Yesterday Australian television reported disturbing estimates concerning the children affected in Burma’s cyclone. According to the report, around 40% of the victims of cyclone Nargis were children. There have been further reports suggesting that traffickers have already been active in the area and that abandoned children are at great risk in the confused aftermath of the cyclone and the chaotic relief effort.

Other figures coming from inside hint at the scale of the problem concerning children, with estimates of 800 separated children in three townships alone, as well as reports of around 200 orphans in the shelters of Myaungmya.

Reports coming from Pathein say that the military has been moving people into government shelters and that 4000 people have been moved from Bogolay to Maubin on the 13th of May.

On the international front, Prime Minister Samak of Thailand met with the generals on Wednesday, hoping to secure greater access for international relief workers, however, he was met with a refusal from the Burmese authorities who assured Mr Samak that everything was under control. The Burmese authorities have however, indicated that they are willing to accept aid from their Asian neighbors such as India, Thailand, Bangladesh and China. In a small, but positive development, 160 aid workers from these nations will be let in to assist in the efforts, possibly paving the way for more experts to be let in at a later date. The junta has also said that Ministry of Social Welfare (co-coordinating relief efforts) is open to UN agencies distributing goods, but delivery plans must be provided and Government may request some presence during delivery.

Further afield UN Sec-Gen Ban Ki Moon has convened a special meeting on the Burmese situation to discuss further relief efforts for the struggling nation. He has also indicated that he will be sending John Homes, the UN aid chief to Burma on one of the aid supply flights.

There have been mixed signals coming from inside Burma over reports that some aid may have been appropriated by the military. Recent stories of aid being diverted to military warehouses and inferior food supplies being handed out in their place have been circulating, but in a press conference in Bangkok, this was not backed up by the UN members from the WFP. However, other groups inside the country maintain this is the case, and with greater amounts of supplies arriving in Yangon daily (including five new air deliveries of relief supplies from the United States), army theft of supplies is a real concern. Understandably, many aid groups are reluctant to speak at length about this problem for fear of antagonizing the military and creating a backlash against foreign workers, hence harming the relief effort.

In a positive development, the second possible cyclone threat has been scaled down. Meteorologists now say that the low pressure system has a “poor” chance of developing into a tropical cyclone. Although, there is still heavy rain predicted for the Delta area.

Official death toll as of today is 38,500. 27, 838 still missing.

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