Fears for Britons missing in Burma

May 8 2008

Aid has begun to trickle into cyclone-hit Burma as it emerged 17 British nationals were among the tens of thousands of people still unaccounted for.

The Foreign Office said it was "urgently" trying to clarify the status of a small number of long-term residents in the country who had failed to make contact with their families in the UK.

And with the crisis six days old, much-needed relief is only just beginning to arrive in the ravaged south-east Asian nation. The first UN aid flight arrived in the closed country on Thursday.

Cyclone Nargis struck on Saturday, bringing winds of up 120mph and flooding to the badly-affected Irrawaddy Delta region. Official figures put the death toll thus far at 22,000, but aid agencies and international representatives in Burma believe the final death toll could be more than four times higher.

Shari Villarosa, the charge d'affaires of the US embassy in Burma, has said there may be "over 100,000 deaths" in the Irrawaddy Delta area. In addition, rotting human and animal corpses are threatening to spread disease in the beleaguered Delta region.

But despite the increasing desperation of the situation and threat of looting, aid agencies are being frustrated from delivering much-needed supplies by the ruling Burmese junta.

Ray Hasan, head of Asia policy at Christian Aid, said: "The indications are the situation is getting increasingly tense and there is a sense that not enough is being done. Communities are expecting assistance and assistance isn't being provided, certainly not in any significant manner, across the whole of the region it is nowhere near enough.

"There is evidence of looting because people are desperate and I think there is that sense growing right now of 'help has not come, why has it not come?'. The message that needs to be got out there and needs to be pushed is the absolute necessity for the Burmese government to give unrestricted access to humanitarian workers to the affected areas, particularly the Irrawaddy Delta."

In the House of Commons, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander told MPs that a UN World Food Programme flight carrying seven tonnes of high energy biscuits had landed in Burma. A second flight with 18 tonnes of biscuits, currently in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was also granted landing rights for Burma.

"The delays for these first two flights were due to delays in obtaining clearances," Mr Alexander said. He described the crisis in Burma as "very grave" adding it was "on a scale not seen since the Tsunami of 2004".