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[Newsposter]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7383573.stm

Burmese exiles are urging the country's military rulers to allow aid agencies to operate freely inside the country in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Nargis.

They say their expertise will be vital as Burma attempts to recover from the cyclone, which killed more than 350.

Five regions have been declared disaster zones by the government, including the main city, Rangoon.

Meanwhile, state media says despite the cyclone, a referendum on a new constitution will go ahead on 10 May.

"The referendum is only a few days away and the people are eagerly looking forward to voting," the government is quoted as saying in a statement carried by state media.

Burma's leaders say the referendum will pave the way for multi-party elections in 2010, but critics say the charter is aimed primarily at further entrenching military rule.

'Ill-prepared'

The United Nations has said it is still waiting for the government to approve the start of relief efforts in the wake of the cyclone.

The Burmese regime is normally distrustful of outside influences.

The regional head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Terje Skavdal, told the BBC that his organisation was hoping to take relief supplies into Burma - with plastic sheeting for shelter, water purification tablets and cooking sets a priority.

He said Burma's deputy minister of social welfare had indicated that international assistance might be welcome.

"Hopefully that will mean that we in the next few days might be able to mobilise additional resources to support the victims of this situation."

Naing Aung, secretary general of the Thailand-based Forum for Democracy in Burma, said: "International expertise in dealing with natural disasters is urgently required.

"The military regime is ill-prepared to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone."

'Villages flattened'

Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the country two days ago with winds of speeds reaching 190km/h (120 mph).

In Rangoon, roofs were blown off buildings and electricity supplies cut.

Shari Villarosa, the leading US diplomat in the city, said the storm had caused devastation.

"The Burmese are saying they have never seen anything like this, ever," she told the Associated Press news agency.

Rescue workers have yet to reach some of the worst-hit areas of the country, including the low-lying Irrawaddy delta region, which was also hit by a storm surge.

"The villages there have reportedly been completely flattened," said Chris Kaye, the UN's acting humanitarian co-ordinator in Rangoon.

Initial efforts to assess the situation had been hampered because roads were blocked with storm debris and telephone lines were down, he added.

State-run television reported that at least 162 people had been killed on Haing-Gyi island, off the country's south-west coast. About 20,000 homes have been destroyed on the island, and 90,000 people made homeless.

Burma has been under military rule since 1962, and the government stifles most dissenting voices.

It has been widely criticised for human rights abuses and the suppression of opposition parties such as the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.

Last September, at least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military suppressed anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks.

note: this is rather early for storms this strong anywhere in the northern hemisphere, let alone the not-that-active Indian Ocean basin

[Newsposter]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/06/asia/06myanmar.php

Myanmar struggled Monday to recover from a cyclone that killed more than 3,900 people and perhaps as many as 10,000, while its military leaders were moving ahead with a constitutional referendum on Saturday that would cement their grip on power.

If these numbers are accurate, the death toll would be the highest from a natural disaster in Asia since the tsunami of December 2004, which devastated coastlines along Indonesia, Thailand and other parts of south Asia and claimed 181,000 lives.

Tens of thousands of people were homeless after the cyclone, and food and water were running short.

"Stories get worse by the hour," one Yangon resident, who did not want to be identified for fear of government retribution, reported in an e-mail message. "No drinking water in many areas, still no power. Houses completely disappeared. Refugees scavenging for food in poorer areas. Roofing, building supplies, tools — all are scarce and prices skyrocketing on everything."

Officials said they would open the doors of their closed and tightly controlled nation to international relief groups. So far, most foreigners and all foreign journalists have been barred from entering the country.

They also said the controversial referendum would proceed. "It's only a few days left before the coming referendum and people are eager to cast their vote," an official statement said Monday.

But witnesses and residents said the military had been slow to respond to the devastation of the cyclone and some suggested that the government's performance could affect the vote in the referendum.

Residents said that they were being pressured to vote "yes" and that riot police officers had been patrolling the streets before the cyclone in a show of force that was more visible than their relief efforts afterward.

Just nine months ago, security forces had fired into crowds to disperse huge pro-democracy demonstrations led by monks killing dozens of people, and in the months since the government has carried out a campaign of arrests and intimidation.

State-owned television had reported early Monday that 3,934 people had died in Cyclone Nargis, which swept through the Irrawaddy Delta and the country's main city, Yangon, early Saturday. The broadcast said nearly 3,000 were missing, all of them from a single town, Bogalay.

That report was followed by a briefing at which three cabinet ministers told diplomats and United Nations officials that the death toll could reach 10,000 people in the delta region, an area that is home to nearly half the nation's 48 million people, according to Richard Horsey, a spokesman for the United Nations disaster response office in Bangkok.

That estimate represents a dramatic increase over the government's initial estimate on Sunday of 351 people killed.

"What is clear is that we are dealing with a major emergency situation, and the priority needs now are shelter and clean drinking water," Horsey said.

A spokesman for the World Food Program said the government of Myanmar, which severely restricts the movements and activities of foreign groups, had given the United Nations permission to send in emergency aid.

At the United Nations Monday, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said he had mobilized a disaster assessment team to determine Myanmar's most urgent needs.

A human rights group based in Thailand, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma, which has provided reliable information from Myanmar in the past, said that soldiers and police officers had killed 36 prisoners in Insein prison to quell a riot that started after the cyclone tore roof sheets off cell blocks, Reuters reported.

