UN says 102,000 dead in Burma

Thailand offers to be a base for relief supplies

BANGKOK POST AND AGENCIES.
Thailand will act as a mediator to help with the movement of international relief supplies to Burma, which are being held up by the military junta and are stuck in Thailand, Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said yesterday.

The move comes as the UN says up to 102,000 people could have been killed by Cyclone Nargis and about 220,000 are reported missing.

Mr Noppadon said he planned to leave for Burma tomorrow to push for additional assistance and ask the Burmese generals to provide wider access and to allow foreign assistance for the cyclone victims.

He said he will also ask that foreign experts be allowed to enter Burma to give humanitarian aid to the victims.

He said the foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will meet in Singapore on May 19 to discuss ways to help the victims.

Former foreign minister Surin Pitsuwan is the Asean secretary-general.

The number of people reported missing after the cyclone hit has risen to about 220,000, the United Nations said, and it warned of environmental damage, violence and mass migration.

It said assessments of 55 townships in the Irrawaddy delta and other disaster-hit areas found up to 102,000 people could have been killed in the cyclone, which struck flimsy dwellings with fierce winds and huge waves on May 2.

''Based on these assessments, the UN estimates that 1,215,885 to 1,919,485 people have been affected by the cyclone, the number of deaths could range from 63,290 to 101,682, and 220,000 people are reported to be missing,'' said the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

State-run television in Burma reported last night that the death toll had risen to more than 28,458 and 33,416 people were missing.

Meanwhile, a cargo boat carrying the first Red Cross aid to survivors sank yesterday. The boat carrying relief supplies for more than 1,000 people was believed to have hit a submerged tree in the Irrawaddy delta and started taking on water, International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) official in Bangkok Andy McElroy said.

The accident highlighted the enormous logistical difficulties of delivering aid to the survivors, who are in need of food, shelter and medicine, with roads washed away and much of the delta turned into swampland.

The crew steered the stricken Red Cross boat to an island but it sank rapidly, Mr McElroy said. All crew members and the four Burma Red Cross personnel on board, two men and two women, scrambled to safety.

''This is a great loss for the Burma Red Cross and for the people who need aid so urgently,'' Aung Kyaw Htut, the Burma Red Cross aid distribution team leader, said. ''This would have been our very first river shipment and it will delay aid for a further day.''

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said yesterday he called off his plan to visit Burma to push for British and American rescuers to be allowed in.

But he said he fully supported Burma as Thailand was a neighbour and he would not mind if his stance causes the West to isolate Thailand.

Mr Samak also said he admired Supreme Commander Boonsang Niampradit for arranging for swift assistance to Burma. Thailand was the first nation to send help.

Gen Boonsang said Nipat Thonglek, the director-general of the Border Affairs Department, left for Rangoon as a special representative of Mr Samak yesterday. Lt-Gen Nipat would meet Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein to coordinate assistance.

The visit followed a US statement that agencies were ready to help through the World Food Programme.

The US is sending its aid to Bangkok and is committed to supplying food to 600,000 Burmese for six months, but supplies cannot reach Burma because of visa restrictions imposed by the junta.

Air Force commander ACM Chalit Phukphasuk also flew to Burma yesterday. He was delivering necessities worth 1.08 million baht His Majesty the King donated to cyclone victims.

Mae Sot district in Tak province is now the only land route for necessities to be transported into Burma.

According to local charity activist Panithi Tangphati, Win Myint, chief of the Myawaddy Border Trade Office, said donations can be delivered through government officials and at the Tamaya monastery. However, donors must pay a transport fee of 40,000 baht per truck.

Form Bangkok post
May 12th 2008