I’m back from the Purpose Driven Community Gathering, and am wondering if this can really be true?

Than Shwe Ban Agreement on Aid Workers

The leader of Burma’s ruling junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, has finally agreed to allow in “all aid workers” after meeting with the head of the United Nations in the country’s capital, Naypyidaw. But given the regime’s history of mistrust towards non-governmental organizations and UN agencies, most greeted the news with cautious optimism.

“I had a very good meeting with the Senior General and particularly on these aid workers,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “He has agreed to allow all aid workers regardless of nationalities.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) met with Burma’s junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe on Friday in Naypyidaw. (Photo: AP)

Ban Ki-moon also said it was “an important development” that Than Shwe agreed to make Rangoon the logistics center of the aid operation.

Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), called the news a positive step, provided the junta keeps its promises.

“We will be very glad if that news comes true,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for the NLD, told The Irrawaddy on Friday. “But the good news should have come for survivors immediately after the cyclone hit the country. Now it has been three weeks.”

In case you think I’m being too skeptical – check this story out.

Authorities Tighten Restrictions On Private Donors

Private aid convoys from Rangoon, which have provided a lifeline to victims of Cyclone Nargis in some hard-hit areas of the Irrawaddy delta, are facing tighter restrictions by local authorities, who say that the government now has the situation under control.

At a checkpoint near the Panhlaing Bridge in Rangoon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township, trucks and other vehicles carrying supplies to the delta are being stopped and inspected, according to local nongovernmental organizations and other private donors.

“The security officers told me not to distribute things along the road and gave me a pamphlet,” said a relief worker who passed through the checkpoint, where guards recorded license plate numbers of vehicles traveling to Kungyangone and Twante Townships located in the Irrawaddy delta.

According to the relief worker, the pamphlet claimed that the government had completed its emergency operations in the area, and was now undertaking efforts to rehabilitate the local population. It added that private donations were disrupting these efforts, as they made people in the area less willing to work.

Relief workers who have visited some of the hardest-hit areas deny that the government’s efforts have been effective in dealing with the crisis, which they say remains far from over.

So there you have it. We’ll see in the next week or so what’s really true and what isn’t. If all the Junta is going to do is let aid in and then take it for themselves, then nothings really changed at all. Let us hope and pray for the best!

Pray for the people of Myanmar!

UPDATE: This is Just Too Stupid!

The United Nations will send nearly a quarter of a million condoms into cyclone-hit Myanmar to help needy survivors with no access to contraceptives, a UN official says.

So far, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said it had sent 72 800 condoms to survivors struggling to maintain their famiy planning after the storm hit in early May.