U.N. aid used by junta for propaganda exercise

updated 8:33 a.m. ET May 10, 2008

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military rulers held elections aimed at solidifying their hold on power, while brazenly turning cyclone relief efforts into a propaganda campaign. In some cases, generals' names were scribbled onto boxes of foreign aid before being distributed.

Human rights organizations and dissident groups have bitterly accused the junta of neglecting disaster victims in going ahead with Saturday's referendum, which seeks public approval of a new constitution. Critics describe it as a sham.

Aye Aye Mar, a 36-year-old homemaker, looked frightened when asked if she thought anyone would vote against it.

"One vote of 'No' will not make a difference," she whispered, her eyes darting around to see if anyone was watching. Then she raised her voice to declare: "I'm saying 'Yes' to the constitution."

The referendum comes just one week after winds of 120 mph and a storm surge pounded the Irrawaddy delta, killing or leaving missing more than 65,000 people in one of the worst natural disasters in living memory. Nearly 2 million others were left homeless or in need of food, shelter and medicine.

Though international aid has started to trickle in — with two more planes organized by the U.N. World Food Program landing at Yangon's airport Saturday — almost all foreign relief workers have been barred entry into the isolated nation.

The junta said it wants to hand out all donated supplies on its own.

But with roads blocked and bridges submerged, reaching isolated areas in the hard hit delta has been made all but impossible. The military has only a few dozen helicopters, most small and old. It also has about 15 transport planes, few of which are able to carry massive amounts of supplies.

'Help us'
Long lines formed in front of government centers, where minuscule rations of rice and oil were being distributed. Elsewhere, people clustered on roadsides hoping for handouts. The words "Help us!" were written in chalk on the side of one home.

"Please, don't wait too long," said Ma Thein Htwe, 49, who waited with dozens of other women and children at a monastery in Kungyangon for her ration of rice.

Ko Zaw Min, 27, said not enough aid was reaching his community. Each family was given just a half kilogram a day.

"I want to build my home where it used to stand, in the field over there," said the farmer, who lost his 9-year-old son and a one-month-old baby in the disaster. "But I have nothing."

Voting begins in face of crisis
Despite international appeals to postpone the constitutional referendum, voting began Saturday in all but the hardest hit parts of the country.

As lines formed, state-run television continuously ran images of top generals including junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, handing out boxes of aid at elaborate ceremonies.

"We have already seen regional commanders putting their names on the side of aid shipments from Asia, saying this was a gift from them and then distributing it in their region," said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, which campaigns for human rights and democracy in the country.

"It is not going to areas where it is most in need," he said in London.

It has been 18 years since the last poll, and many people had no idea how to vote. Some asked each other or officials, "Where do I go?" or "What do I do?" as they walked into curtained booths to cast their ballots.

The referendum seeks public approval of a new constitution, which the generals say will be followed in 2010 by a general election. Both votes are elements of what the junta calls its "roadmap to democracy."

Video 'Very, very concerned' over Myanmar aid May 10: Save the Children's Carolyn Miles tells NBC's Lester Holt about relief efforts inside Myanmar. Today show

But the proposed constitution guarantees 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military and allows the president to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency — elements critics say defy the junta's professed commitment to democracy.

It also would bar Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained leader of the country's pro-democracy movement, from public office. The military refused to honor the results of the 1990 general election won by her National League for Democracy party.

Some 27 million of the country's 57 million people were eligible to vote, although balloting was delayed for two weeks in the areas hardest hit by the May 3 cyclone.

For many it was hard to think of anything but the storm that tore apart so many lives.

State media say 23,335 people died and 37,019 are missing from Cyclone Nargis, which submerged entire villages in the Irrawaddy delta. International aid organizations say the death toll could climb to more than 100,000 as conditions worsen.

Heavy rain forecast in the next week was certain to exacerbate the misery.

Despite obstacles put in place by the junta, some aid was arriving.

The United Nations has sent several planes and trucks loaded with relief supplies, even though the junta took over its first two air shipments.

Aid flown in Saturday on flights organized by the WFP were quickly released to the agency — described as "good news" by spokesman Marcus Prior in Bangkok, Thailand.

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