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Myanmar Aid Workers OK; Supply Ships Aren't

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The Associated Press

Published: May 24, 2008

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar - The ruling junta said Friday that it will let foreign aid workers and commercial ships help survivors in Myanmar's cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy Delta, but refused to relent on accepting aid from U.S., French and British military ships.

The ships, almost within sight of the coast for more than a week, offer a huge potential boost to the aid effort because they can send helicopters to the hardest-to-reach spots.

The military regime told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday that all aid workers would be let into the country as long as it was clear what they were doing and how long they would remain.

The Irrawaddy Delta, Myanmar's key rice-producing region, was decimated early this month by Cyclone Nargis, but the xenophobic junta has kept it virtually off-limits to foreign aid workers.

An estimated 2.5 million people remain in severe need, threatened by disease, hunger and exposure because of the loss of their homes.

The United Nations says only about 25 percent of survivors have received aid.

Official estimates put the death toll at about 78,000, with another 56,000 missing. Myanmar has estimated the economic damage of the storm at about $11 billion.

Under intense international pressure - and with an aid donors meeting scheduled for Sunday - Senior Gen. Than Shwe said he would allow in aid workers "regardless of nationality," Ban said.

Than Shwe refused to relent on the landing of the military ships, however.

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