Myanmar Kids May Starve, Charity Says, as Asean Meets (Update2)

By Nesa Subrahmaniyan and Gavin Evans
May 18 (Bloomberg) -- Thousands of children in cyclone-hit Myanmar are starving and may die unless aid arrives, a British charity warned, a day before nations from around the region hold an emergency meeting to discuss the humanitarian crisis.
``Children may already be dying as a result of a lack of food,'' Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children UK, said today in a statement. An estimated 30,000 children less than five years old were malnourished before the storm struck and several thousand could perish within three weeks, it said.
Myanmar has accepted only a trickle of the help offered since the storm on May 3, barring most foreign staff and rejecting offers of helicopters and boats. China is backing Myanmar as it resists pressure from the U.S. and other nations to accept more assistance, saying countries must show ``due respect.''
Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will tomorrow hold an emergency meeting in Singapore to discuss the disaster. Rainfall in Myanmar was increasing the risk of water-borne diseases, World Vision Australia warned today.
``We want to push forward to help as much as possible,'' Tharit Charungvat, a spokesman for Thailand's foreign ministry, said by telephone today from Bangkok. ``We have to assess their needs, and we hope to do that tomorrow,'' Tharit said.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused Myanmar's military regime yesterday of creating a ``man-made catastrophe'' with the refusal to accept international help. There was a risk of ``a true crime against humanity,'' according to Jean-Maurice Ripert, France's envoy to the United Nations,
`Acute Malnourishment'
``Many children in the affected areas are now suffering from severe, acute malnourishment, the most serious level of hunger,'' Save the Children's Whitbread said. ``When people reach this stage they can die in a matter of days.''
The cyclone is the worst natural disaster to hit Southeast Asia since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than 220,000 people. The death toll from the storm has reached almost 78,000, the Associated Press cited Myanmar state television as saying. An additional 56,000 people are missing.
``The scale of this is just extraordinary and two weeks on, we're only still coming to grips with its power,'' Tim Costello, chief executive officer of World Vision Australia, told Sky News Australia today. ``We are talking about a major food scarcity, a rice crisis, in the future.''
Rice Imports
The Irrawaddy delta, Myanmar's main rice-growing area, was the hardest hit by the cyclone and the country may have to rely on imports until 2009, Save the Children UK said. The charity will send seeds to farmers whose lands are no longer flooded, it said.
Asean, formed in 1967, groups Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia as well as Myanmar, which was admitted in 1997. Myanmar, which used to be known as Burma, has a population of about 48 million.
The grouping should ``insist that the Myanmar authorities allow unrestricted access'' for aid workers, the Asean Inter- Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus President Kraisak Choonhavan said in a statement. ``Asean must show leadership and act responsibly'' to ensure aid reaches survivors.
Still, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said the outcome of tomorrow's meeting was unlikely to be ``dramatic,'' according to a report today in the Sunday Times, citing Yeo. There must be respect for ``the autonomy of countries,'' Yeo was cited as saying after he met with China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.
United Nations emergency-relief coordinator John Holmes was scheduled to arrive in Myanmar today to help expedite the delivery of aid, according to a report from the UN News Center. As many as 2.5 million people have been ``severely affected'' by the cyclone and need help, the report said.
``We are getting aid through,'' said Costello, the head of World Vision Australia, which has 600 workers packing and delivering clothes, water and medicine to devastated areas. ``But I would liken it to having a three-inch pipeline of aid trickling when we need a 30-meter pipeline pumping.''
To contact the reporters for this story: Nesa Subrahmaniyan in Singapore at nesas@bloomberg.net; Gavin Evans in Wellington at gavinevans@bloomberg.net

Myanmar children 'could starve within weeks'

