YANGON - The 1.5 million people left destitute by Myanmar's devastating cyclone were increasingly desperate on Wednesday, as foreign aid remained at a trickle and overstretched aid workers struggled to reach hard-hit areas.
In a token and late concession to critics who say outside aid is critical, Myanmar's reclusive military rulers invited 160 personnel from neighbouring Bangladesh, China, India and Thailand to assist in delayed and sometimes chaotic relief efforts.
But it is a fraction of the thousands of foreign aid workers needed for a "tsunami-style" international aid operation from the May 3 cyclone, which left up to 100,000 people dead or missing in the Irrawaddy delta.
"It's just awful. People are in just desperate need, begging as vehicles go past," Gordon Bacon, an emergency coordinator for the International Rescue Committee, told Reuters by phone from Yangon.
Thailand's prime minister flew to Myanmar's main city of Yangon to try to persuade Prime Minister Thein Sein to let more foreign experts into areas pulverised by the early May storm.
Samak Sundaravej is hoping for more luck than United Nations and Western officials, whose similar efforts have had little success.
Some have suggested food and other urgent supplies may have been diverted by Myanmar's ruling junta rather than going straight to helpless victims, many homeless and some barefoot.
However, a World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman in Bangkok said of high-energy food it had sent: "We collected the biscuits at the (Yangon) airport and they remain in our possession."
In any case, experts said the relief effort - further complicated by heavy rains and the threat of a possible second cyclone - is only delivering a tenth of the supplies needed.
A tropical depression was swirling southwest of Yangon on Wednesday and a U.S. advisory warned it could develop into a cyclone in the next 24 hours.
"It's terrible. This is always another worry when you have a major disaster, that you have further hazards affecting people," Amanda Pitt, spokeswoman for the U.N.'s humanitarian affairs office, told a news conference in Bangkok.
GREATER TRAGEDY
