Door opens a little for aid into Myanmar

In another sign of the impasse between the military rulers and countries eager to kick start an international operation, the prime minister of neighbouring Thailand cancelled a planned trip there this weekend.

Thai premier Samak Sundaravej had been urged by the United States and Britain to try and open the doors.

Survivors have been mostly fending for themselves in the swampy delta after Cyclone Nargis packing winds of up to 190 kph last Saturday whipped up a massive wall of sea-water that hurtled through the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.

In the delta where saltwater has ruined wells, grain stores and rice fields, the estimated 1.5 million survivors are desperate.

“There are no NGOs here. No UN. Only me,” farmer Tei Lin told Reuters near the delta town of Labutta.

Referendum today

The junta urged citizens to do their duty and vote on Saturday for an army-drafted constitution, without mentioning the1.5 million people clinging to survival a week after a devastating cyclone. Only in the worst-hit parts of the country, the referendum has been put off to May 24. Som facts:

• The constitution, third since independence from Britain in 1948, is a key step in roadmap to democracy

•Drafted by handpicked military officers and civil servants

• It will make army chief most powerful figure, who can take power in emergencies

•It will give military 25 per cent of the 440 seats in parliament and a veto over legislations

•Myanmar nationals with foreign spouses or children barred from political office, effectively cutting out opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Her husband, now deceased but with whom she has two sons, was English

•Suu Kyi’s NLD, whose 1990 election victory was ignored by junta, has called for a No vote

•No independent monitors to be present during vote