Burma cyclone disaster: UN says 102,000 dead

[Khun Don]

UN warns Burma it is endangering its citizens


United Nations officials on Friday warned the Burmese junta against premature resettlement of thousands of victims of Cyclone Nargis, warning that the policy could launch a second wave of the disasters.

Amid reports that the military regime is instructing thousands of people displaced by Cyclone Nargis to return to their places of origin, senior UN officials warned that the policy could lead to disease outbreaks and more hardships for the 2.4 million people already affected by the catastrophe.

"The real risk of people going back prematurely is that they will have no access to essential life-saving services," said Anupama Rao Singh, regional direction for UNICEF.

"They will pretty much become invisible to humanitarian workers, therefore facing all of us with a second wave of disease and disaster," Singh told a press conference in Bangkok.

In fact, tens of thousands of people have been invisible to an international aid relief programme for the past four weeks in the wake of the May 2-3 cyclone.

International aid has reached about 41 per cent of the estimated 2.4 million people affected by the cyclone, with many of them stranded in remote areas in the sprawling Irrawaddy delta, the area hardest hit by the storm that left an estimated 133,000 dead or missing.

Access to the delta remains an issue, almost a week after Burma's junta chief Senior General Than Shwe promised UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that he would allow access to all international aid workers.

Terje Skavdal, Asia-Pacific regional director for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, acknowledged that Burma had sped up visa approvals for UN experts from two weeks to two days, and had allowed about 20 international workers into the delta since Than Shwe's promise.

"While we welcome the government's approvals of more entry visas for UN staff, we still urge them to show that same flexibility for NGO staff as well," said Skavdal.

He said there was still no clear mechanism by which visas or travel papers into the delta were issued. Burma has allowed about 300 medical workers form Asian countries into the delta, but still blocks certain other foreigners from the area.

The Red Cross Red Crescent has been awaiting travel papers for six foreign experts on water-purification units desperately needed to provide clean water to survivors of the cyclone.

"There is a huge shortage of water in the delta," Red Cross Red Crescent spokesman John Sparrow said.

"We've already deployed our water purification units in the delta, able to produce 1 million a day, but they are still awaiting our experts to become operational." (dpa)

[Khun Don]

Thailand to send more aid to Burma


The government will seek more assistance to help orphans who lost their parents to Cyclone Nargis, Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsab said Friday.

Speaking after accompanying the new team of doctors to Burma, Mr Chaiya said the Burmese government and people were grateful for the kindness of the royal family and assistance from the government.

Mr Chaiya met his Burmese counterpart and visited 60 relief camps where cyclone-hit victims received relief supplies from Thailand.

Now, a large number of orphans need psychological treatment, he said, adding that he will discuss more aid at the cabinet meeting. The issue of concern is the mental condition of about 320 orphans, who can suffer trauma after losses in the disaster. The government will first send mosquito nets and medicines to orphanages.

According to the report of the first medical team returning home from Burma, the minister said, the doctors treated more than 3,600 patients, including 900 children, in Myaungmya and Labutta during the two week mission.

Most of the patients suffered from respiratory diseases and digestive system illnesses, wounds. No severe contagious diseases were detected.

Dr Surachet Satitniramai, secretary-general of the Institute for National Emergency Medicine, said that the second team of doctors are focusing on psychological treatment and sanitation management to prevent any outbreak of illness. (TNA)
Bangkok Post

[Khun Don]

Let them eat frogs


Rangoon - The military junta began evicting destitute families from cyclone relief centres on Friday and rejected foreign food aid - because people can survive perfectly well by hunting "large, edible frogs."

The New Light of Myanmar "newspaper", a government mouthpiece, also warned that foreign relief workers would snoop inside homes, and condemned donors for linking aid money to full access to the hardest-hit regions in the Irrawaddy Delta.

The tirade came as the junta tightened its political grip on the country, extending democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest and announcing that its new constitution has been enacted.

The regime says the charter will pave the way for democratic elections in two years, but dissidents say it will enshrine military rule in a country ruled by generals since 1962.

