UN humanitarian chief meets Myanmar PM

YANGON, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Visiting United Nations Humanitarian Chief John Holmes met with Myanmar Prime Minister General Thein Sein in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw Thursday, diplomatic sources said. No details were disclosed so far by both sides about their second meeting since the ... onslaught in early May. Arriving on Tuesday for a three-day visit, Holmes, who is Under Secretary-General for UN Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, toured some villages in Bogalay and Dedaye of cyclone-worst-hit Ayeyawaddy delta region and viewed relief and rehabilitation works in the areas. Besides meeting with Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu, who is also Chairman of the ASEAN-Myanmar-UN Tripartite Core Group representing Myanmar, Holmes also met with aid workers and donors in Yangon on Wednesday. Holmes's trip, which was aimed at looking into Myanmar's post-disaster relief and resettlement efforts, came a day after the simultaneous release at Singapore ASEAN Ministerial Meeting and Yangon of a Post-Nargis Joint Assessment (PONJA) Report on the impact of the Myanmar cyclone compiled by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Myanmar and the United Nations. The report estimated the total damage and losses at over 4 billion U.dollars, stressing that the preliminary recovery needs will be at over 1 billion dollars over the next three years. Based on the findings of the PONJA, the UN made revised appeal for 482 million dollars, which was launched on July 10 in New York.million dollars had been raised during the first UN flash appeal on May 9 and some 300 million dollars are still needed for relief and early recovery activities up to April 2009. The PONJA report was compiled through a 10-day survey on 291 villages in 30 cyclone-worst-affected townships in two divisions of Ayeyawaddy and Yangon involving over 250 experts. Meanwhile, the Yangon-based ASEAN-Myanmar-UN tripartite core group also claimed that its aid efforts have reached over 1.3 million victims. Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states -Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on last May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and The storm has killed 84,537 people, leaving 53,836 missing according to the

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