UN sends top official to Myanmar as ASEAN steps up
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May 15, 2008, 2:07:07 PM5/15/08
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UN sends top official to Myanmar as ASEAN steps up
May 15, 2008: (AFP) UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said he
was sending the top UN humanitarian official to cyclone-ravaged
Myanmar, as southeast Asian nations offered to lead international
assistance efforts there.
Ban said John Holmes would travel to Myanmar on a World Food Program
plane within days, to try to persuade its military rulers to open up
to a full-scale relief effort targeting the two million survivors of
the May 3 storm.
The UN chief was speaking after an emergency meeting of international
diplomats here, who he said were "encouraged" by the increasing flow
of aid to Myanmar but urged its rulers to be "fully cooperative" in
providing access.
After a brief visit to Myanmar for talks with Prime Minister Thein
Sein, Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said the regime had
again ruled out allowing in foreign experts to help the aid effort.
"They insisted they can take care of their people and their country.
They can manage by themselves," he said.
But the head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of
which Myanmar and Thailand are members, said the junta had agreed to
issue visas to one of its rapid assessment teams and ASEAN would now
lead the aid efforts.
"There is a consensus emerging now that ASEAN has to take the lead and
ASEAN has risen to the occasion," Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan
told a meeting in Washington late Wednesday, saying it would lead a
"coalition of mercy."
The regional body has come under fire for failing to respond swiftly
to the crisis, but Surin said: "It is the beginning. It is defining
moment for ASEAN but ASEAN needs encouragement, needs less of
criticism, less of ridicule."
State media raised the cyclone death toll to 38,491 with 27,838
missing Wednesday, but British cabinet minister Douglas Alexander said
reports from agencies on the ground suggested the number of dead and
missing could rise above 200,000.
Tonnes of international aid is flowing in to Myanmar -- five more US
relief flights arrived Wednesday and a senior US military official
said they had received verbal approval for another five.
But aid groups warn a lack of infrastructure and heavy equipment means
not nearly enough is reaching the southern Irrawaddy Delta.
Despite the urgent need for food, clean water and shelter, the
military, which has ruled the country with an iron hand for almost
half a century, appears to fear that any outside influence could
weaken its tight control.
Ban repeated Wednesday that the aid was aimed at a "purely, genuinely
humanitarian crisis," while at the same time saying that Myanmar's
failure to help its people "may create, inevitably, some political
issues."
Earlier, he urged the junta to open up, saying too much time had been
spent trying to deliver supplies and obtain visas for aid workers
whose expertise was urgently needed in the remote and flooded disaster
zone in the south.
"Even though the Myanmar government has shown some sense of
flexibility, at this time it's far, far too short," he said.
The aid operation was entering its "second stage," he said, reflecting
views that almost two weeks after the storm hit, it may be too late
for many sick and hungry victims who have received little government
help.
Holmes urged Myanmar's rulers to make a "radical change" and allow in
foreign aid workers to avoid a second wave of cyclone deaths, saying
access was "the biggest problem we have at the moment."
A top European Union humanitarian official said there was now a risk
of famine, after the May 3 storm destroyed rice stocks in a main
farming region in one of the world's poorest and most isolated
countries.
"If there is a lack of access, more people will die," said Louis
Michel, the EU's humanitarian aid commissioner, before heading to
Myanmar for talks with the ruling generals.
Foreign reporters said they were stopped from visiting the delta
Wednesday, and even citizens had to prove they were going to see
friends or relatives.
Journalists who have made it there relate scenes of almost
unimaginable misery and despair.
Untold numbers of corpses have been left rotting in ground that is
little more than a saltwater swamp, thousands of hungry people are
begging in the streets, and most rice stocks are soaked and ruined.
"The rice we got is already wet from the rain. It's not very good to
eat," 22-year-old Thin Thin told a reporter who made it to one of the
remote delta regions.
Compounding the misery, heavy rain is forecast to hit the Irrawaddy
Delta over the coming days.
May 15, 2008: (AFP) UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said he
was sending the top UN humanitarian official to cyclone-ravaged
Myanmar, as southeast Asian nations offered to lead international
assistance efforts there.
Ban said John Holmes would travel to Myanmar on a World Food Program
plane within days, to try to persuade its military rulers to open up
to a full-scale relief effort targeting the two million survivors of
the May 3 storm.
The UN chief was speaking after an emergency meeting of international
diplomats here, who he said were "encouraged" by the increasing flow
of aid to Myanmar but urged its rulers to be "fully cooperative" in
providing access.
After a brief visit to Myanmar for talks with Prime Minister Thein
Sein, Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said the regime had
again ruled out allowing in foreign experts to help the aid effort.
"They insisted they can take care of their people and their country.
They can manage by themselves," he said.
But the head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of
which Myanmar and Thailand are members, said the junta had agreed to
issue visas to one of its rapid assessment teams and ASEAN would now
lead the aid efforts.
"There is a consensus emerging now that ASEAN has to take the lead and
ASEAN has risen to the occasion," Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan
told a meeting in Washington late Wednesday, saying it would lead a
"coalition of mercy."
The regional body has come under fire for failing to respond swiftly
to the crisis, but Surin said: "It is the beginning. It is defining
moment for ASEAN but ASEAN needs encouragement, needs less of
criticism, less of ridicule."
State media raised the cyclone death toll to 38,491 with 27,838
missing Wednesday, but British cabinet minister Douglas Alexander said
reports from agencies on the ground suggested the number of dead and
missing could rise above 200,000.
Tonnes of international aid is flowing in to Myanmar -- five more US
relief flights arrived Wednesday and a senior US military official
said they had received verbal approval for another five.
But aid groups warn a lack of infrastructure and heavy equipment means
not nearly enough is reaching the southern Irrawaddy Delta.
Despite the urgent need for food, clean water and shelter, the
military, which has ruled the country with an iron hand for almost
half a century, appears to fear that any outside influence could
weaken its tight control.
Ban repeated Wednesday that the aid was aimed at a "purely, genuinely
humanitarian crisis," while at the same time saying that Myanmar's
failure to help its people "may create, inevitably, some political
issues."
Earlier, he urged the junta to open up, saying too much time had been
spent trying to deliver supplies and obtain visas for aid workers
whose expertise was urgently needed in the remote and flooded disaster
zone in the south.
"Even though the Myanmar government has shown some sense of
flexibility, at this time it's far, far too short," he said.
The aid operation was entering its "second stage," he said, reflecting
views that almost two weeks after the storm hit, it may be too late
for many sick and hungry victims who have received little government
help.
Holmes urged Myanmar's rulers to make a "radical change" and allow in
foreign aid workers to avoid a second wave of cyclone deaths, saying
access was "the biggest problem we have at the moment."
A top European Union humanitarian official said there was now a risk
of famine, after the May 3 storm destroyed rice stocks in a main
farming region in one of the world's poorest and most isolated
countries.
"If there is a lack of access, more people will die," said Louis
Michel, the EU's humanitarian aid commissioner, before heading to
Myanmar for talks with the ruling generals.
Foreign reporters said they were stopped from visiting the delta
Wednesday, and even citizens had to prove they were going to see
friends or relatives.
Journalists who have made it there relate scenes of almost
unimaginable misery and despair.
Untold numbers of corpses have been left rotting in ground that is
little more than a saltwater swamp, thousands of hungry people are
begging in the streets, and most rice stocks are soaked and ruined.
"The rice we got is already wet from the rain. It's not very good to
eat," 22-year-old Thin Thin told a reporter who made it to one of the
remote delta regions.
Compounding the misery, heavy rain is forecast to hit the Irrawaddy
Delta over the coming days.
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