Previous News Items

• Anglicans get used to women bishops
• Richardson takes up Anglican post in Rome
• Burma junta's delays set to add to death-toll
• LETTERS: May 2008 ... Readers react to a newspaper's closure
• OPINION: Two new appointments that challenge assumptions
• LETTERS: April 08 ....READERS HAVE THEIR SAY

Show all news items

Burma junta's delays set to add to death-toll
By From Market-Place, with ENI & ACNS reports
May 12, 2008

Australia's churches are standing by to help contribute to the international aid effort to assist victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma.

But as global frustration mounts at the blocking of aid shipments by Burma's military junta, the death toll from disease is also set to climb sharply. Current estimates put the number of deaths beyond 100,000.

The United Nations suspended relief supplies to Burma 9 May after the military government seized food and equipment that had been sent.

In reports from Burmese residents there were accounts that normal commercial operations had come to a halt and that criminals are capitalising on the situation in some areas.

Burma's military junta told The Associated Press it was prepared to accept disaster relief from the rest of the world, but that it did not want outside relief workers coming in.

China, Burma's closest diplomatic ally, has also urged it to accept help, according to news agency reports.

More than a week after the devastating cyclone, people in Burma are still waiting for relief which aid workers say is being turned back as it arrives at the airport.

Aid organisations say they are also not able to obtain visas for their workers to enter Burma.

The Australian government has increased its aid pledge.

The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) has also launched an appeal to the churches and is preparing to respond to the emergency through its humanitarian agency, the Christian World Service (CWS). CSW plans to channel aid through the Myanmar Council of Churches and ACT

International.

"As we have seen with other disasters, unless there is a massive and immediate aid effort the people of Burma will feel the affects of this cyclone for years to come," Executive Director of NCCA CWS, Alistair Gee, said.

"We are asking for churches around Australia to pray for the people of

Burma and to please give generously."

Donations to the NCCA Burma Cyclone Appeal can be made at:

www.ncca.org.au

Or by phone at 1800 025 101.

ABM~A is also conducting an appeal:

www.abmission.org

Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has written to the Anglican Church in Burma following the devastation of Cyclone Nargis.

In the letter to Archbishop Stephen Than Myint Oo, Dr Williams assures the church of the prayers of the Anglican Communion.

"Our hearts grieve with all those who have lost their loved ones, their homes and their livelihoods," Rowan Williams said."

"In the face of such loss, all I can offer in my prayers for you is the totality of the love of God, even in the face of all that on earth is disfigured by natural disaster.

"Please be assured that your brothers and sisters across the Communion are holding you in their prayers."