Signs of aid breakthrough in Myanmar

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will travel to Myanmar this week to discuss the troubled cyclone aid operations, his spokesman said yesterday, as signs of a breakthrough on the issue mounted.

Mr Ban's spokesman Michele Montas also said she expected there would be a conference in Bangkok on May 24 to marshal funds for the relief effort.

"I can confirm he (Mr Ban) is going to Myanmar this week," she said by telephone, adding he was expected to arrive by Wednesday or Thursday. Britain's Asia Minister said a turning point could be near on a framework to accelerate international aid to the millions needing help after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta early this month.

Than Shwe, the reclusive leader of Myanmar's military junta, made a public appearance yesterday for the first time in relation to the cyclone aid effort.

Aid has been trickling in for the up to 2.5 million people affected by the cyclone. Myanmar's military rulers, suspicious of the outside world, have been reluctant to admit major foreign operations and the workers to run them.

But Britain's Asia Minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, said a framework was being set up for a UN- and Asian-led system that could solve the impasse and make it easier to channel in aid.

"I think we're potentially at a turning point but, like all turning points in (Myanmar), the corner will have a few 'S' bends in it," he said.

Later Myanmar state TV showed General Than Shwe meeting in Yangon with ministers involved in the rescue effort, and touring some cyclone-hit areas in the immediate vicinity.

The generals moved the country's capital to Naypyidaw, 400 kilometres north from Yangon, the former Rangoon, in 2005, and General Than Shwe has rarely been seen in public since.

The United Nations' chief humanitarian officer, John Holmes, arrived in Yangon last night, and is expected to deliver a message from Mr Ban to the generals today.

Mr Ban had previously proposed a "high-level pledging conference" to deal with the crisis, as well as having a joint coordinator from the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to oversee aid delivery.

General Than Shwe had refused to talk to Mr Ban on the phone since the cyclone.

But analysts speculated his appearance in Yangon meant he was likely to meet Mr Holmes, or possibly Mr Ban later in the week.

Thousands of children could die within weeks if food does not get to them soon, the aid organisation Save the Children said yesterday.