United Nations Must Order Aid Be Allowed Inside Burma

Please send a message to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today urging him to take action to ensure that international aid reaches the people of Burma. So far, the Burmese military regime has only let in a trickle of international humanitarian aid. We understand that 35 disaster teams from 18 countries have applied to help, and most are not being let in. Even the United Nations assessment team has not been given visas, 5 days after the cyclone struck.

France’s foreign minister Bernard Kouchner (a founder of Doctors Without Borders) proposed a solution to this problem. He urged the UN Security Council — the only body at the UN that can pass binding resolutions, to take action that would allow the international community to send aid to Burma whether the Burmese regime likes it or not.

“Every day of delay is costing lives,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “If the regime won’t give permission for aid, the international community must deliver it anyway. We can’t stand by and let thousands more die.”

Update 5/8 - The United States said Thursday it was mulling dropping food and aid into cyclone-ravaged parts of Myanmar and did not rule out doing so without approval from the country's military rulers.

Update 5/8 - Myanmar's military regime allowed in the first major international aid shipment Thursday, but it snubbed a U.S. offer to help cyclone victims struggling to recover from a tragedy of unimaginable scale.

Please keep the pressure on:

Click here to visit the US Campaign for Burma/Myanmar Website to send form email