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Myanmar Cyclone: Death Toll At 22,000 - Zack de la Rocha Network Forum
Quote: Myanmar state radio says cyclone death toll soars above 22,000
4 minutes ago
The death toll from the cyclone that battered Myanmar last weekend has risen above 22,000, state radio has reported.
A news broadcast on government-run radio said Tuesday that 22,464 people have now been confirmed dead from Cyclone Nargis, which tore through the country's heartland and biggest city of Yangon early Saturday.
The broadcast added that thousands more are missing.
Relief efforts for the stricken area, mostly in the low-lying Irrawaddy River delta, have been difficult, in large part because of the destruction of roads and communications outlets by the storm.
The first assistance from overseas arrived Tuesday from neighboring Thailand.
Officials had said today that the toll could continue to climb higher than the 14,000 already feared 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 Information Minister Maj.
Gen. Kyaw Hsan confirmed at a news conference that some 4,000 people had died in Yangon and the low-lying Irrawaddy delta region.
He added that another 10,000 people could be dead in the delta.
Kyaw said tidal waves killed most of the victims in that region.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Nyan Win was Quote: d by state-run television as saying that more than 10,000 people had perished in Irrawaddy while a smaller number died in and around Yangon, the country's largest city.
"News and data are still being collected, so there may be many more casualties," he said.
It was not known why the two ministers presented different death tolls.
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 totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out.
A state television report gave two different numbers 59 and 130 for the dead in what is known as Yangon division.
It did not explain the differing tolls.
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.
The U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator said Tuesday the government had indicated it was ready to start accepting international aid.
The U.N., Red Cross and other aid organizations have been organizing supplies in preparation for shipping them to the country.
Some aid agencies reported their assessment teams had reached some areas of the largely isolated region but said getting in supplies and large numbers of aid workers would be difficult.
A military transport plane flew from Bangkok to Yangon Tuesday with emergency aid from Thailand while a number of other countries and organizations said they were prepared to follow.
Richard Horsey, Bangkok-based spokesman for the U.N.
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid, said Yangon's airport is the closest to the region hardest hit.
"For those places accessible by land, there will be cars and trucks from those areas to meet at the halfway point with vehicles from Yangon," he said.
"For remote areas, assessment teams and assistance teams will need to go by helicopters and boats."
The delta is riddled with waterways but Horsey said they are not easily accessible, even during normal times.
Based on a satellite map made available by the United Nations, the storm's damage was concentrated over about a 11,600-square-mile (30,000-square-kilometer) area along the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Martaban coastlines less than 5 percent of the country.
But the affected region is home to nearly a quarter of Myanmar's 57 million people.
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 regarded as Myanmar's rice bowl.
"More or less all the landlines are down and it's extremely difficult to get information from cyclone-affected areas.
But from the reports we are getting, entire villages have been flattened and the final death toll may be huge," said Mac Pieczowski, who heads the International Organization for Migration office in Yangon, in a statement.
State radio reported Saturday's vote on a draft constitution would be delayed until May 24 in 40 townships around 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 scheduled.
The appeal for assistance was unusual for Myanmar's ruling generals, who have long been suspicious of the international organizations and have closely controlled their activities.
Foreign governments were poised Tuesday to rush aid to the devastated nation.
The United States, which has slapped economic sanctions on the country, said it likewise stood ready.
The U.S. Embassy is providing $250,000 in immediate aid from existing emergency fund.
But first lady Laura Bush said Monday the U.S.
Would provide further aid only if one of its own disaster teams is allowed into the country.
The European Commission was providing $3 million in humanitarian aid while the president of neighboring China, Hu Jintao, promised $1 million in cash and supplies.
The government had apparently taken few efforts to prepare 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 useless for the worst-hit rural areas where electricity supply is spotty and television a rarity.
"The government misled people," said Thin Thin, a grocery story owner in Yangon.
"They could have warned us about the severity of the coming cyclone so we could be better prepared."
Yangon was without electricity except where gas-fed generators were available and residents lined up to buy candles, which have doubled in price since the storm hit.
Most homes were without water, forcing families to stand in long lines for drinking water and bathe in the city's lakes.
Most telephone landlines appeared to be restored by late Monday, but mobile phones and Internet connections were down.
Some in Yangon complained that the 400,000-strong military was only clearing streets where the ruling elite resided but leaving residents, including Buddhist monks, to cope on their own in most other areas.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962.
Its government has been widely criticized for suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.
At least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests in September led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.
Source
I'm curious about what has become of all their prisons and the thousands of people they housed..
I've been searching online but haven't found much yet..
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Now I'm wondering all so...
