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Myanmar death toll may cross 100,000: US
Agence France-Presse
Thursday, May 08, 2008, (Yangon)
The death toll in the Myanmar cyclone may top 100,000 and 95 per cent of the buildings have been destroyed in the delta area there, the top US diplomat in Yangon has said.
Shari Villarosa, the charge d'affaires in the Myanmar capital, said on Thursday in a conference call that "there may well be over 100,000 deaths in the delta area," citing an international non-governmental organisation she would not name.
"It is an estimate of what deaths may actually reach, primarily in the delta area," the country's key rice-growing region where around five or six million people live, Villarosa told reporters in Washington.
She also said "95 per cent of the buildings have disappeared" in the delta area, citing a Myanmar government source.
In the capital of Yangon, Villarosa said, "the government cites figures of around six or seven hundred deaths."
She said Yangon suffered mainly storm damage, with roofs ripped off buildings and electricity and water cut off.
Some water has been restored and many homes depend on pumps.
"Some electricity has been restored, including to the US embassy," she added.
Villarosa warned that staples like rice were in "short supply" and there was a "real risk" of disease because of a lack of clean drinking water.
She said UN relief teams were in the country but were far from enough to deal with the scale of the problem.
The consequences of a further delay in bringing relief into the country, she said, will just mean "more victims that are created."
US pressing for aid
Meanwhile, the Pentagon readied people and equipment for an aid mission to Myanmar, but Villarosa said that its military junta was "paranoid" about accepting American help.
The US military was putting people and airplanes into position Wednesday in nearby Thailand. But Myanmar's government had not accepted the US offer to send aid, US defense and diplomatic officials said.
President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, called the cyclone a "humanitarian disaster of enormous proportions."
Notably, the White House's language about the junta appears to have grown less confrontational as the scope of the calamity grows.
Hadley put it this way on Wednesday, "The junta should please open its doors."
He said he would keep his comments limited because he did not want to politicise the matter.
"The green light has not been given for people to go in," Hadley said. "And it is simply going to compound the humanitarian disaster."
The White House said on Tuesday the US will send more than $3 million to help victims of the cyclone in Myanmar, up from an initial emergency contribution of $250,000.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined the growing call for Myanmar's leaders to accept the contributions, regardless of the policies of the donors.
Asked if the U.S. would air drop aid without the Myanmar junta's permission, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said, "If you're not asked and it's not requested, it's considered an invasion."
Navy and Marine Corps officials said they were in a holding position, awaiting word on whether they would be needed. (With AP inputs)
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