Church in the World

Agencies fear Burma Government delays will cost thousands of lives

As the death toll from the cyclone that laid waste the Irrawaddy delta region of Burma last Saturday mounted inexorably, it became clear over the course of this week that delays to the international aid effort - caused by the Burmese Government - could have cost many thousands of lives.

"This is a major humanitarian disaster," Patrick Nicholson, head of communications at Caritas Internationalis, told The Tablet on Tuesday. "We have seen nothing on this scale since Orissa [eastern India] in 1999. That cyclone claimed 10,000 lives, and we have already seen figures of 22,000 dead, with many places not yet reached."

Yet this figure seemed certain to rise, as the damage to power and communications, along with the obsessively secretive and cautious nature of the Burmese military regime, made the assessments on the ground essential for any disaster relief operation exceedingly difficult to mount. "There is an urgent need for access to aid workers to the affected areas so that we can assess the damage, start to provide food, shelter, clean water and medical assistance," said Dolores Halpin-Bachmann, the Emergency Response Team Leader of Caritas Internationalis. But she went on: "Caritas knows from experience that the first few days are crucial to saving lives. Following the Asia tsunami in 2004, hundreds of thousands of lives were saved because of the rapid and effective response of the humanitarian community in the early phase of the emergency. The Government must do all it can to help aid workers respond."

As the immense scale of the disaster became more apparent, so the fears grew that the restrictions imposed by the regime in Burma would compound the catastrophe many times over. The brief press release issued by the Catholic aid agency Cafod on Tuesday spoke volumes. The 133-word statement made a general comment about the need for food, shelter, water and sanitation systems in the aftermath of a severe cyclone, and ended:  "The limited access in Burma makes it very difficult for aid agencies and civil society groups to operate. Cafod hopes that the political environment will not hinder much-needed relief supplies reaching those people most affected by the cyclone."

The small number of agencies with a presence in the country include the Christian charity World Vision, and Save the Children. Andrea Russell, Regional Communications Manager for World Vision, said the charity employed 600 staff in the field and, while many had been affected by the cyclone, it was still possible to begin an assessment of the damage. Two million people - 4 per cent of the population - were affected, she said, with shelter and water being the most urgent needs. However, so many roads were blocked by trees, and so many bridges destroyed, that gaining access to those in need would be extremely difficult. She said her charity had begun to supply clothing, tarpaulins, rice and water to households in Rangoon, and the Government had invited World Vision to provide zinc sheets, tents, tarpaulins and medicine.

One indication of the immense scale of last Saturday's disaster was the hesitant acceptance on the part of the regime that some kind of international assistance would be necessary. Yet this assistance must overcome bureaucratic obstacles greater than the tens of thousands of trees that are blocking the roads. Aid personnel require visas, which normally take a month to process. Agencies know from experience that it is unwise to make more than a handful of applications at a time. A World Vision representative said the Government had agreed "that on a case-by-case basis they will try to get us visas in two to three days".

 Save the Children's Burma country director, Andrew Kirkwood, said there were signs of flexibility on this issue. "It is unclear to us the extent to which normal operating protocols will have to be followed," he said. Other agencies were more pessimistic. "We really need to know from the Government whether we'll be able to operate there," said one senior charity figure, who spoke for many.