Aid trickles in for Myanmar's cyclone survivors

YANGON (Reuters) - The 1.5 million people left destitute byMyanmar's devastating cyclone were increasingly desperate onWednesday, as foreign aid remained at a trickle andoverstretched aid workers struggled to reach hard-hit areas.

In a token and late concession to critics who say outsideaid is critical, Myanmar's reclusive military rulers invited160 personnel from neighbouring Bangladesh, China, India andThailand to assist in delayed and sometimes chaotic reliefefforts.

But it is a fraction of the thousands of foreign aidworkers needed for a "tsunami-style" international aidoperation from the May 3 cyclone, which left up to 100,000people dead or missing in the Irrawaddy delta.

"It's just awful. People are in just desperate need,begging as vehicles go past," Gordon Bacon, an emergencycoordinator for the International Rescue Committee, toldReuters by phone from Yangon.

Thailand's prime minister flew to Myanmar's main city ofYangon to try to persuade Prime Minister Thein Sein to let moreforeign experts into areas pulverised by the early May storm.

Samak Sundaravej is hoping for more luck than UnitedNations and Western officials, whose similar efforts have hadlittle success.

Some have suggested food and other urgent supplies may havebeen diverted by Myanmar's ruling junta rather than goingstraight to helpless victims, many homeless and some barefoot.

However, a World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman in Bangkoksaid of high-energy food it had sent: "We collected thebiscuits at the (Yangon) airport and they remain in ourpossession."

In any case, experts said the relief effort -- furthercomplicated by heavy rains and the threat of a possible secondcyclone -- is only delivering a tenth of the supplies needed.

A tropical depression was swirling southwest of Yangon onWednesday and a U.S. advisory warned it could develop into acyclone in the next 24 hours.

"It's terrible. This is always another worry when you havea major disaster, that you have further hazards affectingpeople," Amanda Pitt, spokeswoman for the U.N.'s humanitarianaffairs office, told a news conference in Bangkok.

GREATER TRAGEDY

The international community has flown in tonnes ofmedicine, food and shelter materials, but getting it tolow-lying delta area has been complicated by poor equipment,bad weather and government intransigence.

Heavy rains have pelted the low-lying delta region, slowingthe transportation of aid by land and adding to the misery oftens of thousands of refugees sandwiched into monasteries,schools and pagodas.

The international community has warned of an even greatertragedy if the aid effort is not ratcheted up.

Lacking food, water and sanitation, survivors of CycloneNargis face the threat of killer diseases such as cholera andin some areas are waiting in vain for help to arrive.

"If these people aren't reached and aid got to themquickly, and shelter and toilet facilities, disease will breakout," the International Rescue Committee's Bacon said.

The WFP said it was looking for helicopters to airlift riceand high-energy biscuits down to the delta and also boats toreach isolated communities along the Irrawaddy river.

It said it had provided food to 50,000 people and aimed toreach 750,000 over the next six months.

Operations in Myanmar are a shadow of the massiveinternational relief operation kick-started just days after the2004 Asian tsunami.

The United States alone deployed thousands of its militaryand more than a dozen ships in the Indian Ocean, and many othercountries provided major help.

But Myanmar's junta has made it clear it does not wantWesterners distributing aid.

Foreign experts in sanitation, nutrition and medicine haveeither been prevented from entering the country formerly knownas Burma or are restricted to Yangon.

Armed police send back foreigners who attempt to passthrough checkpoints surrounding the former capital.

In a statement after emergency talks on Myanmar in Brusselson Tuesday, EU development ministers called on Yangon "to offerfree and unfettered access to international humanitarianexperts, including the expeditious delivery of visa and travelpermits."

The EU ministers stopped short of endorsing a French callto deliver supplies if necessary without the junta'spermission.

(Additional reporting by Darren Schuettler and NoppornWong-Anan in BANGKOK)

(Writing by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by Jerry Norton)

(For more stories on Myanmar cyclone follow the link toReuters AlertNet http://www.alertnet.org)