By JOHN HEILPRIN, :AP

KYON DA VILLAGE, Myanmar -As the U.N. helicopter skimmed above the Irrawaddy Delta, the world’s top diplomat was haunted by the memory of a baby girl he encountered here a year ago.

“She was only one day old,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon mused aloud on a trip on Saturday to the area devastated by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.

He had seen the mother living in a tent with the girl, hours after her birth. He’d seen another girl, too, just 19 days old, sick and clinging to life, but lacking medical support. He’d told the mothers not to lose hope, the United Nations was there to help.

On a brief visit carefully scripted by Myanmar’s government, the U.N. chief wasn’t able to determine the whereabouts of those fledgling lives. Instead, he and his entourage — top aides and two journalists — got a snapshot that showed some improvements while masking remaining problems.

The angry waters that swallowed 138,000 lives have receded. Seen from above, where there had been a monolith of shimmering water was now a patchwork of rice field and border, river and shoreline, muddy pond and gray cloud.

Gone were the endless stretches of flooded rice fields and islands of destroyed homes with a few people standing on the rooftops. It affected more than two million, leaving a quarter-million homeless.

Many Western nations haven’t fully opened their wallets to the U.N.’s three-year, $691 million recovery plan, lacking trust in Myanmar or not wanting to provide too much help to an authoritarian regime, a senior U.N. humanitarian official said on condition of anonymity to protect his relationship with Myanmar authorities.

The World Food Program, which has operated in Myanmar for 15 years, still cannot muster 44 percent of the $79 million it says is needed over three years. The World Health Organization still lacks 57 percent of $42 million in projected needs for 325 townships.

The biggest health threats remain HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, according to the International Organization for Migration, which began partnering with Myanmar’s government in 2005.

Local medical officials at first began to explain to a reporter last Saturday how the clinics were all busy, with the village and the broader Irrawaddy Delta region suffering from a high number of respiratory infections, replacing diarrhea as the leading cause of illnesses.

But after government minders began listening in, the medical officials suddenly seemed to lose their ability to speak English. End of conversation.

In the past year IOM-led medical teams treated 110,613 people in 858 cyclone-hit villages.

Nearly a quarter-million people in remote villages rely on boat deliveries of clean drinking water, rice fields remain bare or contaminated with salt from the floodwaters, and food handouts are increasingly scarce.

Schools are rebuilt but short of teachers, and a half-million people still live in the most basic of shelters.

Ban, who carried the same message as last year that the U.N. was there to help and keep hope alive, said he was satisfied “the government has taken necessary measures.”

A year ago, the single-family plastic tents through which Ban strode had covered neat stacks of supplies that seemed flown in for the occasion.

This year, the tents were replaced by small wooden homes on stilts and families with painted faces and kids sporting freshly starched and ironed white linen garb.

Some improvements were obvious, but this was the camp that the xenophobic junta that rules Myanmar, also known as Burma, wanted the world to see.

Ban’s first trip helped overcome the reluctance for which the junta was widely condemned in granting foreign aid agencies access in the first weeks after the disaster, which almost certainly added to the death toll.

“His job is to carry the message of the international community,” a senior U.N. official said of Ban as his entourage, for a second year in a row, picked their way along the muddy walkways and throngs of villagers.

“Clearly, they are living in their own world,” the official said of Myanmar’s ruling junta, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid angering authorities.

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Myanmar earns $292 million from jade sales

AP

YANGON, Myanmar -Military-ruled Myanmar earned more than 209 million euros ($292 million) from the sale of jade at a government-sponsored gems show despite a U.S. ban on their import, a merchant said Tuesday.

Nearly 5,500 lots of jade were sold through competitive bidding at the 13-day auction, with most of the buyers from China, said one of the participants, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal. The event was attended by more than 5,000 local and foreign gem merchants, the participant said.

The military regime, which normally trumpets the annual emporium, has made no announcement about the June 22-July 4 event.

Myanmar is one of the world’s biggest producers of jade and other gems, as well as the source of up to 90 percent of its rubies.

The United States last year signed legislation banning the import of gems from Myanmar as part of sanctions against the country. Because of U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar in July 2003, which froze all U.S. dollar remittances to the country, international business transactions — including gem sales — are carried out in euros.

“Despite the gems ban and (world) economic crisis, 72 percent of jade lots displayed at the emporium were sold,” said the merchant.

The largest contingent of buyers, nearly 3,000, came from China, the main market for Myanmar jade.

Most of the jade belongs to private businesses and the government takes a 10 percent tax from sales.

Organized by the Mines Ministry, gem auctions are a major revenue earner for the ruling junta, which faces International condemnation because of its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.