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SINGAPORE: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), often
criticized for not dealing firmly with member Myanmar, was
“baptized” by its response to the cyclone in the junta-led
nation and was ready for new responsibilities, the bloc’s chief
said Wednesday.
Cyclone Nargis pounded the southwest Irrawaddy
Delta and the main city of Yangon in early May, leaving more than
133,000 people dead or missing. Inciting international outrage,
Myanmar’s isolated military regime largely barred foreign aid
workers from the delta.
But relief workers slowly moved into the region
in late May after the junta began to ease restrictions on access and
asked fellow Asean nations to coordinate the international relief
effort.
“We have been able to open the humanitarian
space,” Surin Pitsuwan told a forum in Singapore of the efforts by
the Asean. “I think that’s the success of Asean. I think
that’s the resiliency of Asean. I think that’s a new Asean ready
to take on the responsibility placed on it, expected of it.”
Nearly 300 Asean assessment team volunteers were
now in the delta, working “with full support, collaboration from
the government of Myanmar,” said Surin, a former Thai foreign
minister.
“It just so happened that we are being
baptized by the Cyclone Nargis. That is the test of our new Asean,”
Surin said.
Asean said in early June that its emergency
assessment team had begun to deploy in the delta to start a
long-awaited assessment of those affected by the storm.
It said then that its advance teams would
compile a first-hand “progress report” for an Asean Roundtable
meeting in Yangon on June 24.
The 10-member Asean has often been slammed for
failing to act firmly with Myanmar, a member that has frequently
embarrassed its neighbors with its refusal to shift toward
democracy.
-- AFP
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