WASHINGTON, May 22 (Reuters) - Myanmar's decision to allow a U.S. aid official to tour the Cyclone Nargis disaster zone marked a small opening by the military government, but real help for millions of victims requires more expert access, U.S. officials said on Thursday.
William Berger, head of a U.S. Disaster Assistance Response Team for Myanmar, had joined other donor government representatives and aid workers for a three-day Myanmar government-organized tour of the Irrawaddy Delta area.
"We see this as an opening, but it is not sufficient," said Ky Luu, director of foreign disaster assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
He told reporters that reaching all of the estimated 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone would require "tripling or quadrupling" aid experts and relief supplies.
U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Berger would use any meetings with officials of the former Burma to press for wider access for outside experts to assess needs.
"We're glad that he's able to at least go and make some small observations on the situation, but that certainly isn't the equivalent of him either being allowed in on his own or collectively with the DART team to do what they would normally do in this situation," he said.
While Berger visited Myanmar, the rest of his 10-member team of relief experts remained in Thailand awaiting visas, another official said.
U.S. emergency relief, which totaled $20.5 million as of Wednesday, would continue to flow to Myanmar through NGO partners and the United States would attend a weekend donors conference in Myanmar, Casey said.
But he added: "Before we can really offer any kind of additional assistance, we and other donors need some kind of independent assessment of the situation."
Myanmar's secretive ruling military has limited access by outside experts to the disaster zone since the May 2 storm and sea surge left nearly 134,000 dead or missing, but some foreign aid groups have been working with their local staff and community volunteers to reach victims.
"People are getting supplies to a fraction of the entire group of affected people -- about 25 to 30 percent of the affected people," said International Rescue Committee Chairwoman Anne Richard.
"We are getting people in but we have to get more experts in," she told reporters in Washington. (Reporting by Paul Eckert; Editing by Eric Walsh)
Got it from here.
Cyclone Nargis
May the generations learn how to protect from the disaster...
May the generations learn how to work together as Burmese
Citizens, as we do now for the Cyclone Nargis's relief.
May the generations know the world is with us..........
May the generations know the darkness can't overcome the Light....
May the generations realize that they are part of history......
May the sky of Burma free from darkness cloud.
We shall not forget this sadness movement.
** You can almost find ever thing here and here about Cyclone Nargis relief works.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
US, aid groups hope to widen small Myanmar opening
Trauma risk for Burma aid workers
By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Bangkok
For the aid agencies who have struggled for more than two weeks to get relief supplies to the victims of Cyclone Nargis, there is now a new factor that could compromise their ability to operate effectively.
Their staff are exhausted.
What makes this disaster different from others before is the fact that those trying to deal with this emergency have had to rely so heavily on local staff.
Burma's initial decision not to allow foreign relief workers in, and to prevent foreigners already in Burma from entering the Irrawaddy Delta, meant the international relief organisations were forced to tear up the rulebook and instead do the best they could with the resources they already had in place in the country.
Many of these Burmese staff are experienced operators who know the area well, but the pressure on them has been relentless.
One Burmese relief worker working with Christian Aid said she has been working non-stop since the cyclone.
"How can we take a day off when we know how many of our fellow citizens our suffering?" she asked.
The charity says its local staff feel all the responsibility is on their shoulders. Another relief worker lost his wife and three sons in the cyclone.
"He has not stopped working since the cyclone struck," his colleague said. "He has thrown himself into helping others as a way of coping with his grief."
'Shocked and numb'
Experience from other disasters suggests that people who identify more readily with the victims are at greater risk of developing psychological problems.
The symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in one society might be quite different from those in other cultures, who might express stress differently
Dr Peter Salama,
Unicef
Local staff, likely to identify more readily with the victims than those from overseas, are more likely to have higher rates of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Those who deal with traumatic events like handling dead bodies also have a higher likelihood of developing psychological problems.
Research into the aftermath of the Kosovo war in 1999 suggests two groups of relief workers are most at risk of developing stress-related problems.
First time volunteers who may be wholly unprepared for the job, who do not know what to expect or who have unrealistic expectations of their ability to make an impact are the most at risk.
