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YANGON: Myanmar began three days of mourning on Tuesday for 133,000 people dead or missing after its cyclone, but barely anyone seemed to notice and most of the two million survivors were still desperate for help.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is heading to Myanmar, called the situation there "critical" with relief efforts reaching only a quarter of those in need.
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In one of the first official displays of grief since the cyclone pummelled the impoverished country 18 days ago, national flags in front of Yangon's City Hall fluttered at half mast under overcast skies.
But there was no public ceremony nor moment of silence, and most people in Yangon appeared unaware of the mourning period.
"We didn't know about this news. How are we meant to show our grief for storm victims?" said Mya Mya, a 43-year-old flower seller who is sheltering in a school after the storm destroyed her home.
Like most cyclone survivors still waiting for food, shelter and medicine, Mya Mya said she had yet to receive any emergency relief from the military government.
Global pressure is mounting on the regime to do more for the storm victims.
The UN chief, set to arrive on Thursday, said that "so far we have been able to reach only about 25 percent of Myanmar's people in need."
Ban, who had earlier failed to get reclusive junta leader Senior General Than Shwe even to take his telephone calls, plans to visit the worst-hit Irrawaddy delta region and to attend weekend fund-raising talks in Yangon.
"I will do my utmost for the people of Myanmar," he vowed.
There have been some advances, with the government agreeing at regional talks on Monday in Singapore to allow neighbouring countries to coordinate an international relief effort.
"We are seeing a little bit of progress, we see small steps being made," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for OCHA, the UN's disaster response arm in Geneva.
OCHA head John Holmes said he held "useful" meetings on Tuesday with Myanmar's Prime Minister Thein Sein and three government ministers, one day after he toured parts of the Irrawaddy Delta where entire villages were washed away by the May 2-3 storm.
But doubts emerged over how effective any relief effort would be, since the junta has refused to allow in foreign aid workers in anything like the numbers needed, despite warnings that people could die without help.
Human Rights Watch warned that the aid effort led by ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) fell well short of the operation needed to address victims' urgent needs.
The Asian Development Bank said it might send experts to assess reconstruction needs, but the World Bank said it could not provide the regime with any funds because the junta has not been repaying existing loans.
The UN, which estimates that only 500,000 of the 2.4 million affected by the storm are receiving aid, is making a top-level diplomatic effort to press the regime to open up the country.
"I hope the senior general will see Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when he comes," Holmes said, adding that he handed over a letter from Ban intended for Than Shwe saying the two sides needed to find a way "to work together better."
Analysts believe the ASEAN deal, which will also see teams of Asian medics from nine countries travel to Myanmar, was a face-saving way for the junta to allow in relief without being seen to cave in to Western pressure.
A Western diplomat in Yangon said the regime was taking its cue from close ally China, which is also dealing with disaster after an earthquake killed more than 40,000 people in the southwest.
"The fact that the junta has declared three days of mourning now, whereas the cyclone took place more than two weeks ago, is very significant," the diplomat said.
China, for its part, began three days of mourning for its quake victims on Monday, exactly one week after the tragedy.
Than Shwe spent a second consecutive day on Monday touring the disaster zone, venturing into the hardest-hit regions of the delta for the first time, state television reported.
On Tuesday he announced on state media that the government would build new schools for children orphaned by the cyclone. - AFP/de
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