Western navies wait off Burma

Britain dispatched a Royal Navy frigate to join American warships and a French landing craft in international waters off Burma today, as the three Western powers prepared to push the UN Security Council into approving direct humanitarian intervention in the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said his government would use its position as current chairman of the Security Council to get the council - and the Burmese regime - to recognise that "unfettered access should be made available immediately".

The 4,900-ton frigate HMS Westminster, described by the Royal Navy as a "powerful and versatile multipurpose vessel", will join three warships of the US Seventh Fleet and a 22,000-ton French amphibious craft off the Burmese coast, south of the Irrawaddy delta.

The American ships, headed by the USS Essex (above), had been participating in a Gulf of Thailand exercise involving crisis response. They carry more than 20 helicopters, landing craft and 11,000 troops.

The American and French governments have said they will only join in relief efforts if invited by the Burmese regime, although diplomatic and political pressure is growing for direct intervention in defiance of Burma’s territorial integrity.

The UN is authorised to intervene in a crisis zone if a country’s population is threatened by its own government, but there are disagreements over the application of the provision in Burma's case.

Apparently concerned about the possibility of direct humanitarian intervention by Western powers, the Burmese regime relaxed its ban on relief from the United States and allowed two US flights to land at Rangoon airport today. But American officials and relief workers were not allowed to leave the confines of the airport.

The regime continues to insist it can distribute relief alone, but reports came from many villages in the Irrawaddy delta today that the little aid reaching the area is being withheld by the authorities. Families of local government officials were invited to take their pick of the relief supplies before villagers were lined up to receive a can or two of rice and plastic bottles of water.

Reports also hardened that local government officials were selling relief supplies, particularly building materials, blankets and plastic sheeting.

Aid workers traveling with supplies to the region reported that they were stopped at road blocks and forced to hand the goods over to soldiers.

The death toll - already more than 100,000, according to independent estimates - continued to raise sharply as exhausted medical staffs working in the ruins of the delta's shattered towns reported they were fighting a losing battle to control outbreaks of cholera and dysentery. Snake bites were also taking their toll as the flood waters sent cobras and other deadly species into ruined homes on higher ground.

Neighbouring Thailand announced that it was stepping up its health precautions on its borders with Burma to prevent the spread of infectious diseases from the cyclone-hit areas.

FIRST POSTED MAY 13, 2008