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Bekijk Volledige Versie : Burma 'to let in all aid workers'



mark61
23-05-08, 11:05
Burma's top leader has agreed to let all foreign aid workers into the country for relief work in cyclone-hit areas, UN head Ban Ki-moon has said.

Mr Ban announced the news after talks in Burma's remote capital, Naypyidaw, with Gen Than Shwe.

Burma's military leaders had previously refused to allow a full-scale relief effort by foreign aid workers, and claimed everything was under control.

About 78,000 people died and 56,000 are missing after the 2 May cyclone.

Mr Ban said he thought Gen Than's decision was a breakthrough.

"I had a very good meeting with the senior general and particularly on these aid workers," he said.

"He's taken quite a flexible position on this matter."

'Show camp'

Gen Than also agreed to allow Rangoon airport to be used as an international hub for aid distribution, Mr Ban said.

It is not clear exactly whether he has agreed to give visas to foreign aid workers or let them into the Irrawaddy Delta to deliver aid.

The offer also does not specify whether both civilian and military aid workers are included, and whether US helicopters stationed off the coast can become involved.

The BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok, Thailand, says Burma has a record of making promises to the UN, only to withdraw them later.

The senior leader had until recently failed to respond to the secretary general's letters and phone calls.

On Thursday, Mr Ban flew over flooded rice fields and destroyed villages and visited a government relief camp in the Irrawaddy delta.

A UN official privately called it a "show camp", says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan, in Burma with the secretary general.

Mr Ban said he was "very upset" by the devastation he saw, adding that the international community stood ready to overcome the tragedy.

'Too little too late'

Western governments have backed Mr Ban's visit, calling for pressure on Burma's leadership to do more to help the cyclone victims.

UK Foreign Secretary David Milliband told the BBC: "The tragedy is that, for some people it is already too late, and it is certainly too little compared to the needs, but we have got to use the opportunity that exists.

"We've got to keep pushing that door open and working to ensure that those desperate people get the help that they need."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the responsibility for the situation lay with the Burmese government.

"It's a quite unusual situation actually that you have a country in this desperate straits with its population in the circumstances that this population is in - and you get a kind of stone cold face about people who just want help," she told the BBC.

The UN estimates that only a quarter of the 2.5 million Burmese affected by the cyclone have received the help they need.

The Red Cross has said that in districts further south-west of those shown to Mr Ban, waterways were still clogged with corpses and that many people had received no aid.

One foreign doctor told the BBC many were drinking water from puddles, while children and old people were suffering from dysentery, dengue fever and dehydration.

Idioten. Voor niks duizenden mensen laten sterven.

knuppeltje
23-05-08, 11:32
Burma's top leader

Van mij mag ie met een enkeltje naar Guantanamo Bay afreizen.

Good Kahuna
23-05-08, 11:53
"He's taken quite a flexible position on this matter."

Werd ook wel eens tijd. Vraag me alleen af welk argument hem overstag deed gaan.

knuppeltje
23-05-08, 12:04
Werd ook wel eens tijd. Vraag me alleen af welk argument hem overstag deed gaan.

Zijn goede naam, of wapens van grote broer?

Good Kahuna
23-05-08, 13:20
Zijn goede naam, of wapens van grote broer?

Geen van beide, lijkt me. Misschien een of andere financiële deal voor the powers that be?

mark61
23-05-08, 13:30
Geen van beide, lijkt me. Misschien een of andere financiële deal voor the powers that be?


Volgens mij mompelde hij maar wat en gebeurt er verder niks.

Long time trouwens...? Tis reünietijd zeker?

Good Kahuna
23-05-08, 14:11
Volgens mij mompelde hij maar wat en gebeurt er verder niks.

Long time trouwens...? Tis reünietijd zeker?

Hm, tijd zal het leren hoe een effectieve onderhandelaar onze Banki is.

Reünie? Nah, eerder vakantie en komkommertijd :hihi: