Bangkok - European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Louis
Michel flew to cyclone-devastated Myanmar on Wednesday to persuade
the country's junta to improve access for a massive international
disaster relief programme straining to reach the people in need.
'The main aim of my mission is to explain to the Myanmar
authorities that our goal is strictly humanitarian,' said Michel.
'What we want is to ask the military authorities to open access for
our humanitarian work.'
That has been the common refrain of the international community
which has become increasingly frustrated with the ruling junta's
roadblocks to humanitarian aid for its own people.
Thirteen days after Cyclone Nargis smashed into Myanmar, killing
an estimated 100,000 people and leaving up to 2 million without
access to food, water, shelter and medicines, there are signs of
progress with the disaster relief programme, but not enough.
'We're seeing more flights getting in to the country, we're seeing
more relief items reaching people in the delta region and in Yangon,
and more people getting in to help the response but the levels of aid
getting in are not adequate and not enough to meet the needs of the
people on the ground,' said Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the United
Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),
which is heading a multi-million-dollar disaster relief programme in
Myanmar.
While Myanmar's ruling junta has appealed for international aid,
it has thrown up obstacles to deliveries and last week refused to
grant visas to scores of foreign relief experts seeking to enter the
country to facilitate the logistic of a massive emergency programme.
In recent days there has been some progress noted in the granting
of visas to experts.
'Progress has been seen on the visas front,' said Pitt. 'Visas are
being issued in a number of locations whether in New York, Geneva or
Bangkok, but there is no pattern emerging.'
Myanmar on Tuesday put out an appeal for 160 relief personnel from
neighbouring Bangladesh, China, India and Thailand, to assist the
government's own disaster relief efforts, she noted.
There have been no official explanations offered as to why some
experts are allowed in and others aren't.
Meanwhile, the aid push is also facing huge logistical obstacles
getting supplies out to the countryside on account of the poor, and
now cyclone damaged infrastructure in the Irrawaddy delta, the worst
hit region.
Roads are poor in the delta and bridges can handle only 5-ton
loads on trucks, posing logistical challenges.
'The good news from Yangon is that the port is open again,' said
World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman Marcus Prior.
'But it is not clear yet what size of vessels we can get in,' he
added.
The WFP is also looking into the possibility of using helicopters
to take supplies to some of the most remote areas in the delta, which
remain totally cut off from the supply flow.
Of the estimated 750,000 people in need of food, the WFP estimates
that it has so far been able to reach only 50,000.
Meanwhile, the country's devastated population now faces a new
threat of an ongoing tropical storm that could turn in to another
cyclone.
Chances are 'good' that a storm in the Indian Ocean could be
upgraded to a cyclone as it heads toward landfall in Myanmar, the
Joint Typhoon Warning Centre said Wednesday.
'The potential for the development of a significant tropical
cyclone within the next 24 hours is upgraded to good,' the centre
said late Tuesday in a forecast issued from its headquarters in
Hawaii.
The storm was situated about 30 nautical miles (56 kilometres)
south-west of Yangon at the time the alert was issued.
Yangon and the southern part of Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta suffered
the brunt of Cyclone Nargis, which hit the coastline packing 200
kilometre-per-hour winds May 2-3.
'I understand that there are indeed torrential rains on their way
and there is possibility that a cyclone may be developing,' confirmed
Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which is heading the emergency
relief effort in Myanmar out of Bangkok.
'It's a serious concern in terms of getting more supplies and
equipment out there,' said Shantha Boeman, a spokesperson for UNICEF.
'Obviously this is a great concern for the people still without
supplies or shelter.'
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