Burma cyclone death toll reaches 15 000 - Updated

THE death toll from a devastating cyclone in Burma has risen to almost 15,000, according to state radio. A further 3,000 people are unaccounted for in the aftermath of Cyclone Nagris, said the radio station, broadcasting from the country’s capital Naypyidaw.

The powerful storm tore through the Irrawaddy delta and devastated the former capital, Rangoon, on Saturday night. Details are scarce from Burma's military regime, and most phone networks are down.

United Nations officials estimate however that hundreds of thousands of people have been left without shelter and drinking water. Aid agencies were today urgently trying to deliver plastic sheeting, water and clothing from stockpiles.

The military has neither asked for help nor formally responded to an offer of assistance, but officials have informally told the United Nations that help may be welcomed.

The Irrawaddy delta is the rice bowl of the impoverished Southeast Asian nation of 53 million, and the disaster is likely to have a catastrophic effect on future food supplies.

“How many people are affected? We know that it’s in the six figures,” said Richard Horsey, of the United Nations disaster response office in Bangkok, after an emergency aid meeting.

“We know that it’s several hundred thousand needing shelter and clean drinking water, but how many hundred thousand we just don’t know.”

Assessment teams were working in the five declared disaster zones that are home to 24 million people, but it could take days to get a fuller picture due to impassable roads and flooding.

The UN office in Rangoon said there was an urgent need for plastic sheeting, water purification tablets, cooking equipment, mosquito nets, health kits and food.

It said the situation outside Rangoon was “critical, with shelter and safe water being the principal immediate needs”.

Thailand responded to the disaster, sending a C-130 transport plane loaded with food and medicines to Rangoon after the airport reopened today, according to Noppadon Pattama, the Thai Foreign Minister.

In Rangoon, many roofs were ripped off even sturdy buildings, suggesting damage would be severe in the shanty towns that lie on the city's outskirts.

State television was still off the air in the former capital and clean water was scarce. Most shops had sold out of candles and batteries and there was no word when power would be restored.

Long queues formed at the few open petrol stations. The price of a gallon of petrol has doubled on the black market, while egg prices have tripled since Saturday.

In one western suburb, a group of 100 monks led efforts to clear streets littered with fallen trees and debris.

State television showed military and police units on rescue and clean-up operations in Rangoon, but residents complained that response was weak.

“Where are the soldiers and police? They were very quick and aggressive when there were protests in the streets last year,” a retired government worker told Reuters, referring to protests led by Buddhist monks last year that were swiftly crushed.

Michael Annear, regional disaster chief for the International Red Cross, said that emergency supplies were being handed out from stockpiles in Burma, but more was needed.

“We’re preparing to send more stuff into the country. We have not been restricted,” he said.

The military government requires foreign aid workers to obtain travel permits and official escorts for field trips, and sets tight rules of the transport of supplies.

It is not know whether Burma, the world’s largest rice exporter when it won independence from Britain in 1948, will need to import emergency rice supplies. If it does, it is likely to inflate yet further the already sky-high prices of the staple.

The World Food Programme has stocks of around 500,000 tonnes in Rangoon and hoped to bring in more food.

The devastation has not proved enough to derail a May 10 referendum on a new, army-drafted constitution.

“The referendum is only a few days away and the people are eagerly looking forward to voting,” the junta said in a statement confirming the vote would go ahead as planned.

The charter is part of a “roadmap to democracy” meant to culminate in multiparty elections in 2010, but critics say it allows the army to retain an unacceptable degree of power.

The party of detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, which has urged a “no” vote, said that the referendum should be called off.


The Zimbabwe Guardian/The Times, U.K.