The Winnipeg-based Canadian Foodgrains Bank said this morning it may be weeks before it is able to provide food aid to victims of the disastrous cyclone in Myanmar.
"We're in discussions with people on the ground and determining what can be done," said Jim Cornelius, the agency's executive director. "We expect to be responding. We just don't know at what level and in quite what way."
The United Nations suspended aid shipments today to the hungry and homeless survivors of last weekend's devastating cyclone after supplies already on the ground were seized by the military junta. The UN later announced that it would resume food aid flights tomorrow while it negotiates the fate of the confiscated aid.
Cornelius said the UN's action to halt shipments was "very significant."
All aid agencies need to have the ability to ensure that the resources they supply target those who are most in need — and not being politically manipulated. "Disasters, unfortunately, can be used by the powerful to reinforce power," Cornelius said.
The Canadian Foodgrains Bank, a Christian based relief agency with 15 member groups, is wrestling with how it's going to respond to the crisis because of the lack of information coming from the "closed" military-ruled nation, Cornelius said.
"We're all working with much less knowledge... because of the political situation," he said, although he noted that several of the foodgrains bank member groups operate low-key food and agricultural development programs there. That means the CFB is receiving some independent reports of the extent of the crisis.
The foodgrains bank doesn't have the resources or the expertise to provide immediate air shipments of food aid, Cornelius said, adding that flying in food is "horrendously expensive." That's more the domain of the UN, he said.
But he pointed out that Myanmar will require food aid for quite some time.
"It's not just about today. We have to be thinking and planning for many months down the road."
Cornelius said all early indications is that much of the country's rice crop was destroyed by the cyclone and that continued high water levels may prevent, or certainly reduce, planting of next season's crop.
"So you potentially have two rice crop seasons severely affected," he said.
There are indications that the regime, spurred by high cereal grain prices and a high demand for rice in the region, may have exported much of its stocks.
Unlike with other countries in need, however, reliable information on Myanmar's food supplies is difficult to obtain, Cornelius said.
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