"It is better that they move to their homes where they are more stable," a government official said at one camp where people had been told to clear out at short notice. "Here, they are relying on donations and it is not stable."

Locals and aid workers said 39 camps in the immediate vicinity of Kyauktan, 30km south of Rangoon, were being cleared as part of a general eviction plan.

"We knew we had to go at some point but we had hoped for more support," 21-year-old trishaw driver Kyaw Moe Thu said as he trudged out of the camp with his five brothers and sisters.

They had been given 20 bamboo poles and some tarpaulins to help rebuild their lives in the Irrawaddy delta, where 134,000 people were left dead or missing by Cyclone Nargis on May 2.

"Right now, we are disappointed," Kyaw Moe Thu said. "We were promised 30 poles by the government. They told us we will get rice each month, but right now we have nothing."

Why would they want rice? wondered the military regime.

After several days of praising the work of the United Nations and charities, the regime's official newspaper renewed its attacks on foreign aid and insisted Burmese could survive without outside help.

"The government and the people are like parents and children," the paper said. "We, all the people, were pleased with the efforts of the government."

"Myanmar (Burmese) people are capable enough of rising from such natural disasters even if they are not provided with international assistance," the newspaper said.

"Myanmar people can easily get fish for dishes by just fishing in the fields and ditches," the paper said. "In the early monsoon, large edible frogs are abundant."

"The people (of the Irrawaddy delta) can survive with self-reliant efforts even if they are not given chocolate bars from (the) international community," it added.

No aid agencies are known to have provided chocolate bars to victims of Cyclone Nargis.

The United Nations estimates that about one million people in the delta are still without emergency aid. (Agencies)
Bangkok Post

[Khun Don]

UN condemns Burma 'camp closures'



An estimated 2.4m cyclone survivors remain homeless and hungry

A senior UN official has said that any coercion of Burmese cyclone victims to return home is completely unacceptable.
Terje Skavdal's remarks follow reports that Burma's military government had begun to evict homeless families from some government-run emergency camps.
It has given them bamboo poles and tarpaulins and told them to go and rebuild their lives, say reports.

Mr Skavdal, head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said he could not confirm the camp closures but pointed out that the agency did not endorse premature return to areas with no services.
"People need to be assisted in the settlements and satisfactory conditions need to be created before they can return to their place of origins," said Mr Skavdal.
"Any forced or coerced movement of people is completely unacceptable."

'Bureaucratic hindrance'
A Unicef official, Teh Tai Ring, had earlier said camps set up by the government in the Irrawaddy Delta towns of Bogale and Labutta had been emptied, according to AP news agency.




Mr Skavdal also complained of "bureaucratic hindrance" of aid workers and urged the junta to allow in 30 International Red Cross staff who were awaiting visas.
Last week, senior General Than Shwe assured UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon all foreign aid workers would be allowed in.

The international community last week pledged $150m (£75m) for cyclone relief in Burma but state media lashed out at donors, saying the junta needed $11bn to rebuild the stricken country.
The Burmese-language daily, Myanma Ahlin, said cyclone survivors could get by without "bars of chocolate" from the international community.

Edited from BBC News.

[Khun Don]

Feature: Storm-displaced Burmese ponder their fate
By dpa correspondents

Labutta, Burma (dpa)
Khin Mar Htwe, 30, a resident of "3 Mile Camp" in Labutta, gave birth to a healthy baby on Friday, providing a rare breath of life amid so much death.

With no doctors available the delivery was performed by a midwife.

Like many residents of the temporary camp, 4.8km outside of Labutta, a town in the Irrawaddy delta, Khin Mar Htwe is worried about her future and that of her newborn son, amid reports that the government has started forcing residents of temporary camps set up to accommodate victims of Cyclone Nargis to go back to their homes.

"I cannot go home," Khin Mar Htwe told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "The cyclone destroyed everything, our house and fields."

The cyclone also claimed the lives of her two daughters and mother.

