Burma death toll could reach 100,000
Pastor Dale Morgan
Burma death toll could reach 100,000*
· Relief workers wait as regime restricts access
· Red tape thwarts delivery of food and medical help
* Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok
* The Guardian,
* Thursday May 8 2008
Fears were growing last night that as many as 100,000 people may have
died in the catastrophic cyclone in Burma, even as the military junta
continued to restrict access to aid workers waiting to enter the country.
The top United States diplomat in Burma's largest city, Rangoon,
confirmed the figure and said as many as 95% of all buildings in the
affected area may have been demolished. Shari Villarosa, the charge
d'affaires of the US embassy in Burma, said there was a very real risk
of disease outbreaks as the crisis continues. "There may be over 100,000
deaths in the Irrawaddy delta area," she told reporters.
The new toll came as UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon called on the
junta to open its borders to aid workers and the US urged Asian
countries such as China, Thailand and India to put pressure on the
military regime. International frustration is mounting as disaster
management experts fail to get the necessary visas to enter the country.
Satellite pictures yesterday showed the bulk of the Irrawaddy delta -
where most died - still under water. Planeloads of stockpiled supplies
are on standby awaiting delivery to desperate victims, who have been
living in water for five days. Delays in getting help to the survivors
could spark a second humanitarian crisis, with an outbreak of waterborne
disease in the tropical climate.
"Time is of the essence," said Ann Veneman, executive director of UN
children's fund Unicef. "Children are highly vulnerable to disease and
hunger and they need immediate help to survive."
Visa delays are to be raised by Ban Ki-Moon, who is to seek a meeting of
officials to resolve the matter speedily. Documents leaked from a UN
meeting in Bangkok revealed little sign of a solution.
Even after the Burmese junta gave permission for the UN to fly in a
planeload of supplies, emergency teams were still awaiting travel
documents to enter the country. The World Food Programme has 15
logistics experts and technicians in Bangkok awaiting visas, ready to
fly to Rangoon at a moment's notice.
The difficulty mirrored smaller aid agencies such as World Vision,
Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and Save the Children, whose teams have
yet to get entry permits even though they have staff already working on
the ground in Burma.
World Vision, which has worked in Burma for 30 years and has 582
existing staff there, has 40 tonnes of supplies sitting in Dubai
awaiting approval to fly.
"We have warehouses around the world pre-positioned, ready to go and
emergency response teams who can move at a moment's notice, all for such
a disaster," said Pamela Sitko, of World Vision. "Our office in Rangoon
has been in negotiations with the social welfare minister since shortly
after the cyclone hit."
World Vision has also been seeking visas for "less than 10" technical
and logistics experts. Save the Children has applied to send four staff
and MSF only one so far.
"It's a dreadful situation," said Sitko. "Time is critical. There's real
risk of an outbreak of acute diarrhoea, dengue fever or malaria, even
cholera. We remember from the tsunami all the pain and suffering."
Aid agency staff already operating in the country have been given a
relatively free hand to assess the scale of the disaster and distribute
whatever emergency supplies they had stockpiled, though it is nowhere
near the huge amount needed.
"The UN has managed to get some assessment teams into the field, but we
need the floodgates to open," said Mark Canning, the British ambassador
in Rangoon.
France has urged the UN to invoke its "responsibility to act" clause to
break the logjam and deliver aid without waiting for the junta's
approval. French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said the clause, that
allows aid delivery to citizens if their government failed, even if it
breached national sovereignty, was being discussed at UN headquarters in
New York. The French navy has ships with helicopters sitting off the
worst affected areas of the Burmese coast and help could reach the
disaster area in minutes, he said.
But while the world waited survivors who have seen little aid stormed
the few shops that opened in the Irrawaddy delta. With reports of
hundreds of bodies along roadsides and in rice paddies the fear is that
failure to dispose of the dead will pose a health hazard to the living.
Andrew Kirkwood, Save the Children Burma country director, said at least
the regime had begun assisting in distribution of the emergency aid
already in place using 16 military helicopters, though it needed a great
deal more help.
But the diplomat, Villarosa, said: "This is a very paranoid regime ...
the longer the delay, the more victims are created."