By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - Torrential tropical downpours lashedMyanmar's Irrawaddy delta on Friday, deepening the misery of anestimated 2.5 million destitute survivors of Cyclone Nargis andfurther hampering the military government's aid efforts.
In the storm-struck town of Kunyangon, around 100 km (60miles) southwest of Yangon, thousands of men, women andchildren stood in mud and rain, their hands clasped together insupplication at the occasional passing aid vehicle.
Children mobbed any car that stopped, grimy hands reachingthrough a window in search of bits of bread or a t-shirt.
Despite such scenes and the latest storm, likely to turnalready damaged roads to mud, the former Burma's rulinggenerals insist their relief operations are running smoothly.
However, they issued an edict in state-run newspapers onFriday saying legal action would be taken against anybody foundhoarding or selling relief supplies, amid rumours of localmilitary units expropriating trucks of food, blankets andwater.
If emergency supplies do not get through in much greaterquantities, foreign governments and aid groups say starvationand disease are very real threats.
Some cholera has been confirmed among survivors, but thenumber was in line with case levels in previous years, theWorld Health Organization (WHO) said.
"We don't have an explosion of cholera," MaureenBirmingham, acting WHO representative in Thailand, toldreporters in Bangkok.
Diarrhoea, dysentery and skin infections have afflictedsome cyclone refugees crammed into monasteries, schools andother temporary shelters after the devastating May 2 storm.
The WHO, which has sent health kits, bleach and chlorinetablets to treat dirty water, said the peak threat from diseasewas 10 days to one month after a natural disaster.
EU URGES OPENING UP TO AID
The European Union's top aid official, Louis Michel, metministers in Yangon on Thursday and urged them to admit foreignaid workers and essential equipment to keep the death toll,which the Red Cross says could be as high as 128,000, fromrising.
Myanmar state television raised its official death toll onThursday to 43,328. Independent experts say the figures areprobably far higher, with British officials saying the numberof dead and missing may be 200,000.
Michel, like so many other envoys before, had made littleheadway so far.
"Relations between Myanmar and the international communityare difficult," he told Reuters. "But that is not my problem.The time is not for political discussion. It's time to deliveraid to save lives."
Earlier, the reclusive generals, the latest face of 46years of unbroken military rule, signalled they would not budgeon their position of limiting foreign access to the delta,fearful to do so might loosen their vice-like grip on power.
"We have already finished our first phase of emergencyrelief. We are going onto the second phase, the rebuildingstage," state television quoted Prime Minister Thein Sein astelling his Thai counterpart this week.
Underlining where its main attentions lie, the juntaannounced an overwhelming vote in favour of an army-backedconstitution in a referendum held on May 10 despite calls for adelay in the light of the disaster.
DRIBS AND DRABS
Two weeks after the storm tore through the heavilypopulated Irrawaddy delta rice bowl, food, medicine andtemporary shelter have been sent in dribs and drabs todevastated communities.
In Kunyangon, the junta has started distributing smallamounts of emergency food.
But around the town, the countryside remains a mess ofhalf-submerged trees, snapped electricity pylons or bamboopoles -- the skeletal remains of a house -- leaning at crazyangles.
Villagers say they are slowly burying the bloated corpsesof friends and relatives that have littered the rice fields forthe last two weeks. But the stench of death remains.
The United Nations says more than half a million people maynow be in temporary settlements.
Frustrated by the speed of the official response, ordinarypeople were taking matters into their own hands, sending trucksand vans into the delta with clothes, biscuits, dried noodles,and rice provided by private companies and individuals.
"There are too many people. We just cannot give enough. Howcan the government act as if nothing happened?" said onevolunteer, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals.
With almost total distrust of the government, private aidis being left in the care of Buddhist monasteries, to bedistributed by the monkhood, who have immense moral authority.
Going through the roll-call of the needy is a grim task.
"We need to give aid to this family," said one monkpointing to a list in a temple in one village.
"No," another monk interjected. "They're all dead."
(With additional reporting by Ed Cropley in BANGKOK;Editing by Jerry Norton and Darren Schuettler)
(For more stories on Myanmar cyclone follow the link toReuters AlertNet http://www.alertnet.org)