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Pressure mounts on Myanmar to open up to aid
The World Food Programme said it had only managed to get food to one third of the estimated 2.5 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, as foreign envoys tried to get the junta to open up to more international relief on Sunday.
- Agencies
- Published: 09:53 May 18, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- Hundreds of children cover their heads from the rain with empty aluminium plates as they wait for a portion of food at a donation centre in the Irrawaddy Delta, Myanmar.
Yangon: The World Food Programme (WFP) said it had only managed to get food to one third of the estimated 2.5 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, as foreign envoys tried to get the junta to open up to more international relief on Sunday.
The WFP, which is leading the outside emergency food effort, said it had managed to get rice and beans to 212,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are most in need after the May 2 storm, which has left at least 134,00 dead or missing.
"It's not enough. There are a very large number of people who are yet to receive any kind of assistance and that's what's keeping out teams working round the clock," WFP spokesman Marcus Prior said in Bangkok.
With Myanmar's reclusive military government still refusing to open its doors to a large-scale tsunami-style aid operation, disaster experts say Nargis' body count could still climb dramatically.
To try to offset such a prospect, a steady stream of diplomats have been flying in to the former Burma to plead for more access for aid workers and flights.
The United Nations' chief humanitarian officer, John Holmes, is expected to fly in on Sunday evening and meet junta number four Thein Sein, the Prime Minister and leader of the Myanmar military's own aid operations.
Holmes is also expected to hand over a third letter from his boss, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to junta supremo Than Shwe, who has refused to talk to Ban on the phone since the cyclone and its massive sea-surge slammed into the delta.
Confident they are handling the crisis properly, the generals took diplomats on a tour on Saturday of the delta, where 2.5 million people are now clinging to survival in an area of inundated swamp the size of Austria.
The reluctance of the military, which has ruled unchecked for the last 46 years, to allow an influx of foreign aid workers appears to stem from fear that it might loosen its vice-like grip on power.
In a rare acknowledgement of criticism, state television said on Saturday outside media reports suggesting the government was not doing enough were inaccurate.
The army, navy and air force had already delivered extensive aid, and tens of millions of dollars had been spent, state television said.
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