Myanmar cyclone deaths top 15,000

YANGON (Reuters) - The cyclone and storm surge that torethrough Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta killed at least 15,000 peopleand left 30,000 missing, officials said on Tuesday, warning thetoll could rise in low-lying, remote villages.

Reflecting the scale of the disaster, the ruling militaryjunta said it would postpone to May 24 a constitutionalreferendum in the worst-hit areas of Yangon and the sprawlingIrrawaddy delta.

However, state TV said the May 10 vote on a charter, partof the army's much-criticised "roadmap to democracy", wouldproceed as planned in the rest of the Southeast Asian countrywhere security forces violently cracked down on protests lastyear.

Giving the first detailed account of the worst cyclone tohit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in Bangladesh,Foreign Minister Nyan Win said on state television 10,000people had died just in Bogalay, a town 90 km (50 miles)southwest of Yangon.

After a meeting with Myanmar's ambassador to Bangkok, ThaiForeign Minister Noppadol Pattama said he had been told 30,000people were missing after Saturday's devastating storm.

"The losses have been much greater than we anticipated," hesaid after ambassador Ye Win declined to speak to reporters.

The total left homeless by the 190 km (120 miles) per hourwinds and 12 foot (3.5 metre) storm surge is in the severalhundred thousands, United Nations aid officials say.

The scale of the disaster in the military-ruled southeastAsian nation drew a rare acceptance of outside help from thediplomatically isolated generals, who spurned such approachesin the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Bernard Delpuech, a European Union aid official in Yangon,said the junta had sent three ships carrying food to the deltaregion, rice bowl for Myanmar's 53 million people. Nearly halfthe population live in the five disaster-hit states.

In its coverage of the disaster, state media have made muchof the military's response, showing footage of soldiersmanhandling tree trunks or top generals climbing intohelicopters or greeting homeless storm victims in Buddhisttemples.

However, there could be big political fallout for amilitary junta that has prided itself on its ability to copewith any challenge thrown its way, analysts said.

"The myth they have projected about being well-prepared hasbeen totally blown away," said political analyst Aung Naing Oo,who fled to Thailand after a brutally crushed 1988 uprising."This could have a tremendous political impact in the longterm."

"MASSIVE, TERRIBLE"

Aid agency World Vision in Australia said it had beengranted special visas to send in personnel to back up 600 staffin the impoverished Southeast Asian country.

"This is massive. It is not necessarily quite tsunamilevel, but in terms of impact of millions displaced, thousandsdead, it is just terrible," World Vision Australia head TimCostello said.

"Organisations like ours have been given permission, whichis pretty unprecedented, to fly people in. This shows how graveit is in the Burmese government's mind," he said.

The town-by-town list of dead and missing announced by NyanWin, a major-general, showed 14,859 deaths in the Irrawaddyarea and 59 in Yangon division, which includes the formerBurma's biggest city.

Residents of the city of 5 million were queuing up forbottled water and there was still no electricity four daysafter the vicious Cyclone Nargis struck.

Prices of food, fuel and construction materials haveskyrocketed, and most shops have sold out of candles andbatteries. An egg costs three times what it did on Friday.

"Generators are selling very well under the generals," saidone man waiting outside a shop, reflecting some of theresentment on the streets to what many described as a slowwarning and response.

ANGER

Buddhist monks and home-owners hacked at fallen trees withhand saws and axes, trying to clear roads. Soldiers were seenclearing debris and trees only at major intersections, fuellinga sense among residents that the military was not doing enough.

Anger at the authorities is still high because of theirbloody crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks inSeptember.

"The regime has lost a golden opportunity to send thesoldiers as soon as the storm stopped to win the heart and soulof people," one retired civil servant told a Reuters.

"But where are the soldiers and police? They were veryquick and aggressive when there were protests in the streetslast year," he said.

(Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Alex Richardson)