UN begs Burma to accept more help

5/12/2008 - 4:04:01 PM

The UN pleaded with Burma’s secretive government today to open its doors to foreign experts who could help up to two million cyclone victims facing disease and starvation.

The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis rose today by more than 3,000 to 31,938 with 29,770 missing.

But UN Assistant secretary-general Catherine Bragg said it could be 62,000 to 100,000, “or possibly even higher than that.”

“It’s still a very serious situation,” said a UN spokesman.

“There are up to two million people in urgent need of assistance. Assistance is getting through,” but not fast enough, he said.

He said the four key requirements in a crisis like this – clean drinking water, shelter, medical support and food – were sorely lacking.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said that rice prices in Rangoon have surged 50% since the cyclone, which struck as paddy farmers were harvesting the dry season crop that accounts for 20% of the annual production.

Although international assistance has started trickling in, the authoritarian government has barred most foreign experts who are experienced in managing humanitarian crises.

“The authorities of the country need to open up to an international relief effort. There aren’t enough boats, trucks, helicopters in the country to run the relief effort of the scale we need,” said the UN spokesman. “It’s urgent that the authorities do open themselves up.”

Meanwhile the first US aid plane was allowed into the country

The unarmed military C-130 cargo plane, packed with supplies, flew out of the Thai air force base of Utapao and landed in Rangoon, capping prolonged negotiations to persuade the government to accept US help.

Several Burma Cabinet ministers, military officers and the top US diplomat in Burma, Shari Villarosa, greeted the plane.

A government spokesman said the aid, which was transferred to Burmese army trucks, would be ferried by air force helicopters to the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta.

Two more US air shipments were scheduled to land tomorrow.

The junta has made a huge concession in letting the US – the fiercest critic of its human rights record – bring in relief.

The plane carried 28,000 lbs of supplies including mosquito nets, blankets and water.

Also on board was Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of the US military in the Pacific, who will try to personally negotiate with the junta for a larger US role in providing relief.

A Marine spokesman said 11,000 American servicemen and four ships were in the region for an annual military exercise that could be harnessed to help the mercy mission.

Three ships in the Bay of Bengal were sailing closer to Burma on today, ready to aid cyclone victims if allowed.

In the Irrawaddy delta, people were surviving in miserable conditions, including hundreds cramped in monasteries with little access to food. Others camped in the open, drinking dirty water contaminated by human faeces or dead bodies and animal carcasses.

“The lives of thousands of cyclone survivors are at extreme risk,” aid group World Vision said.

“Displaced people are living in appalling conditions in makeshift shelters and camps where overcrowding and unsanitary conditions are prevalent,” it said. Children – many of them orphans – are suffering from fever, diarrhoea and respiratory infections, it said.

Heavy rains were forecast this week, which would further hinder aid delivery but also provide drinking water.

Thai prime minister Samak Sundaravej wrote to his Burmese counterpart today, urging the junta to issue more visas. But the junta replied that visas for foreigners would be considered on a case-by-case basis.

The reclusive junta insists it will handle the aid distribution itself, through its feared military, which has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1962.

Many people have complained that they are getting rotting rice while soldiers are keeping the best food for themselves.

“The government is very controlling,” said U Patanyale, the abbot of a monastery in Kyi Bui Khaw village.

“Those who want to give directly to the victims get into trouble. They have to give to the government or do it secretly. They follow international aid trucks everywhere. They don’t want others to take credit. That’s the Burma government,” he said.