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HEADLINES
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AP - 1.5 million survivors in Myanmar without shelter
AP - Shortage of shelter latest woes to hit cyclone survivors in Myanmar
AFP - Myanmar: helicopters arrive, junta lashes foreign media over coverage
AFP - Five UN helicopters arrive in Myanmar for cyclone aid
CNA - Nearly S$300,000 raised for Myanmar, China disaster victims

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1.5 million survivors in Myanmar without shelter
Sat Jun 7, 8:22 AM ET

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A severe shortage of housing has left hundreds of thousands of cyclone survivors in Myanmar exposed to heavy rain as the monsoon season begins, aid agencies said Saturday.

The United Nations and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said there was an urgent need for tarpaulins to provide temporary shelter to an estimated 1.5 million homeless survivors. Otherwise, the threats of hunger and disease could intensify, they warned.

"Exposure to the elements five weeks after a disaster of this magnitude has to be a major concern," said John Sparrow, a spokesman for the IFRC. "People are in a weakened condition. They are sick; they are hungry. Without shelter, their whole situation is seriously exacerbated. "

Sparrow estimated that only a quarter of those who need shelter materials have been reached.

The U.N. estimates 2.4 million people were affected when Cyclone Nargis hit May 2-3, and warns that more than 1 million still need help, mostly in the hard-to-reach Irrawaddy delta.

John Holmes, the U.N. undersecretary- general for humanitarian affairs, said "relatively few" of those survivors who were badly affected by the storm have not received any sort of aid. But he said the U.N.'s effort needs to be stepped up because many survivors still need help and supplies.

"I think people are getting to all the main places, although it's not always as easy as it should be," he said. "There's no evidence of starvation at the moment, although as I say many people are still in significant need of aid."

U.N. officials and aid groups have criticized the regime for hindering access to the delta, saying it has prevented enough food, water and shelter from reaching desperate survivors.

The U.N. also said Saturday that a lack of funding was hindering the aid effort, with only $20 million of the required $50 million received to finance logistic efforts that allow it to extend aid operations into remote regions.

The U.N. has said that access could also be greatly improved if the country's military junta would accept American offers of support which include the use of 22 military helicopters to ferry aid to remote locations.

The U.S. military said it is keeping 22 helicopters on standby in case Myanmar's ruling junta reverses its rejection of such help for cyclone victims, saying the aircraft could reach survivors within three days.

With only seven Myanmar government helicopters reportedly flying, relief supplies are mostly being transported along dirt roads and then by boat. International aid agencies say boats able to navigate the delta's canals are scarce and efforts to import vehicles have been hampered by government red tape.

"Of the 1 million or 1.5 million people in need of relief support, we think that between 450,000 to 750,000 are in emergency need," said Lt. Gen. John Goodman, commander of Marine Forces Pacific and head of the U.S. relief operation for Myanmar.

They could be reached "over the course of a three-day period" by American helicopters and landing craft, he said in telephone interview from a temporary U.S. staging area at Utapao, Thailand.

Goodman said the junta was "still considering" the offer of the use of U.S. helicopters, which would include allowing Myanmar officials aboard all U.S. helicopters to monitor their routes and to unload relief supplies.

The country's military leaders are particularly sensitive to allowing U.S. helicopters into the delta, given the fact that Washington has been a leading critic of the junta for its poor human rights record and refusal to hand power to a democratically elected government.

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Myanmar: helicopters arrive, junta lashes foreign media over coverage
Sat Jun 7, 4:55 AM ET

YANGON (AFP) - Five UN-chartered helicopters arrived on Saturday in Myanmar's former capital Yangon, to boost efforts to deliver aid to victims of the cyclone that tore through the country five weeks ago, a spokesman said. 

Two Puma helicopters and three Mi-8 choppers left early on Saturday from Bangkok, where they had been waiting for days to fly into Myanmar, said Paul Risley, spokesman for the UN's World Food Programme.

The helicopters will help aid workers reach some of the most devastated villages in the Irrawaddy Delta, which bore the brunt of the storm that left 133,00 dead or missing.

News of the helicopters' arrival comes a day after Myanmar accused foreign media of fabricating "despicable and inhuman" stories about the cyclone, as new delays hampered efforts to reach one million hungry and homeless survivors.

