Hope of end to Burma impasse

Updated 23.14 Sun May 18 2008
Keywords: Irrawaddy delta, aid, suffering, emergency, disaster, starvation, Jasmine Whitbread, World Food Programme, Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar, Burma, save the children

A deal to grant access to the millions in Burma needing help following Cyclone Nargis, could be brokered soon.

Aid has been trickling in for the up to 2.5 million people affected by the cyclone, with Burma's military rulers, suspicious of the outside world, reluctant to admit major foreign operations and the workers to run them.

Britain's Asia minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, said a framework was being set up for a UN and Asian-led operation that could solve the impasse

But Britain's Asia minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, said a framework was being set up for a UN and Asian-led operation that could solve the impasse.

He said: "I think we're potentially at a turning point, but like all turning points in Burma, the corner will have a few S bends in it".

Hope of an end to the stalemate comes as British charity Save the Children warns that thousands of children could die within weeks if food does not get to them soon.

The World Food Programme (WFP), leading the outside emergency food effort, said it had managed to get rice and beans to 212,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are most in need after the May 2 storm, which left at least 134,00 dead or missing.

Malloch-Brown said the United Nations estimates that so far help has reached less than 25 percent of the people in need.

But now, he said: "I'm confident we've got movement here in the sense we've diplomatically found an answer to the stand-off."

Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children UK's chief executive, said: "Children may already be dying as a result of a lack of food. They urgently need nutrient and energy rich food, and food containing all the elements of a balanced diet.

"Save the Children is working flat out to deliver the aid they need and we have already reached over 140,000 people. We need to reach more before it is too late."

The USS Essex is currently stationed in international waters to the south of the delta pending permission to carry out the delivery of humanitarian relief.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.