ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

By WAI MOE | Burma’s state media reported on Tuesday that 1,670 visas had so far been granted to international aid workers and foreign officials in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.

The UN, however, said in a report released on Monday that 317 of its own personnel had been granted visas, which now took between two and three days to process.

A situation report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that visas for staffers from the UN, international non-governmental organizations, inter-governmental organizations, the International Federation of the Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross had been approved over the past five weeks.

Visas and visa-extensions had been processed by the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) mechanism, through Burma’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the report said.

The TCG is composed of officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the Burmese government and the UN. It was set up by the Asean-UN Pledging Conference on May 25 in Rangoon. It started its work on May 31 2008 and has been meeting at least once a week in “a spirit of mutual understanding, trust and cooperation,” according to a UN document.

The TCG has been working closely with the National Disaster Preparedness Central Committee chaired by Burma’s Prime Minister, Gen Thein Sein.

According to a report in the government mouthpiece The New Light of Myanmar, 1,076 UN personnel and non-governmental organization workers had entered Burma between May 5 and June 30, along with, 498 visa-holders from Asean and neighboring countries. Ninety six had been admitted to attend the Asean-UN Pledging Conference on May 25.