WITH more storms forecast, the death toll from floods devastating Myanmar is expected to rise still higher over the next few days.

At least 27 lives have already been lost, with an estimated 156,000 people hit by the floods and the UN warned yesterday the number of deaths could be “significantly higher”.

The country’s president, Thein Sein, who has been widely criticised for not acting sooner, has now called a state of emergency, with four western regions already declared disaster zones.

The persecuted Rohingya minority have been particularly badly hit and there are reports they have been assaulted and prevented from accessing safety and shelter by the security forces.

Adults and children have been forced to spend nights outside under the heavy monsoon rains that have wreaked havoc across Asia over the last few weeks.


In Pakistan, 81 people have died in floods with 300,000 severely affected while 26 people have died in flash floods in Western India and a further 20 killed at the weekend in a landslide in Manipur state which borders Myanmar.

Torrential rain has caused further landslides in earthquake-hit Nepal, claiming 36 lives, while flooding has killed at least 14 people in Quang Ninh provence in Vietnam.

CRISIS

Myanmar has been severely affected by this year’s monsoons with some areas hammered by heavy rain since mid July.Thousands of acres of farmland, roads, bridges, railways and houses have been destroyed by the storms, with the crisis intensifying at the weekend as Cyclone Komen crossed the Bay of Bengal.

There are worries there may be a repeat of the 2008 disaster, when 130,000 people were killed in Myanmar by Cyclone Nargis. A slow response to the disaster by the then ruling junta caused an international furore but while the country’s new quasi-civilian government has pledged it will make flood relief its main concern, the infrastructure is still basic and much of it has been wrecked by the flooding, hampering relief efforts.

“We have only two boats for the rescue process,” said one local transport minister, Aung Zaw Oo. He added he had been told the government planned to send more.

The chief minister of severely hit Rakhine state, Maung Maung Ohn, said that even if helicopters flew emergency supplies to the flooded areas there was nowhere to store them and no way of distributing them as most of the roads were submerged and badly damaged.

It is feared dams could now collapse under pressure from the rains while livestock has drowned and hectares of paddy fields have been destroyed. An area of farmland of around 525,000 acres, roughly the size of Luxembourg, has been badly affected.


ATROCIOUS

There are growing fears over the fate of the Rohingya of Rakhine state where more than 100,000 of the minority group live in apartheid-like conditions in makeshift camps which have been “extensively damaged” by the floods, according to the UN.

The Burma Times reported yesterday that while the army had “seemed very helpful” towards the Rakhine people, the Muslim Rohingyas were “assaulted” by the security forces and thrown out of schools and community centres where they had found shelter.

The newspaper said the Rohingya were told the empty buildings were for “those who belong to this country”, referring to the Rakhine Buddhist population.

The Rohingya are without shelter in atrocious conditions according to the paper.

An emergency appeal for their rescue has now been made by the European Rohingya Council who claim that the Myanmar government has deliberately left the Rohingya to die.

“The government of Myanmar was totally aware in advance of where and when Cyclone Komen would hit,” the council said in a statement yesterday. “However, they failed to give any positive signal and precaution.

“They could have evacuated all the affected people to a safer place if they had tried. But they didn’t.

“They just let the victims of Cyclone Komen drown and die helplessly. Till now, they have done nothing. The ultimate plan of the government is to depopulate the people, especially Rohingya.

“We, therefore, as concerned Rohingya living in Europe, are appealing to the Government of Myanmar and the international community, UN, ASEAN and other concerned NGOs, to come forwards to undertake an emergency rescue operation.”

The council added: “We are saddened by the loss of lives and damage to properties, infrastructures and camps.

“Impoverished Rakhine State is home to nearly 3.2 million people, including more than 140,000 Rohingya Muslims displaced by communal violence, who live in government-designated camps near the town of Sittwe. The worst-hit areas by tropical Cyclone Komen in Rakhine state include the Minbya, Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw and Ann townships, where a total of 463 villages have been submerged, three have been washed away. The camps in Arakan State are now under water.

“As strong winds and heavy rain preceding Cyclone Komen swept the Maungdaw coastal area, Rakhine civilians were evacuated by the authorities and taken to safe shelters. Meanwhile, the authorities totally ignored the evacuation of Rohingyas in the area.

“Many families are still struck in the flood with no rescue plan or help to bring them to a safer place. They are unlikely to get help from the state government due to the ongoing hostilities towards Rohingya.”

The plight of the Rohingya made international news earlier this summer when boatloads of people escaping Myanmar were refused permission to land in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

The ensuing international outcry over this forced a change of heart.