Burma death toll soars as diplomats tour delta

Burma's junta took diplomats on a tour of the storm-ravaged Irrawaddy delta on Saturday as its toll of dead and missing soared above 133,000 people, making Cyclone Nargis one of the most devastating ever to hit Asia.

In the last 50 years, only two Asian cyclones have exceeded Nargis in terms of human cost - a 1970 storm that killed 500,000 people in neighbouring Bangladesh, and another that killed 143,000 in 1991, also in Bangladesh.

However, with an estimated 2.5 million people clinging to survival in the delta, and the military government refusing to admit large-scale outside relief, disaster experts say Nargis' body count could yet rise dramatically.

British officials say the actual toll may already be more than 200,000.

Cases of cholera, endemic to much of Burma, have been found although the outbreaks are no more than would normally be seen at this time of year, health officials said.

Meanwhile, the military, which has ruled unchecked for the last 46 years, continues to insist it is capable of handling aid distribution, seemingly out of fear an influx of foreigners might loosen its vice-like grip on power.

With heavy tropical downpours continuing to hamper the aid effort on Saturday, the generals took Yangon-based diplomats into the delta to see the army's relief operations, although it was expected to be a stage-managed and highly sanitised trip.

One envoy who went on a similar tour of a storm-hit district of Yangon, the former capital, described the neat rows of tents on display as "happy camps".

In the delta, the junta will have to work much harder to keep the diplomats away from the destitute.

Near the town of Kunyangon this week, columns of men, women and children stretched for miles alongside the road, begging in the mud and rain for scraps of food or clothing from the occasional passing aid vehicle.

"The situation has worsened in just two days," one aid volunteer said as children mobbed his vehicle, their grimy hands reaching through the window for something to eat.

Many storm refugees are crammed into monasteries and schools and are being fed and watered by local volunteers and private donors who have taken matters into their own hands, sending in trucks laden with clothes, biscuits, dried noodles and rice.

DEATH TOLL SOARS

In a rare sign of agreement with international aid agencies, the junta sharply raised its toll from the May 2 disaster on Friday night to 77,738 dead and another 55,917 missing.

The news came on state TV, which aside from offering updated casualty figures has mainly shown footage of generals handing out food at the model tented villages.

People in Burma are snapping up bootleg video discs of bloated corpses, desperate refugees and ravaged villages to get a fuller picture of the situation.

"Burma television is useless," said one Yangon businessman who bought the underground VCDs because he wanted to see the raw, uncensored version of the storm that killed his brother in Labutta, one of the hardest-hit towns in the Irrawaddy delta.

The generals have been admitting a steady stream of aid flights to Yangon, including around four a day from the U.S. military, the generals' arch enemy.

However, aid agencies say only a fraction of the required relief is getting through to the inundated part of the delta - a stretch of land the size of Austria - and unless the situation improves, thousands more lives are at risk.

Given the junta's ban on foreign journalists and restrictions on the movement of most international aid workers, independent assessment of the situation is difficult.

With international concern and frustration mounting, a parade of envoys has been flying in to try to coax the generals out of their deep distrust of the outside world.

The latest is the U.N.' top humanitarian official, John Holmes, expected to arrive in Yangon on Sunday and meet Prime Minister Thein Sein, the fourth-highest ranking junta member.

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY?

Holmes will be carrying a third letter from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to junta supremo Than Shwe, who has repeatedly ignored Ban's requests for a conversation, a spokeswoman said.

Ban is not the only one loosing patience.

France's U.N. ambassador said the junta was on the verge of a "crime against humanity", and dismissed claims by his Burma counterpart Paris was sending a warship to sit off the coast.

French envoy Jean-Maurice Ripert said the ship, Le Mistral, was operated by the French navy but was not a warship. It is carrying 1,500 tonnes of food and medicine as well as small boats, helicopters and field hospital platforms.

Three U.S. Navy vessels are already hovering off the coast ready to go in with relief supplies, but the Pentagon insists it will not do so until it gets the go-ahead from the Burma authorities.