Myanmar Cyclone Death Toll Will Hit 200,000 Say British

British officials have said that the number of dead and missing after the Burmese cyclone is expected to rise to more than 200,000.

There are more calls for the secret military regime in Burma to allow aid workers into the country, following the deadly cyclone.

The Foreign Office said British officials were working on the basis that 217,000 people had died or were unaccounted for. The figure, which a spokesman said was based on new United Nations estimates, is approaching the estimated 225,000 who died in the Asian tsunami of 2004.

Channel 4 News reported that one Whitehall official had said that the Government believed that the number could be as high as 250,000.

It came as The Daily Telegraph learned that thousands of survivors are reportedly being used as forced labour in Burmese government camps.

Following the devastation of Cyclone Nargis on May 2, the military has forcibly relocated tens of thousands of survivors from the Irrawaddy Delta, including many who had sought shelter in Buddhist monasteries – the centre of unrest during protests against the junta last year.

Ko Hla Min, a 35-year-old farmer who lost nine relatives in the cyclone, claimed that those rounded up by soldiers around the devastated town of Bogalay were being used as work gangs. "They have to break stones at the construction sites," he said. "They are paid $1 per day but are not provided with any food."

A senior UN official said he feared other survivors would be moved back to the delta and used by the junta to plant the next rice crop in the coming weeks. About 80,000 people sought sanctuary in schools and temples in the town of Labutta, which was left in ruins by the cyclone. Now, only about 20,000 are thought to remain after the military intervened.

Despite another two million still in dire need of aid, the Burmese government has repeatedly rejected calls to allow foreign relief workers to deliver food, clean drinking water, shelter and medicine. The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a government mouthpiece, has said that Burma can be rebuilt without outside help.

Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister, accused the junta yesterday of turning a "deaf ear" to the plight of the people. "Than Shwe [the ruling general] is not hearing the seriousness of the crisis and the regime has set its back against the need to accept outside help," he said.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said the UN would be organising an emergency summit in Asia to discuss the disaster.

Reports are also beginning to spread of an outbreak of cholera. However, in an attempt to hide the humanitarian catastrophe from the outside world, even Burmese people are no longer allowed to enter the Irrawaddy Delta, which is ringed by roadblocks.

The military insists that it will distribute the international aid coming into Rangoon airport, although some of it has already been appearing in the city's markets.

The reports came as the Burmese regime announced that a referendum held last weekend had overwhelmingly endorsed the country's new constitution. State radio claimed that 92.4 per cent of people, from a 99 per cent turnout, had voted "yes" to the supposedly democratic charter, which has been widely dismissed as a smokescreen for prolonged military rule

Civil rights groups said there was a low turnout and irregularities. At some polling stations officials voted "yes" on behalf of anyone who had not appeared by 1pm. A Western diplomat in Rangoon said only a small fraction of the army was initially devoted to relief efforts, while the regime concentrated on conducting the referendum.

Burma Generals Failing Their People

Natalia Antelava
BBC News, Irrawaddy Delta

The cyclone has filled the rice fields with sea water, devastating the crops

The boat moved slowly, making its way through the heavy curtain of rain.

The air around us reeked of decay.

One of the fishermen stretched his hand out, pointing at white, swollen figures that floated along the muddy banks of the river.

A trail of wreckage and dead bodies stretched all along Burma's Irrawaddy Delta.

They are hungry and homeless not just because of the disaster, but because of the government that does not seem interested in helping them.

Starving, dying

Sitting on the floor, next to a small statue of Buddha, 77-year-old Dohlaiy wiped the tears with the palm of her hand.

People wait for help in the worst-hit Irrawaddy Delta

"We are starving," she wept.

Dohlaiy lost her children and grandchildren to the cyclone.

She now lives together with 20 other survivors, in the only house that still stands amid the rubble of the former fishing village of Uomiou. One of its walls is missing.

The survivors have no fresh water and just enough rice to get by.

The rice, they told us, was donated by the neighbouring village, not the government.

"We have two cups a rice a day per family. Its not enough," Dohlaiy said.

"We don't know what to do, we don't have a boat to get out of here, but we can't stay here either," another villager said.

The cyclone has filled their rice fields with sea water, devastating the crops and stripping the people of the only source of livelihood they know.

Fixing and cleaning

Ever since the cyclone, Burma's military rulers have put an impressive effort into bringing order to the former capital Rangoon.

On almost every corner of the city there are units of soldiers in khaki uniforms: sweeping, fixing and cleaning.

The state-controlled newspapers have been full of praise for the way the government has handled the crisis.

The generals have tried to make sure that no-one is in a position to challenge their view.

Army checkpoints block all roads to the Irrawaddy Delta.

Foreign journalists have been thrown out of the country and no aid workers are allowed anywhere near the disaster area.

"It makes no sense, it feels like they [the government] want these people to die," said one aid worker, who asked not to be identified as he is waiting for the permission to go into the delta.

In the meantime, the UN says another cyclone could be on its way to Burma.

The rain continues to fall and many villages are increasingly difficult to reach.

No relief signs

A long trip, but clearly not an impossible one to make - and yet we were the first ones to have come.

Along the way there were no rescue boats and no signs of relief that Burmese government claim they are delivering.

"Aeroplanes and helicopters flew overhead, right over us for two days," Dohlaiy told me.

"They stayed very low. We shouted out for them, but they did not hear us.

"We asked them to drop rice and water as everyone is starving, but they did not hear us."

In the cities some aid is being delivered. Thousands of people are crowding monasteries and school buildings, waiting to get shelter and rice.

But many are turned away.

Lacking political will

"I don't know what this list is. There are more refugees coming but they have no space left in the camps. I don't know where to go."

We spoke in a teashop and very quickly few other people joined in.

They spoke quietly and chose their words carefully but no-one tried to hide their anger.

"I have always despised this government, now I really hate them," one young man said.

The international community is trying to convince Burma that the aid workers should be allowed into the country because no state could deal alone with the disaster of this scale.

But it is not just capacity to help that the Burmese government seems to lack, it is also the political will to save their own people.

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