Monday, May 12, 2008

ALL SUPPLIES AND UN ARE LAYING UNDER REGIME BLOCK

PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE


The United States delivered its first relief supplies to Burma yesterday, as the United Nations urged the reclusive nation to open its doors to foreign experts who could help up to two million cyclone victims facing disease and starvation. The unarmed military C-130 cargo plane, packed with supplies, flew out of U-tapao in Chon Buri and landed in Rangoon, capping prolonged negotiations to persuade Burma's military government to accept US help. Burmese government spokesman Ye Htut said the aid, which was transferred to Burmese army trucks, would be ferried by air force helicopters to the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta later yesterday. Two more US air shipments were scheduled to land today. The official death toll from the May 3 cyclone Nargis is 28,458 with another 33,416 still missing. But UN assistant secretary-general Catherine Bragg said it could be 62,000 to 100,000, ''or possibly even higher than that''.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) representative Terje Skavdal said in Bangkok yesterday that much more assistance was still needed to help the survivors as rapidly as possible. 'Much aid has arrived [in Burma] over the weekend, but in fact it has been limited. People are getting into a much worse situation. We need to receive more cooperation [from the international community],'' said Mr Skavdal, who oversees the UN's key humanitarian agency. Though international assistance has started trickling in, the authoritarian government has barred most foreign experts experienced in humanitarian crises.

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