'My town wiped out'

By Arjun Ramachandran

(SMH) - A Burmese Australian whose birthplace was "wiped out" in this weekend's devastating cyclone has pleaded for the country's military regime to let foreign aid agencies to enter the country.

Tropical cyclone Nargis has killed 22,000 people and more than 40,000 are still missing days after the storm smashed into Burma's southern coast.

Thann Naing, from Sydney, watched the news in horror as aerial images showed his birthplace, Myaungmya, under water.

"My home town has been wiped out just like that. I was crying," Mr Naing said.

"Most of my family [who are in Rangoon] are OK. But I'm worried - my extended family live in my birthplace but I don't know how bad it is - there's no communication, all mobiles and landlines are down.

"I've asked my friends in India and Bangladesh to find out whatever they can."

Mr Naing is chairman of the Burmese Community Welfare Group. He said the group was meeting on Sunday to establish a relief fund for victims of one what is one of Asia's worst natural disasters.

'Forget about the politics'

He pleaded to the Burmese government to accept foreign aid.

"The people are suffering down there. There's no way the government can do the immediate relief for those people - there's no food, no shelter.

"Forget about the politics, look at the people down there."

Mr Naing, a geologist at Macquarie University, said he had not been back to Burma since leaving in 1985 for Australia.

"I'm not allowed to go back to Burma because I'm a political dissident, and because of the political dissent of my father, who was also a political dissident who went to jail because he was friends with [former Prime Minister of Burma] U Nu."

Mr Naing now lives in North Ryde with his wife and 21-year-old daughter, who is in the third year of a law degree at Macquarie University.

He tried to visit Burma in 2001 to see his dying mother, aged 101, but his application was rejected.

Local aid agencies including World Vision, CARE Australia, Red Cross and Caritas Australia have launched appeals for donations.

Many of the agencies already had staff working in Burma when the cyclone hit, but were still assessing what additional aid they could send. According to news wire reports, aid workers have been battling to enter Burma.

"We are trying to get maximum cooperation from the government in terms of visas and customs regulations. We really hope it will happen very quickly. We applied for visas. We have not got the visas," said Rashid Khalikov from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Increase in visas

A spokeswoman for the Burma embassy in Canberra said there had been an increase in visa applications from Australians wanting to visit Burma, but would not elaborate on how many there had been.

"There are people wanting to go, yes. The inquiries have increased," she said. The embassy was also still assessing whether to approve the applications, she said.

"[It's based on] need - whether they need to be there or not."

Bruce Cameron, a NSW Fire Brigades officer involved with aid efforts in Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami, said nothing could prepare aid workers for the devastation they would encounter following a mammoth natural disaster.

"There are just creeks and mudflats littered with thousands of bloated, dead bodies. It's a horrible, horrible scene. There's local dogs coming out of the township looking for something to feed. It's as bad as anyone would want to see in real life or in a drama."

Mr Cameron, who helped coordinate Australian medical teams in Aceh, said the aid workers would have extensive training and experience in more localised accidents.

'Nothing can prepare you'

"But you can't compare a car accident with four people in it to thousands of people lying upside down in a river, or children coming out of an operating theatre missing a leg. It's very confronting and no amount of training or DVDs can prepare you for it."

The Australia Government has pledged $3 million in aid, including up to $1 million to Australian non-government organisations for emergency shelter and clean water, $1 million to the United Nation for food and $1 million to UNICEF for water purification.

A spokeswoman for AusAid, the agency that manages Australia's overseas aid, couldn't confirm whether any Australian medical teams had been sent to Burma. The NSW Health department said it had not yet been requested to be involved with aid efforts. - with AAP

Burma cyclone appeal information:

World Vision

13 32 40

http://www.worldvision.com.au

Caritas Australia

1800 024 413

http://www.caritas.org.au

Red Cross

1800 811 700

http://www.redcross.org.au

CARE Australia

1800 020 046

http://www.careaustralia.org.au