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More aid reaching Myanmar’s cyclone victims
Yangon, Myanmar —More food reached Myanmar’s hungry
cyclone victims Sunday as roads were cleared of fallen trees and
debris, but there still was no sign the government would let foreign
experts handle the aid distribution that the ruling military junta
was accused of manipulating. “Visas for international humanitarian
personnel remain a critical issue, and one on which the U.N. and
Myanmar’s regional partners are engaged,” an internal report from
the U.N. humanitarian coordinating agency said.
The junta says it only wants international relief material and money
_ not the people to manage it. It wants to hand out all donated
supplies on its own to an estimated 2 million people who are without
food or shelter and face the threat of diseases following the
Cyclone Nargis, which battered the country on May 3.
Debbie Stothard, head of the Southeast Asian human rights group
ALTSEAN-Burma, said the ruling generals were manipulating aid and
delivering it selectively, ignoring the needy. Myanmar is also known
as Burma. “Even in Yangon area, which is reachable by the regime,
people are complaining they are not getting aid. What they are
getting is rotting rice,” she said, she told Associated Press
Television News in Bangkok, Thailand.
According to the government, 23,335 people died and 37,019 are
missing. International aid organizations say the death toll could
climb to more than 100,000 as conditions worsen. Packing enormously
powerful winds, the storm battered the Irrawaddy delta. It left
hundreds of villages under water, and felled trees and power lines.
Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, was also badly hit.
U.N. staff in Myanmar were reporting “significant progress in
clearing roadways, and the piped water supply has been partially
restored to some parts of Yangon city,” the U.N. report said. It
said helicopter loads of international aid arriving in Yangon were
being relayed to Pathein for distribution in the Irrawaddy delta.
“Aid is getting through in increased amounts,” said the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. It
said three planes of the federation with 14 tons of shelter material
arrived in Myanmar and were cleared without delay, replenishing Red
Cross stocks already in the country before the cyclone. So far the
humanitarian effort has supported 220,000 people, it said. A further
seven flights were expected to arrive Monday, carrying 20 tons of
shelter material, jerry cans and 2,000 mosquito nets.
Myanmar’s junta has also been criticized for holding a referendum on
Saturday on a new constitution aimed at solidifying its hold on
power, while brazenly turning cyclone relief efforts into a
propaganda campaign.—AP
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