May 10, 2008
By Seth Mydans
BANGKOK =97 The United Nations suspended relief supplies to Myanmar on
Friday after the military government seized the food and equipment it
had already sent into the country.
Earlier, in a statement, Myanmar=92s military junta said it was willing
to receive disaster relief from the outside world but would not
welcome outside relief workers. Nearly one week after a devastating
cyclone, supplies into the country were still being delayed and aid
experts were being turned back as they arrived at the air****t.
In the statement, the government said it would distribute
international relief supplies itself.
Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program,
said, "all the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has
been confiscated." He said the World Food Program was suspending the
few flights that the Myanmar authorities had so far allowed to enter
the country until the matter was resolved.
Myanmar said it had turned back one relief flight because, in addition
to disaster relief supplies, it carried disaster *****sment experts
and an unauthorized media group.
"Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams
from foreign countries at the moment," the statement, from the Foreign
Ministry, said. =93But at present Myanmar is giving priority to
receiving relief aid and distributing them to the storm-hit regions
with its own resources."
The first of two major international aid ****pments arrived Thursday by
aircraft from the United Nations World Food Program, carrying high
energy biscuits, water containers, food and plastic sheets.
But two of four United Nations experts who flew in on Friday were
turned back at the air****t for unknown reasons, said John Holmes, a
relief coordinator for the United Nations.
Altogether, by one count, 11 chartered planes with relief supplies
have landed in Myanmar, a tiny amount for a disaster that the United
Nations said has affected 1.5 million people.
By the government=92s official count, 22,500 people have died, but Shari
Villarosa, the top American diplomat in Myanmar, said the number could
reach 100,000 if help was not prompt and the humanitarian situation
worsened.
One United Nations official said he had never seen delays like this
before in delivering relief supplies and aid officials. In Indonesia
after the tsunami in 2004, he said, an air bridge of daily flights was
established within 48 hours.
"The frustration caused by what appears to be a paperwork delay is
unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts," said the
official, Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations World Food
Program, in Bangkok. "It=92s astoni****ng."
He said his agency alone had submitted 10 visa applications for relief
workers but that none had been approved before consulates shut down
for the weekend.
"We strongly urge the government of Myanmar to process these visa
applications as quickly as possible, including working over the
weekend," he said.
In Thailand, in addition to aid workers United States Air Force
trans****t aircraft and helicopters waited at an air****t for permission
to enter Myanmar with supplies.
"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=92t
trust," said United States Ambassador Eric John.
He said that on Thursday Myanmar appeared to agree to accept American
aid, but then said it would not accept the aid. He said it was not
clear whether there had been a misunderstanding or a change of mind.
Also in Bangkok it appeared that Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej had
changed his mind about visiting Myanmar to discuss the relief
operation, canceling the trip because the leaders would not welcome
aid workers.
"After they said today they would not welcome foreign staff, there is
no point of me going there," Mr. Samak said.
In New York, United Nations officials all but demanded Thursday that
the government open its doors.
"The situation is profoundly worrying," said Mr. Holmes, the United
Nations official in charge of the relief effort, speaking in unusually
candid language for a diplomat. "They have simply not facilitated
access in the way we have a right to expect."
Mr. Holmes=92s predecessor in that job, Jan Egeland, said, "children are
going to die from diarrhea because of this government=92s inaction."
The cyclone struck a country particularly ill-equipped to deal with a
public health catastrophe, said Dr. Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist at
Johns Hopkins who has worked extensively in Myanmar.
Under the military government, the public health infrastructure has
been crumbling for decades, he said.
Malaria is already endemic, and many people with AIDS and tuberculosis
are going untreated, he said. "We don=92t think the blood supply is safe
or adequately screened," Dr. Beyrer said, adding that people injured
in the storm and in need of transfusions face the risk of infection
and blood-borne diseases.
In Geneva on Friday, a United Nations spokeswoman said the United
Nations was putting together an urgent appeal for funding that would
cover its relief efforts in Myanmar over the next six months.
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