By Xinhua,
Bangkok : Thailand’s Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said Sunday that the Thai government has agreed to a U.N. proposal to make Bangkok’s old Don Mueang airport a center for accepting the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) humanitarian aid to Myanmar cyclone victims.
Noppadon said here that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had telephoned him and discussed ways to help the Myanmar survivors, and proposed that Thailand, as Myanmar’s neighbor, is an ideal collection and transhipment point for aid donated by the WFP, Thai News Agency reported.
A U.N. representative has already visited warehouses at the DonMueang airport, the former Bangkok International Airport in northern Bangkok suburb, now mainly used for domestic flights after the new airport opened in September, 2006. He found that several warehouses there are still empty which could store aid supplies.
Noppadon said he had informed Thai Prime Minister and Defense Minister Samak Sundaravej of the U.N. proposal, and that Samak had approved the move.
The idea of using Don Mueang airport for storing WFP aid for Myanmar victims after Cyclone Nargis hit the country on May 3, came after some international relief agencies complained that Myanmar government refused to accept full humanitarian aid and assistance from donor agencies, the report said.
Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) will confer on ways to assist and rehabilitate Myanmar next Saturday in Singapore, said Noppadon, adding that he would also urge more medics from ASEAN countries to be dispatched to Myanmar.
The ASEAN groups 10 countries — Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, the Philippines.
Thailand will also host a meeting on the current situation in Myanmar Saturday at the U.N. conference center here, said Noppadon. Thirty countries, including Myanmar, have accepted the invitation.
Participating countries are expected to urge ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan to travel to Myanmar and assess damages from the cyclone, he said.
Myanmar’s death toll from the cyclone now stands at about 78,000, according to figures released by Myanmar state media, with 56,000 people still missing.