Fri, 04:09 18 Jul 2008 GMT17

 

ASEAN medical workers to be allowed into Myanmar
19 May 2008 09:25:32 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Adds quotes, detail, background)

SINGAPORE, May 19 (Reuters) - Cyclone-stricken Myanmar will accept medical workers from Southeast Asian countries to help with the relief effort and is ready to accept international aid agencies, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said on Monday.

"Myanmar will accept international assistance," Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo told a news conference after a meeting of the bloc in the city-state. He said that Myanmar had agreed to accept medical teams from all ASEAN countries.

"We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can flow into Myanmar," he said. However, the entry of aid workers from outside ASEAN would be on a case-by-case basis.

"We have to look at specific needs -- there will not be uncontrolled access," he said.

Yeo said the cost of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis was "well over $10 billion". The cyclone struck Myanmar two weeks ago, leaving 134,000 dead and missing and 2.4 million destitute.

Humanitarian agencies say the death toll, already one of the most devastating cyclones to hit Asia, could soar without a massive increase of emergency food, water shelter and medicine to the worst-hit region, the Irrawaddy Delta.

"We always welcomed international aid. We (have) not delayed," Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win told reporters.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, said after Monday's meeting that each ASEAN country would send a team of 30 medical personnel "very soon" with unrestricted movement in the country.

The 10-member group also said Myanmar should allow more international relief workers into stricken areas, though it said international assistance should not be politicised. (Reporting by Melanie Lee, Neil Chatterjee, Jan Dahinten and Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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