Burma Seeks Help from Neighbors

[India_Relief_Cyclone_Nargis_Survivors_in_Burma]

Burma Seeks Help from Neighbors

May 14, 2008: (Irrawaddy) Burma's junta has approved aid personnel
from Bangladesh, China, India and Thailand to help its relief efforts
for victims of Cyclone Nargis, while still delaying granting visas to
many non-Asian experts, a United Nations official said on Wednesday.

Amanda Pitt, a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a press conference
in Bangkok: "I think they want 160 personnel from these four places,
just general personnel who are able to come in to bolster the Myanmar
[Burmese] government's relief efforts."

Burma's military government has given permission to a Thai medical
team to enter the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta.

Dr. Thawat Sutharacha of the Public Health Ministry told The Associate
Press that he has received a message from the Burmese Health Ministry
that says the Thai team can conduct medical work.

If the team departs as scheduled on Friday, it will be the first
foreign aid group to work in the Irrawaddy delta.

The junta has declared the area off-limits to foreign relief workers.

Bangladesh, China, India and Thailand all share their border with
Burma, and have been less critical of Burma's military regime than
many Western democracies, some of which have imposed economic
sanctions on the country to punish the junta's frequent crack downs on
pro-democracy demonstrations and its refusal to allow democratic
reforms.