Asia-Pacific Daily Report
Wed, May 14, 2008

China

Rescue efforts continue as China says more than 25,000 buried in Sichuan quake
According to China's official Xinhua news agency, the official death toll from Monday's (May 12) 7.9 magnitude quake had reached 14,866 by Wednesday (May 14) afternoon.  Most of the dead are from southwestern Sichuan province. According to Xinhua, another 1,405 were missing, 25,788 buried in debris -- more than 18,000 in the Mianyang area alone -- and 64,746 injured, local officials reported. The death toll is expected to rise.  In Wenchuan county, the epicenter of the quake, at least 500 are confirmed dead.  In Mianyang city, 5,430 were reported dead, while in Deyang City, 6,049 were reported killed.  In other cities in Sichuan, Xinhua reported 1,215 deaths in the provincial capital, Chengdu City, and 711 dead in Guangyuan City.  Neighboring Gansu province reported 280 killed, Shaanxi province had 106 deaths, Chongqing Municipality reported 14 killed, while Henan province reported two deaths due to the earthquake.  One person was reported killed in both Yunnan and Hubei provinces.  According to Reuters, the extent of the destruction across the hilly region suggests searchers will find many more bodies than survivors in the coming days.  Although thousands are confirmed dead, rescuers have also succeeded in pulling hundreds of survivors from the rubble.  Reuters reported that in Mianzhu, around 500 people were pulled out from collapsed buildings alive. The epicenter of the quake was in Wenchuan County, around 60 miles (97 km) northwest of Chengdu. The quake was also felt in other parts of the country, including the capital, Beijing, some 930 miles (1,497 km) north. The quake was also felt elsewhere in Asia, as far away as Hanoi, Vietnam, and Bangkok, Thailand. Almost 30 aftershocks, all of magnitude 4.0 and above, shook the region in the first 24 hours following the quake. The government has so far sent in nearly 50,000 troops for search and rescue efforts. Xinhua says military sources say another 30,000 will be sent to help with relief efforts. The army has delivered 33.3 tons of disaster relief goods to Wenchuan county and neighboring towns.  Another five tons of relief supplies were airdropped into Mianzhu City by the air force on Wednesday. Chinese officials have warned of the danger of mudslides on the mountainous region's hillsides and have also warned of the dangers from dams which may have been damaged in the quake. CNN reported that around 2,000 troops were sent to work on Zingpu Dam near the epicenter of the quake to repair "severe cracks."  The Zingpu is located upriver from Dujiangyan City, which has a population of some 630,000.  Reports attribute the Ministry of Water Resources as saying that the city "would be swamped" if major problems occurred at the dam. The central government has allocated another US$35.7 million (250 million yuan) to the relief fund, bringing the disaster relief fund from the central budget to US$158.6 million (1.11 billion yuan).  Xinhua reported public donations reached US$125 million (877 million yuan) in cash and goods. China has expressed willingness to accept international aid from countries, but has not asked for international help in relief efforts. A UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team was put on standby following the quake, but has been stood down as of Wednesday. In Geneva, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it was ready to send aid if requested, but stressed that Beijing had well-trained relief personnel at its disposal, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.  So far US$46.5 million has been pledged worldwide, according to AFP.  Among the countries offering aid are the US, Japan, Germany, Russia and South Korea.  South Korea and Australia are among countries offering China rescue workers and medical staff, but it is not clear at this stage if China will accept more foreign help in search and rescue efforts.  According to Reuters, the weather cleared on Wednesday, but rain has frustrated some rescue efforts and more is forecast for the coming days. The quake is believed to be the deadliest in China since the Tangshan earthquake of 1976, which left 242,000 dead.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080514/wl_nm/quake_dc_49
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/15/content_8173161.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/15/content_8173136.htm
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/14/worldupdates/2008-05-14T164811Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-335700-1&sec=Worldupdates
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/asiapcf/archive/
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/080513/afp/080513203255asiapacificnews.html

