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MORE RELIEF: French navy staff unloading relief supplies in Phuket yesterday. The French navy ship Mistral docked in Thailand to unload thousands of tonnes of cyclone aid after the Myanmar junta refused to let it enter the country. -- PHOTO: AFP
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YANGON - OUTRAGE over opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's continued house arrest will not detract from relief work, key donors said, as the United Nations reported progress in getting aid to cyclone survivors.
Myanmar's military regime had quietly informed the Nobel Peace Prize winner that she would have to spend another year confined to her home in Yangon, where she has been locked away for most of the last 18 years. The decision came just two days after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon left the country following a donors' conference that generated tens of millions of dollars in aid pledges in response to the cyclone that left 133,000 people dead or missing.
Mr Ban said that while he regretted the extension of Ms Suu Kyi's house arrest, Myanmar appeared 'to be moving in the right direction' by allowing some international aid workers into the most devastated regions of the Irrawaddy delta.
US President George W. Bush was 'deeply troubled' by Ms Suu Kyi's detention but said politics would not affect humanitarian aid.
Aid agencies said cooperation had improved. 'All the major obstacles we've been facing have been resolved. Now the relief effort will scale up more quickly,' said Mr Richard Horsey, a UN spokesman in Bangkok. He said more than 200 foreign aid workers were in Myanmar and they had no problems.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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