Home
US military plane flies aid to Myanmar
Thailand News.Net
Monday 12th May, 2008 (IANS)
A US military aircraft left Thailand's U-Tapao Airbase Monday to deliver emergency aid to neighbouring Myanmar in the wake of a cyclone that has left an estimated 100,000 people dead.
The C-130 cargo plane departed the base 120 km south-east of Bangkok loaded with 12,670 kg of water, mosquito nets and bedding.
The assistance, to be distributed by USAID inside Myanmar, is part of an international push to assist an estimated 1.9 million people in Myanmar affected by Cyclone Nargis, which slammed into the country's central coast May 2 and 3, leaving the rice-growing Irrawaddy delta in ruins.
In what was deemed a breakthrough, the US government received permission Friday from Myanmar's military junta to deliver the relief supplies, a day after the regime rejected an offer to fly the aid in on a Thai Air Force C-130.
Myanmar's government has also refused to grant visas to a US Disaster Assistance Response Team to accompany the US aid.
Relief experts with the UN and international aid agencies have received similar treatment by the xenophobic regime.
Myanmar has been ruled by military dictatorships since 1962. The current regime has come under constant criticism from Western democracies for human rights abuses and its refusal to introduce political reforms that would allow a representative democracy in the country.
In September, the military crushed anti-junta demonstrations led by Buddhist monks, leaving at least 31 people dead, leading to a new wave of international condemnation.
 Email this story to a friend
Comments on this story
x
05-12-08, 07:53 AM |
US military plane flies aid to Myanmar
The US needs to take care of Americans that need help. Let some of the big money oil countries that are robbing us take care of the aid.
|
waltky
05-14-08, 12:39 AM |
Death toll revised...
:eek:
Cyclone death toll updated to 34,000
May 14, 2008 - THE official death toll from Burma’s devastating Cyclone Nargis has risen to 34,273, with 27,836 people missing, state radio said today.
]
“According to to the latest information, 34,273 were killed, 1,403 were injured and 27,836 missing,'' it said.
The new official toll raises the number of those killed when the storm hit on May 3 from 31,938 dead and 29,770 missing.
However, the United Nations has warned that the toll probably exceeds 100,000 and that many more may die unless vital aid reaches the 1.5 million survivors.
[url:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23696362-23109,00.html[/url]
|
waltky
05-19-08, 03:57 AM |
Junta relenting on aid help restrictions...
:cool:
Aid breakthrough in sight for Burmese storm victims
Monday, 19 May 2008 - A British envoy has spoken of a possible breakthrough in overcoming the Burmese junta’s resistance to foreigners distributing aid to 2.5 million survivors of Cyclone Nargis, as the UN secretary general, Mr Ban Ki-moon prepared to fly to Rangoon.
]
With international pressure on the military junta mounting, Lord Malloch-Brown, the minister for Asia and the UN, said that a compromise appeared to be in sight, under which the UN and Burma’s Asian neighbours would deliver foreign aid into the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta. The junta’s obstruction of a foreign-led relief operation has triggered sharp condemnation in the West, where Gordon Brown described the government’s attitude as “inhuman”. “I think we’re potentially at a turning point but, like all turning points in (Burma), the corner will have a few S-bends in it," Lord Malloch-Brown said.
The junta says 78,000 people have died. The UN estimates that at least 200,000 are dead or missing. John Holmes, the UN humanitarian coordinator, arrived in the Burmese capital last night with an appeal from the UN secretary general to the junta’s commanders about widening the aid effort. The senior leader, Gen Than Shwe, appeared on television meeting survivors for the first time since the cyclone on 2 May. He had earlier refused to take telephone calls from Mr Ban who is due in Rangoon later this week.
The junta is apparently blocking a massive aid package out of fears that Western countries could be intent on regime change. The French ambassador to the UN, Jean-Maurice Ripert, told reporters that France had been accused by the Burmese delegate of sending “a warship” to Burma. French, US and British ships have gathered in international waters to dispatch aid to the delta. The British charity Save the Children, based inside Burma, warned yesterday that thousands of children under five could die within weeks if food is not rushed to them.
[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/aid-breakthrough-in-sight-for-burmese-storm-victims-burma-830588.html:
Source[/url]
See also:
UN leaders given access to Myanmar cyclone zone
May 19, 2008 - Myanmar’s military regime allowed the U.N. humanitarian chief into the devastated Irrawaddy delta for a brief tour on Monday, a U.N. official said, as the government’s dealings with the international community appeared to thaw.
]
John Holmes, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, flew by helicopter into an area where hundreds of thousands of cyclone victims suffer from hunger, disease and lack of shelter. The U.N. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said after a few hours in the delta Holmes had a working lunch with international aid agencies in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon.
In another sign the junta may chart a new course in its relationship with the United Nations, the government also gave permission for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to travel to the delta after his scheduled arrival in the country Wednesday, U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said in New York. Earlier, junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe had refused to take telephone calls from Ban and had not responded to two letters from him, Montas said. Holmes, who arrived in Yangon on Sunday, was to deliver a third letter about how the U.N. can assist the government’s immediate and long-term relief effort.
In Singapore, Southeast Asian nations — under fire for being too lenient with Myanmar’s junta — held an emergency meeting Monday in the hopes of pressing the isolated country to accept more international help. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations plans to consider a proposal that it play a role in arranging the entry of aid to the country, said Philippine Assistant Foreign Secretary Marilyn Alarilla. But suggestions that aid be taken in by force were unlikely to gain support.
More [url:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/19/news/Myanmar.php[/url]
|
Have your say on this story
|
|