The report could not be independently confirmed.

The junta that rules Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has closed the country off from the outside world and maintained its grip on power through force, while its economic mismanagement has driven the country deeper into poverty.

Some government-run enterprises or businesses with associations with the government have already required their employees to vote in advance.

Exile groups said some residents had told them they were angry about the weak response of the military, which had seemed strong enough when the task was cracking down on citizens.

"This is what people I have contacted complain about," said Aung Zaw, editor of the magazine Irrawaddy, based in Thailand. "These people were so active in September killing the monks, but where are they now?"

Residents of Yangon complained the government failed to adequately warn them of the approaching storm.

"The government misled people," Thin Thin, a grocery store owner, told The Associated Press. "They could have warned us about the severity of the coming cyclone so we could be better prepared."

[angst the fool]

somewhere in between 350 and 10,000 anyhow...

[Jad]

originally 350, then 4,000, now closing in on 10,000...

[Jad]

Death toll is now over 22,000 - more on that tonight - and by looking at satellite photos, it can probably go much higher.  A significant amount of the country of Burma just got erased from view:



That's crazy.  You're looking at hundreds of square miles of land, villages, and people - gone.

[Newsposter]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7389083.stm

Five days after a devastating cyclone struck, the UN has urged Burma to open its doors to foreign aid and staff.

More than 22,000 people were killed, says the government, but the top US diplomat in Burma warned that without speedy action that could top 100,000.

Amid the "increasingly horrendous" situation, there is a "real risk" of disease outbreak, said the head of the US embassy in Burma, Shari Villarosa.

Some aid has arrived but the UN says big obstacles remain for aid agencies.

Burma's ruling military junta has approved the passage of some aid, but other offers have been spurned while many foreign aid workers are being held in a queue for visas.

In the area worst affected by Saturday's cyclone, the vast Irrawaddy delta, survivors have walked for days past dead bodies to find help.

They are hungry, thirsty and vulnerable to disease - but roads and bridges are blocked and aid has been slow to arrive.

Disease risk

The last Burmese death toll, on Tuesday, said 22,464 people had now been confirmed dead and another 41,054 people were missing as a result of high winds and the tidal surge.

Up to a million people are thought to have been left homeless in the crisis, which has left thousands of square kilometres of the Irrawaddy delta under water.

Shari Villarosa, the charge d'affaires of the US embassy in Burma - also known as Myanmar - said food and water were running short in the delta area and called the situation there "increasingly horrendous."

"There is a very real risk of disease outbreaks as long as this continues," Ms Villarosa said, according to Associated Press.

The death toll could reach or exceed 100,000 as humanitarian conditions worsen, she said - based on information from a non-governmental organisation that she would not name.

But Burma's generals will be suspicious of the source of the statistic - their opponent the United States, says the BBC's world diplomatic editor Brian Hanrahan.

Accounts from the Irrawaddy delta have spoken of fistfights breaking out between survivors desperate to seize dwindling supplies of food and water.

Some are breaking open coconuts for the water inside, while others are driven to eating dead fish.

Poor sanitation, rotting bodies in the water, and flooding could all bring disease, aid agencies warn.

They highlight the risk of mosquito-borne malaria and dengue fever, along with water-borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery.

[Newsposter]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7387715.stm

The cyclone which struck Burma on Saturday is the worst natural disaster the country has experienced in modern times.

The storm drove waves 3-4 m (10-13 ft) high across the flat, swampy Irrawaddy delta, obliterating entire towns and villages in scenes strikingly reminiscent of the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004.

The death toll is enormous; the needs of survivors are urgent, and clearly well beyond the capacity of a government which even in normal conditions fails to provide the most basic services for its people.

No food or water

"Some areas are still completely under salt water, and people have absolutely no food or drinking water," said Andrew Kirkwood from Save the Children in Rangoon.

"Unless assistance gets into those kinds of areas very soon, the death toll will rise."

The initial response of the military authorities was not encouraging. The day after the storm civilians could be seen in Rangoon struggling to cut up fallen trees by hand, with few soldiers in evidence.

International aid agencies were hamstrung by the need to request permission from the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, to travel anywhere.

But as the magnitude of the disaster has become clear there has been a marked change in attitude.

Their in-country teams are being allowed to travel into the delta region without permission, so long as they have someone from the government or the local Red Cross with them. Four army divisions have been mobilised to help in the Irrawaddy delta.

A number of UN and other agencies keep offices and significant emergency supplies inside Burma, so they have been able to get some relief out immediately to more accessible places.

Seventeen assessment teams have already been dispatched to the affected areas - they will now be able to draw up a preliminary picture of what kind of help is needed, and how best to get it there.

Transport will be critical. Much of the delta is normally only accessible by boat, and most of those berthed in the area were destroyed by the storm.

But for the relief operation to be effective, far more aid workers need to be allowed into the country - people with experience of managing a disaster this big, who know how to keep the flow of aid moving.

That is where the Burmese authorities have baulked.

Wary generals

The military is extremely wary of allowing the small number of foreigners based in Burma to move around in normal times; the prospect of having many times that number operating in the country may prove too much for the generals to swallow.

"Some are getting in, some are not - we need the floodgates to open," said Britain's Ambassador in Rangoon, Mark Canning.

"It's crucial that we get these humanitarian experts in, and that's what we're putting a lot of effort into at the moment".

