Mostly Harmless

The UN’s first aid flight has touched down in Burma, brining much needed relief to the desperate million people made homeless by Cyclone Nargis. Burma’s reluctance to accept foreign aid caused the flights to be delayed, amid intensifying international concern.

The US says it has not yet been given permission to fly aid into Burma - despite earlier reports that it had.  As well as up to a million homeless, Burmese state media say 22,980 people were killed by Nargis but there are fears the figure could rise to 100,000.

The cyclone smashed into the low-lying Irrawaddy delta region on Saturday.  Reports indicate that the Cyclone left a terrible trail of destruction, with survivors scavenging to find some shelter.  These survivors are currently living among thousands of corpses, polluting their environment, and the risk of disease taking hold is getting worse by the day.  Normally after a natural disaster, roads are choked by the relief effort, but those into the Irrawaddy delta are empty.  Three more UN flights are expected to land later on Thursday.

The UN World Food Programme said concern about the military siphoning off aid was one reason for the delay.WFP regional director Anthony Banbury said: “We will not just bring our supplies to an airport, dump it and take off.”  The UN said its four-member disaster assessment and co-ordination team had now been given visas to travel to Burma.  UN spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs said the move “shows a certain openness so far, but it is still too slow. Our country team [in Burma] is over-stretched.”

This disaster is affecting the already fragile political climate of Burma. But the million homeless Burmese should not have to pay the price by missing out on vital supplies for the sake of tension between the UN and the Burmese administration.

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