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ASEAN's task force to channel foreign aid to Myanmar
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has established a task force to channel international aid to Myanmar, and will send some 270 relief personnel to the cyclone-ravaged country
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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has established a task force to channel international aid to Myanmar, and will send some 270 relief personnel to the cyclone-ravaged country.
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda told The Jakarta Post from Singapore on Monday that Indonesia played a significant role in convincing Myanmar, one of ASEAN's 10 members, to accept foreign aid through the task force.
During the grouping's foreign ministerial meeting in Singapore, he said, Myanmar's ruling military junta agreed with the establishment of the task force, which will comprise officials from each member country of ASEAN, with the grouping's secretary-general, Surin Pitsuwan, as the chairman.
The two-day meeting, hosted by Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo, was attended by all ASEAN foreign ministers, including Myanmar's Nyan Win.
"The task force will coordinate and channel international aid to Myanmar. Members of the team will immediately visit Myanmar's cyclone-hit areas to make assessments and determine the degree of destruction before extending the necessary relief assistance," Hassan said.
He said each ASEAN member country would contribute some 30 medical and relief personnel to the task force to help cyclone victims who are critically short of food, shelter and medicine.
"Some of the relief personnel are already in Myanmar, and some others will go to the areas hit by the cyclone as soon as possible," the minister said.
The May 2 cyclone that devastated the military-ruled country left at least 133,000 people dead or missing. It is Southeast Asia's worst natural disaster since the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, which killed more than 150,000 people, the majority in Indonesia's Aceh province.
Despite the scope of the disaster, Myanmar's rulers, long suspicious of the outside world and worried about losing their grip on power, have stonewalled offers of international relief assistance.
The international community and the UN have repeatedly accused the junta of endangering their citizens by slowing the distribution of foreign aid to cyclone victims.
The UN said that 17 days after the tragedy only a fraction of the supplies needed were getting through to people in the Irrawaddy Delta region, where whole villages were wiped out.
It said an estimated 2.4 million people were still in desperate need of supplies and medical help to avoid a much wider disaster through the possible spread of disease.
Hassan said ASEAN and the UN would hold an "international pledging conference" in Myanmar's capital Yangon on May 25 to pool aid.
"We will share our experience in handling the 2004 tsunami in Aceh and the 2005 earthquake in Yogyakarta with Myanmar and the region, including how to manage aid and personnel from the international community," he said.