The government has appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint to oversee the issuing of visas, but it still is not clear whether he has the authority to approve them in the numbers the international agencies say they need.

It is worth making a comparison with the tsunami that struck Aceh in Indonesia in 2004, and the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005 which hit Kashmir.

In both countries the disasters occurred in sensitive areas controlled by the military, to which foreigners were usually denied access.

In both countries the governments responded to the disaster by opening their doors to aid workers and journalists, and allowing the UN to co-ordinate the relief operation.

The massive international presence after the tsunami was one of the factors that persuaded the Indonesian military and Acehnese rebels to bring their long conflict to an end.

This simply will not happen in Burma. The government is very unlikely to allow foreign journalists in, just as it is about to hold a controversial referendum on the new constitution it has drafted.

And even if significant numbers of aid workers do get in, the operation will certainly be run by the military authorities, and may be subject to restrictions that hamper them from getting help to those in need.

There will be no great opening up to the outside world in Burma, as there was in Aceh.

The fear and suspicion of outsiders, especially Westerners, is too ingrained in the minds of the men in green who always have the last word in Burma.

[Newsposter]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/09/asia/myanmar.php

BANGKOK: In the midst of disaster, ballot boxes.

As foreign aid groups bang on the door in an attempt to deliver disaster relief, the generals who run Myanmar have a priority of their own, a constitutional referendum scheduled for Saturday.

The constitution is central to the generals' political battle plans - "life and death" for the highest leaders, in the words of one Burmese analyst.

"To approve the state constitution is the national duty of the entire people," the state-run New Light of Myanmar said in a front-page headline Friday.

"Let us all cast 'yes' votes in the nation's interest," the newspaper declared.

One of the first official announcements after the cyclone struck, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving close to a million homeless, was that the referendum would proceed as planned.

Since then, the government has relented a bit, postponing the vote for two weeks in 47 townships in the worst-hit areas, where some villages were obliterated by the storm.

The junta's plan to go ahead with the vote while restricting the delivery of disaster aid from the United Nations and other relief agencies has drawn widespread criticism and amazement.

On Friday, almost a week after the cyclone, Myanmar continued to block all but a trickle of foreign aid, barring large-scale deliveries by the World Food Program and other United Nations relief agencies.

In one of the gentler comments, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, addressing the generals, suggested that due to the scope of the disaster, "it may be prudent to focus instead on mobilizing all available resources and capacity for the emergency response."

As one analyst noted, some of the same soldiers who could be rescuing survivors are likely to be dispatched instead to guard polling places and help carry out the balloting.

"It is one of the best examples of the disregard for the people by the military," said the analyst, Josef Silverstein an expert on Myanmar at Rutgers University.

The constitution is the centerpiece of the junta's policies for the future, but most outside analysts see little of democracy in it.

"If you believe in gnomes, trolls and elves, you can believe in this democratic process in Myanmar," the chief human rights investigator for the UN, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said late last year.

Fourteen years in the making, it is formulated to keep power in the hands of military officers, even if they change to civilian clothes.

As the generals see it, a constitution endorsed by a popular vote will give them formal legitimacy 20 years after the current junta seized power at a time of bloody massacre.

It is the junta's answer to outside critics who demand democratic rule in Myanmar - part of a seven-step "road map to democracy" that is meant to lead to a multiparty election in 2011.

But it will be what the generals call a "developed and discipline-flourishing democracy" in which the military is guaranteed 25 percent of the seats in Parliament and control of key cabinet posts, along with the right to suspend democratic freedoms at any time.

The generals' determination to proceed with the referendum may come in part from the same source as their reluctance to allow in foreign aid workers: a fear of the outside world.

If the aid workers are allowed into their closed and tightly ruled country, the generals fear, they could bring the contamination of foreign ideas and standards.

If the constitution is postponed, they may feel, it will be a victory for outside elements who are trying to destabilize Myanmar.

According to one official analysis, the monks' uprising last September in which at least 31 people died was instigated by the West in order to derail the constitutional process.

Last September, one government commentary said foreign enemies feared the passage of the constitution because it would guarantee Myanmar's independence.

"Some global powers who practice hegemonism totally dislike the proposed constitution as it contains stipulations assuring self-determination and prohibiting the stationing of foreign troops on Myanmar soil," the commentary read.

Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese exile commentator based in Bangkok, said he saw a personal motive among the generals who are pushing forward with the constitution: survival.

Its guarantee of military supremacy in a civilian government, and an amnesty it contains for past official misdeeds, may be their savior from retribution if they are ever forced from office.

"This is life or death for Than Shwe," he said, referring to the leader of the junta. "He needs military people - his people - in key places so he won't have to answer for the crimes he has committed."

[Newsposter]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7391812.stm

Rice prices have risen for a sixth consecutive day as global supplies continue to be stretched by cyclone damage to crops in Burma.

With worldwide demand also at a record high, the cost of rice rose as much as 5.1% to $23.45 per 100lb in electronic trading on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Cyclone Nargis hit Burma on 3 May, killing tens of thousands of people in the main rice-producing areas.

Rice prices had already hit all-time highs after some weak harvests.

The price of US long-grain rice - the global benchmark - has now risen by almost two-thirds since the start of this year.

This increase has been replicated around the world, with Thai and Indian rice prices going up by similar amounts.

