Aid Flies to Burma

Twenty-three days after killer Cyclone Nargis devastated western Burma and left 134,000 people dead and missing, the first joint Thai-Asean-UN flight carried relief goods for survivors from Don Mueang airport to Rangoon late on Saturday.

It was the inaugural flight of what is hoped will be a series of aid flights, partly made possible by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who flew to Burma last week to confront the military junta and insist they allow aid and experts into the country.

Mr Ban supposedly convinvced the country's most powerful figure, Snr Gen Than Shwe, toopen its doors to international aid workers and humanitarian relief. It remains to be seen if that happens. By Sunday, four days later, some officials said there were signs that red tape and restrictions were easing.

News agency dpa quote a senior German official in Berlin, who said on Saturday that access to victims of Cyclone Nargis has been improving since the dictatorship agreed to let foreign relief workers into the disaster area.

Gernot Erler, state minister at the Foreign Ministry, said the first tests of the new policy had been positive, but it would be a long path before there was complete freedom of movement.

He was speaking in Berlin before departing for a donors' conference in Rangoon on Sunday. His German Air Force plane was also loaded with eight tons of relief goods. Erler said he would obtain on-the-spot information about the way relief groups were able to work.

The inaugural aid flight was witnessed by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) secretary general Surin Pitsuwan, also of Thailand, and the UN chief.

The ceremony was held at the newly established UN Staging Area (UNSA) located at Warehouse Number 3 close to the tarmac at Don Mueang airport.

UNSA was set up to ensure that relief cargo deliveries to support cyclone victims in Burma are streamlined and coordinated by consolidating and giving priorities to cargo according to need prior to air-lifting, to ensure that the capacities at the receiving airport in Rangoon are not over-stretched and to ensure speedy deliveries to the affected populations.

The first flight was an Antonov 12S plane carrying 12 tons of of aid including three water purifiers that could each produce 10,000 litres per day, as well as medicine and medical equipments and consumer products.

There would be two flights daily to Burma.

The secretary general thanked the Australian government for aircraft to ferry UN helicopters to Bangkok, and the Canadian government which helped airlift five helicopters from the Ukraine.

Mr Samak claimed that the flight showed close cooperation among international organisations on humanitarian aid. He added that Burma would identify its need during the donors' conference on Sunday.

More than 45 countries and organisations will attend, and try to mobilise funds for immediate humanitarian assistance for the survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which killed about 78,000 and left another 56,000 missing.

Mr Surin said it was an honour for Asean to be part of the coordination to help Burma, one of its members, and would give its full support to help the Burmese overcome the situation. (BangkokPost.com, TNA)