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UN officials: Myanmar cyclone a 'major, major disaster'
2008-05-07
Hungry crowds of survivors stormed the few shops that opened in Myanmar's stricken Irrawaddy delta, where food and international aid has been scarce since a devastating cyclone killed more than 22,000 people, the U.N. said Wednesday. Muzi.com News 10068718-0 (muzi.com)Corpses floated in salty flood waters and witnesses said survivors tried desperately to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails. The U.N. said some 1 million people were homeless in the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma. Muzi.com News 10068718-1 (muzi.com) "Basically the entire lower delta region is under water," said Richard Horsey, Bangkok-based spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid. Muzi.com News 10068718-2 (muzi.com) "Teams are talking about bodies floating around in the water," he said. This is "a major, major disaster we're dealing with." Muzi.com News 10068718-3 (muzi.com) But a massive international aid effort was being kept on hold by Myanmar's military rulers. Internal U.N. documents obtained by The Associated Press showed growing frustrations at foot-dragging by the junta, which has kept the impoverished nation isolated for five decades to maintain its iron-fisted control. Muzi.com News 10068718-4 (muzi.com) "Visas are still a problem. It is not clear when it will be sorted out," according to the minutes of a meeting of the U.N. task force coordinating relief for Myanmar in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday. Muzi.com News 10068718-5 (muzi.com) It said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "will contact Myanmar" Wednesday to arrange a meeting with high-ranking officials on the issue. Muzi.com News 10068718-6 (muzi.com) State media in military-ruled Myanmar said more than 22,000 people died when Cyclone Nargis blasted the country's western coast on Saturday and over 41,000 others were missing. But Horsey predicted the number of fatalities could rise "dramatically." Muzi.com News 10068718-7 (muzi.com) Local aid workers started distributing water purification tablets, mosquito nets, plastic sheeting and basic medical supplies. But heavily flooded areas were accessible only by boat, with helicopters unable to deliver relief supplies there, Horsey said. Muzi.com News 10068718-8 (muzi.com) A few shops opened Wednesday in the delta but were quickly stormed by people, said Paul Risley, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program in Bangkok, quoting his agency's workers in the area. Muzi.com News 10068718-9 (muzi.com) "Fist fights are breaking out," he said. Muzi.com News 10068718-10 (muzi.com) The U.N. World Food Program says as many as 1 million people may have been left homeless, with some villages nearly destroyed and vast rice-growing areas wiped out. The Irrawaddy delta is considered Myanmar's rice bowl. Muzi.com News 10068718-11 (muzi.com) The military junta normally restricts the access of foreign officials and organizations to the country, and aid groups were struggling to deliver relief goods. Muzi.com News 10068718-12 (muzi.com) "Most urgent need is food and water," said Andrew Kirkwood, head of Save the Children in Yangon. "Many people are getting sick. The whole place is under salt water and there is nothing to drink. They can't use tablets to purify salt water," he said. Muzi.com News 10068718-13 (muzi.com) Save the Children distributed food, plastic sheeting, cooking utensils and chlorine tablets to 230,000 people in Yangon area. Trucks were sent to the delta on Wednesday, carrying rice, salt, sugar and tarpaulin. Muzi.com News 10068718-14 (muzi.com) A Yangon resident who returned home from the area said people are drinking coconut water because of lack of safe drinking water. He said many people were on boats using blankets as sails. Muzi.com News 10068718-15 (muzi.com) Local aid groups were distributing rice porridge, which people were collecting in dirty plastic shopping bags. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared getting into trouble with authorities for talking to a foreign news agency. Muzi.com News 10068718-16 (muzi.com) In Geneva, the United Nations said Myanmar has authorized an airplane to bring U.N. aid supplies to cyclone victims. Muzi.com News 10068718-17 (muzi.com) But permission is still pending for a U.N. coordination team to accompany the flight, which was set to take off Wednesday. U.N. spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said U.N. staff in Bangkok also were awaiting approval of their visas so they can go to Myanmar and assess damage. Muzi.com News 10068718-18 (muzi.com) Relief teams and aid material are waiting to deploy from Thailand, Singapore, Italy, France, Sweden, Britain, South Korea, Australia, Israel, U.S., Poland, Japan, according