Yangon - Three weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar,
thousands of people are still without food in the remote regions of
the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta, the head of Medecins Sans Frontieres'
(MSF) Yangon mission said Monday.
Souheil Reache said that the aid organization was still awaiting a
go-ahead from the Myanmar junta to allow more of its foreign relief
experts into the Irrawaddy delta, where thousands of people are still
without food, shelter and medicines.
On Friday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon secured
assurances from Myanmar's junta chief Senior General Than Shwe that
the regime will allow 'all' foreign aid workers unhindered access to
the delta region.
Although the assurances were reconfirmed at a pledging conference
held in Yangon Sunday, many aid agencies are still awaiting approvals
for their people to get in to the delta region, where the majority of
the estimated 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone reside, many
of them in remote, hard-to-reach areas.
According to government estimates, the cyclone left at least
133,000 dead or missing, making it the worst natural disaster in the
country's history.
'Thousands of people have not seen any aid workers and still have
not received any assistance,' Reache said.
'Yesterday, our teams, who are travelling by boat to reach the
most isolated areas, managed to reach further villages around the
Bogaley area. In these villages we found people who had had run out
of food and who had not eaten in three days. They were crying and
begging for food,' he added.
While he welcomed Than Shwe's announcement, Reache noted that
three weeks after the crisis, over 10 MSF experts have been allowed
into the delta region, with another 20 constricted to working in
Yangon.
Five experts from MSF, which is also known as Doctors Without
Borders, were denied access to the delta on Saturday, on the eve of
the pledging conference.
'The aid assistance that has been brought into Myanmar to date
still remains significantly below what is needed for the cyclone
survivors. The overall aid effort has been considerably hampered by
the lack of international staff on the ground,' said Reache.
While the UN says it has seen some progress since Friday in the
acceptance of experts into the delta, the government has yet to
announce accelerated procedures for getting aid workers in to the
area.
'I sincerely hope that they will honour their commitment,' Ban
told a press conference in Bangkok Sunday night before flying back to
New York.
'This effort will have to continue. I don't think we have
completely agreed on everything,' he acknowledged.
Most donor nations on Sunday stopped short of making new pledges
for relief for victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar as they awaited
more details on access and accountability, but observers described
the meeting as a step forward.
In recent weeks, Myanmar's response to the catastrophe has been
widely criticized for throwing roadblocks in the way of an
international relief effort, by slowing the logistics of getting
emergency supplies to an estimated 2.4 million needy victims of the
cyclone and for reluctantly granting visas to foreign relief experts
keen to enter the country and the areas hardest hit by the storm.
A key issue at the conference was whether Myanmar's reclusive and
notoriously paranoid junta would allow greater access to the country
and the Irrawaddy delta to foreign aid workers, who have been
outraged by the government's restriction on their movements that have
been impeding aid supplies to victims of the cyclone.
More than three weeks after the catastrophe, international aid has
reached only 25 per cent of the affected people, many of whom have
been stranded without access to supplies in remote regions of the
Irrawaddy delta.
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