May

6

State media say 10,000 dead in Myanmar; higher toll expected

Filed Under Weather | Posted By Jennifer Sullivan |

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img5.jpgMyanmar officials feared on Tuesday the death toll would climb far higher than the reported 10,000 dead from the Southeast Asian nation’s devastating cyclone as the international community prepared to rush in aid.

In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, state radio reported that the government was delaying a constitutional referendum in areas hit hardest.

Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Nyan Win was quoted by state-run television as saying that more than 10,000 people had perished in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta region while a smaller number died in and around Yangon, the country’s major city.

“News and data are still being collected, so there may be many more casualties,” he stated.

The World Food Program, which was preparing to fly in food, added its own grim assessment of the destruction: Up to 1 million people may be homeless, some villages have been almost completely wiped out and huge rice-growing areas are worn out.

Images from state television showed large trees and electricity poles sprawled across roads and roofless houses ringed by large sheets of water in the delta region, which is considered as Myanmar’s rice bowl.

The television report gave two different numbers — 59 and 130 — for the dead in what is recognized as Yangon division. It did not clarify the differing tolls.

State radio reported Saturday’s vote on a draft constitution would be postponed until May 24 in 40 townships in the region of Yangon and seven in the Irrawaddy delta, which bore the brunt of the killer storm.

It indicated that in other areas the balloting would proceed as programmed.

The country’s ruling junta, which has spurned the international community for decades, urgently appealed for foreign aid at a meeting Nyan Win held with diplomats Monday in Yangon. Foreign governments were poised Tuesday to rush aid to the devastated nation.

“We expect to fly in more assistance within the next 48 hours,” stated WFP spokesman Paul Risley in Bangkok, Thailand. “The challenge will be getting to the affected areas with road blockages everywhere.”

The appeal came less than a week ahead of a crucial referendum on a military-backed constitution that the ruling junta expected would go smoothly in its support, in spite of opposition from the country’s feisty pro-democracy association and extensive international criticism that it falls far short of democratic benchmarks. Though, the tragedy could stir the already tense political situation, several analysts stated.

A military transport plane was scheduled to land in Yangon later Tuesday with emergency aid from Thailand while numerous other countries and organizations stated they were prepared to follow.

The United States, which has slapped economic sanctions on the country, stated it likewise stood prepared. The U.S. Embassy is providing $250,000 in instant aid from existing emergency fund. However first lady Laura Bush told Monday the U.S. would provide additional aid only if one of its own ruin teams is permissible into the country.

The European Commission was offering $3 million in humanitarian aid, and the president of neighboring China pledged help without presenting details.

Earlier, Richard Horsey, a spokesman in Bangkok for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, stated the storm has left hundreds of thousands with no hygienic drinking water.

“Our biggest fear is that the aftermath might be more deadly than the storm itself,” sated Stern, who leads the U.N. Children’s Fund in the United States. UNICEF told that it had dispatched five assessment teams to three of the affected areas.

Relief Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Maung Swe told at the meeting with diplomats that the referendum planned for Saturday can be delayed by “a few days” in the worst-affected areas, but state media indicated Monday that the May 10 date was still set.

The diplomats stated they were told Myanmar welcomed international help as well as immediately required roofing supplies, medicine, water purifying tablets and mosquito nets. The Thais were sending a shipment of 10 tons (9 metric tons) of such supplies.

The petition for assistance was strange for Myanmar’s ruling generals, who have long been doubtful of the international organizations and have intimately controlled their activities.

There was little signal of official efforts to mend the damage in Yangon, although the worst-hit areas were in the countryside, now inaccessible by road due to storm damage.

“The blend of the cyclone and the referendum within a few days of each other makes angry inhabitants angrier and defenseless and makes the political situation more unstable” than it has been since last year’s huge pro-democracy demonstrations, stated Monique Skidmore, a Myanmar expert at Australian National University.

At least 31 people were killed and thousands more were held when the military cracked down on nonviolent protests in September led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.

The government had actually taken few efforts to set up for the storm, which came bearing down on the country from the Bay of Bengal late Friday. Weather warnings broadcast on television would have been largely ineffective for the worst-hit rural areas where electricity supply is mottled and television a scarcity.

“The governments deceive people,” stated Thin Thin, a grocery story possessor in Yangon. “They could have warned us about the harshness of the approaching cyclone so we could be better arranged.”

Yangon was with no electricity apart from where gas-fed generators were accessible and inhabitants lined up to buy candles, which have doubled in cost since the storm hit. Several homes were without water, forcing families to stand in queues for drinking water and bathe in the city’s lakes.

Most telephone landlines seemed to be restored by late Monday, but mobile phones and Internet connections were down.

Few in Yangon protested that the 400,000-strong military was just clearing streets where the ruling elite resided but leaving residents, as well as Buddhist monks, to handle on their own in the majority other areas.

Myanmar has been under military rule from 1962. Its government has been extensively criticized for restraint of pro-democracy parties like as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for about 12 of the past 18 years.



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