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Let Them Eat Frogs
MIAMI HERALD: Burma's rulers sink to new low
Tolerance Of Myanmar Abuses Allowed Aid Delays -UN Official
Despite promises, Myanmar limits access for aid agencies
How many Myanmar people died before international aid
Myanmar Rulers Still Impeding Access
Appeal raises money for cyclone victims
Soaring prices compound Burma's cyclone misery
One month after cyclone, Burma still restricting aid workers' access
Myanmar: Humanitarian air bridge up and running
Relief supplies to Myanmar and China
Charity helps Burma cyclone victims
Network aids Nargis victims in Rangoon
ADRA CANADA SECURES HALF MILLION DOLLAR GRANT FOR MYANMAR RELIEF
Myanmar defends cyclone response after U.S. rebuke
UN food chief urges more funding to support aid work after Myanmar cyclone
Myanmar cyclone 2008: Work report 01 Jun 2008
The Politics of Humanitarian Aid
Cyclone Nargis: one month on, US accuses Burma of criminal neglect

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Let Them Eat Frogs
Absurdity and Tragedy in Burma
Published 6/2/08
***

The search for food begins just after dawn,” the Los Angeles Times reported last Tuesday from a small, devastated village in Burma. “Each day, men, women and children fan out into paddies flooded by seawater, littered with corpses. Like prospectors working claims, they scoop up the muck in their bare hands and finger through it for grains of unmilled rice swept away by the cyclone. When their luck is good, they discover red chile peppers or small onions in mud reeking of the dead. Then, they can have condiments with their next meal of rotten rice and coconut meat.”

If only those villagers had read the New Light of Myanmar! The official newspaper for the military junta in charge (Myanmar being the generals' name for the country) last week assured its readers that everything was returning to normal in Burma's Irrawaddy Delta. And, the junta also assured its readers, hunger could not be a problem, since farmers can gather water clover or “go out with lamps at night and catch plump frogs.”

This might be funny were it not obscene. In fact, according to editor and columnist Aung Zaw of the exile magazine Irrawaddy, more than half of the 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone have yet to receive aid. Meanwhile, a U.S. naval task force consisting of the USS Essex and three other vessels has been steaming in circles offshore since Cyclone Nargis swept through Burma on May 2 and 3. According to Adm. Timothy Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, the task force could deliver 250,000 pounds of relief material per day, by plane, helicopter and amphibious landing craft. “And the kids out there, the young sailors and Marines, are desperate to provide help,” Adm. Keating said last week. “Some of them have experience with the tsunami at Aceh. Some of them have experience with Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh last Thanksgiving. So these guys, they know what they're doing and they know how much help they can provide just that quick.…And there would be significant materiel going ashore within an hour, I'd say.”

So why are those villagers still scrounging? “As yet,” Adm. Keating explained, “we don't have permission from Burma to conduct those operations.”

That's right. Since the cyclone that left more than 100,000 people dead or missing, Burma's generals have found time to conduct a phony referendum to make military rule permanent; issue a decree extending the house arrest of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi; detain many other democracy activists and ordinary civilians and monks trying to deliver aid to cyclone victims; harry and repulse foreign correspondents (the Los Angeles Times reporter quoted above had to file anonymously) ; and complain that foreign governments are being stingy with “reconstruction” aid. But the junta continues to prevent the kind of large-scale relief operation that the country needs, allowing in just enough private aid workers to defuse international pressure.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was right to visit Burma and press the junta to admit more aid. But he was wrong, in explaining why he didn't say much there about Aung San Suu Kyi, to urge a “focus on people, not politics.” It is politics -- the generals' politics -- that is killing uncounted numbers of children in Burma’s delta. It is the generals’ politics to rebuff emergency relief while demanding reconstruction loans that could make the junta richer. And it is the generals' politics that is forcing villagers to strain the mud for rotten rice while tons of clean food float unused not many miles away.

The Washington Post

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Burma's rulers sink to new low
Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
The Miami Herald

In appalling display of contempt for international public opinion and their own people, the generals who rule Burma have extended for one year the house arrest of democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. This completes a trifecta of tyranny for the junta. Over the last few weeks, it has denied access to international- aid workers following a devastating cyclone, held a sham referendum designed to tighten its grip on power and prolonged the punishment of the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate. How's that for telling the world to go fly a kite?

Suu Kyi has been a target of the junta ever since she and her pro-democracy allies won the parliamentary elections of 1990 but were kept from taking office. She has spent 12 of the ensuing 18 years in jail or under house arrest. This time around, the generals didn't even bother to file new charges against her, as the nation's own laws dictate when extending an expired sentence. They did it because they can. They're used to thumbing their noses at the rest of the world and getting away with it.

Tuesday was also the anniversary of the abortive 1990 elections, prompting a few of Suu Kyi's allies to make a brave public protest against her detention. Most of them were immediately hauled away by the police - par for the course in this forlorn country.

The mistreatment of Suu Kyi is symbolic of how little the junta led by Gen. Than Shwe cares for civil liberties, but hardly the only - or worst - abuse committed by the rulers. Out of paranoia or mere disdain for their own people, they have refused to cooperate fully with aid agencies trying to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, which left some 134,000 dead or missing.

The United Nations estimated that only 42 percent of the 2.4 million affected victims have received aid. On Wednesday, a frustrated U.S. Navy Adm. Timothy Keating, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said he probably will withdraw a group of naval vessels from nearby waters soon unless the government allows the ships to offload their relief supplies.

Despite the devastation, the junta forged ahead on May 10 with a vote on a new constitution that strengthens the power of the generals and bans Suu Kyi from holding public office - ever. They claimed that 98 percent of voters turned out and that more than 92 percent endorsed their charter.

As absurd as this claim is, the generals will probably get away with it, as they have with previous power grabs, until the international community comes together at the United Nations or a similar forum to denounce the junta and demand freedom for Suu Kyi and better treatment for the people of Burma.

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Tolerance Of Myanmar Abuses Allowed Aid Delays -UN Official
2 June, 2008

GENEVA (AP)--The world's long record of tolerating human rights abuses in Myanmar allowed the country's government to obstruct international aid in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the U.N.'s top rights official said Monday.

