Experts Assess Burma Cyclone Victims' Needs

RANGOON, Burma — Hundreds of experts began assessing the needs of Burma's cyclone victims yesterday as the country's military junta finally gave them access five weeks after the disaster.

But that improved access was undermined by reports the isolationist government had arrested 18 survivors who were on their way to the United Nations office in the commercial capital of Rangoon to plead for help.

Some 250 experts from the United Nations, the Burma government, and Southeast Asian nations headed into the Irrawaddy delta on trucks, boats, and helicopters for a village-by-village survey, the United Nations said.

Over 10 days, they will determine how much food, clean water, and temporary shelter the 2.4 million survivors need along with the cost of rebuilding houses and schools and reviving the farm-based economy.

"It has taken quite a long time but this shows the government is on board by its commitment to facilitate the relief operation and the scaling up that people are asking for," a U.N. spokeswoman in Bangkok, Thailand, Amanda Pitt, said.