The New Nation - Internet Edition

Myanmar allows US military to bring cyclone aid: Aid falls far short of urgent needs: Relief groups

AFP, Utapao

A US military plane flew to Myanmar on Monday, laden with aid for cyclone survivors in an unusual concession by the junta that despises the United States and fears an Iraq-style invasion.

The C-130 transport plane carried more than 12 tonnes of emergency supplies, including desperately needed equipment to provide clean drinking water to victims of the cyclone that hit 10 days ago, officials said.

The United States has offered a far broader relief effort in Myanmar, including navy ships and helicopters that could deploy in the hardest-hit regions of the Irrawaddy Delta, but so far the junta has declined.

"All of us are optimistic that this C-130 will be the first of many. The world has much to offer," US ambassador to Thailand Eric John told reporters shortly before the plane took off. "We offer our assistance without condition."

But convincing the military that US aid comes with no strings attached won't be easy, analysts said.

The junta regularly attacks the United States in state media, accusing Washington of aiding Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party and of training dissidents.

The regime's suspicions have been hardened by US sanctions imposed a decade ago over rights abuses and Aung San Suu Kyi's detention.

Since the Iraq war, junta leader Than Shwe has also become nervous that Washington could be planning some kind of regime change in Myanmar, analysts said.

"Burmese generals, especially General Than Shwe, are very paranoid," said Win Min, a Myanmar military analyst based in Thailand. "With a military plane, they will worry that the US military is doing spying from the sky. They will be really worried about that," he said. "By allowing them to fly, it is a significant concession."

Another report adds: Aid groups said Sunday that supplies trickling into cyclone-hit Myanmar were far less than was needed, as the faltering relief effort suffered a new blow with the sinking of a Red Cross boat.

The boat, carrying vital supplies of drinking water, rice , and purification tablets, hit a submerged tree trunk as it travelled by river through the disaster zone. Much of the aid was lost, but no one was injured.

"Apart from the delay in getting aid to people we may now have to re-evaluate how we transport that aid," said Michael Annear, disaster manager in Yangon for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Supplies have slowly begun to make their way into isolated Myanmar, but relief workers are frustrated over restrictions by the ruling junta, which has refused to allow foreign experts in to direct the recovery effort.

"Some opening-up on the part of the authorities is allowing us to get these materials to their destination," said Stephan Goetghebuer, director of operations of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

"But it's no more than a drip-feed, really, given a serious response is more than required. We still need more back-up aid and personnel ready to leave."

A United Nations flight from Italy carrying water purification equipment and other supplies landed in Yangon, but three UN disaster assessment experts were still waiting for visas in Thailand.

In an indication of the tight controls the junta is maintaining, two of the three had their UN travel documents refused by Myanmar officials at Yangon airport when they tried to enter the country Thursday.

Other arrivals were a cargo plane chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and a Greek air force plane with a cargo of tents, food and medicine.

Greece said its foreign ministry staff will stay in Yangon to make sure the the aid reaches those it is intended to help, and that a second military transporter is due to land on Tuesday.

Cyclone Nargis, which smashed into the rice-growing Irrawaddy Delta region in the country's south on May 3, left nearly 62,000 people dead or missing, according to a government toll.

The military government's refusal to open its doors has infuriated aid groups and foreign governments who say that unless they have free access, the toll from the disaster will rise dramatically as hunger and disease set in.

Obama-McCain fight takes shape but Hillary still battling

AFP, Washington

Democrats went on the attack against John McCain Sunday as a November face-off between the hawkish Republican and Barack Obama took shape, but Hillary Clinton was adamant she was still in the race.

With the Democrats coalescing behind Obama after a gruelling nominating contest, Senate majority leader Harry Reid gave a pithy outline of their three main lines of attack against McCain.

"He's wrong on the (Iraq) war. He's wrong on the economy. He's a clone of (President) George Bush," Reid told ABC, while urging Democrats to "relax" and let the Obama-Clinton battle play out until the final primaries on June 3.

Senator Christopher Dodd, who supports Obama, said he was confident Clinton would "make the right choice" for the sake of Democratic unity heading into the general election campaign. "And she's not about to allow another term of George Bush in the name of John McCain, who's embraced basically the Bush policies on economics, on foreign policy," he said on NBC.

