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YANGON: Parts of Myanmar are still cut off 10 days after its
devastating cyclone, the military regime said Monday, ahead of the
first aid flight from one of its most vocal critics—the United
States.
The flow of international aid into Myanmar,
which says 62,000 people are dead or missing, has increased in the
past two days, bringing new hope for around 1.5 million people in
desperate need of emergency aid.
But aid agencies said it remains difficult to
get a full picture of the extent of the catastrophe in one of the
world’s poorest and most isolated nations, where the army has kept
an iron grip on power for 46 years.
Long suspicious of any outside influences that
could undermine their total control, the generals again said Monday
that foreign experts, who have the expertise to oversee the massive
relief effort, would not be put in charge.
“Delivery of relief goods can be handled by
local organizations,” said Economic Development Minister Soe Tha,
quoted by the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the junta’s
state-run mouthpiece.
He said there were still some parts of the
country, formerly known as Burma, where government officials had not
been able to visit since the massive storm, which churned up a tidal
wave and sea surge, hit the southern delta on May 3.
“Supplies were dropped in flooded areas where
the helicopters could not land,” Soe Tha said.
Aid groups have insisted the regime does not
have the capacity to direct the relief operation in the delta, where
diarrhea and other illnesses are starting to threaten survivors
living in scenes of almost unimaginable despair.
Ten days after the tragedy struck, bloated
corpses are still floating in the water, untold numbers do not have
enough food or fuel or clean water, and many people say the
government has not turned up with emergency supplies.
“We have not got any aid from anyone,” said
Man Mu, a mother of five in one of the thousands of tiny delta
villages that was pulverized by the storm. One of her children was
swept away in the disaster.
“We only have the clothes we are wearing,”
she said. “We have lost everything.”
-- AFP
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