The latest tirade in the government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar newspaper came as the junta tries to convince the world that it has the relief effort under control, without major international assistance.

The official newspaper denounced "self-seekers exploiting storm victims," who they said were "shooting video films featuring made-up stories in the storm-affected areas ... and sending the videotapes to foreign news agencies."

"Those foreign news agencies are issuing such groundless news stories with the intention of tarnishing the image of Myanmar and misleading the international community," it said.

Most of the video footage showing the destruction wrought by Cyclone Nargis has been filmed by amateurs and shown on VCDs sold on Yangon's streets. The images are difficult to watch, with corpses rotting in fields and families huddled under makeshift shelters in the daily monsoon rains.

The paper accused foreign media of exaggerating the cyclone damage, denouncing the reports as "despicable and inhuman acts."

Cyclone Nargis left 133,000 people dead or missing. The United Nations says 2.4 million people need emergency aid in the wake of the storm, but five weeks after the storm hit, one million of them have yet to receive any.

Junta leader Than Shwe agreed two weeks ago to allow a full-scale international relief effort, assuring UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during a visit here that foreign experts would have access to the hardest-hit regions of the Irrawadday Delta.

While aid agencies as well as Southeast Asian and UN experts have been allowed into the region, they say access remains patchy -- especially for remote villages hidden in the maze of rivers that laces the delta.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) won permission more than two weeks ago to bring 10 helicopters into Myanmar, but so far only one is actually flying between Yangon and the delta.

Seven others that had been due to leave Bangkok for Yangon, Myanmar's former capital, remain stranded in Thailand. The WFP blamed the latest delay on bad weather, but some of the choppers have been waiting for a week to enter Myanmar.

Save the Children, one of the few charities allowed to work in Myanmar before the cyclone, said a larger effort was still needed to reach remote villages.

"We urgently need to scale up our response to reach more of the surviving children and families and deliver what we know they need," said the charity's director in Yangon, Andrew Kirkwood.

"Lack of food and shelter, access to clean water, and education as well as being separated from parents are among those issues still faced by children in the remote delta areas."

A leading prison watchdog based in Thailand also raised alarms over disease among inmates at the notorious Insein prison outside Yangon, saying wardens were offering only rotten food that was causing dysentery and other ailments.

"The health situation of prisoners will worsen and become critical if they are fed that bad and inedible food any longer," said Tate Naing, secretary for the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

"Contagious diseases will spread very quickly in a crowded place like a prison, if authorities do not take appropriate actions promptly."

Despite the international concerns, the junta has flatly refused aid from American, British and French warships laden with emergency supplies.

The United States has offered military helicopters to help deliver food, but so far the regime has not responded.

Local volunteers have tried to fill the gap and deliver aid themselves, but they increasingly say that security forces are turning them away.

The nation's most famous comedian, Zaganar, who had been leading deliveries of aid to cyclone survivors, was arrested late Wednesday, according to his family.

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Five UN helicopters arrive in Myanmar for cyclone aid

YANGON, June 7, 2008 (AFP) - Five UN-chartered helicopters arrived Saturday in Myanmar's former capital Yangon, to boost efforts to deliver aid to victims of the cyclone that tore through the country five weeks ago, a spokesman said.

Two Puma helicopters and three Mi-8 choppers left early Saturday from Bangkok, where they had been waiting for days to fly into Myanmar, said Paul Risley, spokesman for the UN's World Food Programme.

The helicopters will help aid workers reach some of the most devastated villages in the Irrawaddy Delta, which bore the brunt of the storm that left 133,00 dead or missing.

"It's a good start," Risley said. "They will be moved hopefully in the next week into the delta."

The WFP received permission more than two weeks ago from Myanmar's junta to take 10 helicopters into the country, where more than one million people who lived through Cyclone Nargis remain without foreign relief supplies.

The first chopper arrived in Yangon on May 22, but was only able to make its first trip into the Irrawaddy Delta region on Monday.

Four others are still waiting in Bangkok. Risley said they should be allowed to leave for Myanmar early next week.

Myanmar's ruling military junta outraged the world by blocking foreign relief supplies after the cyclone hit, leaving 2.4 million people in need of food, shelter and medicine.

After a UN-led diplomatic effort, the junta agreed on May 23 to allow foreign aid workers access to the delta, but progress has been slow.

