UN Begins Food Distribution in Cyclone-ravaged Burma

7-5-2008

Residents fill water into tanks after water shortage in Rangoon Wednesday, following devastating Cyclone Nargis' hit over the weekend. International aid began to trickle into Burma, but the stricken Irrawaddy delta, the nation's rice bowl where 22,000 people perished and twice as many are missing, remained cut off from the world. (Photo: AP)
The UN's World Food Program said it has reached the first of an estimated 1 million people left homeless by the devastating cyclone that ravaged the coast of Burma.
It added, however, that many coastal areas remained cut off from food supplies because of flooding and road damage. "WFP food assistance has now begun to reach persons who are without shelter or food resources in and around Yangon [Rangoon]," the country's largest city, Chris Kaye, the agency's director for Burma, said in a statement Tuesday.
He added that additional truckloads of food would be dispatched Wednesday to Labutta township, the area hardest hit by the cyclone that struck at the weekend.

The death toll in the country, which is also known as Burma, rose above 22,000 Tuesday, with more than 41,000 others missing, state radio reported.
Travel and visa obstacles Tuesday hampered aid deliveries, officials said, but a green light from Burma to accept supplies started the global relief effort rolling three days after the storm.
A map showing areas worst-hit by Tropical Cyclone Nargis. Aid workers battled Wednesday to get food and water to desperate cyclone survivors in Myanmar, whose government is under fire after more than 22,000 people died in one of Asia's worst natural disasters. (Graphic: AFP)
"This assistance is on its way," said United Nations relief spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs, but she said UN workers planning to assess needs are still awaiting their visas to enter the country.
The food agency said its assessment teams were reporting tremendous storm damage to homes and shelter in villages in the rice-growing areas on Burma's coast. It said the death toll was still increasing.
"WFP has taken initial steps to meet the enormous logistics challenge of bringing in disaster relief supplies, equipment and prepared foods urgently needed by people in areas badly hit by the cyclone," the agency said. "Many of the coastal areas most affected remain cut off and isolated due to flooding and road damage."
The agency now has more than 800 metric tons of food stocks in Rangoon, "and will deliver these food resources to all areas in need," it said. The agency also plans to airlift additional supplies into Burma, such as high-energy biscuits, "as soon as possible."
Some countries announced large donations Tuesday.
The United States said it was giving US $3 million to UN agencies to help with their efforts, up from an initial emergency contribution of $250,000.
The addition comes even as Burma continues to resist entry for a US disaster assessment team.
The European Union "launched a primary fast-track decision to provide emergency relief for victims of the cyclone amounting to €2 million (US $3.1 million)," said a statement released by Slovenia as president of the 27-nation bloc.
China is providing US $1 million in aid, including relief materials worth $500,000, to help with disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts, a spokesman said.
But France and the United States complained about the reluctance of Burma to accept direct aid.
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France minimized its aid to €200,000 (US $309,200) because of a lack of confidence in how the money would be used.
"It's not a lot but we don't really trust the way the Burmese ministry would use the money," Kouchner said.
Kouchner said, however, that 25 percent of the EU donation was coming from France.
A planning session at EU headquarters in Brussels summed up the situation. Anne-Francoise Moffroid, the EU desk officer dealing with the crisis, said it was difficult to know how many people will need aid.
"Probably several hundreds of thousands of people, maybe over 1 million, or maybe more, we don't know at the moment," Moffroid said.
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