Burma to allow Asian aid workers
More supplies reaching delta, UN reports; Junta pressed to act quickly
BANGKOK - Military authorities in Burma have agreed to let 160 aid workers from four Asian countries assist its struggling cyclone relief effort, aid officials said yesterday, the government's first acknowledgment that it needs foreign expertise.
The Thailand Public Health Ministry confirmed that tomorrow it is sending 30 doctors, along with medical supplies, to work for two weeks in Burma. UN officials said India, China, and Bangladesh have also been asked to send experienced disaster relief teams.
The news was announced as five more US military C-130 transport planes - carrying such desperately needed supplies as water, mosquito nets, plastic sheets, blankets, and hygiene kits - flew into Burma's largest city, Rangoon, in an acceleration of US assistance following Tropical Cyclone Nargis.
The United Nations noted other "progress" as it tried to get aid to the worst-hit areas in the Irrawaddy Delta. Long-awaited visas for some UN disaster relief and logistics experts have come through.
"We are seeing more flights into the country, more supplies getting into the delta," said Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "But the levels of aid getting in are not adequate . . . They are not at a level and speed commensurate with what is needed."
Burma's military junta is highly wary of foreigners, especially Westerners. It is under intense pressure to open the doors to a full-scale international relief operation. The UN has said that as many as 2.5 million people have been severely affected by Nargis.
In a briefing yesterday in Washington, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development, Henrietta Fore, acknowledged that US officials have no idea whether the limited aid the United States has been able to fly into Burma has actually been delivered to victims of the cyclone or whether it has been diverted by the military.
"We will try to do on-the-ground assessments," Fore said. "But at this time the needs are so immense, they are so large that we're taking some risks to hope that we can get the assistance through to the ones who are most in need."
The advocacy group Human Rights Watch reported that supplies delivered by a US C-130 aircraft Monday were unloaded by men wearing the shirts of the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a paramilitary organization that was implicated in the attempted murder of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
In recent days, survivors have endured new rains. A storm was forming in the seas off Burma yesterday, but the UN weather agency discounted fears that it could evolve into a new cyclone, the Reuters news agency reported.
UN agencies continue to press Burma for clearance to use helicopters and more boats and trucks to ferry supplies piling up at the airport in Rangoon. Many remote areas in the Irrawaddy Delta have yet to receive any relief.
"We're working around the clock to get permission to use materials we believe would be helpful," said Marcus Prior, a spokesman for the UN World Food Program.
Among the people trying to get aid into the cyclone zone are Burmese living abroad. Thailand alone has an estimated 1.5 million migrant workers and political dissidents from the country.
For six days after Nargis destroyed his hometown of Bogalay, Win Min, an exiled Burmese political science lecturer in Thailand, was distraught over the fate of family and friends. After repeated efforts to call, he finally reached a family friend, who found his relatives sitting in the rain, their home destroyed. They were otherwise unscathed.
He and other academics have been translating relevant information from UN websites - on such topics as how to dispose of bodies - into Burma and sending it to friends in Burma who are involved in impromptu volunteer relief efforts.
"It's beyond stress, and beyond sadness, seeing all your fellow citizens suffering like this," Win Min said.
"It's very, very terrible - beyond comprehension. At least this is something I can do."
Some Burmese university students are rushing home with cash and supplies and volunteering in the disaster zone. Others, unable to return for financial, political, or other reasons, are donating cash, supplies, or advice from abroad.
Initiatives are under pressure from military authorities, who are determined to control the relief effort and are anxious about the potential for unrest. Some monasteries have been ordered to stop taking large donations and to send all refugees to makeshift government shelters in schools.
"This is a very paternalistic regime," Win Min said. "They want people to rely on them, depend on them. That is why they don't want other people to distribute food; it will undermine their legitimacy." 