Myanmar Allows Assistance from Asian Neighbors

It's only been more than two weeks after Cyclone Nargis, right? Well, corpses are still strewn across Burma/Myanmar, the junta has still demanded that donations of foreign aid be accepted only on a drop-and-run basis, and journalists are still forced to work undercover without bylines. But at least the junta is now going to let the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) send aid teams into the country.

From CNN:

"Monday's decision came after an emergency meeting in Singapore of the 10 countries that make up ASEAN, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said.

The top U.N. aid official, John Holmes, toured the worst-hit areas of the country Monday and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to arrive in Myanmar on Wednesday in an attempt to 'accelerate relief efforts.'

...People in the worst-affected areas say they have received no help at all from their government, a CNN correspondent in the country has discovered.

'I have been trying to contact our government representative for two weeks,' the village chief in Don Le said. 'But so far I have received no reply.' A quarter of the village's population was killed by the cyclone."

In other Burmese news, Buddhist monks marched on the Cannes Film Festival to raise awareness of the plight of their people, with a message of "Let us in, and let us help."

(Photo by Getty Images)