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Myanmar 'blocks aid flight'
08/05/2008 10:01 - (SA)
Yangon, Myanmar - Myanmar's isolationist government blocked United Nations efforts on Thursday to airlift urgently needed food aid to survivors of a cyclone that may have killed more than 100 000 people, officials said.
Paul Risley, a spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme in Bangkok, said three flights were waiting to leave Dubai, Bangladesh and Thailand with about 50 US tons of high-energy biscuits. A scheduled Thai Airways cargo flight was likely to carry some biscuits later on Thursday.
He said WFP was in "constant touch" with the military junta to seek flight clearance for the first major airlift of international aid. A handful of smaller shipments from neighbouring countries arrived earlier in the week.
Earlier, a statement from WFP in Washington indicated approval for the airlift had been given, saying the planes were scheduled to land in Yangon early on Thursday.
Myanmar's state media said Cyclone Nargis killed at least 22 980 people and left 42 119 missing, but a top US diplomat said on Wednesday more than 100 000 may have died.
Myanmar's generals, traditionally paranoid about foreign influence, issued an appeal for international assistance after the storm struck on Saturday. They have since dragged their feet on issuing visas to relief staffers even as survivors faced hunger, disease and flooding in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta.
"We are in constant discussion with them in Yangon, and we expect to receive clearance," Risley said.
"It is enough of a challenge that visas are being held up for bringing in experienced international relief workers, but it is specially frustrating that critically needed food aid is being held up," he said.
The London-based human rights group Amnesty International said some donors were delaying aid for fear it would be siphoned off to the army.
Unscrupulous elements 'spreading rumours'
WFP's regional director, Anthony Banbury, indicated the United Nations had similar concerns.
"We will not just bring our supplies to an airport, dump it and take off," he said. "This is one reason why there is a hold up now, because we are going to bring in not just supplies but a lot of capacity to go with them to make sure the supplies get to the people."
Myanmar's state television on Thursday showed Prime Minister Lt Gen Thein Sein distributing food packages to the sick and injured in the delta and soldiers dropping food over villages. The date of the distribution was not given.
Navy vessels from India and planes from Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Laos and Bangladesh had arrived in recent days with medicine, candles, instant noodles, raincoats and other relief supplies, it said.
State radio said "unscrupulous elements" in Yangon were spreading rumours of an impending earthquake, a second cyclone and looting in the country's largest city. Residents say some looting has occurred at markets and stores.
It appeared the regime was trying to both calm the population and stop any gatherings that might turn into political agitation against widely detested military rule.
Although most Yangon residents were preoccupied with trying to restore their lives, activists using the cover of an almost-total power outage have written fresh graffiti on overpasses.
The graffiti include "X" marks - a symbol for voting "no" in a referendum on Saturday on a new military-backed constitution. Voting has been postponed until May 24 in Yangon, some outlying areas and parts of the delta due to the storm's destruction.
Entire villages in the Irrawaddy delta were still submerged from the storm, and bloated corpses could be seen stuck in the mangroves. Some survivors stripped clothes off the dead. People wailed as they described the horror of the torrent swept ashore by the cyclone.
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