=====
Zomi says:
Very few soldiers were seen clearing debris and trees, except at major
intersections, residents in the former capital said. Monks and residents,
using what tools they had, cut trees.
What have the soldiers been doing? Why have battalions of soldiers not
been
helping the people? Are they keen only to shoot innocent people and not
very
keen to help the victims of the mightiest cyclone Burma has ever
encountered??
=====
Myanmar says cyclone death toll 15,000 and set to rise
By Aung Hla Tun 27 minutes ago
At least 15,000 people were killed in the Myanmar cyclone and the toll was
likely to rise as officials made contact with the worst-hit areas, the
military government's foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Nyan Win said on state television that 10,000 people had
died in just one town, Bogalay, as he gave the first detailed account of
what is emerging as the worst cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000
people were killed in Bangladesh.
"In Irrawaddy Division the death toll amounts to more than 10,000," he
said
in a state television broadcast, in which he also said the military
government welcomed outside assistance, an unprecedented green light to
governments and aid agencies who want to help with the recovery.
"The missing is about 3,000. In Bogalay, the death toll is about 10,000,"
the minister said in the broadcast monitored outside of the Southeast
Asian
country.
The United Nations and the former Burma's neighbors are scrambling to
deliver food, clean water and shelter to survivors after the junta, the
latest face of 46 years of unbroken military rule, gave them permission.
The total left homeless by the 190 km (120 miles) per hour winds and 12
foot
(3.5 meter) storm surge is in the several hundred thousands, United
Nations
aid officials say, and could run into the millions.
In Yangon, a city of 5 million, people were queuing up for bottled water
and
there was still no electricity four days after the vicious Cyclone Nargis
struck the delta, rice bowl of the country of 53 million people.
"Generators are selling very well under the generals," said one man
waiting
outside a shop, reflecting some of the resentment on the streets to what
many described as a slow warning and response to the cyclone's 190 km (120
miles) per hour winds.
Very few soldiers were seen clearing debris and trees, except at major
intersections, residents in the former capital said. Monks and residents,
using what tools they had, cut trees.
"The regime has lost a golden opportunity to send the soldiers as soon as
the storm stopped to win the heart and soul of people," said a retired
civil
servant.
GENERALS ACCEPT AID
The last major storm to ravage Asia was Cyclone Sidr, which killed 3,300
people in Bangladesh last November.
The scale of the disaster drew a rare acceptance of outside help from the
diplomatically isolated generals, who spurned such approaches in the
aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
The U.S. Embassy in Myanmar authorized the release of $250,000 in
immediate
emergency aid, and U.S. first lady Laura Bush, a critic of the junta,
promised more would be forthcoming.
However, she urged Myanmar's military rulers to first accept a U.S.
disaster
response team that so far has been kept out, saying it would clear the way
for broader aid.
The secretive junta has moved even further into the shadows in the last
six
months due to widespread outrage at its bloody crackdown on protests led
by
Buddhist monks in September.
After getting a "careful green light" from the government, the United
Nations said it was pulling out all the stops to send in emergency aid
such
as food, clean water, blankets and plastic sheeting.
"The U.N. will begin preparing assistance now to be delivered and
transported to Myanmar as quickly as possible," World Food Programme (WFP)
spokesman Paul Risley said.
A Thai military plane carrying 9 metric tons of food is due to leave
Bangkok
later on Tuesday, the first outside aid package.
Aid agency World Vision said it had been granted special visas to send in
personnel to back up the 600 staff in the country.
"This is massive. It is not necessarily quite tsunami level, but in terms
of
impact of millions displaced, thousands dead, it is just terrible," World
Vision Australia head Tim Costello told Reuters.
"Organizations like ours have been given permission, which is pretty
unprecedented, to fly people in. This shows how grave it is in the Burmese
government's mind," he said.
(Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Grant McCool and David Fox)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080506/ts_nm/myanmar_cyclone_dc
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