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Confusion over Myanmar aid
08/05/2008 14:03 - (SA)
Yangon, Myanmar - Myanmar's isolationist regime on Thursday gave clearance for the first major international airlift carrying aid to survivors of a cyclone that may have killed more than 100 000 people, officials said.
But it was not allowing US military planes to fly in critical relief goods and stalling on visas for UN teams urgently seeking entry to insure aid is delivered to the victims.
A UN official said one airplane from Italy arrived in Yangon while three more would land later on Thursday. The official did not wish to be named because she was not authorised to speak to the media.
Four planes loaded with high-energy biscuits, medicine, and other supplies had waited for the last two days while frustrated UN officials negotiated with the military regime to allow the material into the Southeast Asian nation.
Eric John, the US ambassador to Thailand, told reporters that US and Thai authorities earlier believed they had permission from Myanmar to land US military C-130s. But Myanmar officials later made it clear that this was not the case.
John said it was not clear if they had reversed an earlier decision or if there was a misunderstanding.
Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej offered to negotiate on Washington's behalf to persuade the junta to accept US aid.
Myanmar's state media said Cyclone Nargis killed at least 22 980 people and left 42 119 missing, mostly in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta. But a top US diplomat said on Wednesday the toll could go up to more than 100 000.
'The government is not helping us'
The UN World Health Organisation has received reports of malaria outbreaks in the worst-affected area, and fears of waterborne illnesses surfacing due to dirty water and poor sanitation also remained a concern, said Poonam Khetrapal Singh, deputy director of WHO's Southeast Asia office in New Delhi.
"Safe water, sanitation, safe food. These are things that we feel are priorities at the moment," she said.
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 workers even as survivors faced hunger, disease and flooding.
Even near Yangon, stricken villagers complained that they had received no government assistance and were relying on Buddhist monasteries, which have been helping the public cope with the disaster.
"The government is not helping us. No aid is coming. There is no money, no rice," said Mu Sanda, one of some 50 people huddled in a monastery dining room converted into an evacuation centre in Kyauktan, 25km southeast of Yangon.
In Yangon itself, the roof of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was blown off and she was living in the dark after the electricity connection to her dilapidated lakeside bungalow was snapped in the cyclone, a neighbour said.
The detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate was using candles at night since she had no generator in her home, where she is being held under house arrest, said the neighbour, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Even China, Myanmar's closest ally, urged the military junta to work with the international community. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said China would give 30 million yuan in aid in addition to an initial one million US dollars.
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