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Nearly S$300,000 raised for Myanmar, China disaster victims
Channel NewsAsia - Sunday, June 8

SINGAPORE: The victims of Asia’s recent twin tragedies — Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and the earthquake in Sichuan — are getting more help from Singapore companies.

Staff at two companies have raised S$281,453 for those affected — about half the amount or about S$145,000 came from workers at Singapore Post.

The balance of S$136,483 (US$100,000) came from 500 staff from Private Bank RBS Coutts in Hong Kong and Singapore.

SingPost donated their money to Mercy Relief, while RBS Coutts handed its cheque to the Singapore Red Cross Society.

The money is meant for the societies’ humanitarian work in Myanmar and China.

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Shortage of shelter latest woes to hit cyclone survivors in Myanmar
By mckj
AP - Saturday, June 7

YANGON, Myanmar - A severe shortage of housing has left hundreds of thousands of cyclone survivors in Myanmar exposed to heavy rains as the monsoon season begins, aid agencies said Saturday.

The United Nations and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warned there was an "urgent need" for tarpaulins to provide the estimated 1.5 million homeless survivors with temporary shelter. Otherwise, they warned, the threats of hunger and disease could intensify.

"Exposure to the elements five weeks after a disaster of this magnitude has to be a major concern," said John Sparrow, a spokesman for the IFRC. "People are in a weakened condition. They are sick; they are hungry. Without shelter, their whole situation is seriously exacerbated. "

The U.N. estimates a total of 2.4 million people were affected when Cyclone Nargis hit May 2-3, and warns that more than 1 million of those still need help, mostly in the hard-to-reach Irrawaddy delta.

U.N. officials and aid groups have criticized the regime for hindering access to the delta, saying it has prevented enough food, water and shelter from reaching desperate survivors.

The top U.N. humanitarian official said in New York there are now "relatively few people" who have not received any sort of help, but "this aid effort needs to be stepped up further," he said.

"I think people are getting to all the main places, although it's not always as easy as it should be," John Holmes said. "There's no evidence of starvation at the moment, although, as I say, many people are still in significant need of aid."

The U.N. has said access could greatly improved if the country's military junta would accept American offers of support which include the use of 22 military helicopters to ferry aid to remote locations.

The USS Essex group, which includes four ships, 5,000 U.S. military personnel and the helicopters, abandoned plans Thursday to deliver aid to the delta after repeated efforts to broker a compromise with the junta failed.

The U.S. military, however, said it is keeping 22 helicopters on standby in case Myanmar's ruling junta reverses its rejection of such help for cyclone victims, saying the aircraft could reach survivors within three days.

With only seven Myanmar government helicopters reportedly flying, relief supplies are mostly being transported along dirt roads and then by boat. International aid agencies say boats able to navigate the delta's canals are scarce and efforts to import vehicles have been hampered by government red tape.

"Of the 1 million or 1.5 million people in need of relief support, we think that between 450,000 to 750,000 are in emergency need," said Lt. Gen. John Goodman, commander of Marine Forces Pacific and head of the U.S. relief operation for Myanmar.

They could be reached "over the course of a three-day period" by American helicopters and landing craft, he said in telephone interview from a temporary U.S. staging area at Utapao, Thailand.

Goodman said the junta was "still considering" the offer, which would include allowing Myanmar officials aboard all U.S. helicopters to monitor their routes and to unload relief supplies.

The country's military leaders are particularly sensitive to allowing U.S. helicopters into the delta, given the fact that Washington has been a leading critic of the junta for its poor human rights record and refusal to hand power to a democratically elected government.

Early on in the disaster, the junta suggested the American offer was part of a plan to invade the country and steal its oil reserves.

The government's xenophobia has been on display over the past two days in the state-run media.

Reports in the New Light of Myanmar on Friday lashed out at its own citizens and foreign media for what it called distorted coverage of the aftermath of the devastating storm a month ago. And on Saturday, the newspaper dismissed allegations as "groundless" that survivors are being dumped near their devastated villages in the delta without any assistance.

"It is a storm of rumors designed to deal a devastating blow to our country," according to the commentary in the newspaper.

"The rumors are invented and circulated by certain Western countries and internal and external ax-handlers," it said. "In other words, it is just a scheme conspired by a crafty tiger that is desperate to eat the flesh and the fox that is waiting for leftovers."

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