=====
Zomi says:
Only when one or two generals and their famlies are affected will the SPDC
ease visa restrictions. But now they are safe in the bunkers at Nay Pyi
Daw.
So redtape will continue to some extent.
Highlights:
Myanmar's military government has signaled that it will allow
international
aid groups to enter the insular Southeast Asian country. But many
humanitarian groups said they were still waiting for visas and the few on
the ground reported shortages of drinking water, food, housing and other
necessities.
The nation's generals have touted the referendum as a key step toward
democracy, but the United States and other critics are skeptical that the
regime would loosen its white-knuckle grip on power in Myanmar, also known
as Burma.
"If they go ahead and hold it, this shows they're out of touch with
reality," said Zarni, founder of the London-based Free Burma Coalition,
who,
like many Myanmar natives, uses only one name. "The young officers are
more
in touch with the people, but the senior leadership is in a cocoon."
The Bush administration announced that it had boosted its initial offer of
$250,000 for relief efforts by $3 million. The money would come from the
U.S. Agency for International Development.
"The real question is how they're ever going to reach the affected areas,"
Win said. "I hope the government will allow foreign ships and helicopters
in, but so far I haven't seen it."
=====
Myanmar cyclone toll rises but relief effort lags
Officials say as many as 22,000 are dead. The government says aid groups
will be allowed in, but efforts are delayed by visa procedures.
By Mark Magnier and Henry Chu
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
May 7, 2008
BEIJING - The death toll continued to climb in Myanmar as state media
reported Tuesday that more than 22,000 people had died due to a weekend
cyclone and more than 41,000 were missing.
Efforts to reach the victims and help the estimated 1 million people left
homeless by Tropical Cyclone Nargis remained mired amid bureaucracy,
logistical problems and the isolation of many affected areas.
Myanmar's military government has signaled that it will allow
international
aid groups to enter the insular Southeast Asian country. But many
humanitarian groups said they were still waiting for visas and the few on
the ground reported shortages of drinking water, food, housing and other
necessities.
State television played up the role of soldiers in recovery efforts. CNN
showed images of uprooted trees, roofless houses and fishing boats driven
onshore by the storm in the Irrawaddy River delta region, regarded as
Myanmar's rice bowl.
The cyclone, which brought 120-mph winds and 12-foot storm surges, was
believed to be the worst natural disaster to hit Southeast Asia since the
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed more than 220,000 lives. Myanmar,
relatively lightly hit then, opted for financial reasons not to
participate
in an extensive early warning system set up afterward.
The Myanmar government backed away slightly from its earlier vow to press
on
with a controversial referendum Saturday on a new constitution. Unaffected
areas will still vote, officials said, and hard-hit areas will be given a
two-week postponement.
The nation's generals have touted the referendum as a key step toward
democracy, but the United States and other critics are skeptical that the
regime would loosen its white-knuckle grip on power in Myanmar, also known
as Burma.
"If they go ahead and hold it, this shows they're out of touch with
reality," said Zarni, founder of the London-based Free Burma Coalition,
who,
like many Myanmar natives, uses only one name. "The young officers are
more
in touch with the people, but the senior leadership is in a cocoon."
President Bush called on Myanmar's government to let the U.S. military
help
with disaster relief.
"We're prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who have lost
their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation,"
he
said as he signed legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the
regime's nemesis, democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi. "But in order to do
so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the
country."
The Bush administration announced that it had boosted its initial offer of
$250,000 for relief efforts by $3 million. The money would come from the
U.S. Agency for International Development.
"Let the United States come to help you, help the people," Bush said in a
message directed at the leaders of Myanmar.
"At the same time, of course," he added, "we want them to live in a free
society."
In addition to worrying about international pressures, Myanmar's
leadership
faces dissatisfaction at home, analysts said.
Some residents waited in lines for nine hours to buy gasoline, and at one
gas station in the suburb of Sanchaung, fights broke out among weary
residents after someone tried to cut in line, the Associated Press
reported.
A short distance away, the Dagon Ice Factory drinking water company turned
people away with signs that said, "No More."
"Where are the police? Where's the army?" asked Soe Aung, spokesman for
the
National Council of the Union of Burma, which is based in Thailand. "They
were always ready when there were demonstrations to beat up people and
shoot
at them, but now where are they?"
The Associated Press reported that Buddhist monks and Roman Catholic nuns
in
hard-hit Yangon used axes and long knives to clear ancient fallen trees
that
once lined the city's streets. Electricity remained cut off for nearly all
of the city's 6.5 million residents.
Win Min, an exile living in Thailand, said he was extremely anxious about
his friends and family in Bogalay, where state media have reported that
about 10,000 people have died. Win, like thousands of others, had been
trying unsuccessfully to reach loved ones by telephone.
