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U.S.: Myanmar faces disaster over lack of aid
By Foster Klug
ASSOCIATED PRESS
9:13 a.m. May 9, 2008
WASHINGTON - The director of the U.S. office of foreign disaster
assistance
said Friday that skilled aid workers are being forced to sit on the
sidelines as victims of last week's cyclone in Myanmar die. His comments
reflect the mounting frustration among the United States and other
countries
as they wait for permission from the military-led government to begin
trying
to help.
Ky Luu urged the generals to allow access to foreign aid teams, including
a
group of U.S. specialists waiting in Thailand; he said desperately needed
supplies are piling up on airport tarmacs.
"This is a very vulnerable population, and a shock of this magnitude is
going to take people right off the cliff," Luu told an audience at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies, a foreign affairs think
tank
here.
He said the message to the junta is clear: If it allows U.S. officials in,
"we will be able to make a difference."
"People are dying, and it's approaching a week," he said.
Luu spoke as Myanmar's ruling military junta seized two planeloads of
critical aid sent by the U.N. The U.N. food program suspended help after
the
action, but later said it is sending two planes to Myanmar to help hungry
and homeless survivors.
The United States and other donor countries continue to wait for
permission
to enter with tons of assistance and with disaster relief workers.
Officials
say up to 1.9 million people are homeless, injured or threatened by
disease
and hunger, and only one out of 10 have received some kind of aid in the
six
days since the cyclone hit.
Tony Banbury, Asia director for the U.N. World Food Program, said by
satellite from Thailand that the "big issue" is: What are the Myanmar
authorities going to do? The WFP, he said, will keep working, but "I don't
think we have much leverage with the authorities."
"Our hands are getting more and more tied," he said. "The situation is
obviously desperate."
Luu said U.S. officials are still working to try to get relief workers to
the places they need to be to distribute supplies. Officials, he said,
need
to determine the state of the country's infrastructure so they can
determine
what they need to bring with them and what sort of conditions they will
face
when they begin working.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20080509-0913-us-myanmar.html
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