Keeping a lid on Burma's chaos

By Paul Danahar
BBC News, southern Burma

How do you keep control of chaos? That is the problem facing the military rulers in Burma in the wake of Saturday's cyclone.

In the past, when they feared things were getting beyond their grasp, their solution was simple: mass arrests.

But the latest challenge to the generals' demand for order could not be cowed.

The tidal surge that swept across the Irrawaddy Delta on Saturday had a mind of its own.

It wiped villages and towns off the map. The government says it killed tens of thousands of people and left hundreds of thousands more without food or shelter.

And it handed the generals the biggest challenge to their rule since the height of the pro-democracy movement in 1989.

Mounting frustration

The capital, Rangoon, was the scene of those demonstrations. Now it is a scene of devastation.

EXTENT OF THE DEVASTATION

UN map showing worst-hit areas, based on satellite imagery [1.13MB]
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Trees lie tossed across roads, power pylons are bent and twisted, houses have been stripped of their roofs.

There are some supplies, even if their prices are sky-rocketing.

One man told me he had lost the roof of his house, but the price to repair it had trebled.

He spends most nights sleeping in a car that forms part of the long queues snaking for almost a kilometre (0.6 mile) at every petrol station.

Candles sold out long ago, most people spend their nights in complete darkness and their days hanging around waiting for water trucks.

And as they wait they express their frustration.

"There were soldiers everywhere during the demonstrations," one man said. "Where are they now?"

Life and death

Aid is starting to arrive, but not quickly enough. Huge sections of the delta lie cut off from the outside world.

Nobody really knows how bad the situation is for those people lucky enough to survive the tidal surge.

Things are improving. The government has relaxed its grip on the aid groups permanently based here.

Those workers, local and international, are free to travel and do their best to help.

But there is much more help waiting on Burma's doorstep.

Days, hours and minutes are a matter of life and death in the aftermath of any disaster.

Hundreds of thousands of people are now waiting for help.


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