Medecins Sans Frontieres: Thousands still without relief in Myanmar

May 26, 2008, 12:34 GMT

Yangon - Three weeks after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar, thousands of people are still without food in the remote regions of the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta, the head of Medecins Sans Frontieres' (MSF) Yangon mission said Monday.

Souheil Reache said that the aid organization was still awaiting a go-ahead from the Myanmar junta to allow more of its foreign relief experts into the Irrawaddy delta, where thousands of people are still without food, shelter and medicines.

On Friday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon secured assurances from Myanmar's junta chief Senior General Than Shwe that the regime will allow 'all' foreign aid workers unhindered access to the delta region.

Although the assurances were reconfirmed at a pledging conference held in Yangon Sunday, many aid agencies are still awaiting approvals for their people to get in to the delta region, where the majority of the estimated 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone reside, many of them in remote, hard-to-reach areas.

According to government estimates, the cyclone left at least 133,000 dead or missing, making it the worst natural disaster in the country's history.

'Thousands of people have not seen any aid workers and still have not received any assistance,' Reache said.

'Yesterday, our teams, who are travelling by boat to reach the most isolated areas, managed to reach further villages around the Bogaley area. In these villages we found people who had had run out of food and who had not eaten in three days. They were crying and begging for food,' he added.

While he welcomed Than Shwe's announcement, Reache noted that three weeks after the crisis, over 10 MSF experts have been allowed into the delta region, with another 20 constricted to working in Yangon.

Five experts from MSF, which is also known as Doctors Without Borders, were denied access to the delta on Saturday, on the eve of the pledging conference.

'The aid assistance that has been brought into Myanmar to date still remains significantly below what is needed for the cyclone survivors. The overall aid effort has been considerably hampered by the lack of international staff on the ground,' said Reache.

While the UN says it has seen some progress since Friday in the acceptance of experts into the delta, the government has yet to announce accelerated procedures for getting aid workers in to the area.

'I sincerely hope that they will honour their commitment,' Ban told a press conference in Bangkok Sunday night before flying back to New York.

'This effort will have to continue. I don't think we have completely agreed on everything,' he acknowledged.

Most donor nations on Sunday stopped short of making new pledges for relief for victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar as they awaited more details on access and accountability, but observers described the meeting as a step forward.

In recent weeks, Myanmar's response to the catastrophe has been widely criticized for throwing roadblocks in the way of an international relief effort, by slowing the logistics of getting emergency supplies to an estimated 2.4 million needy victims of the cyclone and for reluctantly granting visas to foreign relief experts keen to enter the country and the areas hardest hit by the storm.

A key issue at the conference was whether Myanmar's reclusive and notoriously paranoid junta would allow greater access to the country and the Irrawaddy delta to foreign aid workers, who have been outraged by the government's restriction on their movements that have been impeding aid supplies to victims of the cyclone.

More than three weeks after the catastrophe, international aid has reached only 25 per cent of the affected people, many of whom have been stranded without access to supplies in remote regions of the Irrawaddy delta.