May 14, 2008, 11:34 GMT
Bangkok - European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel flew to cyclone-devastated Myanmar on Wednesday to persuade the country's junta to improve access for a massive international disaster relief programme straining to reach the people in need.
'The main aim of my mission is to explain to the Myanmar authorities that our goal is strictly humanitarian,' said Michel. 'What we want is to ask the military authorities to open access for our humanitarian work.'
That has been the common refrain of the international community which has become increasingly frustrated with the ruling junta's roadblocks to humanitarian aid for its own people.
Thirteen days after Cyclone Nargis smashed into Myanmar, killing an estimated 100,000 people and leaving up to 2 million without access to food, water, shelter and medicines, there are signs of progress with the disaster relief programme, but not enough.
'We're seeing more flights getting in to the country, we're seeing more relief items reaching people in the delta region and in Yangon, and more people getting in to help the response but the levels of aid getting in are not adequate and not enough to meet the needs of the people on the ground,' said Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which is heading a multi-million-dollar disaster relief programme in Myanmar.
While Myanmar's ruling junta has appealed for international aid, it has thrown up obstacles to deliveries and last week refused to grant visas to scores of foreign relief experts seeking to enter the country to facilitate the logistic of a massive emergency programme.
In recent days there has been some progress noted in the granting of visas to experts.
'Progress has been seen on the visas front,' said Pitt. 'Visas are being issued in a number of locations whether in New York, Geneva or Bangkok, but there is no pattern emerging.'
Myanmar on Tuesday put out an appeal for 160 relief personnel from neighbouring Bangladesh, China, India and Thailand, to assist the government's own disaster relief efforts, she noted.
There have been no official explanations offered as to why some experts are allowed in and others aren't.
Meanwhile, the aid push is also facing huge logistical obstacles getting supplies out to the countryside on account of the poor, and now cyclone damaged infrastructure in the Irrawaddy delta, the worst hit region.
Roads are poor in the delta and bridges can handle only 5-ton loads on trucks, posing logistical challenges.
'The good news from Yangon is that the port is open again,' said World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman Marcus Prior.
'But it is not clear yet what size of vessels we can get in,' he added.
The WFP is also looking into the possibility of using helicopters to take supplies to some of the most remote areas in the delta, which remain totally cut off from the supply flow.
Of the estimated 750,000 people in need of food, the WFP estimates that it has so far been able to reach only 50,000.
Meanwhile, the country's devastated population now faces a new threat of an ongoing tropical storm that could turn in to another cyclone.
Chances are 'good' that a storm in the Indian Ocean could be upgraded to a cyclone as it heads toward landfall in Myanmar, the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre said Wednesday.
'The potential for the development of a significant tropical cyclone within the next 24 hours is upgraded to good,' the centre said late Tuesday in a forecast issued from its headquarters in Hawaii.
The storm was situated about 30 nautical miles (56 kilometres) south-west of Yangon at the time the alert was issued.
Yangon and the southern part of Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta suffered the brunt of Cyclone Nargis, which hit the coastline packing 200 kilometre-per-hour winds May 2-3.
'I understand that there are indeed torrential rains on their way and there is possibility that a cyclone may be developing,' confirmed Amanda Pitt, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which is heading the emergency relief effort in Myanmar out of Bangkok.
'It's a serious concern in terms of getting more supplies and equipment out there,' said Shantha Boeman, a spokesperson for UNICEF. 'Obviously this is a great concern for the people still without supplies or shelter.'
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