BURMA:CYCLONE NARGIS has left a humanitarian disaster in its wake that could prove even harder to cope with than the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004, aid workers said yesterday.
Although the tsunami hit a wider area, aid workers in Burma face problems on two fronts: the victims are concentrated in a region that is difficult to reach and impossible to navigate without boats or helicopters, both of which are in short supply; and the country is ruled by a military regime which has a confrontational relationship with the West.
After the 2004 tsunami, the US navy moved in to the affected area with a relief force that included an aircraft carrier and more than 40 helicopters.
The navy proved crucial in distributing aid quickly, but any such intervention is almost unthinkable in Burma.
The Burmese regime has a handful of helicopters that could be used for airlifting, but they have yet to be deployed. The government is also suspicious of foreign aid organisations and anxious to exercise maximum control over emergency supplies.
It has said it is open to foreign aid, but the details of what that will mean remained far from clear last night.
"We're not sure at the moment if the supplies delivered would have to be given to the government," said Amanda Weisbaum, the head of emergency response for Save the Children.
"There's also the issue of [import] duty rates which we have always paid. The government has levied duty rates in the past, and we are lobbying the government to try to see if those duties can be lifted."
There are also geographical limits on where aid agencies can operate, which leave much of the affected areas currently out of reach.
"This is a very sensitive area," Ms Weisbaum said. "We don't want to push them too hard, but we are going to push them on the areas we are allowed to operate, and push south in the hope that the local authorities will let us through."
She also said aid agencies were hoping to bring aid over the land border with Thailand with the aim of getting to cyclone victims quickly with minimum red tape.
"The government has three options. To close the doors completely, carry on with business as usual, or open the floodgates. And it hasn't decided," she said. "The devil is in the details, and we have to be very careful on how we play this."
Roger Yates, the head of emergencies for the relief organisation ActionAid, said that in the absence of helicopters the only way to reach the victims would be by water.
"Boats are really important at this stage. The bridges are gone," Mr Yates added.
As the arrival of the US navy was not an option, he said that aid agencies would have to look closer to the epicentre of the disaster, offering ready cash for vessels.
"The first call is as local as possible. We may be able to get some from elsewhere in the country, and we could get quite a lot up from Thailand," Mr Yates said.
He said that an important lesson from the tsunami which he hoped had been learned was to involve local people in co-ordinating emergency relief.
- (Guardian service)