EU keeps cyclone aid condition free, says envoy

Jun 10, 2008, 13:58 GMT

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.