Burma Struggles in Cyclone Aftermath; Death Toll May Top 100,000
By GRAEME JENKINS,
KUNGYANGON, Burma — The number of people who died in Burma's cyclone disaster could climb to more than 100,000, American diplomats said yesterday.
As survivors battled to stay alive with little relief in sight five days after cyclone Nargis struck, the American embassy in Rangoon issued a new estimate of the scale of the human cost in the disaster.
"The information that we're receiving indicates that there may well be over 100,000 deaths in the delta area," the American charge d'affaires, Shari Villarosa, said.
The regime has said that Nargis claimed at least 22,000 lives and left another 40,000 missing, presumed dead. Yet it has still to prove fully co-operative with the international community and aid agencies desperate to help.
International relief supplies began to trickle into the country yesterday, but the regime has still not begun issuing visas to emergency relief specialists who, aid agencies say, are essential in running a massive logistical operation in a wrecked landscape. Thousands of tons of supplies still wait in depots abroad, unable to enter the country and help the people of the worst-hit towns and villagers.
At Kungyangon yesterday, a devastated town where 2,000 bodies have been buried, survivors provided horrifying accounts of the disaster and its aftermath.
A community leader gave warning of the growing threat to the health of the survivors.
"If we don't get help we will die here," he told the Daily Telegraph, asking that he not be named for fear of offending the military regime. "Already diarrhea is beginning. Most of the people have diarrhea. We need good food and shelter to survive."
