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Analysis: Saving Myanmar

Council on Foreign Relations

May 13, 2008
Author: Jayshree Bajoria

As the death toll from the May 3 cyclone in Myanmar continues to rise—official state media list more than 30,000 dead and 35,000 missing—international relief agencies are expressing grave concern over delays in aid efforts. “I want to register my deep concern—and immense frustration—at the unacceptably slow response to this grave humanitarian crisis,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on May 12. Relief agencies like Oxfam International warn of a public health catastrophe endangering 1.5 million lives if aid doesn’t reach victims soon.

But even as Myanmar’s government allowed some aid to trickle in, it continues to limit access to foreign relief workers. News reports suggest the military regime has been insisting on distributing (WSJ) the aid itself, in some cases even sticking army labels on supplies to suggest the goods are from Myanmar’s government. CFR’s Laurie Garrett says if the regime continues to insist on receiving supplies without the expertise to distribute them, “the death toll is going to exceed anything that we have ever seen in an Asian nation in the last thirty, forty years.”

Infrastructure problems such as a decrepit airport, poorly equipped ports, and blocked roads compound the challenges. The United States, which set up a task force to coordinate aid efforts soon after the cyclone hit, has military assets on standby, ready to respond if Myanmar’s junta allows them in. A U.S. naval strike group including four navy ships, twenty-three helicopters, and 1,800 marines, also waits in international waters off Myanmar’s coast. Aboard one of these ships, U.S. Marine Col. John Mayer, commanding officer of the thirty-first marine expeditionary unit, told NPR that U.S. forces are equipped to provide medical support, get into remote areas to deliver aid, and turn saltwater to freshwater.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.