Burma:FEARS WERE growing last night that as many as 100,000 people may have died in the catastrophic cyclone in Burma, even as the military junta continued to restrict access to aid workers waiting to enter the country.
The top United States diplomat in Burma's largest city, Rangoon, confirmed the figure and said as many as 95 per cent of all buildings in the affected area may have been demolished. Shari Villarosa, the chargé d'affaires of the US embassy in Burma, said there was a very real risk of disease outbreaks as the crisis continues. "There may be over 100,000 deaths in the Irrawaddy delta area," she told reporters.
The new toll came as UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon called on the junta to open its borders to aid workers and the US urged Asian countries such as China, Thailand and India to put pressure on the military regime. International frustration is mounting as disaster management experts fail to get the necessary visas to enter the country. Satellite pictures yesterday showed the bulk of the Irrawaddy delta, where most died, still under water.
Planeloads of stockpiled supplies are on standby awaiting delivery to desperate victims, who have been living in water for five days. Delays in getting help to the survivors could spark a second humanitarian crisis, with an outbreak of waterborne disease.
"Time is of the essence," said Ann Veneman, executive director of UN children's fund Unicef. "Children are highly vulnerable to disease and hunger and they need immediate help to survive."
Visa delays are to be raised by Ban Ki-Moon, who is to seek a meeting to resolve the matter speedily. Documents leaked from a UN meeting in Bangkok revealed little sign of a solution.
Even after the junta gave permission for the UN to fly in a planeload of supplies, emergency teams were still awaiting travel documents. The World Food Programme has 15 logistics experts and technicians in Bangkok awaiting visas, ready to fly to Rangoon at a moment's notice.
Aid agencies such as World Vision, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and Save the Children have yet to get entry permits, even though they have staff already working on the ground in Burma.
World Vision, which has worked in Burma for 30 years and has 582 staff there, has 40 tonnes of supplies sitting in Dubai awaiting approval to fly.
"We have warehouses around the world pre-positioned, ready to go and emergency response teams who can move at a moment's notice, all for such a disaster," said Pamela Sitko of World Vision. "Our office in Rangoon has been in negotiations with the social welfare minister since shortly after the cyclone hit." World Vision has also been seeking visas for "less than 10" technical and logistics experts. Save the Children has applied to send four staff and MSF only one so far.
"It's a dreadful situation," said Sitko. "Time is critical. There's real risk of an outbreak of acute diarrhoea, dengue fever or malaria, even cholera. We remember from the tsunami all the pain and suffering."
Aid agency staff already operating in the country have been given a relatively free hand to assess the scale of the disaster and distribute whatever emergency supplies they had stockpiled, though it is nowhere near the huge amount needed.
"The UN has managed to get some assessment teams into the field, but we need the floodgates to open," said Mark Canning, the British ambassador in Rangoon.
France has urged the UN to invoke its "responsibility to act" clause to break the logjam and deliver aid without waiting for the junta's approval. French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said the clause, which allows aid delivery to citizens if their government fails, even if it breaches national sovereignty, was being discussed at UN headquarters. The French navy has ships with helicopters sitting off the worst affected areas of the Burmese coast and help could reach the disaster area in minutes, he said.
But while the world waited, survivors, who have seen little aid, stormed the few shops that opened in the Irrawaddy delta. With reports of hundreds of bodies along roadsides and in rice paddies the fear is that failure to dispose of the dead will pose a health hazard to the living.
Andrew Kirkwood, Save the Children Burma country director, said the regime had begun helping distribute emergency aid already in place using 16 military helicopters, though it needed a great deal more help. - (Guardian service)