Junta claims aid is a ‘direct gift’ from Gen Than Shwe

Heavy rain added to the misery of hundreds of thousands of cyclone survivors in Burma's Irrawaddy delta as a storm front swept in from the Bay of Bengal today and drenched the devastated region, writes Edward Loxton for The First Post. Starving families sought shelter where they could find it, cowering in makeshift huts built of bits of salvaged timber, shreds of fabric, bamboo and banana leaves.

Meanwhile, in a callous propaganda exercise, the military regime was trying to hoodwink the Burmese into believing that food, water, medicines and other emergency supplies, sent by the outside world, was being donated by the junta leader. Aid supplies impounded at Rangoon airport were finally being sent on their way - but bearing stickers suggesting they are a direct gift from General Than Shwe, who has yet to offer any condolences to the cyclone victims.

A correspondent of the French news agency AFP said he drove through roadside crowds of survivors pleading for food and water. UN aid agencies and relief organisations say the death toll, already over 100,000, could top 1.5m as cholera, typhoid, malaria and dysentery spread through the stricken region. "This is a ticking time bomb," said Oxfam director Adrian Lovett. "It's a very, very dangerous situation." Oxfam's East Asia director Sarah Ireland, who gave the 1.5m estimate, described the situation as a "perfect storm of factors."

The regime’s official death toll was raised to 28,458 at the weekend. "It's clear they're just grabbing numbers out of the air," said a UN official in Bangkok. "They have no idea of the true scale of the disaster. They're in a paranoid state of denial."

One US transport plane was given clearance by the regime today to fly to Rangoon with a full load of supplies. American officials were also on board and said they hoped to meet representatives of the regime and persuade them to let relief workers in. A Thai delegation, headed by the country's foreign minister, was also expected in Rangoon today on a similar mission.
The military regime is being accused of using the relief effort as a public relations campaign to turn the tide of anger and bitterness building up throughout the country. Frustrated relief agency experts in neighbouring Thailand suspect that the regime refuses to allow foreign aid workers into Burma because it wants to be seen handing out the aid itself.

Gen Than Shwe's only public appearance during the entire crisis has been a photo call at a polling station, casting his vote in Saturday's sham referendum on the new constitution which is intended to perpetuate the grip he and his junta partners hold over the cowed nation. Other regime leaders appear in state-controlled TV broadcasts, handing out token boxes of supplies to Burmese relief workers, smiling into the camera for maximum effect.

Suspicions that the regime might make money out of the donated supplies hardened when truck drivers ferrying aid into Burma from Thailand at the Karen State crossing reported that customs authorities were demanding the equivalent of nearly £700 in "transport fees".

FIRST POSTED MAY 12, 2008