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U.N. Chief to Visit Cyclone-Devastated Burma
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will fly to Burma this week and visit the areas hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis, a U.N. spokeswoman said Sunday.
Burma's military government has given permission for the U.N. chief to travel to the Irrawaddy delta, where U.N. officials fear tens of thousands of cyclone survivors are not getting adequate aid, U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said.
Ban sent U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes to Burma, as called Burma over the weekend to assess the needs of the survivors and urge the isolationist junta to open its doors to more international aid.
The military junta has not allowed most international relief workers into the devastated region.
Burma's military leader, Senior General Than Shwe, has refused to take the secretary-general's phone calls or answer two letters sent urging that international relief teams be allowed in quickly to provide relief.
At least 78,000 people were killed in the May 2-3 storm and another 56,000 are missing.
Ban will leave New York on Tuesday and is scheduled to arrive in Burma's commercial capital, Rangoon, on Wednesday, Montas said.
"He will go to the areas most affected by the cyclone," she said.
The secretary-general will leave Burma on May 23 and stop in Bangkok, Thailand, on his way back to New York, she said. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will fly to Burma this week and visit the areas hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis, a U.N. spokeswoman said S... more -
Burma to allow in foreign medics
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." Foreign medical workers are to be allowed into cyclone-stricken Burma to help bring aid to millions of victims. ... more -
Myanmar Agrees to Allow Aid Efforts by Neighbors
Myanmar agreed Monday to let its Southeast Asian neighbors help coordinate foreign relief assistance for cyclone victims, bending somewhat to international pressure to allow in more outside aid, Singapore’s foreign minister, George Yeo, said.
But the supply of aid and the entry of relief workers from countries outside the Southeast Asian bloc would continue to be limited, he said.
“We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can flow into Myanmar,” Mr. Yeo said, speaking at an emergency meeting in Singapore of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, which includes Myanmar.
“Myanmar is also prepared to accept the expertise of international and regional agencies to help in its rehabilitation efforts,” he told a news conference. Referring to the continuing limitations on help from countries outside Southeast Asia, he said: “We have to look at specific needs — there will not be uncontrolled access.”
Since the cyclone, Western nations and major relief groups have raised alarm about Myanmar’s refusal to allow in large-scale relief shipments to the estimated 2.5 million survivors in need of aid after of the May 3 cyclone.
Myanmar has permitted a small flow of aid from several nations, including the United States. But relief officials say that this amounts to only 20 percent of the needed supplies. Without more aid, they say, many more people may yet die of disease and starvation.
Myanmar’s limited concession Monday came as international pressure continued to build from several directions, with the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, warning that the junta could be guilty of “crimes against humanity” if it continued to restrict the supply of aid into the country.
However, despite the international criticism, Myanmar’s foreign minister, Nyan Win, was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters that there had been no delay in accepting aid. “We always welcomed international aid,” he said.
After failing to receive a reply to letters and telephone calls made to the military junta, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was due to travel to Yangon, the main city, this week in hopes of meeting the country’s leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
More than two weeks after the cyclone, General Shwe emerged from the isolated capital, Naypyidaw, and was shown on Myanmar state media for the first time in public Sunday, meeting ministers involved in the rescue effort and touring some affected areas. Also on Monday, the junta said that beginning Tuesday, flags would be lowered as part of a three-day mourning period for the victims of the cyclone. Myanmar agreed Monday to let its Southeast Asian neighbors help coordinate foreign relief assistance for cyclone victims, bending some... more -
ASEAN to coordinate Myanmar aid effort
Southeast Asian nations will take the lead in an international aid effort for cyclone-hit Myanmar, but the military junta will not give Western relief workers unfettered access to disaster areas, Singapore said on Monday.
"We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can flow into Myanmar," Foreign Minister George Yeo said.
He was speaking after hosting a regional meeting to prod the generals to accept large-scale foreign aid and expertise for up to 2.4 million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis.
The details were to be worked out with the United Nations, which announced later on Monday that a donor conference would be held in the cyclone-hit former capital, Yangon, on May 25.
Myanmar agreed to accept nearly 300 medical personnel from its neighbors in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the foreign ministers said in a statement.
A few have already sent teams two weeks after the disaster which left 134,000 dead or missing. But aid workers from outside ASEAN will only be granted visas on a case-by-case basis.
"We have to look at specific needs -- there will not be uncontrolled access," Yeo said after the meeting which named ASEAN chief Surin Pitsuwan to work with the United Nations on aid delivery.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit Myanmar on Wednesday, when he plans to visit the country's Irrawaddy delta area which was hit hardest by Nargis, his spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters. Southeast Asian nations will take the lead in an international aid effort for cyclone-hit Myanmar, but the military junta will not giv... more -
Burma cyclone: 130,000 may have died as second storm gathers
The Red Cross said that almost 130,000 people may have perished in the Burmese cyclone disaster, as a second deadly storm gathered off the Burmese coast.
The organisation said that the toll may be 127,990, almost 30,000 higher than the figure estimated by the US embassy in Rangoon.
A further 2.51 million people have been left battling to survive the cylone’s aftermath with inadequate food, shelter or drinking water, the organisation said.
The threat of a second cyclone was once again ignored by the Burmese authorities, who have yet to alert the country.
An American government agency said: “The potential for the development of a significant tropical cyclone within the next 24 hours is upgraded to good with the only limitation being temporary land interaction.”
Amanda Pitt, a United Nations spokesman, said that the “already weak” survivors would struggle to withstand a second battering, even though it is not expected to be as severe. The new storm would hamper “people’s ability to survive and cope with what happened to them ... This is terrible,” she said.
Residents of Rangoon - which some forecasts said would receive another direct hit - were aware of “bad weather” to come from foreign broadcasts, the internet and word of mouth.
In the Irrawaddy delta, where hundreds of thousands of ailing survivors of Cyclone Nargis are living in squalor, few have access to radio. The storm, if it arrives, will come without warning.
The new storm is not expected to be as strong as the last one — whose 120mph winds whipped up a 12 foot wall of water - but it is believed to carry an average month’s worth of rain fall. Heavy rains will further damage already broken roads and bring misery to unprotected survivors.
International agencies believe that at least 100,000 people were killed by Nargis, although the Burmese regime stands by a lower figure. Relief supplies from the United Nations and charities have so far reached only 270 000 survivors — a fraction of the total number. The Red Cross said that almost 130,000 people may have perished in the Burmese cyclone disaster, as a second deadly storm gathered off... more
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