Myanmar's military government stopped foreign relief workers from distributing aid around the country in the immediate aftermath of last month's devastating storm, which affected some 2.4 million people. The rules were only relaxed after intense lobbying from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"The obstruction to the deployment of such assistance illustrates the invidious effects of long-standing international tolerance for human rights violations," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said.

Arbour, who leaves office at the end of the month, made her comments in a speech to the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council.

In March, the 47-member council criticized Myanmar for its record of violently suppressing pro-democracy groups and extending the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years since her party won a 1990 general election that the junta refused to acknowledge.

Western trade unions and human rights groups have called for sanctions against Myanmar, but governments have so far resisted the idea, partly because of strong opposition from powerful developing countries such as China and India.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-02-080911ET
Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Despite promises, Myanmar limits access for aid agencies
By Seth Mydans
Published: June 2, 2008

BANGKOK: One month after a powerful cyclone struck Myanmar and 10 days after the ruling junta's leader promised full access to the hardest-hit areas, relief agencies said Monday that they were still having difficulty reaching hundreds of thousands of survivors who are in urgent need of assistance.

Over the past week, they said, the door has opened slightly and a number of foreign experts have been allowed to travel into the Irrawaddy Delta, which bore the brunt of the May 3 storm. A modest flow of food, medicine and other supplies has begun to enter the delta by truck and barge.

But the agencies said that travel permits for international experts are limited and irregular and that dozens of relief workers remained stranded in the main city, Yangon.

"Several have been able to make essentially day trips to work with our field staff there," Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program, said Monday. "But access remains a continuing challenge."

A spokesman for the UN disaster relief agency said Monday that as of two days before, 15 foreign experts representing UN agencies were in the delta.

Long-time analysts of Myanmar said they feared that the junta was playing a game of hints, promises and deception that it has used successfully over the years to deflect criticism from abroad.

"In all these crises that the Burmese face, there always is the teaser to take the pressure off the government," said Josef Silverstein, an expert on Myanmar at Rutgers University.

"They seem like they are going to cooperate, and just as soon as comment dies down, anything that is going to be useful dies with it," he said. "Look back at the 'saffron revolution,' when they made all kinds of promises about what they were going to do and nothing happened."

He was referring to a peaceful uprising led by monks that was crushed in September. The junta's promises included a dialogue with the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but it dropped the idea after international attention had moved on.

The United Nations estimates that 2.4 million people were severely affected by the cyclone and said last week that 1.4 million of those remained in desperate need of food, clean water, shelter and medical care. The government says that 134,000 people died or are missing.

International relief agencies have complained strenuously that the junta that rules the country was barring foreign aid and foreign relief workers from the worst-affected areas and endangering the lives of the survivors.

On May 28 in Yangon, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, said the junta's leader, Senior General Than Shwe, had promised free access to foreign aid workers. Two days later, at a donor conference in Yangon, foreign nations pledged about $150 million in aid but most said it was contingent on access by foreign relief workers.

Returning to New York, Ban said that the government "appears to be moving in the right direction" and that "I hope, and I believe, that this marks a new spirit of cooperation between Myanmar and the international community."

But relief workers said it was precisely the spirit of cooperation that is missing.

After a 10-day delay, the junta allowed the first of 10 World Food Program helicopters to carry supplies from Yangon into the delta. The other nine were in Thailand en route to Myanmar, Risley said. He also said that barges and smaller craft were delivering supplies to hard-hit areas.

The government has allowed U.S. aircraft to land with relief materials but has barred American workers from leaving Yangon Airport to deliver them. It has turned away U.S., French and British naval vessels loaded with supplies.

In defiance of the views of the international community, the junta insists the emergency phase of the disaster has passed and according to various accounts has begun forcing survivors from shelters back into the devastated countryside.

According to Human Rights Watch, thousands of displaced people have been evicted from schools, monasteries and public buildings.

"The forced evictions are part of government efforts to demonstrate that the emergency relief period is over and that the affected population is capable of rebuilding their lives without foreign assistance," the agency said Saturday.

"Claiming a return to 'normalcy' is no basis for returning people to greater misery and possible death," said Brad Adams, the group's director for Asia.

Anupama Rao Singh, regional director of the UN Children's Fund, warned after a visit to the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta that any resettlement would be premature, even if it was voluntary.

"Many of the villages remain inundated with water, making it difficult to rebuild," she said. "There is also a real risk that once they are resettled, they will be invisible to aid workers. Without support and continued service to those affected, there is a risk of a second wave of disease and devastation."

The government also said it would reopen schools with the start of the new term this week, though many school buildings were destroyed and many teachers were swept to their deaths. Unicef said that more than 4,000 schools serving 1.1 million children were damaged or totally destroyed by the storm and more than 100 teachers were killed.

"I think the generals are doing what they do best, taking charge of everything, trying to keep themselves in complete control," said Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst who lives in Thailand.

"The military has this colonial trauma," he said. "They say, 'Under the British for more than a hundred years we were enslaved.' They view the pressure as a new form of neocolonialism."

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Today's Inbox: How many Myanmar people died before international aid
June 2, 2008
A reader's view

Regarding the Myanmar disaster: Hours of news clips, references by news anchors, pundits, even our public broadcasting network, have fed the public information that somehow seems to spin the information rather than report the facts.

Myanmar is a government that no one in the free world would want to be subject to. It’s reportedly cruel and uncaring towards its people. We are told it would rather have people die by the tens of thousands than accept aid from the international community.
Suppose, however, that they feared other governments will take the opportunity to engage a regime change under the guise of bringing aid to Myanmar. Suppose it expressed those fears and instructed the international community to place the aid supplies on civilian ships and have those civilian ships deliver the aid.

On May 27, France did just that. It sailed to Thailand, off-loaded the aid supplies and made arrangements to have the aid delivered by civilian ships. It appears that the aid will be accepted by the government of Myanmar, now.

Had the international community agreed that all aid would be delivered by civilian vessels in the earliest hours of the disaster would we now be discussing the dilemma of whether there should be force used to deliver aid to Myanmar? Will the United Nations eventually announce that all international aid to countries following a disaster be delivered by civilian ships in order to avoid any delay in coming to the aid of victims? I hope so.

