Aid agencies look forward to ASEAN mechanism

by Solomon

Tuesday, 20 May 2008 22:58

New Delhi - Several aid agencies have welcomed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) initiative to lead a task force to facilitate aid distribution in Burma's cyclone hit regions. During a meeting on Monday in Singapore, foreign ministers from ASEAN agreed to form an ASEAN-led coordinating mechanism, which will facilitate distribution and utilization of assistance from the international community. Chris Lom, spokesperson of International Organization for Migration (IOM) said they welcome the idea of Asean-led mechanism saying, "If the work guarantees aid supplies to get to the victims, I think that is great." But he said, "I have not seen the mechanism but if it works, I think it will be welcomed by everybody." So far the aid agencies have been relying to a large extent on their local partners or affiliates to avoid handing aid supplies directly to the government. However, several aid agencies and countries have no other choice but to hand over their aid supplies to the Burmese government for re-distribution as the regime imposed restriction on entry of foreign aid workers. IOM said so far they have been cooperating with the World Health Organization and the Burmese Ministry of Health in re-distributing aid supplies. The Asean meeting on Monday also said the Burmese government is willing to accept aid supplies as international assistance through the Asean-led mechanism and it will not be politicized. The World Food Programme, which has been sending tons and tons of food into Burma for the cyclone victims, said the Asean agreement reached in Singapore was a positive development. WFP has so far distributed food for over 250,000 survivors and are trying to get more aid supplied to the worst hit areas in the Irrawaddy delta, Marcus Prior, WFP spokesperson in Bangkok said. "WFP has already worked with Asean, to understand exactly how we can best support their efforts to expand the humanitarian operation in Burma," Prior said. According to the agreement, the ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan will lead the task force and will work together with the UN. It is also agreed to set-up a central coordinating body in Burma so that the Asean-led mechanism materializes . The Asean meeting decided to hold an Asean-UN International Pledging Conference, in Rangoon on May 25, 2008. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Thailand said, the one day meeting will focus on lobbying the international community for more support and relief for the cyclone victims. "The conference will focus on the needs of the affected people and will try to get more international support and assistance as humanitarian response," an official at the UNOCHA office in Bangkok said. The official confirmed that the UN Secretary-General, who will be traveling to Burma on Wednesday, will attend the meeting. While there seems to be much optimism among aid groups after the Asean meeting on Monday, a Burmese journalist in Thailand expressed his concern saying it is a shame for the international community to take so much of time to reach the most affected people. "The idea of the meeting seems to be good, but it is such a shame for the international community to conduct conferences or meetings at this moment when people in Burma are dying by the minute due to lack of support," Son Moe Wai, a journalist and secretary of the Burma Media Association said. < Prev   Next >