World should use "all means" for Myanmar aid: EU

By David Brunnstrom and Ingrid Melander

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The international community should use all possible means to get aid through to victims of Myanmar's cyclone despite the reluctance of the military junta, the European Union's foreign policy chief said on Tuesday.

The United Nations says more than 1.5 million people are struggling to survive and up to 100,000 are dead or missing after cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar on May 2. Spain said failure to allow aid in could amount to a crime against humanity.

Foreign aid has only trickled into the devastated Irrawaddy Delta of former Burma because its secretive military rulers have so far largely barred international relief operations.

"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," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters as EU aid ministers began an emergency meeting on Myanmar in Brussels.

Asked if aid could be flown in without the approval of the Myanmar authorities, 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 aid teams.

The United Nations recognized the concept in 2005 to protect civilians when their governments could or would not do so, even if this meant intervention that violated sovereignty.

But U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs John Holmes said last week that "confrontation" with the military junta would be unhelpful.

"CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY"

Spain's secretary of state for European affairs, Diego Lopez Garrido, said blocking delivery of assistance would be tantamount to "a crime against humanity". But the world should first try to reason with Myanmar's leadership, he said, urging caution to avoid aggravating the situation.

Aid agency Oxfam expressed some doubts on getting aid through without authorization. "If you force things in, it can quite often have a negative impact," spokesman Alexander Woollcombe told Reuters.

"At best air drops can only be partial and give the illusion that the situation is addressed," he said, adding the focus should be on getting aid teams in quickly.

A draft statement prepared ahead of Tuesday's meeting said development ministers would "call on the Burmese government to offer free and unfettered access to international humanitarian experts and to facilitate the flow of aid," an EU official said.

"After the 2004 tsunami, we were able to prevent further deaths, but now there is a danger that tens of thousands more people could die because we don't have access to them," German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said.

EU Development and Aid Commissioner Louis Michel 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.