Thwarted U.S. Aid Ships Leave Myanmar

The White House criticized Myanmar's ruling junta on Wednesday for refusing to allow U.S. Navy ships to help their country deal with last month's devastating cyclone.

The U.S. military ordered the USS Essex and accompanying vessels, loaded with aid and a fleet of helicopters to fly it in, to depart Myanmar's coast after 15 attempts in recent weeks to get the junta's permission to let them help with relief efforts. The ships were already in the region for international exercises when the cyclone hit and were sent to waters near Myanmar, also known as Burma, in case authorization could be obtained.

"These assets were immediately deployed to Burma in the spirit of goodwill to offer extensive and life-saving assistance to the victims of Cyclone Nargis," White House press secretary Dana Perino said. "Tragically, the Burmese authorities refused to accept this assistance."

The U.N. has estimated that 2.4 million people are in need of food, shelter or medical care as a result of the storm, which the government said killed 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing.

But Myanmar's ruling generals have allowed only limited U.S. military aid flights to the country, and have barred the ships from approaching. It also has forbidden the use of military helicopters from friendly neighboring nations, which are vital in rushing supplies to isolated survivors in the Irrawaddy delta, the area hardest hit by the cyclone. This has forced aid agencies to scour for civilian aircraft around the world and bring them in at dramatically increasing costs.

Myanmar's state media has said it feared a U.S. invasion aimed at seizing the country's oil deposits.

Perino said the United States so far has provided more than $26 million in humanitarian assistance to the people of Myanmar. The U.S. has completed a total of 106 airlifts of emergency relief commodities that will benefit at least 417,000 people, she said.

But, she added, "the generosity and compassion of the United States and the wider international community are impeded by the unwillingness of the Burmese authorities to provide full access to the cyclone-affected areas, despite their commitments to do so."

"The Burmese regime must permit all international aid workers the access necessary to provide the urgently-needed assistance," Perino said. "There is no more time to waste."