If the above scenario offered to explain the difficulty in negotiating the delivery of aid to Myanmar is even half-true, I am convinced that our government continues to conduct itself in terms most would consider criminal actions. A lot of people have died and continue to suffer needlessly. That isn’t what we Americans are all about. We have to demand more from those who are in a position of power in our country.

­ Tom Poe, Charles City

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Myanmar Rulers Still Impeding Access
By SETH MYDANS
Published: June 3, 2008

BANGKOK — One month after a powerful cyclone struck Myanmar and 10 days after the ruling junta’s leader promised full access to the hardest-hit areas, relief agencies said Monday that they were still having difficulty reaching hundreds of thousands of survivors who are in urgent need of assistance.

Over the past week, they said, the door has opened slightly and a number of foreign experts have been allowed to travel into the Irrawaddy Delta, which bore the brunt of the May 3 storm. A modest flow of food, medicine and other supplies has begun to enter the delta by truck and barge.

But the agencies said that travel permits for international experts are limited and irregular and that dozens of relief workers remained stranded in the main city, Yangon.

“Several have been able to make essentially day trips to work with our field staff there,” Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program, said Monday. “But access remains a continuing challenge.”

A spokesman for the UN disaster relief agency said Monday that as of two days before, 15 foreign experts representing UN agencies were in the delta.

Long-time analysts of Myanmar said they feared that the junta was playing a game of hints, promises and deception that it has used successfully over the years to deflect criticism from abroad.

“In all these crises that the Burmese face, there always is the teaser to take the pressure off the government,” said Josef Silverstein, an expert on Myanmar at Rutgers University.

“They seem like they are going to cooperate, and just as soon as comment dies down, anything that is going to be useful dies with it,” he said. “Look back at the ‘saffron revolution,’ when they made all kinds of promises about what they were going to do and nothing happened.”

He was referring to a peaceful uprising led by monks that was crushed in September. The junta’s promises included a dialogue with the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but it dropped the idea after international attention had moved on.

The United Nations estimates that 2.4 million people were severely affected by the cyclone and said last week that 1.4 million of those remained in desperate need of food, clean water, shelter and medical care. The government says that 134,000 people died or are missing.

International relief agencies have complained strenuously that the junta was barring foreign aid and foreign relief workers from the worst-affected areas and endangering the lives of the survivors.

On May 28 in Yangon, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said the junta’s leader, Gen. Than Shwe, had promised free access to foreign aid workers. Two days later, at a donor conference in Yangon, foreign nations pledged about $150 million in aid but most said it was contingent on access by foreign relief workers.

Returning to New York, Mr. Ban said that the government “appears to be moving in the right direction” and that “I hope, and I believe, that this marks a new spirit of cooperation between Myanmar and the international community.”

But relief workers said it was precisely the spirit of cooperation that is missing.

After a 10-day delay, the junta allowed the first of 10 World Food Program helicopters to carry supplies from Yangon into the delta. The other nine were in Thailand en route to Myanmar, Mr. Risley said. He also said that barges and smaller craft were delivering supplies to hard-hit areas.

The government has allowed U.S. aircraft to land with relief materials but has barred American workers from leaving Yangon Airport to deliver them. It has turned away American, French and British naval vessels loaded with supplies.

In contrast to many outside assessments, the junta insists the emergency phase of the disaster has passed and according to various accounts has begun forcing survivors from shelters back into the devastated countryside.

According to Human Rights Watch, thousands of displaced people have been evicted from schools, monasteries and public buildings.

“The forced evictions are part of government efforts to demonstrate that the emergency relief period is over and that the affected population is capable of rebuilding their lives without foreign assistance,” the agency said Saturday.

“Claiming a return to ‘normalcy’ is no basis for returning people to greater misery and possible death,” said Brad Adams, the group’s director for Asia.

Anupama Rao Singh, regional director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, warned after a visit to the Irrawaddy Delta that any resettlement would be premature, even if it was voluntary.

“Many of the villages remain inundated with water, making it difficult to rebuild,” she said. “There is also a real risk that once they are resettled, they will be invisible to aid workers. Without support and continued service to those affected, there is a risk of a second wave of disease and devastation.”

The government also said it would reopen schools with the start of the new term this week, though many school buildings were destroyed and many teachers were swept to their deaths. Unicef said that more than 4,000 schools serving 1.1 million children were damaged or totally destroyed by the storm and more than 100 teachers were killed.

“I think the generals are doing what they do best, taking charge of everything, trying to keep themselves in complete control,” said Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst who lives in Thailand.

“The military has this colonial trauma,” he said. “They say, ‘Under the British for more than a hundred years we were enslaved.’ They view the pressure as a new form of neocolonialism.”

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Appeal raises money for cyclone victims
The Comet - News for North Herts
12:30 - 02 June 2008

AN APPEAL by Buddhist monks in Comet country for help in the wake of the cyclone which ripped through Burma has raised £400 so far.

Close relatives and friends of members of the Letchworth Dhamma Nikethanaya Buddhist Centre on Pix Road have been killed in Burma and others are struggling to survive.

Since cyclone Nargis hit on May 3, Burma's military rulers have staunchly opposed foreign aid workers helping the many thousands left destitute and in danger of disease.

But the Buddhist centre is raising funds to send straight to Burmese temples.

Head of the centre, the Rev Akurala Samitha, said: "I am so pleased with the support so far. I am sure people will be delighted to hear their good wishes and generous donations have gone to the hearts of the victims."

Monks in Letchworth GC also lit candles at Buddhist New Year last month to remember those affected by the cyclone.

To make a donation, send a cheque made payable to Letchworth Dhamma Nikethanaya Buddhist Centre, with "Burma Cyclone Appeal" clearly marked on the back, to 69 Pix Road, Letchworth GC, Hertfordshire, SG6 1PZ.

For more information, call the centre on 01462 641688 or email info@letchworthbudd hism.com

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Soaring prices compound Burma's cyclone misery
Aung Hla Tun | Rangoon, Burma    
02 June 2008 02:24

A large "Happy World" sign hangs above a dilapidated food market in Rangoon, Burma, but on the streets shoppers are far from content.

A month after Cyclone Nargis scythed a path of destruction through Burma's former capital and Irrawaddy Delta, leaving 134 000 dead or missing, those spared by the storm are struggling to cope with soaring prices for food and fuel.

