Outcry over claims of cyclone aid misuse in Burma

Published on Tuesday 13 May 2008 15:15

BURMA'S military regime was today accused of siphoning off high-quality aid for cyclone victims and replacing it with rotten food.

The switch was exposed as the UN revealed that only a tiny fraction of the international aid pouring into the country is reaching those in need.

Late today Burma state television said the death toll from the cyclone has risen to 34,273. It said that the number of missing now stands at 27,838.

A veteran foreign resident in Burma's biggest city Rangoon told the Associated Press news agency that angry government officials have complained to him about the military stealing aid. The man, who asked not to be identified, said the officials told him that quantities of the high-energy biscuits rushed into Burma on the World Food Programme's first flights were sent to a military warehouse.

They were exchanged by what the officials said were "tasteless and low-quality" biscuits produced by the Industry Ministry to be handed out to cyclone victims, the foreign resident said. He said it was not known what has been happening to the high-quality food – whether it is being sold on the black market or consumed by the military.

Emergency EU talks were under way in Brussels this afternoon. The meeting is expected to result in a strongly worded statement issued to the Burmese ruling junta.

In London, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the regime in Burma is treating its people with a "callous disregard". He told MPs the UK was ready to support "any and all" UN action to help the people.

Aid is still trickling into the country at a painfully slow rate. The British Red Cross is managing to get limited relief flights into the country, according to the Disasters Emergency Committee. But charities continue to complain that trained international aid workers are being denied visas.

In an attempt to press the Burmese government into opening up, the EU's Development Commissioner Louis Michel is to fly to the region this evening despite having no visa and no assurance that he will be let into the country.

It was on 3 May that Cyclone Nargis came ashore in the southern state's Irrawaddy delta. While the the number of dead and missing exceed 60,000, the UN has suggested the death toll will eventually rise to more than 100,000.

With their homes washed away and large tracts of land under water, some two million survivors, mostly poor rice farmers, are living in abject misery, facing disease and starvation.

The UN said the World Food Programme is getting in 20 per cent of the food needed because of bottlenecks, logistics problems and government-imposed restrictions.