YANGON, MAY 5: Myanmar’s military junta believes at least 10,000 people died in a cyclone that ripped through the Irrawaddy delta, triggering a massive international aid response for the pariah southeast Asian nation.

“According to the latest information, more than 10,000 people were killed,” Foreign Minister Nyan Win said, after briefing foreign diplomats. He said the nation would welcome foreign aid.

“We will welcome help . . . from other countries, because our people are in difficulty,” he said. He said 57 ships had sunk in the Irrawaddy, adding that smaller boats had also been destroyed.

The scale of the disaster from Saturday’s devastating cyclone drew a rare acceptance of outside help from the diplomatically isolated generals, who spurned such approaches in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The secretive military, which has ruled the former Burma for 46 years, has moved even further into the shadows in the last six months due to the widespread outrage at its bloody crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks in September.

The junta has also decided to go ahead with the May 10 referendum on a new constitution despite the cyclone, government media reported on Monday. Reports said that the authorities were “surprised” by a UN Security Council statement urging them to ensure “inclusive and credible” political process and reminding them of their pledge to ensure a “free and fair” vote.

The official toll on state media stands at 3,394 dead and 2,879 missing, although those figures only cover two of the five declared disaster zones, where UN officials say hundreds of thousands are without shelter or drinking water.

The casualty count has been rising quickly as authorities reach hard-hit islands and villages in the Irrawaddy delta, the former “rice bowl of Asia” which bore the brunt of Cyclone Nargis’s 190 km per hour winds.

After getting a “careful green light” from the government, the UN said it was pulling out all the stops to send in emergency aid such as food, clean water, blankets and plastic sheeting.

“The UN will begin preparing assistance now to be delivered and transported to Myanmar as quickly as possible,” World Food Programme (WFP) spokesman Paul Risley said.

The US, which has imposed sanctions on the junta, said it had provided funds through the WFP and other aid groups.

“It doesn’t necessarily go directly to the government,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters. “But we’re in the process of assessing what more we can do.”

Two Indian naval ships loaded with food, tents, blankets, clothing and medicines would sail for Yangon soon, Indian’s Ministry of External Affairs said.

Thailand responded to the disaster, sending a C-130 transport plane loaded with food and medicine to Yangon after the airport reopened on Monday, Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said.

The UN office in Yangon said there was an urgent need for plastic sheeting, water purification tablets, cooking equipment, mosquito nets, health kits and food.

Worst strikes

A chronology of some major cyclones in Asia since 1970:

•November 12, 1970: Around 5 lakh people killed in Bangladesh as the country’s deadliest cyclone destroys Chittagong and several coastal villages.

•November 19, 1977: More than 10,000 people die when a cyclone hits India’s southeast Andhra coast.

•May 24, 1985: About 11,000 people killed in Bangladesh.

•April 29, 1991: Around 143,000 people are killed in Bangladesh after cyclone pummels the southern coast with a 15-foot tidal surge.

•October 29, 1999: A “super-cyclone” slams into northeast state of Orissa, killing at least 9,885.

•November 15, 2007: Cyclone Sidr strikes Bangladesh, killing around 3,500 people.