The death toll from the devastating cyclone in Myanmar over the weekend escalated to nearly 4,000 people on Monday, with thousands of others still missing and at least one entire village wiped out, state television and radio reported.
The death toll from the devastating cyclone in Myanmar over the weekend escalated to nearly 4,000 people on Monday, with thousands of others still missing and at least one entire village wiped out, state television and radio reported.
If the reports are accurate, the death toll would be the biggest from a natural disaster in Asia since the tsunami of December 2004, which devastated parts of Indonesia, Thailand and other parts of south Asia
The death toll was a dramatic increase from the government’s initial estimate of 351 people killed from the disaster. Hundreds of thousands of people were reported homeless and food and water were reported to be running short.
“The confirmed number is 3,934 dead, 41 injured and 2,879 missing within the Yangon and Irrawaddy divisions,” the government broadcast said.
The devastating cyclone smashed urban buildings and obliterated villages early Saturday. With roads blocked and power and telephone lines down, the authorities were assessing the damage and foreign aid groups were mobilizing for a disaster the full extent of which was still not yet fully clear.
Earlier, the government had reported that 351 people had been killed, but foreign aid officials had warned that this number was sure to rise as reports came in from remote areas.
“What is clear is that we are dealing with a major emergency situation and the priority needs now are shelter and clean drinking water,” said Richard Horsey, a spokesman for the United Nations disaster response office in Bangkok.
In an e-mail message from the main city, Yangon, one resident reported: “Stories get worse by the hour. 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 sky-rocketing on everything.”
Despite the devastation in the main city of Yangon and through the Irrawaddy River delta, the government said it would proceed with a constitutional referendum planned for Saturday that is intended to formalize the military’s grip on power.
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 analysts said the government’s response to the disaster could affect the pattern of voting by a population that has been under strong pressure to support the referendum. Some enterprises have already required their employees to vote in advance.
Witnesses said the government was slow to address the disaster, and exile groups said some residents had told them they were angry about the weak response of the military, which just nine months ago carried out a violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations led by monks.
"This is what people I have contacted complain about," said Aung Zaw, editor of the Thailand-based exile magazine Irrawaddy. "These people were so active in September killing the monks, but where are they now?"
Dozens of people were reported killed during the crackdown last year, which was followed by a campaign of intimidation and arrests.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1965 and continues to suppress political opposition. The pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years.
The immediate problem now in affected areas was survival, with water and electricity cut off, roads blocked by fallen trees, roofs torn off homes and prices for transportation and food rising fast.
"People are starving," an unidentified resident was quoted as saying by the Democratic Voice of Burma, a dissident radio station based in Norway.
"Fuel is becoming scarce," the resident was quoted as saying. "People are likely to die of starvation. If international help doesn’t come within a week, it will be impossible to survive. There will be nothing left to eat."
Mr. Horsey, of the United Nations, said teams representing various aid groups were trying to assess the damage in the disaster areas, where half the country’s population of 53 million lives.
Despite concerns from human rights groups that the junta would not allow outside aid groups into hard-hit areas, Mr. Horsey said, "There are discussions ongoing. My impression is that they are receptive to international assistance."
Some aid had already been stockpiled in anticipation of natural disasters, he said.
"It will take a few days until a complete and accurate picture of the impact and of the numbers of people affected comes out," he said. "The road network has taken a significant hit and moving around is difficult, and the communications network is essentially down."
Even without the destruction from the cyclone, travel and communications can be difficult in the country due to its weak infrastructure, said David Mathieson, an expert on Myanmar with Human Rights Watch.
In Yangon, he said, people may only usually get five or six hours of electricity a day, and some remote areas have no access to electricity. "So the fact that electricity is down is not really that important," he said.
Jens Orback, a former minister for integration and democracy in Sweden, was in Yangon when the cyclone hit.
"Trees that were standing there hundreds of years fell easily," he said, "and things from roofs fell down and the electricity went down and there were only flashlights. In the first days you couldn’t go anywhere by car. No telephones worked. The Internet was out and there was a lack of information.
"What struck us also was that in the first daylight nobody from the police, military or firemen was out working with the devastation but people privately were there with knives and machetes and hand saws."
Aung Zaw of Irrawaddy Magazine said that groups of monks joined residents in clearing the streets, but that in one case they had been prevented from leaving their monastery by armed police. As centers of the September uprising, some monasteries remain under police or military guard, he said.
In advance of the referendum, riot police had been reported patrolling the streets in a show of force said to have been more visible than the current military relief efforts.
National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
http://www.ncgub.net/article.php/20080505095419924