The other group is the more experienced experts from overseas, who travel from disaster to disaster and who as a result may have built up cumulative amounts of stress.
Doctors say those facing extremes of stress often change their behaviour in an effort to find a new internal equilibrium.
"People feel shocked and numb, fearful and anxious, sometimes helpless and hopeless," said Professor Richard Williams from the University of Glamorgan in South Wales. "They feel guilty. Sometimes they feel angry."
As well as emotional reactions, there are psychological reactions to look out for, like poor concentration or poor memory.
Some lose confidence. Others feel they have to be over-vigilant. People regress into less mature patterns of behaviour.
"The key here is not that you have bad reactions, it's how quickly you get over them," the professor said. "If these feelings persist for a few weeks then it's worth taking much greater notice of them."
Although there has been a fair amount of research in recent years into the effects of severe stress on expatriate relief workers in disaster zones, there has been less work done on how local staff are affected.
Other studies have suggested that in Asia stress often triggers psychosomatic disorders - people start to display physical symptoms.
"We will need to look out for this when trying to help staff working in Myanmar [Burma]," said Dr Peter Salama, Chief of Health at Unicef.
"The symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in one society might be quite different from those in other cultures who might express stress differently."
'Watchful waiting'
The Australian charity CARE International is already looking at how to support those of its staff who have been working in the delta for the last two weeks without a break.
A family sit in a tent on 20 May 2008 (Image: Unicef)
Survivors could also face stress-related difficulties, experts say
Its representative in Rangoon, Peter Newson, says they are aware these people will need a lot of psycho-social support.
"We have to be very careful, though, to tailor that support to the Myanmar [Burmese] culture in order to make it effective," he says.
That means encouraging them to talk to monks, to their families and to each other. In some cases writing down their experiences too.
"And that's not only important for our staff," Mr Newson said. "It will be important for the survivors in the delta too."
Dr Salama says when it comes to trying to reduce the stress on the front line staff, there are "common sense responses".
These include making telecommunications equipment available so it is easier to call home, setting up peer to peer networks so people can discuss with others what they have been through, teaching stress management techniques and creating a culture where people can talk more readily.
The doctors agree it is not unusual to experience some or all of the symptoms of severe or acute psychiatric trauma after dealing with a disaster like this.
But these days, according to Professor Williams, the approach that is often taken is to undertake what he calls "a month of watchful waiting or psychological first aid".
"We give people a lot of support, help them to return to a more normal set of arrangements as quickly as possible," he said.
"With that, most people will soon begin to recover and their stress levels will start to come down. If after a month they are still highly stressed then that is something to be taken more seriously."
As Burma agrees to allow more outside experts in from neighbouring countries, the pressure on the aid agencies' local staff should begin to ease.
But such is the scale of the disaster and the size of the task still to be done, the stress on front line staff and others will still be considerable for many weeks and months to come, making it all the more important that agencies have plans in place to recognise and deal with the problem.
Got it from here.
ေအာက္မွာထားမွာက ဒီစာကိုဖ်က္ျပီးေရး
Hollywood celebrities urge human rights in Myanmar
Stars including Will Ferrell and Jennifer Aniston call for release of the Southeast Asian country's Nobel-winning Aung San Suu Kyi and establishment of democracy there.
By Richard C. Paddock, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 23, 2008
Dozens of Hollywood celebrities have joined together to call attention to the repressive military regime in Myanmar and the plight of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent more than a decade under house arrest.
In more than 30 public-service spots that are being released online daily this month, actors and artists including Will Ferrell, Sarah Silverman, Ellen Page and Sylvester Stallone call for Suu Kyi's release and the establishment of democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
"A human rights crisis is happening right now in the Southeast Asian country of Burma," Ferrell says in the first of the series. "Every now and again a single person or event captures the imagination and inspiration of the world. This moment belongs to Burma and to Aung San Suu Kyi."
Myanmar has been ruled by military regimes for nearly all of the past 46 years. Suu Kyi's political party won a landslide victory in a 1990 election and she was slated to become the country's next leader, but the regime threw out the results and arrested her. Suu Kyi, who will turn 63 next month, is the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Most recently, the reclusive regime has come under harsh international criticism for refusing to accept foreign aid for victims of Cyclone Nargis, which killed at least 78,000 earlier this month and left hundreds of thousands more without adequate food, water or shelter.