'Aggressively buy'

The higher prices have been exacerbated by a number of key producing nations moving to set limits on rice exports to try to guarantee sufficient domestic supplies and calm internal prices.

The number one exporter Thailand has announced such a move, as have India, Bangladesh and Egypt.

Such export limits have raised concerns in key rice importers, such as the Philippines, which has said it will "aggressively" seek fresh supplies.

Analysts said Thursday's announcement that Malaysia had bought 500,000 tones of rice from Thailand was further lifting global prices.

"The rice market is dealing with some serious issues right now," said John Casey from Founders Commodities in Chicago.

Malnutrition risk

The prices of wheat and other basic foodstuffs such as maize and soya have also risen sharply, as demand has been increased by continuing population growth.

As a result, the Asian Development Bank has warned that one billion people across Asia are now at risk of malnutrition.

China is the world's biggest rice producer, but almost all of its crop is kept for the domestic market. With the world's largest population to feed, Beijing keeps rice prices subsidised.

While Burma is the world's sixth largest rice producer, it is less of an exporter because of the isolationist position of its military-run government.

[Newsposter]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7392331.stm

The World Food Programme says it will resume aid flights to Burma on Saturday, despite a row over the local authorities impounding deliveries.

The UN body had suspended relief flights after the Burmese government seized tonnes of aid material flown in to help victims of Cyclone Nargis.

The cyclone killed thousands of people and left many more at risk.

A Burmese government spokesman told the Associated Press the UN claims had been "baseless accusations".

Ye Htut said the government had taken control of the aid to distribute it "without delay by its own labour to the affected areas".

The country's ruling generals have faced mounting criticism over their handling of the crisis.

The UN fears more than 1.5 million people have been affected by the cyclone, with tens of thousands made homeless and vulnerable to disease.

The World Health Organization says access to clean drinking water and outbreaks of communicable diseases such as dengue and malaria are a major concern.

Burmese state media say 22,980 people were killed, but there are fears the figure could rise.

Britain's ambassador to Burma, Mark Canning, said authoritative sources were now speaking of between 63,000 and 100,000 people dead or missing.

Hundreds of thousands of people have no food, water or shelter. International aid agencies on the ground say seven tonnes of high-energy biscuits have been distributed in the delta region, but they have reached only 10% of those that need help.

Despite this, Burma's foreign ministry issued a statement on Friday saying it was not ready to allow foreign aid workers to enter the country.

The junta said it was happy to accept aid, but insisted it would control the distribution itself.

'Murdering own people'

WFP spokesman Paul Risley said two flights of "critically-needed food aid" - including 38 tonnes of high-energy biscuits - arrived in Burma on Friday but was confiscated.

"We are very concerned that this food is not reaching - on day six after a cyclone - the very victims of that cyclone.

"We have appealed to the minister for social welfare to release that food as quickly as possible so that it can continue on its way south to the victims of the cyclone.

"It is sitting in a warehouse, it is not in trucks heading to Irrawaddy Delta where it is critically needed."

The BBC's Jonathan Head in neighbouring Thailand says that given how little aid is getting into Burma, this was a disappointing setback.

He said the military leaders appeared to be putting their pride and entrenched suspicion of foreigners before the lives of their people.

One aid official told him the Burmese government was "murdering their own people by letting them die".

Tim Costello, from World Vision Australia, said aid workers in Burma were experiencing feelings of guilt about not being able to do enough and felt fear and frustration as a result of that.

"But their job is to work with the situation and keep hope alive and keep going," he told a Disasters Emergency Committee news conference in London.

The BBC's Paul Danahar, in southern Burma despite restrictions on journalists, says the survivors need more than food.

He says they have been cut off and helpless for seven days and are surrounded by tens of thousands of rotting corpses.

What they really need, he says, is the corpses to be moved, clean water, shelter, and efforts to start rebuilding the devastated infrastructure.

Thai pressure

The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, says two trucks with shelter supplies are due to cross the border from Thailand on Saturday.

Spokeswoman Vivian Tan said the agency had assurances from the government that it would be allowed to monitor the distribution process.

"It is a small drop in the ocean given the needs on the ground," she told the BBC. "But given the scale of the crisis we need to explore different delivery routes."

Thailand's Foreign Minister, Noppadon Pattma, said he would be asking his Burmese counterpart to be more flexible regarding the admission of aid and aid teams.

"Myanmar (Burma) should be more responsive to international assistance but we cannot force Myanmar to do it, we have to respect her own decision," he told the BBC.

"But the Myanmar people should be at the centre of considerations."

[Newsposter]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/burmamyanmar/1949919/Myanmar-cyclone-Burmese-officials-selling-emergency-supplies-in-local-markets.html

Burmese volunteers who are operating their own private aid missions to the area have said that they are having to hide from local apparatchiks in order to prevent them commandeering their aid and selling it on at markets.

The Daily Telegraph learned of the alleged scam from a Burmese businessman from Rangoon, who was leading one of dozens of private relief missions distributing supplies of rice, biscuits and clothing around the flood-hit delta area on Monday.

The volunteers had covered the back of their pick up truck with a tarpaulin so that local officials could not see what they were doing.

"If they see our relief supplies, they will come over and say 'don’t worry, give that to us, we will distribute it for you',” he said.

"But we know that for every ten sacks of rice we give them, only four will reach the people.