With Obama seeking to build up irresistible momentum against Clinton, the Democrats' rival camps denied they were in talks to end their White House race through a deal on financial arrangements or the vice presidency.

On Friday, the deep-pocketed Obama prompted speculation of a deal to pay off Clinton's 20 million dollars of campaign debt if she bows out of the race and backs him for the nomination.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod said about the debt question, "she hasn't asked, and we haven't offered."

"And the truth is I think that Senator Clinton will have the capacity to retire her debt. I don't believe that Senator Clinton is looking for a deal. I don't think that's what this is about," he said.

Axelrod brushed off a weekend report by conservative commentator Robert Novak that Obama's wife Michelle had vetoed Clinton as his potential pick for vice president, because of her "hostility" to the former first lady.

"That's false. There's been no discussion about vice presidential nominees and this whole scenario," Obama's top lieutenant said.

On NBC, Clinton's national campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe acknowledged that "something big would have to happen" for the New York senator to beat Obama to the nomination.

But he added: "We're not going anywhere. There have been no discussions with any other campaign about helping. Some of these stories I can unequivocally tell you here today t are not true."

Arab ministers bid to end Lebanon crisis as fighting eases

AFP, Beirut

The Lebanese army was out in force on Monday in areas outside Beirut that were the scene of fierce sectarian clashes as Arab ministers prepared to send a team to try to end a crisis that has driven the nation to the brink of civil war.

Troops moved into the Druze mountains southeast of the capital, where supporters of the Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition had engaged in heavy battles on Sunday.

In Beirut, the situation was calm although schools and some businesses remained shut following five days of unrest that has left 47 people dead and scores wounded in the worst sectarian violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

The showdown between Hezbollah and the ruling bloc saw the powerful Shiite militant group seize large swathes of Muslim west Beirut, dramatically raising the stakes in the country's 18-month political crisis.

US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has accused his rivals of staging a coup while the Future Movement of parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri said the opposition was trying to "turn Beirut into another Baghdad."

Opposition fighters withdrew from the streets after the Lebanese army acted to overturn two government measures against Hezbollah that triggered the fighting last week.

But some barricades put up by Hezbollah fighters and their allies remained and the road to Beirut internatinal airport was shut for the sixth straight day, reflecting a continuing civil disobedience campaign by the opposition.

There are fears the situation could escalate again against the backdrop of seething hatred between Sunni Arabs and their allies who support the ruling bloc and Shiites who back the opposition.

"Lebanon today is but a ship drifting, an arena of macabre games where fighters are victims as well as executioners," said the French-language newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour.

Bush heads to Middle East amid dark omens

AFP, Washington

US President George W. Bush heads back to the Middle East this week, where his efforts to forge Israeli-Palestinian peace face growing skepticism with barely nine months left in his term.

The five-day trip is anchored on the 60th anniversary of Israel as a modern state, a stop in Saudi Arabia to mark 75 years of US relations with the kingdom, and talks in Egypt with a broad range of regional leaders.

The visit is Bush's second in four months-after seven years in which he did not set foot in either Israel or the Palestinian territories-and Bush aides see it as a blend of symbol and substance. "It's going to be a mix," said US national security adviser Stephen Hadley. The White House has taken care not to raise expectations, perhaps not only because of the lack of significant progress over the past few months, but because of the turmoil in Israel over the past few days.

Bush was due to meet Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who faces mounting calls to resign over a criminal probe into allegations he took bribes from a millionaire US financier.

After months of highlighting what it called good relations between Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Washington now describes peace efforts as the principally the work of two governments.

Olmert, a political survivor, has not been charged, but his legal woes could make it more difficult to convince Israelis to make the tough concessions all sides agree will be needed to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.

"It is an Israeli domestic matter. We don't want to poke our nose into it, but we fear this crisis will reflect in terms of military escalation or more building in the settlements," said lead Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat.

And "in case of early elections, the peace process will be put on hold," he added.

Olmert and Abbas agreed in November, at a US-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland, to revive stalled peace efforts with an eye on reaching a deal on the outlines of a Palestinian state by year's end.

Since that optimistic pledge, however, causes for skepticism have piled up.

Israel has announced plans to pursue construction in Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian lands-a core dispute. And the United States has said that its ally has not done enough to improve Palestinian quality of life.