India

Dust storms kill at least 26 in northern India
At least 26 people were killed and 40 injured Wednesday (May 14) when parts of northern India experienced high winds and heavy rains amid dust storms that also knocked out power in several areas. Twenty-one people were killed in Uttar Pradesh state, where severe dust storms collapsed houses, uprooted trees and electric poles and severed communication lines in several areas of the state, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. Heavy rains also battered the state, lowering the temperature after weeks of record highs. Lightning storms were reported in several areas. Seven people were killed in Etawah, five in Mathura, four in Firozabad, four in Hathras and one in Sitapur, PTI reported. The state capital, Lucknow, was among many places that were without electricity for several hours. In neighboring Delhi on Wednesday, five people were killed in a wind storm that uprooted trees and electricity poles and collapsed buildings all over the city, the Times of India reported. Among the dead were a woman who was killed when a bus flipped over in an accident caused by poor visibility and two men who were killed when a railway container fell on them, according to the Times. Sustained winds in Delhi reportedly exceeded 62 mph (100 kph). The Indian Meteorological Department reported that both cities would see higher temperatures on Thursday (May 15), but did not offer a forecast for wind conditions.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Delhi/100kmph_storm_kills_5_people_in_Delhi/articleshow/3040981.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Lucknow/21_die_in_severe_dust_storms_in_Uttar_Pradesh/articleshow/3040598.cms

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Curfew imposed following northwest India bomb blasts
Authorities imposed a curfew in the northwestern Indian city of Jaipur on Wednesday (May 14) after eight nearly simultaneous bomb blasts killed at least 63 people and injured more than 200 on Tuesday (May 13). The blasts in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan state, which borders Pakistan to the west, began around 19:15 local time (1345 GMT) on Tuesday and occurred near historic monuments and Hindu temples around the city. Police believe the explosives were planted on bicycles and detonated using timing devices, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. AFP attributed Rajasthan's chief minister as updating the casualty toll to 63 dead and 216 missing, while other news agencies put the unofficial death toll as high as 85. Indian police arrested two suspects Wednesday while a curfew began in the city at 0900 (0300 GMT), according to the BBC. Schools and government offices were closed Wednesday and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the attacks while issuing a nationwide security alert and sealing Rajasthan's borders, AFP reported. The blasts were similarly condemned by many foreign governments. Both AFP and the BBC reported state officials as saying the attacks were believed to have foreign connections, most likely implicating neighboring Pakistan, which New Delhi frequently accuses of supporting Islamic militants fighting against Indian rule in the part of the Kashmir valley administered by New Delhi. According to AFP, no one has claimed the attacks. Meanwhile, India's army has accused Pakistani troops of firing across the Line of Control (LoC) that separates Indian-controlled Kashmir (IcK) from Pakistan-controlled Kashmir (PcK) twice in the last week, the BBC reported Wednesday. Pakistan denies the incidents, which are India's first such allegations since the two countries agreed on a ceasefire in 2003, dramatically decreasing the level of violence in Kashmir as they entered a slow-moving peace process set to continue this month with a visit to Pakistan by India's foreign minister. Insurgents have been fighting for independence or a merger of IcK with Pakistan since 1989 and tens of thousands have been killed in the conflict. The first incursion reported by India was on Friday (May 9) in Samba district when soldiers were allegedly fired upon after they spotted armed men trying to cross the LoC, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI). The second occurred Tuesday night when India's military accused Pakistani troops of targeting an Indian post in Tangdhar district and firing about 50 heavy machine gun rounds and some mortars across the border, PTI reported.  According to AFP, a statement released by Pakistan Wednesday said no incident of firing had occurred. India has lodged a formal complaint and the two sides are expected to meet to discuss the issue.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/080514/afp/080514125741top.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7399823.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7400519.stm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3039634,prtpage-1.cms
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2008/May/subcontinent_May366.xml§ion=subcontinent&col=