The Web-based celebrity campaign, called "Burma: It Can't Wait," began May 1 but has been overshadowed by the cyclone, which struck Myanmar two days later. Organizers hope to raise Myanmar's profile in the same way that activists have put Chinese control of Tibet and the Darfur genocide on the map.
Another goal of the project is to sign up a million new members for the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a Washington-based organization that promotes democratic change in Myanmar.
The videos can be found at uscampaignforburma.org.
Some of the spots are sketches that try to draw attention to the troubled nation by injecting humor, such as one featuring Jennifer Aniston and a recalcitrant Woody Harrelson, who refuses to leave his trailer. "I'm not coming out until Burma is free," he shouts.
Others are serious, such as one directed by Anjelica Huston in which comedian Eddie Izzard praises the young people of Myanmar who led protests against the regime last year. "We must use our freedom to help them get theirs," he says.
Huston said in an interview that she took part in the project to highlight the injustices of the regime. "I am particularly drawn to the idea of this small, extraordinarily beautiful country that has been suppressed in this terrible way for so long and the fact that the leader of the democratic party has been shut up under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years," Huston said.
The campaign has attracted such celebrities as director Judd Apatow, Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona, actor Joseph Fiennes, singer Sheryl Crow, action star Steven Seagal, actress Felicity Huffman and producer Norman Lear.
One 90-second video features Iranian artist Davood, who is shown in time-elapsed photography painting a portrait of Suu Kyi. Only at the end does it become clear that she is wearing handcuffs.
In another, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" star Eric Szmanda and alumna Jorja Fox play a card game called "Forced Labor," in which he holds the cards of a Burmese soldier and she is dealt the hand of a civilian, who suffers rape, torture and murder.
"I don't think I like this game," Fox says.
"No one does," Szmanda replies.
Szmanda, who visited refugees along the Thai border and briefly crossed into Myanmar last year, said he was stunned by the heart-wrenching accounts of civilians who escaped the regime.
"Something came over me while I was there. I didn't feel a sense of pity, I felt a sense of urgency," he said. "I had a chance to meet a lot of former political prisoners who are now living on the border of Thailand. It's unbelievable what some of them had to do endure for nine or 10 years."
Actress Rosanna Arquette, who appears in a spot condemning the destruction of 3,200 villages by the regime, said she was moved to participate in the project because of the plight of Suu Kyi.
"She has done so much and she is still a prisoner," Arquette said in an interview. "And the world doesn't really know. There are no Americans there to help. It's really like a creepy secret."
Jack Healey, the former head of Amnesty International who helped raise that group's profile through celebrity concerts, had a key role in organizing the Burma project. He said one of his goals is to give Suu Kyi the kind of profile that Nelson Mandela had while he was imprisoned in South Africa.
"We want her to be the Mandela of her time," he said. "Maybe by the end we will all know who she is."
Fanista, a new "social commerce" shopping website, underwrote and produced many of the spots and offers customers a 10% rebate that they can donate to the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
In his spot, Stallone talks about his fourth "Rambo" movie, which was released earlier this year and casts the Myanmar dictatorship as the villain. The film depicts "atrocity de-mining," in which civilians are forced to walk ahead of the army at gunpoint to uncover hidden land mines. The regime banned the movie.
"While it is flattering to be part of a movie that is giving the Burmese people hope and it is cool to say 'I'm banned in Burma,' these people need real hope," Stallone says in the 80-second spot. "Let's do something we can be proud about."
ASEAN Warns Burma to Boost Confidence Ahead of Donors Meeting
By Ron Corben
Bangkok, Thailand
22 May 2008
The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) says that claims by Burma's
government that rescue efforts from cyclone Nargis were over was undermining international confidence with the total death toll still unknown. As Ron Corben reports from Bangkok the ASEAN chief's comments came as the United Nations secretary general met with Burma's Prime Minister in efforts to speed up relief efforts and ahead of a donors meeting on Sunday.Association of South East Asian Nations Secretary-General, Surin Pitsuwan, speaking to reporters Thursday, said claims by Burma's military that relief efforts were over and for reconstruction to go ahead was undermining international confidence.
