The international relief effort for hundreds of thousands of Myanmar cyclone victims picked up speed Wednesday as India dispatched two planeloads of aid and Myanmar authorized the United Nations to send its own air shipment, officials said. But the Myanmar government's slowness in issuing visas to aid workers appeared to remain a problem, the Associated Press reported. Aid workers on the ground have already begun distributing food and other supplies to victims of the weekend's devastating storm, which killed more than 22,000 people and left 41,000 more missing. India sent two air force planes carrying about 8.8 U.S. tons (8 metric tons) of relief supplies, including tents and medicine, according to the Defense Ministry. They follow two Indian navy ships that left Tuesday for Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, with similar supplies, said Navtej Sarna, the spokesman for India's External Affairs Ministry. Indonesia, the country worst hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, said Wednesday it would soon send emergency aid worth US$1 million (¤640,000). The tsunami killed more than 160, 000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province. Two military planes carrying food, medicine, blankets and 55 relief workers will leave Thursday, said Maj. Gen. Syamsul Maarif, chief of Indonesia's disaster management coordination agency. «The tragedy has reminded the president of the December 2004 tsunami,» said a spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. «He decided Indonesia must help Myanmar,» said the spokesman, Dino Pati Djalal. Elisabeth Byrs, Geneva spokeswoman for U.N. relief efforts, said she expected the United Nations cargo plane would go from Brindisi, Italy, to Myanmar later Wednesday, but that it is still unclear where it will land in Myanmar. «We are working on that,» Byrs said. She said U.N. officials hoped to have U.N. experts accompany the flight, but that they were still waiting for Myanmar authorities to grant them permission. Byrs said the U.N. flight was approved Tuesday in a meeting between U.N. and Myanmar officials in New York. «We hope this spirit of openness will continue,» Byrs said. U.N. staff in Bangkok, Thailand, also are awaiting approval of their visas so they can go to Myanmar and assess damage. Other countries and organizations are also mounting their own relief efforts.
