World should use "all means" to send Myanmar aid-EU
(adds more quotes, EU ministers meeting, Michel trip)
BRUSSELS, May 13 (Reuters) - The international community should use all possible means to get aid through to victims of Myanamar's cyclone despite the reluctance of the military junta, the European Union's foreign policy chief said on Tuesday.
"We have to use all the means to help those people. The United Nations charter opens some avenues if things cannot be resolved in order to get the humanitarian aid (to) arrive," Javier Solana told reporters in Brussels shortly before an emergency meeting of EU aid ministers on Myanmar.
Asked if aid could be flown in without government approval, he said: "Whatever is necessary to help the people who are suffering."
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has suggested invoking the little-used U.N. principle of a "responsibility to protect" victims if Myanmar continued to bar foreign relief teams.
Solana said such measures could be applied "into a country that has a catastrophe ... and the leaders of the country do not allow the fast and well organised arrival of aid."
EU Development Aid Commissioner Louis Michel, in charge of the 27-nation bloc's humanitarian agency, planned to travel to the region immediately after the emergency meeting to press for better access for relief supplies, but his spokesman said he had not yet been granted a visa to enter Myanmar.
Michel would fly to Bangkok and contacts were under way for him to visit the stricken country, spokesman John Clancy told reporters.
The United Nations said between 1.2 million and 1.9 million people were struggling to survive and up to 100,000 are dead or missing after cyclone Nargis.
Myanmar's reclusive military government has accepted aid from the outside world, including the United Nations, but will not let in foreign logistics teams, who were queuing up in Bangkok hoping to get visas from the Myanmar embassy. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom, writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Paul Taylor)
BRUSSELS, May 13 (Reuters) - The international community should use all possible means to get aid through to victims of Myanamar's cyclone despite the reluctance of the military junta, the European Union's foreign policy chief said on Tuesday.
"We have to use all the means to help those people. The United Nations charter opens some avenues if things cannot be resolved in order to get the humanitarian aid (to) arrive," Javier Solana told reporters in Brussels shortly before an emergency meeting of EU aid ministers on Myanmar.
Asked if aid could be flown in without government approval, he said: "Whatever is necessary to help the people who are suffering."
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has suggested invoking the little-used U.N. principle of a "responsibility to protect" victims if Myanmar continued to bar foreign relief teams.
Solana said such measures could be applied "into a country that has a catastrophe ... and the leaders of the country do not allow the fast and well organised arrival of aid."
EU Development Aid Commissioner Louis Michel, in charge of the 27-nation bloc's humanitarian agency, planned to travel to the region immediately after the emergency meeting to press for better access for relief supplies, but his spokesman said he had not yet been granted a visa to enter Myanmar.
Michel would fly to Bangkok and contacts were under way for him to visit the stricken country, spokesman John Clancy told reporters.
The United Nations said between 1.2 million and 1.9 million people were struggling to survive and up to 100,000 are dead or missing after cyclone Nargis.
Myanmar's reclusive military government has accepted aid from the outside world, including the United Nations, but will not let in foreign logistics teams, who were queuing up in Bangkok hoping to get visas from the Myanmar embassy. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom, writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Paul Taylor)
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