Even in "3 Mile Camp," Khin Mar Htwe's existence hangs by a thread. "If not for donors we would be dead. Now with the arrival of a Japanese doctors perhaps our health can improve."

A 23-member Japan Medical Team arrived in Labutta, 240 kilometres west of Rangoon, over the weekend, and set up a temporary clinic at 3 Mile Camp on Saturday.

The team, granted short-tem visas that will expire on June 10, have been restricted to working in the camp, on Labutta's outskirts.

Altogether some 12,000 cyclone victims are residing in four government temporary camps around Labutta, many of them in desperate need of medical attention.

The Japanese clinic at "3 Mile Camp" was swamped by patients complaining of respiratory problems, diarrhea and injuries sustained in the cyclone, which hit the central Burmese coast on May 2-3, leaving at least 133,000 dead or missing.

One woman appeared at the clinic on Saturday complaining of a cobra bite.

"We had to send her on to a hospital because we haven't brought anti-venom serum," said doctor Kaname Kanai, leader of the Japanese medical team.

"With so many patients every day, I am worried that we will not have enough regular medicines to last until June 9, when our mission is over," he added.

The junta has been widely criticised by the international community for limiting the number of foreign experts allowed in to the country, especially the Irrawaddy delta region, in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which left an estimated 2.4 million people in need of clean water, food, shelter and medicines.

While visa and travel restrictions have been eased since last Sunday, when the government co-hosted an aid pledging conference in Rangoon with the United Nations and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the ruling junta has shown a preference for allowing Asian relief experts in to the country.

Altogether 270 medical experts from ASEAN have been invited to the delta region along with teams from China, India and Japan.

These teams are welcomed by international aid agencies, some of whom have been less successful at getting their own experts in.

"The task isso big we are welcoming everyone," said Souheil Reache, country director for Medicines Sans Frontier, one of the few international aid agencies that has been providing relief for Cyclone Nargis victims from the beginning of the catastrophe.

"The ASEAN and other Asian medical teams tend to be restricted to the major townships, which is good because it allows us to concentrate more on the remoter areas," said Reache.

With only 12 international staff but 250 Burmese staff working in the vast delta area, MSF has for the past two weeks been pushing outside the main Irrawaddy towns such as Bogale, Pyenpon, Labutta and Heyngyi to remote enclaves only reachable by boat or foot.

"Every day we are finding another 1,500 people who have not received any aid since the cyclone," said Reache. Unknown thousands continue to be stranded in these remote enclaves of the delta without the means to reach big cities and access to emergency supplies a good four weeks after the cyclone

And yet Burma's military regime continues to claim that the relief and rescue phase of the catastrophe is over, and is now beginning to pressure thousands of displaced people to return to their places of origin to help with reconstruction.

Sources in Bogale, another centre for government temporary camps, said 4,500 people were already forced to return to their homes last week.

Although there have been no reported evictions yet from Labutta, a showcase for international visitors, there are worries that once the Asian medical teams pull out the camps will be closed.

"The more people there are moving around the more difficult it is to get to them," said John Sparrow, a spokesman for Red Cross Red Crescent. "And with the rainy season upon us, if people don't have a place to settle down soon with access to shelter and supplies, the likelihood of disease outbreaks and deaths becomes greater."

[Khun Don]

Burmese still suffering, says Thai medical team

Stress, disease and infections rampant

The Burmese are still suffering from stress and diseases in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, a doctor who led the first Thai medical team dispatched to the country said yesterday. Pichit Siriwan, of Chulalongkorn Hospital and the Thai Red Cross Society, said people living in lowland areas were the hardest hit, made homeless by the cyclone.

They lived under stress and most suffered from respiratory diseases and food-borne and water-borne infections, he told reporters.

A Thai medical team returns from Burma where they treated victims of Cyclone Nargis. — SAROT MEKSOPHAWANNAKUL

About 200 camps were set up, accommodating about 1,000, according to Dr Pichit, the team leader of the unit of 18 doctors and 12 nurses. He added that the Thai team treated 3,700 sick people from those camps and surrounding areas. About 1,900 of the patients were children whose parents were killed in the disaster.

