Asian medics head to cyclone-hit Burma

17/05/2008 20:32:27

Thirty Thai medics have flown to cyclone-hit Burma as part of a group of more than 100 Asian medical workers that the junta is allowing to treat victims of the storm.

A Thai health official says 18 Thai doctors and 12 nurses flew to Rangoon on a military flight that also carried more than 200 thousand dollars worth of medical supplies.

A group of Indian medics has already arrived in the country and medical teams from other Asian countries are expected to land this weekend.

Burma's decision to allow Asian medics into the country marks the first significant movement of foreign aid workers into the disaster zone.

Diplomats tour delta
Burma's authorities have allowed a group of foreign diplomats into the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta, in the first such trip since the devastating storm hit the country two weeks ago.

The regime says the cyclone left nearly 78,000 people dead and another 56,000 missing, but the government has strictly limited visits by foreigners -- including aid workers -- to the worst-hit regions.

Humanitarian workers have grown increasingly frustrated with the restrictions, and say millions of survivors are still in need of food, water and shelter.

In the US, 43 lawmakers have called on President George W. Bush to consider "humanitarian intervention" in Burma.

They are calling on the president to back the efforts of France, Britain, Germany, Denmark and other nations to gain entry into the devastated Irrawaddy Delta region to provide urgent life-saving humanitarian aid.

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