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Myanmar Exchange Rate Is
"Difficult," UN's Holmes Will Review in Yangon, Council June 24
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
July 16 -- In Myanmar in the wake
of Cyclone Nargis, the UN system had "serious losses of 20%"
exchanging currency with the military government, as well as making
inflated
purchases from state-owned petroleum enterprises, record seen by Inner
City Press
show. A week after asking head UN humanitarian John Holmes to describe
how
currency is converted in Myanmar, on Wednesday he said he will be
in Yangon
next week and will check on the issue.
Holmes
re-launched a Consolidated Appeal for
funding on Wednesday, alongside Rudy
Von Bernuth of the International Save the
Children Alliance, who said that Save the Children following Nargis has
received $29 million from the UN for its Myanmar work. Afterwards,
Inner City
Press asked Von Bernuth how and at what rate Save the Children exchanges money in
Myanmar. "You have to ask our London office," he answered. We have,
but the answer is strange, from International Save the Children
Alliance just
after a statement at the UN about receiving $29 million from the UN.
Another
humanitarian who passed through the UN on Wednesday was Eric Laroche,
now at
the World Health Organization, previously
humanitarian coordinator in Somalia,
and further back with UNICEF in Myanmar.
While he has committed now to explain how WHO
exchanges money in
Myanmar, when Inner City Press asked if he thinks it legitimate to
accept a low
exchange rate from a government in order to have access, he stayed
silent for a
full eight seconds before saying, "It's a very difficult question, and
a
more difficult answer. It has to do with principles." Video here,
from
Minute 51:46. He said that when he was in the country with UNICEF,
auditors
were told about the exchange rate arrangements with the government.
UN car in Myanmar, June 2008 Than Shwe exchange rate not shown
Pending
Sir John Holmes' report-back from Myanmar, it can also be reported that
internal UN documents show that much of the rice purchases by the UN
after the
cyclone was bought from Myanmar itself. Later a shift was made to
imports,
attributable to "government image and not availability" of rice,
according to the records.
Footnote: This
month's Vietnamese president of the
Security Council stated on Wednesday that an agreement has been reached
for the
Council to have a briefing on Myanmar before the end of the month.
Inner City
Press is told it will be on July 24... Watch
this site.
And this --
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