International aid still at Burma's doorstep
Updated
The scale of the tragedy from the Burma cyclone just keeps increasing. Thailand, China, India and Indonesia have managed to fly in some emergency supplies. But the visa approval process is still delaying international relief work.
Presenter: Peter Lloyd
Speakers: James East, World Vision; Khuensai Jaiyen, editor in chief of a Thailand-based dissident newspaper.
LLOYD: When the 2004 tsunami struck Southeast Asia the Burmese junta insisted it did not need international help.
The regime blatantly lied about the extent of damage, and the number of people killed.
Now, it appears the military is following a similar script.
While it's impossible to cover up a disaster on this scale, the regime is still doing its utmost to keep relief-working foreigners out of the picture.
In public, aid agencies are being careful with their words for fear of upsetting the regime and losing any hope of securing the visas needed to get the people and supplies on the ground.
This is James East from World Vision.
EAST: Well, we have, actually have 580 people in Myanmar working for us. We have a three million dollar appeal. We want to help 250,000 people. We have pre-positioned warehouses around the world. We would like to bring in extra assistance, tents, tarpaulins, water purification systems, and a whole bunch of other stuff, and we'd like to land that in Yangon.
LLOYD: So at the moment you have the means to lend assistance. You have the people on the ground, but you don't have that equipment in country.
EAST: No, I mean, I think we're in the same position as many other NGOs. We want to get it in; there are negotiations going on. I think the Government wants to hear about our plans and then we expect in the next couple of days to be able to have a better idea of what we're going to be doing.
LLOYD: Why is there resistance to giving visas and aircraft landing rights to people like World Vision in the midst of a crisis like that?
EAST: I think that the government itself is trying to get a handle on how to handle this issue. You know, the international community's also trying to express the assistance it wants to give and there's a conversation going on at the moment.
LLOYD: While that conversation goes on, what the aid agencies and even the United Nations won't say in public is this: the longer the Burmese delay allowing international assistance, the more people will die.
The World Health Organisation has painted a frightening picture of disease and more death unless fresh water and food supplies get to the worst affected areas urgently.
The limited but disturbing picture emerging from eyewitness accounts suggests a disaster to rival what the world saw during the tsunami; cyclonic winds did a great deal of damage but what followed was a tidal surge that swept across a vast low lying terrain.
Khuensai Jaiyen is the editor in chief of a Thailand-based dissident newspaper.
He's been a long-term observer of the military in Burma and believes the cyclone has exposed both its incompetence and paranoia.
JAIYEN: It's quite obvious that they've been greatly embarrassed by the disaster. They know that they don't have the capacity to help their own people.
In Burma, the (inaudible) is there not to protect the people but to protect the generals. When this thing happened, the junta knows that it has to allow international aid agents to come in and help, but they are also worried that when international aid agencies come by droves, they wouldn't be able to handle the situation.
LLOYD: What's your take on the psychology of the generals at the moment? What do you think they would be thinking about and talking about?
JAIYEN: They might think that people in Rangoon and the Irrawaddy division, they are the people who are opposing them - serves them right for opposing us.
LLOYD: That's an almost superstitious piece of analysis.
JAIYEN: They are superstitious. Rangoon people, they are more educated, they have been used to opposing the junta one way or the other.
LLOYD: So in some senses, there's almost a political advantage for the regime in this disaster.
KHUENSAI JAIYEN: That's true.
