20 May 2008
Red Cross Makes Inroads in Region Struck by Cyclone Nargis
A 10-year presence in Burma helps, but aid group still faces restrictions
Washington -- As international organizations struggle to deliver aid to Burma after Cyclone Nargis, one group has been granted a little more access to those in need.
While offers of help poured into Burma as the extent of the cyclone’s devastation became apparent, the military government that has ruled the south Asian country since 1962 was slow to allow in supplies and even more reluctant to allow in the experts that aid organizations need to distribute supplies.
Yet nine days after the disaster struck, the Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was able to visit the Irrawaddy Delta, the rice-growing region that bore the brunt of the cyclone's destruction. Bridget Gardener, head of the group's delegation in Rangoon, became the first foreign relief official permitted to visit the delta. She spent three days there, after which she described the situation as "overwhelming."
Gardener learned that people held trees during the cyclone to keep from being blown away. As they clung, the storm's winds virtually "sand blasted" them with dirt and saltwater. "These people lost the top layer of their skin, and it is important that these injuries are treated before infections can set in," she said in a press communiqué.
Even before Gardener’s visit, as early as four days after the cyclone, the Red Cross was allowed to fly in supplies. Flights have continued daily, mostly from the group's logistical hub in Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia, and had increased to five flights per day by May 16.
In the meantime, other donors, including the United States, have been authorized to fly in urgently needed supplies. (Of the roughly $18 million that the United States has made available for relief, $1 million was donated to the International Red Cross.)
Slow progress of the relief operation has meant that a majority of the up to 2.5 million severely affected people have not received help.
Privately, officials at the International Red Cross, which represents 186 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies around the world, attribute their relative success at gaining access to a decadelong presence in Burma. The group has worked with the local Myanmar Red Cross Society for years, and in most countries the national Red Cross is headed by people connected to the country’s power structure.
Just as important as its earlier presence, the organization said, is the fact that -- unlike the United Nations, which takes political positions -- the International Red Cross limits its mission to helping in natural disasters.
Nevertheless, like other aid groups, the Red Cross has not been allowed to bring in experts it needs. "We've got people sitting in Bangkok waiting because they don't have visas," said Flemming Nielsen, the group's head of operations coordination.
The organization flew in two water purification units to meet the most immediate need -- clean drinking water for survivors. However, the larger of the units, sent by the French Red Cross and capable of supplying 40,000 people, remained idle for days until Burmese authorities granted visas for technicians needed to run it.
Under international pressure, Burma's military government is letting in more relief supplies and a limited number of aid workers. But relief organizations say it is not enough and warn of a "second catastrophe" as survivors, still without help, face hunger and disease. Both the United Nations and the International Red Cross say the death toll could exceed 100,000.
Over the weekend, Burmese authorities took foreign diplomats, including the deputy head of the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon, Shari Villarosa, on a tour of the worst-hit areas. After the visit, the U.S. State Department said the event "highlighted the urgent need for full and unfettered access to the affected areas by humanitarian assistance experts to conduct an independent assessment and to set up distribution networks capable of meeting the enormous need for humanitarian aid."
Two weeks after the cyclone hit, Burma approved visas for some U.N. disaster relief and logistics experts. Burma also will allow in 160 relief experts from Bangladesh, China, India and Thailand. It is unclear whether any of the foreigners will be allowed to visit the stricken Irrawaddy Delta.
The situation provides a glimpse into the role politics can play in the response to a natural disaster.
At a meeting hosted by the U.N. chief in New York May 14 and attended by Burma, its neighbors and key donors, Burma indicated a willingness to allow in more foreign help. But Burma's U.N. ambassador, Kyaw Tint Swe, stressed that the crisis "must not be politicized."
Some experts view the cautious stance from Burma toward accepting help in the context of Burma’s long international isolation. They say that Burma might rebuff offers of help from the United Nations and several Western countries because those donors are the source of earlier, repeated condemnations of alleged human rights abuses by Burma’s military rulers.
Jean-Luc Maurer, a professor and Burma specialist at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, in Geneva, told America.gov that Burma's government is "almost paranoid" about outside interference.
By distributing foreign aid themselves, he said, Burma's rulers "can save face and present themselves as the ones who come to the aid of the population."
