Yangon,25 May- The followinf is the full text of address delivered today by Prime Minister General Thein Sein at the ASEAN-UN International Pledging Conference .
Excellency Mr Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations
Excellency Mr George Yeo, Chairman of the ASEAN Standinf Committee
Distinguished Ministers
Excellency Dr Surin Pitsuwan,Secretary-General of ASEAN
Delegates from donor countries
Excellencies, Ladies aenf Gentlemen
May, I first of all, say that the Government and the people of Myanmar extend our warmest welcome to all of you. May I also on behalf of the people of Myanmar, would like to express our deep appreciation to all of you for your presence and your readiness to provide aid and assistance to cyclone victioms at this critical time.
I would also like to reiterate our gratitude to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Foreingn Ministers of the AESEAN member countries,Ministers and delegates from deonr countries, Secretary-General of ASEAN and United Nations Agencies, representations of INGOS and international community,for their presence today at the ASEAN-UN International Pledging Conference.
The Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar on the 2nd and 3rd May, was of unprecedented intensity in our history. The radius of the storm was about 200 miles wide and the wind speed at the eye of the storm ranged from 120 to 150 miles per hour. The strong wind was accompanied by surging tidal waves that ranged from 7 to 12 feet in height.
Consequently, 7 townships in Ayeyarwady Division and 40 townships in Yangon Division were severely affected. The strong winds and the accompanying high tidal waves have caused heavy losses of human lives, farming cattle, livestocks as well as extensive damages to properties . Some of the villages were completely wiped out due to the storm and the tidal waves.
According to the data collected to date, 77,738 people were confirmed dead, 55,917 were still missing and 19,359 were injured and there were huge loss in properties and material damaged. I won\\\'t be going in details of the damages cauesd by the cyclone Nargis as Minister U Soe Tha of the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development will be giving a briefing on this later.
On 3rd May, the same day when the storm made its landfall, an emergency cabinet meeting was held presided by me and we rushed to the storm hit areas to carry out immediate rescue operations. On 4th May, at the supervision of the cabinet ministers many homeless victims totaling 1,064,623 were rescued and evacuated to temporary shelters at 12 front-line camps, and 5 base camps. Emergency relief items such as food and drinking water are also delivered by using helicopters and boats, to some villages.
Up to now the emergency search and rescue measure have completed to some extend and we are currently carrying out relief and rehabilitation measures by providing food, clothing and shelters to the victims. Our effotes were greatly benefited from the large aumount of humanitarian assistance that has poured in from local and international wellwishers. To date, we have received 3273.20 tons of humanitarian supplies that have been delivered by international donors were immediately distributed by using motorizes boats, ships and helocopters to the victims of the cyclone.
While we are able to provide the storm victims with basic requirments such as food and clothing, the monsoon season is approaching and our present concern is to provide adequate temporary shelters for the victims, to enable them to resume their daily economic activities . We are now providing victims with shelters built using locally available bamboo and timber and using tarpaulin and plastics sheets as roofing materials. We are using the tents, tarpaulins and plastic sheets donates from home and abroad to provide the necessary shelters.
For emergency relief and rehabitaion, the Government has allocated initial expenses of 5 billion Kyats to start with and so far the government has spent to the amount of 70 billions Kyats. Once again , I would like to reitarate our profound thanks to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for his leadership taking prompt action enabling the United Nations and its agencies to expeditiously and effectively assinst in our relief and rehabilitation efforts.
Our appreciations also go to other donor Gonernments, International NGOs, NGOs and individual welllwishers for their financial and material contributions.
I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to our neighbours China, India, Bangladesh and ASEAN members such as Thailand , Laos and Singapore that have dispatched medical teams to provide medical care to the victims in 0rder to prevent epidemics that we usually encounter in the aftermath of natural disaster. We will accept additional medical teams from other countries in an orderly and systematic manner.
In closing, I would like to invire experts and wellwishers to extend their help in our preventive measures such as raising the levels of embankments , building temporary shelters in high grounds and paving causeways through swampy areas linking villages etc in order to miniminze casualties and damages in the event of such severe cyclone in the future. With your assintance I feel confident that we will be able to successfully overcome the challenge should we encounter similar cyclones,
I thank you all .
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