Myanmar accepts U.S. relief flights

YANGON, Myanmar — A U.S. plane ferried relief to Myanmar for the first time Monday to help nearly 2 million cyclone victims facing disease and starvation, but the U.N. chief criticized the military junta for its "unacceptably slow response."

Even as the death toll climbed to nearly 32,000, Myanmar's authoritarian regime continued to bar most foreigners experienced in managing humanitarian crises from reaching survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

With hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed in the disaster zone, refugees packed into Buddhist monasteries or camped in the open, drinking dirty water contaminated by dead bodies and animal carcasses.

Medicine and food were sorely lacking, even as supplies bottled up at the main international airport.

Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, was pounded by heavy rain and more downpours were expected throughout the week, further hindering aid deliveries. For many, the rainwater was the only source of clean drinking water.

Tough talk

In unusually blunt language, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "This is not about politics; it is about saving people's lives. There is absolutely no more time to lose."The sharp comments came on a day when the authorities in Myanmar allowed a U.S. military aircraft to land with relief supplies Monday, crossing one barrier that has hindered the delivery of large-scale aid to more than a million victims of the May 3 cyclone.

The U.S. military C-130 cargo plane filled with 14 tons of water, mosquito nets and blankets was unloaded in Yangon. It was immediately transferred to Myanmar army trucks to be ferried by air-force helicopters to the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta, government spokesman Ye Htut said.

U.S. officials said they hoped it would be the start of a steady flow of aid, with two more flights today.

The U.N. World Food Program, while reporting better cooperation with the government, said it needed to move 375 tons of food a day to keep up with the urgent needs but was shipping less than 20 percent of that — and was close to running out of rice.

The official death toll from the cyclone rose by nearly 3,500 Monday to 31,938, with 30,000 more missing; the United Nations and others have said the death toll could reach 100,000 or higher.

The first British aid flight packed with plastic sheets to provide shelter to more than 9,000 families was also on its way.

"The lives of thousands of cyclone survivors are at extreme risk," the Federal Way-based World Vision aid group said. "Displaced people are living in appalling conditions in makeshift shelters and camps, where overcrowding and unsanitary conditions are prevalent."

Children fall ill

Children — many of them orphans — are suffering from fever, diarrhea and respiratory infections, World Vision said. Many survivors complained of getting rotting rice while soldiers kept the best food for themselves.

Two planes carrying 56 tons of medical and other aid from Europe-based humanitarian groups also arrived Monday. Three more planes were en route, said Medecins Sans Frontieres, decrying the "growing restrictions" by the military on the movement of aid within the country.

Myanmar's government has less than 40 helicopters, most old and in disrepair, and some 15 transport planes, primarily small jets unable to carry hundreds of tons of supplies.

"The authorities of the country need to open up to an international relief effort," said Richard Horsey, a spokesman for U.N. humanitarian operations, in Bangkok, Thailand.

"There aren't enough boats, trucks, helicopters in the country to run the relief effort of the scale we need. It's urgent that the authorities open themselves up."

The U.S. has offered to deploy as many as 4,000 Marines, six C-130 cargo planes and a large number of heavy-lift helicopters in what would be its largest disaster-relief effort since the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

It will also have three naval ships, with helicopters on board, off Myanmar's southwest coast within 48 hours.

Information from The New York Times is included in this report.