Mr. Surin said international agencies were still saying the full extent of the disaster has yet to be "fully verified."
"This discrepancy is a confidence gap that has to be verified, that has to be reconciled because that is the gap that is going to create confidence or lack of confidence for the claim that the rescue and relief phase is over," he said. "The shared concern is we don't know the extent of the damage, we don't know the numbers of the dead, the numbers of the missing or the numbers of the displaced."
Burmese authorities say the cyclone that hit May 2 and May 3 killed an estimated 78,000 people, and that 56,000 others are still missing. Some 2.5 million people remain in need of critical aid and the United Nations says just 30 percent of those in need have received assistance.
ASEAN foreign ministers reached agreement this week with Burma for greater access for regional assistance. ASEAN and the U.N. formed the "coalition of the mercy" with the purpose of stepping up relief. Burma's military has been widely criticized for restricting access to international aid agencies to the worst affected regions.
On Thursday U.N. Secretary, General Ban Ki-moon, met with Burma's Prime Minister, Thein Sein, to press the military to open the country to greater access to international relief. Mr. Ban is due to meet with Burma's senior General Than Shwe Friday.
Mr. Ban's visit comes ahead of a donor's conference scheduled for Sunday. Burma says the total cost from the cyclone now stands at $11 billion.
Non-government aid organizations are calling on the international community to support the ASEAN initiative to assist Burma by way of the donor's meeting. Dr. Jermail Mahmood is president of Mercy Malaysia.
"ASEAN must know that it is not alone and it must know that it has the support from international aid agencies who have the experience behind them to play an active role in ensuring that the humanitarian response imperative comes first and beyond that the recovery and reconstruction as well," said Dr. Mahmood.
But human rights groups are concerned aid funds are accounted for and meet international standards amid fears of corruption. Debbie Stothardt, is spokeswomen for the rights group, the Alternative ASEAN Network. She says transparency and accountability will be foremost in donor's minds.
"What we need to see from the aid community is a very strong, united response not just a call for money but to actually insist that rules and criteria be adopted," she said.
Aid organizations say Burma is allowing more aid to be flown in planes carrying emergency supplies, including from the United States. But they say more relief is needed given the scale of the disaster.
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Ban Ki-moon to meet Burma leader
P.S: Please go to the original link if you would like to see a clip.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to meet with Burma's military leader, Gen Than Shwe, after touring cyclone-hit areas of the country.
On a tour of the Irrawaddy Delta, Mr Ban flew over flooded rice fields and destroyed villages and visited a relief camp set up by the government.
Mr Ban said his mission was to urge the Burma's rulers to accept more aid.
About 78,000 people have died and another 56,000 are missing from Cyclone Nargis which struck on 2 May.
'Show camp'
"I am so sorry, but don't lose your hope," Mr Ban told a woman at the Kyonday relief camp in the Irrawaddy Delta.
A UN official privately called it a "show camp", says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan, in Burma with the secretary general.
"The United Nations is here to help you. The whole world is trying to save Myanmar [Burma]," Mr Ban said, looking into her blue tent.
Mr Ban told reporters he was "very upset" by the devastation he had seen.
"Many human lives have been lost, houses are destroyed, roads and streets are washed away, and all rice paddies flooded with water. I'm very much concerned. These farmers may lose their planting season," he said.
But in a meeting earlier with Burma's Prime Minister Thein Sein, Mr Ban was told that the relief phase of the aid operation was over and that the government was now focusing on reconstruction, a UN official said.
Mr Ban told the prime minister that the disaster was beyond Burma's ability to handle on its own and that foreign aid experts should be rushed javascript:void(0)
Publish Postin.
"The United Nations and all the international community stand ready to help to overcome the tragedy," Mr Ban is quoted as saying.
