U.N. chief tours Myanmar delta

KYONDAH, Myanmar -- U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon flew over Myanmar's flooded Irrawaddy delta Thursday, where the ravages of a cyclone stretched as far as the eye could see: Villages were empty of life, flattened huts dissolved into vast areas of water and people perched on rooftops.

Nearly three weeks after the storm, life was grim even at a refugee camp showcased by Myanmar's junta during the carefully scripted tour.

"I'm very upset by what I've seen," Ban said, visibly shaken by the firsthand look at the devastation, even though the areas to which he was taken were far from those worst-hit by Cyclone Nargis.

Before his helicopter flyover, Ban had said he was bringing a "message of hope," to Myanmar's people following the cyclone May 2 and 3, which claimed more than 78,000 lives, according to government figures, and left more than 56,000 missing.

Myanmar's military rulers have been eager to show they have the relief effort under control despite spurning the help of foreign disaster experts, and much of the tour was taken up by statistics-laden lectures to make that point.

The U.N. says up to 2.5 million cyclone survivors face hunger, homelessness and potential outbreaks of deadly diseases, especially in the low-lying areas of the Irrawaddy Delta close to the sea. It estimates that aid has reached only about 25 percent of victims.

The four-hour tour Thursday included two stops -- one at Mawlamyinegyun, an aid distribution point stocked with bags of rice and cartons of bottled drinking water and the other at a makeshift camp where 500 people huddled in tents in the village of Kyondah, about 45 miles southwest of Yangon.

Still, the destruction in the region was relatively mild compared to Labutta and Bogalay to the south, where the Red Cross said rivers and ponds were full of corpses and many people have received no aid. Officials gave no explanation for why Ban was not taken to those areas, where most of the dead and missing were reported.

By contrast, Kyondah -- which has electricity and clean water -- is somewhat of a showcase and was selected for visits by senior junta members, foreign embassy officials and international aid organizations last week.

At the camp, the secretary-general was given a detailed explanation by Maj. Gen. Lun Thi of how Kyondah, formerly a cluster of seven villages with a population of 5,228, has expertly handled relief efforts. The village had 122 dead and missing, he said.

He displayed charts saying the camp had 300 bags of rice, 64 boxes of instant noodles, 1,500 eggs, 12,000 bottles of drinking water and 1,240 pieces of preserved meat. Also listed were napkins, steel bowls, blankets, T-shirts, tarps and men's and ladies' underwear.

While the general spoke, Ban sat in the front row of an elaborately constructed sitting room where bowls of fruit and soda were served. Ban ate and drank nothing.

Once the lecture was over, Ban strode into the camp, stopping at tents to look in on the homeless families, some with children as young as a day old.

"The whole world is trying to help Myanmar," he told one family in the camp, where inhabitants had cooking pots and blankets that appeared to be new stacked neatly in their tents. Some smiled at him, but said little.

An idea of the storm's destructive force was more obvious from the air.

The two helicopters carrying Ban's party flew over seemingly endless fields surrounded by floodwaters, villages with destroyed houses, rivers swollen past their banks, people huddled on rooftops or in makeshift tents, or moving around in boats.

In some areas, the flooding stretched as far as the eye could see, with people living in damaged homes that looked completely cut off.

So far, no one at the U.N. has ventured an estimate of how long the delta is expected to remain submerged. But on Thursday, Ban said he expected the relief operations to be needed for at least six months.

The question of pumps and levees, and whether they could be used to make the flooding less extensive, is an issue U.N. officials say they might raise at a regional aid conference Sunday.

Much of the area is normally planted with rice, but the water level is far too high for that and the paddies are inundated with damaging salt water, U.N. officials said.

The monsoon, bringing seasonal rains, is part of the normal cycle, but doesn't usually cause flooding in the delta, they said.

Heavy rains have followed the cyclone, bringing more flooding and hardship to survivors, but Ban expressed hope the rain might also cleanse the rice paddies of the salt water.

"I praise the will, resilience and the courage of the people of Myanmar. I bring a message of hope for the people of Myanmar," he said.

U.N. officials traveling with Ban said they were discussing with Chinese authorities whether Ban could tour the earthquake zone in Sichuan after leaving Myanmar. The officials requested anonymity, citing protocol.

Such a trip would give Ban a chance to compare the two countries' responses and urge China -- Myanmar's biggest ally -- to put its weight behind opening the flow of aid workers.

Ban tried to keep political issues off his plate.

Activists called on the U.N. chief to meet with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and seek her release. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been confined to her Yangon villa for most of the last 18 years and her current period of detention is due to expire Monday. But a meeting with Suu Kyi was not on Ban's official itinerary.

In a meeting earlier Thursday with Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, Ban stressed international aid experts should be rushed in because the crisis is too much for Myanmar to handle alone, according to a U.N. official at the talks.

"The United Nations and all the international community stand ready to help to overcome the tragedy," Ban said.

Thein Sein said the relief phase of the government's operation was ending and that the focus had shifted to reconstruction, according to the U.N. official at the talks who requested anonymity for reasons of protocol.

U.N. official Dan Baker said junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe would meet with Ban on Friday at Naypyitaw. Ban earlier said Than Shwe had refused to take his telephone calls and did not respond to two letters.

Yangon citizens did not seem optimistic that Ban's visit would make a difference.

"Don't just talk, you must take action," said Eain Daw Bar Tha, abbot of a Buddhist monastery on Yangon's outskirts. "The U.N. must directly help the people with helicopters to bring food, clothes and clean water to the really damaged places."