YANGON (AFP) — Outrage over Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest will not detract from cyclone relief work in Myanmar, key donors said, as the United Nations on Wednesday reported small gains in getting aid to survivors.
Myanmar's military regime on Tuesday quietly informed the Nobel Peace Prize winner that she would spend another year confined to her home in Yangon, where she has been locked away for most of the past 18 years.
The decision came just two days after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon left Yangon following a donor conference that generated tens of millions of dollars in aid pledges in response to the cyclone that left 133,000 dead or missing.
Ban said while he regretted the extension of Aung San Suu Kyi's detention, Myanmar appeared "to be moving in the right direction" with cyclone relief by allowing some foreign aid workers into the devastated Irrawaddy Delta.
That region had been sealed off to foreigners for three weeks after the storm, even though 2.4 million people were in desperate need of food, shelter and medicine.
During Ban's visit, he convinced junta leader Than Shwe to allow international disaster experts into the region so that aid agencies can mount a full-scale relief effort.
"I hope that this marks a new spirit of cooperation and partnership between Myanmar and the international community," he said, adding that he planned to soon return to the country, formerly known as Burma.
The United Nations estimates that only 40 percent of the people in need have actually received help, and most of those still languishing without emergency supplies are in remote parts of the delta.
US President George W. Bush, one of the regime's fiercest critics, said he was "deeply troubled" by Aung San Suu Kyi's detention but also said politics would not affect humanitarian aid in the country.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, said the ongoing restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi contravened basic human rights.
"They come at a time when the people of Myanmar are suffering hard and their suffering should not (be) compounded by more restrictive measures," she said.
Despite condemnation pouring in from around the world, aid agencies said they had seen signs of improved cooperation with the regime.
"All the major obstacles we've been facing have been resolved. Now the relief effort will scale up more quickly," said Richard Horsey, spokesman for the UN's disaster relief arm in Bangkok.
He said more than 200 international staffers were now in Myanmar working with the United Nations, and that those who have entered the delta have not encountered any major problems.
Japan said Wednesday that it would send a team of 23 medical workers into the Myanmar, while aid groups said a handful of new visas had been approved.
"Since the weekend it has moved more quickly... It's exciting to be talking about trucks and boats to reach the people we want to reach," said Chris Webster, a spokesman for World Vision.
Two helicopters arrived in Bangkok and were being readied Wednesday to help the World Food Programme distribute supplies to regions inaccessible by road. Seven more are on the way, WFP spokesman Paul Risley said.
Donors also began trying alternative ways of delivering aid.
The French naval ship Mistral was refused entry to Myanmar, so the thousands of tonnes of supplies on board were unloaded Wednesday in neighbouring Thailand.
The supplies will now be loaded onto a commercial vessel, which the junta is willing to accept.
Myanmar's state media, which insisted for three weeks that the country's military could handle the relief effort itself, has also taken a more open tone.
"Everybody may make donations freely. Everybody may make donations to any person or any area," the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
But access remained spotty, with some saying they were still struggling to get into the delta.
Florian Meyer, an aid expert with the German relief group Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Deutschland, said he has tried and failed to win access for the past two weeks.
"The junta had made all the promises and gave the permission, but there is a lot of red tape. I don't know if it is on purpose or merely bureaucratic procedures," he said, adding that he was giving up on trying.
"I am leaving Yangon tomorrow with lots of frustration."
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