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 30 August 2008 04:29 BST

Burma aid "desperately" needed

Friday, 09 May 2008 08:17
Aid agencies reiterate appeals for emergency relief in Burma as country reels from destruction of Cyclone Nargis

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Aid agencies have reiterated their appeals for emergency relief in Burma, which is reeling from the destruction of Cyclone Nargis.

One million people are expected to have been affected by the storm; leaving large swathes of the country devastated and the majority of the southern delta regions underwater.

The Burmese authorities say more than 22,000 people have been killed by the storm, with at least 40,000 missing.

Other estimates from the United Nations and the US have put the death-toll higher at 100,000.

Boats have proved the most effective vehicles for getting aid to survivors in the Irrawaddy Delta, as the storm destroyed most crafts in the region.

"The flat coastal region was one of the worst affected as the cyclone tore through the country," said Carolyn Miller, the chief executive of Merlin (Medical Emergency Relief International).

"All Merlin's medical boats were destroyed and as a result accessing people has been difficult."

Burma's limited infrastructure had been virtually knocked out by the cyclone, while the country's military rulers have been criticised for their slow response to the crisis.

The UK Foreign Office says it has asked the junta to waive visa restrictions immediately, with aid workers and relief being held up by travel regulations.

A spokesman at the Department for International Development (DfID) accepted that flights were having difficult landing in Burma, despite four UN planes arriving in the country on Thursday.

He said the impact of Cyclone Nargis had become an "increasingly major tragedy" but refused to make comparisons with the Asian tsunami of Boxing Day 2005 or 1991's Bangladeshi cyclone.

In the UK the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is coordinating a fundraising appeal of charitable organisations, although access through its website proved largely impossible on Thursday due to the volume of traffic.

The British Red Cross, one of the organisations which makes up the DEC, said it had 27,000 volunteers on the ground through the Myanmar Red Cross.

A Red Cross flight containing shelter aid for 2,000 people arrived on Thursday, a spokesman said.

But he told inthenews.co.uk the organisation's main priority was getting survivors access to clean water, with water-borne diseases a significant threat.End of story


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