Three children from Burma to receive medical treatment in ČR

Prague, July 19 (CTK) - Three children from Burma, aged 18 months, eight and nine years, arrived in Prague Thursday to be treated in Czech hospitals within the Medevac humanitarian programme.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, who returned from a visit to Burma tonight, brought the small patients with him aboard a government special plane.

The children, who are accompanied by their parents, suffer from serious heart disorders. They will be operated on in Prague's Motol hospital.

Such operations would not be possible in Burma that lacks both experts and the necessary medical equipment.

"Burmese hospitals are quite outdated," Schwarzenberg said.

"We were in a hospital in Rangun where several patients were offered to us. We selected three children who would not survive without the operation," Czech cardiologist Tibor Klein said after the arrival.

The Medevac programme is mainly aimed at seriously ill children from the countries struck by disasters or war conflicts who have no chance of medical treatment at home.

However, adults use the programme, too. At the beginning of July, five Libyans, who were wounded in the civil war, arrived in the Czech Republic for the treatment.

The Medevac programme was launched in 1993 to help people from Bosnia and Herzegovina and then from Kosovo.

The health, interior, foreign and defence ministries are cooperating within the project.

Over 150 patients from various countries have been treated in the Czech Republic so far within Medevac.

In June 2011, the Czech government approved that humanitarian aid be extended to North Africa as well.

Burma is one of the world's poorest countries. The military junta, which governed the country from 1962, formally transferred power to a civilian government last March that started implementing democratic reforms. However, critics say military circles are still controlling the government.