17/5/08; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23712604-12335,00.html
Burma today said more than 133,000 people were dead or missing in the Nargis cyclone disaster, with the huge increase due to difficulties in confirming the figures, state television reported. However it said 77,738 were dead and 55,917 missing
16/5/08
The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis, which swept through Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta, has reached 77,738, state television has said. It also reported on Friday that another 55,917 people are missing and 19,359 are injured. The news comes as Myanmar faces increased pressure to allow international aid into the country. The previous official death toll was 43,328, but independent experts say the actual number could be much higher. British officials say the total number of people dead and missing could be more than 200,000.
Kenneth Denby; 16/5/08
The Burmese authorities have sealed off the cyclone disaster zone from the outside world, expelling foreign aid workers and placing multiple checkpoints along roads into the Irrawaddy Delta, to the despair of foreign diplomats and aid workers. The isolation of the delta confirms the growing sense among international organisations that the Burmese junta is never going to allow a wide-ranging foreign-led aid effort of the kind that was mounted in several countries after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Aid groups are trying instead to mount a stealth operation in which Western aid is distributed by government organisations, local aid workers, and international staff from countries that the regime regards as friendly and compliant.
15/5/08
The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis which hit Burma on May 3 has been updated to 38,491, with 27,838 people missing, state radio said. The new toll announced today was raised from 34,273 dead and 27,836 missing, issued yesterday. As well as the dead and missing, another 1,403 were injured, state radio said. However, the United Nations has warned the number of dead likely exceeds 100,000, and that many more may die unless vital aid reaches up to two million survivors.
13/5/08
The US’s first airlift landed in Burma last night after prolonged negotiations with the military junta that has restricted international efforts to help up to two million cyclone survivors at risk of disease and starvation. In what was seen as a huge concession by the junta, the unarmed US military C-130 cargo plane, packed with supplies, flew from the Thai air force base of Utapao into Rangoon. Two more air shipments were scheduled to land today. Relief workers who remain prohibited from entering Burma warned it could take weeks to reach many cyclone victims because of the nation’s decrepit infrastructure. Such a delay will increase the number of people at risk and raise the possibility of unrest, they said.
Aung Hla Tun; 12/5/08
Desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis poured out of Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta yesterday in search of food, water and medicine as aid workers warned that up to 1.5 million faced death if emergency supplies did not get through soon. Buddhist temples and schools in towns on the outskirts of the storm’s trail of destruction were now makeshift refugee centres for women, children and the elderly as millions of dollars in emergency aid was stalled on airport tarmacs pending permission to enter the country and hundreds of relief specialists were waiting for visas. The reclusive military government is accepting aid from the outside world, including from the UN, but has made clear it will not let in the foreign logistics teams needed to transport the aid into the inundated delta.
Aung Hla Tun; 12/5/08
Desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis poured out of Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta yesterday in search of food, water and medicine as aid workers warned that up to 1.5 million faced death if emergency supplies did not get through soon. Buddhist temples and schools in towns on the outskirts of the storm’s trail of destruction were now makeshift refugee centres for women, children and the elderly as millions of dollars in emergency aid was stalled on airport tarmacs pending permission to enter the country and hundreds of relief specialists were waiting for visas. The reclusive military government is accepting aid from the outside world, including from the UN, but has made clear it will not let in the foreign logistics teams needed to transport the aid into the inundated delta.
11/5/08
While Burma’s military regime restricted the rush of international aid offered to help hungry and homeless cyclone survivors, the Government was exporting tonnes of rice through its main port. Four of Thilawa port’s five berths were empty yesterday, but a crane was loading large white sacks into the hold of a freighter. The sacks were filled with rice destined for Bangladesh, according to the drivers of at least 10 transport trucks waiting to deliver more rice to the docks. The junta has a monopoly on rice exports and said last week that it planned to meet commitments to sell rice, which has reached record high prices on the world market, even though Burma’s main rice-producing region sustained the worst cyclone damage. The cyclone caused massive destruction in the Irrawaddy River delta, where farmers are now desperate for food.
10/5/08
Myanmar’s junta went ahead with a constitutional referendum on Saturday despite international calls to postpone it after the devastation of Cyclone Nargis. The vote was postponed by two weeks in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta and Yangon although voting went ahead in other parts of the country. The opposition had denounced the constitution and vote as an attempt by the military to legitimize its 46-year rule. Meanwhile, the United Nations has appealed for $187 million in aid for the more than one million victims of the cyclone that hit the country.
10/5/08
Seven Red Cross aid workers, including four Australians, have received visas to enter cyclone-hit Burma. Australian Michael Annear, regional disaster response coordinator who has been in Burma since Tuesday, spoke to international media tonight. An estimated 1.5 million people have been left homeless by the deadly cyclone Nargis, which has killed an estimated 66,000 people. Red Cross workers in Burma have had two truckloads of aid supplies arrive, Mr Annear said.
