A Coalition of mercy

Asean, the UN and the Burmese junta will jointly set up a nine-member core group to run what Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan called a "coalition of mercy" to help cyclone-hit Burma.

The Burmese government is asking for US$11.7 billion (Bt373 billion) in aid.

The three parties will commission three officials each into the core group to implement the mission and remove any obstacles to bring relief and rehabilitate and reconstruct Burma after the disaster, Surin said.

The core group will begin operations after the Asean-UN Pledging Conference in Rangoon next Sunday, he said.

The UN, Asean and the international community made attempts to pour assistance into Burma after Cyclone Nargis struck from May 2-3, leaving 134,000 dead and missing, but the junta has been reluctant to widen its doors to receive international aid workers.

The junta told the international agencies that the rescue and relief stage was over and that the authorities wanted only assistance for rehabilitation and reconstruction, while outsiders insist such an assessment needs verification.

"This discrepancy is a confidence gap that has to be verified, that has to be reconciled to create confidence," Surin told a press briefing yesterday in a Bangkok hotel after returning from Burma.

Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win briefed his colleagues at a Singaporean meeting that his country needed $11.7 billion, together with more than 100,000 housing units for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

However, Surin said the junta needed to verify its assessment and figures, in order to convince the international community in next Sunday's pledging conference about the demand. The rehabilitation phase, if it has been really reached, needs a detailed action plan.

International agencies have not yet subscribed to the Burmese claim. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is now in Burma to gain first-hand information about the devastation.

Surin briefed Ban when they met in Bangkok on Wednesday night.

"The shared concern is we don't know the extent of the damage, we don't know the number of those dead, missing or displaced. So from now until Sunday morning, we have to have some form of agreement," he said. The Asean secretary-general did not make clear how his "coalition of mercy" could respond if the junta insisted on the end of the relief phase and instead demanded resources for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

"Whether the Sunday pledging conference will be successful or not depends on the ability to reconcile the difference [between the junta and the international community]," he said.