Myanmar finally lets in large aid flights
But military regime refuses U.S. offer to help cyclone victims
Five days after the storm, the junta indicated early today that it wants foreign relief but not foreign workers to deliver food, water and medicine to survivors amid fears the death toll could hit 100,000.
The Foreign Ministry said that it had given priority to receiving foreign aid but was using its own nationals to deliver it to stricken areas.
"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.
"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 of entire villages submerged, bodies floating in salty water and children ripped from their parents' arms.
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.
There are "more children roaming around this area looking for their families," she said in a telephone interview from Yangon. "We don't know at the moment how many have lost their parents and relatives."
In the swampy delta, a horrible stench rose from corpses and dead animals, bloated and floating in the water. Someone had written on a black asphalt road in Kongyangon village: "We are all in trouble. Please come help us." A few feet away, the desperate plea, "We're hungry."
Tired of waiting for help in Yangon, red-robed monks, other civilians and dozens of soldiers cleared piles of debris and toppled billboards from streets and cut branches off uprooted trees.
"They've started doing the cleanup themselves," Aye Chan Naing, chief editor of Democratic Voice of Burma, said as a light rain showered down. "They are volunteers."
Recent comments
Poor Burma. Not even a close shave. They got hit by the real thing...
Mary Louise | May 9, 2008 at 8:24 p.m.
Myanmar's gov. is a bunch of thugs. Let's call'em what...
russ | May 9, 2008 at 6:57 a.m.
