2008-05-12

The Burmese military Government has been accused of unleashing “crimes against humanity” on its people by keeping is borders closed to foreign disaster relief experts.

The enraged outburst by Pierre Fouillant, of the French aid group Comité de Secours Internationaux, came as aid workers on the ground in Burma described a refugee crisis now threatening to descend into a nightmare of disease, starvation and looting.

“They say they will call, but it's always wait, wait, wait,” said Mr Fouillant, a veteran of humanitarian crises across the globe, “It's a crime against humanity. It should be against the law. It's like they are taking a gun and shooting their own people.”

Burma’s state television channel increased the death toll to 31,938 today, although the United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 people are likely to have been killed.

Mr Fouillant was among hundreds of foreign aid workers who spent an eighth day of mounting disappointment and fury waiting in vain for entry visas outside the gates of the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok.

“The Burmese Government has to understand that this crisis is too big for it to handle alone,” said Chris Webster, of the aid organisation WorldVision, after another day in which his visa application was ignored. “No government on earth can single-handedly deal with a crisis on this scale.”

The attack came as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown increased diplomatic pressure on Burma’s junta demanding aid agencies be given full access.

Mr Brown said the authorities’ failure to co-operate with an international relief effort was “completely unacceptable” and pledged that Britain would use its chairmanship of the UN Security Council to press for action within the next 24 hours.

“We now estimate that two million people face famine or disease as a result of the lack of co-operation of the Burmese authorities," he said.Mr Brown said that the Royal Navy ship HMS Westminster was heading for Burma to help humanitarian operations in region.

A first British aid flight was also given the green light to leave for Burma tonight, with four further planes on stand-by.

The aircraft, heading to Burma’s largest city Rangoon, was carrying plastic sheets to provide shelter for the thousands of families left homeless by the cyclone.

Mr Ban, head of the UN, said it was “critical” for Burma to accelerate the process for receiving and distributing aid for those affected by last week’s cyclone.

“Unless more aid gets into the country very quickly, we face an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dwarf today’s current crisis,” he said.

WorldVision is eager to set up “child protection spaces” in Burma offering a secure environment for children who have suffered the trauma of the cyclone or the loss of parents. If such places were made available in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, said Mr Webster, child victims might make a full psychological recovery.

Several non-governmental organisations and aid groups said that faced with the unprecedented blockade on their assistance they were now “dramatically” reviewing their traditional approach to disasters: some are exploring schemes to fly Burmese nationals out of their country, give them crash-course emergency training in Thailand and send them back to administer whatever supplies are airlifted in.

Although they would not have time to be trained in logistics or as food and sanitation experts, a 24-hour training course would give them enough skill to at least administer the successful arrival and dispatch of an airlift.

A tiny few foreign aid workers have been granted the right to use their expertise in the appalling aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, but everyone else has been thwarted by the stonewall tactics of the Burmese junta.

Aid group members marshalled in Thailand and yearning to be allowed into Burma to help the 1.5 million people affected by the storm, said that they were now working “in the hope of a green light, but on the assumption it stays red”.

The Thai Foreign Minister, Noppadon Pattama, said that his country would offer to act as a mediator between Burma and the international aid community, adding that as a major food producer and neighbour Thailand had “the burden of proximity but not the luxury of distance”.

Mr Noppadon is planning to fly to Burma himself tomorrow, but he too has not yet been issued with an entry visa.

The worst aspect of what the Burmese regime is doing, aid groups told The Times, is that the blockade is effectively one on knowledge and training, rather than the desperately needed relief supplies themselves.

Although the flow of aid has been an entirely inadequate fraction of what the United Nations says is necessary, there is a small glimmer of hope that the regime may be softening its stance. A Thai government spokesman said that Burma had now opened the Thilawa Port in Rangoon so that international vessels could unload construction equipment and materials.

The first airlift of aid by the United States military has also now departed from Thailand, and is expected to be followed by two more in the course of tomorrow. The planes contained shipments of blankets, water and mosquito nets. US and UK-based aid agencies said that a small convoy of trucks had also left Rangoon this afternoon carrying clothes, water and food supplies.

Washington condemned Burma as an “outpost of tyranny”, with Henrietta Fore, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development adding: “This is Burma's hour of need and the need is urgent.”

Waiting to help

On Thursday four UN planes carried 40 tonnes of high-energy biscuits, and a Red Cross plane ferried six tonnes of shelter materials. On Saturday the UN delivered another 22 tonnes of emergency supplies

By Friday the US had four planes and 23 helicopters ready in Thailand. One was allowed to drop aid yesterday and two were planned for today

The US Navy plans to have three ships in international waters off the Burmese coast today. It has 4,000 Marines on standby in Thailand

Two Indian Navy vessels docked in Rangoon last week

Despite a meeting in Burma, none of the UN's “critical” relief staff waiting in Bangkok had received visas yesterday

France is sending a warship with 1,500 tonnes of rice. It is expected to reach Burma this week

Gordon Brown announced yesterday that a Navy ship would be sent to the region

An airlift by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees of 100 tonnes of shelter supplies is due to arrive in the next few days

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