Burma junta buries victims of cyclone

Pledges of aid fail to get leaders to release activist

Democracy supporters gathered Tuesday in Rangoon, as the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was extended. It was unclear whether the extension was six months or a year. (Democratic Voice of Burma via reuters)

RANGOON, Burma - Burma's military has started to bury cyclone victims in communal graves, villagers said yesterday, as Western nations pledged to keep aid flowing despite anger at the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burma has been promised millions of dollars in Western help since Cyclone Nargis, but this did not sway the junta regarding the Nobel Peace laureate, who has been under house arrest or in prison for nearly 13 of the last 18 years.

Officials drove to Suu Kyi's lakeside home in Rangoon on Tuesday to read out an extension order in person, but it was unclear whether the extension was for six months or a year.

"It is more likely one year," said a senior police source close to officials in charge of the 62-year-old's detention.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who just returned to New York from an aid mission in Burma, expressed disappointment but refrained from sharp criticism in light of the disaster, which left 134,000 dead or missing and 2.4 million destitute.

"The sooner restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi and other political figures are lifted, the sooner Myanmar will be able to move toward . . . restoration of democracy and full respect for human rights," he said, using the junta's name for Burma.

Western nations were more forthright in their criticism of Suu Kyi's ongoing detention.

President Bush said he was "deeply troubled" by the extension and called for the more than 1,000 political prisoners in Burma to be freed.

However, the State Department said it would not affect US cyclone aid.

France demanded Suu Kyi's immediate release.

"France calls on the Burmese authorities to free without delay Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, the leaders of the opposition, and political prisoners, notably those who have been arrested in recent days," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani told reporters.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a 1990 poll by a landslide only to be denied power by the military, which has ruled the impoverished country for 46 years.

Few had expected Suu Kyi to be released, but the extension was a reminder of the junta's refusal to make any concessions on the domestic political front despite its grudging acceptance of foreign help after the May 2 cyclone.

Witnesses say many villages have received no outside help, and the waterways of Burma's "rice bowl" remain littered with bloated and rotting animal carcasses and corpses.

There has been no official word on plans to dispose of bodies, but villagers said soldiers brought about a dozen corpses to two sites for burial in Khaw Mhu, 25 miles southwest of Rangoon.

"The soldiers told everyone to shoo, to go away," one local woman said, adding that bodies were covered with "white powder" and then concreted over.

In Dedaye, also in the delta, a boatman said there were about 40 or 50 bodies in one waterway.

"We did the burial ourselves. If I know the dead person, I'll bury his body."

Three weeks after the cyclone's 120-mile-per-hour winds and sea surge devastated the delta, the United Nations said it had raised about 60 percent of its initial $200 million target for aid and relief workers were getting more access.

"We've reached just over a million people with some kind of aid," John Holmes, UN humanitarian affairs chief, told reporters.

Junta leader Senior General Than Shwe promised UN chief Ban last week that he would allow all legitimate foreign aid workers access to victims across the country.

Spokeswoman Marie Okabe said yesterday the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that Burma had approved all remaining visa requests for various UN agencies.

There had been 45 of those pending, Okabe said.

"To date, [we estimate] that more than 40 percent of the 2.4 million cyclone survivors have received some type of assistance from local, national, or international actors," she said, adding that the UN agency expected relief efforts to last for at least another six months.

Getting rice farmers back on their feet will be a crucial part of that effort.