Myanmar Victims Are "Humanitarian Heroes"

The first international aid official allowed into the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta by Myanmar's military leaders described towns rendered unrecognizable, survivors exposed to pouring rain and local "humanitarian" heroes saving lives.

Soldiers have barred foreign aid workers from reaching cyclone survivors in the areas hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis, but gave access to an International Red Cross representative who returned to Yangon on Tuesday.

"People who have come here having lost their homes in rural areas have volunteered to work as first aiders. They are humanitarian heroes," said Bridget Gardner, the agency's country head.

In contrast, the ruling junta has been blasted by aid agencies for refusing to allow most foreign experts into the delta and not responding adequately to what they say is a spiraling crisis.

Some victims were reportedly getting spoiled or poor-quality food, rather than nutrition-rich biscuits sent by international donors, adding to suspicions that the junta may be misappropriating foreign aid following the May 3 storm that killed more than 34,000 people.

Some 2 million people, mostly poor rice farmers, have been left homeless or are in dire need following the storm, facing disease and starvation.

The military, which has ruled with since 1962, has taken control of most supplies sent by other countries, including the United States, which made its first aid delivery Monday and sent in another cargo plane Tuesday packed with blankets, water and mosquito nettings. A third shipment was on its way.

Myanmar's navy commander in chief, Rear Adm. Soe Thein, told Adm. Timothy J. Keating, commander of the U.S. Pacific forces, that basic needs of the storm victims were being fulfilled and "skillful humanitarian workers are not necessary," according to state television.

Getting to the worst-affected areas was getting more and more difficult.

Armed police checkpoints were set up on roads leading to the Irrawaddy delta Tuesday, and international aid workers and journalists were sent back by officers who took down their names and passport numbers. Drivers, too, were interrogated.

"No foreigners allowed," a policeman said Tuesday after waving a car back.

However, Gardner and her assessment team were able to visit five locations in the Irrawaddy delta, one of them with 10,000 people living without shelter as rain tumbled from the sky.

"The town of Labutta is unrecognizable. I have been here before and now with the extent of the damage and the crowds of displaced people, it's a different place," Gardner was quoted as saying in a statement by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

In Labutta and elsewhere she said volunteers were giving medical aid to hundreds of people a day even though "they have no homes to go back to when they finish."

Bottlenecks, logistics problems and government-imposed restrictions were preventing much of the aid from reaching survivors.

Supplies were piling up at Yangon's main airport - which does not even have equipment to lift cargo off Boeing 747s. It took 200 Burmese volunteers to unload a plane carrying more than 60 tons of relief supplies, including school tents, said the United Arab Emirates aid group, Dubai Cares.

"We fear a second catastrophe (in Myanmar) unless we're able to put in place quickly a maximum of aid and a major logistical effort comparable with the response to the tsunami," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen nations, generating the largest relief effort ever known. Tens of thousands of aid workers poured into devastated areas, and the world community donated billions of dollars (euros) in aid.

State television said the death toll from Cyclone Nargis stood at 34,273, with 27,838 missing. The United Nations says the actual death toll could be between 62,000 and 100,000.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington was pressing the junta and its foreign allies for Myanmar to allow in not only food and supplies but disaster relief experts.

Some victims and aid workers, meanwhile, said in many cases spoiled or poor-quality food was reaching survivors.

A longtime foreign resident of Yangon told The Associated Press that some government officials complained that high-energy biscuits rushed in on the World Food Program's first flights were sent to a military warehouse.

They were exchanged for what the officials described as "tasteless and low-quality" biscuits produced by the Industry Ministry to be handed out to cyclone victims, he said on condition of anonymity because identifying himself could endanger him.

A government spokesman would not comment.

U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had expressed concern that aid was being diverted to non-cyclone victims, but so far there was no evidence.

CARE Australia's country director in Myanmar, Brian Agland, said members of his local staff brought back some of the rotting rice being distributed in the devastated Irrawaddy delta.