Myanmar cyclone death toll will hit 200,000, say British
Pastor Dale Morgan
Myanmar cyclone death toll will hit 200,000, say British*
By Graeme Jenkins in Rangoon
Last updated: 12:05 AM BST 16/05/2008
British officials have said that the number of dead and missing after
the Burmese cyclone is expected to rise to more than 200,000.
The Foreign Office said British officials were working on the basis that
217,000 people had died or were unaccounted for. The figure, which a
spokesman said was based on new United Nations estimates, is approaching
the estimated 225,000 who died in the Asian tsunami of 2004.
Channel 4 News reported that one Whitehall official had said that the
Government believed that the number could be as high as 250,000.
It came as The Daily Telegraph learned that thousands of survivors are
reportedly being used as forced labour in Burmese government camps.
Following the devastation of Cyclone Nargis on May 2, the military has
forcibly relocated tens of thousands of survivors from the Irrawaddy
Delta, including many who had sought
shelter in Buddhist monasteries – the centre of unrest during protests
against the junta last year.
Ko Hla Min, a 35-year-old farmer who lost nine relatives in the cyclone,
claimed that those rounded up by
soldiers around the devastated town of Bogalay were being used as work
gangs. "They have to break stones at the construction sites," he said.
"They are paid $1 per day but are not
provided with any food."
A senior UN official said he feared other survivors would be moved back
to the delta and used by the junta to plant the next rice crop in the
coming weeks. About 80,000 people sought sanctuary in schools and
temples in the town of Labutta, which was left in ruins by the cyclone.
Now, only about 20,000 are thought to remain after the military intervened.
Despite another two million still in dire need of aid, the Burmese
government has repeatedly rejected calls to allow foreign relief workers
to deliver food, clean drinking water, shelter and medicine. The New
Light of Myanmar newspaper, a government mouthpiece, has said that Burma
can be rebuilt without outside help.
Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister, accused the junta
yesterday of turning a "deaf ear" to the plight of the people. "Than
Shwe [the ruling general] is not hearing the seriousness of the crisis
and the regime has set its back against the need to accept outside
help," he said.
Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said the UN would be organising an
emergency summit in Asia to discuss the disaster.
Reports are also beginning to spread of an outbreak of cholera. However,
in an attempt to hide the humanitarian catastrophe from the outside
world, even Burmese people are no longer allowed to enter the Irrawaddy
Delta, which is ringed by roadblocks.
The military insists that it will distribute the international aid
coming into Rangoon airport, although some of it has already been
appearing in the city's markets.
The reports came as the Burmese regime announced that a referendum held
last weekend had overwhelmingly endorsed the country's new constitution.
State radio claimed that 92.4 per cent of people, from a 99 per cent
turnout, had voted "yes" to the supposedly democratic charter, which has
been widely dismissed as a smokescreen for prolonged military rule
Civil rights groups said there was a low turnout and irregularities. At
some polling stations officials voted "yes" on behalf of anyone who had
not appeared by 1pm. A Western diplomat in Rangoon said only a small
fraction of the army was initially devoted to relief efforts, while the
regime concentrated on conducting the referendum.