Bangkok - The European Union, which has pledged almost 90
million euros (140 million dollars) in humanitarian aid to people
affected by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar will continue to keep its help
free of political conditions, special envoy Piero Fassino said
Tuesday.
'The EU is committed to helping these people in need regardless of
the political situation,' Fassino told a press conference in Bangkok.
He said the EU's stance on Myanmar's long-term political situation
remains unchanged, despite the cyclone, in regard to its call for a
dialogue between the ruling junta and opposition leaders such as Aung
San Suu Kyi to pave the way for a true democracy in the future and a
free and fair election in 2010.
'The only possible way out is a genuine dialogue between the
various parties,' said Fassino.
Myanmar's political stalemate has been somewhat overshadowed by
the national disaster caused by Cyclone Nargis that hit the country's
central coast on May 2-3, leaving at least 133,000 people dead or
missing and another 2.4 million in desperate need of humanitarian
aid.
The EU has pledged 87.4 million euros to the United Nations'
'flash appeal' for emergency aid to the cyclone victims, with the UK
pledging 34.6 million of that.
The aid has gone to various relief efforts such as medical
equipment, shelter, food and water, channelled through the World Food
Programme and other UN agencies.
Fassino, who is the EU special envoy to Myanmar, visited Laos,
Malaysia and Thailand between June 2 and Tuesday to discuss the
cyclone crisis and how to deal with the country's generals, who have
been widely criticized for hampering the relief effort in their own
country through unnecessary restrictions on aid and aid workers
accessing the worst-hit areas.
'As far as access to the country the situation has actually
improved in the past week,' said Fassino, who praised UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon's success in persuading Myanmar junta head Senior
General Than Shwe to promise to allow greater access for foriegn aid
workers.
Fassino acknowledged that more than a month after the cyclone hit,
'there are some areas where the population has not yet received
relief.'
The EU has been working closely with the UN and Association of
South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in providing relief assistance to
the cyclone victims.
Fassino praised the initiative to set up a tri-partite working
group between the UN, ASEAN and Myanmar to facilitate the relief
process, given the junta's well-known distrust of western democracies
that deem the government a pariah and have slapped economic sanctions
on it.
'The tripartite system that is being established I think is an
extremely interesting opportunity to foster a new atmosphere of
mutual trust and following this humanitarian emergency, the more we
can work in the future on this new climate of trust (the better),'
said Fassino.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story