The Junta in Myanmar has eventually agreed to the plan of allowing foreign cyclone aid workers into the badly-damaged Irrawaddy Delta of the country on Friday 23 May ‘regardless of nationalities’. This breakthrough came about after the United Nations chief Ban Ki Moon himself flew down to Myanmar in order to coax the authorities there to accept international relief for cyclone victims.

 

It has been nearly three weeks that Myanmar government has been refusing foreign aid for its 2.4 million population badly affected by cyclone Nargis. The agreement was made during a two-hour meeting between Ban Ki Moon and the Junta Supremo, Than Shwe in the remote capital of Naypyidaw. A UN official has informed that now foreign aid works, whose movement has been restricted since the May 2 disaster, will be allowed to work smoothly in not just the city of Yangon but also the Irrawaddy Delta.

 

The UN official said that the general had pointed out in the meeting that he did saw no reason why international aid should not be provided to Myanmar cyclone victims as long as it involved genuine humanitarian workers and it was apparent what they were going to be doing. The Junta Supremo in the meeting also conceded for permitting the Yangon airport to be used as a logistical hub for distributing relief.