Myanmar

At least 66,000 left dead or missing in Myanmar from Cyclone Nargis
Thailand’s Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said Wednesday (May 14) after a brief visit to Myanmar (Burma), that the junta had again ruled out allowing in foreign relief experts to help deal with the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis which hit the country on May 2, leaving over 38,000 dead.  “They insisted they can take care of their people and their country.  They can manage by themselves,” he said after meeting with Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein. The trip was aimed at convincing the junta to relax restrictions and allow foreign aid workers into the country, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Myanmar’s leaders have said they welcome international aid, but say the nation has no need for outside relief workers and continue to withhold visas, which has hampered aid agencies’ relief efforts. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Myanmar’s Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development has said that aid from any nation will be accepted and that delivery of relief can be handled by local organizations and people working in international agencies provided this is carried out in cooperation with the government. The UN reiterated its call for more rapid dissemination of aid into the country, saying that “humanitarian workers need to be allowed in sufficient numbers to ensure quicker and efficient distribution to all those in need,” AFP reported. UN humanitarian chief John Holmes urged the junta to make a “radical change” to allow foreign aid workers in to Myanmar.  “The biggest problem we have at the moment is that international humanitarian staff are not being allowed down into the affected area in the delta.  We do have hundreds of national staff but obviously they are overstretched,” The News quoted Holmes as saying. In a positive sign, the ruling military junta invited 160 personnel from neighboring Bangladesh, China, India and Thailand.  Thailand said the junta had given permission for a team of 30 Thai doctors to travel to Myanmar Friday (May 16), Reuters reported.  However, the UN and international aid groups believe more experienced workers need to be sent in to the country to help with relief efforts.  Meanwhile, international aid continued to flow into Yangon. Five additional planeloads of US aid arrived in Yangon Wednesday.     Myanmar’s official death toll as of Wednesday has climbed to 38,491, while 27,838 remain missing, AFP reported. The UN says the number of dead could range from 60,000 to 102,000.  The UN estimates 1.2 to 1.9 million people have been severely affected by the cyclone.  State media reported Monday (May 12) that a total of 9,330 survivors have been evacuated from the worst-hit parts of southwest Irrawaddy Division to relief sites in Maubin, Wakema and Myaungmya townships, OCHA reported. Meanwhile, three UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team members have arrived in Myanmar, joining the other two members of the team already in-country and were granted seven-day visas. According to OCHA, the UNDAC team will provide guidance and assistance to support the ASEAN Emergency Rapid Assessment Team (ERAT) which is currently being deployed within the next 48 hours.  The UN also said Wednesday that it opened a logistics hub in Myanmar and plans to open other hubs in the coming days.  A hub has been opened in the southern town of Labutta, which has two mobile storage units that are currently operational. Similar hubs are planned for Pyapon and Bogale.  “The importance of each center will be parallel to the needs in the area,” OCHA spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs said.  Additionally, both Yangon and Pathein ports have been opened, allowing boats carrying a maximum of 250 metric tons (MT) through, AFP reported Byrs as saying.  She also added that negotiations are continuing with Thai officials to set up a staging area for aircraft. The Habitat for Humanity Asia-Pacific Office in Bangkok hosted an NGO meeting called by Oxfam on Tuesday (May 13), the first NGO/INGO Collaboration and Coordination Meeting, OCHA reported.  The meeting provided an opportunity for NGOs to share information and opened ongoing communication and cooperation channels.  Participants included 49 representatives from 26 different NGOs.  The next meeting is expected to take place on Friday.  Heavy rains are forecast for the second half of this week and the yearly monsoon rains are set to begin soon.  “With soil already saturated, with large areas already flooded and with communities already pushed to their capacities, this rain could represent the worst scenario imaginable,” AFP reported the Red Cross as saying. A UN Flash Appeal of US$187 million for victims of Cyclone Nargis launched May 9 covers the next six months and is using 1.5 million people for its initial planning. More than US$77 million has been pledged by the international community in response to the appeal and in bilateral assistance. 

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5geSUdemFs9_gcAPcRonZA6iQtIMw
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=45532
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/PANA-7EMDWP?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=mmr
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/PANA-7EMDU8?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=mmr
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/KHII-7EM844?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=mmr
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/LSGZ-7EMH34?OpenDocument
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/KHII-7EM8H3?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=mmr

Philippines

Libya sends more peacekeepers to southern Philippines
Libya will strengthen its peacekeeping force in the southern Philippines to allay concerns that conflict may intensify with Malaysia in the midst of pulling out its peacekeeping troops, Thai-based The Nation reported on Tuesday (May 13).  The Philippines presidential adviser on the peace process, Jesus Dureza, said on Monday (May 12) that Libya has agreed to send 25 peacekeepers to Mindanao island, in addition to the six troops Libya already has on the International Monitoring Team (IMT).  The extra Libyan troops are intended to replace the 41 Malaysian troops being withdrawn, as many fear conflict will intensify after the peacekeepers withdraw.  Up to 29 Malaysian peacekeepers departed on Saturday (May 10) and the remainder will leave by the end of August.  The other IMT members are comprised of 10 Brunei soldiers and a Japanese development aid worker.  The Malaysians are pulling out because the peace talks between the Philippines government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels have been stalled since December 2007.  MILF rebels expressed concern that the new Libyan troops may not be in accordance with the signed agreement.  "The MILF welcomes the gesture of the Libyan government to help the ceasefire hold in Mindanao, but to replace Malaysia as lead country in the 60-man IMT is an entirely different matter," MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said.  Kabalu noted the terms of the 2001 ceasefire signed by the government and MILF in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, stated Malaysia will head the IMT and other countries and groups shall be invited only as participants.  The Malaysians had been leading the IMT since 2004, and while Kabalu said the terms of the agreement needed to be modified, he worried that would not be feasible with talks currently stalled over how to set up a proposed Islamic homeland in Mindanao, which is home to the country's Muslim minority.  The four main issues of the talks were ancestral domain, security, rehabilitation and development, and governance.  Different positions regarding the issue of ancestral domain became deadlocked when the government wanted the issue to be resolved through the Philippines' constitutional process, a potentially time-consuming proposal which MILF rejected based on an earlier understanding that any agreement would be addressed independently of the constitution.  MILF has been negotiating on and off with the government for more than a decade to end a conflict continuing for nearly 40 years.  MILF, a force of some 11,000 guerrillas, has been fighting for an autonomous homeland in parts of Mindanao, Palawan and the Sulu Archipelago in a conflict that has claimed more than 120,000 lives.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/option/print.php?newsid=30072959
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j4e6LB7YMXa5KQjAC9TKsOoB0yPg
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/95251/Libyas-lead-in-peace-monitoring-to-be-questioned

