Myanmar junta distributes aid

2008-05-10 22:04

Yangon - Myanmar's military regime distributed international aid on Saturday but plastered the boxes with names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief effort for last week's devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise.

The United Nations sent in three more planes and several trucks loaded with aid even though the junta took over its first two shipments. The government agreed to let a US cargo plane bring in supplies on Monday, but foreign disaster experts were still being barred entry.

In what a spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme described as "basically good news," aid flown in Saturday on two flights was released to agencies that brought it in. A day earlier, two planeloads of supplies flown in by WFP was impounded in what appeared to be a procedural wrangle.

State-run television continuously ran images of top generals - including the junta leader, Senior General Than Shwe - handing out boxes of aid to survivors at elaborate ceremonies.

One box bore the name of Lt Gen Myint Swe, a rising star in the government hierarchy, in bold letters that overshadowed a smaller label reading: "Aid from the Kingdom of Thailand."

"We have already seen regional commanders putting their names on the side of aid shipments from Asia, saying this was gift from them and then distributing it in their region," said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, which campaigns for human rights and democracy in the country.

"It is not going to areas where it is most in need," he said in London.

Thousands dead, many more missing

State media say 23 335 people died and 37 019 are missing from Cyclone Nargis, which submerged entire villages in the Irrawaddy delta. International aid organizations say the death toll could climb to more than 100 000 as conditions worsen.

The UN estimates 1.5 million to 2 million people have been severely affected and has voiced concern about the disposal of bodies.

With phone lines down, roads blocked and electricity networks destroyed, it is nearly impossible to reach isolated areas in the delta, complicated by the lack of experienced international aid workers and equipment.

But the junta has refused to grant access to foreign experts, saying it will only accept donations from foreign charities and governments, and then will deliver the aid on its own.

Farmaner said the world needs to move to deliver aid directly to victims in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

"People we are speaking to in Burma say aid must be delivered anyway even if the regime doesn't give permission. We have had a week to convince the regime to behave reasonably, and they are still blocking aid. So the international community needs to wake up and take bolder steps," he said.

But aid providers are unlikely to pursue unilateral deliveries like airdrops because of the diplomatic firestorm that it could set off.

So far, relief workers have reached 220 000 cyclone victims, only a small fraction of the number of people affected, the Red Cross said Friday. Three Red Cross aid flights loaded with shelter kits and other emergency supplies landed Friday without incident.

More shipments seized

But the government still has two planeloads of high-energy biscuits - enough to feed 95 000 people - it seized from shipments sent by the World Food Programme.

The cargoes of two plane that landed on Saturday, carrying supplies for the WFP and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, were handed over to the agencies after being offloaded, WFP spokesperson Marcus Prior said in Bangkok, Thailand.

The WFP's material, which included generators, was being stored at the airport while the agency decides where it can best be utilised, he said. The fate of the previous seized shipments, which remain at the airport under government control, was still being negotiated.

Further WFP relief flights were in the works, he added.

Despite the seizure, WFP was sending three more planes Saturday from Dubai, Cambodia and Italy even though those could be confiscated, too.

"We are working around the clock with the authorities to ensure the kind of access that we need to ensure it goes to people that need it most," WFP spokesperson Marcus Prior said in Bangkok, Thailand.

- AP