UN chief gets junta to open its doors to relief
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday the eyes of the world were now on Burma after pushing the secretive military regime to accept foreign aid workers to cope with the cyclone disaster.
After more than two hours of talks with junta leader Snr Gen Than Shwe, Mr Ban said he had convinced the regime to agree to a full-scale international relief effort _ three weeks after the storm left at least 133,000 people dead or missing.
Following his success in pressuring the junta, Mr Ban will today join Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej in opening the cargo hangars at Don Mueang airport which will be used as a staging post for relief aid to Burma.
The opening will be joined by Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan.
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| Ban: 'The world is watching' |
The cargo hangars are being used to assist the UN World Food Programme, which wants to use Don Mueang airport as a relief hub and sorting centre for relief supplies for the cyclone victims.
Mr Ban said he was encouraged by his talks with the military regime's top general _ who refused to take his calls after the tragedy struck _ but said Burma now had to back up its talk with concrete progress on the ground.
''The world is watching,'' he told a news conference in the main city Rangoon. ''Implementation will be the key.''
He said 2.4 million survivors were in need of emergency aid, which has been held up by Burma's refusal to let foreign disaster experts into the country as well as logistical bottlenecks.
Cyclone Nargis ripped through the country's southern Irrawaddy Delta on May 2-3, wiping out entire villages and laying waste to critical rice-growing areas weeks before the onset of the planting season.
The UN chief said he had told Gen Than Shwe that ''more needs to be done'' to get a full-scale relief operation up to speed following the worst natural disaster in Burma's history.
''I specifically asked the government to liberalise visa policies and to grant unhindered access to foreign aid experts and also journalists so they can operate freely and effectively to help Burma,'' Mr Ban said.
''I came here to give the people of Burma a message of hope _ the world is watching, and that the world is with you,'' he said. ''I am humbled by the scale of this disaster.''
He met reporters after a trip to Gen Than Shwe's remote bunker capital of Naypyidaw, where the general stayed out of public view for more than two weeks after the cyclone.
Meanwhile, US military units on the Cobra Gold 2008 military exercise in Thailand will remain and help get relief supplies to Burmese hit by the cyclone.
Lt-Gen Surat Worarak, director of the Directorate of Joint Civil Affairs of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, said US troops were asked to stay on after they completed their mission on Wednesday.
The US soldiers will stay on at U-Tapao airport in Rayong until the end of the month.
'' There should be no problem. The US aircraft are only used to transport [Thai] aid,'' Lt-Gen Surat said.
The Thai air force has so far spent about 15 million baht shipping supplies to Burma aboard its aircraft, he added.
Wantanee Kongsomboon, deputy director of the Relief and Community Health Bureau attached to the Thai Red Cross Society, said the agency plans to transport 1,000 doses of snake bite anti-venom, which is now urgently needed in the flood-hit Irrawaddy Delta.
It was not immediately clear if Burma would now allow aid from US naval ships nearby. AFP and BANGKOK POST
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