Thais, U.N. Seek Ways
To Get Aid Into Myanmar

Officials Aim to Use
Border Town to Open
Route for Relief

By JAMES HOOKWAY in Mae Sot, Thailand, and PATRICK BARTA in Bangkok
May 14, 2008; Page A12

With aid deliveries to cyclone-stricken Myanmar still inadequate, Thailand's military and United Nations agencies are trying to open a land route to the disaster area from the border town of Mae Sot in northern Thailand.

Their efforts -- along with a scheduled visit to Myanmar Wednesday by Thailand's prime minister -- highlight the unique position Thailand is in to pressure Myanmar's ruling junta to ease its restrictions on foreign aid and allow wider access for relief workers. Opening new routes is becoming a priority for the international relief effort as the days tick by and the danger of disease threatens to worsen the suffering and increase the death toll.

Western officials say the cyclone earlier this month may have killed more than 100,000. Myanmar's government now estimates that 62,000 people are dead or missing. At least 40% of those killed were children, officials at the Save the Children charity said Tuesday. Foreign aid agencies said aid is starting to flow more freely but remains far less than needed.

"We are making progress," said Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the U.N. in Geneva. More aid-filled flights are arriving each day, and as many as 34 visas for key relief experts have either been approved or are being finalized, she said.

Marcus Prior, an official of the World Food Program, said the U.N. agency had now reached as many as 70,000 people with high-energy biscuits or rice. The group is talking with trucking companies in Myanmar to expand its road-delivery capacity. But most of the bridges in the area can bear only about a five-ton load, and recent rains mean larger trucks could damage roads further.

At the Yangon airport, meanwhile, offloading equipment is scarce or inadequate. "Things are taking longer than we would hope, but we are getting substantial supplies out," Mr. Prior said.

Myanmar's government also is blocking private citizens from traveling to the hardest-hit areas to help, according to witnesses. "Many local relief groups trying to go to the worst-affected areas are still not allowed by the authorities," said a Yangon-based researcher who is trying to reach the region with aid arranged with donations from overseas.

Ashin Mettacara, a 27-year-old student monk in Sri Lanka who is a member of the U.S.-based International Burmese Monks Organization, said monks in Myanmar are being prevented by government officials from distributing aid.

Monks have played a key role in the relief effort so far, but the government is seeking to play down their role by asking television channels and newspapers not to publish photos of them helping, the researcher in Yangon said.

Associated Press

Bottlenecks, poor logistics, limited infrastructure and the military government's visa restrictions have obstructed foreign aid.

Yangon residents said some of the U.N. aid that has been delivered is being sold on the black market at inflated prices. Authorities are asking local charities to register their names and list the materials they are distributing, apparently so they can be monitored, but the materials are then being confiscated. "We are not getting any help, and then we see the aid at the market, but we can't afford to buy it," said a Yangon resident.

Authorities also are forcing thousands of residents in the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta region to move to less-affected areas and larger towns, according to witnesses. The town of Maupin now has as many as 5,000 refugees, many of whom came from the destroyed town of Laputta.

U.S. officials said two U.S. cargo planes loaded with water, blankets and mosquito nets flew to Myanmar Tuesday after an initial flight Monday. They said they hope the three planes were the beginning of a broader involvement that could include the arrival of U.S. disaster-relief experts.

But statements from senior Myanmar officials seemed to damp those hopes. One Myanmar vice admiral was quoted in state media as saying the country "does not need skilled relief workers yet" and that the needs of survivors "have been fulfilled to an extent."

U.S. defense officials said in Washington Tuesday that Myanmar had rejected U.S. offers to deliver supplies by helicopter or ship directly to survivors but that negotiations are continuing, Reuters reported.

KHIN MAUNG WIN/AFP/Getty Images

Survivors of cyclone Nargis lined up to receive food aid Monday in Kyaiklat, in the Ayeyarwady Division of southwest Myanmar.

Amid the tensions, the U.N., U.S. and Britain have asked Thailand to act as a go-between. Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's trip to Myanmar Wednesday will be a mission to try to persuade Myanmar's leaders to speed up the flow of foreign aid into the country, Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama told reporters in Bangkok.

Mr. Noppadon said Mr. Samak intends to meet Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein, who recently visited Bangkok before the cyclone struck, but that a meeting with top leaders isn't certain. "At the very least, we do hope to meet the country's foreign minister," he said.

At the same time, Thailand's armed forces are trying to persuade Myanmar to allow aid convoys to pass the border in Mae Sot and travel the 260-mile route to Yangon, the main city in Myanmar and the regional center for the Irrawaddy Delta.

An initial convoy organized by the U.N.'s High Commission for Refugees that crossed the "Friendship Bridge" over the Moei River from Mae Sot into Myanmar on Saturday carrying tents and plastic sheeting arrived on Monday in Yangon.

U.N. officials in Mae Sot credit the influence of the Thai military for persuading their counterparts in Myanmar to let the shipment through. "The Royal Thai Army has really been pushing this point," said Kul Thonglim, a field officer for the UNHCR in Mae Sot. Last week, Thailand flew a military transport plane with aid supplies to Myanmar while the U.S. and international agencies were still struggling for access.

"There is a good relationship between Thai and Burmese soldiers along the border, and we are trying to expand this trade route," Thai Maj.-Gen. Witchu Saengduen said. "The Royal Thai Army would like to send aid, too, and we are talking with the Burmese army about allowing more aid to travel along this route."

Thailand has a long and sometimes-fraught relationship with Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Thailand is Myanmar's biggest trading partner, buying nearly all Myanmar's natural gas. That trade amounts to some $2 billion a year, or 40% of Myanmar's exports.

In the past, Thailand and Myanmar have been involved in a series of border skirmishes, and suspicion between the two country dates back centuries. But because the two countries' armies are long familiar with each other -- especially in the region along Myanmar's eastern border -- they at least communicate. And with a burgeoning economic relationship to defend, that means Thailand is the country best-placed to exert some influence over at least some of Myanmar's armed forces.

Pornpimon Trichot, a professor and Myanmar expert at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, says countries such as Thailand and China might be more successful at influencing Myanmar than the U.S. or European countries, as the former are more likely to rely on diplomatic channels, rather than exercising threats of unilateral action. "Burma is like a cat: The harder you chase it, the further it runs away," Ms. Pornpimon said.

If Thailand successfully persuades Myanmar to allow more aid convoys, Mr. Kul at the UNHCR said, the agency will focus on delivering charcoal and cooking supplies to the Irrawaddy Delta area, along with salt, chilies, fish sauce and rice. "Food and water are beginning to get through, but people will need cooking equipment too," he said.

--Wilawan Watcharasakwet in Mae Sot and Krishna Pokharel in New Delhi contributed to this article.

Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@awsj.com and Patrick Barta at patrick.barta@wsj.com