The EU Aid Commissioner, Louis Michel, was granted visa to travel to Myanmar on Tuesday, just hours before he embarked on a mission to convince Myanmar's military regime to grant access to international aid workers.
'I can confirm that Commissioner Michel and, of course, the team with him have visas and are en route now,' Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa quoted the commissioner's spokesman as saying.
Before leaving to Myanmar the EU commissioner told reporters "the whole of the international community must show solidarity with the Burmese to make sure aid arrives promptly". He added that the help has to be "humanitarian, not political".
Louis Michel is scheduled to fly Yangon, via Frankfurt and Bangkok, where he is expected to hold talks with the Burmese Junta in an effort to convince the military regime to ease the restrictions on the entry of foreign aid workers to the cyclone ravaged country.
Though Myanmar's military regime accepts the international relief aid, it has imposed strict restrictions on foreign involvement in the cyclone relief efforts despite repeated appeals by the international community.
The regime says that it was not ready to let in foreign aid workers and that it would handle the distribution of the relief supplies by itself.
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