This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 RANGOON 000366 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/16/2016 
TAGS: PREF PGOV PHUM ECON PREL BM NGO
SUBJECT: BURMESE IDPS AND REFUGEES NEED MORE HELP 
 
REF: A. RANGOON 319 
     ¶B. RANGOON 272 
     ¶C. RANGOON 235 
     ¶D. RANGOON 271 
     ¶E. 05 RANGOON 1444 
 
Classified By: Poloff Dean Tidwell for Reasons 1.4 (b,d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: A visiting PRM team discussed refugee and IDP 
issues with IOs and donor counterparts in Rangoon March 8-10. 
 UNHCR described its activities in northern Rakhine State and 
efforts to improve access to eastern border areas.  ICRC 
outlined its lack of access to prisons and labor camps, but 
explained that its other programs in Burma continue.  WFP 
spoke of challenges and opportunities in northern Rakhine 
State and northern Shan State.  The different organizations 
PRM met still fill a vital role in Burma and need continued 
support.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) PRM program officers Rafael Foley and Hoa Tran 
visited Rangoon March 8-10.  (Regional Refugee Coordinator 
Michael Honnold, based in Bangkok, was unable to obtain a 
Burma visa in time to accompany them.)  They met with UN High 
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Commission 
of the Red Cross (ICRC), and World Food Program (WFP) 
officers and with INGOs to discuss support for refugees and 
IDPs in northern Rakhine State and along the Burma-Thai 
border. 
 
UNHCR IN NORTHERN RAKHINE STATE 
 
¶3. (SBU) UNHCR Representative Jean-Francois Durieux stated 
that through its network of local staff, UNHCR has access to 
all villages in northern Rakhine State (NRS).  This access 
allows UNHCR to intervene to mitigate the most egregious GOB 
abuses against the local population of 800,000 Rohingyas, a 
Muslim minority facing continued harassment and 
discrimination at the hands of the Burmese government. 
UNHCR's focus on the approximately 230,000 Rohingyas refugees 
who have voluntarily repatriated from Bangladesh since 1993 
has served as its entry point for the provision of protection 
to all other Rohingyas in NRS. 
 
¶4. (C) UNHCR described its access to NRS as "exceptional by 
Burma standards."  Recent GOB restrictions on UN agencies and 
international NGOs have not affected UNHCR in NRS and it 
continues to have relatively free and unhindered access. 
Describing the situation in NRS as "extremely precarious," 
UNHCR reported that the ethnic Rohingyas' statelessness 
remains at the root of their other problems, resulting from 
the GOB's constraint of nearly every aspect of the Rohingyas' 
lives (ref C). 
 
¶5. (SBU) UNHCR faces problems in NRS because it lacks useful 
baseline data.  Due to a gap in data collection since 2003, 
UNHCR is trying to reconstruct village profiles it maintained 
previously.  UNHCR's data problems are common to most UN 
agencies and NGOs that work in Burma, where official data is 
unreliable and data collection is ever a challenge.  UN 
agencies in Burma are trying to coordinate data collection 
using their "Myainfo" software package to share data.  UNHCR 
currently collects data on 99 indicators, but hopes it can 
reduce the indicators to a more manageable size soon. 
 
¶6. (C) Durieux says that once returnees are settled, UNHCR 
normally phases out its programs, but the Rohingyas are a 
special case.  Returnees remain far outside the GOB system of 
limited services.  He believes UNHCR must continue working in 
NRS until the Rohingyas obtain "minimal legal status."  Even 
if the GOB declared the Rohingyas "stateless," this would be 
progress, he said, because stateless persons have certain 
rights, as do refugees.  Durieux estimates it will take over 
a generation until the Rohingyas are able to obtain 
citizenship. 
 
UNHCR ON THE EASTERN BORDER 
 
¶7. (C) UNHCR began working on the eastern border in 2004 to 
assess conditions and to create an "absorption capacity" for 
potential returnees from Thai refugee camps.  The original 
optimism that the SPDC and the KNU would reach a peace 
agreement has vanished, and UNHCR says repatriation of 
refugees from Thailand is not an option.  Durieux recalled a 
recent meeting he had with the Minister of Home Affairs. 
Durieux did not find the minister receptive to the terms 
"refugees" or "internally displaced persons."  To the 
minister they were all "terrorists."  While UNHCR local staff 
have free and unhindered access to areas along the eastern 
border, the GOB has restricted expatriate staff from visiting 
there nearly one year. 
¶8. (C) To maintain its minimal presence along the eastern 
border, UNHCR implements EU-funded micro projects, building 
clinics, schools, wells, and bridges.  UNHCR implemented 138 
such projects in 2005.  While most are now completed, UNHCR 
staff continue to monitor them.  Although UNHCR has 
identified 100 new project sites in the eastern states, they 
have not implemented any new projects in 2006.  UNHCR hopes 
to visit Karen State in April with the Ministry of Border 
Development (called "NaTaLa" in Burmese) and the EU 
Humanitarian Aid representative (ref A).  Their ultimate goal 
is to travel in the east as freely as they do in NRS -- 
without GOB escorts. 
 
