Friday Evening
 |  |
| Some 2.5 million people have been affected by the cyclone |
Listen to AudioBan: Burma to allow aid in
The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, says Burma's military leadership has agreed to let in all foreign aid workers to help cyclone victims.
Mr Ban's announcement followed a meeting with Burma's secretive leader, General Than Shwe.
UN officials said the general agreed that aid workers would be allowed into the worst-affected Irrawaddy Delta region.
The UN described this as a significant move in principle.
Aid agencies have cautiously welcomed the apparent breakthrough -- coming three weeks after the cyclone struck -- but observers say Burma has reneged on past promises to the UN.
Burma's military leaders greet UN head Ban Ki-moonOur Reports also include:
- View of Sitagu Sayadaw Ashin Nyanissara on current development of government response to international aid offers.
- Responses of international aid agencies on Burma's decision on accepting international aid workers.
African aid helicopters scrambled to Burma
|  |
| USS Essex navy ship stationed near Burma, ready to help cyclone victims |
It's unclear whether the Burmese offer applies to military aid workers -- and whether American naval helicopters stationed off the Burmese coast can join the relief effort.
Burma earlier this week gave permission for just ten UN helicopters to begin relief flights.
But most of these are in Africa, and the UN has asked the US, Britain, Canada and Australia to help transport these large helicopters to Burma.
A BBC correspondent says the helicopters need to be dismantled first and reassembled upon arrival. He says this could take a week.
Also in the news..
- Account of a Burmese medical doctor who has been helping cyclone's victims in the delta region.
- U Nyan Win, a spokeperson of NLD said the extension of the house arrest of beyond May 30 would not be in accordance with current law.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained since 30 May Depayin attack five years ago.
Also in the programme..
Burma Perspective By U Maung Maung Than
"Political landscape of Burma after the Constitutional Referendum"
Cautious Optimism over Than Shwe-Ban Agreement
| By WAI MOE | Friday, May 23, 2008 |
The leader of Burma’s ruling junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, has finally agreed to allow in “all aid workers” after meeting with the head of the United Nations in the country’s capital, Naypyidaw. But given the regime’s history of mistrust towards non-governmental organizations and UN agencies, most greeted the news with cautious optimism.
“I had a very good meeting with the Senior General and particularly on these aid workers,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “He has agreed to allow all aid workers regardless of nationalities.”
 |
| UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) met with Burma's junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe on Friday in Naypyidaw. (Photo: AP) |
Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), called the news a positive step, provided the junta keeps its promises.
“We will be very glad if that news comes true,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for the NLD, told The Irrawaddy on Friday. “But the good news should have come for survivors immediately after the cyclone hit the country. Now it has been three weeks.”
Several Bangkok-based aid workers who were waiting to get a visa to enter Burma also responded cautiously to the announcement, noting that the regime has a history of not keeping its promises.
Foreign aid workers already inside Burma need permission to travel outside of Rangoon—another hurdle that will need to be cleared before an effective response to the disaster is possible.
But some Burma watchers regarded Than Shwe’s decision to allow foreign aid workers into the country—after weeks of refusing to even respond to telephone calls from the UN secretary general—as a genuine concession.
Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst, said that Than Shwe needed to make a compromise after facing weeks of unrelenting pressure.
He said that this pressure was both internal and external, leaving the junta’s top general with no other choice than to end his resistance to calls for a larger international aid effort.
“I heard even Burmese military officials are displeased with the junta’s poor relief distribution system in the delta region and slow response to international aid,” he said.
Many local Burmese aid workers who have been to delta region said that doors that have been opened slightly can just as easily be closed again. “This is the nature of the Than Shwe regime,” they said.
Larry Jagan, a British journalist who writes on Burma affairs, said he was rather doubtful that Ban Ki-moon’s remark represented a major breakthrough.
“I cannot believe that Snr-Gen Than Shwe is going to allow thousands of foreigners to delta region,” he said.
Some analysts said that Than Shwe may be worried about the possibility of the Burma issue being raised again at the UN Security Council.
France said on Thursday that it would push for a Security Council resolution authorizing the aid delivery to Burma’s cyclone victims “by all means necessary” if pressure from Ban Ki-moon and neighboring countries doesn’t work.
The French ambassador to the UN, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said that France will wait to hear from Ban Ki-moon and John Holmes, the UN humanitarian chief, as well as from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to see if there is any concrete progress on the issue of access to the victims.
“If not, we will have to go back to the Security Council,” said the ambassador.
Authorities Tighten Restrictions on Private Aid Efforts
| By MIN LWIN | Friday, May 23, 2008 |
Private aid convoys from Rangoon, which have provided a lifeline to victims of Cyclone Nargis in some hard-hit areas of the Irrawaddy delta, are facing tighter restrictions by local authorities, who say that the government now has the situation under control.
At a checkpoint near the Panhlaing Bridge in Rangoon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township, trucks and other vehicles carrying supplies to the delta are being stopped and inspected, according to local nongovernmental organizations and other private donors.
“The security officers told me not to distribute things along the road and gave me a pamphlet,” said a relief worker who passed through the checkpoint, where guards recorded license plate numbers of vehicles traveling to Kungyangone and Twante Townships located in the Irrawaddy delta.
According to the relief worker, the pamphlet claimed that the government had completed its emergency operations in the area, and was now undertaking efforts to rehabilitate the local population. It added that private donations were disrupting these efforts, as they made people in the area less willing to work.
Relief workers who have visited some of the hardest-hit areas deny that the government’s efforts have been effective in dealing with the crisis, which they say remains far from over.
Meanwhile, private donations—of money, food, water, clothing and other basic necessities—continue to be collected throughout the country.
Much of this informal aid effort is being handled by Buddhist monks, who are overseeing the distribution of scarce resources to cyclone survivors in areas that have seen little assistance from the government.
“I am afraid that the victims won’t receive the assistance,” said one donor, explaining why he declined to make donations through the government.