Transport, visa hurdles slowing aid to Myanmar storm victims
By ALEXANDER G.
HIGGINS 12 hours ago
GENEVA (AP) Travel and visa obstacles on Tuesday hampered aid deliveries to the estimated 1 million people in Myanmar believed to be homeless after the devastating cyclone, officials said.
Assistance had started to reach people in and around Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, said Chris Kaye, the U.N.
World Food Program's director for Myanmar.
But many coastal areas remained cut off from food supplies because of flooding and road damage.
Additional truckloads of food would be dispatched Wednesday to Labutta township, the area hardest hit by the cyclone that struck over the weekend, Kaye said.
The food agency said its assessment teams were reporting tremendous storm damage to homes and shelter in villages in the rice-growing areas on Myanmar's coast.
It said the death toll was still increasing.
However, U.N.
Relief spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said that some U.N.
Workers planning to assess needs were still awaiting their visas to enter the country.
The death toll in the country, which is also known as Burma, was in the tens of thousands with many more still missing, state radio reported.
As many as 1 million people may have been left homeless.
The United States said it was giving $3 million to U.N.
Agencies to help with their efforts, up from an initial emergency contribution of $250,000.
The European Union will provide $3.1 million, according to a statement released by Slovenia, president of the 27-nation bloc.
China is providing $1 million in aid, including relief materials worth $500,000, to help with disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts, a spokesman said.
But the United States and France complained about Myanmar's reluctance to accept direct aid.
President Bush called on Myanmar's military junta to allow the United States to help with disaster assistance, saying the U.S.
Already has provided some assistance but wants to do more.
"We're prepared to move U.S.
Navy assets to help find those who have lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation.
But in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country," he said.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France minimized its aid to about $309,000.
He said Myanmar officials are willing to accept aid but insist on distributing it themselves, which he said was "not a good way of doing things."
"It's not a lot but we don't really trust the way the Burmese ministry would use the money," said Kouchner, who is also the co-founder of French aid group Doctors Without Borders.
Kouchner said, however, that 25 percent of the EU donation was coming from France.
Anne-Francoise Moffroid, the EU desk officer dealing with the crisis, said it was difficult to know how many people will need aid.
Affected areas are isolated and difficult to reach and infrastructure has been destroyed, she said.
"Many volunteers from the local Red Cross have died in the disaster," she said.
"I think it will be a major challenge to bring assistance to these areas."
Simon Horner, spokesman for the EU humanitarian office, called it "a massive disaster," particularly in the Irrawaddy delta.
"The reports that are coming back from some of our partner organizations ...
Is that there are some communities where the destruction is close to 100 percent," Horner said.
The military government generally makes it difficult for aid workers to move around the country without permission, and obtaining visas to bring in more international staff also is an obstacle.
The U.N.
Emergency relief coordinator said that a number of organizations felt visas were "a concern" and that the United Nations was asking the government to ease the situation.
"Since we now have the green light for international aid to go there, I hope we will get the visas as soon as possible," UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau said.
The U.N., Red Cross and other aid organizations have been organizing shipments to the country.
The national Red Cross staff and 18,000 volunteers are handing out plastic sheets, drinking water, insecticide-treated bed nets and clothes, said Eric Porterfield, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the international community should focus on providing humanitarian aid to Myanmar instead of criticizing the ruling junta's handling of the cyclone.
Some residents of Yangon, the former capital of 6.5 million, said they were angry the government failed to adequately warn them of the approaching storm and has so far done little to alleviate their plight.
The Norwegian government alone said it would give up to $1.96 million.
Spain said it would donate $775,000 to the World Food Program, while Switzerland said it would send an initial $475,000 and the Swiss Red Cross said it would send $190,000.
Singapore said it will provide $200,000 for tents, ground sheets, sleeping bags, medical supplies, drinking water and emergency food.
The Czech government allocated $154,000, while Denmark said it was giving $103,600.
Sweden offered logistic support and water cleaning systems to the U.N.
Operation.
Associated Press Writer Paul Ames in Brussels, Belgium, and AP correspondents in bureaus around the world contributed to this report.
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Here's where it gets real bad..
I also caught the end of a report on TV about the mass execution of at least 36 prisoners.
Quote: UN Halts Aid To Myanmar After Junta Seizes Supplies
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) The United Nations blasted Myanmar's military government Friday, saying its refusal to let in foreign aid workers to help victims of a devastating cyclone was "unprecedented" in the history of humanitarian work.
While the junta dithered and appeared overwhelmed by last Saturday's disaster, more than 1 million homeless people waited for food, shelter and medicine.
Many crammed into Buddhist monasteries or just camped out in the open.
