May

8

Myanmar death toll may cross 100,000: US

Filed Under World News | Posted By Jennifer Sullivan |

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burma1.jpgHungry people swarmed the few open shops and fistfights broke out over food and water in Myanmar’s swamped Irrawaddy delta Wednesday as a top U.S. diplomat warned that the death toll from a devastating cyclone could top 100,000.

“The information that we`re receiving indicates that there may well be over 100,000 deaths in the delta area,” said Shari Villarosa, the charge d`affaires of the US embassy in Myanmar.

The minutes of a U.N. aid meeting obtained by The Associated Press, meanwhile, revealed the military junta’s visa restrictions were hampering international relief efforts.

Only a handful of U.N. aid workers had been let into the impoverished Southeast Asian country, which the government has kept isolated for five decades to maintain its iron-fisted control. The U.S. and other countries rushed supplies to the region, but most of it was being held outside Myanmar while awaiting the’s permission to deliver it.

US defense and diplomatic officials said,”The US military was putting people and airplanes into position Wednesday in nearby Thailand. But Myanmar’s government had not accepted the US offer to send aid.”



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