UN FRUSTRATED: Top UN officials criticized the Myanmar government’s response to the country’s devastation and called on the junta to ease restrictions slowing the delivery of aid, including foot-dragging on the issuing of visas to UN personnel. Four airplanes carrying high-energy biscuits, medicine and other supplies reached Yangon on Thursday, UN officials said. The UN now estimates 1.5 million people have been “severely affected.”
CALL TO ACT: France is arguing that the UN has the power to intervene without the junta’s approval to help civilians under a 2005 agreement that the world body has a “responsibility to protect” people when governments fail to do it. That agreement did not mention natural disasters.
U.S. STYMIED: The ruling junta snubbed a U.S. offer to help. Stranded in Thailand were 10 members of the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team. Air Force transport planes and helicopters packed with supplies also sat waiting for a green light. One American official, Ky Luu, director of the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, created a stir by saying one option could be air-dropping aid without permission. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates quickly said he couldn’t imagine that happening.
SUU KYI HIT: The cyclone blew off the roof of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s bungalow in Yangon and cut off its electricity, a neighbor said. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for years.
