Junta: Referendum clears Burma statute

Rangoon, May 15: Burma’s junta announced on Thursday that its new, pro-military Constitution has won overwhelming support in a referendum held while the country was reeling from a devastating cyclone that may have killed up to 128,000 people. State radio said 92.4 per cent of the 22 million eligible voters approved the Constitution, dismissed by critics as a sham designed to solidify the military’s rule. It gave voter turnout last Saturday as more than 99 per cent.

Voting was postponed until May 24 in the Irrawaddy delta and Rangoon areas, both battered by Cyclone Nargis. State radio said results of the late balloting could not mathematically reverse the approval.

Human rights groups have dismissed the vote, which was held on May 9, as a sham because in a country ruled by the feared military since 1962, few would have dared to reject the Constitution. The voting was also marred by widespread complaints of intimidation and rigging.

The junta says the new Constitution will lead to a general election in 2010. But it guarantees 25 per cent of parliamentary seats to the military and allows the President to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency.

"People are dying and they are talking about the referendum?" said Kyaw Muang, a small food store owner in Rangoon. "They (the generals) don’t even care about dying people, you think they care about democracy for living people? I don’t care about the referendum. It doesn’t mean anything."

Burma government says 38,491 people are known dead and 27,838 missing in the May 2-3 cyclone. But the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimated the death toll was between 68,833 and 127,990.

Even though the figures seemed precise, spokesman Matthew Cochrane said they were only estimates designed to give Red Cross donors and partner organisations an idea of the numbers being discussed within the aid community.

The UN says more than 100,000 may have died.

Also, children in Burma may have to attend classes in relief camps and tents because 85 per cent of school buildings were destroyed or severely damaged in the country’s cyclone-ravaged region, the UN said.

With the school year slated to begin June 1, UNICEF said there is no time to rebuild the estimated 2,700 severely damaged primary schools used by 350,000 students or to replace the unknown numbers of teachers killed or missing following Cyclone Nargis, which left more than 66,000 people dead or missing.

Meanwhile, Burma authorities ask India to send Army doctors for cyclone relief. An IAF IL-76 aircraft would fly to Rangoon on Saturday carrying a team of doctors and medical supplies. (AP)