U.S. Navy Ends Bid to Ferry Storm Relief Into Burma

[Woodmonkey]

U.S. Navy Ends Bid to Ferry Storm Relief Into Burma

BANGKOK, June 4 -- The U.S. Navy on Wednesday aborted its three-week effort to use helicopters aboard a warship off Burma to deliver much-needed aid directly to cyclone survivors, after the country's ruling military junta ignored repeated offers to assist.

The USS Essex, an amphibious assault ship, and three accompanying vessels were to leave the Burmese coast Thursday, after 15 attempts to persuade the junta to allow use of U.S. military helicopters and landing craft, said Adm. Timothy J. Keating, head of U.S. Pacific Command.

The decision came as the United Nations predicted that Burma will need food aid for a year, and civilian aid agencies continue to struggle to increase their food delivery capacity in the devastated Irrawaddy Delta.

Doctors Without Borders, the international aid agency, said the flow of supplies into the region is still inadequate, and survivors in many remote villages have yet to receive outside assistance.

The Burmese government has permitted U.S. military planes to fly supplies into Rangoon, the country's largest city, for forwarding to the zone the cyclone struck May 2-3. The U.S. Agency for International Development and the Pentagon have conducted 106 airlifts into the country, Pacific Command said.

But the junta has refused to permit foreign military helicopters to carry supplies into the remote areas. The junta contends that it has adequate resources for the job; outside analysts suggest that it mistrusts foreign intentions and is unwilling to demonstrate to its people that it needs foreign help.

"I am both saddened and frustrated to know that we have been in a position to help ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people . . . but have been unable to do so because of the unrelenting positions of the Burma military junta," Keating said in a statement issued by his headquarters. He said that should Burmese officials change their minds, the U.S. military remains willing to help.

Keating flew into Rangoon on May 12 to press the case. He said in the statement Wednesday that he proposed that Burmese officials visit his ships in international waters and fly along on military aid missions to ease any concerns they might have.

Paul Risley, a spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program, lamented the government's rejection of military aid, telling journalists in Bangkok that "these helicopters represented immediate heavy-lift capacity in the delta." The World Food Program is trying to get 10 civilian helicopters operating in Burma.

Risley said Burma would probably have to import rice for a year, because of widespread harm done to fertile farmland just weeks before the planting period for the monsoon crop.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said about 495,000 acres of the delta's 2.5 million acres of rice land was seriously damaged and will not be available for planting this season, because of contamination by seawater or because the land remains under too much water.

"This year's crop will not meet requirements," Risley said. "The losses to the production of rice are very deep. It would be typical for the WFP to provide food rations through the next harvest, which could be a year away."

Burmese authorities and aid agencies are trying to help some survivors plant rice in the next few weeks, by securing and distributing seeds, fertilizer and power tillers, said Hiroyuki Konuma, the FAO's deputy regional representative.

Otherwise, he said, "poor farmers, who have already lost their assets, will suffer from hunger and poverty for a long time, while national food security will be seriously jeopardized."

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