More needs to be done for Nargis victims

by Mizzima News
Tuesday, 05 May 2009 15:56

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) -- It will take a long time to rebuild communities in the Nargis-devastated Irrawaddy delta region in south-western Burma, said a senior official of the European Commission.

“We recognise that more may need to be done,” said Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid.

A year ago, on May 2 and 3, 2008, Cyclone Nargis ravaged the Southeast Asian country, leaving over 140,000 dead or missing. Hundreds of thousands more lost their home and livelihoods.

No country could have coped on its own with the level of devastation the cyclone brought to the country, a press statement released late last week by the Commission’s Bangkok-based regional office for East and South-east Asian, quoted the Commissioner as saying.

The gradual opening-up of the humanitarian space allowed the international community to help more than a million Burmese to recover from the terrible tragedy, Michel said.

The Commission, the executive branch of the 27-member E.U., has so far provided humanitarian funding of euro 39 million (US$52 million) in response to the devastation caused by the cyclone.

The Commission has funded relief programmes in Burma since 1994. In October 2005, an office with its Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) was opened in Rangoon to facilitate the delivery of European aid.