The Almighty Guardian again

 

Burma agreed today to allow some international assistance for the victims of Cyclone Nargis, two weeks after the devastating storm killed an estimated 128,000 people.

The move came as the ruling junta announced three days of official mourning for the cyclone victims, starting tomorrow, with flags flown to be flown at half mast. It mirrors a similar mourning period which began today in China, for the victims of last week's earthquake in Sichuan provice.

Despite fears that many thousands more could die of starvation and disease without outside help, Burma's military regime had previously resisted intense international pressure to allow all but a few foreign aid teams and aircraft into the country.

But today, the junta agreed to let neighbouring countries organise help for the cyclone victims, ministers said at a meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean), a 10-member regional bloc that includes Burma.

"We will establish a mechanism so that aid from all over the world can flow into Myanmar [Burma]," Singapore's foreign minister, George Yeo, told reporters following the meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers, including Burma's Nyan Win, in Singapore, according to Reuters.

Aid teams from Asean nations would be allowed unrestricted access, but those from other countries would need specific permission to enter, Yeo said, adding: "We have to look at specific needs - there will not be uncontrolled access."

Asean will join the UN in holding an international aid conference in Rangoon on May 25, to pool aid efforts for victims of the cyclone, Yeo added.

Earlier today it emerged that the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, would be allowed to visit the devastated Irrawaddy delta during a visit to Burma later this week - a further sign the country is softening its attitude towards outside assistance.

Ban had been given permission by Burma's military leadership to tour the delta on Wednesday, a UN spokeswoman in New York said.

Previously, the county's leader, General Than Shwe, had refused to take telephone calls from Ban and had not responded to two letters from him, the spokeswoman added.

Earlier today, the UN's head of humanitarian affairs, Sir John Holmes, was flown by helicopter into the delta, where hundreds of thousands of cyclone victims face hunger, disease and lack of shelter.

The first sign of the apparent change in attitude came yesterday, when, after talks with ministers in Rangoon, Lord Malloch-Brown, the UK foreign minister with responsibility for Asia, said Burma would soon allow more aid through, with Asian countries taking the lead.

Some international assistance had already been agreed, including a 50-strong Indian medical team operating in the Irrawaddy delta and the arrival of 32 Thai doctors and nurses. A team of 50 Chinese medics arrived in Rangoon last night, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

There are fears, however, that the outside help will be too late for many people affected by the cyclone.

The latest UN assessment of the situation in the Irrawaddy delta estimates that just 20% of as many as 2.5 million people gravely affected by the disaster have so far been reached with aid.

The official toll of dead and missing has risen to 133,653, while the number of injured has leapt from 1,403 to 19,359.

Relief supplies are only trickling into the country. The UN world food programme said it had distributed enough rice, beans and high-energy biscuits for 212,000 people, about a third of those thought to be in the most desperate need.

The UN and aid agencies reiterated their alarm that the amounts of aid were insufficient and too slow in arriving even as the diplomatic dance with the generals goes on, and the warnings of a second man-made catastrophe grow more urgent.

Amid concern about a "second wave" of death brought about by hunger and disease, the British-based charity Save the Children warned that thousands of the most vulnerable children under five could starve to death in the coming weeks. It identified 30,000 malnourished youngsters in the Irrawaddy delta even before the cyclone.

"With hundreds of thousands of people still not receiving aid, many of these children will not survive much longer," the charity said. "Children may already be dying as a result of a lack of food."

Burmese charities supported by Christian Aid had already discovered children and elderly villagers dying in the Irrawaddy delta, after receiving no aid or access to clean water, 15 days into the tragedy.

"The Burmese authorities are allowing our partner organisation to distribute water and water purification tablets," said a Christian Aid worker in Rangoon. "The villagers have dysentery and are dying. In one, some young children and a 70-year-old man died."