Regime Stops Fast-Tracking Visas for Relief Workers

Foreigners involved in the Cyclone Nargis relief effort will no longer be given preferential treatment when applying for Burmese visas, according to diplomatic sources in Rangoon.
 
The sources said that shortly after agreeing to extend the mandate of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) in late February, the Burmese junta ended a program to expedite visa applications for foreign aid workers involved in Nargis-related projects.

The TCG, which consists of representatives of the regime, the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is the main body responsible for coordinating Nargis-related relief efforts.

The move means that foreign employees of international NGOs must now follow the complicated and time-consuming visa application process that was in place before and immediately after Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy delta last May.

Permission for NGO staffers to work in Burma must come not only from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but also from other key ministries, including the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.

Relief workers and diplomats said the visa fast-track program and other measures to streamline the relief effort were put in place by Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu, who was also the acting chairman of the TCG.

In early February, Kyaw Thu was reassigned to head the Civil Service Selection and Training Board, an inactive ministerial position.

At the recent Asean Summit in Thailand, Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein and Foreign Minister Nyan Win told delegates that the regime agreed to extend the TCG’s mandate for one more year, to July 2010.

The announcement was welcomed as a sign of improved cooperation between the junta and the international community. But aid workers said the decision to tighten visa restrictions on foreign experts was a serious setback for the relief effort.