Foreign powers maintain pressure on cyclone-hit Burma

16/05/2008 09:59:01

The United Nations is organising an emergency summit on Burma's cyclone disaster, which will be held in Asia.

"I understand that this emergency summit will be convened by the UN secretary-general with the Asian group of countries and in the region and I think that is great progress," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters at a monthly press conference.

He added that "Asian countries are being invited by the Burmese government to provide aid and aid workers through these countries into Burma".

More international aid arrives
News of the UN summit came as Burma asked India to send army medical teams to assist in relief operations in areas left devastated after Cyclone Nargis tore through the delta region nearly two weeks ago.

An Indian Air Force transport aircraft will fly to Rangoon carrying a team of doctors and medical supplies.

On Thursday more US emergency supplies arrived on military planes in Rangoon, although US officials say they have had to negotiate each of this week's 13 aid flights on a daily basis.

The UN says assistance has now reached around 270,000 of the estimated 2.5 million people in need in southern Burma.

World Food Program spokesman Marcus Prior says help is beginning to reach desperate communities, although at a slow pace.

"The World Food Programme has been encouraged by the signs that we've been getting," he said.

"We have two more logistics officers going in today which will be a major boost to our operation. They're emergency response experts, they're used to dealing with these kind of situations.

"And also in terms of the amount of food that we're getting out of our warehouse and down into the worst affected areas, so any efforts that are being made by the international community to facilitate our access is very welcome."

International pressure stepped up
The international community is increasing pressure on Burma's generals to admit more foreign aid and emergency services workers into the country.

The European Union's top aid official Louis Michel was in Burma on Thursday for talks with the military junta, building on an earlier, unsuccessful visit by Thai prime minister Samak Sundaravej on Wednesday.

Mr Michel says Rangoon's continued refusal to allow large-scale aid into the country is increasing the risk of starvation and disease, but dismissed suggestions from some countries that aid should be brought in without waiting for official permission.

"We want to convince the authorities of our good faith. We are there for humanitarian reasons," he told reporters.

On Thursday Buddhist monks in the worst affected regions said refugees who had taken shelter in local monasteries were being driven out by government troops and forced to move into government-run camps.

The UN says such camps may be sheltering more than half a million people.

"A defining moment for ASEAN"
The cyclone crisis occurred a year after the 10-nation ASEAN bloc signed a landmark charter committing it to human rights and democratic ideals and setting out principles and rules for members.

ASEAN has been criticised for doing too little to pressure Burma on accepting outside help, but on Thursday Secretary General Surin Pitsuan said the bloc planned to lead an international "coalition of mercy" to Burma.

"There is a consensus emerging now that ASEAN has to take the lead and ASEAN has risen to the occasion," he told a forum of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

"It is the beginning. It is defining moment for ASEAN, but ASEAN needs encouragement, needs less of criticism, less of ridicule," he said.

Mr Surin said Burma's military junta had already agreed to issue visas to an ASEAN rapid assessment team, with some officials already on the ground and more expected to enter the reclusive nation soon.

Key meeting in Singapore
ASEAN ministers will also meet next Monday in Singapore to discuss getting more help to Burma, but analysts say the group is unlikely to commit to a regional aid package or apply significant pressure to speed up relief efforts.

Those predictions are supported by Rodolfo Severino, ASEAN Secretary-General from 1998-2002, who is now a research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies in Singapore.

Speaking to Radio Australia's Asia Pacific program, he said the bloc is not in a position to do much more, and called criticism of ASEAN's response to the Burmese disaster unjustified.

"It's not a good practice to cast blame and accusations at a moment like this," he said.

"After all, Singapore and Thailand, which are both ASEAN members, were among the first to respond, Vietnam has raised an amount of money (and) Indonesia also sent in a few cargo planes quite early in the disaster."

Mr Severino says ASEAN states do not maintain a collective stockpile of emergency supplies, and said the bloc's policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of member states is "no different" to that of the United Nations or the European Union.

"ASEAN is an association that has many functions, and helping one of its members is just one of them but the bulk of the assistance has to come from the individual member states," he said.

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