Myanmar Junta Still Wary of Foreign Help

According to The News International report on Monday, June 02, nearly a month after a cyclone tore through swathes of Myanmar, residents in this Irrawaddy Delta village are only now getting the plastic sheets and clean water that should have arrived long ago.

As the village head screamed orders telling people to collect the supplies brought by foreign agencies, families who lived through Cyclone Nargis needed little encouragement — queuing up outside the monastery within minutes.

“I was so happy once I saw the aid boat entering the village,” Kyaw, a 35-year-old villager with four children, told AFP in the badly-hit <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />village of Kanzeik.

“I’m so glad that I got what I really need for my family now. At least our family can live safely under the rain for this year.”

In the crucial days immediately after the May 2-3 cyclone, which left 133,000 people dead or missing, Myanmar’s ruling military junta blocked entry to overseas aid workers trying to reach some 2.4 million survivors.

Supplies are now trickling through to worst-hit areas following intense UN diplomacy, but the junta, notoriously suspicious of the West, is still wary of what is coming in.