Away from public view, Myanmar has opened up to global-relief efforts(140,000 people dead or missin

[Robbien]

BEIJING — Away from public view, Myanmar has opened up to global-relief efforts to an unprecedented degree after initially thwarting foreign attempts to help victims of a devastating cyclone last spring, a U.S. relief agency said in a report issued today. The May 2-3 rampage of Cyclone Nargis left 140,000 people dead or missing.

Myanmar's military leaders turned away U.S. and French warships offering humanitarian aid to the cyclone-wracked Irrawaddy River Delta area immediately following the cyclone, giving the impression they'd rather let victims perish than admit inability to cope with the catastrophe.

But a report prepared by Refugees International, a Washington, D.C.-based relief group, said the image of "a recalcitrant government that rejects aid from the generous nations of the world" is no longer accurate.

The group said Myanmar has issued some 1,000 visas to international-aid workers since June and offered "an unprecedented level of access" to the delta region.

The report said Myanmar, also known as Burma, has now more opened to international relief than at any time in the past two decades, and that the unfolding situation is "a story ignored by international reports that focus on the government's obstructionism."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008159815_cyclone05.html

Moral of story, don't send in warships to do humanitarian missions.