It poses a real dilemma for humanitarian agencies about how far they should be prepared to accept restrictions of their operations in the interests of the people they are trying to help. But in the wake of the recent cyclone they must act fast to save lives. BROOKS NO DELAY: Residents of Yangon in search of water. International aid has barely begun to trickle into cyclone-stricken Myanmar. Even before the devastating cyclone hit Myanmar, the country was in desperate need of help. The government now says 22,000 people have died and 41,000 are missing, figures far higher than it originally admitted. The biggest problem will be obtaining access to affected areas. Myanmar's government has long been suspicious of international aid agencies, and although it has accepted help from U.N. agencies already working there, their activities are tightly controlled. Myanmar only receives around $3 per capita of international aid, far less than its neighbours: Vietnam receives $33 per capita, Cambodia $47 and Laos $63. This is a result of the international sanctions in place since the mid-90s. Some humanitarian agencies, such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, have left the country, while the Red Cross has suspended its programmes due to government restrictions. Myanmar used to be one of the largest rice exporters in the world, but decades of conflict and economic mismanagement by its reclusive military junta have pushed much of its population to the brink of starvation. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), one of the few international agencies allowed to operate in the country, 10 per cent of the population does not receive enough food to meet its basic daily needs, and 30 per cent lives under the absolute poverty line. This figure climbs to 70 per cent in many rural areas. It is extremely difficult for agencies to obtain permission to begin operations. Those allowed to do so must accept restrictions as to where they can work and have to submit their assessments, surveys and reports for clearance by the authorities. During the uprisings last autumn, the U.N. country team issued a statement highlighting the difficulties faced by the population in meeting their daily needs. Although it drew exclusively on government statistics, this brought a furious rebuttal from the regime. It expelled the U.N. humanitarian coordinator and has since carried out a bureaucratic harassment of aid workers