Aid Finally Allowed Into Battered Myanmar

First Plane Lands With Food For Cyclone Victims; U.S. Official Says May Be 100,000 Dead

(CBS/AP)  Some aid workers said heavily flooded areas were accessible only by boat, with helicopters unable to find dry spots for landing relief supplies.

"Basically the entire lower delta region is under water," said Richard Horsey, the Thailand-based spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid.

"Teams are talking about bodies floating around in the water," he said. This is "a major, major disaster we're dealing with."

International assistance began trickling in Wednesday with the first shipments of medicine, clothing and food. But the junta, which normally restricts access by foreign officials and groups, was slow to give permission for workers to enter.

"Visas are still a problem. It is not clear when it will be sorted out," said the minutes of a meeting of the U.N. task force coordinating relief for Myanmar in Bangkok.

McCormick, the UNICEF spokesman, said the agency had 130 people in Myanmar but needed to get more in.

"We're hopeful they will start fast-tracking visas for humanitarian personnel," he said. "The government clearly weren't prepared and needs to step up to the plate. We can't work in a vacuum, and we need the host government to work with us and to eventually take over."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the junta to speed the arrival of aid workers and relief supplies "in every way possible."

As they wrangled with Myanmar officials over visas, aid groups struggled to deliver supplies.

"Most urgent need is food and water," said Andrew Kirkwood, head of Save the Children in Yangon. "Many people are getting sick. The whole place is under salt water and there is nothing to drink. They can't use tablets to purify salt water."

State television said Myanmar would accept aid from any country. It also said planes flew in Wednesday with tents from Japan, medicine and clothing from Bangladesh and India, packets of noodles from Thailand and dried bacon from China.

Some aid workers told the AP that the government wanted emergency supplies to be distributed by relief workers already in place, rather than through foreign staff brought into Myanmar.

President Bush said the U.S. was ready to deliver aid and was prepared to use Navy ships and aircraft to help search for the dead and missing. But it wasn't known if the junta, which regularly accuses Washington of trying to subvert its rule, would accept an American military operation in its territory.

Three Navy warships participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Thailand were standing by. A U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane also landed in Thailand and another was on the way, Air Force spokeswoman Megan Orton said at the Pentagon.

In Yangon, many angry residents complained that the military regime had given vague and incorrect information about the approaching storm and provided no instructions on how to cope when it struck.

Officials in India said they had warned Myanmar about the cyclone two days before it roared into the low-lying Irrawaddy delta. B.P. Yadav, spokesman for the Indian Meteorological Department, said the agency spotted the developing storm on April 28 and gave regular updates to all countries in its path.

Myanmar told the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva that it warned people in newspapers, television and radio broadcasts of the impending storm, said Dieter Schiessl, director of the WMO's disaster risk reduction unit.

Jim Andrews, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, said satellite photos showed flooding of similar magnitude to that of Hurricane Katrina. "It's a similar kind of land to New Orleans ... an intricate network of tidal creeks and openings that allow easy access for a powerful storm surge to penetrate right into populated land," he said.

State television quoted a government official, Gen. Tha Aye, as reassuring people the situation was "returning to normal."

But residents of Yangon faced doubled prices for rice, charcoal, bottled water and cooking oil.

At a suburban market, a fishmonger shouted to shoppers: "Come, come the fish is very fresh." But an angry woman snapped: "Even if the fish is fresh, I have no water to cook it!"

Most residents of Yangon rely on wells with electric pumps for water, and power had been restored to only a small part of the city.

The cyclone came a week before a referendum on a proposed constitution backed by the junta. State radio said Saturday's vote would be delayed in areas affected by the storm, but balloting would proceed elsewhere.

A top U.S. envoy to Southeast Asia said the junta should be focusing on helping cyclone victims.

"It's a huge crisis and it just seems odd to me that the government would go ahead with the referendum in this circumstance," said Scot Marciel, the U.S. ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

This week, first lady Laura Bush called the referendum a sham, and she also criticized the junta's handling of the storm. "We know already that they are very inept," she said.

The comments drew rebukes even from some Myanmar exiles, who normally are strongly critical of the ruling generals.

Aye Chan Naing, editor of the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Myanmar opposition media operation based in Norway, said it wasn't the right time to be chastising the junta.

"Everybody knows what kind of regime they are, so there is no question about that. The question right now is how to get the aid into the country," he said. "So the best way is to use a diplomatic way and to have an open dialogue and keep talking until they agree."

[fuzzybear9]

Hello Concerned American Viewers

Fuzzy what is on the agenda today ?

Well introspection yes introspection is the buzz word today.

One of the local tv broadcasters near by had a commentary about how terrible it was for the despot goverment of Myanmar, to deprive its Cyclone impoverished citizens from recieving American Aid
because it would make the goverment look weak and unable to provide for its citizens.
and it dawned on me
Introspection
I recall oh say four years ago when Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast and many standed and starving New Orleans people were in desperation, you all remember the big sign HELP, and you will recall that the Russian goverment aand Italian goverment offered to send Hospital ships to the Gulf Coast to help the desperate people, and were turned down by GW and Fema under Jim Brown,
Hello, Hello,
is this ringing a bell ?
Hello ?
Just an observation.

sincerely your in the world news Bear
Fuzzy

[fabrat1]

This is what I thought how do we go to this high number, who is to say this horrible junta didn''''t use this horrible weather phenomenon to literary obliterate the people to finally get rid of the problem people the government thought they had. Do you doubt they would do that?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by starleo14672 at 09:31 AM : May 08, 2008

No, I don''t doubt it for a minute. That''s just too many people and for the death toll to go up so fast I don''t see how they would know the numbers that fast without helping it out a bit or even quite a bit.