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UN chief tours still-flooded Myanmar delta
KYONDAH, Myanmar (AP) — U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon flew over Myanmar's flooded Irrawaddy delta on Thursday, where the ravages of a cyclone stretched as far as the eye could see: Villages were empty of life, flattened huts dissolved into vast areas of water and people perched on rooftops.
Nearly three weeks after the storm, life was grim even at a refugee camp showcased by Myanmar's junta during the carefully scripted tour.
"I'm very upset by what I've seen," Ban said, visibly shaken by the firsthand look at the devastation, even though the areas to which he was taken were far from those worst-hit by Cyclone Nargis.
Before his helicopter flyover, Ban had said he was bringing a "message of hope," to Myanmar's people following the May 2-3 cyclone, which claimed more than 78,000 lives, according to government figures, and left more than 56,000 missing.
Myanmar's military rulers have been eager to show they have the relief effort under control despite spurning the help of foreign disaster experts, and much of the tour was taken up by statistics-laden lectures to make that point.
The U.N. says up to 2.5 million cyclone survivors face hunger, homelessness and potential outbreaks of deadly diseases, especially in the low-lying areas of the Irrawaddy Delta close to the sea. It estimates that aid has reached only about 25 percent of victims.
The four-hour tour Thursday included two stops — one at Mawlamyinegyun, an aid distribution point stocked with bags of rice and cartons of bottled drinking water and the other at a makeshift camp where 500 people huddled in tents in the village of Kyondah, about 45 miles southwest of Yangon.
Still, the destruction in the region was relatively mild compared to Labutta and Bogalay to the south, where the Red Cross said rivers and ponds were full of corpses and many people have received no aid. Officials gave no explanation for why Ban was not taken to those areas, where most of the dead and missing were reported.
By contrast, Kyondah — which has electricity and clean water — is somewhat of a showcase and was selected for visits by senior junta members, foreign embassy officials and international aid organizations last week.
At the camp, the secretary-general was given a detailed explanation by Maj. Gen. Lun Thi of how Kyondah, formerly a cluster of seven villages with a population of 5,228, has expertly handled relief efforts. The village had 122 dead and missing, he said.
He displayed charts saying the camp had 300 bags of rice, 64 boxes of instant noodles, 1,500 eggs, 12,000 bottles of drinking water and 1,240 pieces of preserved meat. Also listed were napkins, steel bowls, blankets, T-shirts, tarps and men's and ladies' underwear.
While the general spoke, Ban sat in the front row of an elaborately constructed sitting room where bowls of fruit and soda were served. Ban ate and drank nothing.
Once the lecture was over, Ban strode into the camp, stopping at tents to look in on the homeless families, some with children as young as a day old.
"The whole world is trying to help Myanmar," he told one family in the camp, where inhabitants had cooking pots and blankets that appeared to be new stacked neatly in their tents. Some smiled at him, but said little.
An idea of the storm's destructive force was more obvious from the air.
The two helicopters carrying Ban's party flew over seemingly endless fields surrounded by flood waters, villages with destroyed houses, rivers swollen past their banks, people huddled on rooftops or in makeshift tents, or moving around in boats.
In some areas, the flooding stretched as far as the eye could see, with people living in damaged homes that looked completely cut off.
So far, no one at the U.N. has ventured an estimate of how long the delta is expected to remain submerged. But on Thursday, Ban said he expected the relief operations to be needed for at least six months.
The question of pumps and levees, and whether they could be used to make the flooding less extensive, is an issue U.N. officials say they might raise at a regional aid conference Sunday.
Much of the area is normally planted with rice, but the water level is far too high for that and the paddies are inundated with damaging salt water, U.N. officials said.
The monsoon, bringing seasonal rains, is part of the normal cycle, but doesn't usually cause flooding in the delta, they said.
Heavy rains have followed the cyclone, bringing more flooding and hardship to survivors, but Ban expressed hope the rain might also cleanse the rice paddies of the salt water.
"I praise the will, resilience and the courage of the people of Myanmar. I bring a message of hope for the people of Myanmar," he said.
U.N. officials traveling with Ban said they were discussing with Chinese authorities whether Ban could tour the earthquake zone in Sichuan after leaving Myanmar. The officials requested anonymity, citing protocol.
