Asean team enters Myanmar
Help from neigbours: A man (R) carries sacks of rice in in Myanmar's Ayeyawady Delta. Southeast Asian aid experts flew into Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta yesterday for a mission to assess cyclone damage, but US navy ships sailed away laden with supplies rejected by the junta.Picture AFP
Friday, June 6, 2008
SOUTHEAST Asian aid experts flew into Myanmar's devastated Irrawaddy Delta yesterday for a mission to assess cyclone damage, but US navy ships sailed away laden with supplies rejected by the junta.
Nearly five weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit, leaving 133,000 dead or missing, the first members of the joint Asean-UN "Emergency Rapid Assessment Team" flew by helicopter into the shattered towns of Labutta and Pyapon.
The 200-strong team of aid experts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the United Nations will later move into more remote areas of the delta, where entire villages were washed away in the storm, Asean secretary general Surin Pitsuwan said in a statement.
Their final findings will not be reported until mid-July, even as the United Nations estimates that one million hungry and homeless survivors have yet to receive any international assistance.
Myanmar's regime sparked international outrage by sealing off the delta for three weeks after the cyclone hit on May 2-3.
Now the military leadership has allowed some foreign aid workers into the region, a maze of swollen rivers and swamps that even in the best of times is inaccessible by road.
One Asean official here said the new team "will try to get full access, and all efforts are being made to reach the victims". But when asked if Myanmar's military authorities were cooperating fully with the aid effort, the official said: "How can I fully answer that without hurting the mission?"
Myanmar has agreed in theory for 10 helicopters from the World Food Programme to ferry supplies into the region, but so far only one is actually flying.
The junta has rejected help from US, French and British warships. Four US ships left the area yesterday, after three weeks of trying to convince the regime to accept their aid. The United States said it remained ready to offer Myanmar helicopters and landing craft from amphibious ships, even though the USS Essex group has left.
The Myanmar junta has agreed for Asean to coordinate the relief effort.AFP
Nearly five weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit, leaving 133,000 dead or missing, the first members of the joint Asean-UN "Emergency Rapid Assessment Team" flew by helicopter into the shattered towns of Labutta and Pyapon.
The 200-strong team of aid experts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the United Nations will later move into more remote areas of the delta, where entire villages were washed away in the storm, Asean secretary general Surin Pitsuwan said in a statement.
Their final findings will not be reported until mid-July, even as the United Nations estimates that one million hungry and homeless survivors have yet to receive any international assistance.
Myanmar's regime sparked international outrage by sealing off the delta for three weeks after the cyclone hit on May 2-3.
Now the military leadership has allowed some foreign aid workers into the region, a maze of swollen rivers and swamps that even in the best of times is inaccessible by road.
One Asean official here said the new team "will try to get full access, and all efforts are being made to reach the victims". But when asked if Myanmar's military authorities were cooperating fully with the aid effort, the official said: "How can I fully answer that without hurting the mission?"
Myanmar has agreed in theory for 10 helicopters from the World Food Programme to ferry supplies into the region, but so far only one is actually flying.
The junta has rejected help from US, French and British warships. Four US ships left the area yesterday, after three weeks of trying to convince the regime to accept their aid. The United States said it remained ready to offer Myanmar helicopters and landing craft from amphibious ships, even though the USS Essex group has left.
The Myanmar junta has agreed for Asean to coordinate the relief effort.AFP
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