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WASHINGTON: Myanmar's junta has for the first time allowed a US government relief expert into the cyclone-hit country, but his visit is limited and his colleagues remain barred, a US official said on Thursday.
William Berger, head of a US disaster assistance team awaiting entry since the May 2-3 storm, arrived in Yangon on Wednesday for a junta-sponsored tour of the Irrawaddy Delta, State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said.
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"Now, that's positive in the sense that he's been allowed in," Casey told reporters.
But he added: "The rest of the team hasn't been given visas and he has not been given permission to conduct his own assessment or the kinds of things he would normally do as team leader."
The team is vital to assessing the exact type and quantity of aid needed and where in the country to send it.
But it is better for Berger than another US official to go on the tour because it "will give someone with real expertise at least some kind of overview of some of the area and what's going on," Casey said.
Casey said Berger's visit was not one aimed at negotiating terms of entry for the other members of the disaster assistance team.
"Certainly, in any opportunities he has to speak with Burmese (myanmar) officials, he will continue to push, as other representatives have, to have the team be allowed in," Casey said.
"But I want to emphasise that the only reason he has been allowed in by the Burmese is to participate into this government-sponsored tour," the deputy spokesman said.
Casey added that another five C-130 flights landed in Yangon on Thursday to delivered water, plastic sheeting, mosquito netting, much as it has done on previous flights.
Three of them were "consigned directly" to non-government organisations rather than the Myanmar authorities, he said.
"That's another way that we're trying to make sure that the relief that we do provide is placed in the hands of those we can feel comfortable are able to get these relief supplies in," Casey said. - AFP/de
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