Re: Massive Starvation For World Feared Over Myanmar And Chile

Bush to Myanmar: "Let the US come and help you"


Bush calls on Myanmar: accept aid


By Matt Spetalnick

WA****NGTON, May 6 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush made a rare
appeal to Myanmar's military rulers on Tuesday to accept U.S. relief
officials and added $3 million in aid to help victims of a cyclone
that devastated the Southeast Asian nation.

"Our message is to the military rulers. Let the United States come and
help you, help the people," Bush said, addressing a military
government he has long tried to isolate.

The death toll from Cyclone Nargis, the deadliest in Asia since 1991,
rose to nearly 22,500 with an additional 41,000 missing, even as
Myanmar's leaders continued to refuse entry to U.S. disaster response
teams.

Bush said the United States was ready to provide emergency assistance,
including U.S. Navy ****ps and aircraft carriers already in the region
capable of deploying Marines and helicopters on humanitarian missions.

The White House later announced the United States was committing $3
million through the U.S. Agency for International Development to meet
the most urgent needs, up from an initial emergency contribution of
$250,000.

"We want to do a lot more," Bush had told re****ters in the Oval
Office.

But he risked further antagonizing the junta by coupling his aid offer
with a signing ceremony for legislation awarding its chief political
opponent, detained democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, the
Congressional Gold Medal, the top U.S. civilian honor.

The United States and Myanmar have long been estranged. Bush last week
imposed a new round of sanctions on the country's military rulers to
pressure them on human rights and political reform.

REACHING OUT

With Wa****ngton joining other world powers trying to rush in aid after
the weekend cyclone, the State Department said on Monday its
government was refusing to admit U.S. disaster experts to *****s
emergency needs. The White House said the teams were on standby in
Bangkok.

"We're prepared to move U.S. naval assets to help find those who lost
their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the
situation," Bush said. "But in order to do so, the military junta must
allow our disaster *****sment teams into the country."

The disaster's scale has drawn a rare acceptance of outside help from
Myanmar's generals, who spurned such approaches in the aftermath of
the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

But it has been harder for Myanmar to open up to the United States
because of strained relations, especially since its violent crackdown
on protests led by Buddhist monks in September.

Bush had further criticism for Myanmar's rulers in awarding the Gold
Medal to Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

"This is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman who speaks for
freedom for all the people of Burma, and who speaks in such a way that
she's a powerful voice in contrast to the junta that currently rules
the country," he said.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won elections in 1990 but the
junta refused to hand over power and has detained her for most of the
time since then.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said cyclone aid would not be
contingent on Myanmar accepting U.S. disaster teams, and that money
would not go directly to the military government but to non-
governmental organizations.

Asked whether further aid would be forthcoming, she told re****ters: "I
think we just need to see ... This $3 million will go a long way. But
also if we could get our ****ps there to be able to help them, more and
more people could be helped." (Additional re****ting by Jeremy Pelofsky
and Andrew Gray; editing by Patricia Zengerle)