UN official warns of 'disastrous consequences' for food in Myanmar

Straits Times

YANGON (Myanmar) - MYANMAR is in urgent need of diesel fuel to make sure that tilling machines - brought in to replace water buffalos killed by Cyclone Nargis - can be used to help plant rice in the storm-devastated Irrawaddy delta, a senior United Nations official said.

'The window of opportunity is very short, and the need is of the utmost urgency,' Ms Noeleen Heyzer, UN under-secretary-general, said on Friday. 'The planting season in the delta is June to July, after which it will be too late, with disastrous consequences for food security in Myanmar and the region.'

Meanwhile, in a clear reference to the United States, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece for the ruling junta, warned that 'the goodwill of a big Western nation that wants to help Myanmar with its warships was not genuine'.

Myanmar turned down humanitarian aid from naval vessels from the United States, as well as Great Britain and France, that had sailed towards the South-east Asian nation after Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2-3.

The newspaper said aid from nations who impose economic sanctions against Myanmar and push the UN Security Council to take actions against it 'comes with strings attached'. The United States is one of several Western nations that impose economic and political sanctions on the junta because of its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

Tens of millions of dollars have been donated to help Myanmar's cyclone victims, but the junta has been reluctant to accept foreign relief experts in large numbers, and has restricted their access to the hard-hit delta area.

The UN estimates more than 1 million survivors, mostly in the delta, still need help more than five weeks after the cyclone struck. Cyclone Nargis killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 people missing, according to the government.

Ms Heyzer, meanwhile, called for Myanmar's South-east Asian neighbours, foreign aid donors and traditional oil suppliers to assist the country by helping supply it with 3.8 million litres of diesel.

Myanmar told Ms Heyzer earlier this week the fuel was needed to operate some 5,000 tillers donated to plant rice in time for the next growing season, starting in June and July.

The United States Department of Agriculture said in an assessment issued earlier this week the area affected by the cyclone 'normally accounts for roughly 60 per cent of (Myanmar's) rice production'.

'The outlook for the 2008/09 rice crop is very uncertain, as the planting window will close in late July. Little to no actual progress has been made to restore or rehabilitate damaged lands and infrastructure, while farmers are yet to be supplied with sufficient food, viable seed, tools, livestock or replacement mechanical tillers and fuel,' it said. -- AP