Death Toll Rising Sharply

Yesterday I relayed the news that the Tropical Cyclone Nargis claim 3,000 lives and left 4,0000 still missing.

Now, that total has been revised to more than 22,000 dead and 41,000 missing, according to the Myanmar state-run radio.

A news broadcast on government-run radio said that 22,464 people have now been confirmed dead from Cyclone Nargis, which tore through the country’s rice bowl and biggest city of Yangon early Saturday.

The broadcast added that 41,000 were still missing, raising fears the death toll would soar.

The U.S World Food Program is saying that there are millions homeless, huge amounts of rice growing areas were devastated and that whole villages have been completely destroyed. The government is also postponing the constitutional referendum in cities like Yangon, Myanmar until next month (they are going ahead in places that were affected very little or not affected at all by the cyclone).

Aid from all over the world is descending on Burma right now, but getting to the affected areas is incredibly difficult. The main airport to the region is in Yangon and there is no electricity, so communication is hard. According to the article, getting aid to where it’s needed most will be incredibly difficult even with the accessibly waterways. Aid workers will have to fly into outlying regions via helicopters or planes, which could prove more dangerous to the workers.

U.S. First Lady, Laura Bush, is calling for the government junta, which is being sanctioned by the U.S. for refusing to allow the democratic process to grow there, asked that the aid the U.S. has offered be accepted. She alluded to a greater amount than the initial $250,000 offered, saying that the amount would increase “substantially”- though she refused to say by exactly how much. Laura Bush made sure to note that the aid would go through international relief agencies and not directly into the hands of the military junta.

Mrs. Bush blamed the Burmese government for not giving adequate warning to the people and said that Voice of America and Radio Free Asia were primarily responsible for sounding the alarm about the massive cyclone.

Laura Bush declared that “the response to the cyclone is just the most recent example of the junta’s failure to meet its people’s basic needs.

She admonished the government for going ahead with the constitutional amendment and said that the U.S. government will still be issuing the Congressional Gold Medal to freedom fighter Aung San Suu Kyi as a way of showing the Burmese people that she and her husband are standing with them. Any aid coming from the U.S. would have to be invited in by the military government, something that hasn’t happened yet.

However, they have called for help from other members of the international community.

Myanmar’s military regime has signaled it will welcome aid supplies for victims of a devastating cyclone, the U.N. said Tuesday, clearing the way for a major relief operation from international organizations.

But U.N. workers were still awaiting their visas to enter the country, said Elisabeth Byrs of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“The government has shown a certain openness so far,” Byrs said. “We hope that we will get the visas as soon as possible, in the coming hours. I think the authorities have understood the seriousness of the situation and that they will act accordingly.”

The appeal for outside assistance was unusual for Myanmar’s ruling generals, who have long been suspicious of international organizations and closely controlled their activities. Several agencies, including the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, have limited their presence as a consequence.

Allowing any major influx of foreigners could carry risks for the military, injecting unwanted outside influence and giving the aid givers rather than the junta credit for a recovery.

However, keeping out international aid would focus blame squarely on the military should it fail to restore peoples’ livelihoods.

Aid workers that have entered the country have, as I’ve stated above, run into obstacles placed by Mother Nature and are having a hard time getting to the people who need them.

Right now, the standoff between the Burmese military junta seems to be solid as they refuse to invite U.S. government aid into the country, plan to go ahead of the proposed constitutional referendum, and allow aid workers from other international groups to come in.

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