UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday that the international focus was now on saving lives in Myanmar, where 2 million desperate cyclone survivors need emergency aid immediately.
More than three weeks since the disaster left 133,000 people dead or missing, he said he thought the country understood the urgency and was now ready to welcome foreign aid workers it has blocked since the storm hit.
“I hope and believe that any hesitation the government of Myanmar may have had ... could soon be a thing of the past,” Ban told delegates at an international donors conference in Yangon to pledge money for the country.
“We have a chance for a new beginning today,” he said. “I ask all of us to keep our eye firmly on the immediate objective — saving lives.”
Ban, the first UN chief in 44 years to visit Myanmar, said he had convinced junta leader Than Shwe to accept foreign disaster experts, who have so far been barred from the hardest-hit parts of the Irrawaddy Delta.
In Myanmar’s first official reaction to that meeting, Prime Minister Thein Sein told the conference that his government “will consider” allowing foreign aid workers to help with reconstruction efforts.
“All this will go far to meet the expectations of the international community, which sincerely wants to help the government of Myanmar overcome this national calamity,” Ban said.
The UN also announced yesterday the appointment of diplomat Bishow Parajuli as its country head for Myanmar, replacing Charles Petrie who was abruptly expelled by the junta last year.
The newly appointed representative of the UN Development Program will coordinate the work of all the UN agencies in Myanmar, spokesman Aye Win said.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
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READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a