Burma generals failing their people

Natalia Antelava

BBC News, Irrawaddy Delta



A woman walks past a house destroyed by cyclone Nargis near Rangoon, 15 May, 2008

The cyclone has filled the rice fields with sea water, devastating the crops

The boat moved slowly, making its way through the heavy curtain of rain.



The air around us reeked of decay.



One of the fishermen stretched his hand out, pointing at white, swollen figures that floated along the muddy banks of the river.



A trail of wreckage and dead bodies stretched all along Burma's Irrawaddy Delta.



Two weeks on since Cyclone Nargis hit, the Delta is still devastated and hundreds of thousands of people are still waiting to be rescued.



They are hungry and homeless not just because of the disaster, but because of the government that does not seem interested in helping them.



Starving, dying



Sitting on the floor, next to a small statue of Buddha, 77-year-old Dohlaiy wiped the tears with the palm of her hand.



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BBC reporter reaches survivors who have still had no aid



"We are starving," she wept.



Dohlaiy lost her children and grandchildren to the cyclone.



She now lives together with 20 other survivors, in the only house that still stands amid the rubble of the former fishing village of Uomiou. One of its walls is missing.



The survivors have no fresh water and just enough rice to get by.



The rice, they told us, was donated by the neighbouring village, not the government.



"We have two cups a rice a day per family. Its not enough," Dohlaiy said.



"We don't know what to do, we don't have a boat to get out of here, but we can't stay here either," another villager said.



The cyclone has filled their rice fields with sea water, devastating the crops and stripping the people of the only source of livelihood they know.



Fixing and cleaning



Ever since the cyclone, Burma's military rulers have put an impressive effort into bringing order to the former capital Rangoon.





It makes no sense, it feels like the government wants these people to die

Aid worker
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