[gurusavant]

Re: to Posted by starleo14672 at 09:31 AM : May 08, 2008

hard to imagine, but in places like that, a life means nothing. if killing a nothing can get you a couple of $$, and even more so, maintaining that ''nothing'' under the worst conditions as well, it is a lose lose situation for a country like the US, which is even presented as the responsible global caretaker/doctor/parent/nurse- what have you... it is an unfair position that many impoverished contries take advantage of...

[starleo146]

how do 100,000 people die in a cyclone?! it went from 350 to 100,000 in about 2 days!! that is a loTTTTTTTTTTT of people. how is something like that possible?! with corrupt governments like that who only use their population (even massacring them) to exert their control over other financially powerful countries, that ''''something''''s fishy'''' feeling comes real quick. absolutely more to this story than we are getting. without a doubt.

Posted by gurusavant at 09:17 AM : May 08, 2008

This is what I thought how do we go to this high number, who is to say this horrible junta didn''t use this horrible weather phenomenon to literary obliterate the people to finally get rid of the problem people the government thought they had. Do you doubt they would do that?

[gurusavant]

with the global food crisis, an event like this one seems to be a new form of blackmail toward especially the US. this regieme (myanmar) is obviously threatening to starve it''s population, or waste it away if this country (the US)does not comply. it is the most complicit form of bribery exhibited by violent leaders against inherently pacific nations like the US. many other impoverished nations use so called natural disasters for this purpose. just think of how much money/supplies are sent to them in these events (-for free!!)...sound callous, but it is a viable source of income to these regiemes.

[starleo146]

Wow!! if we only put out this much energy into Katrina, as we are to a country that doesn''t even want our help, why not help these people through a country they will accept and do it quietly, not like look look I am America and let me in.Katrina folks are still needing help Hello

[nwihoosier]

Peace and Love
Fibonazi, you say "demslie, give me a break. I side more with the democrats than you idiotic Republicans and I despise the government of "Myanmar". You are one of the dumber people on here commenting. Most likely a Christian. "

And YOU call other people ''dumb''. Whoa, boy

Peace and Love

[gurusavant]

how do 100,000 people die in a cyclone?! it went from 350 to 100,000 in about 2 days!! that is a loTTTTTTTTTTT of people. how is something like that possible?! with corrupt governments like that who only use their population (even massacring them) to exert their control over other financially powerful countries, that ''something''s fishy'' feeling comes real quick. absolutely more to this story than we are getting. without a doubt.

[swwils]

WE are the most powerful nation in the world ,yet we have these **** a.s.s. countries like myanmar bucking us!We should take the grub and leave,or bring it via gunship,then pass it out!I get so sick of these little countries who can''t feed themselves holding back food for political reason,while little children starve.Sens the delta force over there and pass out the food!

[beehive21-2009]

Why ,are you people making a big deal of a natural disaster,you may be next ,fires,floods,tornadoes,earthquakes, are all lined up waiting to come visit you.Start a food storage going if don''t have one,as you can see, when the raft of nature comes calling ,then you realize how small humans are on the earth ,Like sand on the beach.

[swwils]

If they don''t want our food ,there are plenty of hungry people here in the States who need it.

[fibonacci_]

demslie, give me a break. I side more with the democrats than you idiotic Republicans and I despise the government of "Myanmar". You are one of the dumber people on here commenting. Most likely a Christian.

[srebeiro]

And what makes you think that the US is only providing AID.
As of today - 3 AIRFORCE relief planes from INDIA have already landed.
2 INDIAN NAVAL WARSHIPS have already provided AID.
Left hand should not know what the right hand is doing. No need of making such a big hulla bulla over US aid. If it pains you to give, don''t give.

[louklou51]

They won''t led US aid in? Guess what? Screw them! They don''t want outside help, they are on their own.

[demslie]

This is still much quicker than the Cowardly Cowboy responded to Katrina victims. Others have, again, learned from another one of our moron''''s mistakes.

Posted by excoachken

There reason the Democrats will lose this election is that the American People are tired of the endless Hate, Anger and Rage Democrats show toward the United States. Notice here and everywhere else that Democrats have not rage and anger towards the Military Dictatorship of Myanmar that has starved and killed thousnads of its own citizens while spending billions on its military. And the genocidal goverment has refused help because, like Democrats, they could not give a DAMNN about dead people. The only thing that counts is thier evil political agenda. Democrats are silent about the murderers in Myanmar, the terrorsts IRAN, and Al Qaeda because they Hate George Bush and America just like Democrats. So, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". I can''t wait to vote for these people?

UN aid is being allowed in. You can help by donating here - http://www.wfp.org/.

[trenticus-2009]

"But the regime, angry over U.S. sanctions, is unlikely to let the U.S. military on its soil."

Like I said screw''em! They are angry at the U.S. then let someother third-world country bail them out.

[excoachken]

This is still much quicker than the Cowardly Cowboy responded to Katrina victims. Others have, again, learned from another one of our moron''s mistakes.

[emelder]

Sanctions! If the US can stop disciplining and teaching nations ... to do it OUR way ... and if we can start listening more ... maybe, just maybe, we can be seen as reasonable partners in this increasingly interdependent world. It may take decades to undo the harm caused by Bush/Cheney, Wolfawitz, Rove, and Rumsfield. The fools!

[j62kd4b]

US Sanctions have caused WORLDWIDE problems - hope the next U.S. Administration will "undo" some of these injustices - Luckily the Myanmar Monks are HARD AT WORK TRYING TO HELP...not every country''s 5000 years old history can support a democracy!
Let them now have their God''s promised FREEDOM from Sanctions!