Merkel seeks UN Security Council action on Myanmar aid crisis
Posted: May 10, 2008
From: Mathaba
German Chancellor Angela Merkel here Friday urged the intervention of the UN Security Council to force the Myanmar military junta to allow international aid for hundreds of thousands of victims of Cyclone Nargis.
"From the point of view of the federal (German) government the UN Security Council has to deal with the issue," Merkel's deputy spokesperson Thomas Steg said at a weekly news conference in Berlin .
Merkel was scheduled to phone with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon later in the day to discuss the situation in disaster-stricken Myanmar .
Steg expressed the chancellor's "incomprehension" over the fact that Burmese military rulers were still blocking international relief.
Meanwhile, Berlin has also doubled its emergency financial aid to two million euros.
On Thursday, the German Foreign Ministry called in the Burmese ambassador to voice its protest over the ongoing delays of international aid deliveries in the aftermath of the weekend's devastating Cyclone Nargis. --IRNA
