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MYANMAR: First visas issued to international relief teams

07 May 2008 19:13:34 GMT
Source: IRIN

Background

• Myanmar cyclone

• Myanmar troubles

BANGKOK, 7 May 2008 (IRIN) - John Holmes, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in New York that four Asian members of a UN disaster coordination team had obtained clearance and would arrive in Myanmar on Thursday. A fifth team member, who is not Asian, had not yet obtained clearance. A UN plane from Italy would be also be arriving with supplies and another team.

The news may ease frustration that efforts to help some one million survivors of Myanmar's catastrophic cyclone are being hindered by the military government's apparent reluctance to allow any more than a handful of foreign disaster relief experts into the country. Some aid agencies have staff in Myanmar, but they are not specialists in disaster and emergency relief.

According to the Myanmar government, the death toll from Cyclone Nargis has risen to over 22,000 and more than 41,000 people are missing. An estimated one million people have been left homeless.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the military government of Myanmar to allow aid workers and relief supplies into the country as soon as possible to help people in need of medical assistance, food, clean drinking water and shelter.

Five days after the cyclone devastated the rice-growing delta of the Irrawaddy River and battered its largest city, Yangon, small quantities of relief materials have begun to trickle into Myanmar. So far, most of the aid has been sent by other Asian countries, such as Thailand, India and China.

Pledges of humanitarian relief aid have reached over $21 million, according the OCHA's Financial Tracking Service on 7 May.

However, the UN is still anxiously awaiting permission from the military regime for 40 officials with experience in coordinating large-scale disaster relief efforts to travel to Myanmar.

"The government authorities have never had to deal with a disaster on this scale before, and it is imperative that the lessons from other major disasters can be applied rapidly, rather than having to be re-learnt," said Richard Horsey, a spokesman for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Bangkok, Thailand.

"It's a major logistical challenge," he said. "This is why is it is so important that key international staff, with this relevant experience in disaster response and coordination, can get into the country as soon possible."

As impatience mounts, Bernard Kouchner, France's foreign minister, has proposed invoking the concept of the "responsibility to protect", adopted at the World Summit in 2005 to deliver aid directly to people without waiting for approval from military authorities.

Shortly after the disaster, the military authorities said they would welcome international help to cope with the crisis. However, observers say the government may be reluctant to allow foreigners in ahead of a controversial constitutional referendum.

"The Burmese military is overly concerned about white faces running amok, snooping around, seeing what they are doing," said Aung Naing Oo, an exiled Burmese political analyst based in Thailand. "They are paranoid about western interference."

Another aid worker, who asked not to be identified, said delays in issuing visas to relief workers could simply reflect bureaucratic paralysis in a country with a highly centralised decision-making structure.

Horsey also said that the scale of the relief effort required would be massive and long term. "This is isn't just that we quickly get out the emergency stuff and go away," he said. "This will be a major reconstruction effort while people get back on their feet."

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