Myanmar defends cyclone response

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's military junta on Sundaydefended its response to Cyclone Nargis after stingingcriticism from the United States, while a U.N. official saidfood supplies had yet to reach at least 200,000 people.

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who has accused theregime of causing more deaths by stonewalling foreign aid, saidon Sunday U.S. ships cruising near Myanmar could leave in a"matter of days" if they cannot deliver relief supplies.

Myanmar Deputy Defence Minister Aye Myint, in Singapore fora security conference also attended by Gates, insisted thegovernment had acted swiftly and it was open to foreign aidwith "no strings attached."

"Through the prompt and immediate supervision of thesupervisory central body headed by the prime minister andmember ministers, relief camps and hospitals were opened,debris was cleared, emergency power and water supply restored,"Myint said.

State media had given plenty of advance warning of the May2 cyclone, which left 134,000 dead or missing and up to 2.4million others destitute, Myint told the annual gathering ofsecurity and defence officials in Singapore.

The former Burma has said the rescue and relief effort islargely over and it is focused on reconstruction. The UnitedNations has said the scale of the devastation meant the reliefphase could last six months.

A major problem in delivering foreign aid has been aninability to get enough international aid workers into theworst-hit Irrawaddy delta due to visa hurdles and red tape.

"We haven't been able to get the whole mechanism going.Progress has been slow," Hakan Tongul, deputy director inMyanmar of the U.N.'s World Food Program, told Reuters inYangon.

Around 500,000 people have received some food and watersince the storm struck nearly a month ago, but another 200,000have received no international help at all, he said.

"CRIMINAL NEGLECT"

Some 45 U.N. visa requests were approved after junta leaderSenior General Than Shwe promised last week to allow in "all"legitimate foreign aid workers, but obstacles remain.

One western aid worker said on Saturday that a two-dayprocessing period to enter the delta area, which had beenearlier cut from two weeks, had now increased to three.

Speaking to reporters in Singapore, Gates, whose governmentis one of Myanmar's harshest critics, accused the generals of"criminal neglect".

Asked how much longer U.S. ships and helicopters would bedeployed in the area, he said: "I think it's matter of days."

"No decision has been made at this point but I thinkthey've obviously been out there steaming round in circles fora long time at this point," he added.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said southeastAsian nations, loathe to interfere in each other's affairs,should play a bigger role in a crisis that could be worse thanthe 2004 Asian tsunami which killed at least 232,000 people.

Nearly a month after the cyclone, some villagers are tryingto rebuild their lives, including forming ad-hoc teams todredge waterlogged fields, rebuild houses and organize foodsupplies.

"We're seeing a level of resilience and recovery that'sunlike what we've seen before. They are moving onto the nextphase of shoring up their lives," Steve Goudswaard of thecharity World Vision said.

Authorities began evicting families from government-runcyclone relief centres on Friday, apparently fearing the'tented villages' might become permanent.

"It's unconscionable for Burma's generals to force cyclonevictims back to their devastated homes," Brad Adams, Asiadirector at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Some 39 camps in the immediate vicinity of Kyauktan, 30 kmsouth of Yangon, were being cleared as part of a generaleviction plan, cyclone survivors and aid workers said.

The evictions followed commentaries in the official mediawhich have criticized donors' demands for access to the deltaand said cyclone victims could "stand by themselves" and didnot need "chocolate bars" from foreign countries.

The New Light of Myanmar said in an editorial that "peoplecan easily get fish for dishes by just fishing in the fieldsand ditches". It also noted "large edible frogs are abundant".

Official papers have in the last few days have also carriedmore reports of Than Shwe's visits to the delta area, includingphotographs of the junta supremo comforting cyclone victims orgiving "guidance" on the construction of roads.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray, Jan Dahinten, MelanieLee and Ovais Subhani in SINGAPORE)

(Writing by Ed Davies; Editing Darren Schuettler andValerie Lee)