"The other six will end up being sold by that official on a market in some local town. Rice prices are very high right now and that official will then make a good profit.

On the outskirts of the more storm-damaged regions, checkpoints had sprung up overnight, where police and immigration officials were banning any foreigners - including aid workers - from entering the area.

"We have orders to turn all foreigners around," said one official.

"That includes even workers from the ICRC [the International Committee of the Red Cross]."

The secretive junta has already been condemned for refusing to allow in foreign aid experts to oversee the distribution of the massive aid effort, claiming that it alone is best equipped to deal to do so.

But on Monday, during a three-hour drive through the water-logged delta area, not a single village had received government aid.

The first American military aid flight was among a handful allowed to land in Rangoon yesterday. It was met with an ambiguous pledge by Burma’s leaders to deliver its cargo of water, mosquito nets and blankets “as soon as possible”.

The US intensified pressure on the regime on Monday, sending three naval ships towards the Burmese coast.

Admiral Timothy Keating, the head of the US Pacific Command, arrived in Rangoon on the aid flight to urge the Burmese leadership to allow a "long, continuous train of flights".

A French warship is also expected to arrive this week, carrying 1,500 tons of rice that France said it wants to distribute directly to survivors.

The United Nations confirmed a US estimate that more than 100,000 people had perished when Cyclone Nargis crashed into Burma 10 days ago, adding that more than 200,000 people were still unaccounted for.

The Burmese leader General Than Shwe would not accept a telephone call from Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General.

Mr Ban expressed "immense frustration" at the "unacceptably slow" response by Burma and demanded immediate action as the threat of starvation and disease threaten the delta region, where heavy rains are forecast this week.

Gordon Brown urged the Burmese authorities to give "unfettered access" to humanitarian agencies. He said that HMS Westminster was heading for Burma to help humanitarian operations.

"We now estimate that two million people face famine or disease as a result of the lack of co-operation of the Burmese authorities. This is completely unacceptable," he said.

Britain has pledged £5 million in assistance and aid agencies have raised another £5 million.

A British Government official said the UK was ready to at least match an Australian pledge of about £10.5 million in aid funds.

[Newsposter]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7399830.stm

The European Union is sending a senior envoy to Burma to press its military rulers to allow aid agencies to help victims of the devastating cyclone.

Aid Commissioner Louis Michel is travelling to Burma after its leaders again refused to allow aid experts in.

On Tuesday, the UN warned there would be many more deaths without a greatly expanded humanitarian relief operation.

It said it had only been able to reach 270,000 of the 1.5m survivors, more than 10 days after the cyclone struck.

Mr Michel said he would appeal to Burmese leaders "to be more open-minded and more understanding" during his three-day visit.

But he told the French news agency AFP that his chances of success were "slight".

On Tuesday, a senior Burmese official reiterated the leadership's stance, insisting that aid was welcome but "skilful humanitarian workers are not necessary".

The Thai Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravej, is also due in Burma today, foreign ministry officials in Thailand said, and a British minister will arrive in the Thai capital, Bangkok.

'Sandblasted'

The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis has now reached 34,273, according to Burmese state television, but observers fear the final count will be much higher. A further 27,838 people are missing.

A BBC correspondent inside Burma says aid delivery is haphazard and private citizens have begun to distribute water and cakes from the backs of their cars rather than waiting for the soldiers to help.

Aid agencies say much of the aid is not reaching those who need it because the junta does not have the organisation to transport it.

On Tuesday, the delegation head for the Red Cross, Bridget Gardner, returned from a two-day assessment trip to worst-hit parts of the Irrawaddy Delta.

"The town of Labutta is unrecognizable," she said in a statement. "I have been there before, and now - with the extent of the damage and the crowds of displaced people - it is a different place."

Getting shelter and medical aid to the victims was vital, she said.

"During the cyclone, many people held onto trees to avoid being blown away. At the same time they were almost "sand blasted" by dirt and saltwater," she said.

"(Many) lost the top layer of their skin and it's important that these injuries are treated before infections can set in."

'Aid corridor'

In Geneva, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that quick work was needed "to avoid a second disaster or maybe a third disaster".

"We need a kind of air bridge or sea bridge, and huge means as... we did during the [2004 Asian] tsunami. It's the same kind of logistical operation. That's why it's urgently needed that we act now," she added.

World leaders have stepped up their rhetoric against the Burmese generals in recent days.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "immense frustration" at what he called their "unacceptably slow" response, while US President George W Bush described them as either "isolated or callous".

European nations have meanwhile called for the UN principle of "responsibility to protect" to be applied, allowing aid deliveries without Burma's consent.

UN member states acknowledged in 2005 a collective "responsibility to protect" people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

France, Germany and the UK said they would make the proposal to the UN Security Council, but acknowledged they did not have unanimous support from the EU, French Human Rights Minister Rama Yade told reporters in Brussels.

[Newsposter]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7403997.stm

Top aid envoys are ramping up pressure on Burma, as reports from the country suggest aid is still not reaching the region worst hit by Cyclone Nargis.

A BBC reporter visiting the Irrawaddy Delta said there was little sign of aid from the government, which has banned foreign aid staff from the area.

But Burma's prime minister said the emergency relief phase was finished, and rebuilding was beginning.

Aid agencies say relief for up to 2.5m affected people is vastly insufficient.

