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Burmese Junta Still Blocking Cyclone Aid

'Second disaster' looms if aid is not allowed in

By Peter Fearon,  Newser Staff

Posted May 9, 2008 4:52 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Emergency supplies for some 1.5 million Burmese desperately in need of help are ready to be flown into the cyclone-stricken regions—but the military junta is still blocking delivery. Only two UN planes have been allowed to land in Burma. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon tried unsuccessfully to telephone Burma's top general to make a personal appeal to allow more relief supplies to get through, reports the Washington Post.

"It is very frustrating, if you look at the people's suffering," said the American ambassador to Thailand, where US planes wait for clearance to deliver food. The Burmese government's reluctance could trigger a new catastrophe, warned a UN spokesman. "Burma has got to open itself up to a major international effort very soon if we are not to face a second disaster, where infectious disease and other problems start to take a significant toll," he said.

Houses destroyed by Cyclone Nargis in a village in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta region of Myanmar. More than 20,000 are known to be dead.
Houses destroyed by Cyclone Nargis in a village in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta region of Myanmar. More than 20,000 are known to be dead.   (AP Photo/Burma News Agency via Xinhua News Agency)
Cyclone survivors wave to a helicopter carrying relief goods in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta region of Myanmar.
Cyclone survivors wave to a helicopter carrying relief goods in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta region of Myanmar.   (AP Photo/Burma News Agency via Xinhua News Agency)
A young Myanmar cyclone survivor holds her baby sister at a temporary shelter on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Friday May 9, 2008. (AP Photo)
A young Myanmar cyclone survivor holds her baby sister at a temporary shelter on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Friday May 9, 2008. (AP Photo)   (AP Photo)
A Myanmar child displaced following Cyclone Nargis looks on at a temporary shelter on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Friday May 9, 2008. (AP Photo)
A Myanmar child displaced following Cyclone Nargis looks on at a temporary shelter on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Friday May 9, 2008. (AP Photo)   (AP Photo)
A Myanmar woman displaced following Cyclone Nargis, fans her baby at a temporary shelter on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, May 9, 2008. (AP Photo)
A Myanmar woman displaced following Cyclone Nargis, fans her baby at a temporary shelter on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, May 9, 2008. (AP Photo)   (AP Photo)
A Myanmar woman displaced following last weekend's devastating cyclone sits with her children at a temporary shelter on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Friday May 9, 2008. (AP Photo)
A Myanmar woman displaced following last weekend's devastating cyclone sits with her children at a temporary shelter on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Friday May 9, 2008. (AP Photo)   (AP Photo)
Myanmar novice monks walk past a shack damaged by Cyclone Nargis on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Friday May 9, 2008. (AP Photo)
Myanmar novice monks walk past a shack damaged by Cyclone Nargis on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Friday May 9, 2008. (AP Photo)   (AP Photo)
In this photo released by the Democratic Voice of Burma, a resident of Yangon walks past fallen trees Tuesday, May 6, 2008, following cyclone Nargis. International aid has begun to trickle into Myanmar, but the stricken Irrawaddy delta, the nation's rice bowl where 22,000 people perished and twice as...
In this photo released by the Democratic Voice of Burma, a resident of Yangon walks past fallen trees Tuesday, May 6, 2008, following cyclone Nargis. International aid has begun to trickle into Myanmar,...   (AP Photo/Democratic Voice of Burma, HO)
Houses destroyed by Cyclone Nargis in a village in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta region of Myanmar. More than 20,000 are known to be dead.
Houses destroyed by Cyclone Nargis in a village in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta region of Myanmar. More than 20,000 are known to be dead.   (AP Photo/Burma News Agency via Xinhua News Agency)
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Agriculture policies worsen food shortages
Wall Street Journal

'Food Basket' worst-hit by storm; junta delays aid
Bloomberg

Burma: Eyewitness account
BBC

Burma aid logjam riles donors
Christian Science Monitor

 
United Nations • hunger • disease • Myanmar • Burma • junta • Save the Children • World Food Program • Cyclone Nargis • Irrawaddy Delta • emergency aid • Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance • Ban Ki-moon

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