Entire villages were submerged in the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta, with bodies floating in salty water and children ripped from their parents' arms.
At least 62,000 people are dead or missing, state media reported, and aid groups warned that thousands of children may have been orphaned and the area is on the verge of a medical disaster.
On Friday, Japan said it will give aid worth $10 million through the U.N.
To Myanmar, adding to the massive amounts of aid that has been pledged by foreign governments.
But while accepting international aid, the isolationist regime of this Southeast Asian nation has refused to grant visas to foreign aid workers who could assess the extent of the disaster and manage the logistics.
"The frustration caused by what appears to be a paperwork delay is unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts," said Paul Risley, a spokesman for the U.N.
World Food Program in Bangkok.
"It's astonishing."
He said the WFP submitted 10 visa applications around the world, including six in Bangkok, but none has been approved.
"We strongly urge the government of Myanmar to process these visa applications as quickly as possible, including work over the weekend," he said.
The junta said in a statement Friday it was grateful to the international community for its assistance which has included 11 chartered planes loaded with aid supplies but the best way to help was just to send in material rather than personnel.
One relief flight was sent back after landing in Yangon on Thursday because it carried a search-and-rescue team and media representatives who had not received permission to enter the country, the junta said.
It did not give details, but said the plane had flown in from Qatar, apparently referring to a U.N.
Flight.
The announcement came as critical aid and experts to go with it were poised in neighboring Thailand and elsewhere to rush into Myanmar, one of the world's poorest nations.
"Believe me the government will not allow outsiders to go into the devastated area.
The government only cares about its own stability.
They don't care about the plight of the people," said Yangon food shop owner Joseph Kyaw, one of many residents angry at the regime for doing little to help them recover from the storm's destruction.
Among those waiting in Thailand were members of the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team.
Air Force transport planes and helicopters packed with supplies also sat waiting for a green light to enter Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Myanmar allowed the first major international aid shipment Thursday four U.N.
Planes carrying high-energy biscuits, including one which was apparently turned back.
On Friday, state-owned television showed a cargo plane from Italy with water containers, food and plastic sheets at Yangon international airport.
It is not clear how much of the aid is reaching the Irrawaddy delta.
The U.N. estimates 1.5 million people have been "severely affected" and voiced "significant concern" about the disposal of dead bodies.
A Norway-based opposition news network, the Democratic Voice of Burma, provided graphic details of misery.
In the village of Kongyangon, someone had written in Burmese, "We are all in trouble.
Please come help us" on black asphalt, a video from the opposition group showed.
A few feet away was another plea: "We're hungry," the words too small to be seen by air rescuers.
According to state media, 22,997 people died and 42,019 are missing from Cyclone Nargis, which hit the country's Irrawaddy delta on Saturday.
Shari Villarosa, who heads the United States Embassy in Yangon, said the number of dead could eventually exceed 100,000 because of illnesses.
Grim assessments about what lies ahead continued: The aid group Action Against Hunger noted that the delta region is known as the country's granary, and the cyclone hit before the harvest.
"If the harvest has been destroyed this will have a devastating impact on food security in Myanmar," the group said.
Anders Ladegaard, secretary-general of the Danish Red Cross, called the relief operation "a nightmare."
"There are problems to the aid inside (Myanmar) and there are problems to get the aid out to the delta area.
There are almost no boats and no helicopters," Ladegaard said by satellite telephone to Danish broadcaster DR.
In Yangon itself, the price of increasingly scarce water shot up by more than 500 percent, and rice and oil jumped by 60 percent over the last three days, the group said.
Hardships in the country's largest city have prompted some embassies, including that of the U.S., to send diplomats' families out of the country.
Although the military regime had begun allowing in the first major international aid shipments, it snubbed a U.S.
Offer to help cyclone victims.
By doing so, the junta refused to take advantage of Washington's enormous ability to deliver aid quickly, which was evident during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.
With roads in the Irrawaddy delta washed out and the infrastructure in shambles, large swaths of the region are accessible only by air, something few other countries are equipped to handle as well as the U.S.
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej told reporters Friday that he will try to go to Myanmar on Sunday to persuade the junta to accept U.S.
Help.
But the junta told Samak his Myanmar counterpart is too busy to meet with him, said a Thai army general, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
But a Taiwanese Buddhist leader who just returned from Yangon said Friday that Myanmar had mobilized soldiers and civilians to transport aid to cyclone victims.
"They try to handle the relief work by themselves as much as possible because they don't have the time to deal with external criticism," Master Hsin Tao said.
Source
This post has been edited by Casbah: Today, 04:35 AM
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Fresh death toll claims are 100,000
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www.rageaddict.co.nr - RATM News and Resource
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