ICRC KEEPS THE SHOP OPEN 
 
¶9. (C) ICRC Head of Delegation, Patrick Vial, explained that, 
although ICRC had to suspend its prison visits, it maintains 
its other programs while waiting for a change in the 
political climate (ref B).  These programs include support 
for prosthetics centers and promotion and dissemination of 
humanitarian principles to the GOB and ethnic armies.  ICRC 
planned to conduct a seminar in Mandalay in mid-March on 
"International Humanitarian Law."  The Regional Commander 
approved the plan in January, but canceled permission at the 
last minute.  ICRC believes that program publicity via exile 
radio may have caused the Regional Commander to have second 
thoughts.  Like others, Vial found ICRC's relations with the 
GOB started to deteriorate after the ouster of former Prime 
Minister Khin Nyunt.  ICRC knows it may be a long wait for 
renewed access and is planning accordingly.  Since the 
beginning of the year, the ICRC has reduced its expatriate 
staff by 13 positions and currently has 40 expatriates 
working in country. 
 
¶10. (C) According to Vial, the Minister of Home Affairs 
believes that ICRC is interfering in the prisons, not 
helping.  The minister has stopped dialogue with ICRC 
completely.  Senior General Than Shwe also holds a negative 
opinion of ICRC due to its past ties with Khin Nyunt and 
insurgent groups, and its links to Western countries.  ICRC 
is now trying to start a dialogue with Prime Minister Soe Win 
through its Geneva headquarters, and is trying to encourage 
Asian countries to influence the GOB in a positive direction. 
 At the same time, ICRC prefers that Western countries do not 
speak out on its behalf, as that could lead to further 
setbacks in Burma. 
 
¶11. (C) Although ICRC sees no short-term solution, ICRC staff 
can still move freely to visit its sub-offices and do not 
have to request GOB permission to travel.  ICRC also accepts 
complaints about child soldier cases, which the ILO passes on 
to ICRC because it is currently too risky for ILO to handle 
them.  ICRC still maintains a field office in Kengtung, Shan 
State, despite access issues to southern Shan State.  This 
field office continues to receive occasional arrest reports. 
ICRC keeps it open because, once closed, it might be very 
difficult to reopen.  ICRC continues to operate a very 
successful prosthetic hospital in Pa-an, Karen State, and 
continues to supply seven GOB-run prosthetic centers around 
the country.  Without ICRC's support these centers would 
likely all close down.  To date ICRC has treated 18,000 
prosthetics patients throughout Burma.  ICRC still works with 
the Myanmar Red Cross Society to transmit letters between 
prisoners and their families.  ICRC provides financial 
support to prisoners to return home after their release. 
ICRC is able to obtain updated information on prisoners and 
prison conditions when released prisoners visit their office. 
 The ICRC also gives financial support to family members to 
visit their relatives incarcerated in remote prisons. 
 
WORLD FOOD PROGRAM IN BURMA 
¶12. (SBU) UNHCR asked WFP to join them in NRS to help feed 
returnees.  Besides providing new returnees with essential 
food commodities for the first two months, WFP also helps 
other vulnerable groups, including children under five, 
pregnant women, and new mothers.  In addition, WFP implements 
food-for-work for adults and food-for-education to encourage 
primary school children to attend school. 
 
¶13. (SBU) WFP faces many challenges in Burma to satisfy the 
requirements of both donors and Burmese organizations, but 
believes it has succeeded.  WFP country director, Bhim Udas, 
said that Aung San Suu Kyi previously agreed that WFP could 
operate in Burma as long as WFP, not the government, 
identified beneficiaries, delivered the food commodities, and 
ensured that food reached the right people.  WFP mainly 
operates through NGO partners to deliver food aid, but 
closely monitors deliveries to ensure there is no GOB 
interference.  Its NGO partners often add value to the food 
assistance by implementing complementary projects, such as 
water and sanitation and microfinance, but not enough NGOs 
operate in Burma to collaborate on all of WFP's programs. 
Udas stated that WFP has funding to cover only 65 percent of 
its operational needs in NRS, and asked the USG to consider 
contributing in order to reach more beneficiaries.  He 
mentioned an urgent need for edible oil, and noted that the 
GOB allows WFP to import this commodity from foreign sources. 
 
¶14. (SBU) Besides NRS, WFP also works in the central dry zone 
and in northern Shan State.  GOB restrictions on the movement 
of people and food exist in both NRS and Shan State, and 
cause similar problems.  Not only does WFP experience lengthy 
delays in shipping food to the beneficiaries, many people are 
not able to move to or access markets.  Udas noted one case 
in the Wa region where a farmer cut down three thousand 
lychee trees because he could not obtain permits to sell the 
crop to Chinese export markets (ref E).  China recently 
allowed sugarcane farmers in Shan State to sell their crops 
in China, but little land is suitable for growing sugarcane. 
WFP says frustration is growing in the region, because when 
they grew poppies they did not have to worry about finding a 
market; the market came to them.  While Wa authorities have 
encouraged poppy farmers in the mountains to move to lowlands 
and plant alternative crops, the new crops lack markets. 
People in both NRS and Shan State border areas do not have ID 
cards, therefore government authorities do not permit them to 
travel to other towns and cities to find work. 
 
¶15. (C) COMMENT: The restrictions that IOs and NGOs face in 
Burma make a hard job even harder.  The ICRC, UNHCR, and WFP 
have found ways to deliver vitally needed services without 
compromising their humanitarian principles, independence, or 
clear mandates.  Increased U.S. assistance to some of the 
most vulnerable populations in Burma, especially the 
Rohingyas in NRS, would be very welcome by UNHCR and WFP. 
The UN agencies have relatively greater access to this area 
and assistance would thwart GOB efforts to destroy the 
Rohingyas.  IDPs suffer elsewhere, but access is much more 
restricted, such as along the Burma-Thai border.  The Home 
Affairs Minister's characterization of these people as 
"terrorists" reinforces the importance of our resolving the 
"material support" issue in a way that does not appear to 
confirm the Minister's characterization.  END COMMENT. 
VILLAROSA