US airlifts aid to Myanmar, UN urges junta to cooperate
Survivors of the cyclone Nargis wait under the rain for relief in Kyaiklat, in the Ayeyarwady Division of south-west Myanmar yesterday. The flow of international aid into Myanmar, which says 62,000 people are dead or missing, has increased in the past two days, but relief agencies say much more is needed to avert a humanitarian catastrophe. Photo: AFP
The United States delivered its first relief supplies to Myanmar on Monday, as the UN urged the reclusive nation to open its doors to foreign experts who can help up to 2 million cyclone victims facing disease and starvation.
The military C-130 cargo plane, packed with 28,000 pounds of supplies, flew out of the Thai air force base of Utapao and landed in Yangon, capping prolonged negotiations to persuade Myanmar's military government to accept US help.
Several Myanmar Cabinet ministers, military officers and the top US diplomat in Myanmar, Shari Villarosa, greeted the plane.
Government spokesman Ye Htut said the aid, which was transferred to Myanmar army trucks, would be ferried by air force helicopters to the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta later Monday. Two more US air shipments were scheduled to land Tuesday.
The official death toll from the May 3 Cyclone Nargis is 28,458 with another 33,416 still missing. But the UN Assistant Secretary-General Catherine Bragg and others have said the death toll could reach 100,000 or higher.
Though international assistance has started trickling in, the authoritarian government has barred most foreign experts who are experienced in managing humanitarian crises.
Richard Horsey, a spokesman for UN humanitarian operations, in Bangkok, Thailand, said clean drinking water, shelter, medical support and food were sorely lacking.
"The authorities of the country need to open up to an international relief effort. There aren't enough boats, trucks, helicopters in the country to run the relief effort of the scale we need," he said. "It's urgent that the authorities do open themselves up."
The junta has made a huge concession in letting the US the fiercest critic of its human rights record bring in relief.
The US plane carried mosquito nets, blankets and water in an operation dubbed "Joint Task Force Caring Response."
Also on the plane was Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the commander of the US military in the Pacific, who will try to personally negotiate with the junta for a larger US role in providing relief.
US Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Douglas Powell said there are 11,000 service members and four ships in the region for an annual military exercise, Cobra Gold, that could be harnessed to help the mercy mission.
Three US Navy ships in the Bay of Bengal were sailing closer to Myanmar on Monday, ready to aid cyclone victims if they are given permission, Vice Adm. Doug Crowder told reporters in Jakarta, Indonesia.
In Irrawaddy delta, people were surviving in miserable conditions hundreds cramped in monasteries with little access to food. Others camped in the open, drinking dirty water contaminated by human feces or dead bodies and animal carcasses.
"The lives of thousands of cyclone survivors are at extreme risk," aid group World Vision said. "Displaced people are living in appalling conditions in makeshift shelters and camps where overcrowding and unsanitary conditions are prevalent.”
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