in tsunami-hit areas.

“At the moment, we have more than 100 Burmese confirmed dead, based on
witnesses’ accounts,”Aung Myo Min, the director of HREIB, told the
Irrawaddy from Phuket on Wednesday.

Fatality figures, however, had only been collected so far from Phuket and
Phangnga and more than 1,000 Burmese were still missing, he said.

About a dozen Burmese students at Thai universities are also to join in
relief efforts, and are to visit the stricken area on Friday.

“We are also seeking donations from other fellow students at our
universities,” said Thet Khine, who is studying at Thammasat University in
Bangkok.

Burmese around the world are setting up networks to provide emergency
relief and seek financial aid for Burmese victims. The Washington-based US
campaign for Burma has organized merit-making activities in Washington DC,
New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Fort Wayne.

The Burmese embassy in Bangkok was unavailable for comment on the relief
efforts.

_____________________________________

January 5, Xinhua
China expresses wishes to provide meteorological aid for tsunami- hit
countries

China will provide meteorological aid for tsunami-hit countries on their
demands, said a top official with the China Meteorological Administration
(CMA) on Wednesday.

The CMA has sent telegrams to ten countries hit by the
earthquake-triggered tsunamis, saying that it would like to provide
meteorological information for those countries to prevent further
calamities and to reduce damages brought by the tsunamis, said Yu Jixin,
director of the Department of International Cooperation of the CMA.

"We have also expressed our wishes in the telegram to provide
meteorological equipment, including satellite information receiving
devices and automatic meteorological station for those countries," said
Yu.

So far, they are still waiting for a reply, said Yu.

"If those countries do have the need for our meteorological aid, we will
provide as soon as possible," said Yu.

The Chinese Central Meteorological Station (CCMS) has opened a new weather
forecast service on tsunami-hit countries, which will provide weather and
climate forecast of those countries and analysis on atmosphere conditions
of the Indian Ocean.

The ten countries the CMA has sent a telegram to are Indonesia, Sri Lanka,
India, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Maldives, Bangladesh, Somalia and
Seychelles.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 5, Irrawaddy
Tsunami: Why did Burma get off so Lightly? – Aung Zaw

On December 26 an unprecedented catastrophe in the form of a tsunami hit
many countries in the region. It was completely unexpected and caught
everyone off guard.

As of today, the death tolls in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand
keep rising. It is estimated that more than 150,000 people have died and
perhaps as many again are still missing.  But in military-ruled Burma, the
damage was minimal according to the government and aid workers.

Rangoon said that a total of 59 people were killed. UNICEF put the number
a bit higher at 90. But the pronouncements have been met with some
skepticism, given that in neighboring Thailand more than 5,000 are
confirmed dead and almost 4,000 are still missing.

Hundreds of fishermen were probably killed in Burma by Indian Ocean killer
waves.

According to the Washington-based US Campaign for Burma, more than 400
people were killed in Burma by the Boxing Day earthquakes and tsunami. It
seems almost inconceivable that villages in the Irrawaddy Delta and
islands in the Andaman Sea including the Coco and Mergui archipelagoes
would not have been hit by the killer tsunami.

Coco Island, which previously served as a political prison, was hit by the
tsunami but damage was minimal, said some Burmese who visited the island
recently. About 1,000 people, mostly government officials, live on the
island.

The island appears to have miraculously escaped the worst effects of the
wave. However, NGOs fear that many other islands in the Andaman Sea and
areas in the Irrawaddy Delta were exposed.

A number of international NGOs and local journalists have traveled to some
areas in the Irrawaddy Delta, but they needed permission from the
government first. A veteran journalist in Rangoon noted that he wouldn’t
be surprised if a lot more people died than official figures indicate.
However, he cautioned that beaches and islands of Burma are not nearly as
densely populated nor as popular with tourists as spots in Thailand.

Ä foreigner who was in the popular resort town of Ngwe Saung Beach,
Irrawaddy Division, during the tsunami said that he saw low tidal waves
coming to the shore, but that there was no substantial damage.

