VZCZCXRO4923
OO RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH RUEHTRO
DE RUEHGO #0427/01 1491137
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 281137Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY RANGOON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7687
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1240
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 4784
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 8328
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 5890
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 1622
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1692
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 RANGOON 000427 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/MLS, DRL, AND IO 
PACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM BM EAID
SUBJECT: BURMA: ENCOURAGING SIGNS ON ACCESS TO THE DELTA 
 
REF: RANGOON 417 
 
RANGOON 00000427  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: The Ministry of Social Welfare is granting 
UN international staff permission to travel to the Delta with 
two days notice.  Six staff applied for permission to travel 
on May 26 and all requests were granted.  NGO international 
staff are also being granted permission to travel, though not 
as quickly.  The Foreign Ministry will prioritize visas for 
UN staff and approve all applications.  The ASEAN 
Humanitarian Task Force will hold their first meeting via 
teleconference on May 29, and the UN expects the Tripartite 
Core Group will hold its first meeting shortly afterwards in 
Rangoon.  The ASEAN assessment team will return to Rangoon on 
May 30 to prepare a needs assessment by mid-June.  The GOB 
notified the UN that large tents were urgently needed to set 
up classrooms for school children in the affected areas. 
Responsibility for relief efforts in the affected areas has 
been transferred from government ministers to the regional 
military commanders.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) UN Resident Coordinator Bishow Parajuli and Acting 
Humanitarian Assistance Coordinator Dan Baker briefed the dip 
corps today on developments regarding coordination of Cyclone 
Nargis relief efforts. 
 
------------------- 
Access to the Delta 
------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) On May 26, the Minister of Social Welfare told 
Baker that his ministry would give permission to UN workers 
to visit the Delta with two days notice.  Baker speculated 
that NGOs would have to work with their line ministries and 
bilateral missions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to 
obtain permission to visit the affected areas.  Baker 
reported that since Monday, six UN international staff 
members been granted permission to visit the Delta: three 
from UNICEF and three from WFP.  The UN has consolidated 
travel requests from all of their agencies into one 
submission to ensure coordination and expeditious approval. 
Baker informed the diplomatic corps that the Social Welfare 
Ministry required three items to grant travel permission: 
certification that the traveler is attached to a UN agency, 
purpose of travel, and itinerary.  They do not need to travel 
with GOB officials. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Baker said that six international staff from INGOs 
had already been granted permission to travel to the Delta, 
and several others were in the process of applying.  INGO ACF 
was told their permission would not be granted until the 
beginning of June.  Baker also reported that during a trip to 
Labutta yesterday, he had met a five-member team of Germans 
manning a water purification plant that was producing 11,000 
liters of purified water per hour for cyclone victims there. 
Additionally, two MSF-Switzerland staff were in Bogale.  The 
UN will keep a centralized database of international staff 
working in the Delta to track movements and access of 
international staff.  Today, WFP submitted a request for an 
international staff member to work for 30 days in the Delta. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Baker noted that UN agencies, such and WHO and NGOs 
requesting travel permission through line ministries, would 
not necessarily receive approvals in two days.  The UN 
requested to the Minister of Social Welfare to urge line 
ministries to grant travel permission in two days as well. 
NGOs Merlin and Malteser had both attempted to send 
international staff out to the Delta without permission, but 
authorities turned them around at check points. 
 
----- 
Visas 
----- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Baker noted that the UN also consolidated all of 
its agencies' visa requests to simplify visa issuances for 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  After receiving 
instructions from Nay Pyi Taw, the Minister of Foreign 
Affairs informed Baker the MFA had a new "liberal policy" for 
 
RANGOON 00000427  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
granting visas to UN staff.  The Ministry would "prioritize" 
UN visas, and any UN employee that applied for a visa would 
be granted one.  Unfortunately, Baker added, these visas had 
only two-week validities, with an option to extend.  Baker 
believed this was an attempt by the GOB to ensure 
humanitarian workers eventually left the Delta.  The UN would 
urge the MFA to grant visas of longer validity.  Baker noted 
that several visas had been issued to UN staff in the last 
few days. 
 
--------------- 
ASEAN Mechanism 
--------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Baker told diplomats the first meeting of the ASEAN 
Humanitarian Task Force would take place by teleconference on 
May 29.  He hoped that soon afterwards the Tripartite Core 
Group (TCG) would meet in Rangoon.  Although membership in 
the TCG had not been finalized, Baker indicated the Thai 
Ambassador would be the lead ASEAN representative, Deputy 
Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu would be the lead GOB 
representative, and Baker himself would be the UN 
representative.  He added the UN may rotate its other two 
members according to the subjects discussed at the task 
force's meetings.  Charge d'Affaires urged Baker to organize 
a meeting for bilateral donors with the TCG as soon as 
possible, so that donors would be able to plug into the 
relief efforts.  The ASEAN Secretariat had already set up 
offices in the Chatrium Hotel in Rangoon.  Separately, we 
have received a request to fund some office equipment which 
OFDA is processing.  However, this fact should not be 
publicized. 
 
---------- 
Assessment 
---------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Parajuli notified donors the ASEAN Emergency Rapid 
Assessment Team (ERAT) would return to Burma on May 30 to 
prepare a needs assessment by mid-June.  The UN would try to 
loop the GOB in on the ERAT's assessment in order to 
incorporate GOB data.  The UN was coordinating with UN 
Headquarters, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank, 
to add expertise to the assessment of relief and early 
recovery needs.  Parajuli emphasized the UN wanted to move 
quickly in order to speed up disaster response efforts. 
 
--------------------- 
Tents Urgently Needed 
--------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Baker remarked that he had returned from a "very 
productive" tour of the Delta with the Minister of Social 
Welfare.  Baker had been reluctant to go on another 
GOB-sponsored tour, but took the opportunity to explain to 
the Minister the differences between a "tour" and a regular 
monitoring mechanism that international donors would require. 
 He said the Minister acknowledged the need for proper 
monitoring.  The Minister requested large tents that could be 
used in place of classrooms because schools had been severely 
damaged.  The GOB had postponed the resumption of the school 
year until July 2 in the affected areas but required 8,000 
large tents (the equivalent of the U.S. military's GP Large 
Tents) so that makeshift classrooms could be set up before 
this date.  The NGO Swiss Cooperation had supplied some, but 
several thousand more were needed. 
 
---------------------------------------- 
Regional Commanders Now Directing Relief 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU) The UN also confirmed that the Ministers who had 
been assigned areas of responsibility in the Delta had been 
recalled to Nay Pyi Taw, so Regional Commanders were now 
directing relief efforts in their respective areas.  The UN 
remarked that NGOs and UN staff reported this change had made 
access easier for their employees. 
 
 
RANGOON 00000427  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Comment: Way too slowly, more experts are on the 
way to the Delta.  The UNICEF rep predicted it would be 
another week or two before we would know how much access 
expanded.  Today's New Light of Myanmar carried the headline, 
"Donors may go right down to storm-hit areas of their 
choice."  We intend to test this commitment by dispatching 
one of our poloffs to the Delta tomorrow.  End comment. 
VILLAROSA