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Myanmar will accept foreign aid but distribute relief itself, an
official newspaper said, after a disaster rescue team from Qatar
that arrived in Yangon on an aid flight was turned back.
"Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information
teams from foreign countries at the moment," the government-run
Myanma Ahlin newspaper said in a report on the aid operation slowly
building up for survivors of Cyclone Nargis.
"But at present Myanmar is giving priority to receiving relief aid
and distributing them to the storm-hit regions with its own
resources," the newspaper said.
The Qatar plane was one of 12 international relief flights that
landed in the former capital on Thursday, it said.
Outside frustration is mounting at delays by the generals in giving
visas to aid workers and landing rights for flights, including
those from the US military, which has supply planes on standby in
neighbouring Thailand.
Survivors of last Saturday's cyclone have largely been fending for
themselves in the swampy delta.
"They are gone. They are gone," U Thein, who lost her
eight-year-old son and three-month-old daughter in the cyclone,
whispered in her village near hard-hit Labutta town in the
delta.
Around her, in hushed tones, villagers say more than 100 of their
friends and relatives were killed in Saturday's carnage.
The sea surge and 190 kmh winds ripped the tiny village apart,
tearing down coconut groves and ripping the roofs off buildings,
including the local primary school.
Scores of trees block pathways or balance precariously on top of
the few buildings left standing.
Besides the cawing of crows and gentle weeping of the destitute,
the only sound is the hammering of nails as villagers desperately
try to rebuild their homes in the malaria-infested
swamplands.
No soldiers or government agencies have turned up to help.
"We have to get shelter. We have to get shelter," said San Myint.
She and her brother have been sawing and hammering since dawn to
repair their shattered home. "The mosquitoes are eating us at
night," she says. "But we were lucky. We survived."
The official death toll still stands at nearly 23,000, although
experts fear it could be as high as 100,000.
Patriotic referendum
Myanmar's junta urged citizens on Friday to do their patriotic duty
and vote for an army-drafted constitution in a televised message
that made mo mention of the estimated 1.5 million people clinging
to survival a week after the cyclone.
The junta is holding a referendum on the constitution on Saturday
in all but the worst-affected parts of the country.
Its opponents have suggested the delays in allowing in aid
workers are because it does not want an influx of foreigners before
the vote.
Thailand's prime minister Samak Sundaravej announced on Friday he
would fly to Myanmar this weekend after British and American envoys
urged him to ask the ruling generals to open the door to Western
aid.
"I have already contacted them. I will see them on Sunday," Samak
told reporters after meeting British Ambassador Quinton Quayle in
Bangkok.
The US Navy said four ships, including the destroyer USS Mustin and
the three-vessel Essex Expeditionary Strike Force, were heading for
Myanmar from the Gulf of Thailand after the Essex deployed
helicopters to Thailand for aid operations.
The United States, however, was waiting for approval to start
shipping in aid on military planes.
"We're outraged by the slowness of the response of the government
of Burma to welcome and accept assistance," US Ambassador to the
United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was seeking direct talks
with the junta's senior general, Than Shwe, to persuade him to
remove obstacles.
A UN spokeswoman said Ban believed it might be prudent for the
government to postpone the referendum.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Friday he wanted
Southeast Asian nations and China to apply more pressure on
Myanmar.
"The Burmese regime is behaving appallingly," he said. But
UN humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes questioned the value of
voicing outrage with the junta over the aid delays.
"It's not clear to me at this stage anyway that bludgeoning them
over the head is going to make any difference or make it any
better. We have to work with them," he told US National Public
Radio.
While Holmes said the United Nations estimated at least 1.5 million
people were severely affected, Britain's UN ambassador, John
Sawers, said it may be in the millions.
China, the closest thing Myanmar has to an ally, urged patience in
dealing with the junta.
"(The international community) should take Myanmar's willingness
and ability to receive (the aid) into full account, and have
patient and close communication with Myanmar," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.
