Speaking at a media conference after attending the annual Asia Security Summit here, Najib said Asean would want to play a bigger role in helping Myanmar to face the tragedy, provided the country allowed it.
He said Asean was willing to send more military personnel and logistics requirements such as helicopters and boats to help distribute foreign aid to the victims who remained cut off in the cyclone-stricken areas and were starving.
01 June 2008: Bernama
By Zakaria Abdul Wahab
SINGAPORE, June 1 (Bernama) -- The cyclone tragedy in Myanmar serves as an acid test for Asean's capability in helping its members faced with a real crisis, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak said here Sunday.
He said it was important for Asean, as an association, to show the world that it had come a long way and that in the Myanmar case it should be able to help the country.
Myanmar is currently facing a humanitarian crisis after it was hit by Cyclone Nargis early last month and has been reluctant to accept foreign aid until Asean decided to be involved directly to assist the country.
Speaking at a media conference after attending the annual Asia Security Summit here, Najib said Asean would want to play a bigger role in helping Myanmar to face the tragedy, provided the country allowed it.
He said Asean was willing to send more military personnel and logistics requirements such as helicopters and boats to help distribute foreign aid to the victims who remained cut off in the cyclone-stricken areas and were starving.
Najib said reports he received from those on the ground suggested that the scale of the tragedy in Myanmar might be bigger than that of the 2004 tsunami, which killed over 200,000 people in the region.
This would be a huge human tragedy that had befallen Myanmar, he said, adding that such a disaster could have been prevented if Myanmar was more receptive to foreign humanitarian assistance and relief.
He stressed that Asean had made its position clear that it had no other agenda when it sent its military into the cyclone-stricken areas and this was proven in many cases -- that it was strictly humanitarian in nature when Asean sent its troops.
Najib, who arrived here Saturday to participate in the 7th IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies) Asia Security Summit - The Shangri-La Dialogue which ended this evening, later left for Jakarta for a one-day visit to Indonesia.
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