Yangon - The United Nations is facing 'enormous
difficulties' making an assessment of the disaster wrought by Cyclone
Nargis on central Myanmar, which is likely to hamper any emergency
aid programme in the devastated countryside.
'We are facing enormous difficulties right now in getting out
there and unless there is an assessment ... the first thing you need
is an assessment and then you can gauge your response on that,' said
Aye Win, spokesman for the United Nations Information Centre
(UNIC) in Yangon.
Various UN agencies and international aid agencies gathered in
Bangkok Tuesday morning to prepare emergency aid to Myanmar, where
the cyclone claimed more than 15,000 lives and has left hundreds of
thousands homeless, but the meeting was stalled by the lack of a
proper assessment of the situation, sources said.
'The UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) sent four teams
to the Irrawaddy Delta region last night and today to make
assessments, but you've got to understand that a lot of boats have
been damaged out there and communications are non-existent,' said Aye
Win.
Myanmar, deemed a pariah states in among Western democracies, has
been cut off from most forms of traditional international aid such as
the World Bank and Asian Development Bank and bilateral aid for the
past two decades, as part of the West's economic sanctions on the
country.
The UN is one of the only international agencies that has
continued to operate in the country, and even their presence is
limited, and often by lack in funding.
'The UN support system is not sufficient inside Myanmar,' said
Terje Skavdal, regional director of the UN Office for Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), in an interview Monday. The UNOCHA
headed the Bangkok meetings.
The military junta that is ruling Myanmar, listed as one of the
world's least developed countries, has earned a reputation for poor
macro-economic management, let alone disaster-management.
Public funds to handle the crisis are severely limited, sources
said.
But the UN will not be able to launch its disaster-relief
programme until a proper assessment of the disaster is in hand, and
given the extent of the infrastructure damage in the Irrawaddy
Division, such an assessment will take time to complete.
Even in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, people remained largely
without electricity, piped water and communications on Tuesday, four
days after the cyclone struck.
'There has been some progress but there is still the problem of
water scarcity, and the danger of diseases outbreaks, and this is
just in Yangon,' said Aye Win.
Myanmar has been ruled by military dictatorships since 1962, when
General Ne Win staged a military coup that dragged the once
prosperous South-East Asian country into socialism and isolationism
that has yet to be fully discarded.
Faced with the enormity of the destruction caused by the cyclone,
however, the ruling junta has welcomed international aid.
'We need aid from both local and foreign sources,' Information
Minister Kyaw Hsan told a press conference on Tuesday. 'It is
welcome.'
Several countries have pledged aid to Myanmar - including 3
million dollars from the European Union, 750,000 dollars from
Germany, 250,000 dollars from the United States and two ships of
supplies from India - to cope with the humanitarian catastrophe
caused by the cyclone.
On Tuesday afternoon, neighbouring Thailand flew in more than
300,000 dollars worth of medical and food aid, and a planeload of
similar supplies from China was also sent.
It remains unclear whether Myanmar's regime would place
restrictions on the aid deliveries and foreign aid workers as it has
in the past.
'We can't yet provide any details,' said Major General Maung Maung
Swe, minister of social welfare and resettlement, who attended the
press conference with the information minister.
Hundreds of thousands have been left homeless and without basic
utilities by the cyclone, which blew off the Bay of Bengal late
Friday, packing winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour, wrecking much
of the country's already fragile infrastructure and threatening its
precarious food supply.
Yangon, Myanmar's former capital, was hit hard by the storm, which
uprooted trees, toppled electricity and telephone poles, and burst
water pipes, leaving the city of several million without basic
utilities.
Your Talkback on this Story