04 June 2008

U.S. Navy Ships to Begin Withdrawing from Burma Coast June 5

Helicopters standing by in Thailand, ready to respond if requested

Two U.S. Marines stand by boxes of relief supplies headed for Burma at the Utapao Royal Thai Naval Base in eastern Thailand.

By Merle D. Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington -- The U.S. Navy will respond to a request for humanitarian assistance for the Burmese people at a moment's notice, but the small fleet of ships with relief supplies that has been sailing off the Southeast Asian nation's coast will begin leaving June 5, says Admiral Timothy Keating.

Repeated requests by the Navy to provide relief support to victims of Cyclone Nargis have been rejected by Burma's ruling junta.

"Over the past three weeks, we have made at least 15 attempts to convince the Burmese government to allow our ships, helicopters and landing craft to provide additional disaster relief for the people of Burma, but they have refused us each and every time," Keating said June 3 at his Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii.

But the Navy will leave several heavy-lift helicopters at Utapao Royal Thai Naval Base in Rayong province in eastern Thailand to assist in relief efforts as needed, Keating said.  Utapao military bases were used by the United States in conjunction with the Thai military as a staging area for relief efforts following the devastating tsunami off Indonesia in December 2004.

"Should the Burmese rulers have a change of heart and request our full assistance for their suffering, we are prepared to help," Keating said in a statement.

Burma's Irrawaddy Delta region was struck by Cyclone Nargis May 2. The storm carried a 3.7-meter storm surge that killed at least 78,000 people and left more than 56,000 missing, according to United Nations estimates.  An estimated 2.4 million people are in need of food, shelter or medical care as a result of the storm and subsequent flooding.

Based on satellite images, the United Nations said, the storm's damage affected an area of about 11,600 square miles (30,000 square kilometers) along the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Martaban coastlines.

International relief officials said the type of heavy-lift helicopters provided by the U.S. military are crucial to getting supplies and medical care to remote, water-clogged areas of the Irrawaddy Delta region.  Paul Risley, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Programme, told the Associated Press that the loss of the military helicopters "is truly unfortunate."

White House press secretary Dana Perino said June 4 that the United States has provided more than $26 million in humanitarian assistance to the Burmese people, and that the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Defense Department have completed a total of 106 C-130 cargo airlifts with almost 1 million kilograms of emergency relief supplies that will be used by 417,000 storm survivors.

"Over a month after the cyclone hit the shores of the Burmese delta, tens of thousands have died and over a million victims have yet to receive any assistance," Perino said June 4 in a prepared statement.  "The Burmese regime must permit all international aid workers the access necessary to provide the urgently needed assistance."

While the environment in Rangoon, Burma's most populous city, and other areas outside of the Irrawaddy Delta gradually has improved, the harder-hit Delta region is still without many basic necessities, and the risk of disease outbreaks remains high, the State Department said June 3 in a Travel Alert.

Keating and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Henrietta Fore went to Rangoon on the first relief flight May 12 to ask the government for permission to send in military assistance.  A four-ship task force led by the USS Essex was ready to provide 22 helicopters, four landing craft, and more than 5,000 sailors and Marines, Keating said.

The Burmese military has 12 helicopters with only five in working order.

"I am both saddened and frustrated to know that we have been in a position to help ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people and help mitigate further loss of life, but have been unable to do so because of the unrelenting position of the Burma military junta," Keating said.