By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - Two more American aid flights were dueto leave for cyclone-hit Myanmar on Tuesday where the reclusivemilitary government is keeping most foreign aid workers awayfrom the devastated Irrawaddy delta.
Local staff for international relief agencies are stretchedto breaking point and facing tighter restrictions on theirability to deliver the trickle of foreign aid flowing in to 1.5million survivors facing hunger and disease.
Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said its first cargo planeloaded with medical supplies landed in the cyclone-hit formercapital, Yangon, on Mondayn but it was facing "increasingconstraints" imposed on its staff in the delta.
"In Bogalay for instance, the MSF team is unable to provideas much assistance as they could to respond to the enormousneeds in terms of food and medical care," the aid group said ofone devastated township where at least 10,000 people werekilled.
Tens of thousands of people throughout the delta arecrammed into monasteries, schools and other buildings afterarriving in towns that were on the breadline even before thedisaster.
Lacking food, water and sanitation, they face the threat ofkiller diseases such as cholera. Heavy rain was forecast forthe delta this week, threatening more misery for survivors.
One Yangon businessman just back from a personal aidmission to Bogalay said the army was appropriating aid.
"There are still some villages in the worst-hit areas thatnobody has got to," the man, in his late 30s, told Reuters.
"Around Bogalay, private donors are not allowed todistribute their assistance to the victims themselves. We hadto hand over what we had."
"ISOLATED OR CALLOUS"
The junta has welcomed "aid from any nation" but has madeit very clear it does not want outsiders distributing it in theareas worst hit by Cyclone Nargis, which struck 11 days ago.
Speaking after the first U.S. military aid flight toMyanmar on Monday, U.S. President George W. Bush condemned thejunta for failing to act more quickly to accept internationalhelp, saying "either they are isolated or callous."
"It's been days and no telling how many people have losttheir lives as a result of the slow response," he said in aradio interview with CBS News.
The C-130 military transport plane flew in from an air basein neighbouring Thailand carrying water, mosquito nets andblankets, but U.S. officials involved in the relief effort werenot allowed beyond Yangon airport.
A stream of other aid flights have already landed inYangon, but only a fraction of the help is getting to where itis needed.
The World Food Programme said it was able to deliver lessthan 20 percent of the 375 tonnes of food a day it wanted tomove into the flooded delta.
At the United Nations in New York, Secretary-General BanKi-moon delivered his most critical comments so far.
"I want to register my deep concern -- and immensefrustration -- at the unacceptably slow response to this gravehumanitarian crisis," he told reporters.
The United Nations said its top representative in Myanmarhad flown to Naypyidaw, the generals' new capital, on Monday tohand over a list of 60 critical U.N. and relief agency staff.More than 30 visas had since been promised, the U.N. said.
In its latest assessment, its humanitarian agency saidbetween 1.2 million and 1.9 million people were struggling tosurvive and the number of dead ranged from 60,000 to 102,000.
Myanmar state television raised its official toll to 31,938dead and 29,770 missing on Monday. Most of the casualties werekilled by the 12-foot (3.5 metre) wall of water that hit thedelta, with the cyclone's 190 kph (120 mph) winds.
The cyclone raged through an area that is home to nearlyhalf of the country's 53 million people, as well as its mainrice-growing region. About 5,000 sq km (1,930 sq miles) of landremain under water.
France was sending a warship carrying 1,500 tonnes of ricewhich was expected near Myanmar later this week. Paris says itwants to distribute the food directly itself, but will not doso without authorisation.
The United States will also have three ships near Myanmarthis week, and Britain was sending a navy ship to the region tohelp humanitarian operations.
(Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Ed Cropley)
