Friday 23 May 2008
by: Reuters
Naypyidaw, Myanmar - Myanmar's junta agreed on Friday to admit cyclone aid workers "regardless of nationalities" to the hardest-hit Irrawaddy Delta, a breakthrough for delivering help to survivors, U.N. officials said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on a mission to help 2.4 million left destitute by the storm that struck three weeks ago, reached the agreement with junta supremo Than Shwe in a meeting lasting more than two hours in the remote capital of Naypyidaw.
A United Nations official with Ban said foreign aid workers whose movements have been restricted since the May 2 disaster, would be given access to the delta, not just Yangon, the former capital and biggest city.
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"The general said he saw no reason why that should not happen...as long as they were genuine humanitarian workers and it was clear what they were going to be doing," the official said.
Ban said Than Shwe had also agreed to allow the airport in Yangon to be used as a logistical hub for distribution of aid, which is still only trickling in due to the restrictions on foreign relief operations.
Asked by a reporter whether the agreement on relief experts was a breakthrough, Ban replied: "Yes, I think so, he has agreed to allow all aid workers regardless of nationalities."
Disaster experts say that unless the generals open their doors, thousands more people in the Irrawaddy Delta could die of hunger and disease, adding to the nearly 134,000 reported killed or missing in Cyclone Nargis.
World Vision, one of the few charities operating in Yangon, said any concessions from the junta were welcome, however small.
"Any positive noises are better than nothing," spokesman James East said in the Thai capital, Bangkok. "We are cautiously optimistic. The critical thing is access to the delta."
Than Shwe was taking "quite a flexible position on this matter," Ban told reporters who traveled with him, a rare concession from the reclusive junta, which is under tougher Western sanctions for cracking down on pro-democracy protests last year.
Stony Silence
At the start of the meeting, the 75-year-old Senior General's stony-faced silence gave no clues as to whether he would overcome deep suspicions of the outside world and grant the U.N. chief his request.
He was in dark green trousers and a shirt covered with military decorations - as he was when he emerged this week from Naypyidaw, 250 miles north of Yangon, to inspect the destruction, the army relief effort and to meet survivors.
Ban saw the extent of the disaster for himself on Thursday, flying in a helicopter over flooded rice fields and destroyed homes in the delta, the former "rice bowl of Asia" that bore the brunt of the storm and its 12 foot (3.5 meter) sea surge.
Government officials told him the situation was under control, repeating a line in army-controlled media that the immediate emergency relief phase of the disaster was over and it was time to look to reconstruction.
Ban will attend a joint U.N. and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) donor-pledging conference in Yangon on Sunday.
However, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said countries would be reluctant to commit money until they are allowed in to assess the damage for themselves.
He said the amount "depends on the level of confidence, which will require those factors - accessibility, participation, and verifiability."
Myanmar, one of ASEAN's 10 members, has accepted relief flights into Yangon from many countries, including the United States, its fiercest critic, but has largely kept Western disaster experts out of the delta.
Ban's visit was the talk of Yangon for people desperate for political change after 46 years of unbroken military rule - especially given the U.N.'s abortive attempts to mediate after September's bloody crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks.
But people accepted his visit would not stray from its humanitarian mission.
Sunday's conference coincides with the expiry of the latest year-long detention order imposed on opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, under continuous house arrest for five years. Nobody expects her to be released.
Additional reporting by Ed Cropley and Rob Taylor in BANGKOK; Writing by Grant McCool; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Alex Richardson