Foreign aid starting to arrive in Burma

41,000 missing as death toll rises to 22,500

BANGKOK, Thailand - A powerful cyclone that destroyed a vast swath of coastal Burma and left many thousands of people dead prompted the country's military leaders to allow some foreign aid groups to deliver relief supplies yesterday, but the ruling junta came under international pressure to further open its doors - and even relax its tight political grip - to grapple with the growing disaster.

The Burmese government put its running tally of deaths since Cyclone Nargis struck early Saturday at 22,500 and said that another 41,000 were missing. Such early estimates often prove inaccurate, and the wide path of this cyclone, which destroyed homes across the fertile Irrawaddy Delta and into Rangoon, the nation's main city, will probably complicate rescue efforts and damage assessments for days or weeks to come.

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Foreign governments and aid organizations worldwide began mobilizing a major relief operation, and some aid began flowing into Burma. But President Bush, speaking in Washington, continued a campaign to pressure the military government to allow fuller access to international relief teams and private charity groups.

His message mixed a new offer of US help with renewed criticism of a government the United States has denounced as one of the world's most repressive. Some international aid workers and foreign leaders said they feared that political pressure could make it more difficult to deliver aid in a timely manner.

"Our message is to the military rulers, let the United States come help you to help the people," Bush said yesterday morning at a ceremony held to commemorate his signing of a resolution to award a congressional gold medal to Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy advocate who has been under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years. "We want to do a lot more."

While Burma has so far accepted only a trickle of aid, the country's information minister, Kyaw Hsan, said yesterday that the country would be seeking assistance "from at home and abroad." A UN spokeswoman in Geneva said disaster assessment officials were now awaiting visas to enter.

Maung Maung Swe, the minister for relief and resettlement, said the cyclone's deadliest aspect was the surge of water it forced inland from the Andaman Sea.

"More deaths were caused by the tidal wave than the storm itself," he said, in the first official description of the destruction. "The wave was up to 12 feet high and it swept away and inundated half the houses in low-lying villages. They did not have anywhere to flee."

A spokesman for the UN World Food Program said that as many as one million people might have lost their homes and that some villages were almost completely destroyed. That estimate appeared to be a rough assessment based on aerial and satellite photographs of the vast affected region.

Bush's call for openness from Burma came a day after Laura Bush criticized the country's military leaders for failing to warn people before the cyclone hit on Saturday.

In reply, Australia's foreign minister, Stephen Smith, was among those who urged countries to focus on helping Burma instead of criticizing its government. "The priority now is rendering assistance to thousands of displaced people who urgently need our assistance," Smith said in Hong Kong.

White House officials say that Burma's military leaders have long known the US position on human rights abuses there, and should be doing all they can to get help to the ravaged areas quickly.

"Maybe it's time to bury their pride and finally help their people out for the first time in decades," said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman.

Shaken by the scope of the disaster, authorities said yesterday that they would delay a vote in the worst affected areas on a new constitution that would cement the military's grip on power.

International aid agencies began distributing food in Rangoon yesterday but there was uncertainty that the assistance would reach people stranded without shelter in the more remote reaches of the Irrawaddy Delta.

A growing number of countries have pledged aid, but bad roads, a lack of government cooperation, and a breakdown in telecommunications could hamper relief efforts. Even before the storm hit, many towns and villages were accessible only by boat or helicopter.

"If it were a different situation we would be mobilizing some helicopters now," said Tony Banbury, the regional director of the UN World Food Program. "We recognize that the government may not want international helicopters flying in their country, for better or worse."

Two neighbors sent supplies immediately: Thailand dispatched a transport plane yesterday loaded with food and medicine to Rangoon and India sent two naval ships carrying food, tents, blankets, clothing, and medicine.

The Bush administration said yesterday that it was offering $3 million in aid. But the US aid is to be funneled through a team from the US Agency for International Development that had not been permitted to enter Burma as of late yesterday.