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U.S., RI military send aid to Nargis cyclone survivors
LOCK AND LOAD: United States soldiers load humanitarian aid goods bound for Myanmar onto a cargo plane on Friday at Medan airbase
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LOCK AND LOAD: United States soldiers load humanitarian aid goods bound for Myanmar onto a cargo plane on Friday at Medan airbase. The delivery of Unicef aid for victims of the Nargis cyclone in Myanmar began on Friday.(JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
The United States government under its Joint Task Force Caring Response and the Indonesian Air Force began a joint mission on Friday to send humanitarian aid for survivors of the Nargis cyclone in Myanmar.
UNICEF collected 66 tons of school kits to be distributed to Myanmarese children in Ayeyarwady area using four U.S. Marine Corps KC-130 planes.
Medan airbase commander Col. Agus Dwi Putranto said the relief would be flown to Myanmar in stages.
"Today two flights carrying humanitarian assistance took off from Medan," he told a joint press conference with Col. Ben Matthew, the U.S. Commanding Officer Marine Aircraft Group 36.
Matthew said the U.S. military had so far flown relief comprising food and medical supplies, tents, rubber dinghies and water purifiers for the cyclone survivors to Myanmar in 240 sorties.
More aid will be dispatched with the consent of the military junta in Myanmar.
The Myanmar government has opened its territory for foreign assistance via Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) neighbors and a limited number of international aid workers.
The military regime calculated fatalities in the early May disaster at 78,000, with another 56,000 still missing. Aid workers have said they were unable to reach 1.3 million of the 2.4 million survivors who have been facing shortages of food and clean water.
Washington has pledged US$23 million in humanitarian aid for the disaster survivors, including $12 million worth of food assistance. U.S. warships, including USS Essex, and the 31st Marine Expeditionary are standing by at the Myanmar sea border to help facilitate the humanitarian operation, but Yangoon has denied them entry.
The U.S. Consul in Medan, Sean B. Stein, expressed concern about the Myanmar government's refusal to allow access to the U.S. humanitarian mission, which he said would slow delivery of relief for the cyclone survivors.
Stein compared the way the Indonesian government handled the tsunami in Aceh and Nias in December 2004. Indonesia, he said, had made the right decision by allowing international missions to directly distribute relief to survivors.
He expected the Myanmar military junta to follow in Indonesia's footsteps for the sake of suffering survivors.