"Of course everyone is unhappy, but nobody dares complain," stall-owner Daw Ngee Yee said as her offerings of fruit and vegetables wilted under a hot afternoon sun.

Ordinary life in Burma, already tough in one of Asia's most impoverished nations after 46 years of military rule, has become much harder since the cyclone devastated the country's rice bowl.

A 50kg bag of rice now sells for 38 000 kyat, or about $34,50, up from 27 000 kyat before the storm flooded more than one million acres of arable land with seawater.

Peanut oil, used for cooking, has jumped nearly 40% to 5 500 kyat for a 2kg container.

In a country where government workers earn $30 a month or less, people often spend about two thirds of their income to put meals on the table. "The rich are okay, but while prices go up, salaries stay the same. We have to eat smaller meals," 27-year-old Ma Oo said as she inspected tied bunches of vegetable greens at the market.

But Ma Oo, who moved to Rangoon two months ago in search of a better life, counts herself lucky to have some food to buy in Rangoon, where life is slowly getting back to what passed for normal before the cyclone.

Food aid appeal
Four weeks on, Burma's reclusive junta is gradually and grudgingly opening up to foreign aid and expertise. It has handed out more visas to foreign experts, but access to the delta remains restricted.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said it has given 575 000 people their first ration of rice, "but many people have not been reached, and others are now due a second round of distributions".

WFP executive director Josette Sheeran said its $70-million food aid programme faced a 64% funding shortfall, as did its logistics plan, which includes boats, trucks and helicopters.

"With current contributions, we will run out of food by mid-July," Sheeran said after a weekend visit to Burma.

With markets back to normal in Rangoon, WFP and four NGOs have begun handing out cash, about 50 US cents per person per day, to help people buy their own food.

That has allowed the WFP to focus on delivering aid to the hardest-hit delta, where most food stocks were destroyed and few markets survived the storm.

Authorities have pushed ahead with a campaign, condemned by human rights groups and deemed "unacceptable" by the UN, of evictions of displaced people from government shelters.

The last camp in Kawhmu, a district south of Rangoon, was closed on Monday, witnesses said of the closures that appeared aimed at stopping the "tented" villages from becoming permanent.

"We have nowhere to go and we don't know any other life except farming and fishing," U Kyi, who fled to the camp with his wife days after the cyclone, said on Friday.

The evictions came on the heels of last week's official media criticism of foreign donors' demands for access to the delta, saying that cyclone victims could "stand by themselves".

Under fire for its slow response to the disaster, a junta general insisted on Sunday his government had acted swiftly and it remained open to foreign aid "with no strings attached".

But the patience of Western donors is wearing thin. – Reuters

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One month after cyclone, Burma still restricting aid workers' access
Plan to reopen schools may be 'premature'
Last Updated: Monday, June 2, 2008 | 9:17 AM ET
CBC News

Cyclone survivors south of Rangoon receive packets of emergency food. Aid agencies continue to criticize Burma's military junta for restricting access to the areas hardest hit by last month's devastating storm. Cyclone survivors south of Rangoon receive packets of emergency food. Aid agencies continue to criticize Burma's military junta for restricting access to the areas hardest hit by last month's devastating storm. (Associated Press)

One month after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Burma, leaving at least 130,000 people dead or missing and more than 2.4 million homeless, the country's reclusive military regime is still restricting access to the worst-hit areas, international aid experts said Monday.

"Access remains problematic both for logistic staff inside Burma to the delta and for staff trying to get in from the outside," said Lionel Rosenblatt of the U.S.-based organization Refugees International.

The head of the United Nations World Food Program, Josette Sheeran, said the Burmese government has been granting more visas to foreign aid experts but was restricting their travel outside of Rangoon, the country's largest city and its former capital.

"What we need is a seamless global lifeline of relief supplies," Sheeran said. "Progress has been made, but urgent work remains on the critical last leg."

For more than two weeks after the cyclone hit, officials in Burma, also known as Myanmar, refused to permit foreign aid teams into the country, or to allow those already there to leave Rangoon, the largest city.

After intense international criticism, and a plea delivered in person by United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon last month, the country's ruling generals promised more access to cyclone victims.

But that didn't extend to allowing U.S., British and French warships waiting off the Irrawaddy Delta to furnish relief supplies directly to victims.
'Criminal neglect' by junta: Gates

All aid had to come through Rangoon's airport, the country's ruling generals said, prompting U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates to accuse them of "criminal neglect" in their handling of the crisis.

Gates is in Thailand for talks with the Thai military and officials that among other issues will cover aid provision to Burma.

Meanwhile, the country's deputy defence minister, Maj.-Gen. Aye Myint, said at a conference in Singapore that the Burmese government moved quickly to rescue and provide relief to survivors.

"Due to the prompt work" of the military government, food, water and medicine was provided to all victims, he said.

"I believe the resettlement and rehabilitation process will be speedy."

In its struggle to return to normalcy, the junta reopened many schools in areas hit by the cyclone in the Irrawaddy Delta, though some others are only scheduled to reopen in July.

International aid agencies have said it may be too soon to send children back to school, because storm damage has made buildings unsafe.
Schools plan 'too ambitious'

The United Nations Children's Fund said more than 4,000 schools serving 1.1 million children were damaged or destroyed by the storm and more than 100 teachers were killed. As a result, the government planned to train volunteer teachers and hold some classes in camps and other temporary sites, UNICEF said.

Anupama Rao Singh, UNICEF's regional director, said reopening schools in the delta "may be too ambitious," since construction materials were still on the way and there was not enough time to rebuild schools and train new teachers.

At least 35,000 homes were destroyed, according to an initial estimate by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Thousands of other buildings will also have to be rebuilt, UNICEF has said.

Rising prices for building materials mean reconstruction efforts have to be focused on shelter and medical facilities, officials said.

Ramesh Shrestha, who represents UNICEF in Burma, confirmed prices in the country have risen since the cyclone — not only for construction materials, but also for food, gasoline and other essentials.

with files from the Associated Press

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Myanmar: Humanitarian air bridge up and running
Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
Date: 02 Jun 2008

BANGKOK, 2 June 2008 (IRIN) - The usually deserted runways and warehouses of Bangkok's Don Mueang airport have sprung alive as relief supplies for Myanmar rush in from around the globe.

