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Myanmar Opens The Polls As Country Reels From Cyclone

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The Associated Press

Published: May 11, 2008

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military rulers held a referendum Saturday aimed at solidifying their hold on power while brazenly turning cyclone relief efforts into a propaganda campaign. In some cases, generals' names were scribbled onto boxes of foreign aid before being distributed.
Human rights organizations and dissident groups have bitterly accused the junta of neglecting disaster victims in going ahead with the vote, which seeks public approval of a new constitution.

The referendum came just one week after Cyclone Nargis left more than 60,000 people dead or missing. The United Nations estimates at least 1.5 million people have been severely affected.

Though international aid has started to trickle in - with two more planes organized by the U.N. World Food Program landing at Yangon's airport Saturday - almost all foreign relief workers have been barred entry into the isolated nation. The junta says it wants to hand out all donated supplies on its own.

But with roads blocked and bridges submerged, reaching isolated areas in the hard hit delta has been made all but impossible. The military has only a few dozen helicopters, most small and old. It also has about 15 transport planes, few of which are able to carry massive amounts of supplies.

Long lines formed in front of government centers, where minuscule rations of rice and oil were being distributed. Elsewhere, people clustered on roadsides hoping for handouts. The words "Help us!" were written in chalk on the side of one home.

"Please, don't wait too long," said Ma Thein Htwe, 49, gathered with dozens of other women and children at a monastery in Kungyangon for her ration of rice.

Despite international appeals to postpone the constitutional referendum, voting began Saturday in all but the hardest hit parts of Myanmar.

As lines formed, state-run television ran images of top generals, including the junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, handing out boxes of aid at elaborate ceremonies.

"We have already seen regional commanders putting their names on the side of aid shipments from Asia, saying this was a gift from them and then distributing it in their region," said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, which campaigns for human rights and democracy in the country.

The military rulers also have agreed to let a U.S. cargo plane bring in supplies Monday, but foreign disaster experts were still being barred entry.

The U.N. refugee agency said it sent its first aid convoy by land into Myanmar on Saturday and began airlifting 110 tons of shelter supplies from its warehouse in the United Arab Emirates.

Two trucks carrying more than 20 tons of tents and plastic sheets for some 10,000 cyclone victims crossed into the country from northwestern Thailand, said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Twenty-three international agencies are providing aid to people in devastated areas, said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "It's a race against the clock. If the humanitarian aid does not get into the country on a larger scale, there's the risk of a second catastrophe," she said, adding people could die from hunger and diseases.

Health experts have warned there is a great risk of diarrhea and cholera spreading because of the lack of clean drinking water and sanitation. Children, including those orphaned by the storm, face some of the greatest risks.

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