Myanmar cyclone death toll soars past 22,000: state radio

Supplies for victims of a devastating cyclone in Myanmar wait to be loaded on to a Thai military transport plane at the military airport in Bangkok, Thailand on Tuesday. Myanmar announced Tuesday it is delaying a crucial constitutional referendum in areas badly hit by a cyclone that killed more than 10,000 people and may have left as many as a million homeless. Officials feared the death toll could soar.

Apichart Weerawong / AP

Myanmar's government now calling for international help
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Residents sit at a bus station among debris left by the weekend's devastating cyclone on Tuesday, in Yangon, Myanmar. (ASSOCIATED PRESS) <br> <img src=http://www.toledoblade.com/graphics/icons/video.gif> <b><font color=red>AP VIDEO</b></font color=red>: <a href=" http://video.ap.org/vws/search/aspx/ap.aspx?t=s59&p=ENAPworld_ENAPworld&g=0506dvs_myanmar_latest&f=OHTOL"target="_blank "><b>Myanmar's government now calling for international help</b></a><br> <img src=http://www.toledoblade.com/graphics/icons/photo.gif> <font color=red><b> VIEW:</b></font> <a href=" /apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=TO&Dato=20080506&Kategori=NEWS28&Lopenr=563566386&Ref=PH" target="_blank"><b> Photo gallery - Miranmar damage and beginning of assistance</b></a>

YANGON, Myanmar - The cyclone death toll soared above 22,000 on Tuesday and more than 41,000 others were missing as foreign countries mobilized to rush in aid after the country's deadliest storm on record, state radio reported.

Up to 1 million people may be homeless after Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian nation, also known as Burma, early Saturday. Some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out, the World Food Program said.

Images from state television showed large trees and electricity poles sprawled across roads and roofless houses ringed by large sheets of water in the Irrawaddy River delta region, which is regarded as Myanmar's rice bowl.

"From the reports we are getting, entire villages have been flattened and the final death toll may be huge," Mac Pieczowski, who heads the International Organization for Migration office in Yangon, said in a statement.

President Bush called on Myanmar's military junta to allow the United States to help with disaster assistance, saying the U.S. already has provided some assistance but wants to do more.

"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," he said.

Bush spoke at a ceremony where he signed legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Burmese democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi.

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.

Supplies for victims of a devastating cyclone in Myanmar wait to be loaded on to a Thai military transport plane at the military airport in Bangkok, Thailand on Tuesday. Myanmar announced Tuesday it is delaying a crucial constitutional referendum in areas badly hit by a cyclone that killed more than 10,000 people and may have left as many as a million homeless. Officials feared the death toll could soar.

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.

Some aid agencies reported their assessment teams had reached some areas of the largely isolated region but said getting in supplies and large numbers of aid workers would be difficult.

Shari Villarosa, the top American diplomat in Yangon, told NBC's "Today" show that the cyclone had knocked huge trees in the country's largest city.

"And it blew down a significant portion of them, some of these are 6, 8, 10 stories tall huge trees, 6 feet, 5 feet in diameter. So they came down on roofs," she said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BANGKOK, Thailand - Bowing partly to international demands, Myanmar's junta decided Tuesday to postpone voting on a new and long-awaited constitution in areas hardest-hit by a devastating cyclone as the death toll soared.

For the rest of the country, however, polling stations were expected to open Saturday as planned. The decision drew swift criticism from dissidents and human rights groups who question the credibility of the vote and urged the junta to focus on disaster victims.

"They should suspend the referendum completely and devote all their national resources to the affected areas," said Debbie Stothard, head of the Southeast Asian human rights group ALTSEAN-Burma. Myanmar is also known as Burma. "They really need to prioritize ... and make sure that no more people die from exposure or from malnutrition or illness."

Logistically and politically, it couldn't be a worse time to ask voters to approve a draft constitution that critics say is designed to cement military rule.

Tropical cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar over the weekend, killing tens of thousands of people and leaving tens of thousands more missing, state radio reported. Most of dead were in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta region while a smaller number died around Yangon, the country's largest city, according to the information minister.

State radio Tuesday broadcast the junta's announcement that voting on the military-backed constitution would be delayed until May 24 in most of the townships around Yangon and in seven of the Irrawaddy delta townships.

The announcement implied that voting would proceed as planned in the rest of the country this weekend, including many areas still struggling with a lack of electricity, water and shelter caused by the cyclone that left as many as 1 million homeless, according to the U.N. World Food Program.

The government has been criticized for failing to rush aid to victims, angering a public already simmering with discontent after the junta's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests last September.

"People are trying to rebuild their lives, find their families and friends. Nobody is interested in going to vote," Aung Din, director of the Washington-based advocacy group U.S. Campaign for Burma, said Monday, adding that the junta's slow response to the cyclone would likely generate a stronger "No" vote.

But public opinion and whether or not voters in cyclone-hit areas can physically reach polling stations doesn't appear to be the junta's concern, according to political analysts.

"The military regime has never had any intention of holding a free and fair vote," said Monique Skidmore, a Myanmar expert and professor at Australian National University. "They don't care if everyone votes or not. They care about the outcome and I have no doubt they will manipulate the outcome in their favor."

Myanmar's generals have hailed the referendum as an important step forward in their "roadmap to democracy." It offers the first chance for voters to cast ballots since 1990, and the probability is high they will approve the constitution a legal framework the country has lacked for two decades.

But critics, including the United Nations, the United States and human rights groups, question whether it will lead to democracy.

"The constitution will continue military power. There's no question about that," said David Steinberg, a Myanmar expert and Georgetown University professor who has been granted rare visits to meet junta officials.

The 194-page draft constitution paves the way for elections promised in 2010. It calls for a multiparty system, which the junta describes as a "discipline-flourishing democracy," in which the military retains key powers.

Myanmar has been ruled by military regimes since 1962. The current junta seized power in 1988, throwing out the country's last constitution.

A junta-appointed committee took 14 years to draft the proposed charter, refusing U.N. demands to seek input from the opposition.

One provision was apparently custom-made to keep detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi sidelined. It bars from elected office anyone married to a foreigner or with children holding a foreign nationality.

The 62-year-old widow, who has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years, was married to a British man and has two children who are British nationals. Deemed a national security threat, she is the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

In the country's last election in 1990, Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory that the junta refused to honor. Instead, the generals stepped up arrests and repression of dissidents.

A strong military presence in future governments would be guaranteed by clauses in the draft charter that reserve several Cabinet seats for military officers as well as one-quarter of the seats in both houses of parliament.

Changing the text would be tricky: Amendments would require approval by more than 75 percent of lawmakers, meaning backing from some of the soldiers sitting in parliament.

Myanmar watchers say the run-up to the referendum has been marked by no debate, no polls and no effort to inform the public about the contents of the draft constitution.

Any hint of criticism has been quickly silenced.

Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party said in a recent statement the military has stepped up harassment and arrests of its members, some of whom dared to step out in public last month wearing T-shirts that said, "No."