23 May 2008
Burma Allows Aid Workers, but Blocks Supply Ships
United States has sent 45 relief flights to Burma
Washington -- The Burmese government has granted permission for international humanitarian aid workers to enter the country, including the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta region, according to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. However, U.S., French and British naval ships carrying much-needed relief supplies will not be permitted to dock and unload supplies.
On May 21, William Berger, the leader of a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) disaster assistance team, was permitted to enter Burma and participate in a three-day assessment mission before an international donor pledging conference is held May 25, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said. The donors’ conference is jointly sponsored by the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
"Whatever the limitations are in the Burmese regime's ability to get aid to these people, we still believe that this is a humanitarian disaster and one that requires us and others to provide support as allowed, even if it isn't, perhaps, flowing as effectively as we and others might like," Casey said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban said May 23 that he met with Burmese Senior General Than Shwe for two hours at the capital, Naypyidaw, and "he has agreed to allow all aid workers, regardless of nationality. He has taken quite a flexible position on this matter."
"I urged him that it would be crucially important for him to allow aid workers as swiftly as possible and all these aid relief items also be delivered to the needy people as soon as possible," Ban said, according to news reports.
Disaster experts have warned that if humanitarian efforts do not increase soon, more people could perish from hunger and disease.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said May 23 that the military still was hopeful that Burmese authorities would allow U.S. naval vessels to begin unloading relief supplies and allow the use of military helicopters to ferry supplies into remote areas.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who was traveling with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in California May 23, said the current international relief effort is a humanitarian response to a natural disaster "that's being turned into a man-made catastrophe." He emphasized that there is no ulterior motive behind relief efforts other than to help save lives and restore order to the affected regions.
Burma's Irrawaddy delta region was struck by Cyclone Nargis May 2, killing at least 77,700 people, and another 55,900 people are reported missing, according to official government estimates. The United Nations has put the death toll higher, at 63,000 to 101,000. The storm, which also generated a 3.7-meter storm surge, has affected more than 2.4 million Burmese.
To date, the United States has provided $20,552,546 in humanitarian funds to relief agencies and others trying to help the Burmese victims, according to USAID figures.
MORE RELIEF FLIGHTS
On May 22, a USAID disaster assistance team working out of Utapao, Thailand, coordinated five more U.S. military C-130 cargo flights to Rangoon with relief supplies. The flights carried 180 rolls of plastic sheeting for 9,000 people; 2,160 hygiene kits to serve 10,800 people for two weeks; 1,850 water containers to serve 3,700 people; two 10,000-liter water bladders; and two zodiac boats and supplies to help provide transportation into remote areas of the Irrawaddy delta. The relief supplies were given to nongovernmental partners for Burmese storm victims, the agency said May 23.
Since the storm struck about three weeks ago, USAID, working with the U.S. Air Force, has completed 45 airlifts of emergency relief supplies into Burma.
Of the 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that an estimated 1.4 million people are located in severely affected areas of Ayeyarwady Division, including Bogale, Labutta, Ngaputaw, Dedaye, Pyapon, Kyaiklat and Mawlamyinegyun townships. And OCHA also estimates that 680,000 people live in severely affected areas of the Rangoon Division. Many of the areas cited are in remote, hard-to-reach locations, which makes relief efforts considerably more difficult than they would be otherwise.
