Asia-Pacific Features

As cyclone-struck villagers await aid, anger mounts

May 8, 2008, 12:55 GMT

Kungyangon, Burma - Tin Sin, 57, is now a grandmother without grandchildren. Debris left in the wake of tropical cyclone Nargis, in Yangon, Myanmar, 06 May 2008 in this photo released by Democratic Voice of Burma. EPA/DEMOCRATIC VOICE OF BURMA

Debris left in the wake of tropical cyclone Nargis, in Yangon, Myanmar, 06 May 2008 in this photo released by Democratic Voice of Burma. EPA/DEMOCRATIC VOICE OF BURMA When Cyclone Nargis hit this coastal town, 45 kilometres south-west of Yangon, on May 3, it wiped out her hopes of a happy old age surrounded by her children and grandchildren. Her son Zaw Nyo Htet, 33, and his wife and three children were all trying to save the rice crop from torrential rains caused by the cyclone when a giant wave inundated the village, drowning them all. Tin Sin managed to survive because she was minding the family home. 'I am all alone,' she wailed. 'I have nothing.' She is not alone in her misery. Tin Oo, 37, lost 16 members of his extended family, two sisters, one brother and their children to Cyclone Nargis, and now he is angry. 'They were working in the paddy fields, trying to save the crop,' he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 'We had no warning that the storm was coming.' Myanmar's Department of Meteorology claims to have issued warnings on the approach of the cyclone six days before the storm struck the country, but in remote towns such as Kungyangon, where few can afford a television or even a radio, the warning was not heard. The last tropical cyclone to hit Myanmar occurred 40 years ago, long enough for most to have forgotten the warning signs. According to government estimates, almost 23,000 people died in the disaster and another 42,000 have been listed as missing, most of them in the Irrawaddy Delta area, Myanmar's fertile rice bowl. Others predict the real death toll will be closer to 100,000. In Kungyangon alone, villagers estimate 5,000 people died. The catastrophe has left an estimated 1.5 million people without food, water and medicine. Hundreds of thousands are without homes. Myanmar's military regime has reportedly allocated a budget of 4.5 million dollars to emergency relief, peanuts compared with the magnitude of the task ahead. Myanmar Prime Minister General Thein Sein visited Kungyangon on Wednesday, passing out small bags of rice and one or two fish per family. Such largess will not be enough to stave off the food crisis looming over Kungyangon and hundreds of other small towns as the people attempt to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. 'All the government has given us is a little rice and fish,' said Chit Than, 59, who lost his daughter to the cyclone. 'I am angry and will vote no at the referendum on Saturday.' The disaster has caught the ruling junta at a sensitive time politically. The regime is holding a referendum Saturday aimed at winning popular approval for a constitution that promises to cement the military's dominant role in Myanmar politics. Myanmar has been under military dictatorships since 1962. The current regime has earned itself pariah status among Western democracies for repeatedly crushing anti-government protests and refusing to hasten moves toward democracy. Cyclone Nargis, ironically, has forced the regime to open its doors to the international community's emergency aid at a time when it least desires international scrutiny. Critics have labelled the referendum process a sham, that will result in an endorsement of the charter either through intimidation or rigged voting. Worries about the referendum, which has been postponed until May 24 in 47 of the worst-hit townships, may be behind the junta's tardiness in passing out visas to aid workers trying to enter the country this week to cope with the massive humanitarian challenge. Critics of the regime charged that it is deliberately hampering the granting of visas so it can claim the credit for relief work in the countryside. 'They are delaying visas for foreign aid workers, which is a clear sign that they want the materials but don't want the foreign workers,' said Win Min, a lecturer on Myanmar affairs at Chiang Mai University in Thailand. But the enormity of the disaster is likely to force the regime to loosen visa restrictions on aid workers or face the prospect of mounting casualties to hunger and disease. 'This is a critical moment for Myanmar's vulnerable populations,' warned the UN Information Centre in Yangon. 'In the next few days, assessments must be provided or thousands more could die.' Government-caused delays to the disaster relief could also lead to political unrest, a prospect some welcome. 'What is needed is a revolution - but it is unclear that will happen,' said one Western diplomat in Yangon.

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Here we go!May 8th, 2008 - 17:37:39

The western propaganda machines are in full swing already.

Typical of the white christian devil.

The way we Asians see it this is a time for all parties in Myanmar to come together and work as one to help the people of the country overcome the aftermath of the cyclone.

It is a time to put aside their differences and really show the people of Myanmar who really cares about them! Only those that are able to put aside their differences and right now work together to help those affected.

Believe me: the people OF Myanmar, IN Myanmar, especially those affected, including those troublesome Bhudist monks will really see who cares for them in their time of need.

You can bank on that one!

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Besides......May 8th, 2008 - 17:42:23

That low quality german press agency should concern itself with how german mothers abort, kill and than freeze their own offspring.

How austrian fathers have sex with their own children. Hell, have children with their own children.

That german so-called press agency shouldn't worry about other countries.

It should report on its own kind's misdeeds. Maybe even go back to the Holocaust?!?

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