Burmese Leader Agrees to Meet UN Chief This Week

Text of report in English by Japan’s largest news agency Kyodo

Bangkok, May 20 Kyodo – Myanmar [Burma]‘s junta leader Sr. Gen. Than Shwe will meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to discuss the post-cyclone relief effort when Ban visits the country from Thursday, a senior UN official said Tuesday.

John Holmes, undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, told a press conference after meeting with Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein that Ban would meet the country’s head of state in the administrative capital Naypyitaw.

Holmes has been in Myanmar since Sunday after being sent by Ban to talk directly with figures from the Myanmar military government in an effort to accelerate the relief effort for victims of the cyclone that struck two weeks ago, leaving nearly 134,000 dead or missing.

After arriving in Yangon from Bangkok on Thursday, Ban is scheduled to go to areas most affected by Cyclone Nargis and meet with cyclone victims, and then meet with senior government officials, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said in New York on Monday.

On Friday, he will then travel again to Bangkok for a series of bilateral meetings and return again to Yangon on Sunday for a pledging conference that will be cosponsored by the United Nations and Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Montas said Ban would not be taking up the issue of democracy with junta leaders or trying to meet with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the trip.

“This is going to be strictly a humanitarian trip for the secretary general,” the spokeswoman said.

“His objective is to reinforce the ongoing aid operation, see how the international relief and rehabilitation efforts can be scaled up, and work with Myanmar authorities to significantly increase the amount of aid flowing through Yangon to the areas most affected by the disaster,” she said.

“It is also to more effectively coordinate and systematize the international community’s emergency relief and longer-term rehabilitation and reconstruction assistance.”

UN aid officials have cited some progress in getting relief supplies and humanitarian workers into the most affected areas across the delta as the junta has begun showing signs of flexibility.

But they fear that unless more aid gets into the country quickly, the crisis could be dramatically worsen by an outbreak of infectious diseases.

Originally published by Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 1414 20 May 08.

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