U.S. donates rice for Myanmar cyclone survivors

http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSBKK209031._CH_.2400

LABUTTA, Myanmar, April 2 (Reuters) - The United States has donated more than 16,000 tonnes of rice to help survivors of last year's devastating cyclone in military-ruled Myanmar, officials said.

The rice is part of a $28 million American food aid package distributed through the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) to survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which left 140,000 people dead or missing and 2.4 million people severely affected last May.



"The United States government is the WFP's single largest donor for the cyclone victims," said Chris Kaye, the U.N. agency's country director, speaking to Reuters on Wednesday at a WFP distribution camp near Labutta in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy Delta. Nearly a year after the cyclone struck, many people are still living in temporary shelters and access to food and clean water remains a challenge.

The U.S.-donated rice is expected to benefit 350,000 people. Some of it is being distributed under food-for-work projects managed by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to support the rebuilding of roads and dykes.

Larry Dinger, U.S. charge d'affaires in Myanmar, said Washington had provided a total of $74 million in humanitarian assistance to Nargis survivors "as part of America's commitment to the welfare of the Burmese people". Over the years Washington has tightened sanctions on the military, which has ruled the former Burma for more than four decades, to try to push the regime toward political reform and improving human rights.

But sanctions have not worked, and neither has a policy of engagement by Myanmar's regional neighbours.

The Obama administration announced in February that it was conducting a review of its policy towards Myanmar to find new ways to sway one of the world's most reclusive regimes. (Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Editing by Darren Schuettler)