By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 30 --
After the
Myanmar
silence of UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon was
blamed by his
deputy
spokesman on
limited
Burmese
"infrastructure,"
belatedly a
read-out of
Ban's
meetings with
the Thein Sein
government was
issued.
In
it, Ban
expresses his
commitment to
work with the
Government
including "UN
technical
assistance and
help to
mobilize
financial
support for
Myanmar's
first
population and
housing census
in 2014."
So
who would pay?
It's reported
that
"in
the
two years
leading up to
the
data-collection
period, the
United
Nations
Population
Fund (UNFPA)
will be
assisting in
surveyor
training and
drafting
survey
documents.
UNFPA's
country
representative
Mohamed
Abdel-Ahad
called it an
especially
steep
challenge due
to the amount
of time
elapsed since
the last
census...Abdel-Ahad
said workers
expect to
carry out the
census in
April, 2014.
The United
Nations is
expected to at
least
partially
cover the
estimated
$53-million
cost."
The
Thein Sein
government,
even as it
denies voting
rights to and
shoots at the
Kachin, is
being lavished
with debt
forgiveness
and other
funds.
Still Ban's
buying
friendship,
and nice
quotes, with
UN money.
What's
new?
