Aid arrives in Myanmar as death toll passes 22,000, but worst-hit area still cut off

The Associated Press

Published: May 6, 2008

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YANGON, Myanmar: Aid began to trickle into cyclone-ravaged Myanmar late Tuesday but the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta, where nearly 22,000 people perished, was largely cut off from the rest of the world four days after winds, floods and high tidal waves tore through the densely populated region.

With more than 40,000 still missing and as many as 1 million possibly left homeless, the international community was struggling to deliver aid in the military-ruled country, which normally seeks to shut out foreign officials and restricts their access inside the country.

Concerns mounted over the lack of food, water and shelter in the delta as well as diseases spawned by Cyclone Nargis in a country with one of the world's poorest health systems.

"Our biggest fear is that the aftermath could be more lethal than the storm itself," said Caryl Stern, who heads the U.N. Children's Fund in the United States.

The U.N.'s World Food Program said late Tuesday it has begun distributing aid in damaged areas of Yangon, the largest city, where 800 tons of food had arrived, although the coastal regions were mostly out of reach due to flooding and road damage.

Even in Yangon, electricity remained cut for almost all 6.5 million residents, while water supply was restored in only a few areas. Some residents had to wait for nine hours to fill up their gas tanks.

Buddhist monks and Catholic nuns wielding knives and axes joined residents in clearing roads of ancient, fallen trees that were once the city's pride. And soldiers were out on the streets in large numbers for the first time since the cyclone hit, helping to clear trees as massive as 15-feet (4.5 meters) in diameter.

U.S. President George W. Bush called on the country's junta to allow the United States to provide disaster assistance, saying Washington was prepared to move naval assets to help search for the dead and missing.

The U.S. Navy has three ships as well as troops in the Gulf of Thailand, within an easy sail of Myanmar, as part of joint military exercises code-named Cobra Gold scheduled for May 8-21. Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and Singapore will also take part in the annual war games.

The Myanmar military, which regularly accuses the United States of trying to subvert the regime, is unlikely to allow U.S. military presence in its territory.

But reflecting the seriousness of the crisis, the government has appealed for foreign aid and also announced Tuesday that it is delaying Saturday's crucial constitutional referendum in the hardest hit areas.

State radio said Saturday's vote on the military-backed draft constitution would be delayed until May 24 in 40 of 45 townships in the Yangon area and seven in the delta. It indicated that the balloting would proceed in other areas as scheduled.

Pro-democracy advocates, including the political party of detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi, have denounced the constitution as a tool to perpetuate the grip on power of a military that has become increasingly unpopular.

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

Inadequate warnings about the approaching storm and poor reaction by authorities once it struck is expected to further alienate the general population.

The radio said that most of the 22,464 who died, as well as the 41,000 missing, were in the Irrawaddy delta region. It said 671 were killed in the Yangon area.

Images from state television showed large trees and electricity poles sprawled across roads as well as roofless houses ringed by water in the delta, a lacework of paddy fields and canals regarded as Myanmar's rice bowl. Brig. Gen. Kyaw San, the information minister, said tidal waves killed most of the victims in the delta.

The government said it was trying to move in aid and some foreign agencies had managed to send assessment teams, including five from UNICEF.

Richard Horsey, Bangkok-based spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid, said the airport closest to the delta region was located in Yangon.

"The biggest problem will be to reach the affected areas. There will be a huge logistical problem," he said.

Helicopters and boats would be needed to reach many areas. The delta is riddled with waterways, and Horsey said they are not easily accessible, even during normal times.

"The big concern is waterborne diseases. So that's why it's crucial to get safe water in. Then mosquito nets, cooking kits and clothing in the next few days," he said. "Food is not an emergency priority. Water and shelter are."