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BANGKOK - THE first of 10 helicopters contracted by the UN's World Food Programme arrived in Myanmar on Thursday to help speed relief to remote villages hit by Cyclone Nargis, a spokesman for the agency said.
Each will be used to ferry supplies from the main city of Yangon to distant parts of the Irrawaddy Delta, where many villages are inaccessible by road, WFP spokesman Marcus Prior said.
'It's very good news,' Mr Prior told AFP. 'We've got barges in Yangon, lots of boats, trucks and now helicopters. We're confident that we'll be able to move what we have.' Nine more helicopters are expected in the coming days, he said.
Poor access, logistical bottle-necks and other problems have beset the relief operation, in addition to a decision by the ruling generals to keep out most foreign disaster experts.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon flew to Yangon on Thursday to press the regime to accept a full-scale relief operation.
Prior said the WFP has purchased an additional 10,000 tonnes of rice after receiving approval from Myanmar's government Wednesday, increasing the food supplies available for desperate survivors of the storm.
The United Nations estimates that only 25 per cent of those in need are receiving international emergency aid.
Despite the military regime's insistence that reports of survivors who are not getting enough aid were the work of 'traitors,' AFP reporters who have slipped into the hard-hit southern delta have found many without state help. -- AFP
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