DRUMMING UP SUPPORT: Former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid (left) meets with Myanmarese Buddhist monk Ashin Nayaka (second left) and Soe Aung (right) of the National Council of the Union if Burma on Friday in Jakarta. (JP/J.Adiguna)

Monks from Myanmar and opposition leaders said Friday they were "disappointed" by Indonesia's stance regarding the military regime and possible humanitarian intervention for cyclone survivors.

"We are disappointed by Indonesia's position," said Ashin Nayaka, a representative of the International Burmese Monks Organization. "It is Indonesia that had the experience of the Aceh tsunami," he said during a visit to The Jakarta Post.

As a member of the United Nations Security Council, Indonesia has the responsibility to push for the adoption of humanitarian intervention if necessary, said Soe Aung, a spokesman of the National Council of the Union of Burma, an umbrella organization for groups advocating democracy in Myanmar.

However, at Friday's international donors' gathering in Yangon held three weeks after Cyclone Nargis swept through the country, the regime finally said it would welcome aid from any country.

"Indonesia must help us in this tragic moment," monk U Awbata said.

International observers noted how quickly Indonesia opened up to international aid in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami. The government had been at war with separatists in Aceh province, the hardest hit in the disaster.

An agreement leading to peace in the region was eventually reached with the Free Aceh Movement.

After the cyclone hit Myanmar on May 3, calls rose for the UN to invoke its principle of "responsibility to protect" and fly in aid regardless of the junta's position.

But while health experts warned of the possibility of more deaths among survivors, Indonesia's envoy to the UN, Marty Natalegawa, said such UN intervention would not help victims in the long run. He said the junta could become even more isolated given its suspicions of outsiders' intentions.

U Awbata said the priority now was to get aid in as fast as possible to some 2.5 million affected people in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy Delta. "Aid can get in any way possible, not only through the government," he said.

The Myanamarese said they were getting daily information from monks inside the country on how aid was not reaching "80 percent" of survivors. "My cousin witnessed food aid being sold in the market," Soe Aung said.

Over 130,000 are feared dead or missing, while survivors are largely without clean water, food or shelter.

The Myanmarese were in town for three days to raise public awareness of Myanmar through discussions and a photo exhibition, held among others by the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus. The event at the Nikko Hotel closed Friday.

They also met religious figures and groups such as the Buddhist organization Walubi and Abdurrahman Wahid of the Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama.

Soe Aung said Friday's result of the donors' gathering would be highly significant, as Myanmarese would judge whether the junta would really let the world help survivors.

He added that Myanmarese would also be watching to see whether the junta on Saturday would go ahead with plans for the second round of the referendum on amendments to its constitution, which critics have said would entrench the junta's power if passed.

Saturday is also the final day of the detention of Aung San Syu Kyi, the Myanmarese said, adding they were waiting to see whether the regime "will violate its own law".

"Under their own law the regime can only detain a person up to five years," Soe Aung said. The National League for Democracy led by Syu Kyi won the last 1990 election, but the junta refused to hand over power to her. She is still under house arrest.

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