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Turning point near on Myanmar aid, says UK minister
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Turning point near on Myanmar aid, says UK minister
A breakthrough could be near on a framework to open up the aid to the millions needing help after Cycone Nargis slammed into Myanmar?s Irrawaddy delta early this month, Britain?s Asia minister said yesterday.
Aid has been trickling in for the up to 2.5 million people affected by the cyclone, with Myanmar?s military rulers, suspicious of the outside world, reluctant to admit major foreign operations and the workers to run them. But Britain?s Asia minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, said a framework was being set up for a U.N. and Asian-led operation that could solve the impasse. «I think we?re potentially at a turning point, but like all turning points in (Myanmar), the corner will have a few S bends in it,» he told Reuters in an interview.
Thousands of children could die within weeks if food does not get to them soon, non-government aid organisation Save the Children said on Sunday.
The World Food Programme (WFP), leading the outside emergency food effort, said it had managed to get rice and beans to 212,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are most in need after the May 2 storm, which left at least 134,00 dead or missing. Malloch-Brown said the United Nations estimates that so far help has reached less than 25 percent of the people in need.
Other countries have urged the former Burma to give aid workers and mercy flights more access. Malloch-Brown came to Yangon after first visiting some Association of Southeast Asian Nations members, and in Myanmar has seen a succession of senior officials.
France has accused the junta of being on the verge of a crime against humanity, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has condemned the generals? sluggish response as «inhuman», and there has been talk of bringing in aid without Myanmar?s permission. «We?ve never ruled out anything,» Malloch-Brown said.
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