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ASEAN team begins response in Myanmar

ASEAN said yesterday that a team of experts had started work in Myanmar to assess the country’s aid needs a month after a devastating cyclone.

ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said the “Emergency Rapid Assessment Team” would produce an initial report in about three weeks, but would not complete its work until the middle of next month.

“I have high hopes for the joint assessment team,” Surin said in a statement released from the Jakarta-based ASEAN secretariat. “Based on the assessment report that they will produce, we will be able to identify the needs of the Cyclone Nargis’ victims and intensify our efforts in the most needed areas.”

ASEAN has been criticized for failing to respond soon enough to the May 2 to May 3 storm in member country Myanmar, where the military regime has been reluctant to cooperate with international aid workers.

The UN says more than 1 million people are still waiting for aid after the storm that left 133,000 dead or missing.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met junta leader Than Shwe on May 23 and reported that the general had agreed to allow foreign aid experts full access to the devastated Irrawaddy Delta.

More than a week later aid agencies say access remains patchy and security forces continue to block roads throughout the vast disaster area, allowing in only a handful of foreign aid workers.

The junta has agreed, however, to allow ASEAN to help coordinate relief efforts. Surin said he would visit the ASEAN “Task Force Office” in Yangon today.

The assessment team, working in cooperation with the UN, would produce a “comprehensive report” on the relief, recovery and rehabilitation effort by the middle of next month. A progress report would be available between June 24 and June 25.

“ASEAN is committed to helping our friends in Myanmar and will continue to do so,” Surin said, adding that the assessment team was “just the beginning of our commitments.”

Meanwhile, UN officials said yesterday that nine UN helicopters able to ferry aid to remote cyclone victims should enter Myanmar this week, but it was unclear when they would be allowed to fly to the worst-hit areas.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) received permission about two weeks ago to take 10 helicopters into the country, where more than 1 million people who lived through cyclone remain without foreign relief supplies.

One chopper entered the country on May 22, but was only able to leave Yangon on Monday to make its way down to the Irrawaddy Delta region, WFP Asia spokesman Paul Risley said.

“It has been ready for use for the past eight days with pilots, with ground crew, at Yangon airport,” Risley said.

“Yesterday, we were able to receive permission and the helicopter flew from Yangon to Labutta [in the delta] and returned,” he said.

Five helicopters are now ready to go at Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport, with four more set to fly up from a southern Thai Navy base today.

Although two of the Puma helicopters were ready to fly into Myanmar last Friday, Risley said they would not travel into the country until the end of this week.

The cause for this delay was unclear.

Asked whether the nine helicopters had permission to fly supplies to the delta region, Risley replied: “That’s the next step.”

“Every step of the relief assistance process requires approval, permission and authority granted by the government,” he said.

“But clearly there is still very much a need for the use of these helicopters in delivering the last leg of this food assistance,” he said.

Meanwhile, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Tuesday said Southeast Asian nations should step up humanitarian assistance in Myanmar.
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