The unit returned to Bangkok yesterday after leaving on May 17 to assist the victims. The Thai doctors also organised activities to help the mental health of the victims.

''The Burmese appreciated the kindness of the Thai doctors,'' Dr Pichit said, adding that Burmese doctors wanted more Thai medical teams to help them look after victims.

More doctors from Thailand were willing to go if the Burmese leaders allow future missions.

Dr Pichit said Thai businessmen in Burma also helped arrange for translators to overcome the language barrier during the relief operation.

Bangkok Post

[Khun Don]

US aid ships to leave Burma



More than a month on, many people still need much more help

US Navy ships are due to leave Burma's coastline because of the continued refusal of the government to allow them to help victims of Cyclone Nargis.

The navy said it would withdraw the four ships, carrying helicopters and landing craft, after 15 failed attempts to convince the regime to let them in.
French and British navy ships have also been withdrawn after being refused permission to operate.
Cyclone Nargis left more than 133,000 people dead or missing.
More than a month after the disaster, the UN estimates that 2.4 million people are in need of food, shelter or medical care, and more than a million have yet to receive foreign aid.

'Saddened and frustrated'
Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of US Pacific Command, said the Burmese government had refused the navy's offer of help "each and every time".
"I am both saddened and frustrated to know that we have been in a position to help ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people and help mitigate further loss of life, but have been unable to do so because of the unrelenting position of the Burma military junta," he said.


Aid agencies say a huge operation is needed to help cyclone survivors

With aid agencies reporting continued difficulties in operating inside the affected delta region, correspondents say the 22 heavy-lift helicopters on board the US ships could have made a real difference. "Important heavy-lifting capability in the delta would have been a standard operating procedure for relief agencies in the response," said Paul Risley, a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme.

Despite the promise of full co-operation given by the ruling generals to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a recent visit, international relief agencies still say there is an urgent need for better access.
They say they are still chronically short of transport, and are being given only intermittent access to the delta.

Correspondents say it is proving hard to get a clear overall picture - but in its most recent report the UN said there was a "serious lack of sustained humanitarian assistance for the affected populations".
Ten commercial helicopters have now been chartered by the UN, but these are expensive and still insufficient for the task.

BBC News

[Khun Don]

Burma hits out at cyclone reports

Video: Secret aid missions of ordinary Burmese people

Burma's state-run media has strongly condemned media reports of the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis.
An article in a state daily accused "self-seekers" of faking video footage of the destruction - and foreign media of using it to harm Burma's image.
Reports that survivors were living in dire conditions in the Irrawaddy Delta were exaggerated, it said.
Burma's leaders have been heavily criticised for their reluctance to accept help after the 2 May cyclone.
According to official figures, 78,000 people were killed and another 56,000 are missing. More than two million people have been affected, aid agencies say.
After an initial refusal, the military junta is now allowing some experts from UN agencies and South East Asian neighbours to help victims of the storm.
But earlier this week US Navy ships carrying much-needed helicopters and landing craft left Burma's coastline after 15 failed attempts to convince the regime to let them in.

'Made-up stories'
Some of the most shocking footage that has emerged from the storm-hit region has come from video shot by Burmese amateurs and circulated on DVDs.

Burmese media labelled coverage of the cyclone as "despicable"

In an article, the New Light of Myanmar condemned "self-seekers exploiting storm victims".
They were, it said, "shooting video films featuring made-up stories in the storm-affected areas... and sending the videotapes to foreign news agencies".
"Those foreign news agencies are issuing such groundless news stories with the intention of tarnishing the image of Myanmar (Burma) and misleading the international community," it said.
The daily also accused reporters of exaggerating the conditions in which victims were living, describing the coverage as "despicable and inhuman acts of local and foreign anti-government groups".