Food, medicine, shelter equipment - as well as cargo helicopters - arrive daily at the airport, destined for Myanmar's cyclone-hit regions, where an estimated 2.4 million people remain homeless and hungry.

Some 134,000 people are either dead or missing after Nargis, a category four storm, slammed into Myanmar on 2 and 3 May.

"The airport is our air bridge into Burma," Paul Risley a spokesman for the World Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN in Bangkok. "We have had cargo flights from around the world going through the airport."

Flights now come in daily from around the world to ferry supplies through Don Mueang to Yangon, the former Myanmar capital, having been briefly suspended on 9 May.

Once Thailand's main airport and a major regional hub for Asia, Don Mueang was replaced by the ultra-modern Suvarnabhumi airport in September 2006.

At its peak, Don Mueang handled more than 160,000 flights per year, 38 million passengers and 700,000 metric tonnes (MT) of cargo, making it the world's 18th busiest airport in 2005.

But since Suvarnabhumi opened - aside for a few budget flights, as well as some cargo and military flights - Don Mueang has been largely empty.

Supply chain

"The facilities are ideal for us. Don Mueang used to be a major international airport so there is huge surplus space for us," said Risley.

Within the facility, incoming relief can be stored at the airport's 30,000 sqm warehouse and called in as needed to Yangon.

"This will ensure we don't have a congested airport in Yangon," Matthew Hollingworth, a WFP logistician and head of the logistics cluster, explained, citing the importance of Bangkok as the primary staging ground for getting assistance into the country.

The main logistics hub will be Yangon, but Bangkok will be the staging area to support it, Hollingworth said. It takes a C-17 helicopter transport flight less than two hours to reach Yangon.

In addition to a small army of local staff, there are 10 full-time international staff at the airport loading and unloading relief aid, as well as coordinating the effort. The aid includes food, water, water purification systems and basic supplies such as blankets.

With more aid arriving daily, operations at the airport look set to increase significantly.

Currently, one Ilyushin-76 and one Antonov-12 are serving the air bridge into Yangon, but the capacity can be increased quickly if required. Regular flights continue across the air bridge from Bangkok into Yangon and from other points direct into Myanmar and on 1 June, the Canadian government flew in four MI-8 helicopters to help in the relief operation.

Logistical problems

Despite some signs of progress, Myanmar's military-led government remains reluctant to allow foreign aid workers and foreign aid into disaster-stricken regions, and still refuses to permit foreign military helicopters to fly through its airspace.

Sources at the airport confirm that the restrictions have posed serious logistical problems.

The Australian air force was forced to hire a South African company to provide two Pumas, a medium-sized twin-engined transport/utility helicopter, because its equipment was not allowed to fly in Burmese airspace.

"We could have had this [aid] delivered days ago, but we are having to work with equipment we are not familiar with," Colonel John Baxter, the Australian Embassy's Defence Attaché, explained. "But we are of course very happy that this aid will get to the people who need it most . It is a life or death situation [in Myanmar]," he added.

According to WFP, the helicopters, once operational, will prove key to getting assistance into the Ayeyarwady Delta, where access remains particularly poor.

"The helicopters will play a key role in the relief operations," said Risley. "Many of the hardest-hit areas are almost inaccessible. It can take three to four days to reach them by boat - a helicopter can do it in a few hours," he explained.

As part of the overall logistics strategy, aircraft will fly relief supplies from Don Mueang to Yangon, where they will then be transported by helicopter, trucks or barges to the disaster areas, to be distributed by NGOs on the ground. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Myanmar Red Cross have been stationed throughout Myanmar's delta areas to receive aid shipments from WFP helicopters.

"We rely on the co-operation of NGOs on the ground to hand out the aid - without them, it would be nearly impossible to distribute," the WFP official added.

While access has improved, it is still not seen as sufficient. "What is needed is free and unfettered access and that's not happening," said Mark Farmaner of The Burma Campaign.

gm/ds/mw
[END]

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Relief supplies to Myanmar and China
Source: Government of India
Date: 02 Jun 2008
Save to My ReliefWeb Save

One more IL-76 aircraft of IAF will leave Delhi on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 for Yangon. This aircraft will carry 3500 FRP Sheets, 10,000 ORS packets, 2000 glucose bottles and approx 100 tarpaulins. This will be the sixth flight of IL-76 for Myanmar.

Two IL-76 aircraft have been detailed to carry tents for earthquake victims in China. The first IL-76 aircraft with 200 tents will leave for Chengdu in China from Guwahati on June 06, 2008 and another aircraft with 200 tents will leave next day.

Samir/RAJ

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Charity helps Burma cyclone victims
Shield Gazette: Monday, 2nd June 2008

A SOUTH Shields charity is continuing to bring hope to homeless children in cyclone-ravaged Burma.

The town's Save The Children branch launched its fundraising efforts last Saturday by staging a strawberry tea in the Sir William Fox Hotel in the heart of Westoe Village.

Gill Griffiths, secretary of the town branch of the charity, said: "The Sir William Fox Hotel was the perfect venue.

"Many thanks to Kristina for making this possible, to Sainsbury's, in Prince Edward Road, for donating the strawberries and to Tesco, at Simonside, for donating the fresh cream. We had a very successful afternoon and raised £200."

Cyclone Nargis is believed to have affected as many as 2.5 million people in Burma and it is feared the death toll could eventually top 100,000.

The cyclone hit more than three weeks ago, devastating the country's Irrawaddy delta. The United Nations fear lack of emergency aid could contribute further to famine and disease.

The appeal fund is ongoing and any person who would like to make a donation please do so by sending it to Save The Children c/o G. Griffiths, 52 Leafield Crescent, South Shields NE34,6JQ.

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Network aids Nargis victims in Rangoon
Border clinic, charity groups band together
Bangkok Post, 2 June, 2008:

MAE SOT, TAK : A border clinic in Tak's Mae Sot district and eight charity organisations have set up 34 networks to provide relief assistance to victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma.

The Mae Tao Clinic, the National Health and Education Committee, the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, the Burma Medical Association and five other charity organisations have set up the networks to help victims of the devastation, said Cynthia Maung, who runs the clinic.

The clinic provides free health care services to displaced people and immigrant Burmese workers.

