Death toll doubles in Myanmar cyclone, UN still in dark about survivor needs
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YANGON, Myanmar: The official death toll nearly doubled to 78,000 from Myanmar's killer cyclone Friday as aid workers shackled by the country's uncooperative military regime struggled to get even the most basic data about the needs of up to 2.5 million desperate survivors.
Heavy rains lashed much of the area stricken two weeks ago, further hampering already-delayed relief efforts.
Myanmar state television said late Friday the official death count from the May 3 cyclone was 77,738, with another 55,917 missing.
The Red Cross warned the lack of clean water may further swell the ranks of dead.
The new toll was nearly double what the government had previously reported, but the TV announcement suggested it might be close to a final figure. It said the government had "carried out search and rescue and relief work and collection of data, promptly, immediately and extensively."
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Myanmar's ruling junta, meanwhile, kept the screws on tight and even threw up a security cordon around Yangon to restrict travel despite increasingly urgent calls from international aid organizations for clearance to get their workers to the Irrawaddy Delta, where scenes of devastation were rife and corpses lie rotting where they died.
A small tour to the disaster zone was being arranged for Sunday, giving diplomats their first up-close look at the effects of the cyclone and at the government's highly criticized relief delivery effort.
John Holmes, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, was also to go to Myanmar to try to convince junta leaders to grant more access for U.N. relief workers and massively scale up aid efforts, said Amanda Pitt, a U.N. spokeswoman in Bangkok, Thailand.
"If you look at the situation with China, they have accepted relief and assistance teams from Russia, Taiwan and Japan," Pitt said, referring to the response to the massive earthquake there. "They know they can't do it on their own."
Myanmar's junta has said the opposite — that it has the situation under control. But after two weeks the U.N. remained largely in the dark about the situation on the ground.
"We simply don't have the information, and I can't say when we will have it," said Steve Marshall, a U.N. official who just came out of Myanmar.
The Red Cross fears the death toll may be as high as 128,000; the U.N. estimates more than 100,000 died. The U.N. also estimates some 1.5 million to 2.5 million survivors are in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medical care.
The highest estimate of deaths comes from the British government's Department for International Development, which says on its Web site that "Unofficial estimates suggest the number of dead or missing is in the region of 217,000."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Friday that the death toll from Cyclone Nargis will increase dramatically unless the junta allows more aid into the country to help victims at risk of disease.
Ban told the U.N. General Assembly in New York that Holmes would deliver a third letter attempting to establish contact with the country's leadership to discuss how the U.N. can assist the government's immediate and long-term relief effort.
At the same time, France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert criticized the military junta for refusing to allow a French Navy ship with 1,500 tons of food, drugs and medicine to use small boats to deliver aid to devastated regions in the Irrawaddy Delta.
"This is purely unacceptable," he said, warning that refusing to allow aid to be delivered to people in need or in danger "could lead to a true crime against humanity if we go on like that."
Myanmar is entering the monsoon season and disaster experts warn it could complicate relief efforts. Aid groups have reached only 270,000 people so far, and the situation for the survivors will likely get harder as more time passes without proper help.
Lack of clean water will be deadly in Irrawaddy, Thomas Gurtner, the head of operations for the international Red Cross, told The Associated Press in Geneva.
"To be able to provide clean water to hundreds of thousands of people stranded in the delta requires a major operation, which we have neither the material, the logistical nor the staff capacity to do," he said.
Officials remained deeply concerned about the outbreak of infectious diseases.
Earlier, WHO said a few cases of cholera had been reported. But later Friday, WHO said Myanmar's Ministry of Health had not detected any cases beyond the norm there.
The junta has been especially sensitive about the distribution of aid and services by foreign nationals, and particularly with international organizations, has opened its door just a crack.
The U.S. military flew four more flights of emergency supplies into Yangon on Friday, raising its total to 17 since Monday. Two of the flights were filled with aid provided by the Thai government. India was also readying flights.
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