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UN aid agencies say boats key to Myanmar relief efforts
Geneva (AFP) May 23, 2008 United Nations humanitarian aid agencies said Friday that boats will be crucial in delivering relief to cyclone victims in Myanmar as the oncoming monsoon will render many roads impassable. "We are going to need boats, which will be the sole means of reaching the hundreds of small islands, some natural and some created by the floods after the cyclone," where many people are still stranded and in desperate need of assistance, UN relief spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told reporters. The International Organisation for Migration also said it is awaiting the delivery of four Zodiac inflatable boats next week, which will "transform our capacity to reach the most remote areas". Soaring fuel costs are also a problem but Byrs said that thanks to private donations the UN has enough fuel in Myanmar to carry out two large trucking operations in the next two days. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier Friday said that Myanmar's military junta has finally agreed to allow unfettered access to international aid workers, nearly three weeks after Cyclone Nargis struck. Ban met General Than Shwe who heads the secretive regime, and told reporters that "he has agreed to allow all aid workers regardless of nationalities." International relief organisations have repeatedly insisted that more people will die unless they get immediate food, water, shelter and medical care. While welcoming thousands of tonnes of donated supplies, the regime has been blocking visas for most foreign disaster management experts and insisted reports of survivors not getting enough aid were the work of "traitors". Byrs, who works for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said it was too early to say how many aid workers would be granted access in light of the deal. "We do not yet have the practical details of what Ban Ki-moon just announced," she said. But "we would like to get more experts on board, this is not the quantity, this is the quality," she stressed. "We need experts in coordination, disaster management, information management," Byrs added. So far around 100 visas have been granted but international staff have not been allowed to leave Myanmar's main city of Yangon, she said. Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar on May 2-3, has left at least 133,000 people dead or missing and around 2.5 million more in need of immediate aid. The UN has launched a flash appeal for 201 million dollars (128 million euros) of which 50.3 million dollars or 25 percent has so far been received. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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