Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/ocha1myanmar050608.html
UNITED NATIONS, May 6 -- With the death toll in Myanmar continuing to rise, five days after Cyclone Nargis, among the lost is what follow-up there was to the June 2007 "Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction," which was chaired by John Holmes of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. At the time, much was said about setting up systems of early warning. On Tuesday at UN Headquarters Inner City Press asked OCHA's New York director Rashid Khalikov what follow-up there had been to the UN's Disaster Risk Reduction announcements, which extend at least back to the so-called Hyogo Framework for Action adopted in January 2005 at the the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Kobe, Japan.
"I'm not sure I'm the person to articulate an answer for you," he said. "After the tsunami there were various ideas... I cannot give you information on any progress achieved." Video here, from Minute 44:22. He referred to the UN's International Strategy for Disaster Reduction -- but it was his OCHA boss John Holmes who chaired the July 2007 meeting on the the topic.
In fact, OCHA's Holmes gave a briefing in the same room in October 2007 about Disaster Risk Reduction. Ironically or by coincidence, Inner City Press on that day Inner City Press had asked Holmes about humanitarian access to Myanmar, on which Holmes gave a rosy answer. Video here, from Minute 37:27. Amazingly, even on Tuesday Mr. Khalikov said there was nothing out of the norm in not yet having visas for access to Myanmar, five days after the cyclone. He blamed the delay on Monday having been a holiday in Bangkok. But did OCHA even call the Myanmar authorities to ask them to open the embassy for visa review? Put otherwise, who's taken the C out of OCHA? If this is a test, maybe that's where the C has gone. What are they coordinating? UNICEF, for example, put out its own press release about its accomplishments in Myanmar. One from WFP is sure to follow, and UNHCR after that.
Many at Tuesday's press conference wondered at how little information was provided, including on such basis issues as what UN aid has gotten into the country. A flash appeal is due Friday, we'll continue to follow this aspect of the story.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/ocha1myanmar050608.html
