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Thai premier cancels Myanmar trip
Myanmar News.Net
Friday 9th May, 2008 (IANS)
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej Friday abruptly cancelled plans to fly to Yangon over the weekend to persuade the ruling Myanmar junta to accept aid workers and supplies for the cyclone-devastated country from the United States.
Samak said he had been informed that the Myanmar government was not ready to accept international aid workers into the country at this point, so there was no point in his flying to Yangon Sunday as planned.
Samak has cultivated warm relations with Myanmar's military rulers since coming to power in January. After a state visit in March, Samak described the ruling generals as 'good Buddhists,' months after they launched a crackdown on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks that left at least 31 people dead and the world appalled.
US envoy to Thailand Eric John met Samak Thursday in a bid to seek Thailand's help in airlifting $3.25 million of emergency aid to Yangon as the United States has run into resistance from Myanmar's military.
Countries and aid agencies have met with red tape and delays from the regime as they seek to provide relief to the victims of Cyclone Nargis, which crashed into central Myanmar May 2 and 3, leaving about 23,000 people dead, 42,000 missing and more than a million homeless and in need of food, water and medicine.
Although Thailand, which Tuesday became the first country to fly in emergency aid, proposed using a Thai military C-130 cargo plane to deliver US aid, the offer was rejected by Myanmar authorities.
Myanmar's ruling junta has also refused to grant visas to the US Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART).
'I'm optimistic that the Burmese authorities are going to make the right decision on the C-130 plane and the visas,' John said at a press conference Thursday. 'There is a need for speed.'
Parading members of the DART team before the press, John said, 'They're not going in to overthrow the government. They're not going in to spy. They have specific skills for immediately responding to disaster.'
Even UN experts have run into delays in receiving visas to enter Myanmar to help with the massive relief programme underway inside the country.
The United States, one of the regime's most outspoken critics, said it was considering air drops of relief supplies, with or without the authorities' permission.
In Washington, Ky Luu, director of the US Agency for International Development's foreign disaster assistance office, did not rule out the possibility of air drops of supplies.
'Yes, we're looking at it, but the immediate needs are for open access for the current existing operational partners and for the regime in order to open up to provide for additional relief workers to get on the ground,' Luu said.
Dissident groups in Myanmar appealed for help from abroad that circumvents the junta.
'To save thousands of lives before it's too late, we would like to urge the United Nations and foreign governments to intervene in Burma immediately to provide humanitarian and relief assistance directly to the people of Burma (which is another name for Myanmar) without waiting for the permission of the military junta,' said a joint statement issued by the All Burma Monks' Alliance, the 88 Generation Students and All Burma Federation of Student Unions, three leading anti-government groups based in Myanmar.
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Comments on this story
May Myanmar
05-10-08, 10:29 AM |
Thai premier cancels Myanmar trip
Bloody fool Burmese Government.Aids are for the people , not for you!!!.You are not only butcher, you are also coward. Why don’t they dare to let the disaster team to come in? The answer is because they are coward. How shameful they are!Burmese people are waiting for UN and USA. Please help Burmese people!!! They are very simple.Hopefully you can help our people from butchers.
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May Myanmar
05-10-08, 10:55 AM |
Bloody fool butchers.
1.Please make sure that the aids were recieved by the sufferers.
2.We don’t want the unfair referendum. n
3.US sanction is for the Government not for the people.
4.Buddha never kill people.
5. They killed the sons of Buddha.
6.Don’t believe the Burmese Government, they are liar.
7.They are communist.
8.They are waiting for the rubbish from China.
9. We don’t want Chinese aids. A lot of poisons.
10.We are waiting for DART.
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waltky
05-15-08, 12:44 AM |
Ban shamin' the generals...
:cool:
Ban Ki-moon slams Myanmar junta
May 14,`08 — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday the Myanmar government’s efforts to aid victims of Cyclone Nargis have fallen “far, far too short.“
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Ban called for a greater effort to line up resources and aid workers to help storm victims, which the U.N. says includes at least 38,000 dead, more than 27,000 others missing and 2.5 million “severely affected” by the May 2 storm that devastated the country.
“Even though the Myanmar government has shown some sense of flexibility, at this time, it’s far, far too short," Ban said. “The magnitude of this situation requires much more mobilization of resources and aid workers."
Ban made the comments as he was about to meet Wednesday with leaders of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to hold discussions to determine what “concrete measures” could be taken to persuade Mynamar’s military junta to allow foreign aid workers into the country. “Until now, regrettably, I think we have spent much of our time and energy in facilitating aid, getting food in, and visas being issued," he said.
[url=http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/05/14/ban_ki-moon_slams_myanmar_junta/3652/:
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Report: Myanmar junta diverting aid
May 14 (UPI) — The Myanmar government is diverting aid for Cyclone Nargis victims to the army while some supplies are being stolen, relief organization officials say.
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The New York Times reported Wednesday that “several” foreign relief organizations in Myanmar said the country’s military is stealing or warehousing aid. The aid groups also said it is impossible to track the shipments because the country’s rulers won’t allow foreign aid workers to enter the devastated areas.
The newspaper said the foreign aid officials refused to be quoted directly on their concerns because they didn’t want to anger the government and put their operations at risk. However, Marcel Wagner of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency confirmed that aid was being diverted by the army, adding that Wagner predicted theft would “become an increasing problem."
International poured into Yangon Wednesday, where it was left at staging areas. But because the government has barred all foreigners from entering the country, the supplies' fate from there is largely unknown.
[url=http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/05/14/report_myanmar_junta_diverting_aid/9007/:
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