1st Big Foreign Aid Flights Finally Let in by Myanmar Junta

FONT SIZE

EMAIL

PRINT

SHARE

RSS

After snubbing a U.S. aid offer, Myanmar's isolationist regime indicated Friday that it wants foreign relief supplies but not foreign workers to help recover from a devastating cyclone.

The statement came a day after Myanmar's military government allowed in the first major international aid shipment amid fears the death toll from last weekend's cyclone could hit 100,000.

"Currently Myanmar has prioritized receiving emergency relief provisions and making strenuous effort delivering with it with its own labor," the Foreign Ministry said in the state-owned New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

The United Nations and other agencies have complained that Myanmar is dragging its feet on the issuing of visas for its personnel they say are badly needed to cope with the crisis.

The statement expressed government gratitude to the international community for its assistance, which has included 11 chartered planes loaded with aid supplies. But it emphasized that the best way to help was just to send in material rather than personnel.

Among those aid workers stranded in Thailand were 10 members of the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team. Air Force transport planes and helicopters packed with supplies also sat waiting for a greenlight.

Related

Cyclone Relief Efforts Get High-Tech Help

Myanmar Death Toll May Reach 100,000

Myanmar at Risk of Second Death Wave

"We are in a long line of nations who are ready, willing and able to help, but also, of course, in a long line of nations the Burmese don't trust," U.S. Ambassador Eric John told reporters in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, Thursday.

"It's more than frustrating. It's a tragedy," he said. Each day of delay means "a lot more people suffering," he said.

Myanmar's isolationist regime issued an appeal for international assistance after winds of 120 mph and a storm surge up to 15 feet high pounded the Irrawaddy delta Saturday.

But the junta has been accused of dragging its feet despite emerging reports on entire villages submerged, bodies floating in salty water and children ripped from their parents arms.

"My children were crying all night. There is not enough food. There will be no food this evening," said Daw Thay, who took refuge in a monastery with her three children and her 99-year-old mother in a town 60 miles south of Yangon, the country's biggest city.

Daw Thay, 42, said monks were going without food so others could eat.

"We share what we have but there isn't enough. So they (the monks) give the food to the children and the old people first," she said.

Juanita Vasquez, a UNICEF worker in Myanmar, said Thursday that the most dramatic scene she's witnessed were children who have lost or become separated from parents.