Myanmar accepts U.S. airlift

YANGON, Myanmar -- The United States launched its first relief airlift to Myanmar today after prolonged negotiations with the isolated country's military rulers, who have been accused of restricting international efforts to help cyclone survivors at risk of disease and starvation.

The flight took off from a base in Thailand a day after the monumental task of feeding and sheltering the survivors suffered yet another blow when a boat laden with relief supplies -- one of the first international shipments -- sank on its way to the disaster zone.

An estimated 1.5 million people are on the brink of a "massive public-health catastrophe," the British charity Oxfam warned Sunday, as desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis poured out of Myanmar's devastated Irrawaddy Delta into towns in the region, searching for water, food and other help.

Myanmar is facing a "perfect storm" of conditions that could lead to an outbreak of waterborne disease, said Sarah Ireland, Oxfam's regional director.

"The ponds are full of dead bodies, the wells have saline water and even things like a bucket are in scarce supply," Ireland said.

She appealed for Myanmar authorities, who have restricted access to the country, to allow humanitarian agencies to send in technical and health experts to help prevent disease outbreaks.

In what was seen as a huge concession by the junta, it gave the U.S., which it views as its enemy, the go-ahead to send a C-130 cargo plane packed with supplies to Yangon today. Two more air shipments were scheduled to land Tuesday.

The C-130, loaded with 28,000 pounds of supplies, including mosquito nets, blankets and water, took off from the Thai air force base in Utapao. Lt. Col. Douglas Powell, U.S. Marines spokesman for the operation, said the plane was carrying U.S. government, not military, supplies and was unarmed.

Early Sunday, relief efforts suffered a setback when a boat ferrying rice, drinking water, clothing and other aid supplies sank near hard-hit Bogalay town, apparently after hitting a submerged tree, the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies said.

Some supplies recovered

Local residents salvaged some of the supplies, meant for more than 1,000 survivors, but river water probably contaminated the food, the organization said.

All of those aboard made it safely to land. The boat was carrying one of the first international-aid shipments.

"Apart from the delay in getting aid to people, we may now have to re-evaluate how we transport that aid," said Michael Annear, the IFRC's disaster manager in Yangon, who described the sinking as "a big blow."

Other aid was increasingly getting through, the group said, but on "nowhere near the scale required."

"A natural disaster is turning into a humanitarian catastrophe of genuinely epic proportions, in significant part because of the malign neglect of the regime," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

"I would be amazed if there hadn't been about 100,000 who had died already. ... What's more, hundreds of thousands more are at risk," he told British Broadcasting Corp. television.

The cyclone and powerful tidal sea surge ripped across the low-lying delta a week ago, with winds topping 120 mph.

The country's ruling junta Sunday raised its official tally of the dead to more than 28,000, though humanitarian experts say the toll could run much higher. Thousands remain missing.

The country's main airport in Yangon cannot handle more than five aid flights a day, when it should be taking in at least one every hour, said PLAN, a London-based children's aid group.

"Logistically, the situation looks bleak," it said in a statement. "In short, they have one congested airport, ill equipped to deal with the influx of cargo, no port, restricted fuel and no trucks."

Visa troubles

The U.N. World Food Program said Sunday that only one visa had been approved out of 16 requested. The Federal Way-based aid group World Vision said it had requested 20 visas but received two. Medecins Sans Frontieres, the French medical aid group, said it was still awaiting approval of dozens of visa applications for technical-support-staff aid coordinators.

Paul Risley, a spokesman for the World Food Program (WFP), said the volume of aid allowed by the Myanmar junta into the country amounted to one-tenth of what was needed.

Heavy showers were forecast for the coming week, further complicating delivery of aid that is still scarcely reaching victims in the Irrawaddy delta.

With conditions in the delta increasingly desperate, many survivors began besieging small towns, searching for help. In the town of Laputta, which lost 85 percent of its buildings, about 28 makeshift camps have sprung up.

Hundreds of survivors crowded the floor of a monastery's open-air hall, the sound of hungry children wailing. Supplies are limited, and many people tried to sleep sitting up because of lack of space.

Pain Na Kon, a tiny nearby village of just 300, was completely obliterated. The only 12 known survivors huddled together in a tent set up in a rice field, sharing a small portion of biscuits and watery soup handed out at a monastery.

"Time is really of the essence. Already we have seen a diarrhea outbreak in the very urban areas of [Rangoon], and with cyclones you'd usually see pneumonia soon as well, and also malaria because of the standing water," said Naida Pasion, the Myanmar program director for Save the Children, which maintains a staff of 500 in the country.

The WFP, which Friday accused authorities of impounding planeloads of emergency food, said cargo and materials sent since then had been released and sent to the disaster zones. The Red Cross also sent a planeload of relief supplies Sunday, including body bags.

Yet a week on, most survivors have not yet received any help because of the lack of supplies and logistical difficulties.

"Beyond the main arterial roads, it's a massive challenge, not only because the floodwaters are still there, but also because even when they are not, it's an extremely difficult to navigate," said Marcus Prior, a WFP spokesman.

The Myanmar army insists that it can manage the massive relief operation and has rebuffed offers of assistance from the U.S. and countries in the region.

Military analysts warn that Myanmar's army has neither adequate equipment nor training to cope with the crisis, and its insistence on going it alone could cost many lives.

Information from The Washington Post, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times is included

in this report.