The United States today expressed anger at what it said were Burma’s delays in allowing relief workers and aid shipments into the cyclone-devastated country.
"We're outraged by the slowness of the response of the government of Burma to welcome and accept assistance," US ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad said.
"It's clear that the government's ability to deal with the situation, which is catastrophic, is limited.”
Burma today finally let in the first major international aid airlift for survivors of the cyclone that may have killed more than 100,000 people.
But it was still not allowing US military planes to fly in critical supplies and continued to delay granting visas for UN teams urgently seeking entry to ensure aid is delivered to the victims.
A UN official said one plane from Italy arrived in Rangoon while three more would land later.
Four planes loaded with high-energy biscuits, medicine, and other supplies had waited for the last two days while frustrated UN officials negotiated with the military regime to allow the material in.
US ambassador to Thailand Eric John said he had earlier believed they had permission from Burma to fly in aid. But Burma later made it clear that this was not the case. Thailand’s Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej offered to negotiate on Washington’s behalf to persuade the junta to accept the aid.
A UN spokesman in Bangkok said between 30 and 40 visas requested by various agencies and private relief groups were pending.
“These are mostly people who have key experience in handling disasters of this scale, and so they can bring lessons from other similar disasters,” he said. “The agencies are becoming frustrated.”
Amnesty International said some donors were delaying aid for fear it would be diverted to the army, while the World Food Programme’s regional director Anthony Banbury indicated the United Nations had similar concerns.
“We will not just bring our supplies to an airport, dump it and take off,” he said. “This is one reason why there is a hold up now, because we are going to bring in not just supplies but a lot of capacity to go with them to make sure the supplies get to the people.”
Meanwhile State radio said “unscrupulous elements” were spreading rumours of an impending earthquake, a second cyclone and looting in Rangoon, the country’s largest city. Residents say some looting occurred at markets and stores in suburbs earlier this week.
The warning about rumours appeared to be an attempt to calm the population as
well as stop any gatherings that might turn into political agitation against widely detested military rule.
Burma’s state media said Cyclone Nargis killed at least 22,980 people and left 42,119 missing, mostly in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta. But a US diplomat said yesterday the toll could be more than 100,000.
Entire villages in the delta were still submerged from the storm, and bloated corpses could be seen stuck in the mangroves. Some survivors stripped clothes off the dead.
The World Health Organisation has received reports of malaria outbreaks in the worst-affected area. “Safe water, sanitation, safe food. These are things that we feel are priorities at the moment,” a spokeswoman said.
Burma’s generals, traditionally paranoid about foreign influence, appealed for international assistance after the storm struck on Saturday but have since dragged their feet on issuing visas to relief workers even as survivors faced hunger, disease and flooding.
Even near Rangoon, stricken villagers complained that they had received no government assistance and were relying on Buddhist monasteries, which have been helping the public cope with the disaster.
Navy ships from India and planes from Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Laos and Bangladesh have arrived in recent days with medicine, candles, instant noodles, raincoats and other relief supplies.
AP
081212 MAY 08