Myanmar approves UN aid flight for cyclone relief

GENEVA -

MYANMAR'S military rulers have approved a UN aid flight bringing emergency supplies to the cyclone-hit country, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Wednesday.

The approval comes just after the Myanmar junta appointed a minister to review visa applications by aid workers seeking to join the cyclone relief effort.
However, no other new visas have been issued, a UN spokesman said on Wednesday.


Dozens of relief workers are stranded abroad awaiting permission to enter the reclusive country to help those struck by a devastating cyclone which has killed at least 22,000 people and left 41,000 missing.
Richard Horsey, a spokesman for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters he hoped the process would speed up following the appointment of Myanmar's deputy foreign minister Maung Myint.


'U Maung Myint, the deputy foreign minister of Myanmar, has been designated as the focus point for international relief agencies. We're hoping that's a good sign,' he said.
'The appointment of someone at ministerial cabinet level on these things we hope will start to move things quickly, which is key to ensuring relief continues to get to be able to get through.'
He said some aid was arriving at Yangon airport but that it was essential for staff with experience of large-scale disasters to help those on the ground.

OCHA has been allowed by the repressive military regime to provide key relief items from its warehouse in Brindisi, Italy, which should arrive in the course of the next day, Mr Horsey said.
A disaster response team had been given permission to accompany the flight, he added.
But no visas have been granted to aid workers who applied this week, and only those with existing multiple entry visas have been allowed in to Myanmar from abroad.
Fuel import ban liftedIn the military's government latest move to to ease a potential chronic energy shortage in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the ban on private companies importing fuel has been lifted, according to a Yangon-based diplomat.

The major needs in the former capital were fuel and water, the diplomat said, to replace supplies cut off by a storm that caused widespread structural damage but limited loss of life compared with the 22,000 dead in the Irrawaddy delta.
'Private companies have secured an agreement from the government to import fuel, I think, tax-free,' the diplomat told Reuters in Bangkok.

'I think it's also only on a temporary basis, but they haven?t been given an actual timeframe.'
Normally, only the government is able to import fuel.


Despite criticism of the reviled military authorities as being slow to respond, the diplomat said they were gradually patching up services in the city of 5 million, where food prices have skyrocketed amid fear of shortages.

'The major thing is fuel and water and we're still living a little on borrowed time on that,' the diplomat said.

'But I think over the next few days the water source in most areas will be mended and I think fuel will be making its way in large supplies.'

Vehicles are waiting in lines several kilometres long at filling stations and people are having to queue with buckets and tubs at water distribution points, stoking frustration. -- AFP

taken from asiaone.