Articles | Burma 'not ready for foreigners'

Cash appeal for cyclone victims

Published: Friday, 9 May 2008, 7:40AM

The United Nations has appealed for £95 million in aid to help the 1.5 million Burmese cyclone victims.

The UN also said it would resume relief flights despite the military government seizing food supplies on Friday, sparking outrage from aid agencies.

The junta has said it will accept "relief in cash and kind" but not foreign aid workers, many of whom are waiting for visas in neighbouring Thailand as fears of a health crisis in the country grow.

Burmese generals have only approved one US aid flight, due to arrive on Monday, nine days after driving winds and a wall of water swept across the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta.

Burma has not updated the official toll since Tuesday, when it said nearly 23,000 were dead and 42,000 missing.

But US charge d'affaires Shari Villarosa said the death toll could reach 100,000.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged the junta to accept aid and humanitarian workers "without hindrance," saying the survival of Burma's people was at stake.

The World Food Programme said it had decided to send in two relief flights as planned on Saturday "while discussions continue" with the Burmese government.

The shipments seized by the regime contained 38 tonnes of high-energy biscuits, enough to feed 95,000 people.

Survivors have been mostly fending for themselves after winds of up to 190 kph (120 mph) whipped up a massive wall of seawater, inundating the delta.

Cyclone Nargis is the worst to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people were killed in Bangladesh.