Myanmar Agrees to Allow Aid Efforts by Neighbors

BANGKOK — Myanmar agreed Monday to let its Southeast Asian neighbors help coordinate foreign relief assistance for cyclone victims, bending to international pressure to allow in some more outside aid, Singapore’s foreign minister, George Yeo, said.

“We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can flow into Myanmar,” Mr. Yeo said, speaking at an emergency meeting in Singapore of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, which includes Myanmar.

“Myanmar is also prepared to accept the expertise of international and regional agencies to help in its rehabilitation efforts,” he told a news conference.

But he said the entry of aid workers from countries outside the Southeast Asian bloc would continue to be limited. “We have to look at specific needs — there will not be uncontrolled access,” Mr. Yeo said.

Since the cyclone, Western nations and major relief groups have raised alarm about Myanmar’s refusal to allow in large-scale relief shipments to the estimated 2.5 million survivors in need of aid after of the May 3 cyclone.

Myanmar has permitted a small flow of aid from several nations, including the United States, but relief officials say that this amounts to only 20 percent of the needed supplies. Without more aid, they say, many more people may die of disease and starvation.

Myanmar’s limited concession Monday came as international pressure continued to build from several directions, with the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, warning that the junta could be guilty of “crimes against humanity” if it continued to restrict the supply of aid into the country.

However, despite the international criticism, Myanmar’s foreign minister, Nyan Win, was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters that there had been no delay in accepting aid. “We always welcomed international aid,” he said.

After failing to receive a reply to letters and telephone calls made to the military junta, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was due to travel to Yangon this week in hopes of meeting the country’s leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe.

More than two weeks after the cyclone, General Shwe emerged from the isolated capital, Naypyidaw, and was shown on Myanmar state media for the first time in public Monday, meeting ministers involved in the rescue effort and touring some affected areas. In addition, the government announced that a three-day mourning period for the cyclone’s victims would begin Tuesday, The Associated Press reported. State television announced that the national flag would be flown at half-mast, beginning at 9 a.m.

State-run television showed General Shwe visiting a refugee camp, checking supplies, patting the heads of babies and shaking hands with survivors. Some of the cyclone victims, surrounded by neat rows of blue tents, clasped their hands and bowed as the general and other senior military officials walked by.

While accepting a limited amount of help, the government has insisted that it can handle the disaster on its own. The televised images were part of a broad propaganda campaign by the government to show its citizens and the outside world that it is in control of the situation.

Mr. Ban has called for a “high-level pledging conference” to deal with the crisis and for cooperation between the United Nations and Southeast Asian countries in overseeing aid delivery.

Mr. Yeo said that Asean would work with the United Nations to hold such a conference in Yangon on May 25 to coordinate aid deliveries. He said that Myanmar had agreed to allow in medical teams from any of its nine neighbors in Asean. Thailand has already sent a contingent of more than 30 medical workers.

In addition, Myanmar has allowed in 50 medical workers from India. China’s Xinhua news agency reported that a team of 50 Chinese medics arrived in Yangon Sunday night.

Mr. Yeo said the Myanmar government estimates losses at $10 billion in the cyclone, which swept through the Irrawaddy Delta and the country’s main city, Yangon, early on the morning of May 3.

Myanmar has raised its official death toll to 78,000.

Representatives of United Nations relief agencies said that some of their supplies were getting into Myanmar but that the authorities were still severely limiting delivery and withholding many visas from foreign relief experts.

The United Nations World Food Program said it had managed to deliver food aid to just 212,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are most in need.

The United Nations and France have naval vessels just outside Myanmar’s territorial waters, and are prepared to deliver supplies directly to affected areas along the coast, but they have not received clearance from the government.

In a column in the French daily Le Monde, Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said the United Nations should intervene by force, or be guilty of cowardice in the eyes of the world.

“What we need to bring is hand-to-hand, heart-to-heart help, not donor conferences with all their bowing and scraping,” he said in an interview with French radio. “In the meantime, people are dying.”

Mr. Yeo rejected the idea of delivery by force. “That will create unnecessary complication,” he said at the news conference. “It will only lead to more suffering for Myanmar people.”

On Saturday, Myanmar’s powerful neighbor and ally, China, said that other countries must show “due respect” to Myanmar in its handling of the disaster within its borders.

“Myanmar is a sovereign country,” said Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, at a briefing. “In the end, rescue and relief work will have to rely on the Myanmar government and people.”

Seth Mydans reported from Bangkok and Alan Cowell from Paris.

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