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Zomis says:
The paranoid SPDC does not trust their own people. They do not trust
themselves. They are suffering from inferiority complex. They are afraid
of unarmed relief workers.
The SPDC still prevents many relief teams from coming to Burma.
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Myanmar Survivors Face Disease as Relief Awaits Entry (Update5)
By Demian McLean
Enlarge Image/Details
May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Survivors of the Myanmar cyclone, now estimated to
have
killed as many as 100,000, are at risk of cholera and other infectious
diseases as the United Nations urges the military government to accept
foreign help.
More than 1 million people may have been left homeless since Tropical
Cyclone Nargis hit the country formerly known as Burma on May 3. Teams
from
aid group Doctors Without Borders found 80 percent of houses damaged and
meter-high (3-foot) flood waters in some areas of Daala and Twante
townships, where 300,000 people lived, in the Irrawaddy River delta area.
``Even in the best of times, it takes two days to reach the delta,'' said
John Sparrow, Kuala Lumpur-based spokesman for the International
Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. ``You can imagine what it's like
when bridges are out, roads are out and half the countryside is under
water.''
The United Nations called on Myanmar's military rulers to allow
international aid workers to begin relief operations as the prospect of a
humanitarian disaster looms. Aid officials said the number of dead will
rise
without quick distribution of drinking water, food and medicine.
``Under these circumstances, infectious diseases such as cholera can
spread
easily,'' Doctors Without Borders said in a statement.
Rising Fatalities
The death toll may reach 100,000 as more bodies are found in the delta
area,
Shari Villarosa, the U.S. charge d'affaires at the embassy in Yangon, said
in a conference call today. Myanmar's state television reported that
22,000
people have died and more than 40,000 are missing.
The UN's World Food Program said four flights containing a total of 45
metric tons of high-energy biscuits are on their way to Yangon, the
largest
city. They are scheduled to arrive early tomorrow morning.
The U.S., which has offered at least $3.25 million, assistance, is still
trying to persuade ``the very paranoid regime'' to allow deliveries of
humanitarian, Villarosa said.
``We have assets already in Thailand that can help, if Burma accepts our
offer,'' said Major Carrie Hurd, spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's
Honolulu-based Pacific Command.
U.S. assets include C-130 cargo planes, helicopters and the USS Essex,
which
has surgical rooms and 600 hospital beds. Some of the Marines in the
region
helped with relief after the 2004 tsunami, Hurd said.
U.S. Offers Help
The offer for aid came this week in a White House statement that also
criticized the military junta and praised Burma's jailed opposition
leader,
Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
In the meantime, the U.S. may use its aircraft and boats to ferry relief
supplies closer to Myanmar so other countries can then deliver them, Hurd
said.
France tried today to raise the subject of Myanmar's obstructionism in the
UN Security Council. Russia, China and South Africa fought France's
proposal
to be briefed by the UN's emergency relief coordinator, and the move
failed.
``We are ready to send men, food, drugs, everything which is needed to
help,'' said Jean-Maurice Ripert, France's ambassador to the UN. ``We are
ready to do that but are prevented from doing that.''
The UN's World Food Program is distributing 800 metric tons of food stocks
it holds in Yangon, the former capital, spokesman Chris Kaye said in an
e-mail from Thailand.
Shipment Approved
Myanmar today gave permission for the Red Cross to send a plane load of
supplies from Kuala Lumpur tomorrow, Sparrow said. The flight will deliver
300 shelter kits containing tarpaulins, mosquito nets, water and cooking
utensils, he said.
The Red Cross has 20,000 more kits in its Kuala Lumpur warehouse, the
Geneva-based organization said in a statement.
Other countries offering aid include the U.K., Australia, Canada, New
Zealand, Finland, Norway, China and European Union countries.
Myanmar's military rulers are ``suspicious of outsiders and very sensitive
to foreign influences,'' Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of the Burma
Project,
said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today.
``They admitted to 22,000'' people killed, she said. ``I believe the
figure
is higher than that. Somebody said 150,000, and I don't think that's
untrue.''
Port Blocked
The Red Cross also hoped to send supplies via ship containers. However,
the
port at Yangon ``is blocked or even closed'' because of sunken ships and
other damage, according to Richard Horsey, spokesman for the UN disaster
response unit.
The impoverished country of 47.8 million people has been under
international
sanctions since the military rejected the results of elections in 1990.
Transparency International last year ranked Myanmar as the most corrupt
nation in the world along with Somalia.
Myanmar, ruled by the military since 1962, is scheduled to hold a
referendum
May 10 for a new constitution before elections in 2010. The government
said
the vote will go ahead, except in the worst-affected areas where it will
be
delayed until May 24.
The U.S. State Department says the referendum is an attempt by the
military
to retain power.
To contact the reporters on this story: Demian McLean in Washington at
dmclean8@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Updated: May 7, 2008 17:11 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=afflTTUrzaNs&refer=asia
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