International aid for Burma (Myanmar) faces funding crunch

Aid workers point out that US opprobrium means that Burma already receives a fraction of the foreign aid spent in Cambodia and Laos. The storm battered the country's food security at a time of rising global prices: more than 600,000 hectares of agricultural land were flooded, and fishing boats and aquaculture facilities were destroyed in an area that supplies some 65 percent of national fish production.

But diplomats warn that the political deadlock is hard to ignore.

"The country has suffered so long and badly needs reform. That's the conundrum: If you're going to go in and spend a lot of money, there's no guarantee for any change," says a senior Western diplomat in Bangkok.

Exiled Burmese activists argue that any credible aid effort must be backed by political pressure. "There's not only a natural disaster going on in Burma, there's also a man-made disaster, a regime that won't hand over power or even sit down to negotiations," says Soe Aung, a member of the National Council of the Union of Burma in Bangkok.

Mr. Holmes said the UN had collected most of the money from its initial appeal for Burma and downplayed concerns about a budgetary crunch. He said the end of World Food Programme relief flights into Burma next month and cutbacks in its helicopter service in the disaster zone were the right moves, as it was cheaper to use sea and land transport that could carry heavier loads.

"The boats are there, they can be hired. The trucks are there, they can be hired," he told a press conference in Bangkok.

Australia, Japan, and New Zealand separately pledged more money this week for cyclone aid. UN officials say that despite fears of aid being siphoned off by authorities, there are no signs of systematic abuses.

UN officials have been embarrassed, however, by claims that aid money is being converted into Burmese currency at a discount to the market value. Under existing regulations, foreigners are obliged to change hard currency into government-issued coupons with a lower exchange value. Holmes said he had flagged this as a "significant problem" in his meeting this week with senior Burmese officials.

In May, Burmese authorities put the number of dead and missing from the cyclone at roughly 140,000. That figure hasn't been revised, and aid experts say the final death toll will probably never be known.

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