Prayers for Burma victims

May 11 2008

Prayers will be said across the UK for the thousands of people displaced in the Burmese cyclone crisis, as aid agencies face a desperate bid to get supplies and volunteers to the survivors.

More than a week after Cyclone Nargis brought death and destruction to the secretive south-east Asian country, the Burmese authorities are facing mounting pressure to allow aid to be brought in.

More than 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed and a further 1.5 million displaced by the massive storm which struck on May 3.

Hundreds of bloated corpses have been seen floating down the country's waterways and there is an increasing threat of outbreaks of disease.

Aid agencies warned they are involved in a race against time to help prevent a humanitarian disaster.

Politicians, senior aid officials and members of the clergy joined together to condemn the military junta for dragging their feet while people across the country suffered in the aftermath of the cyclone.

It inflicted massive damage on Burma's infrastructure, leaving vast swathes of the country totally cut off.

Aid has slowly started to trickle in, but humanitarian groups said it is not reaching the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the disaster quickly enough.

A United Nations road convoy crossed into Burma on Saturday and three Red Cross planes have arrived, with others due in the next few days.