BANGKOK — Wounded and terrified survivors waited for help and international aid workers waited for visas, a deadly mix of political intrigue and bad timing that threatens tens of thousands of Burmese cyclone victims with a slow and painful death in the days ahead.
Burma’s military regime put the death toll yesterday at more than 22,000 people, with twice that number missing, mainly on the exposed Irrawaddy River delta.
Aerial images showed whole villages submerged and destroyed, leaving up to 1 million people homeless and vulnerable to hunger, disease and exposure. International and local relief agencies, medical teams, food convoys and clearance teams grappled with paperwork, debris-covered roads, swollen rivers and a lack of communication, unable to reach most victims along Burma’s worst-hit southern coast.
The U.N. World Food Program said it had begun distributing some of the 800 metric tons of relief supplies stockpiled in the country.
UNICEF began delivering medicine, first-aid kits and rehydration tablets.
When the cyclone hit, the United Nations had a staff of 1,650 on the ground, all but 79 of them local Burmese hires.
But bureaucratic delays and unfortunate timing continued to prevent other aid stockpiled in the region from reaching the victims.
“We have applied for visas, we have not received them yet,” senior U.N. aid official Rashid Khalikov told reporters at the United Nations in New York.
Mr. Khalikov acknowledged that the organization did not submit visa applications until yesterday — three days after the cyclone — because Monday was a Thai holiday.
The Burmese Embassy in Bangkok “has no clue how the U.N. operates. I am not making excuses but I would not say it is absolutely shocking,” he said.
In the former capital of Rangoon, soldiers from the repressive military regime helped clear rubble, while Buddhist monks and Catholic nuns wielded axes to remove fallen ancient trees that were once the city’s pride.
Coastal areas of the delta hit worst Saturday by the 120 mph winds and tidal surges of the cyclone remained out of reach for aid workers, isolated by flooding and road damage.
A C-130 military transport plane carrying government aid from neighboring Thailand flew into Rangoon, where an Associated Press reporter watched it unload rice, canned fish, water and dried noodles.
The goods — the first overseas aid to arrive in the stricken nation — were transferred to a helicopter, which Burmese military officers said would ferry them to the most stricken areas.
White House officials said yesterday that the U.S. will send more than $3 million to help cyclone victims, after an initial emergency contribution of $250,000.
President Bush pressed the junta to allow the United States to send in a disaster-assessment team, which he said would allow for quicker and larger aid infusions.
“The United States has made an initial aid contribution but we want to do a lot more,” Mr. Bush said. “We’re prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who have lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation. But in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster-assessment teams into the country.”
Burmese Foreign Ministry officials have indicated to U.N. contacts that the nation will permit international assistance.
However, they have not been specific about how many foreigners they will allow inside the country to distribute that aid, nor how the supplies will be monitored in a country dominated by the military.
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Navy has three ships in the Gulf of Thailand — the USS Essex, the USS Juneau and the USS Harpers Ferry — preparing to participate in an annual exercise with Thailand’s naval forces.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said two aircraft carriers, the USS Kitty Hawk and the USS Nimitz, as well as the USS Blue Ridge, are within reach of Burma, also known as Myanmar.
The Essex, an amphibious assault ship, has 23 helicopters aboard, including 19 that are capable of lifting cargo from ship to shore, as well as 1,800 Marines.
The Burmese military, which regularly accuses the United States of trying to subvert the regime, is unlikely to allow a U.S. military presence in its territory.
But reflecting the seriousness of the crisis, they announced yesterday that a crucial constitutional referendum in the hardest-hit areas will be delayed.
State radio said Saturday’s vote on a military-backed draft constitution would be postponed until May 24 in 40 of 45 townships in the Rangoon area and seven in the wider delta.
Unlike survivors in the ravaged, urban port of Rangoon, also known as Yangon, people on the vulnerable delta mostly occupied handmade homes, which were easily destroyed.
“From the reports we are getting, entire villages have been flattened and the final death toll may be huge,” said Mac Pieczowski, who heads the International Organization for Migration office in Rangoon.
• Betsy Pisik reported from New York for this article, which is based in part on wire service dispatches.
CYCLONE RELIEF
The following aid agencies are accepting contributions to help those affected by the cyclone in Burma. The list is from InterAction, a coalition of aid agencies, which can be contacted at InterAction at 202/667-8227 or https://www.interaction.org.
ADRA International
Action Against Hunger
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
American Jewish World Service
American Red Cross
American Refugee Committee
AmeriCares
Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team
Baptist World Aid
CARE
CHF International
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC)
Church World Service
Concern Worldwide U.S.
Direct Relief International
Episcopal Relief and Development
Food for the Hungry
Habitat for Humanity International
International Medical Corps
International Relief Teams
International Rescue Committee
Latter-day Saint Charities
Lutheran World Relief
MAP International
Operation USA
Project HOPE
Relief International
Save the Children USA
United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR)
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
U.S. Fund for UNICEF
World Concern
World Emergency Relief
World Vision
Source: Associated Press
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