Myanmar is in urgent need of diesel fuel to make sure that tilling machines — brought in to replace water buffaloes killed by Cyclone Nargis — can be used to help plant rice in the storm-devastated Irrawaddy delta, a senior UN official said.
UN Under Secretary-General Noeleen Heyzer said on Friday that “the window of opportunity is very short, and the need is of the utmost urgency.”
“The planting season in the delta is June to July, after which it will be too late, with disastrous consequences for food security in Myanmar and the region,” Heyzer said.
PHOTO: AFP
‘NOT GENUINE’
Meanwhile, in a clear reference to the US, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece for the ruling junta, warned that “the goodwill of a big Western nation that wants to help Myanmar with its warships was not genuine.”
Myanmar turned down humanitarian aid from naval vessels from the US, as well as Great Britain and France, that had sailed toward the Southeast Asian nation after Cyclone Nargis struck early last month.
The newspaper said aid from nations who impose economic sanctions against Myanmar and push the UN Security Council to take actions against it “comes with strings attached.”
The US is one of several Western nations that impose economic and political sanctions on the junta because of its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.
Tens of millions of dollars have been donated to help Myanmar’s cyclone victims, but the junta has been reluctant to accept foreign relief experts in large numbers and has restricted their access to the hard-hit delta area.
The UN estimates that more than 1 million survivors, mostly in the delta, still need help more than five weeks after the cyclone struck.
Cyclone Nargis killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 people missing, the Myanmar government has said.
Heyzer, meanwhile, called for Myanmar’s Southeast Asian neighbors, foreign aid donors and traditional oil suppliers to assist the country by helping supply it with 3.8 million liters of diesel.
Myanmar told Heyzer earlier this week the fuel was needed to operate some 5,000 tillers donated to plant rice in time for the next growing season, starting in June and July.
MAJOR RICE PRODUCER
The US Department of Agriculture said in an assessment issued earlier this week the area affected by the cyclone “normally accounts for roughly 60 percent of [Myanmar’s] rice production.”
“The outlook for the 2008/09 rice crop is very uncertain, as the planting window will close in late July. Little to no actual progress has been made to restore or rehabilitate damaged lands and infrastructure, while farmers are yet to be supplied with sufficient food, viable seed, tools, livestock or replacement mechanical tillers and fuel,” it said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home