U.N. Finds 'Minimal' Impact From Tsunami in Myanmar
 

January 5, 2005
By THOMAS CRAMPTON 

The United Nations today will issue the first independent report on tsunami
damage to Myanmar and will declare that it had minimal national impact
there, with several thousand people affected and about 50 people confirmed
dead, according to the top United Nations official in the country.

The assessment contrasts sharply with heavy losses in parts
of neighboring Thailand and contradicts a statement on
Monday by the World Food Program that 30,000 people in
Myanmar were in need of care.

"Today, for the first time, I can confidently state that
the scale of the tsunami's impact on Myanmar was minimal," Charles Petrie,
the Yangon-based resident coordinator for the United Nations, said in a
telephone interview. "We need to move on to other issues here because there
are many more important humanitarian issues to deal with right now."

Obtaining facts about the situation in Myanmar has proved virtually
impossible because of censorship and travel restrictions imposed by that
nation's highly secretive military government. In previous natural disasters
the isolationist government has reacted by denying high death
tolls, declining foreign aid and insisting on homegrown reconstruction efforts.

Mr. Petrie said that atmosphere had probably prompted the exaggeration of
casualties into the thousands by some foreign-based opposition groups, but
the Myanmar government's own estimates were actually fairly accurate.

"Conjecture fueled by the experiences in neighboring
countries created a major and dangerous disconnect with reality," Mr. Petrie
said. "We now hope to get out the correct message that Myanmar can cope with
the disaster by reallocating existing resources."

The findings of the United Nations report are supported by
wave modeling done by scientists at the United States government's Pacific
Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.

"Looking at the north-south fault line, you can clearly see
how the waves would be pointed towards Thailand on one side
and Sri Lanka on the other," Barry Hirshorn, a geophysicist
at the center, said. "When we saw the fault line's
direction, we were more concerned about warning the
governments in Somalia and Kenya than Myanmar."

Although the center did not issue any warnings in time for
Sri Lanka or Thailand, they did try to alert several other countries.

The evidence supporting the conclusions about the tsunami
is clearly visible on the coast when traveling south on a
boat from Myanmar toward Phuket in Thailand, according to
Jim Styers, a marine biologist working near the border
between Thailand and Myanmar.

"You certainly can see some damage and high water marks in southern Myanmar
and in the border region," said Mr. Styers, who sent a vessel from

his Myanmar Dolphin Project on a four-day reconnaissance of
the area. "But when you go further south into Thailand, the landscape
changes and you can see tremendous damage."

Illustrating the force of the tsunami, Mr. Styers said, was
his discovery of a dolphin in a freshwater pond more than a half-mile inland
in Thailand. "The dolphin was actually doing fine," Mr. Styers said. "But it
really brought home the force of what hit further south in Thailand."

Mr. Petrie, the United Nations official, experienced the phenomenon of the
tsunami himself while vacationing with his 15-year-old son Oliver at the
beach resort of Nwe Saung, west of Yangon. "The earthquake we felt on the
way to breakfast, but the tsunami was harder to notice,"
Mr. Petrie said. "We saw the water go very far out and
leave the fish dry, but it was like a strange tide."

Mr. Petrie and other beachgoers in Myanmar only became
aware of the tsunami from news reports out of Sri Lanka.

Perhaps Myanmar's largest single loss of life in a single incident took
place near the border with Thailand in the town of Kaw Thoung when
about 20

people gathered on a wooden bridge stretching about half a
mile across tidal flats to watch the wave. The bridge, made
of wood and perhaps bamboo, was entirely swept away, Mr.
Styers said.

Over all, the greatest loss of life and damage took place
in the lower reaches of the flat Irrawaddy River delta, a
more heavily populated region than Myanmar's rugged
southern coast. One township, Lapputta, reported 34 dead.

The tsunami's impact on Myanmar may not be limited to the damage within the
country's borders. Hundreds of Myanmar nationals working on Thai fishing
vessels may have been killed, according to the report.

Even being spared the worst of the tsunami has its frustrations, with
Myanmar hotel operators joining their Thai counterparts in battling the
perception that the entire industry has been wiped out.

The Sandoway Resort on the popular Ngapoli beach along the western coast of
Myanmar has posted photographs of tourists happily sunning themselves,
dining and enjoying the beach.

"Unaffected by tsunami," the Web site states. "Seeing is believing."

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