Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08RANGOON349
2008-05-09 12:45:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Rangoon
Cable title:  

BURMA: PRYING OPEN THE DOOR FOR HUMANITARIAN AID

Tags:  PGOV PREL PHUM BM 
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VZCZCXRO9724
OO RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH RUEHTRO
DE RUEHGO #0349/01 1301245
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 091245Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY RANGOON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7543
INFO RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1164
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 4708
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 8252
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 5814
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 1579
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1573
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000349 

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/MLS, DRL, AND IO
PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/08/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM BM
SUBJECT: BURMA: PRYING OPEN THE DOOR FOR HUMANITARIAN AID

RANGOON 00000349 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: P/E Chief Leslie Hayden for Reasons 1.4 (b) & (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000349

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/MLS, DRL, AND IO
PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/08/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM BM
SUBJECT: BURMA: PRYING OPEN THE DOOR FOR HUMANITARIAN AID

RANGOON 00000349 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: P/E Chief Leslie Hayden for Reasons 1.4 (b) & (d)


1. (C) Summary: The OFDA DART team will not be granted
visas "for the moment" and other missions are having mixed
success obtaining entry for their disaster assistance
experts. The GOB turned back 62 medics that arrived on a
chartered relief flight from Bangladesh. The UN has had
mixed success off-loading and delivering relief supplies to
the Delta, has made some progress obtaining permission for
international staff to travel to the region, and made more
progress establishing a UN relief headquarters there, staffed
by local UN employees. This evening, WFP headquarters
announced it would suspend relief shipments to Burma until
further notice after the GOB refused to release supplies from
a WFP relief flight to the UN. The UN recognizes that GOB
cooperation is far short of what should be expected in a
catastrophe, and became more direct and frank in its public
statements to increase pressure on the GOB to accept the help
the Burmese people desperately need. End summary.


2. (C) Although the MFA notified Embassy Rangoon that the
OFDA DART team will "for the moment" not be granted visas, a
few embassies and humanitarian assistance organizations
received them. Two members of the UNDAC team were permitted
to enter Rangoon, while two were turned back because they
were traveling on Laissez-Passer documents rather than UN
passports. The EU humanitarian assistance agency, ECHO, was
granted visas for four of their disaster relief experts to
visit Rangoon for three days. UK assistance agency DFID
received visas for four of their staff, and the MFA granted
visas for four IFRC international staff.


3. (C) Foreign relief workers have not been welcomed. On
May 8, a chartered flight of relief commodities arrived from
Bangladesh accompanied by 62 medical personnel. The
commodities were off-loaded by the GOB, but the medics were
denied entry. Singapore, Thai, and Russian aid workers have
also been denied visas. In a meeting today with UN Resident
Coordinator Dan Baker, the Minister of Social welfare said,

"as for aid workers, we are not ready to receive them." He
added that particularly applied to staff of INGOs. The
Deputy Foreign Minister told Charge the same: We have turned
down many offers, but for the time being, no experts.
Despite this rhetoric, many INGOs are working with their
regular contacts at line ministries to facilitate visas for
international staff or encouraging them to come on tourist
visas. Despite promise that the Foreign Ministry would
designate one official to facilitate visas, the UN has had to
depend on their line ministries, observed Chris Kaye of WFP.



4. (C) The Minister of Social Welfare has not been able to
give the UN an answer on how they can get their supplies to
the field. In this regard the UN has had some success, and
much frustration. The WFP reported that the seven metric
tons of high-nutrition biscuits it brought in on a commercial
flight on May 8, were off-loaded to the UN warehouse without
problems. The UN delivered the biscuits, along with 20
metric tons of food to Labutta today in its trucks. However,
today the GOB refused to let the UN receive supplies from a
chartered WFP relief flight. consequently, WFP headquarters
suspended all relief flights until further notice. Local WFP
director Chris Kaye told us negotiations were ongoing to have
the cargo released.


5. (C) The UN reports that relief commodities coming in on
regularly scheduled commercial flights are being released
with relatively little problem, while commodities arriving on
chartered flights are being off-loaded into the Burma Air
Force's warehouse at GOB insistence. The UN has observed
considerable amounts of donated goods backing up in the
warehouse due to the GOB's limited capacity to distribute it.
The UN is urgently working to solve this problem, and
assured donors today that it would try to track all relief
materials coming into the country, including bilateral relief
shipments, to make sure it is accounted for and eventually
distributed properly. They asked that bilateral donors give
them copies of listed donated items so they could track the

RANGOON 00000349 002.2 OF 002


distribution. The WFP is currently trying to negotiate
clearance for their planes to land at Pathein airport, closer
to the affected areas, and bypass the bottleneck caused by
GOB's lack of transport capacity.


6. (C) The UN appears to be making headway in moving its
personnel into the Delta. The UN told us today they received
indication their permanent, international staff would be
given permission to travel to the affected areas. Various
GOB ministers have been assigned responsibility for specific
geographical areas in the Delta, and the UN has begun working
with these ministers to negotiate a presence in each place.
The Minister of Agriculture has responsibility for Labutta,
and granted the UN permission to set up an interagency
compound and a communication system there. The UN plans to
build off this model to expand its operations into Mon Kyan
and Bogelay. The UN plans to assign its local staff to
liaison with GOB officials at logistic bases in the Delta.
Additionally, the two UNDAC members allowed entry are working
with the GOB to establish a joint logistics center near the
Rangoon airport.


7. (C) The UN recognizes that GOB cooperation is far short
of what should be expected in a catastrophe. Information
coming in from their assessors at Haji Island indicates that
an additional 100,000 may have died on the island,
potentially pushing up the death toll over 200,000. Baker
informed the donors it was time for the UN to be more open
and frank about the scope of the disaster and the degree to
which the GOB was not meeting its responsibility to the
people. Following the lead of UN Humanitarian Assistance
Coordinator John Holmes, other high-level UN officials in New
York plan to speak out against the GOB's intransigence. If
this fails to yield results, the UN is considering mobilizing
every resource they have in country to provide whatever
provisions, personnel, and equipment it can to assist in the
relief effort.


8. (C) Comment: The GOB lacks the resources and capability
to deliver relief where it is urgently and desperately
needed. Its refusal to accept expert assistance, and its
efforts to assert control over UN relief supplies, does not
give much confidence that assistance will be getting to the
1-2 million victims any time soon. The next week will be a
critical test to see if the GOB can come to its senses.
Otherwise, it will be responsible for a humanitarian disaster
far greater than the damage caused by cyclone Nargis. End
comment.









VILLAROSA