UN attacks Burma over refusal to grant visas

Ireland 09/05/2008

The Burmese military government’s refusal to give visas to relief experts is "unprecedented" in the history of humanitarian work, the United Nations claimed today.

An aircraft loaded with UN aid was allowed to land yesterday, but it represented a tiny trickle compared with the humanitarian needs in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which is feared to have killed 100,000 people and made up to a million homeless.

A spokesman of the World Food Program says the organization has submitted 10 visa applications around the world, including six in Bangkok, Thailand, and none of have been granted.

Spokesman Paul Risley said "the frustration caused by what appears to be a paperwork delay is unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts."

Burma’s military government said more than 62,000 people died or are missing in a cyclone that hit the country's Irrawaddy delta last Saturday.

The junta says it needs international aid but not the foreign experts and staff to deliver it. It turned back a disaster rescue team that arrived in Rangoon from Qatar yesterday because the flight only had permission to deliver aid supplies.

"Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment," the government-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said. "But at present Myanmar is giving priority to receiving relief aid and distributing them to the storm hit regions with its own resources," it said.

The US and France yesterday called for international aid to be delivered to cyclone victims without the permission of the junta if the regime continues to block the arrival of foreign aid workers and material assistance.

The US military has supply planes on standby in Thailand. The Pentagon has ordered four US Navy ships now in Thailand on exercises to start heading towards the Irrawaddy delta in the hope that the green light will eventually come.

The junta is holding a referendum on an army-drafted constitution tomorrow in all but the worst-affected parts of the country. Its opponents have suggested the delays are because it does not want an influx of foreigners before the vote.

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