Aid workers in Rangoon said that assessment teams went to Mergui,
Tenasserim Division, but have not yet returned. “We are hoping to hear
more news from them,” one aid worker said.

NGOs and the UN World Food Program in Rangoon said about 30,000 people
will need emergency assistance food, water and clothing.

Though the world has pledged aid to countries hit by the tsunami, the
generals apparently do not want outside help. But Rangoon has received
some cash from China, a close ally.

With the tsunami hitting South and Southeast Asian nations, the generals
were busy—state-run newspapers reported that sympathy notes were sent to
Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and Indonesia. Additionally, army commanders
and officials visited disaster-hit areas in the Irrawaddy Delta and Coco
Islands. Photos in the press showed them handing out food and clothes to
local villagers.

Back in Rangoon, residents fear a new earthquake; in the absence of
reliable, timely information, paranoia reigns. “They often flee [homes]
and run into streets,” said one journalist in Rangoon.

The New Light of Myanmar helpfully suggested precautions for Burmese
citizens in the case of another quake: “[K]eep away from the buildings, be
aware of falling debris, extinguish fire and turn off electricity in the
buildings, Members of Red Cross Brigade and fire fighters should be on
alert to help the people in wards and villages and do not believe rumors.”

Many Burmese and critics remain skeptical of information provided by the
junta. “We know who spreads rumors and false news in our country,” said a
Burmese who requested anonymity. Journalists are not allowed to cover
floods, plane crashes, fires or earthquakes in Burma. State-run papers
usually downplay or bury disaster stories.

Last year an estimated 200 people were killed in Arakan State after a
cyclone hit. But the government did not disclose the news. In July, when
floods hit Myitkyina, Kachin State killing more than a dozen people, state
newspapers buried the disaster.

One observer in Rangoon noted that the generals believe that the country
is saved from natural disasters due to the merit built up as a result of
their collective religious piety. The Government press last year stated:
“The climate of Myanmar can be said to be the gift of God. It has never
faced drastic weather change.”

Did state-sponsored pagoda building really kept the tsunami at bay? The
generals appear to think so.

_____________________________________

January 5, Inter Press Service
Burma 'Spared' or Junta Covering the Truth? – Sonny Inbaraj

BANGKOK, Jan 5 (IPS) - It remains one of the greatest mysteries so far on
how Burma, with over 2,000 kilometers of its coastline along the Andaman
Sea directly exposed to the devastating tsunami waves that killed over
140,000 people in the region the day after Christmas, managed to escape
with minimal damage.

A simulation produced by the Japan-based National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science and Technology showed the tsunami waves, which on Dec.
26 were spawned by a huge undersea quake in northern Sumatra, hitting the
coast of Burma's Arakan state and the Irrawaddy and Tenasserim divisions.

Logically speaking, southern Burma should have been hit as bad as
neighbouring Thailand - where the death toll is currently more than 5,200.

But no, says Anthony Banbury, the World Food Programme's regional director
for Asia.

''It's hard to explain and I honestly have no explanation at all why that
coast was spared compared to other areas that have had tremendous damage
from the tsunami,'' he told a press conference on Wednesday.

On Tuesday the WFP managed to get an assessment team into Tenasserim
division's Kawthaung, at the southernmost tip of Burma directly facing the
Andaman Sea, and reported that the damage was minimal.

''The WFP team reports that Kawthaung has escaped damage from the tsunami.
Life is going on as normal there; there are Thai tourists in the town -
and there are less than 10 deaths reported,'' said Banbury.

''The team was allowed to move a little bit along the coast and saw a
number of coastal villages that were left unscathed after the tsunami,''
he added.

Burma's military junta has put the number of dead at 59, a figure that
Banbury said was ''fairly accurate.''

''The reports of deaths that we're aware of and which we believe are
accurate are a total of between 30 to 60 deaths caused by the tsunami,''
he said.

But the WFP director said the estimate was by no means conclusive and the
U.N. agency would be doing more assessments on how to bring emergency food
aid to the affected areas.

''We have identified approximately 10,000 people in the Irrawaddy
division, which is the delta area south of the capital Rangoon, in need of
food assistance,'' Banbury pointed out. ''These 10,000 are people affected
by the tsunami and they need immediate aid.''