The networks operate as Emergency Assistance Team-Burma.

She said it would directly distribute relief assistance to 40,000 cyclone-hit victims who had not yet received state assistance.

Most members of the networks were local residents, said Dr Cynthia.

The cyclone ravaged large areas of Rangoon and her clinic had set up the Cyclone Nargis Relief Effort to help affected communities.

It had solicited 18 million baht in donations.

Of this about 10 million baht had been spent to provide relief assistance to victims, Dr Cynthia said.

"We have learned that several of the devastated communities are far from the centre and state assistance has not reached them," she said.

"In some areas, corpses are being collected, but in several areas, the bodies of the dead have not yet been recovered."

With only limited funding and staffing, the networks can provide assistance to only 40,000 needy victims.

She said her clinic and other volunteers would be willing to work with the Burmese government in rehabilitating the victims if invited.

However, the Burmese authorities must guarantee the safety of the volunteers.

Dr Cynthia was born into a Karen family in Rangoon in 1959 and grew up in Moulmein in Mon state.

She fled Burma in 1988 following a violent crackdown on student pro-democracy protests and started the clinic a year later in Mae Sot district.

The border clinic is manned by five doctors, 120 nurses and 40 health staff and provides free health care services to 200-400 patients a day.

Maung Maung Gyi, a member of one of the eight charity organisations, said the networks have divided relief assistance into three phases.

In the first phase, essential items such as food, drinking water, clothes, medical treatment and house repairs were being provided.

The second phase covers mental rehabilitation of children and the elderly whose families died in the cyclone.

The third phase is work training.

Reports from Burma say local officials in cyclone-hit areas have been selling donated items to victims instead of distributing them for free.

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ADRA CANADA SECURES HALF MILLION DOLLAR GRANT FOR MYANMAR RELIEF
02 Jun 2008 11:28:00 GMT
Source: Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) - Canada
James Astleford
Website: http://www.adra. ca

ADRA Canada has been awarded a $500,000 grant by CIDA/HAPS (Canadian International Development Agency/Humanitarian Assistance, Peace and Security) for emergency relief supplies to aid victims of Cyclone Nargis, which devastated Myanmar (Burma) when it struck on May 3.

The Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, announced on Friday, May 23, 2008, that the Government of Canada is partnering with the United Nations and Canadian and international organizations to provide much-needed additional humanitarian assistance to the people of Myanmar affected by the cyclone that devastated the country. This additional support is being allocated to trusted Canadian and international partners with direct access to the affected population.

This grant to ADRA Canada will provide improved sanitation for people displaced by cyclone Nargis; specifically, the construction of 1,150 latrines, 267 washing areas, 267 solid waste disposal areas, and the distribution of 5,348 hygiene kits. Volunteers will also be trained and mobilized to provide hygiene education messages. ADRA Canada will manage the funds to ensure that Canadian dollars are used appropriately, and will monitor and evaluate the six-month project which will be implemented by ADRA Myanmar.

ADRA Canada is grateful to the Canadian government for this expression of confidence that will create more opportunities for ADRA to help the survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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Myanmar defends cyclone response after U.S. rebuke
Source: Reuters Foundation
Date: 01 Jun 2008
By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON, June 1 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military junta on Sunday defended its response to Cylone Nargis after stinging criticism from the United States, while a U.N. official said food supplies had yet to reach at least 200,000 people.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has accused the regime of causing more deaths by stonewalling foreign aid, said on Sunday U.S. ships cruising near Myanmar could leave in a 'matter of days' if they cannot deliver relief supplies.

Myanmar Deputy Defence Minister Aye Myint, in Singapore for a security conference also attended by Gates, insisted the government had acted swiftly and it was open to foreign aid with 'no strings attached.'

'Through the prompt and immediate supervision of the supervisory central body headed by the prime minister and member ministers, relief camps and hospitals were opened, debris was cleared, emergency power and water supply restored,' Myint said.

State media had given plenty of advance warning of the May 2 cyclone, which left 134,000 dead or missing and up to 2.4 million others destitute, Myint told the annual gathering of security and defence officials in Singapore.

The former Burma has said the rescue and relief effort is largely over and it is focused on reconstruction. The United Nations has said the scale of the devastation meant the relief phase could last six months.

A major problem in delivering foreign aid has been an inability to get enough international aid workers into the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta due to visa hurdles and red tape.

'We haven't been able to get the whole mechanism going. Progress has been slow,' Hakan Tongul, deputy director in Myanmar of the U.N.'s World Food Programme, told Reuters in Yangon.

Around 500,000 people have received some food and water since the storm struck nearly a month ago, but another 200,000 have received no international help at all, he said.

'CRIMINAL NEGLECT'

Some 45 U.N. visa requests were approved after junta leader Senior General Than Shwe promised last week to allow in 'all' legitimate foreign aid workers, but obstacles remain.

One western aid worker said on Saturday that a two-day processing period to enter the delta area, which had been earlier cut from two weeks, had now increased to three.

Speaking to reporters in Singapore, Gates, whose government is one of Myanmar's harshest critics, accused the generals of 'criminal neglect'.

Asked how much longer U.S. ships and helicopters would be deployed in the area, he said: 'I think it's matter of days.'

'No decision has been made at this point but I think they've obviously been out there steaming round in circles for a long time at this point,' he added.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said southeast Asian nations, loathe to interfere in each other's affairs, should play a bigger role in a crisis that could be worse than the 2004 Asian tsunami which killed at least 232,000 people.

Nearly a month after the cyclone, some villagers are trying to rebuild their lives, including forming ad-hoc teams to dredge waterlogged fields, rebuild houses and organise food supplies.

'We're seeing a level of resilience and recovery that's unlike what we've seen before. They are moving onto the next phase of shoring up their lives,' Steve Goudswaard of the charity World Vision said.

Authorities began evicting families from government-run cyclone relief centres on Friday, apparently fearing the 'tented villages' might become permanent.

'It's unconscionable for Burma's generals to force cyclone victims back to their devastated homes,' Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Some 39 camps in the immediate vicinity of Kyauktan, 30 km (20 miles) south of Yangon, were being cleared as part of a general eviction plan, cyclone survivors and aid workers said.

