Chiang Mai – Over 20 countries have pledge aid of more than USD 40 million for victims of the tropical cyclone Nargis in Burma, but most of these countries are still waiting for a response from the junta.
Moreover the US, EU, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Norway, China and Indonesia are also ready to provide aid in millions of USD to Burma.
Among the countries which have pledged aid, UK has promised the biggest amount at USD 10 million.
The US and EU countries have a strained relation with Burma for the human right violations committed by the military regime.
The US intended to give USD 3 million worth of relief and the US President demanded of the junta brass yesterday that it allow the US Navy to conduct relief and rescue operations in Burma.
Though the French government intended to give USD 300,000 for relief, it is worried about it being misused by the junta.
Similarly Germany, Switzerland, Thailand, France, Netherlands, Japan, Greece, Czech, Denmark and South Korea have also pledged to provide humanitarian assistance worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
According to statistics compiled by Mizzima, the total amount of relief and humanitarian aid pledged by the UN and international community is over USD 37 million. The amount includes both cash and in kind namely emergency food, drinking water, makeshift tents and plastic sheets and medical supplies.
Aid from Thailand reached first to isolated Burma by military aircraft on Tuesday. It was USD 100,000 in cash and relief supplies such as food, drinking water and medical supplies worth another USD 50,000.
Similarly India which maintains close relations with the junta also sent food, blankets, clothes and makeshift tents in its Navy warships.
China also sent emergency aid of USD 1 million and relief supplies worth USD 5 million.
The World Food Programme, the UN agency, will send some of its 800 metric tons pf rice stored in its Rangoon office as reserve food stocks to Laputta in Irrawaddy Division late evening today.
The worst hit area in the Irrwaddy Delta region has been declared as a disaster zone by UN Humanitarian Aid Department today as international relief supplies start flowing into Burma.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) is trying to send plastic makeshift tents for 10,000 people in Burma in time and the staff of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), Red Crescent are waiting to get Burmese entry visas.
Andrew Kirkwood of 'Save the Children' which got a rare chance to enter Burma from the outside world said that corpses were seen floating in the flood waters, quoting aid workers who witnessed this tragic incident.
"The aid and relief supplies haven't yet reached the disaster areas. They are going to die", he said. Over 41,000 people listed as missing by the junta are believed to be dead. This will increase the official death toll of 22,000.
"Millions of people are rendered homeless, but we cannot say how many million," he added.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that food scarcity in Burma cannot be tackled in one or two years as all five regions lashed by cyclone Nargis are in the rice bowl of Burma.
These regions produce 65 per cent of rice, 80 per cent of fishery produce and 50 per cent of meat and meat products.
The State-run MRTV 4 is continuously broadcasting clearing of debris in Rangoon, relief and aid work being executed in some townships of the Irrawaddy delta region.