Official death figures from Burma - also known as Myanmar - have risen to more than 43,000, with nearly 28,000 missing, but the Red Cross and UN both say the toll could top 100,000.

No aid in delta

The BBC's Natalia Antelava reports that the muddy banks of the Irrawaddy Delta are lined with white, swollen bodies and the air reeks of rotting flesh.

Nearly two weeks after the cyclone struck, survivors who have lost loved ones have no fresh water and just enough rice to get by, our correspondent says.

While the military government has put impressive effort into clean-up operations in the former capital, Rangoon, she reports, there was no sign of an aid operation as she travelled into the Delta by boat.

Burma's authorities have welcomed aid donations from all over the world, but only a few foreign experts have been allowed into the country to help organise the relief effort.

'Time to save lives'

The EU's top aid official, Louis Michel, who is in the country for talks, urged the Burmese government to improve access for international aid experts.

Many relief workers are awaiting visas and most of those who have been allowed into the country remain confined to Rangoon.

"You know, relations between Myanmar and the international community are difficult," he told Reuters news agency. "But that is not my problem."

"The time is not for political discussion. It's time to deliver aid to save lives."

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes, who is preparing to visit the country, told the BBC the situation was "very frustrating".

He urged the government not only to allow staff into the affected areas, but also to accept international offers of helicopters and boats to transport much-needed supplies to hard to reach areas.

'Rebuilding stage'

Burma's military leadership has signalled it is not prepared to change its policy on the relief effort.

"We have already finished our first phase of emergency relief. We are going onto the second phase, the rebuilding stage," Prime Minister Thein Sein was quoted as saying by Burmese state television.

On Thursday, state media New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the people "will not rely too much on international assistance and will reconstruct the nation on a self-reliance basis".

Top British diplomat Mark Malloch Brown lambasted Burmese authorities for not facilitating the flow of aid.

"We are way behind the curve compared to any other international disaster in recent memory," he said.

"I cannot recall a relief operation where, at least the international response has been subjected to such delays."

Donors meeting

Large quantities of international aid are being delivered to the region and awaiting permission for delivery to areas hardest-hit by the cyclone.

A French plane loaded with 40 tonnes of rations was allowed to land in Rangoon on Wednesday and a naval ship laden with aid was headed to the country in the hope it would be allowed to dock there.

The Association of South East Asian Nations is due to hold a high-level meeting in the coming days that is expected to lay the framework for a broader aid donors conference.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross is due to launch an appeal for more aid two weeks after the storm hit.

Burma's military leadership has warned that those who hoard or sell international aid on the black market will be prosecuted, amid international reports of misuse of some aid shipments.

The generals have also lauded what they said was a 92% approval of a new constitution in a referendum held last Saturday.

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BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- The death toll from a killer cyclone in Myanmar could be "in the region of 100,000 or even more," says the chief of the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief agency.

John Holmes, U.N. under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said Wednesday his organization already has confirmed 38,491 deaths -- much more than the 22,000 figure from Myanmar's government.

The weather forecast, meanwhile, calls for rain in the next several days in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. That could cause flooding in low-lying areas that already are saturated with water left when Cyclone Nargis slammed into the country on May 2.

Aid agencies have struggled to gain access to the country from the secretive military junta that rules Myanmar, though some relief flights have arrived this week. The regime has indicated that it would like supplies but not international aid workers.

That lack of access makes it hard to bring the scale of destruction into sharp focus.

Citing figures from 22 organizations in 58 townships, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said estimates of the death toll in Myanmar range from 68,833 and 127,990.

"They are all estimates, which may or may not be right," said spokesman John Sparrow. "There is no way to verify the figures, no way any organization could substantiate them."

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies does not formally estimate death tolls, he said. It compiled figures through an informal survey of numbers cited by other organizations. Those groups say the cyclone affected from 1.6 million and 2.5 million people.

Forecasts show that within a week, the Irrawaddy Delta -- the part of the country hardest-hit by the cyclone -- could receive another 12 cm (4.7 inches) of rain.

"Clearly there's a huge frustration that while (aid workers) may be able to get into the country and into Yangon, they're not at the moment able to move into the affected areas and carry out the tasks they normally carry out," Holmes said.

In recent days, Myanmar has agreed to let in some foreign aid.

A U.S. Marine spokesman told CNN that the government had authorized five more U.S. flights to land in Myanmar with supplies. The flights will deliver 46 pallets loaded with bottled water, plastic sheeting and hygiene kits as well as crackers and powdered milk.

Three additional U.S. flights have already gone to Myanmar -- one on Monday and two on Tuesday. They carried food, mosquito netting and tarpaulins.

Meanwhile, Pentagon officials said the USS Essex, USS Juneau and USS Harpers Ferry are in international waters off the coast of the country, laden with more than 14,000 containers of fresh water and other aid and awaiting orders to deliver by air or landing craft.
On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to convene an emergency summit on Myanmar aid. Ban has blasted the reclusive regime for what he called an "unacceptably slow response" to the disaster, and called, "in the most strenuous terms, on the government of Myanmar to put its people's lives first."

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A UN humanitarian envoy is due in Burma to try to persuade the ruling junta to grant more access to UN workers to help with the cyclone relief efforts.

John Holmes will carry a letter from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Burma's leader, Than Shwe, who has refused to answer Mr Ban's calls.

