BANGKOK, Thailand — As evidence of the death and devastation in Myanmar mounted Wednesday, international aid agencies expressed new frustration that a huge operation to help the estimated 1 million survivors is being held up by military rulers’ reluctance to let foreign relief experts into the country.
Four Asian citizens who are part of a U.N. emergency team were cleared by the government to enter Myanmar today, but a fifth member, a Westerner, got no permission, and close to 40 others remained uncleared, the United Nations said.
As impatience mounted, Bernard Kouchner, France’s foreign minister, proposed invoking a newly established U.N. doctrine known as “responsibility to protect” in order to deliver aid directly to victims without awaiting official approval.
France pressed the idea at a Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York on Wednesday. But China, Russia, South Africa and Vietnam blocked the initiative on the grounds that the council — which deals with threats to international peace and security — had no business meddling in a domestic crisis.
Analysts are split over whether the continuing delays are caused by the military rulers having trouble overcoming their traditional xenophobia, particularly toward Westerners, or simple bureaucracy.
“You only have three people in the whole country who can make decisions, one of whom is the astrologer of the senior general,” said a foreign aid worker.
The Myanmar government has said the cyclone killed at least 22,000 people, with another 40,000 missing. Shari Villarosa, head of the U.S. Embassy in Yangon, told reporters Wednesday that she was hearing indications that the death toll may rise to 100,000.
The cyclone’s ravagement of the Irrawaddy Delta, which normally accounts for about 65 percent of Myanmar’s rice output, could cause food problems across the country for the foreseeable future.
Already, rice prices in Yangon markets have surged nearly 50 percent. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that Myanmar may not meet commitments to export about 600,000 tons of rice this year.
The cyclone struck just as the region’s paddy farmers were harvesting the dry-season crop, which accounts for about 25 percent of the country’s annual production.
“I think the overall projection is of incredible hardship,” said Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar at Australia’s Macquarie University and editor of Burma Economic Watch.
“In the short term, we are going to see real shortages — and the price of rice is going to be very high,” Turnell said.
