Myanmar grants visas, but slow access to delta

By Ed Davies

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar is handing out more visas to foreign aid workers to help in the cyclone aid effort, but red tape is still hampering access to the devastated Irrawaddy Delta area, a U.N. official said on Thursday.

Nearly a week after junta supremo Than Shwe promised he would allow in "all" legitimate foreign aid workers, the United Nations said the military government had approved 45 remaining visa requests from U.N. agencies.

But only seven U.N. expatriate staff had made it out of the former capital, Yangon, on Wednesday, Dan Baker, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar, told Reuters.

"Following what's been agreed during the last week, I mean that's just really not acceptable," Baker said of bureaucratic red tape hampering their access to the delta where up to 2.4 million people were left destitute by Cyclone Nargis on May 2.

Cooperation with some government departments was good, but "it's not clear that every ministry has gotten the message," Baker said in a telephone interview from Yangon.

He said it was not unreasonable to want to keep tabs on the movements of international staff, "but that should not stop anybody from going and going in a timely way."

The regime has been criticized for dragging its feet on allowing a large-scale international relief effort in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, which left 134,000 dead or missing.

Some analysts say it may be out of fear that opening up the country would loosen the grip on power the army has held since a 1962 coup.