BANGKOK (AFP) — A leading aid group warned Sunday that thousands of young children in cyclone-ravaged Myanmar could starve to death within weeks unless emergency food supplies reach them soon.
Save the Children said on its website that the youngsters could succumb to hunger "within two to three weeks".
"We are extremely worried that many children in the affected areas are now suffering from severe acute malnourishment, the most serious level of hunger," said Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children UK.
"When people reach this stage, they can die in a matter of days. Children may already be dying as a result of a lack of food."
Cyclone Nargis tore a path of destruction through southwest Myanmar earlier this month, leaving nearly 134,000 people dead or missing and affecting up to 2.5 million survivors, the United Nations has said.
As many as 40 percent of the needy are believed to be children, and aid workers have become increasingly frustrated by the Myanmar regime's restrictions on the relief operation.
Save the Children said that 30,000 children in the delta region of Myanmar, one of the world's poorest countries, were malnourished before the storm.
The cyclone destroyed food stocks and rice paddies in the key food producing region, raising fears of a famine in the military-ruled nation.
"With hundreds of thousands of people still not receiving aid, many of these children will not survive much longer," the statement said.
Save the Children said they had so far reached 140,000 people -- a small proportion of the roughly 2.5 million people desperately in need of food, shelter, clean water and medical supplies.
While supplies have been arriving in Yangon, relief agencies say the junta's insistence that they can deliver all the aid themselves -- despite a lack of equipment -- has created a bottle-neck in getting food to the most needy.
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{Note: Readers what can you do at this juncture do it listen to your heart}

International outrage mounts against Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Thousands of children who survived Myanmar's cyclone will starve to death in two to three weeks unless food is rushed to them, an aid agency warned Sunday.
The warning case as an increasingly angry international community pleaded for approval to mount an all-out relief effort.
The United Nations said Myanmar's isolationist ruling generals were even forbidding the import of communications equipment, hampering already difficult contact among relief agencies.
A U.N. report said Saturday that emergency relief from the international community had reached an estimated 500,000 people. But the junta insists it will handle distribution to victims of Cyclone Nargis.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was sending U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes to Myanmar this weekend. Myanmar's leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, has refused to take Ban's telephone calls and has not answered two letters. Holmes will be carrying a third, U.N. spokesman Michele Montas said in New York.
Holmes was expected to arrive Sunday evening in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, said Amanda Pitt, a U.N. spokeswoman in Bangkok, the capital of neighboring Thailand.
"He's going at the request of the secretary-general to find out what's really going on the ground, to get a much better picture of how the response is going and ... to see how much we can help them scale up this response," Pitt said. Details of the visit, she said, were still being worked out.
The U.N. report said all communications equipment used by foreign agencies must be purchased through Myanmar's Ministry of Posts and Communications — with a maximum of 10 telephones per agency — for $1,500 each. Importing equipment is not allowed.
State-run radio said the government has so far spent about $2 million for relief work and has received millions of dollars worth of relief supplies from local and international donors. It said the government was distributing assistance promptly and efficiently to the affected areas.
State radio on Sunday also said the government was providing "full health services" to the victims, saying that except for the "usual diseases" there were no epidemic outbreaks.
Aid agencies were not convinced, and international outrage mounted over Myanmar's handling of the crisis. Save the Children, a global aid agency, said Sunday that thousands of young children face starvation without quick food aid.
"We are extremely worried that many children in the affected areas are now suffering from severe acute malnourishment, the most serious level of hunger," said Jasmine Whitbread, who heads the agency's operation in Britain. "When people reach this stage, they can die in a matter of days."
Britain's prime minister accused authorities in the country, also known as Burma, of preventing foreign aid from reaching victims and said the military regime cares more about its own survival than its people's welfare.
"This is inhuman," Gordon Brown told the British Broadcasting Corp.
In one town near Yangon, tired and hungry refugees stood in the baking sun beside flooded rice paddies, demolished monasteries and thatched huts. With the arrival of each vehicle carrying precious food and water, they jumped with excitement and surged ahead to get a share.
At least they were getting something.
"The farther you go, the worse the situation," said an overwhelmed doctor in the town of Twante, just southwest of Yangon, Myanmar's main city.
"Near Yangon, people are getting a lot of help and it's still bad. In the remote delta villages, we don't even want to imagine." The doctor declined to give her name, fearing government reprisal.
The government flew 60 diplomats and U.S. officials in helicopters to three places in the Irrawaddy delta, the hardest-hit area, on Saturday to show them progress in the relief effort.
"It was a show," Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, told The Associated Press by telephone after returning to Yangon. "That's what they wanted us to see."
A French navy ship that arrived Saturday off Myanmar's shores loaded with food, medicines and fresh water — a potentially lifesaving cargo — was given the now-familiar red light. France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Maurice Ripert, called it "nonsense."
"We have small boats, which could allow us to go through the delta to most of the regions where no one has accessed yet," he said. "We have small helicopters to drop food, and we have doctors."
The USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship, and its battle group also have been waiting to join the relief effort. U.S. Marine flights to Yangon from their makeshift headquarters in Utapao, Thailand, continued Saturday — bringing the total to 500,000 pounds (227,000 kilograms) of aid delivered — but negotiations to allow helicopters to fly directly to the disaster zone were stalled.
Myanmar's state-run television, which has repeatedly broadcast footage of generals reassuring refugees calmly sitting in clean tents, announced Friday that the cyclone death toll had nearly doubled to 78,000 with about 56,000 still missing.
Aid groups say even those estimates are low.
The International Red Cross says the death toll alone is probably about 128,000, with many more deaths possible from disease and starvation unless help gets quickly to some 2.5 million survivors.
But seeing that the help gets to the victims does not appear to be a top priority for Myanmar's rulers. The military, which took power in a 1962 coup, has even barred foreigners from traveling outside of Yangon, putting up a security cordon around the city.
Myanmar has been slightly more open to aid from its neighbors, accepting Thai and Indian medical teams, which arrived Saturday. The 32-member Thai team was expected to travel to the delta in the coming days, said Dr. Surachet Satitniramai, director of Thailand's National Medical Emergency Services Institute.
The Indian team consists of 50 doctors and paramedics from the Army Medical Corp., said Indian Air Force spokesman Wing Cmdr. Manish Gandhi. He could not immediately say if they would be allowed to go to the delta.

