UN chief says utmost effort needed to help Myanmar's cyclone victims
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived on Thursday in Myanmar to try to persuade the country's ruling generals to let in a torrent of foreign assistance for cyclone victims rather than the current trickle.
By Agencies |
YANGON/ MYANMAR: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived on Thursday in Myanmar to try to persuade the country's ruling generals to let in a torrent of foreign assistance for cyclone victims rather than the current trickle.
``We must do our utmost for the people of Myanmar,'' the UN chief told reporters on the eve of his departure from Bangkok, Thailand.
``This is a critical moment for Myanmar,'' Ban said. ``The government itself acknowledges that there has never been a disaster on this scale in the history of their country.''
By the junta's own count, at least 134,000 people are dead or missing from Cyclone Nargis, which swept through the country's heartland on May 2-3.
Ban was scheduled to meet with government ministers and international aid agencies in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, and fly by helicopter to the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta.
Ahead of the talks, Ban was to sign a condolence book for the dead and visit Yangon's Shwedagon pagoda, regarded as the spiritual heart of the country, U.N. official Dan Baker said.
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Baker said junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe would meet Friday with Ban at Naypyitaw, the capital built by the military in a remote area of central Myanmar. Ban said earlier that Than Shwe had refused to take his telephone calls and failed to respond to two letters. The U.N. says up to 2.5 million cyclone survivors face hunger, homelessness and potential outbreaks of deadly diseases, especially in the low-lying delta.
``We have a functioning relief program in place. But so far we have been able to reach only about 25 percent of the people in need,'' Ban said.
Myanmar slowly geared up to receive material assistance for the victims, and is still reluctant to accept more than a handful of experienced foreign rescue and disaster relief workers.
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Ban said Tuesday that the U.N. had finally received permission from the junta to use nine World Food Program helicopters to carry aid to stranded victims in inaccessible areas. WFP officials in Bangkok confirmed that 10 flights would be allowed beginning Thursday. A state-controlled newspaper said Wednesday that U.S. helicopters and naval ships were not welcome to join the relief effort.
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The United States, as well as France and Great Britain, have naval vessels loaded with humanitarian supplies _ and the means to deliver them _ off Myanmar's coast, awaiting a green light to deliver them. The New Light of Myanmar, a mouthpiece for the junta, said accepting military-linked assistance ``comes with strings attached'' that are ``not acceptable to the people of Myanmar.'' It hinted at fears of an American invasion aimed at grabbing the country's oil reserves. The article did not say whether French and British supplies would be allowed.
The regime has been letting U.S. military C-130 cargo planes fly in relief goods.
Asked about Ban's upcoming visits, Kyaw Htun Htun, a businessman, responded: ``What can he do? He can't do anything.''
``They (the generals) won't care what the U.N. says,'' he said. Kyaw Htun Htun was giving out food to cyclone refugees at the Shwe Daw monastery in South Dagon near Yangon, one of many private citizens who have mobilized to help the needy. The Buddhist monastery was housing 258 people _ mostly women and children _ still homeless more than two weeks after the cyclone.
``People have enough food here,'' said one of the temple's monks, U Chewatale.
``People fed us. So now we are feeding them,'' he said, referring to the Buddhist practice of giving alms to monks.
The storm left at least 78,000 people dead and 56,000 missing. European Union nations have warned that Myanmar's junta could be committing a crime against humanity by blocking aid.
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