Whole Towns Wiped Out as Burma Death Toll Soars

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By Ian MacKinnon and Julian Borger

Bush urges leadership to accept US help as officials declare at least 22,000 dead.

The toll from the Burmese cyclone disaster continued to rise yesterday as the government announced that 22,000 were dead and 41,000 missing, while aid agencies warned many more could die if assistance could not be delivered quickly.

Relief workers who penetrated the worst-hit areas in the rice-growing belt of the Irrawaddy delta south-west of the main city, Rangoon, talked of hundreds of bodies strewn about the paddy fields. The Burmese government identified 15 townships in the Irrawaddy delta that had suffered worst. Seven of them had lost 90 to 95% of their homes with 70% of their population dead or missing. One community, Bogalay, was said to have been wiped out, with 10,000 people feared dead.

"We have a major humanitarian catastrophe on our hands," said Chris Kaye, Burma country director for the UN's World Food Programme.

"The numbers are harrowing. Certainly, we know that in areas in the southern delta, towns like Bogalay and Laputta were very, very badly affected by the storm surge. A surge in low-lying areas coupled with high winds served to flatten areas, taking villages and villagers with it. It's a tragic and serious situation."

Burma's normally secretive regime was forced to go public with the scale of the humanitarian crisis. The information minister, Kyaw Hsan, staged a rare news conference where he admitted the authorities were struggling to cope with a disaster starting to rival Asia's worst cyclone that hit Bangladesh in 1991, killing 143,000.

"The task is very wide and extensive and the government needs the cooperation of the people and wellwishers from at home and abroad," he said. "We will not hide anything."

But despite the Burmese authorities' pleas for help international aid agencies were still having difficulty yesterday securing visas for their workers. Food aid has been dispatched but is not clear whether import duties will have to be paid for it and whether the government will insist on controlling its distribution.

The US, which pledged $3m (£1.5m) to UN agencies to help with emergency food distribution, has navy ships in the area which Washington said could be used in the aid distribution effort, but the Burmese government, which accuses the US of fomenting revolt in Burma, is unlikely to allow them to enter its waters.

President George Bush appealed yesterday to the junta: "Let the US come and help you." However, the regime is unlikely to have been impressed by the occasion he used to make the announcement, signing legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Burmese democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The EU announced it was giving $2m (£1.5m) to the aid effort, while China said it would give $1m.

The authoritarian regime, which has held power for 46 years, did however make one concession. It relented over plans to hold a controversial constitutional referendum on Saturday, which analysts said would cement the generals' hold on power. The government said it would be delayed until May 24 in the worst-hit areas of Rangoon and the Irrawaddy delta.

Given the unprecedented scale of the havoc wrought by the 13ft storm surge and catastrophic winds that battered the low-lying area that grows most of Burma's rice, the two-week delay appeared optimistic.

"We're talking of something on the scale of the tsunami," said Andrew Kirkwood, Burma country director for Save the Children. "Initially we thought we were looking at a response over a couple of months, but now it looks like a couple of years."

Teams from the agency have been in the outlying areas of Rangoon and Irrawaddy region assessing the true extent of the destruction to gauge the level of need. But with so many homes resembling piles of matchwood the task of providing for the survivors of a storm that affected more than a quarter of Burma's 53 million population is mind-boggling.

Infrastructure in the broad swath of low-lying coastal area has been devastated, with hulking iron and concrete bridges that straddle the countless waterways turned into heaps of twisted junk.

Boats that served as a lifeline for the delta's inhabitants sank in the storm, leaving aid agencies scrambling to get relief to those survivors among the 1 million homeless who have already spent four days braving the elements.

"It's going to be a massive logistical operation and very, very difficult," said Save the Children's Kirkwood. "The scale of the disaster is unprecedented in living memory in these areas."

With the onset of the rainy season the priority for the agencies with teams in the country already is providing shelter, in the form of plastic sheeting, and clean drinking water to prevent an outbreak of waterborne disease.

Tens of thousands of people have been sheltering in schools, temples and monasteries, making the provision of sanitation a pressing need.

Teams from aid agencies already operating in the country have started distributing food, cooking utensils, mosquito nets and even cash in some areas where people are still able to buy food, though prices have jumped between 50% and 100%.

"We hope to fly in more assistance within the next 48 hours," said Paul Risley, WFP spokesman in Bangkok. "The challenge will be getting to the affected areas with road blockages everywhere."

Even in Rangoon the situation remains bleak, though the roads were being slowly cleared of the debris of fallen trees and telegraph poles.

"Basically the services are all down," said Mark Canning, the British ambassador in Rangoon. "There's no electricity, no telephone, no water and very little food. Drinking water is in very short supply. But the crucial thing is the diesel needed to keep backup pumps going."

Thailand was among those trying to alleviate the tragedy, flying in another plane load of supplies yesterday, while India said it was loading two naval vessels to carry emergency aid to the Irrawaddy area. A host of others including Singapore, China, Japan the EU and US, have also pledged support.