Aid workers reportedly still await Burma visas

Rangoon (dpa) - The Burmese military junta, which has appealed for international aid to cope with the disastrous impact of Cyclone Nargis, doesn't want foreign journalists around to report about it - and has already expelled one BBC reporter, state media said Wednesday.

BBC Asia correspondent Andrew William Harding was stopped by immigration officials at Rangoon airport on Monday, barred from entering the country, and sent back to Thailand, the state-run MRTV reported.

The military's TV mouthpiece said Harding was on the government's "blacklist" for journalists.

But then most journalists are. Burma, which has been under military dictatorships since 1962, rarely allows foreign journalists to enter the country on journalist visas, and only allows China's Xinhua news agency to employ expatriates to be based in the country.

In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which has claimed more than 22,500 lives and left 41,000 missing, the government has thus far refused to allow foreign reporters in to cover the disaster, deemed the worst to hit Southeast Asia since the December 2004 tsunami.

The regime, which has appealed for international aid, has also been reluctant to waive visa requirements on aid workers seeking to bring disaster relief into the benighted country.

The government has not even bothered to respond to a request to waive visa requirements for international relief workers waiting for permission to bring much needed aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis, the UN said in a statement issued at its headquarters in New York early on Wednesday, Thailand time.

The UN had asked the government to waive visas for relief workers assembled in nearby Bangkok so they can begin their journey, said Rachid Khalikov, an official of the UN emergency relief department at UN headquarters. But the Burmese embassy was closed on Monday because of Coronation Day, a Thai holiday.

"So far, there were no instructions for visas in Bangkok," Khalikov said.

Thai officials, meanwhile, gave up their holiday and worked on Monday to pack aid into a Royal Thai Air Force cargo plane to send to Rangoon, and to approve tens of thousands of dollars in cash aid to Burma.

In the past other countries have waived visa requirements to aid workers in relief efforts, such as Iran did following the devastating December 2003 earthquake.
(Source-http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=127528)