Burma 'must allow aid workers in'

Section 1. For the purpose of this Statute, "crime against humanity" means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: (b) Extermination. "Extermination" includes the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population link

Reuters reported that the state-run Myanmar television said the death toll from the May 3 cyclone had risen to 28,458, with 33,416 people still missing.

The United Nations World Food Program said that only one visa had been approved out of 16 it had requested and the aid group World Vision said it had requested 20 visas but received two.

In the port at Yangon, shipments of rice were being loaded onto two freighters bound for Malaysia and Singapore, apparently as part of a pre-existing contract. Nearby, another ship was being loaded with rice bound for the Irrawaddy Delta, which bore the brunt of the storm.

The World Food Program said that the authorities had released 38 tons of high-energy biscuits it had confiscated on Friday and that 4.4 tons of biscuits had been delivered Sunday.

In one case, a group of people on their way to distribute small personal donations on the outskirts of Yangon was stopped by district security forces, the resident said. They were told they could only distribute aid through the security forces. In another case, the resident said, security forces confiscated the car of a woman who was on her way to deliver sacks of rice to victims outside the city.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed his "immense frustration" at Burma's slow response to the cyclone that hit the country nine days ago.

Mr Ban said aid had been able to reach less than a third of all those at risk.

He said he had still not been able to speak to the leader of Burma's military government, General Than Shwe.

The official toll for the cyclone has risen to almost 32,000, although foreign aid workers say the real number of dead may be much higher.

A BBC reporter in Burma says that while major cities are being cleaned up, many areas along Burma's coast are still untouched by the rescue effort.

Unless those people get help soon, they will die, and many could be dead already, our reporter says.

In the Irrawaddy delta, the area worst affected by the cyclone, people have been left without shelter, crops, and stored rice.

With little access to food or clean drinking water, they face cholera, fever and other illnesses.

One aid worker for Operation Blessing told the BBC that the handful of aid organisations already on the ground had been able to distribute aid normally.

But he described the aid that was reaching people as only a tiny part of what was needed.

Aid agencies have warned of serious logistical hurdles in getting supplies to affected areas.

Roads and bridges have been washed away, and heavy rain that fell on Monday is expected to further complicating relief efforts.

Mr Ban said the UN had been able to reach some 270,000 people, providing only "the most rudimentary assistance".

When one of Myanmar's best-known movie stars, Kyaw Dhyu, traveled through the Irrawaddy Delta in recent days to deliver aid to the victims of the May 3 cyclone, a military patrol stopped him as he was handing out bags of rice.

"The officer told him, 'You cannot give directly to the people," said Tin Win, the village headman of the stricken city of Dedaye, who had been counting on the rice to feed 260 refugees who sleep in a large Buddhist prayer hall.

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Even Myanmar citizens who want to donate rice or other items have in several cases been told that all assistance must be channeled through the military. That restriction has angered local government officials like Tin Win who are trying to help rebuild the lives of villagers. He twitched with rage as he described the rice the military gave him.

"They gave us four bags," he said. "The rice is rotten - even the pigs and dogs wouldn't eat it."

He said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had delivered good rice to the local military leaders last week but they kept it for themselves and distributed the waterlogged, musty rice. "I'm very angry," he said, adding an expletive to describe the military.

Normally, at this time of year, Burmese farmers in the southern delta of Myanmar would be draining their rice paddies, plowing their fields with their water buffaloes and preparing to plant new seeds for an autumn harvest.

But two weeks ago, Cyclone Nargis did away with all that. The storm's timing could not have been worse. Tens of thousands of farm families lost their draft animals, their rice stocks and their planting seeds. Now the harvest is in doubt as well.

Delta farmers lost 149,000 water buffaloes, said Brian Agland, the country director for CARE, and it will be impossible to replace them in time for the plowing season. Instead, CARE and other aid groups will most likely be buying what the locals call "iron buffaloes" - small red tractors made in China that go for about $1,000 apiece.

Huge deliveries of new rice seeds are needed, too. Thailand is the likely source for the seeds, Mr. Tongul said. Traditionally, delta farmers have used seeds from rice grown the year before.

New livestock - pigs, ducks, chickens and fish fingerlings in addition to buffaloes - and seeds are among the priority items for aid groups working in rural development in the delta. "The agricultural cycle is so critical," Mr. Agland said Thursday. "We've got to avoid a hunger gap, and we've got very little time."NYT

The military junta still insists that it can handle relief operations on its own, and is rebuffing any offers to transport aid directly to the affected areas. The United States and its close European allies had considered requesting United Nations authorization for a relief mission even without approval of the military authorities in Myanmar. But they dropped the plan after it became clear that China would veto any Security Council resolution calling for "humanitarian intervention" in Myanmar. (source)