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First US relief aid arrives in Myanmar
LAST UPDATE: Tuesday, 13 May 2008 - 12:15:53 AM
YANGON: The first US relief airlift has arrived in Myanmar carrying emergency supplies for last week's cyclone victims.
A military C-130 cargo plane left a Thai air force base on Monday and landed in Myanmar's biggest city Yangon. Two more air shipments scheduled to land on Tuesday.
After the plane's arrival, the supplies were transferred to Myanmar army trucks.
Allowing the US flight is a huge concession by Myanmar's military government, which sees Washington as its enemy. The junta has also generally refused to allow international relief experts and slowed down UN aid delivery.
Operation spokesman Lt Col Douglas Powell says the plane is unarmed. He said it was carrying US government, not military, aid supplies including mosquito nets, blankets and water.
In the hardest hit Irrawaddy delta, people were surviving in miserable conditions - hundreds crowded into monasteries, where they slept on the floor. Others camped outside, drinking water contaminated by human feces, dead bodies and animal carcasses.
Heavy rains were forecast this week, which would further hinder aid delivery.
The junta has been sharply criticised for it's handling of the disaster, from failing to provide adequate warnings about the pending storm to responding slowly to offers of help.
Though international assistance has started trickling in, the few foreign relief workers who have been allowed entry have been restricted to Yangon. Only a handful have succeeded in getting past checkpoints into the worst-affected areas.
The government is also insisting on handling the aid distribution through its feared military, which has ruled this isolated country since 1962.
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