Delta sealed to hide cyclone victims` plight

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BURMA`S military regime is reported to have sealed off the devastated Irrawaddy delta in a bid to stop the outside world seeing the plight of its cyclone victims.

Authorities were expelling foreign aid workers and placing checkpoints along roads into the delta, the Times Online website reported.

The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis has risen to 43,318 with 27,838 missing, state radio and television said today.

But earlier, the United Nations reported that as many as 2.5 million people might have been affected severely by Cyclone Nargis which smashed into Burma on May 3.

The Red Cross reported the death toll from the disaster could hit 127,990, Times Online reported.

The crackdown came as the ruling junta again insisted it could handle the relief operation, despite warnings that many more people could die unless aid workers gained access to people in need.

It also announced that voters had approved a military-backed constitution by a huge majority.

Critics say the constitution has been drafted to cement the ruling junta`s grip on power.

Buddhist monks in the disaster zone said soldiers were moving tens of thousands of homeless cyclone survivors into government shelters.

People complain of forced labour and low supplies of food at the state-run centres.

In New York, UN chief Ban Ki-moon yesterday said he was sending the top UN humanitarian official to Burma.

South-East Asian nations have also offered to lead international assistance efforts there.

Mr Ban said the UN`s John Holmes would travel to Burma on a World Food Program plane within days, to try to persuade its military rulers to open up to a full-scale relief effort.

The UN chief was speaking after an emergency meeting of international diplomats, who he said were encouraged by the increasing flow of aid to Burma but urged its rulers to be "fully co-operative" in providing access.

After a brief visit to Burma for talks with Prime Minister Thein Sein, Thailand`s Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said the regime had again ruled out allowing in foreign experts to help the aid effort. But the head of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, of which Burma and Thailand are members, said the junta had agreed to issue visas to one of its rapid assessment teams and ASEAN would now lead the aid efforts.

British cabinet minister Douglas Alexander said reports from agencies on the ground suggested the number of dead and missing could rise above 200,000.

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