THE DEATH toll from the Burmese cyclone disaster rose yesterday as the government announced that 22,000 were dead and 41,000 missing.
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 southwest 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 per cent of their homes with 70 per cent 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.
"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 secretive regime was forced to go public with the scale of the humanitarian crisis. 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 co-operation 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 $3 million (€1,930,000) 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 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.
Meanwhile, the EU announced it was donating €2 million to the aid effort, while China said it would give $1 million.
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. - (Guardian service)