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YANGON : The United Nations warned on Tuesday that Myanmar faced a "second catastrophe" after its devastating cyclone, unless the junta immediately allows massive air and sea deliveries of aid.
But Myanmar's military rulers again rejected growing international pressure to open the door to a foreign-run relief effort, insisting against all the evidence that they could handle the emergency alone.
Fast Facts
The United Nations aired its "increasing frustration" at not being able to bring more help to 1.5 million of the neediest survivors, and said the crisis in the country's remote, flooded south posed an "enormous logistic challenge."
It requires "at least an air or sea corridor to channel aid in large quantities as quickly as possible", said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman in Geneva for the UN's emergency relief arm.
"We fear a second catastrophe," she said.
But the junta said on Tuesday that the needs of the people after the storm, which has left around 62,000 dead or missing since ripping through the southern Irrawaddy delta on May 3, "have been fulfilled to an extent".
"The nation does not need skilled relief workers yet," Vice Admiral Soe Thein said in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece for the military which has ruled the nation with an iron grip for nearly half a century.
Many survivors said they had still not received aid from the government 10 days after the disaster, and could not understand why their leaders have snubbed offers of help that have poured in from around the world.
Aid agencies warn that as every day passes without sufficient food, water and shelter, more are at risk of joining the staggering death toll, estimated by the UN at 100,000.
The World Health Organisation said it had dispatched supplies of body bags, as experts warned that corpses were going uncollected and that the putrefying remains pose a major health risk.
Heavy rains overnight deepened the misery for many, seeping through the flimsy plastic sheeting of makeshift shelters of tens of thousands of people whose homes were sunk or blown away in the storm.
"These new rains are bringing us more misery," said Taye Win, a survivor sheltering at a monastery outside the country's main city Yangon. "I don't know how long we can withstand this."
The UN said that child traffickers are targeting the youngest and most vulnerable survivors of the catastrophe, and that two suspects have already been arrested after trying to recruit children at a relief camp.
Just hours after the United States sent its first aid plane into the country since the tragedy - following days of negotiations - US President George W. Bush said the world should "be angry and condemn" the junta.
"Either they are isolated or callous," he said on Monday. "There's no telling how many people have lost their lives as a result of the slow response."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also took aim at the regime, using unusually strong language to insist that outside aid experts be allowed in immediately to help direct the fumbling relief effort.
"We are at a critical point. Unless more aid gets into the country very quickly, we face an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dwarf today's current crisis," he said.
"I therefore call in the most strenuous terms on the government of Myanmar to put its people's lives first. It must do all it can to prevent this disaster from becoming even more serious."
The country has welcomed donations of aid, even from the United States, which was expected to send two more aid flights on Tuesday.
Shari Villarosa, the top US diplomat in Myanmar, emphasised the urgent need for specialists who know how to deliver aid despite daunting logistical hurdles.
Outside experts "have had experience in working with these disasters around the world where you have had these donors pouring in massive amounts all at the same time," she told AFP.
Although aid flights are increasing, there are serious bottlenecks in getting supplies to the delta.
In an internal document seen on Tuesday, the United Nations said it is receiving reports of the military of their devastated villages and into other less-affected areas of the country. - AFP/de
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