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WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday urged cyclone-hit Myanmar to admit international disaster relief, saying it was a humanitarian crisis rather than a political issue.
"What remains is for the Burmese (Myanmar) government to allow the international community to help its people," Rice told reporters in Washington.
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"It should be a simple matter. It's not a matter of politics. It's a matter of a humanitarian crisis," Rice said.
Rice, flanked by Macedonian foreign minister Antonio Milososki after talks with him on US-Macedonian issues, said she was "deeply concerned by the growing humanitarian crisis in Burma."
She added: "This is the type of crisis that will only get worse."Shari Villarosa, the charge d'affaires in Yangon, told reporters in Washington during a conference call that "there may well be over 100,000 deaths in the delta area," citing an unnamed international relief organization.
Her spokesman, Sean McCormack, said Washington is urging Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, India, China and others to use "any leverage" they may have with Myanmar to allow relief teams into the cyclone-stricken nation.
US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley told reporters that Myanmar's failure to issue visas to disaster assistance teams is "simply going to compound the humanitarian disaster."
He echoed some of Rice's points when he said "we again join our voices with really the whole international community and say this is not about politics. This is about helping people in need."
And the junta should please open its doors and let the international community provide humanitarian assistance to the people in Burma because they need it desperately," he said.
But when pressed to confirm whether he thought Myanmar was refusing aid for political reasons, he replied: "I don't know, because it's not just us, it's not just that the United States stay out, it's everybody stay out.
"And it's hard to understand, given the extent of ... the calamity that has befallen the people of Burma. I don't want to say a whole lot more, because I don't want to politicize this," Hadley said. - AFP/vm
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