Such a trip would give Ban a chance to compare the two countries' responses and urge China — Myanmar's biggest ally — to put its weight behind opening the flow of aid workers.
Ban tried to keep political issues off his plate.
Activists called on the U.N. chief to meet with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and seek her release. The Nobel Peace prize laureate has been confined to her Yangon villa for most of the last 18 years and her current period of detention is due to expire Monday. But a meeting with Suu Kyi was not on Ban's official itinerary.
In a meeting earlier Thursday with Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, Ban stressed international aid experts should be rushed in because the crisis is too much for Myanmar to handle alone, according to a U.N. official at the talks.
"The United Nations and all the international community stand ready to help to overcome the tragedy," Ban said.
Thein Sein said the relief phase of the government's operation was ending and that the focus had shifted to reconstruction, according to the U.N. official at the talks who requested anonymity for reasons of protocol.
U.N. official Dan Baker said junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe would meet with Ban on Friday at Naypyitaw. Ban earlier said Than Shwe had refused to take his telephone calls and did not respond to two letters.
Yangon citizens did not seem optimistic that Ban's visit would make a difference.
"Don't just talk, you must take action," said Eain Daw Bar Tha, abbot of a Buddhist monastery on Yangon's outskirts. "The U.N. must directly help the people with helicopters to bring food, clothes and clean water to the really damaged places."
got it form here.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Myanmar Agrees to Allow Aid Efforts by Neighbors
BANGKOK — Myanmar agreed Monday to let its Southeast Asian neighbors help coordinate foreign relief assistance for cyclone victims, bending to international pressure to allow in some more outside aid, Singapore’s foreign minister, George Yeo, said.
“We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can flow into Myanmar,” Mr. Yeo said, speaking at an emergency meeting in Singapore of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, which includes Myanmar.
“Myanmar is also prepared to accept the expertise of international and regional agencies to help in its rehabilitation efforts,” he told a news conference.
But he said the entry of aid workers from countries outside the Southeast Asian bloc would continue to be limited. “We have to look at specific needs — there will not be uncontrolled access,” Mr. Yeo said.
Since the cyclone, Western nations and major relief groups have raised alarm about Myanmar’s refusal to allow in large-scale relief shipments to the estimated 2.5 million survivors in need of aid after of the May 3 cyclone.
Myanmar has permitted a small flow of aid from several nations, including the United States, but relief officials say that this amounts to only 20 percent of the needed supplies. Without more aid, they say, many more people may die of disease and starvation.
Myanmar’s limited concession Monday came as international pressure continued to build from several directions, with the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, warning that the junta could be guilty of “crimes against humanity” if it continued to restrict the supply of aid into the country.
However, despite the international criticism, Myanmar’s foreign minister, Nyan Win, was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters that there had been no delay in accepting aid. “We always welcomed international aid,” he said.
After failing to receive a reply to letters and telephone calls made to the military junta, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was due to travel to Yangon this week in hopes of meeting the country’s leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
More than two weeks after the cyclone, General Shwe emerged from the isolated capital, Naypyidaw, and was shown on Myanmar state media for the first time in public Monday, meeting ministers involved in the rescue effort and touring some affected areas. In addition, the government announced that a three-day mourning period for the cyclone’s victims would begin Tuesday, The Associated Press reported. State television announced that the national flag would be flown at half-mast, beginning at 9 a.m.
State-run television showed General Shwe visiting a refugee camp, checking supplies, patting the heads of babies and shaking hands with survivors. Some of the cyclone victims, surrounded by neat rows of blue tents, clasped their hands and bowed as the general and other senior military officials walked by.
While accepting a limited amount of help, the government has insisted that it can handle the disaster on its own. The televised images were part of a broad propaganda campaign by the government to show its citizens and the outside world that it is in control of the situation.
Mr. Ban has called for a “high-level pledging conference” to deal with the crisis and for cooperation between the United Nations and Southeast Asian countries in overseeing aid delivery.
Mr. Yeo said that Asean would work with the United Nations to hold such a conference in Yangon on May 25 to coordinate aid deliveries. He said that Myanmar had agreed to allow in medical teams from any of its nine neighbors in Asean. Thailand has already sent a contingent of more than 30 medical workers.
