Asia-Pacific News
Killer cyclone leaves Yangon in the dark, hundreds dead date; epa photos (2nd Lead)
By DPA
May 5, 2008, 8:54 GMT

   Yangon - Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, was without electricity and water Monday in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, which killed hundreds at the weekend and caused untold damage to the country's already fragile infrastructure and food supply.

   Nargis, which blew off the Bay of Bengal late Friday packing winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour, killed 19 people in Yangon, 109 on the island of Hai Gyi and 223 in the coastal Irrawaddy Division, the state-controlled media reported.

   The actual death toll was expected to be much higher.

   Kawhmu and Kungyagon, two cities about 50 kilometres south of Yangon, were reporting more than 100 dead, sources close to the government said.

   Yangon, Myanmar's former capital and the country's commercial hub, was among the places hardest hit by the storm, which uprooted trees, toppled electricity and telephone poles, and burst water pipes, leaving the city of several million without basic utilities.

   Nonetheless, state media reports on Monday confirmed that Myanmar's military regime intended to go ahead with a referendum Saturday on a new constitution that promises to cement the military's dominant role in the country's politics.

   'The referendum is only a few days away, and the people are eagerly looking forward to voting,' a government statement carried by state-run media said.

   The storm's devastation has raised questions about the propriety of the government's plan.

   'Yangon, a city of several million people is without electricity and without water, so I don't see how you can conduct a referendum under those conditions,' one Yangon-based Western diplomat said.

   'It's a catastrophe,' he added. 'Almost all the electricity poles were blown down. It will take weeks to repair.'

The Irrawaddy Division was also hard hit by Nargis although details about its effects there remained sketchy.

   Myanmar's third most populous city of Pathein, the Irrawaddy capital, was reportedly inundated by floodwaters, causing untold damage and deaths.

   The fertile, low-lying division is Myanmar's chief rice-growing area. Damage to the Irrawaddy's irrigation systems and crops was unreported by state television, which is tightly monitored in the military-run country.

   'The rice was high,' a Western diplomat said. 'This will certainly effect the rice crop negatively.'

   The disaster caused sharp rises in fuel and food prices by Monday in Yangon.

   A bottle of water was selling for 1,000 kyat, compared with 350 kyats last week, while the minimum bus fare had jumped from 50 kyats to 500 kyats in the city, a Yangon resident said.

   Last week's black-market rate for the kyat was 1,120 to the dollar.

Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein appeared Sunday in Yangon to pass out food and supplies to victims of the cyclone, but much of the cleanup work has been done by the people themselves.

   It remained to be seen whether the government would launch an appeal for international humanitarian aid.

   'I think they are too proud to call for international aid,' said Jens Orback, a former Swedish minister for democracy and gender equality who was in Yangon at the weekend to assess preparations for the referendum when he got caught in the cyclone.

   'I think that now, the generals want to show that they can put the country in order again without international help,' Orback said in Bangkok.

   If they fail to cope with the disaster well this week, many frustrated voters could use Saturday's referendum to cast ballots against the military-backed constitution, observers said.

   On the other hand, Myanmar's military rulers might also use the catastrophe to their advantage.

'With many of the town polling station destroyed, I'm worried that they may now make people vote in more public places, like stadiums, so they can watch how they vote,' said Win Min, a lecturer on Myanmar affairs at Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

'Many people are saying this [cyclone] is a bad omen for the regime and punishment for their crackdown on Buddhist monks last September,' he added.

   On September 26 to 27, Myanmar's junta unleashed its troops on hundreds of Buddhist monks who had led anti-government protests in Yangon, sending thugs to beat and round up the protectors of Myanmar's national religion.

   The brutal onslaught, which left at least 31 dead, enraged Myanmar's predominantly Buddhist population against their rulers and drew harsh criticism from the international community.