Burma is desperate to prove that it is in control of the relief effort and that it does not need large-scale foreign help, correspondents say.
It has done its utmost to prevent journalists entering the storm-hit region, setting up police checkpoints to stop people travelling into the area.
But aid agencies say they still do not have the unrestricted access they need to fully implement the kind of relief and reconstruction operation required.
The story came a day after Burma's most prominent comedian, Zarganar, was detained after leading a private effort to deliver aid to cyclone victims.
Many Burmese volunteers have been organising their own deliveries to the delta to help people who have not received any aid.

BBC News

[Khun Don]

Burma rates foreign media 'worst than cyclone'

Rangoon (dpa) - Burmese state-controlled propaganda outlets on Sunday lashed out at foreign media that the despotic regime claims are spreading false news aboutaid efforts for victims of Cyclone Nargis in an effort to "undermine national unity."

"At present, some foreign broadcasting stations are making attempts to undermine the national unity under the pretext of Nargis," said The New Light of Myanmar, in an opinion piece under the title of "The enemy who is more destructive than Nargis."

The newspaper is an English language mouthpiece of the military dictatorship.

Cyclone Nargis swept through the central coastal region on May 2-3, leaving at least 133,000 dead or missing and 2.4 million in desperate need of humanitarian aid.

The ruling junta, whose past record of human rights abuses and dictatorial rule have won it pariah status for Western democracies, has drawn widespread criticism for hampering an international effort to get emergency aid to the regions hardest-hit by the cyclone where even now, a month after the catastrophe, up to a million people have yet to receive assistance.

There have been numerous reports of the military's attempts to monopolise aid distribution, or worse, have siphoned off international aid for their own benefit.

The New Light of Myanmar attributed such negative reports to foreign plots to undermine the government.

It cited a recent broadcast by "certain foreign radio stations" that claimed that packets of instant noodles meant for cyclone victims were being sold at public markets.

"I visited several markets to find out whether foreign-made instant noodle packets were on sale there," said the author, who identified himself as Ngar Min Swe. "I found them, but not many. The exaggerated news story was intended to destroy the generosity of donor countries and organisations.

"But we [Burmese people] were able to overcome the instigation of those broadcasting stations that are worse than Nargis," he concluded.

Burma has been under military rule since 1962, when former strongman Ne Win seized power with a coup and put the country on the disastrous "Burmese Way to Socialism."

Ne Win's nationalisation spree included all newspapers and radio stations, which have been under government control for the past 46 years. Foreign journalists are barred from working in the country and are only occasionally permitted to visit officially.

No visas have been issued to foreign journalists since Cyclone Nargis, although many have gone in as tourist

Bangkok Post

[Khun Don]

Burma junta claims visas granted to 911 disaster relief workers
By Deutsche Presse Agentur

Rangoon - Burma's state-run media disclosed Wednesday that the government has issued visas to a total of 911 foreign disaster relief workers since Cyclone Nargis hit the country on May 2-3, in apparent effort to counter criticisms of hindering the aid effort.

"Altogether 911 persons have been permitted to enter the country from 5 May to 5 June," said The New Light of Myanmar, a government mouthpiece.

According to the newspaper, visas have been granted to 458 people working for the United Nations and non-governmental organisations, 357 to relief workers from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) and 96 foreigners attending a UN-Asean donors meeting held last month.

Burma's ruling junta drew international criticism for failing to waive visas requirements for international aid workers in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, that left at least 133,000 people dead or missing and 2.4 million in desperate need of emergency assistance.

A breakthrough of sorts was achieved by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on May 25 when he met with Burma junta chief Senior General Than Shwe and won a promise from the autocrat that he would allow "all" foreign experts to enter the country to assist the aid effort.

Later, the junta clarified that aid workers would be welcome providing they represented registered agencies that offered aid with "no strings attached."

While there has been a marked improvement in access since Than Shwe's commitment, international aid agencies still complain that the process of being given travel permits to the Irrawaddy delta, the region hardest-hit by the cyclone, is time-consuming and unsystematic.

There are also complaints about the short duration of many visas and travel permits. dpa