The evictions followed commentaries in the official media which have criticised donors' demands for access to the delta and said cyclone victims could 'stand by themselves' and did not need 'chocolate bars' from foreign countries.

The New Light of Myanmar said in an editorial that 'people can easily get fish for dishes by just fishing in the fields and ditches'. It also noted 'large edible frogs are abundant'.

Official papers have in the last few days have also carried more reports of Than Shwe's visits to the delta area, including photographs of the junta supremo comforting cyclone victims or giving 'guidance' on the construction of roads.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray, Jan Dahinten, Melanie Lee and Ovais Subhani in SINGAPORE)

(Writing by Ed Davies; Editing Darren Schuettler and Valerie Lee)

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UN food chief urges more funding to support aid work after Myanmar cyclone
Source: United Nations News Service
Date: 01 Jun 2008

The head of the United Nations food agency today called for greater support for its growing relief operations in Myanmar in the wake of last month's devastating cyclone after wrapping up a two-day visit to the country's hardest-hit areas.

Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) met with both victims of Cyclone Nargis and with Government officials during her visit to discuss how to help relief and recovery programmes, especially in the Ayeyarwady Delta region.

‘What we need is a seamless global lifeline of relief supplies,’ Ms. Sheeran said. ‘Progress has been made, but urgent work remains on the critical last leg.’

WFP still needs nearly two-thirds of the $70 million it requested to pay for food assistance operations, while its logistics operation has a shortfall of $32 million.

‘There is so much work to be done which requires sustained support by the international community,’ the Executive Director stressed. ‘With current contributions, we will run out of food by mid-July.’

UN humanitarian officials estimate that more than 77,000 people have been killed and 55,000 others are missing since Cyclone Nargis struck on 2 May. As many as 500,000 to 600,000 people, mainly in the delta, have had to be relocated.

During her talks, Ms. Sheeran thanked Myanmar officials for granting visas to WFP's international staff, but also urged an end to the bureaucracy delaying the deployment of the workers into the delta. While access has improved, she said Government procedures for clearing the deployment of workers remained a constraint.

WFP says that it has so far handed out a first ration of rice to about 575,000 people, but added that many people have not been reached and others now need a second round of food.

Ms. Sheeran said that she was encouraged by the start of a new WFP project in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, which provides cash to 200,000 people whose lives have been uprooted by Cyclone Nargis. Under the project WFP and four aid partners provide about 50 cents – equivalent to the cost of a food basket in the local markets – per person each day for four weeks.

‘WFP is committed to being resourceful and finding better ways to reach a large number of people who are struggling to put their lives back together. This project allows us to focus our food delivery efforts on the delta, where most food stocks have been destroyed and markets are not functioning properly.’

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Myanmar cyclone 2008: Work report 01 Jun 2008
Source: Hong Kong Red Cross
Date: 01 Jun 2008

The Hong Kong Red Cross sincerely thanks the generous support from the Hong Kong public to our cyclone relief operation in Myanmar

Disaster Situation

Tropical Cyclone Nargis that struck the South-western of Myanmar on 2 May 2008 caused devastating damages to the country. According to the latest official figures, the death toll has risen to 78,000 people, while more than 56,000 people are still missing. It is estimated that 1.5 million people are left homeless and 2.4 million people are affected. It was reported that 1,000 schools collapsed and 2,200 damaged.

‘In some of the villages, everyone was taken away by the surge, not a single person was left. It is even difficult to find a single pole from any of the houses that once stood there,’ said a Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS) volunteer just returned from a five-day field assessment of Mawlamyinegyun, one of the areas hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis.

The volunteers reported that clean water, food and good quality shelters are the priorities as well as more boats to carry these items to people in need.

Red Cross Actions

The International Red Cross revised the appeal for approx. HK$329.7 million on 16 May 2008 to assist 100,000 families affected by the cyclone in Myanmar, by providing short-term relief assistance and medium and longer-term recovery programmes for 3 years. To date, the appeal is over 83% covered.

The Hong Kong Red Cross (HKRC) had launched a local appeal to support the International Red Cross in implementing relief work in Myanmar and has already donated HK$6.7 million for this operation. The donations are being mobilized to support emergency relief activities, including procuring of 2,000 shelter kits and 200 first aid kits, etc.. To date, an amount of more than HK$7.9 million has been raised from the public in Hong Kong.

More than 800 tonnes of international relief has been delivered to Myanmar. Flights from the Red Cross logistical hub in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are landing every day in Yangon, carrying shelter supplies, mosquito nets, jerry cans, hygiene parcels, kitchen sets, blankets, family kits, water and sanitation equipment, etc..

Currently 29 expatriate delegates from the International Red Cross are supporting some 27,000 MRCS staff and volunteers who are among the first to conduct assessment and provide assistance in the delta region.

To date, the MRCS has provided humanitarian assistance to approximately 113,570 cyclone affected people in Myanmar, about 72.5% of these people are in the delta region. The assistances are in the form of shelter, food and non-food item distribution, water and sanitation activities as well as first aid and psychological support services.

General Enquiries
Please dial 2802-0021 or email to international@ redcross. org.hk

............ ......... ......... ......... ......... .......
The Politics of Humanitarian Aid
by Walter Brasch
Monday, 2 June 2008, 1:24 pm
Column: Walter Brasch

President Bush was justifiably upset. A cyclone four days earlier had destroyed a large portion of Myanmar, and the country's military junta was still refusing humanitarian aid. "Let the United States come to help you, help the people," Bush pleaded with the junta. "We're prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who've lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation," said the President, "but in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country."

With more than 20,000 dead, possibly 40,000 missing, and close to one million homeless, the junta made it clear that it, not the international community, would provide whatever humanitarian aid was necessary.

A week before the cyclone hit, President Bush extended sanctions against Myanmar by another year because of what he called that junta's "large-scale repression of the democratic opposition." Paranoid about anything that could threaten its power, the junta was frightened that the United States would use the cyclone as a reason to invade the country.

The junta's response the first week of May was little different than the international concern almost three years earlier. It wasn't the destruction of villages and the rice farming industry, but the destruction of cities and the shrimp industry. It wasn't a cyclone named Nargis, but a hurricane named Katrina.

