21 May 2008
Burmese Response to Cyclone Aftermath Is Lacking, U.S. Envoy Says
Second disaster could happen if government fails to permit more help
Washington -– While the United States, the international community and international relief agencies have responded by offering more than $100 million in assistance to Burma in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the Burmese government's failure to accept outside help could lead to a second disaster, a senior U.S. diplomat says.
"The door must be opened far wider and rapidly to prevent a second catastrophe. If assistance and expertise is not allowed in, and thousands of Burmese perish, the responsibility for that catastrophe will fall squarely on the shoulders of Senior General Than Shwe and the other Burmese leaders," Ambassador Scot Marciel said during a May 20 congressional hearing.
Marciel, who is the first U.S. ambassador to the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations and a deputy assistant secretary of state, testified that there has been some positive news in recent days from Burma. There has been an increase in relief goods reaching the Irrawaddy Delta region, hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis on May 2 and May 3, he said.
"The regime apparently also has agreed to grant visas to health workers from neighboring countries, and some additional U.N. and European aid personnel have gotten in," Marciel said before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment. "International NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and U.N. relief agencies seem to be expanding their footprint in the affected areas."
However, Marciel said, the situation is increasingly desperate. The United Nations estimates cyclone-related deaths at between 78,000 and 125,000, with 2.4 million people left in urgent need of assistance. The United States has made more than $17.5 million available to Burma in aid, and more than $16 million has gone to U.N. programs and "trusted nongovernmental organizations," Marciel said.
"Sadly, the Burmese regime's response to this disaster has fallen far short of what was required," Marciel said. "Frankly, it's been appalling."
Marciel said the United States has engaged in intensive diplomatic efforts to convince the regime to accept outside assistance. "President Bush spoke with Chinese President Hu Jintao on May 13; Secretary [of State Condoleezza] Rice has reached out to her counterparts, including in China and India, as have many other senior officials," he said.
European nations and the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, along with the United Nations, have pressed a similar message, he said. "We welcome ASEAN's convening of an emergency foreign ministers’ meeting [May 19] on this subject, and hope that the proposed ASEAN assistance mechanism announced at that meeting will succeed in rapidly accelerating the flow of assistance," he said.
And he said that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and ASEAN will co-host a pledging meeting in Rangoon, Burma, May 25 to raise additional relief funds and assistance.
Greg Gottlieb, a deputy assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said that the cyclone made landfall about 4 p.m. local time May 2 in the Irrawaddy Delta, with winds of approximately 212 kilometers per hour, and produced a storm surge of 3.7 meters. "The subsequent storm surge, rain and wind devastated the low-lying delta region and the farmers and fishermen who live there," he said. "The magnitude of the death and suffering is overwhelming."
And what has made the situation worse is that the Burmese government has been slow to grant visas for international aid workers, including USAID's team of disaster experts, he said. Many of the aid workers who do receive visas largely are confined to Rangoon, leaving the Burmese staff to carry on the task of getting aid to the remote areas of the country, he said.
"Our reports indicate that supplies area slowly getting out to affected areas. At best, 20 percent of the 2.4 million people who are affected had received any aid as of May 19. Only a quarter of a million of those 2.4 million people have received food through the World Food Programme," he said.