In addition, Myanmar has allowed in 50 medical workers from India. China’s Xinhua news agency reported that a team of 50 Chinese medics arrived in Yangon Sunday night.
Mr. Yeo said the Myanmar government estimates losses at $10 billion in the cyclone, which swept through the Irrawaddy Delta and the country’s main city, Yangon, early on the morning of May 3.
Myanmar has raised its official death toll to 78,000.
Representatives of United Nations relief agencies said that some of their supplies were getting into Myanmar but that the authorities were still severely limiting delivery and withholding many visas from foreign relief experts.
The United Nations World Food Program said it had managed to deliver food aid to just 212,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are most in need.
The United Nations and France have naval vessels just outside Myanmar’s territorial waters, and are prepared to deliver supplies directly to affected areas along the coast, but they have not received clearance from the government.
In a column in the French daily Le Monde, Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said the United Nations should intervene by force, or be guilty of cowardice in the eyes of the world.
“What we need to bring is hand-to-hand, heart-to-heart help, not donor conferences with all their bowing and scraping,” he said in an interview with French radio. “In the meantime, people are dying.”
Mr. Yeo rejected the idea of delivery by force. “That will create unnecessary complication,” he said at the news conference. “It will only lead to more suffering for Myanmar people.”
On Saturday, Myanmar’s powerful neighbor and ally, China, said that other countries must show “due respect” to Myanmar in its handling of the disaster within its borders.
“Myanmar is a sovereign country,” said Wang Baodong, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, at a briefing. “In the end, rescue and relief work will have to rely on the Myanmar government and people.”
Seth Mydans reported from Bangkok and Alan Cowell from Paris.
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Saturday, May 17, 2008
Foreigners taken to Myanmar's disaster area
Published: Saturday 17 May 2008 19:01 UTC
Last updated: Saturday 17 May 2008 19:01 UTC
Foreign diplomats and aid workers have been taken for the first time to the disaster area in Myanmar, which was hit by Cyclone Nagris at the beginning of the month. At least 78,000 people were killed in the Irrawaddy delta. The foreign guests were taken by helicopter to the delta, but they said the tour was too quick and too selective to form a proper picture of the situation.
Meanwhile the military regime is under increasing pressure to allow foreign aid workers into the country. US President George W Bush has extended sanctions against the military regime and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called the treatment of the disaster victims "inhumane".
France has also strongly criticised the junta for refusing to allow a French navy ship to enter the country's territorial waters with aid for the victims. The French ambassador to the United Nations says the Myanmar regime is on the verge of committing a crime against humanity.
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Saturday, May 10, 2008
ICRC sends first aid flight for Myanmar victims
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it has provided thousands of prisoners affected by last week's cyclone with drinking water and medical help.
The Swiss-run aid agency says a plane with 35 tonnes of relief goods left Geneva on Friday evening.
Spokesman Marçal Izard said on Saturday that the pumps, generators, water tanks, health care and surgical material are destined for cyclone victims in prisons and labour camps.
Izard said Myanmar's government asked the neutral agency to help. The ICRC has been facilitating family visits to prisoners in the country over the past few years. It has six international staff and 90 local staff in Myanmar.
State media say 23,335 people have died and 37,019 are missing from Cyclone Nargis, which submerged entire villages in the Irrawaddy delta. International aid organisations 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.
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Friday, May 9, 2008
Red Cross workers get visas for Burma
May 10, 2008
SEVEN Red Cross aid workers, including four Australians, have received visas to enter cyclone-hit Burma.
Australian Michael Annear, regional disaster response coordinator who has been in Burma since Tuesday, spoke to international media tonight.
An estimated 1.5 million people have been left homeless by the deadly cyclone Nargis, which has killed an estimated 66,000 people.
Red Cross workers in Burma have had two truckloads of aid supplies arrive, Mr Annear said.
Those aid packs contain hygiene kits, mosquito nets, safe drinking water, some rice, jerry cans and water cleansing tablets.
Mr Annear said those packs will be distributed to aid workers in the worst-hit areas as soon as possible.
