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YANGON - Myanmar said Friday it was not ready to let in foreign aid workers, rejecting international pressure to allow in experts despite fears 1.5 million cyclone survivors face disease and starvation.
One week after the devastating storm killed tens of thousands, Myanmar's ruling generals -- deeply suspicious of the outside world -- said the country needed outside aid for those still alive, but would deliver it themselves.
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The foreign ministry announcement came as a top UN official warned time was running out to bring in personnel with expertise in moving aid through disaster zones and preventing a horrific situation from worsening.
Instead, the ministry said some relief workers who arrived on an aid flight from Qatar had been deported.
"Currently Myanmar has prioritised receiving emergency relief provisions and is making strenuous efforts to transport those provisions without delay by its own labour to the affected areas," it said.
"As such, Myanmar is not ready to receive search and rescue teams as well as media teams from foreign countries."
The military government, which rules this impoverished country once known as Burma, has long been wary of any influences that could threaten the iron grip on power it has maintained for almost half a century.
Even with the country battered by tragedy, the generals insist they will hold a constitutional referendum on Saturday, brushing off criticism they are ignoring the plight of the homeless while devoting resources to the vote.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy said the government should delay the vote on a document her party says will merely enshrine military rule.
"With this situation, it is not the appropriate time to hold the referendum," NLD spokesman Nyan Win told AFP.
The extent of the catastrophe unleashed by the cyclone has put the government under intense pressure to postpone the vote and open up the country, where only a few outside aid groups are allowed to operate under strict controls.
The United Nations estimates that 1.5 million people have been affected by the disaster and, as each hour passes without clean water and food, they are at ever greater risk of starvation and disease.
"The situation is getting critical," said Noeleen Heyzer, the top UN official for Asia.
"There is only a small window of opportunity if we are to avert the spread of diseases that could multiply the already tragic number of casualties."
Rotting bodies of people and animals are piled up in many places across the remote southern Irrawaddy delta, where the storm's high winds and waves washed entire villages away.
In many places, the stench of death is overwhelming. Houses have been demolished, roads and bridges are damaged and huge swathes of land are still underwater a week after the disaster hit.
The United Nations warned Myanmar was in for more bad weather over the next week, with heavy rain that could further complicate the slow-moving relief efforts.
The United States has said the death toll could be around 100,000, but Myanmar on Thursday increased its official death toll by 17. It gave figures of 22,997 dead, 1,430 injured and 42,119 missing.
Compounding the disaster, the worst-hit area was the major rice-growing region, wiping out the main local food source until the government is able to deliver supplies.
"Now I do not have money to buy essential food items," said 75-year-old Thant Aung, who said his whole village in the Kyaklate delta district was destroyed.
"We have less food to eat. I am borrowing money from my friends to keep my family going."
In new aid pledges, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said his foundation would donate US$3m to the humanitarian relief effort.
France said it had sent a navy ship loaded with 1,500 tonnes of supplies and that it should arrive by next Thursday.
Myanmar said earlier that about a dozen aid flights had landed in the country, and that the world could help by sending cash and emergency supplies rather than aid workers. - AFP/ir
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