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in the Thai island resort of
Phuket, where current search and rescue operations are going on, that
satellite photographs suggested Burma escaped the worst ravages of the
tsunami.

But he said he had no idea whether Burma's military rulers were telling
the truth about the death toll.

Powell is now in Jakarta, where he will join U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan and senior politicians around the world in Thursday's donors meeting
to focus of rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of the devastating
tsunamis.

In the meantime, the Australian Labor federal opposition has called on
Prime Minister John Howard to pressure Burma's military regime to provide
more details about the impact of the tsunami in that country.

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said it is an issue that
must be raised during Thursday's donors' summit in Jakarta.

''As Mr. Howard heads to Jakarta for the summit on the tsunami impact on
the region, he can urge ASEAN (the Association of South-east Asian
Nations) -- of which Burma is a member -- to apply some leverage on the
regime in Rangoon to come clean with what precisely has occurred in the
aftermath of the tsunami,'' he told the 'Australian Broadcasting
Corporation.'

Suspicions were raised when on Dec. 27, the day following the disaster,
the junta-controlled 'New Light of Myanmar' reported only ''messages of
sympathy'' sent to by the generals to neighbouring countries, while giving
no report on local impact.

''It took two full days for the regime to officially report a minimal of
36 deaths, 45 injured, 14 missing, and 788 homeless displaced, and 17
coastal villages destroyed,'' said the Burma lobby group ALTSEAN in a
report on the tsunami impact on the country..

''On Jan. 1, the regime updated these figures to 59 dead, 43 injured and
3,205 made homeless,'' added the report.

ALTSEAN said this delay in announcing the causality figures was indicative
of the regime's desire to ''bury the event and its impact on the local
population..''

''This irresponsible behaviour poses a serious threat to the health of
local populations and hampers international relief assistance.. Burma's
military regime must be held accountable for its lack of attention to its
population,'' ALTSEAN's Debbie Stothart told IPS.

But what's worrying is that the situation has been less clear on Burma's
islands. This is where the regime together with the Chinese armed forces
have their military installations. So for obvious reasons these areas will
remain off-limits to relief agencies.

The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reported that army radar
installations on Coco Islands, in the Indian Ocean, had been partly
destroyed by the tsunami and Chinese military officers were among the
victims.

According to the DVB, military radar installations in the Mergui
Archipelago and Heingyi Island could also have been destroyed together
with an illegal Thai gambling casino operating under the regime's consent
on an island in southern Burma.

_____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

January 4, Office of Senator Mitch McConnell
Senator Mitch McConnell on the Asian tsunami

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell delivered the following
statement today on the Senate floor on the Asian tsunami disaster:
"Mr. President, the world's thoughts and prayers continue to be focused on
the victims of the Asian tsunami. The international community - including
governments, private businesses, and ordinary citizens - are providing
financial aid and material assistance to affected countries in that
region.

"President Bush and other world leaders deserve praise for quickly
providing substantial assistance and resources to disaster response
efforts across that region. They have brought hope and relief in the midst
of despair. I want to recognize, in particular, Japan's substantial pledge
to ongoing relief efforts.

"As Chairman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, I intend to continue
to work closely with the Administration in the days and weeks to come to
assess the damage and provide targeted relief.

"Let me close with an observation on Burma. Predictably, information on
the extent of damage in Burma is unknown, with the official casualty tally
placed by the illegitimate State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) at
59 people. Do international donors, regional governments, or humanitarian
NGOs trust this figure? The simple answer, as articulated by Secretary
Powell earlier today, is that we do not.

"The lack of action or interest in the welfare of the people of Burma, by
the military junta, should not be lost on all ASEAN members and their
dialogue partners ahead of the SPDC's chairmanship of that organization in
2006.

"I want to thank everybody on the ground - from personnel at the State
Department, USAID, and the Department of Defense to the dedicated staff of
humanitarian organizations - for working around the clock and with
respective governments in hard hit countries. Their efforts have not gone
unnoticed here in the Senate."