MYANMAR: UN chief lands in Myanmar, government wants more than $11 billion in cyclone aid

Record ID: 275421

  • Title: MYANMAR: UN chief lands in Myanmar, government wants more than $11 billion in cyclone aid
  • Date: 22nd May 2008
  • Summary: (BN10) IRRAWADDY DELTA, MYANMAR (RECENT) (REUTERS) DAMAGED HOUSES PEOPLE WALKING PAST DAMAGED HOUSES PEOPLE LOOKING AT DAMAGE HOUSES DAMAGED HOUSE PEOPLE WALKING AROUND DAMAGED HOUSES PEOPLE CARRYING THEIR BELONGINGS
  • Embargoed: 6th June 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Myanmar
  • Country: Myanmar
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA4HJJWQJSA3SNX7L5E3YF9D48P
  • Story Text: International donors say they need to be allowed access to Myanmar in order to assess what is needed while the U.N. estimates 2.4 million people are struggling to survive in the worst hit areas.
    United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon landed in Myanmar on Thursday (May 22) at the start of a visit to try to convince the ruling junta to admit more international aid for the victims of Cyclone Nargis.
    He was met at the airport by Foreign Minister Nyan Win, before signing a book of condolences at the foreign ministry and paying his respects at the Shwedagon Pagoda, the most sacred site of Myanmar's Buddhists.
    Ban, who has said relief teams had been able to reach only a quarter of those in need after the May 2 storm and sea surge, toured the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta. He will head to Myanmar's new capital, Naypyidaw, to meet junta supremo Than Shwe on Friday.
    Than Shwe, who took two weeks after the disaster to meet victims and see the destruction for himself, had declined to take Ban's phone calls earlier in the relief effort.
    But Yangon diplomats say the general's appearances in public this week, visiting several delta towns, could be a sign the top brass finally realise the enormity of the destruction and recovery from one of the worst cyclones to hit Asia.
    Unseen pictures obtained from a local source showed the trail of destruction when the cyclone ripped through Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta on May 4, destroying houses and leaving bodies stuck in debris and lying in pools of water.
    The government's official toll is 77,738 people killed and 55,917 missing, and it also estimates the damage to one of Asia's least-developed economies at $10 billion.
    The first of nine helicopters granted permission to airlift supplies into the delta was due to arrive in Yangon on Thursday, the U.N. World Food Programme said.
    But according to the official media, the military government has turned down an offer from French and U.S. Navy ships to deliver assistance to survivors.
    The generals' distrust of outsiders was heightened after worldwide outrage and heightened sanctions imposed after the army's crackdown on democracy protests last September.
    The United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, are to convene a donors' pledging conference in Yangon on Sunday.
    Myanmar's government wants more than $11 billion in aid, but international donors say they need to be allowed access in order to assess what is needed.
    ASEAN General-Secretary Surin Pitsuwan said a rapid-assessment team of ASEAN members needed to be on the ground and come up with a "credible needs analysis" trusted by the donors before pledging.

    "In order to work to cooperate and to aid and to delivery this good will, the 11 billion plus dollars must be verified and certainly the donors would want some clear action plans, some clear monitoring mechanism and some insurance of transparency," Pitsuwan told a conference in Thailand.
    Nearly three weeks after the cyclone hit, many survivors are still crammed into monasteries, schools and other temporary shelters. The non-government aid agencies said many people in the disaster area have yet to receive any assistance at all.
    The United Nations says up to 2.4 million people are struggling to survive in Yangon and the Irrawaddy Delta, where refugees have been begging for food from relief workers.
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