Myanmar junta relents, opens door to help from neighbors

The regime said Monday it would allow its Asian neighbors to oversee the distribution of foreign relief to cyclone survivors.

It also approved a visit by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and prepared to host a meeting of aid donors, while claiming that losses from the May 2-3 disaster exceeded US$10 billion (euro6.4 billion).

The state-owned media reported Tuesday that junta leader Senior Gen Than Shwe met storm victims in the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta Monday, saying the regime had “promptly carried out rescue and rehabilitation tasks.”

The general said the government, which had already spent more than 50 billion kyat (US$45.5 million; euro29.3 million) on its relief operations, had met immediate needs such as food, shelter and health care and was now moving into the reconstruction phase.

His assessment contrasted with ones by foreign aid agencies and the United Nations which said that only some 500,000 of the 2.4 million storm victims have received some form of international assistance.

“It is clear that the emergency phase is set to continue for some time,” the United Nations said.

Conditions in the hard-hit low-lying delta, remain precarious for the survivors, who face disease, malnutrition and exposure to the elements. The official death toll for the storm stands at about 78,000, with another 56,000 people missing.

Heavy rain fell on the delta again Monday, said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, noting that such weather can have the benefit of providing clean water for those able to catch the downpour with plastic sheeting.

“However, the rain for many others simply adds to the misery as they look forward to their 18th night in often wretched conditions,” said the IFRC in a situation report. “In addition, access to already relatively inaccessible locations is set to remain very difficult.”

The IFRC remained concerned about the distribution of relief supplies, saying “Reports indicate that in most of the bigger affected townships, basic relief and food is available but much less so in the more remote areas.”

It said there seemed to be problems even at some of the temporary relief camps set up by the government: “While significant relief is getting through, there are indications of mounting frustration among many displaced communities.”

Myanmar, responding to entreaties from its Southeast Asia neighbors, promised Monday that it would let them into the cyclone-devastated areas to oversee and help in the provision of foreign assistance.

In Singapore, an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed to set up an ASEAN-led task force for redistributing foreign aid.

Myanmar agreed to open its doors to medical teams from all ASEAN countries, Yeo said. ASEAN member Thailand had already sent teams in, as did non-ASEAN neighbors India and China.

ASEAN and the U.N. jointly announced an ASEAN-UN International Pledging Conference to seek some of the needed funding, to be held this Sunday in Yangon.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will arrive in Yangon on Thursday and stay until Friday night when he will fly to Bangkok. He will return to Yangon on Sunday to co-chair the pledging conference, U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said in New York. He will tour the battered delta during his visit but it is not yet known which officials he will meet.

Earlier, Than Shwe had refused to take telephone calls from Ban and had not responded to letters from him, Montas said.

John Holmes, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, flew Monday by helicopter to the delta before returning to Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, to meet with international aid agencies.

But the United Nations said the rest of its foreign staff were still barred from the delta and it described conditions there as “terrible,” with hundreds of thousands of cyclone victims suffering from hunger, disease and lack of shelter.