Burma mourns as more cyclone aid arrives
Three-day period of national mourning begins in cyclone-hit Burma after rulers agreed to foreign aid over relief efforts
Tuesday, 20, May 2008 02:23
A three-day period of national mourning has begun in cyclone-hit Burma after the country's rulers agreed to allow more foreign influence over relief efforts.
Flags will fly at half-mast across the south-east Asian country as the military junta officially mourns victims of Cyclone Nargis, 18 days after the storm struck.
Yesterday the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) signalled Burma's willingness to accept outside coordination of aid operations.
"[Burma] will accept international assistance," said Singaporean foreign minister George Yeo after an emergency meeting of the Asian bloc.
"We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can flow into [Burma]."
More than 130,000 people, mostly in the southern Irrawaddy Delta region, are dead or missing because of the cyclone, while the United Nations says 2.4 million have been severely affected.
On Thursday UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon is due to tour the worst affected regions of Burma and meet with its military rulers in the commercial capital Rangoon.
A spokesperson said Mr Ban aimed to "significantly increase" the amount of aid flowing through Burma.
The UN's World Food Programme has so far dispatched food to feed up to 250,000 people and has implored Burma's government to allow the aid operation to be "ramped up".