BANGKOK, May 25 (TNA, Agencies) – Even as the world responds with an unprecedented response to Myanmar's cyclone disaster, its government blockage of foreign aid worker access continues.
Myanmar's military government has yet not allowed free access of international aid to reach cyclone victims, insisting on case-by-case consideration, Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said on Sunday as an international conference pledged to donate money for some 2.4 million survivors.
Speaking via telephone from the former Myanmar capital of Yangon where he was attending the international aid conference, Mr. Noppadon said Myanmar told the conference its cyclone-devastated country needs US$10.7 billion in assistance for long-term reconstruction.
Officials of the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and 51 countries worldwide met with Myanmar government officials in the country's commercial hub of Yangon, hard-hit along with the country's Irrawaddy Delta rice bowl, in this month's devastating Cyclone Nargis.
However, the amount pledged by donor nations was believed to be far short of the amount sought by the junta, said the Thai foreign minister.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan and China's Ambassador to the UN and an array of concerned officials from around the world grappled with Myanmar's greatest ever natural disaster.
According to the United Nations Information Service, the Yangon conference at the Sedona Hotel approved creation of a Yangon-based Tripartite Core Group comprising representatives from the Government of Myanmar, ASEAN and UN as a working mechanism to coordinate, facilitate, and monitor the flow of international assistance into the country.
Myanmar's Prime Minister Lt-Gen. Thein Sein told the one-day conference that international aid "with no strings attached" was welcome, but only civilian vessels would be allowed in the relief operation.
"Relief supplies can be transported by land, air or sea. But if relief supplies must be transported by water, civilian vessels can come in through Yangon port,'' the Myanmar prime minister said.
Aid agencies say more than half of the 2.4 million people severely affected by Cyclone Nargis remain in need of emergency help. Myanmar's government has said its focus was now on reconstruction.
However, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said he disagreed with Myanmar's assessment that relief work was already over. "I ask all of us to keep our eye firmly on the immediate objective -- saving lives," he said.
"I expect the relief effort will run for several months, probably six months at least, as we feed and care for those who have lost everything."
Meanwhile, Mr. Noppadon said Thailand would also contribute to an ASEAN reconstruction fund to rebuild schools and temples.
Thailand would also allow further use of Don Muang Airport as a coordinating centre and a staging ground for international aid and relief assistance to be sent into Myanmar from three months as agreed earlier if a request is being made, according to the Thai foreign minister.
In addition, Mr. Noppadon said Thailand may provide premium rice seedlings to Myanmar as its rice-growing Irrawaddy Delta were extensively destroyed by Cyclone Nargis. The assistance is meant to help improve Myanmar's food security situation.
Once Asia's leading producer and exporter of rice, a rice bowl for the world, Myanmar will now be hard-pressed to feed its own people.
Latest official figures say 133,000 people were dead or missing as a result of Cyclone Nargis, which struck the country May 2-3. (TNA, Agencies)-E001
General News : Last Update : 21:16:22 25 May 2008 (GMT+7:00)
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