Myanmar regime 'stealing aid'

2008-05-13 19:41

Yangon - The UN said on Tuesday that only a tiny portion of international relief is reaching Myanmar's cyclone victims, amid fears that the country's military regime is hoarding high-quality foreign aid for itself while people make do with rotten food.

"There is obviously still a lot of frustration that this aid effort hasn't picked up pace" 10 days after the cyclone hit, said Richard Horsey, the spokesperson for the UN humanitarian operation in Bangkok, the capital of neighbouring Thailand.

Cyclone Nargis devastated Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta on May 2-3, leaving about 62 000 people dead or missing according to the government count. The UN has suggested the death toll is likely to be more than 100 000.

With their homes washed away and large tracts of land under water, some 2 million survivors - mostly poor rice farmers - are living in abject misery, facing disease and starvation.

The UN said the World Food Programme is getting in 20% of the food needed because of bottlenecks, logistics problems and government-imposed restrictions.

"That is a characterisation of the programme as a whole. We are not reaching enough people quickly enough," Horsey said.

The survivors are packed into Buddhist monasteries or camping in the open, drinking water contaminated by faecal matter, with dead bodies and animal carcasses floating around. Food and medicine are scarce.

Controlling aid

The military - which has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1962 - has taken control of most aid sent by other countries including the United States.

The regime told a US military commander who delivered the first American shipment on Monday that storm victims' basic needs are being fulfilled - and that "skillful humanitarian workers are not necessary".

But the junta's words and actions have only served to bolster complaints that the military is appropriating the aid for itself.

A longtime foreign resident of Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, told the AP in Bangkok by telephone that angry government officials have complained to him about the military misappropriating aid.

He said the officials told him that quantities of the high-energy biscuits rushed into Myanmar on the WFP's first flights were sent to a military warehouse.

They were exchanged by what the officials said were "tasteless and low-quality" biscuits produced by the Industry Ministry to be handed out to cyclone victims, the foreign resident said.

He said it was not known what was happening to the high quality food - whether it was being sold on the black market or consumed by the military.

Mouldy rice

However, the WFP said it had not heard of its supplies disappearing.

"We've had no reports whatsoever about any incidents of this kind," Marcus Prior, a WFP spokesperson, said in Bangkok.

Still, many survivors said they were either not getting any aid or were being handed rotten, mouldy rice.

A government spokesman did not immediately respond to an e-mailed query from the AP seeking a comment. Also, the allegations were impossible to confirm independently because of the massive restrictions imposed by the junta on journalists.

- AP