Burma says some 78,000 people have died and 56,000 are missing since Cyclone Nargis hit the country on 2 May.

Burma has so far been refusing most offers of international aid.

However, a team of 50 Indian medical personnel has been given permission to fly into Burma, equipped with medical supplies.

Meanwhile, a UK-based charity says young children may already be dying of starvation.

Save the Children estimates that 30,000 children under the age of five in the worst-hit Irrawaddy Delta were already "acutely malnourished" before the cyclone struck.

It says that thousands of children will die within several weeks unless food reaches them soon.

'Show' visit

On Saturday, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned Burma's government for not allowing international aid to reach the cyclone victims.

Mr Brown told the BBC that a natural disaster had been turned into a "man-made catastrophe" because of the negligence of the ruling generals. He said their actions since the cyclone amounted to inhuman treatment.

France has said Burma is on the verge of committing a crime against humanity.

Burma has refused to allow in French and US aid ships which are waiting off the coast.

On Saturday, Burma took foreign diplomats on a helicopter tour of the Irrawaddy Delta.

But Shari Villarosa, the top US diplomat in Burma, dismissed the visit as a "show".

However, Bernard Delpuech, head of the European Commission Humanitarian Office in Rangoon, said the trip had at least shown "the magnitude of the devastation".

Asian role

Meanwhile, UK Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown told the BBC that the international community was trying to organise a team of Asian and UN aid workers in the hope this will be more acceptable to Burma's rulers.

He said the idea of a mixed relief team was a "last best effort to try and meet the anxieties and paranoia... of the regime".

Lord Malloch-Brown travelled to Burma on Saturday and met aid workers and UN officials, according to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

The Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) is due to meet on Monday, with plans for an aid donors' conference likely to be discussed.

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http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/18/asia/myanmar.php

BANGKOK: International outrage grew over the weekend as the military junta in Myanmar continued to block most humanitarian aid two weeks after a devastating cyclone and aid groups warned of a steep increase in deaths from starvation and disease.

With French and U.S. naval ships waiting off the coast with supplies, helicopters and boats and with relief agencies still stymied in Thailand, the French ambassador, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said that the junta's intransigence could lead to a "true crime against humanity."

The junta has allowed in a modest amount of supplies from a number of nations and relief agencies, but aid workers say it is far short of what is needed to fend off starvation and disease. The United Nations says only 20 percent of the survivors have received even rudimentary aid.

Fearing an influx of foreigners, the generals have tightened their grip on relief organizations, expelling foreigners - including humanitarian aid workers - from the hardest-hit area, the Irrawaddy Delta.

The United Nations estimates that as many as 2.5 million people are in urgent need of aid. The official death toll rose this weekend to 78,000, but UN estimates put it at more than 100,000.

The junta's leader, Senior General Than Shwe, has refused to take phone calls and failed to answer two letters, prompting the UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, to send his chief of humanitarian affairs, John Holmes, to try to deliver his message in person. Holmes arrived in Yangon on Sunday  evening.

Ban will travel to Myanmar this week to discuss the aid operations, his spokeswoman said Sunday, Reuters reported.

News agencies also reported Sunday that Than Shwe had visited relief camps for survivors, evidently for the first time. Than Shwe emerged from the remote new capital of Naypyidaw in the north to visit relief camps in the Hlaing Thar Yar and Dagon suburbs of Yangon, state television reported.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Myanmar, has called an emergency meeting of its foreign ministers Monday in Singapore to hear a report from the Myanmar government. But the association has had little influence on the junta over the years, and its members have said little in condemnation of the handling of the cyclone.

The junta has accepted assistance from what it considers more friendly neighbors. Thailand has been permitted to send a 32-member medical team, and India has sent 50 army doctors and paramedics, along with medical supplies. But it was unclear whether they would be permitted into the delta.

France and the United States were standing by with supplies on ships off the southwestern shore. France said that a navy ship was waiting Saturday about 25 kilometers, or 15 miles, outside Myanmar's territorial waters with 1,000 tons of food - enough to feed 100,000 people for 15 days. The aid also includes shelters for 15,000 people, the French government said.

A number of U.S. Navy warships were also off Myanmar. The U.S. ships carry amphibious landing craft that can carry personnel and supplies to remote locations inaccessible by road.

U.S. military officials insist that this assistance comes with no strings attached and that American forces will leave as soon as the aid mission is over.

Over the past week, the junta has allowed a modest American airlift via Thailand with supplies like water, blankets, hygiene kits, insecticide-treated bed nets to protect against malaria, plastic sheeting for shelter, food and medical supplies.

"There is absolutely more we could do, if only the Burmese government would permit us to do it," Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said in Washington. "And that is why our government has been working with other governments in the region to try to persuade the Burmese military, the leadership of that nation, to put their pride aside and let our troops come in with the aid that their people so desperately need."

The absence of UN approval for ferrying food, medicine and shelter into Myanmar has left the Bush administration in a bind. To avert a humanitarian catastrophe, the administration is having to tiptoe, so as not to offend the junta, which Washington has condemned in the past, lest the junta put an end to the anemic flow of aid it has allowed so far.

Even discussions about whether to pursue sanctions against Myanmar in the United Nations have been put on hold, a senior administration official said, because "we have to balance the need for further political pressure against what little progress we're making on the ground."

