ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

Burma said Tuesday that 84,500 people perished in last month’s cyclone, up from the last official announcement that 77,700 had died in the devastating storm.

Meanwhile, a representative from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the regional bloc that includes Burma, said a recent assessment tour found the needs of the storm’s survivors were being met.

Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu said in a speech that the official death toll now stood at 84,537 dead, with 53,836 still missing. The update was the first since May 17, when officials said 77,738 had died and 55,917 were missing.

The increased total represents victims of the storm itself rather then any new casualties due to disease or starvation in the cyclone’s aftermath, he said, stating that the assessment found no such post-cyclone deaths.

“On the part of the government, there have been less and less requests for emergency assistance coming from communities and local authorities,” he added. “Various reports indicate that the worst of the crisis may have stabilized, although it is by no means over.”

Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3 cut a swath of destruction through the delta and the region around the country’s largest city, Rangoon.

A major international effort is underway to aid some 2.4 million people affected by the natural disaster, the worst in Burma’s modern history.

This includes a special three-party task force that has completed an assessment of the damage and needs of survivors.

A final report on its findings is due around the third week of July.

The report is widely expected to put an optimistic light on the crisis, while presenting some criticism of the regime for hindering the international aid effort.

Some 350 representatives of the United Nations, the Burma government and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — ASEAN — have been traveling to villages in the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta to accumulate information.

“Access was unlimited and unfettered. The basic needs of the victims are being met for their early recovery,” Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN secretary-general and head of the bloc’s humanitarian task force in Burma, said at a meeting Tuesday in Rangoon.

Preliminary findings by the so-called Tripartite Core Group indicated that 45% of those affected are receiving food through humanitarian distribution, said people who attended a survey presentation.

The findings also indicated that 42% of all food stocks were destroyed in the 380 affected villages that were surveyed.

The survey’s data on shelter, published on a U.N. website, indicated that more than 83% of those people surveyed were now living in their own homes. Many people had taken shelter at Buddhist temples and government- run refugee camps in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone.

More than 90% of those surveyed said they still required assistance to rebuild.

The collected data “will lead to a credible and independent damage assessment report,” said a press release from the tripartite group.