"As they are part of the community they are able to see where the greatest need is and really distribute that."
He said aid workers do have setbacks but are doing their best to get supplies out.
Mr Annear said he had not been able to get down to the worst-hit Irrawaddy Delta area.
"But my colleagues there have informed me many of the population are concerned about the situation. There are concerns about shelter.
They are also looking at the Burma Red Cross if we can give water supply to the people, because they are searching for water."
He said the jerry cans and water treatment pills the Red Cross have been supplying had helped.
"Basically they are trying to rebuild their lives. They are working there slowly."
He said the visa process was slow, but more Red Cross workers are expected to arrive every day.
Workers are being prioritised because of the lengthy process.
Flights carrying supplies into Rangoon had been booked every day, he said.
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US official: 1 shipment to be allowed to Myanmar
By FOSTER KLUG – 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The governing military junta in Myanmar has agreed to allow a single U.S. cargo aircraft to bring in relief supplies for victims of a devastating cyclone, the Bush administration said Friday.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the United States welcomed the go-ahead to land a U.S. military C-130 in the country on Monday. He said he hopes this is the beginning of continued aid flowing into Myanmar from the United States and other nations and international relief agencies.
Earlier Friday, Ky Luu, director of the U.S. office of foreign disaster assistance, had said that skilled aid workers were being forced to sit on the sidelines as victims of last week's cyclone die. His comments reflect mounting frustration among the United States and other countries as they wait for permission from the military-led government to begin trying to help.
Said Johndroe: "We will continue to work with the government of Burma to allow other assistance. We hope that this is the beginning of a long line of assistance from the United States to Burma." Myanmar is also known as Burma.
Johndroe also said that while the U.S. still has limited leeway to help, "One flight is much better than no flights."
"They're going to need our help for a long time," Johndroe said. He spoke in Crawford, Texas, where President Bush's daughter, Jenna, will be wed on Saturday.
The breakthrough came after days of waiting on the U.S. side. It is not yet known what supplies will be included. U.S. aircraft have been positioned in Thailand and elsewhere nearby waiting for permission to transport supplies to the cyclone-devastated country.
The U.S. military has C-130 cargo aircraft and about a dozen helicopters in the region, ready to fly supplies into Myanmar. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Friday that the aircraft could reach Myanmar in a few hours.
In addition, U.S. Navy ships have begun moving from the Gulf of Thailand toward Myanmar to be available if needed.
Johndroe said he could not speak to one specific cause for the breakthrough, but added: "Clearly the junta has determined that the magnitude of this disaster requires additional assistance."
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The current junta came to power after snuffing out a 1988 pro-democracy movement against the previous military dictatorship, killing at least 3,000 people in the process. The junta also violently crushed protests last year.
Luu had urged the generals to allow access to foreign aid teams, including a group of U.S. specialists waiting in Thailand; he said desperately needed supplies are piling up on airport tarmacs.
"This is a very vulnerable population, and a shock of this magnitude is going to take people right off the cliff," Luu told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a foreign affairs think tank in Washington.
He said the message to the junta is clear: If it allows U.S. officials in, "we will be able to make a difference."
"People are dying, and it's approaching a week," he said.
Myanmar's ruling military junta earlier seized two planeloads of critical aid sent by the U.N. The U.N. food program suspended help after the action, but later said it is sending two planes to Myanmar to help hungry and homeless survivors.
Officials have said that up to 1.9 million people are homeless, injured or threatened by disease and hunger, and only one out of 10 have received some kind of aid in the six days since the cyclone hit.
Tony Banbury, Asia director for the U.N. World Food Program, said by satellite from Thailand that the "big issue" is: What are the Myanmar authorities going to do? The WFP, he said, will keep working, but "I don't think we have much leverage with the authorities."
"Our hands are getting more and more tied," he said. "The situation is obviously desperate."
Sein Win, an exiled leader of Myanmar's opposition, said in an interview that the United States and other nations must more strongly pressure China, which is seen as having significant economic and political influence with Myanmar's generals.
"The world is not telling China to do what they should do ... to save people," Win said. He added that China has leverage over Myanmar; "the question is whether they are going to use it or not."
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