Burma to allow in foreign medics
- added May 19, 2008
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- Burma Cyclone (87)
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Foreign medical workers are to be allowed into cyclone-stricken Burma to help bring aid to millions of victims.
At a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo confirmed agreement had been reached, saying: "Myanmar will accept international assistance".
The development comes ahead of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon's visit to the country later this week to discuss aid for the millions displaced by Cyclone Nargis.
Mr Ban's trip is expected to culminate in a rare meeting with junta supremo Than Shwe, who has refused to answer phone calls from the UN since Nargis struck two weeks ago, leaving 134,000 dead and missing and up to 2.5 million destitute.
The UN also wants a conference in Bangkok on May 24 to talk about funds for the relief effort in Burma, also known as Myanmar, where the military government has so far refused to admit large-scale foreign aid for fear it will loosen its 46-year grip on power.
Humanitarian agencies say the death toll from Nargis, already one of the most devastating cyclones to hit Asia, could soar without a massive increase of emergency food, shelter and medicine to the worst-hit region, the Irrawaddy Delta.
Save the Children said research found "30,000 children under the age of five in the cyclone-affected Irrawaddy Delta were already acutely malnourished before the cyclone hit".
It said: "Of those, Save the Children believes that several thousand are at risk of death in the next two to three weeks because of a lack of food."
At a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo confirmed agreement had been reached, saying: "Myanmar will accept international assistance".
The development comes ahead of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon's visit to the country later this week to discuss aid for the millions displaced by Cyclone Nargis.
Mr Ban's trip is expected to culminate in a rare meeting with junta supremo Than Shwe, who has refused to answer phone calls from the UN since Nargis struck two weeks ago, leaving 134,000 dead and missing and up to 2.5 million destitute.
The UN also wants a conference in Bangkok on May 24 to talk about funds for the relief effort in Burma, also known as Myanmar, where the military government has so far refused to admit large-scale foreign aid for fear it will loosen its 46-year grip on power.
Humanitarian agencies say the death toll from Nargis, already one of the most devastating cyclones to hit Asia, could soar without a massive increase of emergency food, shelter and medicine to the worst-hit region, the Irrawaddy Delta.
Save the Children said research found "30,000 children under the age of five in the cyclone-affected Irrawaddy Delta were already acutely malnourished before the cyclone hit".
It said: "Of those, Save the Children believes that several thousand are at risk of death in the next two to three weeks because of a lack of food."
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said on Tuesday that Myanmar's junta had granted permission for the World Food Programme to use helicopters to distribute aid to cyclone-hit areas of the country. The military government in the former Burma has allowed relief flights to deliver supplies to Yangon, the largest city, but had balked at aerial access to the southwestern Irrawaddy delta, where an estimated 2.4 million people were left destitute. "We have received government permission to operate nine WFP helicopters which will allow us to reach areas that have so far been largely inaccessible," Ban told reporters before departing for a visit to Myanmar.
The top UN humanitarian envoy, John Holmes, said in Myanmar on Tuesday he had discussed the use of helicopters with government officials, who "took note" of his suggestion. The junta's delays in allowing access to international aid workers has drawn criticism and warnings that many more people could die in the aftermath of the cyclone that roared across parts of the Southeast Asian country at the start of May. Ban said he welcomed the government's "recent flexibility" but added that aid workers had so far been able to reach only around 25 percent of those in need. He said he hoped Myanmar's reclusive leader Than Shwe would be among senior government officials he meets during his visit. Ban was due to arrive in the Thai capital Bangkok on Wednesday and go to Myanmar on Thursday.
Ban said a May 25 donors' pledging conference in Yangon would be crucial for the longer term rebuilding of the country, where he said the government had estimated the cost of the disaster at some $10 billion in economic losses.
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