Burmese Cyclone

Nearly 30,000 people have perished in the disaster that is Cyclone Nargis, according to official Burmese reports. Thousands of survivors are still at risk, lacking food, water and shelter.

After nine days of negotiating with the military junta in Burma, the US have finally managed to gain permission to land its aid aircraft, including water, mosquito nets and blankets in Rangoon, where Cyclone Nargis hit on the night of Friday May the 2nd.

According to the Burmese local online newspaper The Irrawady, official reports say the death toll is 29,000, but United Nations estimates say it could be up to 102,000, with aid agencies like Oxfam fearing it could rise to 1.5 million if help does not arrive.

The US is not the only one who has tried to send aid, : the UK has pledged £5 million to help Burma, in what Foreign Minister David Miliband calls a "humanitarian catastrophe of genuinely epic proportions".

However, the military junta in Burma, in power for 15 years, is reluctant to accept help. They are sticking to their stand - foreign aid is acceptable, foreign workers are not, with the BBC reporting that the Minister for Economic Development believes that “delivery of relief goods can be handled by local organizations”. This means that while monetary contributions, can be received by those affected, medical aid in the form of foreign doctors and nurses are not allowed.

Burma, with its unsettled political climate, is that of military dictatorship, which The Economist calls the "world's most paranoid regime", has strained political relations with the Western world. Not only have they refused foreign aid, they have strict rules about foreign media, deporting BBC's Asia bureau editor Paul Danahar from Rangoon on the weekend after a week of reporting on the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.

The European Union, in light of this disaster, will hold a meeting tomorrow, while ASEAN (The Association of South-East Asian Nations) says it will discuss this issue next Monday.