US ships idle at sea as Myanmar rebukes aid
BANGKOK (AFP) — US Navy ships loaded with aid will remain off the coast of cyclone-hit Myanmar, US officials said Thursday, despite a rebuke from the ruling generals who refused any help with "strings attached."
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May 22, 2008
The four military vessels, waiting at sea since May 13, are carrying 1,000 Marines, 14 helicopters, and 15,000 water containers and purifying kits that can provide tens of thousands of gallons of drinking water per day.
"The ships are waiting, just waiting for permission. How long they'll be there is difficult to say," said Michael Turner, spokesman for the US embassy in Bangkok.
Lieutenant Denver Applehans, a spokesman aboard one of the ships, said they would not venture into Myanmar's territory without junta approval.
"The Essex group is standing by in international waters off the coast of Burma (Myanmar), ready to support aid efforts with our lift, medical and water making capabilities," he told AFP by email.
Myanmar's mouthpiece newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, said Wednesday that the country did not need aid from US warships and military helicopters, saying the "strings attached ... are not acceptable to the Myanmar people."
US First Lady Laura Bush on Wednesday told the junta -- notoriously distrustful of foreigners -- that it had nothing to fear.
"No, there would be absolutely no strings attached with this aid," the US president's wife said in an interview with the Voice of America, a US Congress-funded broadcaster that has a Myanmar language service.
"I still want to urge the military rulers to let the United States, let the people of the United States help, because we can help in such a very successful way because of the equipment that we have that's available."
The USS Essex, USS Juneau, USS Harpers Ferry and USS Mustin were en route from Japan to the Cobra Gold war games in Thailand when the cyclone hit. Washington redirected the vessels hoping they could provide humanitarian aid.
Foreign governments and aid workers have criticised Myanmar's ruling military junta for being too slow to accept assistance from foreign donors.
While aid is slowly reaching the main city Yangon, relief workers say Myanmar does not have enough equipment, such as helicopters and boats, to ferry the aid to the remote southwest delta, which bore the brunt of the storm.
The first of 10 helicopters contracted by the UN's World Food Programme arrived in Yangon on Thursday, but the others are still days away.
Cyclone Nargis tore into southern Myanmar on May 2 and 3. It has left about 133,000 people missing or dead, according to official estimates.
The UN projected that the cyclone severely affected as many as 2.4 million people, and only 25 percent have been reached with international aid.