[Tlc] TLC-Burma update

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Forwarded from Sarah Grant. 
Thanks,
justin

The Associated Press, Wednesday May 7
 Hungry crowds of survivors stormed the few shops that opened in Myanmar's
 stricken Irrawaddy delta, where food and international aid has been scarce
 since a devastating cyclone killed more than 22,000 people, the U.N. said
 Wednesday.
 Corpses floated in salty flood waters and witnesses said survivors tried
 desperately to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails. The U.N.
 said some 1 million people were homeless in the Southeast Asian country,
 also known as Burma.

 "Basically the entire lower delta region is under water," said Richard
 Horsey, Bangkok-based spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of
 Humanitarian Aid.

 "Teams are talking about bodies floating around in the water," he said. This
 is "a major, major disaster we're dealing with."

 But a massive international aid effort was being kept on hold by Myanmar's
 military rulers. Internal U.N. documents obtained by The Associated Press
 showed growing frustrations at foot-dragging by the junta, which has kept
 the impoverished nation isolated for five decades to maintain its
 iron-fisted control.

 "Visas are still a problem. It is not clear when it will be sorted out,"
 according to the minutes of a meeting of the U.N. task force coordinating
 relief for Myanmar in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday.

 State media in military-ruled Myanmar said more than 22,000 people died when
 Cyclone Nargis blasted the country's western coast on Saturday and over
 41,000 others were missing. But Horsey predicted the number of fatalities
 could rise "dramatically."

 Local aid workers started distributing water purification tablets, mosquito
 nets, plastic sheeting and basic medical supplies. But heavily flooded areas
 were accessible only by boat, with helicopters unable to deliver relief
 supplies there, Horsey said.

 A few shops opened Wednesday in the delta but were quickly stormed by
 people, said Paul Risley, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program in
 Bangkok, quoting his agency's workers in the area.

 "Fist fights are breaking out," he said.

 The U.N. World Food Program says as many as 1 million people may have been
 left homeless, with some villages nearly destroyed and vast rice-growing
 areas wiped out. The Irrawaddy delta is considered Myanmar's rice bowl.

 The military junta normally restricts the access of foreign officials and
 organizations to the country, and aid groups were struggling to deliver
 relief goods.

 "Most urgent need is food and water," said Andrew Kirkwood, head of Save the
 Children in Yangon. "Many people are getting sick. The whole place is under
 salt water and there is nothing to drink. They can't use tablets to purify
 salt water," he said.

 Save the Children distributed food, plastic sheeting, cooking utensils and
 chlorine tablets to 230,000 people in Yangon area. Trucks were sent to the
 delta on Wednesday, carrying rice, salt, sugar and tarpaulin.

 A Yangon resident who returned home from the area said people are drinking
 coconut water because of lack of safe drinking water. He said many people
 were on boats using blankets as sails.

 Local aid groups were distributing rice porridge, which people were
 collecting in dirty plastic shopping bags. He spoke on condition of
 anonymity because he feared getting into trouble with authorities for
 talking to a foreign news agency.

 Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for U.N. relief efforts in Geneva, said the
 U.N. received permission to send nonfood supplies and that a cargo plane was
 being loaded in Brindisi, Italy, but it might be two days before it leaves.

 The U.N. is trying to get permission for its experts to accompany the
 shipment, Byrs said. She said U.N. staff in Thailand were also awaiting
 visas so they could enter Myanmar to assess the damage.

 Some aid workers have told the AP that the government wants the aid to be
 distributed by relief workers already in place, rather than through foreign
 staff brought into the country.

 Relief teams and aid material are waiting to deploy from Thailand,
 Singapore, Italy, France, Sweden, Britain, South Korea, Australia, Israel,
 U.S., Poland, Japan, according to minutes from a U.N. relief meeting in
 Geneva that were obtained by The Associated Press.

 However, Myanmar has accepted aid from traditional friends China, India and
 Indonesia. A group from Malaysia also was granted visas, according to the
 minutes of the meeting.

 Britain offered about $9.8 million to help the crisis, and the U.S. offered
 more than $3 million in aid. President Bush said Washington was prepared to
 use the U.S. Navy to help search for the dead and missing.

 However, the Myanmar military, which regularly accuses the United States of
 trying to subvert its rule, was unlikely to accept U.S. military presence in
 its territory.

 The U.S. military started positioning people and equipment as it awaited
 word from Myanmar's government. An Air Force C-130 cargo plane landed in
 Thailand and another was on the way, Air Force spokeswoman Megan Orton said
 Wednesday morning at the Pentagon.

 "When they accept, or if they accept - and we know what supplies they need -
 those planes will be there to transport those," she said.

 The Navy also has three ships participating in an exercise in the Gulf of
 Thailand that could help in any relief effort - the USS Essex, the USS
 Juneau and the USS Harper's Ferry - but Navy officials said they are still
 in a holding pattern.

 The Essex is an amphibious assault ship with 23 helicopters aboard,
 including 19 that are capable of lifting cargo from ship to shore, as well
 as more than 1,500 Marines.

 Because it would take the Essex more than four days to get into position for
 the relief effort, the Navy is considering sending some of its helicopters
 ahead, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because
 it was still in the planning stages. The aircraft would be able to arrive in
 a matter of hours, and the Essex could follow, he said.

 In Yangon, many angry residents say they were given vague and incorrect
 information about the approaching storm and no instructions on how to cope
 when it struck.

 Officials in India said they had warned Myanmar that Cyclone Nargis was
 headed for the country two days before it made landfall there.

 The state-run Indian Meteorological Department had been keeping a close
 watch on the depression in the Bay of Bengal since it was first spotted on
 April 28 and sent regular updates about its progress to all the countries in
 its path, department spokesman B. P. Yadav said.

 Myanmar told the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva that it warned
 people in newspapers, television and radio broadcasts of the impending
 storm, said Dieter Schiessl, director of the WMO's disaster risk reduction
 unit.

 State television news quoted Yangon official Gen. Tha Aye on Wednesday as
 reassuring people that the situation was "returning to normal."

 But city residents faced new challenges as markets doubled prices of rice,
 charcoal and bottled water.

 At a market in the suburb of Kyimyindaing, a fish monger shouted to
 shoppers: "Come, come the fish is very fresh." But an angry woman snapped
 back: "Even if the fish is fresh, I have no water to cook it!"

 Electricity was restored in a small portion of Yangon but most city
 residents, who rely on wells with electric pumps, had no water. Vendors sold
 bottled water at more than double the normal price. Price of rice and
 cooking oil also skyrocketed.
 ____________________________
______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu