Geneva / Yangon (ICRC) – A truck carrying four tonnes of ICRC relief supplies has reached the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy Delta in Myanmar.

Geneva / Yangon (ICRC) – A cargo aircraft chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) arrived early Sunday in Yangon. It was carrying 35 tonnes of equipment and materials urgently needed for medical care, drinking water and sanitation, and the safe disposal of bodies. The arrival of the supplies and their subsequent transfer to the ICRC and the Myanmar Red Cross Society was facilitated by the Myanmar authorities.

Geneva (ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) plans to deliver aid to various places of detention affected by the devastation of cyclone Nargis.

Yangon / Geneva (ICRC) – The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, has strongly denounced violations of international humanitarian law committed against civilians and detainees by the government of Myanmar and demanded that the government take urgent action to end these violations and prevent them from recurring.

Geneva/Yangon (ICRC) – "The ICRC's humanitarian work in Myanmar has now reached near-paralysis," the organization's director of operations has said. Speaking in Geneva, Pierre Krähenbühl explained that staff were still unable to resume visits to detainees anywhere in the country or to conduct independent field operations in sensitive border areas. "A recent meeting with the Ministry of Home Affairs made no headway," he added.

Geneva/Yangon (ICRC) – The government of Myanmar recently ordered the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to close its five field offices in the country (Mandalay, Mawlamyine, Hpa-an, Taunggyi and Kyaing Tong), effectively making it impossible for the organization to carry out most of its assistance and protection work benefiting civilians who live in difficult conditions in border areas.

Two Myanmar trainees qualified as orthopaedic technologists at the Cambodian School of Prosthetics & Orthotics in Phnom Penh last week. One trainee works for the Ministry of Health, the other for the Defence Medical Services.

For four years now, the ICRC has been authorized to visit all people detained under the responsibility of Myanmar’s Ministry for Home Affairs. Accordingly, in early June it was given access to those arrested in connection with the violent events of 30 May 2003.

From 21 January to 22 February the ICRC conducted a campaign to promote hygiene in rural areas in Kayin and Mon states.

With the government's consent, the head of the ICRC delegation in Myanmar is currently touring the border areas of Shan state in order to meet with the local authorities and the civilian population and to discuss with them the possibility of expanding ICRC protection and assistance activities in those areas.

A new ICRC office was officially opened in Mandalay on 16 September 2002 in the presence of regional authorities, members of the Myanmar Red Cross Society and diplomats based in the city.