By ANTARA News/AFP,
Tokyo : Myanmar plans to allow officials from 29 nations to visit cyclone-hit areas in an effort to ease criticism of relief operations, a report said Monday, as Japan confirmed that it had been invited.
Ministers and senior government officials from countries such as India, China and the United States may visit the Irrawaddy area as early as Wednesday, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, quoting an unnamed junta source.
The military government appears to be trying to deflect international criticism of its disaster-relief efforts in the worst-hit Irrawaddy district, the daily said.
Japan confirmed that it had been invited “for an inspection tour.”
“We will decide (who to send) after collecting information” on the itinerary, said a foreign ministry official who declined to be named.
The invitation did not specify the destination but Japan presumes it would be the worst-hit Irrawaddy area, he said.
The junta has come under fire for refusing to open the doors to a massive relief effort after Cyclone Nargis, which has left nearly 134,000 people dead or missing since tearing into the southern Irrawaddy Delta on May 2.
The secretive military regime has been letting more foreign experts into the country in recent days, but aid groups say it is not enough to ensure that victims get the food, water, shelter and medical care they need.
Myanmar took a group of foreign diplomats and aid workers to the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta on Saturday, but participants said afterwards that they had not seen enough to fully assess the damage.