As Asia Reels From Twin Disasters, World Vision Expands Response

As the Asia region reels from two massive disasters, Christian aid agency World Vision is on the ground, providing emergency aid to survivors of both the Myanmar cyclone and China earthquake. As the death toll from Monday’s 7.9 earthquake continues to rise, World Vision offices close to the epicenter have dispatched a relief and assessment team to provide immediate supplies, such as blankets and tents, to 10,000 people, with more supplies on the way. The agency has appealed for $1 million to support the initial response.
Sichuan province, where the quake centered, is a densely populated region, increasing the chance that the death toll could climb higher.
In Myanmar, World Vision will also be providing aid to nearly half a million cyclone survivors if it can get the additional funds, expertise and supplies to the affected areas. Staff on the ground are already seeing cases of waterborne diseases, and the health status of children is of critical concern.
The international aid agency’s local team has been working around the clock to assist more than 100,000 children and adults with things like water, clothing and temporary shelters.
Steve Goudswaard, World Vision’s cyclone response manager, said, “We are now getting relief supplies into the delta area where there is staggering need. If we can maintain the access to survivors and increase our supplies, we will be able to reach almost half a million people.”
An operation base has been set up in the eastern part of the delta in a town called Pyapon — about a four-hour drive from Yangon — through which aid is beginning to flow. World Vision staff have been trucking emergency kits, assembled by staff in Yangon, down to the base. Pyapon is close to three of the worst affected townships in the delta region.
The aid deliveries began to move after the government permitted access to those in need. World Vision has complete control of the supply and distribution of its aid.
Although relief goods are being bought in-country at this point, World Vision hopes to bring in aid flights from one of its global warehouses in Dubai in the next few days — as soon as it receives clearance from the government of Myanmar.
The current short-term emergency response phase will be followed by a two- to three-year rehabilitation and reconstruction phase. World Vision plans to increase the number of its staff from the current 580 and provide specialized training to ensure an effective response.
The public can donate to one or both of these disaster responses by visiting www.worldvision.org or calling 1.888.56.CHILD.
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. Visit www.worldvision.org/press.
Source: World Vision