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thedrifter
06-04-08, 07:26 AM
Navy ships ordered to leave Myanmar
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jun 4, 2008 7:44:17 EDT

HONOLULU — The U.S. military Wednesday ordered Navy ships loaded with relief aid off Myanmar’s coast to leave the area after the country’s xenophobic junta refused to give them permission to help survivors of last month’s devastating cyclone.

Adm. Timothy Keating, the top commander in the Pacific, ordered the amphibious assault ship Essex and accompanying vessels to depart the Myanmar area after what he said were 15 separate attempts in recent weeks to get the junta’s authorization to help with relief efforts.

Myanmar’s state media has said it feared a U.S. invasion aimed at seizing the country’s oil deposits.

The ruling generals also have forbidden the use of military helicopters from friendly neighboring nations, which are vital in rushing supplies to isolated survivors in the Irrawaddy delta. This has forced aid agencies to scour for civilian aircraft around the world, and bring them in at dramatically increasing costs.

The U.N. has estimated 2.4 million people are in need of food, shelter or medical care as a result of the storm, which the government said killed 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing.

“I am both saddened and frustrated to know that we have been in a position to help ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people and help mitigate further loss of life, but have been unable to do so because of the unrelenting position of the Burma military junta,” Keating said. Myanmar is also known as Burma.

Several aircraft will remain in Thailand to support aid efforts, the admiral said.

The Essex expeditionary strike group includes four ships, 22 medium- and heavy-lift helicopters, four landing craft, and more than 5,000 U.S. military personnel.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday that Myanmar’s obstruction of international efforts to help cyclone victims cost “tens of thousands of lives.”

He said Myanmar’s rulers “have kept their hands in their pockets” while other countries sought to help cyclone victims.

Myanmar allowed only limited U.S. military aid flights to the country, and barred the ships from approaching.

Ellie