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Burma holds referendum despite
cyclone chaos
Myanmar referendum comes at a time when country has been ravaged by
a cyclone that has claimed a lakh of human lives.
WSN Bureau
YANGON:
More than
one lakh people are feared dead in
Burma
following a devastating cyclone hit the country. But the ruling
junta anyway held a rare election on Saturday to approve a new
armydrafted constitution, ignoring calls from the outside world to
postpone the vote amid the devastation.
More than a week
after Nargis (Daffodil) tore through the Irawaddy Delta, packing
190 kph (120 mph) winds that whipped up a wall of sea-water
pulverizing everything it its path, aid was barely dribbling to 1.5
million increasingly desperate survivors.
Health experts
warned that a “second disaster” loomed from diseases such as
diarrhoea and malaria, even if survivors of the cyclone that left
tens of thousands killed or missing do manage to find food and
shelter.
State-run TV
repeatedly told citizens it was their “patriotic duty” to approve
the new constitution that enshrines a dominant role for the
military, which has ruled the country of 53 million since a 1962
coup.
“I voted yes. It
was what I was asked to do,” 57-year-old U Kyaing told Reuters in
Hlegu, 50 km (30 miles) northeast of the cycloneravaged former
capital, Yangon.
Even before
Cyclone Nargis hit on the night of May 2, groups opposed to military
rule, and foreign governments led by the United States, had
denounced the constitution and vote as an attempt by the military to
legitimize its 46-year grip on power.
The government’s
feeble response to the disaster has only fed cynicism about the
junta’s determination to proceed with their “roadmap to democracy”
leading to multi-party elections in 2010.
The United
Nations appealed for $187 million in aid, even though it is still
not confident the food, water and tents flown in will make it to
those most in need due the junta’s reluctance to admit
international relief workers.
During an
emergency meeting in
New York
on Friday, dozens of U.N. envoys voiced concern at the difficulties
aid workers were having getting in. But Burma’s delegate insisted
food and other supplies were being sent where needed upon arrival.
“We are ready to
cooperate fully,” Ambassador Kyaw Tint Swe told the meeting.
“Regarding access, we hear you and I will certainly report back to
the authorities.” The U.N.’s World Food Programme briefly suspended
its aid airlift after it said 38 tonnes of biscuits and medical
supplies were impounded at the airport in Yangon.
The generals
approved one U.S. aid flight, due to arrive as soon as Monday
carrying water purification systems and supplies to ward off
waterborne diseases, U.S. officials said. The Americans say they are
preparing the same kind of assistance they provided after the 2004
Asian tsunami and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. But the air bridge
the U.S. military set up during the tsunami is unlikely to be
replicated.
Burma
has long been suspicious of the outside world, which the junta fears
could bring in destabilizing ideas and values, such as Western
concepts of democracy and human rights.
The junta has
brutally suppressed any sign of dissent. At least 31 people were
killed when troops crushed monk-led prodemocracy protests last
September.
While they have
proved impervious to Western economic sanctions over their human
rights record, the generals have avoided total isolation by using
Burma’s vast natural gas reserves to befriend energy-hungry
China
and India. Yet with each day that passes, pressure is mounting on
the junta to admit a massive international relief operation before
starvation and disease swell the death toll even more.
“This is the
second disaster,” Greg Beck,
Southeast Asia
programme director for the International Rescue Committee, told
Reuters. “First was the cyclone and the surge of water, the second
will come if there is no access to food, water and shelter. They
will start dying,” he said.
Burma
has not updated the official toll since Tuesday, when it said nearly
23,000 were dead and 42,000 missing. The chief
U.S.
diplomat in Burma has said the toll could reach 100,000.
Hungry and
desperate cyclone refugees have been pouring into towns from the
devastated Irrawaddy delta taxing already stretched local resources.
“How many more days are we going to be able to feed them?” one
businessman told Reuters on Saturday in Myaung Mya, a town of about
100,000 people about 70 km (45 miles) north of the coastline and out
of the storm’s direct path when it hit.
14
May,
2008
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