Asia-pacific Tuesday, 20 May, 2008
UN officials on Monday stepped up moves to get badly needed aid to survivors of the cyclone in Burma with UN chief Ban Ki-moon set to visit the stricken areas ahead of key weekend fundraising talks.
Ban would leave for Burma on Tuesday and was expected on Wednesday to tour the ravaged areas most affected when cyclone Nargis struck on May 2-3, his spokeswoman said.
After touring the hardest-hit regions, Ban was also "scheduled to meet in Myanmar (Burma) with senior government officials," spokeswoman Michele Montas added.
Burma on Monday declared three days of mourning for cyclone victims after agreeing the international aid effort could be led by its South-east Asian neighbours to help an estimated 2.4 million survivors.
But the country's military regime has stopped short of allowing a full-scale relief operation, despite warnings that people could soon start to die amid a lack of food, shelter and drinking water in the worst affected areas.
The UN secretary-general would seek "to reinforce the ongoing aid operation, see how the international relief and rehabilitation effort can be scaled up and work with Myanmar (Burmese) authorities to significantly increase the amount of aid flowing through Yangon to the areas most affected," Montas said.
Ban will then travel to Bangkok for a series of bilateral meetings on Friday, before returning to Rangoon on Sunday for a pledging conference that will be co-sponsored by the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
In a joint statement on Monday, the UN and ASEAN urged donors to dig deep to help the survivors of the disaster that has left at least 133,000 dead or missing.
The gathering "will focus on the needs of those affected by the cyclone, and seek international support and financial assistance for the international humanitarian response to meet the most urgent challenges, as well as longer term recovery efforts," the statement said.
"The co-convenors call on the international community to rise to the occasion and translate their solidarity and sympathy into concrete commitments to help the people of Myanmar (Burma) emerge from the tragedy and rebuild their lives."
The UN's top aid official, John Holmes, was finally allowed on Monday to glimpse just how desperate the situation has become, as he toured part of the southern delta, where entire villages were washed away.
He had arrived in Burma on Sunday carrying a letter to reclusive junta leader Than Shwe from Ban.
Than Shwe spent a second consecutive day on Monday touring the disaster zone, venturing into the hardest-hit regions of the Irrawaddy delta for the first time, state television said.
The US said meanwhile it was still considering whether to attend the Rangoon conference.
"We are going to reserve any sort of judgment on this pending a better understanding of the details of what is being proposed," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
"Certainly an important question that needs to be answered is how can groups, states be assured that any humanitarian assistance, donation, actually make their way down to the people in the affected area," he said.
"At this point we cannot commit to sending anybody," he said.
The White House said 31 US aid flights into Burma have brought critical disaster relief supplies that will help about 100,000 people in the wake of the cyclone.
"It's our view that we would like to continue to do more," spokesman Scott Stanzel said. "We have had 31 flights into Burma thus far. We're continuing to deliver emergency relief commodities, including water, blankets, hygiene kits, insecticide-treated bed nets to protect against malaria, and plastic sheeting for shelter."
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