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Cyclone victims left to rot
08/05/2008 13:22 - (SA)
Kanyinkone, Myanmar - Piles of rotting corpses are stacking up in remote villages of Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, with residents saying they don't have enough fuel to cremate victims of deadly Cyclone Nargis.
Kanyinkone is one of the few villages to survive the tidal wave that washed away homes, buildings and trees in the delta when the cyclone pounded ashore.
"The last thing I remember was seeing a giant wave taller than the palm trees, while I held onto a tree," one survivor told AFP.
The wave washed away houses and toppled pagodas at Buddhist temples. Now that the waters are receding, the region's rice paddies and roads are covered with the corpses of people as well as buffaloes, pigs and chickens.
What scarce fuel remains is being used to ferry clean drinking water by boat from the nearest town of Labutta, which was also devastated by the cyclone.
Hope of finding survivors
"We need diesel to drive motor boats for fetching water from town," said Myint Oo, the owner of one boat that escaped the storm undamaged.
"We collect many corpses, but we're just leaving them on the ground because we don't have enough petrol to burn them all," he said.
"There are still many dead bodies of people and animals along the river. It's going to be a big problem for people downstream who drink water from the river," he added.
Of the 14 villages nearest to Kanyinkone, residents have only made contact with survivors from seven of them.
A local military official in Labutta estimated that 80 000 people died in the town and the surrounding villages.
Few held out hopes of finding any survivors from the villages closest to the sea.
"We have no information from those villages yet," said San Wai, Kanyinkone's chief.
"I could not save her"
More than 2 000 of those who did survive have gathered in Kanyinkone, where they sought shelter at a Buddhist temple and tried to keep a generator running to power a small mill to grind rice for eating.
"Right now we are trying to find food for people with the rice left in the village, but we need water, diesel and medicine immediately. Many people are getting sick now," the temple's abbot said.
"Many people have diarrhoea, and some were injured, but we can only provide a few packets of mineral salt and paracetamol," one villager added.
Tin Tin Win, a schoolteacher who was organising food and shelter for the survivors, said she lost her infant daughter in the storm.
"I tried to hold her in my arms, but I could not save her," she said.
"No one has come to rescue us. We did not receive any assistance from anyone so far. We have tried to stand on our own, but we won't be able to keep this up much longer. If we don't get help, people here won't survive."
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