to minutes from a U.N. relief meeting in Geneva that were obtained by The Associated Press. Muzi.com News 10068718-19 (muzi.com) However, Myanmar has accepted aid from traditional friends China, India and Indonesia. A group from Malaysia also was granted visas, according to the minutes of the meeting. Muzi.com News 10068718-20 (muzi.com) Britain offered about $9.8 million to help the crisis, and the U.S. offered more than $3 million in aid. President Bush said Washington was prepared to use the U.S. Navy to help search for the dead and missing. Muzi.com News 10068718-21 (muzi.com) However, the Myanmar military, which regularly accuses the United States of trying to subvert its rule, was unlikely to accept U.S. military presence in its territory. Muzi.com News 10068718-22 (muzi.com) The U.S. military started positioning people and equipment as it awaited word from Myanmar's government. An Air Force C-130 cargo plane landed in Thailand and another was on the way, Air Force spokeswoman Megan Orton said Wednesday morning at the Pentagon. Muzi.com News 10068718-23 (muzi.com) "When they accept, or if they accept -- and we know what supplies they need -- those planes will be there to transport those," she said. Muzi.com News 10068718-24 (muzi.com) The Navy also has three ships participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Thailand that could help in any relief effort -- the USS Essex, the USS Juneau and the USS Harper's Ferry -- but Navy officials said they are still in a holding pattern. Muzi.com News 10068718-25 (muzi.com) The Essex is an amphibious assault ship with 23 helicopters aboard, including 19 that are capable of lifting cargo from ship to shore, as well as more than 1,500 Marines. Muzi.com News 10068718-26 (muzi.com) Because it would take the Essex more than four days to get into position for the relief effort, the Navy is considering sending some of its helicopters ahead, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because it was still in the planning stages. The aircraft would be able to arrive in a matter of hours, and the Essex could follow, he said. Muzi.com News 10068718-27 (muzi.com) In Yangon, many angry residents say they were given vague and incorrect information about the approaching storm and no instructions on how to cope when it struck. Muzi.com News 10068718-28 (muzi.com) Officials in India said they had warned Myanmar that Cyclone Nargis was headed for the country two days before it made landfall there. Muzi.com News 10068718-29 (muzi.com) The state-run Indian Meteorological Department had been keeping a close watch on the depression in the Bay of Bengal since it was first spotted on April 28 and sent regular updates about its progress to all the countries in its path, department spokesman B. P. Yadav said. Muzi.com News 10068718-30 (muzi.com) State television news quoted Yangon official Gen. Tha Aye on Wednesday as reassuring people that the situation was "returning to normal." Muzi.com News 10068718-31 (muzi.com) But city residents faced new challenges as markets doubled prices of rice, charcoal and bottled water. Muzi.com News 10068718-32 (muzi.com) At a market in the suburb of Kyimyindaing, a fish monger shouted to shoppers: "Come, come the fish is very fresh." But an angry woman snapped back: "Even if the fish is fresh, I have no water to cook it!" Muzi.com News 10068718-33 (muzi.com) Electricity was restored in a small portion of Yangon but most city residents, who rely on wells with electric pumps, had no water. Vendors sold bottled water at more than double the normal price. Price of rice and cooking oil also skyrocketed. Muzi.com News 10068718-34 (muzi.com) The cyclone came a week before a key referendum on a proposed constitution backed by the junta. Muzi.com News 10068718-35 (muzi.com) State radio said Saturday's vote would be delayed until May 24 in 40 of 45 townships in the Yangon area and seven in the Irrawaddy delta. But it indicated the balloting would proceed in other areas as scheduled. Muzi.com News 10068718-36 (muzi.com) A top U.S. envoy to Southeast Asia said Wednesday that Myanmar's military junta should be focusing all its efforts on helping victims of a devastating cyclone, not pressing forward with a planned constitutional referendum. Muzi.com News 10068718-37 (muzi.com) "It's a huge crisis and it just seems odd to me that the government would go ahead with the referendum in this circumstance," said Scot Marciel, who was appointed last week as the first U.S. ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Muzi.com News 10068718-38 (muzi.com) Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for suppressing pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been under house arrest for more than 12 of the past 18 years. Muzi.com News 10068718-39 (muzi.com)
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