President George W. Bush and the first lady, Laura Bush, have both been personally involved in the Myanmar issue, administration officials said, but one official said that no single high-ranking official had taken charge of U.S. response to the cyclone.

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YANGON, May 19 (Reuters) - Hopes of a deal to speed up aid to millions of Myanmar cyclone victims rose on Monday as the U.N. said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would visit this week and Southeast Asia kicked off its own disaster-response meeting.

Ban's trip is expected to culminate in a rare tete-a-tete with junta supremo Than Shwe, who has refused to answer phone calls from the United Nations boss since Cyclone Nargis struck two weeks ago, leaving 134,000 dead and missing and up to 2.5 million destitute.

The U.N. also wants a conference in Bangkok on May 24 to marshal funds for the relief effort in the former Burma, where the military government has so far refused to admit large-scale foreign aid for fear it will loosen its 46-year grip on power.

Humanitarian agencies say the death toll from Nargis, already one of the most devastating cyclones to hit Asia, could soar without a massive increase of emergency food, shelter and medicine to the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta.

Non-government aid organisation Save the Children said in a Sunday statement its research had found some "30,000 children under the age of five in the cyclone-affected Irrawaddy Delta were already acutely malnourished before the cyclone hit."

"Of those, Save the Children believes that several thousand are at risk of death in the next two to three weeks because of a lack of food."

However, Britain's Asia minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, told Reuters in Yangon on Sunday that diplomats may have turned the corner in brokering a deal to get aid flowing which accommodated the generals' deep distrust of the outside world -- and in particular the West.

"Like all turning points in Burma, the corner will have a few 'S' bends in it," Malloch-Brown said after a series of meetings with top junta officials.

Little is known about the deal, although it is probably no coincidence foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, were holding a cyclone response meeting on Monday in Singapore.

Malloch-Brown, who came to Yangon after visiting some ASEAN members, said an Asian/U.N.-led process had already begun and other countries would make contributions through this channel.

Asian nations considered friendly by Myanmar have sent in aid groups and an ASEAN assessment team that has been on the ground in the delta is due to report to the Singapore meeting.

TRICKLE OF AID

While aid has been trickling into Myanmar, the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) says it has managed to get rice and beans to just 212,000 of the 750,000 people it thinks are most in need.

"It's not enough. There are a very large number of people who are yet to receive any kind of assistance and that's what's keeping our teams working round the clock," WFP spokesman Marcus Prior said in Bangkok.

Myanmar analysts are making much of the reclusive Than Shwe's first appearance since the disaster in Yangon, the city he deserted for a remote new capital 250 miles (390 km) to the north in 2005.

State television showed the bespectacled 74-year-old Than Shwe meeting in Yangon on Monday with ministers involved in the rescue effort and touring some cyclone-hit areas.

The U.N.'s Ban is likely to land in Yangon on Wednesday evening and travel to the Irrawaddy delta, his spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile the U.N.'s chief humanitarian officer, John Holmes, started a government tour of the delta on Monday after flying in on Sunday night, officials said.

He is expected to meet Prime Minister Thein Sein on Tuesday and deliver a message from Ban to the generals.

Ban previously proposed a "high-level pledging conference" to deal with the crisis, as well as having a joint coordinator from the United Nations and ASEAN to oversee aid delivery.

RECORD DAMAGE

In the last 50 years, only two Asian cyclones have exceeded the human toll of Nargis -- a 1970 storm that killed 500,000 people in neighbouring Bangladesh and another that killed 143,000 people in 1991, also in Bangladesh.

At least 232,000 people were killed when the tsunami struck nations bordering the Indian Ocean.

Despite his optimism on aid deal, Britain's Malloch-Brown said the junta's lingering suspicions made it unlikely foreign aid workers would be admitted in numbers comparable to other recent disasters in Asia.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7411903.stm

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has promised to do his "utmost" to help cyclone victims in Burma, ahead of his visit to the military-ruled nation.

Mr Ban, due in Burma on Thursday to tour storm-hit areas, said relief work had reached a "critical moment".

The UN says that less than a quarter of the 2.4 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis have received aid.

It says relief efforts must be scaled up to avoid more deaths - and wants more foreign experts to be allowed in.

The death toll from the cyclone stands at 78,000 dead, with another 56,000 missing. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes.

Some aid is getting in, but almost three week on from the storm, relief work is still being hampered by the Burmese government's reluctance to accept large-scale foreign help.

'Scaled up'

Ahead of his departure, Mr Ban said he wanted to see for himself the situation on the ground.

"I want to see the conditions under which relief teams are working, and I intend to do all I can to reinforce their efforts, in co-ordination with the Myanmar [Burma] authorities and international aid agencies," he told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.

He welcomed some signs of flexibility from the junta, including its decision to accept relief workers from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).

He said the UN had received permission for nine World Food Programme helicopters to operate in remote areas.

"I believe further similar moves will follow, including expediting the visas of [foreign] relief workers seeking to enter the country," he said.

"I'm confident that emergency relief efforts can be scaled up quickly."

'Access needed'

Mr Ban touches down in Thailand on Wednesday and then flies to Burma early on Thursday morning.

It is not yet clear whether he will meet Burma's top leader, Gen Than Shwe.

The UN chief will then hold talks in Bangkok before returning to Burma on Sunday for a donor conference in its commercial capital, Rangoon.

Some countries have welcomed the conference, which was agreed on Monday at an emer