YANGON, Myanmar -- Myanmar's junta announced Thursday that voters overwhelmingly backed a pro-military constitution -- a move critics claim was an attempt to divert attention from its failure to deliver aid to victims of a devastating cyclone.
State radio said the draft constitution, which critics dismissed as a sham document designed to entrench the military's rule, was approved by 92.4 percent of the 22 million eligible voters. It put voter turnout Saturday at more than 99 percent of eligible voters in areas that went to the polls.
Voting was postponed until May 24 in the Irrawaddy delta and Yangon areas, which were worst hit by Cyclone Nargis. But state radio said the results of the late balloting could not mathematically reverse the constitution's approval.
The constitution announcement came a day after Myanmar's government issued a revised cyclone casualty toll, saying 38,491 were known dead and 27,838 were missing.
But the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said its estimate put the number of dead between 68,833 and 127,990. U.N. officials have said there could be more than 100,000 dead in the May 2-3 cyclone.
"People are dying and they are talking about the referendum?" said Kyaw Muang, a small food store owner in Yangon. "They (the generals) don't even care about dying people, you think they care about democracy for living people?" he said.
"I don't care about the referendum. It doesn't mean anything," he said.
Human Rights watch also slammed the timing of the constitution announcement and questioned the accuracy of the results.
David Mathieson, a spokesman in Bangkok, Thailand, said the junta hopes that by announcing the results now it would divert attention away from its handling of the disaster and its refusal to cooperate with the international community.
"It seems strategically timed because you would have thought with how busy they were in cleaning up the cyclone that they never would have had time to count this properly," he said.
With up to 2.5 million people in urgent need of food, water and shelter, aid agencies were preparing or moving in a wide-range of relief supplies including material for temporary shelters, rice, drinking water, kitchen utensils and medicines, including 2,000 anti-snake bite kits. The World Health Organization said an increase in snake bites was feared in coming days.
U.N. agencies and other voluntary groups have been able to reach only 270,000 of the affected people. But instead of accepting foreign help freely, the government continued to issue only a few visas to foreign aid experts, and all but shut them out of the hardest-hit areas.
"There is a visible fence around Yangon that we don't dare cross. A circle has been drawn around Yangon and expats are confined there," said Tim Costelloe of aid group World Vision.
He said the group has delivered aid to 100,000 people in spite of the "narrow parameters." But there are tens of thousands more who haven't received help because of heavy rains and lack of helicopters and expert staff, he said.
"While you are getting aid through, it's like getting it through on a 3-inch pipe not 30-inch pipe."
The regime insists it can handle the disaster on its own -- a stance that appears to stem not from its abilities but its deep suspicion of most foreigners, who have frequently criticized its human rights abuses and crackdown on democracy activists.
"The hand that has been slapping them for their political regime and human rights is the same hand that is offering them aid and saying this isn't about politics. They distrust that hand," said Costelloe.
In a clear sign that politics is playing a role, the junta has granted approval to 160 relief workers from India, China, Bangladesh and Thailand, which have rarely criticized Myanmar's democracy record.
With professional aid workers in short supply, ordinary citizens including businessmen, housewives, monks, Christian priests and students have rushed in to provide help.
But even Myanmar citizens are being restricted by the security forces, said Zaw Htin, a 21-year-old medical student who visited the hard-hit Bogaley town on Wednesday.
"They (military) don't want us to stay and talk to people. They want us to leave the supplies with them for distribution. But how can I treat them if I can't talk to them? How do we administer medical care if we can't touch them, feel their pulse or give them advice?" she said.
Also, Thursday, the junta announced on state radio that "effective legal action" would be taken against people who trade, hoard or misuse international aid.
The warning came amid reports that foreign aid was being sold openly in markets. The radio announcement effectively denied allegations that the military was pilfering and diverting aid for its own use while distributing low-quality, locally produced food to people.
It said the government "has systematically accepted donations and had distributed the relief goods immediately and directly to the victims."
Human Rights Watch said that countries delivering aid should insist on monitoring to ensure aid reaches the cyclone victims most in need and to prevent the military government from seizing it.
It said it has confirmed an Associated Press report this week that the junta had seized high-protein biscuits supplied by the international community and distributed low-quality, locally produced substitutes to the people.
"Simply dropping aid off at (the) airport under the control of the abusive and ill-equipped ... military will not necessarily help victims of the cyclone," it said.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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