Other World News

Afghanistan

Afghanistan to seek US$50 billion at donors conference in June
Afghanistan plans to ask for US$50 billion in aid to rebuild the war-shattered country at an international donors conference in Paris next month (June 2008).  Speaking to reporters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Ishaq Nadiri, senior economic adviser to President Hamid Karzai, said a new five-year development plan which is part of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy -- a 5,000-page document drafted as a result of a two-year consultative process across the country -- will be presented on June 12 in Paris when donors meet.  He said the new plan is designed to resolve many of the current inefficiencies in the aid process.  He said nearly US$14 billion will go toward improving worsening security with the key target to revive the country's frail agricultural sector.  Nadiri said he is hopeful the proposal will draw strong political commitment to Afghanistan.  According to a report by the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), an umbrella organization of 94 international aid organizations, since 2001, international donors have pledged some US$25 billion in aid for Afghanistan. The report noted that only US$15 billion has actually been delivered.  The report also noted that some 40 percent (US$6 billion) of the aid that was delivered went back to donor countries in corporate profits and consultant salaries. The newly appointed UN envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, has said he is committed to transparency of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan and has pledged to work closely with the Afghan government to ensure that aid was not being spent on wasteful projects.  Other reports have also noted corruption within the Afghan government and lack of transparency.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-05-14-voa50.cfm
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4851540

Pakistan

NATO concerned by Pakistan's peace deals with militants
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Wednesday (May 14) said it is concerned that a pending peace deal between the Pakistani government and Taliban-linked militants in the country's tribal northwest has already caused an increase in violence in eastern Afghanistan. The newly elected government of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), which oversees the semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) that border Afghanistan, has been negotiating a peace agreement with Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan's top Taliban commander, over the last few weeks as part of Pakistan's new strategy of using peace talks rather than military pressure to suppress violence in the northwest. The talks between Mehsud and the Pashtun tribal elders negotiating on behalf of the NWFP government stalled on April 28, with Mehsud's spokesperson citing the government's refusal to withdraw troops from his base, FATA's South Waziristan agency. But talks have resumed and on Wednesday several news wires reported that Pakistani troops were moving away from towns and villages in South Waziristan. Pakistan's chief military spokesperson said the move was not a reduction or a withdrawal, but an attempt to facilitate the return of people who had fled the area due to violence, Agence France-Presse reported. Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) attributed unidentified officials as saying Wednesday that the two sides had agreed on a prisoner exchange and hoped to seal a peace deal within three to four days. The exchange was expected to take place later Wednesday and involve the release of 32 suspected militants and 55 security personnel that have been captured in NWFP and FATA over the last six months, according to DPA. If signed, the deal is expected to include a major troop withdrawal in exchange for the promise of an end to militant attacks inside Pakistan. Mehsud and his followers have been blamed for a series of suicide attacks that have killed more than 1,000 people across Pakistan in the past year, including former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Taliban- and al-Qaeda-linked militants fled into FATA following the US-led ouster of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001 and the US and NATO consider the security situation in Pakistan's northwest paramount to their success in Afghanistan. In a briefing in Brussels on Wednesday, NATO spokesperson James Appathurai said that the number of violent incidents in Afghanistan's eastern border areas last month was 50 percent higher than in April 2007. "The concern is that the deals struck by the Pakistan government and extremist groups in tribal areas may be allowing them to have a safe haven," Reuters quoted Appathurai as saying.
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