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Myanmar Still In Need Of Expert Assistance

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The Associated Press

Published: June 1, 2008

BANGKOK, Thailand - Myanmar needs more than food and shelter. Relief groups say the country needs human expertise for everything from purifying drinking water to mental health counseling - and right now, those experts can't get to the hard-hit delta.

Dozens of aid workers from UNICEF, the International Federation of Red Cross and other groups are still stuck in Yangon, the nation's largest city, without the travel permits required to leave for the delta region.

For the first several weeks after Cyclone Nargis struck May 2-3, few of the more than 2 million survivors received any help. Myanmar's government only has about 15 transport planes and up to 40 aging helicopters, many not working, experts say.

Foreign aid agencies are now trying to move in not just trucks and helicopters, but also workers with experience from dealing with disasters such as the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 2005 Pakistani earthquake.

"It's not about extra pairs of hands; there are special skills that are required," said Richard Horsey, a spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian effort that is trying, like other groups, to reach the country's flooded Irrawaddy delta.

On Saturday, a U.N. official warned Myanmar against prematurely resettling cyclone refugees, saying those who leave relief camps may not receive the aid they need and will become even more vulnerable to disease and the elements. Human rights groups have lambasted Myanmar's military rulers, accusing them of kicking homeless cyclone survivors out of shelters.

The U.S. defense secretary said the junta's blockage of international help has cost "tens of thousands of lives."

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