It's been well documented that the Bush–Cheney Administration, with its head in Iraq, wasn't prepared for a natural disaster. Like the leaders in Myanmar, the Bush–Cheney Administration was slow to inform the people, and slow to act during the crisis. Less known is that President Bush refused innumerable offers of assistance to the people of the Gulf Coast.

More than 20 countries—including Israel, Mexico, China, England, and the Dominican Republic—quickly offered humanitarian and financial assistance. President Bush's first response was to tell the audience of ABC-TV's "Good Morning, America":

    "I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn't asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country's going to rise up and take care of it. . . . You know, we would love help, but we're going to take care of our own business as well, and there's no doubt in my mind we'll succeed."

Cuba, which has one of the best health care and disaster response systems in the world, offered substantial medical supplies and 1,600 physicians, most of them specialists. Rejected.

Venezuela offered $1 million, in addition to oil and humanitarian supplies. Rejected.

Russia offered medical supplies, evacuation equipment, a water cleansing system, a rescue helicopter, and 60 persons specially trained in search and rescue operations. Rejected.

Germany sent a military plane carrying 15 tons of emergency provisions. The United States denied it landing rights.
Not only did the federal government reject humanitarian offers from other countries, it either rejected or ignored offers by the American people and its own governmental agencies.

Before the storm hit, Amtrak offered trains to evacuate New Orleans. Ignored.

The Forest Service, shortly after Katrina came ashore, offered water-tanker aircraft to fight the fires. Ignored.

The Coast Guard, which would fly more than 20,000 rescue operations, offered 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel to Jefferson Parrish. The federal government refused to allow delivery.

The captain of an amphibious assault ship off the Gulf Coast offered to send her sailors onto land to help the people, have her helicopters assist in rescue operations, provide as much as 100,000 gallons of drinkable water a day, and open her ship's operating rooms to provide medical assistance and 600 beds for the relief effort. The federal government ignored and then delayed her offer.

During the first week of the disaster, the federal government had ordered the Red Cross and Salvation Army not to go into the New Orleans disaster zone, falsely citing a lack of adequate security. Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico offered 400 National Guard soldiers the day the hurricane hit; however, they weren't sent for four more days because of what Richardson called "federal paperwork" that the Pentagon insisted had to first be completed.

Chicago offered firefighters, police, health workers, sanitation workers, a mobile health clinic, trucks, boats, and cars. Rejected.

The Florida Airboat Association offered to send in 300 fully equipped boats with trained pilots. Rejected.

About 75 companies volunteered to use their own corporate aircraft to ferry supplies into smaller local and regional airports. When the federal government ignored the offer, the companies flew in more than 130,000 pounds of food and critical supplies, making determinations without federal assistance or appreciation of where the needs were the greatest.

Hundreds of companies tried to provide several million gallons of drinking water and ice for the evacuees. The federal government either blocked their delivery or routed them on a circuitous path throughout the South, and never allowed them to unload their cargoes. Members of the International Bottled Water Association did provide 10 million bottles of fresh water for evacuees, but received no assistance from the federal government, which refused to return several phone calls.

A national corporation offered free telecommunications equipment but the federal government rejected it, according to Ern Blackwelder of the Business Executives for National Security. Blackwelder told the Atlanta Journal–Constitution that the government later contracted with the same company and paid for equipment that had previously been offered at no charge.

About a week after Katrina hit, the U.S. began accepting humanitarian aid, but only from countries it determined were its allies.

Make no mistake about it, the leaders of Myanmar are dictators who trample human rights, have led their nation into an extended economic crisis, and are interested only in keeping their own power. Almost a month after Nargis hit the Irrawaddy Delta, the junta is now finally allowing foreign aid, but not from the United States.

But also make no mistake about this. The United States under its current administration will continue to refuse humanitarian aid and personnel from Cuba, Venezuela, and any other country that doesn't agree with the Bush–Cheney politics.

[Walter Brasch is professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University and president of the Pennsylvania Press Club. He is the author of the critically-acclaime d 'Unacceptable' : The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina (January 2006) and Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush (November 2007), both available through amazon.com, borders.com, and other bookstores. You may contact Brasch at brasch@bloomu. edu or through his website at: www.walterbrasch. com.]

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Cyclone Nargis: one month on, US accuses Burma of criminal neglect

The US has accused the Burmese military government of "criminal neglect" in its response to Cyclone Nargis, after it was claimed that aid had still failed to reach 200,000 people, a month after the disaster struck.

The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said he would make a decision within "a matter of days" whether or not to withdraw US navy ships from the Burmese coast. They had been mobilised to coordinate aid deliveries.

"It's becoming pretty clear the regime is not going to let us help," Gates told reporters in Singapore.

Asked if the military junta was guilty of genocide in its response to the disaster, Gates said: "This is more akin, in my view, to criminal neglect."

The Burmese junta responded by insisting its response to the disaster had been "prompt".

But Hakan Tongual, the deputy director of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) in Burma, told Reuters at least 200,000 people had received no help while 500,000 people had been given food and water.

The cyclone, which struck Burma on May 2, killed about 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing. More than 2 million people have been left destitute.

"We haven't been able to get the whole mechanism going. Progress has been slow," Tongul said.

Speaking to the dissident Burmese website, Mizzima, Frank Smithius, the head of Médecins sans Frontières' Burma team, said: "Four weeks have elapsed after the storm and I think it is quite sad that many villages have not yet received aid."

Josette Sheeran, the director of the WFP, visited Burma at the weekend to again urge the authorities to lift the bureaucracy delaying aid workers reaching the devastated Irrawaddy delta.

She also tried to negotiate for the agency to be allowed to use one of its helicopters that is grounded in Rangoon.

The junta had promised the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, that foreign relief workers would be allowed into areas worst affected by the storm, but aid agencies continue to report delays.

Lionel Rosenblatt, the president emeritus of the US-based Refugees International, said: "Access remains problematic for logistics staff inside Burma to the delta and for staff trying to get in from the outside. There has been a lot of talk about process but little results we can see."

In the face of continued international criticism, Burma's deputy defence minister, Aye Myint, said the regime had responded quickly.

At an international security conference in Singapore, he said: "Through the prompt and immediate supervision of the supervisory central body, headed by the prime minister and member ministers, relief camps and hospitals were opened, debris was cleared, emergency power and water supply restored."

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