Cyclone Will Not Delay Burma Vote, Military Says

Hundreds Killed as Storm Wreaks Havoc a Week Before Referendum on Constitution

BANGKOK, May 5 -- Burma's military junta vowed Monday to push ahead with a controversial national referendum on a new constitution, even as the country was reeling from the impact of a cyclone that killed more than 350 and left tens of thousands homeless.

Packing winds of up to 120 mph, Tropical Cyclone Nargis slammed into Rangoon, Burma's former capital and its largest city, and the Irrawaddy Delta region Saturday.

The powerful winds and heavy flooding knocked out power and telecommunications lines, lifted roofs from public buildings, and destroyed tens of thousands of bamboo and thatch homes.

"It has been a catastrophic situation," said Terje Skavdal, regional head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "It has flattened everything in its way. It will be a major, major clean-up operation for the government."

Nevertheless, the country's military leaders stuck with Saturday's referendum on a new constitution, which they say will lay the foundations for a "discipline-flourishing democracy." Opposition groups have condemned the vote as an attempt to legitimize military rule.

"The referendum is only a few days away and the people are eagerly looking forward to voting," the government said Monday in a statement carried in the state media and reported by the Reuters news service.

State-run television reported that 351 people, including 109 on a small island off the country's southwest coast, had been killed and that two towns deep in the Irrawaddy Delta had been virtually flattened. The government declared five regions disaster zones, including Rangoon, the dilapidated colonial-era capital. An estimated 5 million to 6 million people live in these areas.

U.N. officials said that assessing the extent of the damage will probably take days, given the poor communications in Burma and difficulties moving along obstructed roads into the country's remote regions. However, one U.N. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said tens of thousands of people are probably in need of emergency food, shelter and drinking water.

The generals' decision to push ahead with the referendum is likely to provoke an outcry from opposition groups in exile, who said Sunday that the regime should focus all its efforts on the massive amount of humanitarian relief that will be needed.

"What the people need urgently now is not a referendum but relief. More people are going to die or suffer if they do not receive relief assistance in a timely manner," said exiled Burmese academic Win Min, who lectures on politics at Thailand's Payap University.

The government's "logistical capacity will be urgently needed for carrying food and medical equipment, not ballot boxes," agreed the U.N. official.

Win Min noted that the storm's destruction of infrastructure and telecommunications would make a vote difficult to organize in any event.