"I'm very worried the next time I go home I may not see some of them,"
said
Win, who teaches at Chiang Mai University in Thailand. Bogalay, shaped
like
a rectangle, is largely surrounded by water, he said, making it highly
vulnerable. Almost every house is constructed of old wood and woven mats
that would not withstand much punishment. And the main road to Yangon,
formerly known as Rangoon, would quickly bog down, even if it were not
blocked by debris, he added, making it difficult to transport aid and
medical care.
"The real question is how they're ever going to reach the affected areas,"
Win said. "I hope the government will allow foreign ships and helicopters
in, but so far I haven't seen it."
Rashid Khalikov, director of the Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian
Affairs at the United Nations in New York, said that the world
organization
had urged Myanmar's government to waive visas for aid workers, as Iran and
Pakistan did after earthquakes in 2003 and 2005.
"So far we have not gotten visas for people we wanted to go there," he
said
at a news conference. "We really hope it will happen quickly. It will help
us to better aid the people when we are able to assess their needs."
Khalikov said that the U.N. team was unable to apply for visas until
Tuesday
because the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, the Thai capital, was closed
Monday
for a holiday, and diplomats would not open it without permission from
officials in Myanmar.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, citing a U.N. summary, said the
most urgent needs were for plastic sheeting, water purification tablets,
cooking sets, mosquito nets, emergency health kits, food and fuel.
She said U.S. assistance did not hinge on U.S. personnel working inside
Myanmar.
"The assistance that we are providing is needs-based and it's dependent on
only us wanting to help them," the press secretary said.
Perino said a U.S. team was in Bangkok. "But certainly the relief that the
Burmese people need would be much better handled if we could get into the
country."
Analysts said the military rulers would be making a huge concession by
agreeing to let in foreign humanitarian groups.
"I think this military regime totally gets that the people are angry,"
said
Monique Skidmore, a professor at Australian National University. "And
they're going to do what they can to be seen as helping the population.
It's
really the least distasteful path at the moment."
Last summer, the government summoned foreign diplomats to the new capital,
Pyinmana, and accused them of meddling in Myanmar's internal affairs,
human
rights groups said. And just last week an article appeared in the local
press accusing foreigners of trying to hinder the referendum.
A ramped-up U.N. presence and the arrival of dozens of humanitarian groups
in the coming days and weeks could tax the system in Myanmar on several
counts, analysts said.
For one thing, there are huge logistical problems in an impoverished
country
with an inflexible government and where most resources are tightly
controlled by the military.
It's also unclear whether the control-obsessed regime would limit the
number
of aid groups allowed in based on how many trusted military officials it
has
with language abilities to handle and oversee the groups.
Moreover, many of the affected areas are strongholds for opposition groups
that have been fighting for independence. And the economy is struggling
and
fragile.
"Three of the assessment teams reported very serious civil unrest around
the
few stores still open," said Paul Risley, a spokesman based in Thailand
with
the U.N. World Food Program, which has staff members in Myanmar and hopes
to
get its first chartered plane into the country today. "When there was food
and water for sale, large crowds were unable to obtain any, and prices are
much higher."
The sudden arrival of relatively high-paid aid workers looking for decent
accommodation could further tax the system, fueling inflation. Yet the
government is aware of the risks it faces in not allowing outside help.
"They are truly 'damned if they do, damned if they don't,' " said Tim
Huxley, the Singapore-based director of the International Institute for
Strategic Studies-Asia.
The crisis could provide an opportunity for outside aid groups to show
low-level Myanmar government and junior military officials that they are
not
out to undermine the system -- a theme of state propaganda, analysts said.
At best they also may be able to show through their work how resources can
be distributed without corruption, nepotism or political favor.
The military, however, will almost certainly want to take credit for the
relief effort, control aid distribution and get foreign agencies out of
the
country as soon as possible.
Although the Myanmar regime has few defenders, Zarni said, the crisis has
afforded an opportunity to lead by example and to improve people-to-people
contacts.
"This is a massive opportunity that should not be missed," he said.
With a bit of luck, some analysts added, this disaster could break the
extended logjam between Myanmar and the outside world, in the same way the
2004 Asian tsunami eased tensions between the Indonesian military and
rebels
in Aceh on the island of Sumatra.
"OK, I'm an optimist," said Adrian Vickers, a professor of Southeast Asian
studies at the University of Sydney in Australia.
"But there's a potential that this could be the thing that breaks the
deadlock."
mark.magnier@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
reported from Beijing and Chu from New Delhi.
Times staff writers Maggie Farley at the United Nations and James
Gerstenzang in Washington contributed to this report.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-myanmar7-2008may07,0,2653839.story
=====
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