Burma Cyclone Death Toll Climbs Beyond 34,000
Tuesday, May 13, 2008, 02:00 PM - South East Asia
Burma Cyclone Death Toll Climbs Beyond 34,000. An international issues article.
As the death toll in Burma from Cyclone Nargis climbs, the United Nations says tens of thousands of survivors from last week's storm could die because they are not getting emergency aid.

Burma announced Tuesday that the death toll has passed 34,000. The United Nations estimates the death toll could be as high as 100,000.

The European Commission announced Tuesday that Burma has agreed to let the European Union's top aid official, Louis Michel, enter the country to seek better access for international aid workers and relief supplies.

Elizabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN Organization for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, said Tuesday that at least 1.5 million people are severely affected by the disaster, but only about one-third of those are getting aid.

The World Health Organization has warned that, because of poor sanitary conditions, disease could break out.

Burma's military rulers have so far rejected pressure to allow international workers into the country to help distribute aid. UN officials say supplies are piling up at the airport, waiting to be delivered to cyclone victims. - See Burma Cyclone Death Toll Climbs Beyond 34,000 for the full report.

UN worried aid may not reach Myanmar victims
Tuesday, May 13, 2008, 01:51 PM - South East Asia
UN worried aid may not reach Myanmar victims. An international issues article.
The United Nations is worried that some of the aid intended for victims of a deadly cyclone in Myanmar might have been diverted but has no hard proof this has occurred, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a regular news conference, spokeswoman Michel Montas was asked if the United Nations was concerned that some of the aid sent to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, might be going to people who were not victims of Cyclone Nargis.

"That concern exists," she said. "We don't have any independent report of a specific portion of the aid going to other sectors besides the victims (but) it is a fact that a very small percentage of victims have so far received the aid."

In Myanmar, heavy rains on Tuesday pelted homeless cyclone survivors in the country's Irrawaddy delta, complicating the already slow delivery of aid to more than 1.5 million people facing hunger and disease.

As more foreign aid trickles in, critics have been ratcheting up the pressure on its military rulers to accelerate a relief effort that is only delivering an estimated one tenth of the supplies needed in the devastated delta.

One Yangon businessman who returned from a personal aid mission to Bogalay, a delta township where at least 10,000 people were killed, told Reuters that soldiers were appropriating aid.

"There are still some villages in the worst-hit areas that nobody has got to," the man, in his late 30s, said. "Around Bogalay, private donors are not allowed to distribute their assistance to the victims themselves. We had to hand over what we had."

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke on Monday of his "immense frustration" at the junta's "unacceptably slow response" to the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. In his most critical comments on Myanmar to date, he urged the junta to lift all restrictions on foreign relief workers. - See UN worried aid may not reach Myanmar victims for the full report.

Burma Starts Vote As Aid Trickles In
Sunday, May 11, 2008, 02:02 PM - South East Asia
Burma Starts Vote As Aid Trickles In. An international issues article.
Burma's ruling junta went ahead with a constitutional referendum Saturday, as foreign aid slowly trickled into the storm-ravaged country, where tens of thousands of people are dead or missing since a cyclone struck a week ago.

Although the final results of polling may not come until later this month, after areas hardest hit by the storm are able to vote, the controversial new draft constitution is all but assured of passage by a comfortable margin. Wire services reported widespread intimidation of voters and a government media campaign directing people to vote yes.

Leaders of the military regime that took power in 1988 describe the proposed charter as part of their "road map to democracy." The junta has also pledged to hold nationwide elections by 2010. After the last elections, which the junta lost to the party of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 1990, it rejected the results and restrained pro-democracy leaders.

But the proposed constitution, in the making since 1993, has been widely criticized for guaranteeing 25 percent of the seats in parliament to the military and for a clause allowing unelected leaders to seize executive and legislative power in a state of emergency. It would also bar Suu Kyi, who has been detained for much of the past 18 years, from seeking office. - See Burma Starts Vote As Aid Trickles In for the full report.

Tragedy of dead and survivors in Myanmar grows worse
Sunday, May 11, 2008, 01:58 PM - South East Asia
Tragedy of dead and survivors in Myanmar grows worse. An international issues article.
Desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis headed out of Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta in search of food, water and medicine, but aid workers said on Sunday that thousands will die if emergency supplies don't get through soon.

Buddhist temples and schools on the outskirts of the storm's trail of destruction are now makeshift refugee centers.

The U.N. humanitarian agency said in a new assessment that between 1.2 million and 1.9 million were struggling to survive in the aftermath of the storm that struck eight days ago.

"Given the gravity of the situation including the lack of food and water, some partners have reported fears for security, and violent behavior in the most severely afflicted areas," the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

It said "the number of deaths could range from 63,290 to 101,682, and 220,000 people are reported to be missing". It said "acute environmental issues" posed a threat to life and health.

In 1991 a cyclone slammed into neighboring Bangladesh, killing 143,000 people.

While Myanmar's reclusive military government is accepting aid from the outside world, including the United Nations, it will not let in the foreign logistics teams. - See Tragedy of dead and survivors in Myanmar grows worse for the full report.

UN to seek $115 million emergency aid for Myanmar
Friday, May 9, 2008, 02:30 PM - South East Asia
UN to seek $115 million emergency aid for Myanmar. An international issues article.
The United Nations will issue an appeal on Friday for $115 million in emergency food and relief for cyclone-struck Myanmar, a senior U.N. World Food Program official said.

The appeal will come amid international frustration over delays by Myanmar's ruling military junta in allowing relief aid in, nearly a week after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country.

"The WFP portion is $65 million for our emergency operation," said WFP Asia director Tony Banbury.

The WFP would seek an additional $50 million to "put in all the logistics infrastructure to support the needs of the relief community" if operations can be launched in the country, which has resisted such efforts so far, he said in a video conference from the Thai capital, Bangkok.

Banbury said U.N. relief agencies were planning and preparing to move workers and supplies to the former Burma on the assumption the government would allow such an international response despite its seizure of two deliveries at Yangon airport.

Banbury, speaking to a panel at the CSIS think tank in Washington, said he was concerned that Myanmar's refusal to let the WFP deliver the 38 tons of high-energy biscuits that were seized could hamper efforts to raise funds for Myanmar's Irawaddy delta area. - See UN to seek $115 million emergency aid for Myanmar for the complete report.

Thousands More Deaths Expected in Myanmar
Monday, May 5, 2008, 02:06 PM - South East Asia
Thousands More Deaths Expected in Myanmar. An international issues article.
The death toll from the devastating cyclone that struck Myanmar over the weekend escalated to nearly 4,000 people, the government said Monday, and the foreign minister told diplomats and United Nations officers that it could rise to 10,000.

If the numbers are accurate, the death toll would be the biggest from a natural disaster in Asia since the tsunami of December 2004, which killed 181,000 as it devastated coastlines in Indonesia, Thailand and other parts of southeast and south Asia.

On Monday, Myanmar’s state television and radio reported 3,934 dead, 41 injured and 2,879 missing. All those who were still missing were from a single town.

Hundreds of thousands of people were reportedly homeless and food and water were in short supply after Cyclone Nargis swept through the Irrawaddy Delta and the country’s main city, Yangon, early Saturday.

The estimate that the death toll could rise to 10,000, which would represent a dramatic increase from the government’s initial estimate on Sunday of 351 people killed, was announced at a briefing in Myanmar by three cabinet ministers, including the foreign minister, Nyan Win, according to Richard Horsey, a spokesman for the United Nations disaster response office in Bangkok. - See Thousands More Deaths Expected in Myanmar for the full report.


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