Aid workers ready for Burma breakthrough

5/26/2008 - 1:06:51 PM

Foreign aid workers were today poised to reach the more than a million Burma cyclone victims still waiting for their first assistance, providing the military government gives them permission.

Burma’s leaders have virtually barred foreign aid workers and international agencies since the storm.

But after meeting junta chief general Than Shwe, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the reclusive leader agreed that international aid workers will be able “to freely reach the needy people.”

Aid organisations immediately began planning to send previously banned teams into the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta and resubmit visa applications for staff abroad that had earlier been rejected.

“Now, if we can get these experts out, we can start putting in place the water purification machines, warehousing and the other things that we need and this operation can quickly scale up,” Richard Horsey, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian operation in Bangkok said.

“By quickly scale up, I mean that in the coming days we can start to reach all of those that need to be reached. that’s the aim and we aim to do that as quickly as possible.”

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it has started negotiations with the government over allowing three teams that include a total of six international aid workers into the delta.

“We’re hoping to get those teams in the field to start providing fresh water to the people,” said a spokeswoman.

On the roads leading from Rangoon to the worst-affected areas in the delta, however, cyclone survivors said they had not heard anything about the world’s efforts to increase aid to them – or seen any signs of more government help.

Aye Shwe, 52, lives in a bamboo and thatch hut with his family of eight by the roadside in Pyapon.

“I have no hope that the help will come,” he said. “We live hand-to-mouth. We have no buffaloes, no paddy fields.” The only assistance he has received, he said, came from private citizens.

The UN has estimated of the 2.4 million people affected by the storm, about 42% had received some kind of emergency assistance. But of the two million people living in the 15 worst-affected townships, only 23% had been reached.

The International Red Cross said at least 1.5 million people, many of them hungry and ailing, remained homeless in the rain-swept delta.

Ban’s mission to knock down Burma’s barriers climaxed yesterday when donor nations offered more than £50 million to help the country recover from the cyclone.

But they warned the ruling generals they will not fully open their wallets until they are given access to the hardest-hit areas.

Issuing of visas to aid workers hit a snag Monday when the Burma Embassy in Bangkok – the main gateway to Burma – temporarily closed down its visa section after a fire ripped through part of its main building. The section was reopened a few hours later.

Burma’s leaders – and potential donors – continued to take a guarded tone.

Burma’s Prime Minister general Thein Sein said only civilian vessels could take part in the aid operation and that they would have to go through Rangoon.

That seemed to scupper plans for US, British and French warships loaded with humanitarian supplies to join in the relief operation. The ships have been off Burma’s coast for more than a week.

The French government said it plans to unload 1,000 tons of humanitarian supplies aboard its vessel, the Mistral, in Thailand and turn it over to the United Nations for transfer to Burma.

Burma’s leaders have virtually barred foreign aid workers and international agencies from the delta because they fear a large influx of foreigners could lead to political interference in their internal affairs.

The junta is also hesitant to have its people see aid arriving directly from countries like the United States, which it has long treated as a hostile power seeking to invade or colonise.

“It remains a race against the clock and the logistical challenges grow with the rain. What reaches the cyclone-devastated areas can’t get there fast enough, and what does get through is not enough,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.