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TALE OF SURVIVAL: Survivors seeking shelter beneath their damaged home in Phyar Pon town, south-west of Yangon, and queuing up to collect water (above) in Yangon. -- PHOTOS: REUTERS, AP
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IN BANGKOK - MYANMAR'S junta yesterday continued to ignore requests for visas and flight approvals from several countries and organisations, severely hampering the international aid response to the cyclone disaster in the country.
The first major international airlift of supplies for the survivors of last weekend's cyclone, however, did arrive in Yangon yesterday.
Two airplanes carrying high-energy biscuits, medicine and other supplies landed in the city and two others were to follow, according to United Nations officials.
The planes had waited for the last two days while the world body negotiated with the military regime to allow the supplies into the country.
Cyclone Nargis, which slammed into Myanmar on Saturday, killed at least 22,980 people and left 42,119 missing, mostly in the Irrawaddy delta, according to government figures. But a top US diplomat has said the toll could go up to more than 100,000.
'Assistance is trickling in, but nowhere near the quantities needed immediately on the ground,' UN World Food Programme spokesman Paul Risley was quoted as saying here in Bangkok.
He told journalists the agency was in constant touch with the Myanmar government and expected approvals to be granted.
But he added: 'It is enough of a challenge that visas are being held up for bringing in experienced relief workers, but it is specially frustrating that critically needed food aid is being held up.'
The United States - deeply unpopular with the junta because of its economic sanctions and calls for regime change - is standing by with 10 members of its Disaster Assistance Response Team (Dart) in Bangkok, armed with 100 years of collective experience in disaster relief and a US$3.25 million (S$4.5 million) aid pledge.
But the team has yet to receive a single visa or permission to fly into Myanmar.
After initially indicating yesterday to Thai officials that a US Air Force C-130 transport plane currently in Thailand could fly in with relief supplies, the Myanmar authorities later seemed to rescind the decision.
US Ambassador to Thailand Eric John, in an interview with The Straits Times, said: 'Each day you wait magnifies the suffering in Burma.' Myanmar was formerly known as Burma.
He added that it was no use sending supplies without the requisite experts to help in the assessment, distribution and forward planning.
No reasons had been given for ignoring the visa requests, he said. The requests were filed on Monday.
The ambassador added, however, that the US was working through Thai officials and he was optimistic the Myanmar government would 'take the right decision'.
Bangkok-based Richard Horsey, spokesman for the UN's Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told The Straits Times: 'There are still red-tape issues.'
The current relief effort was already significant, he said, involving 10 UN agencies and other non-governmental organisations with operations in Myanmar.
The UN said yesterday that four disaster experts had received permission to travel to Myanmar, but there was no immediate word on visas for 30 to 40 other key staff to help organise and manage the aid effort.
'A reasonable amount of aid is getting in on a daily basis; the bottleneck in all this is...getting stuff out from Yangon to the delta,' Mr Horsey said. 'There is a need for a recognition by the Myanmar government for major relief.'
The appeal for international assistance had not been translated into speedy visas or customs and tax clearances, he said.
Global aid agency World Vision, with operations in Myanmar employing 580 staff, mostly locals, was also 'waiting for a landing agreement', its spokesman James East told The Straits Times.
World Vision has emergency supplies stocked in warehouses around the world - and has issued an 'initial response' appeal for US$3 million to help its aid effort.
Mr Olivier C. Carduner, mission director for Asia for the US Agency for International Development, told The Straits Times yesterday: 'The problem is one of capacity and scale. This disaster is so large that existing capacity on the ground...is swamped.
'The biggest concern is the longer the delay in the response - or an incomplete response - the more lives will be lost.'
China, a key ally of Myanmar, yesterday urged the junta to 'cooperate with the international community' in responding to the disaster.
But Beijing also urged the international community not to politicise the issue of delivering aid, with deputy UN ambassador Liu Zhenmin stressing that the deadly cyclone was a natural disaster, not a security matter.
nirmal@sph.com.sg
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