ENSURE SUFFICIENT AID FOR NARGIS SURVIVORS, AMNESTY TELLS DONORS

BY D. ARUL RAJOO

BANGKOK, Nov 24 (Bernama) -- International donors meeting in Bangkok
Wednesday should pressure the Myanmar authorities to end harassment of activists
trying to help survivors of Cyclone Nargis, and ensure sufficient aid reaches
those affected, Amnesty International said Tuesday.

It said that in late October, the Myanmar authorities arrested at least 10
political activists and journalists for accepting relief donations from abroad,
and their whereabouts was unknown.

"The authorities are denying Nargis survivors assistance they desperately
need and have a right to receive," said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty
International's Myanmar researcher.

He said the most recent crackdown precedes the Wednesday meeting of the
Asean Tripartite Core Group (TCG), which was established in May 2008 to monitor,
coordinate and facilitate international aid to areas hit by Cyclone Nargis.

Zawacki said more than 18 months after the cyclone, the survivors still
require critical support from the international community, adding that the TCG's
three-year project for post-cyclone recovery efforts had a projected cost of
US$691 million, but only US$125 million had been committed.

Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy delta on May 2 and 3, 2008, and left
140,000 people dead or missing, while more than 1.4 million people were
displaced.

Amnesty said extra funding was still needed to provide new houses, cyclone
shelters, livelihood programmes, water and sanitation facilities, education
facilities, and health services to hundreds of thousands of people in Myanmar.
-- BERNAMA