US embassy cable - 04RANGOON1649

UNCLAS RANGOON 001649 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV, CA TASK FORCE, OPS CENTER 
BANGKOK FOR USAID, FAS 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AEMR, CASC, KFLO, PREL, PINR, PGOV, AMGT, BM 
SUBJECT: TFXO01: (12/30) BURMA SITUATION SEEMS STABLE...FOR 
NOW 
 
REF: RANGOON 1643 AND PREVIOUS 
 
1. Summary: All USG personnel in Burma are accounted for and 
safe.  There have still been no reports of Amcit casualties 
or verified cases of missing Americans.  There was no new 
information on casualties in Burma on December 30th, though a 
UN team found little evidence to dispute GOB claims of 
December 29th of 51 dead, 45 injured, and 70 missing.  The 
GOB is still not asking for assistance, but may be willing to 
accept it if the situation worsens.  End summary. 
 
USG Personnel Safe and Sound 
 
2. All USG personnel at Embassy Rangoon, including local 
staff, are accounted for and safe.  The Consular Section is 
currently working to resolve about 50 American Citizen 
welfare and whereabouts inquiries -- many of them quite 
general in nature.  There have still been no reports of Amcit 
casualties or verified cases of missing Americans. 
 
No New Information, But Situation Seems Stable 
 
3. After only two days of minimal coverage, the GOB's 
mouthpiece newspaper, "The New Light of Myanmar," has stopped 
publishing stories about the impact of the earthquakes and 
tsunami in Burma.  However, it has expanded its reprinting of 
 
SIPDIS 
wire stories detailing the death and destruction in the 
region.  The December 30th edition did print a small 
notification of an earthquake of 3.0 on the Richter scale, 
centered on Rangoon in the early hours of December 29th 
(reftel).  In the absence of any official update, the GOB 
tally remains 51 dead, 45 injured, 70 missing, and 788 
homeless. 
 
4. A UNDP team has returned from the Andaman Sea coastal 
Irrawaddy River delta, southwest of Rangoon, reporting that 
the region was hit by the tsunami, but found no evidence to 
contradict the GOB's public assessment of minimal damage and 
casualties limited to several dozen killed.  Another UN 
source told us that his GOB contacts were maintaining their 
initial claim of little damage and few casualties from 
Tanintharyi Division in the far southeast of the country.  A 
Rangoon businessman with tourist interests in that area 
repeated his earlier assessment that there was no serious 
damage to that area due to high waves.  However, there was an 
unverified rumor that about 100 fishermen were still missing 
from that region.  We reiterate that the touristed beach 
areas on the Bay of Bengal west and northwest of Rangoon 
received no damage and travel to those areas is as normal. 
 
GOB Might Accept Aid, But Won't Ask 
 
5. According to the senior UN representative in Rangoon, the 
GOB is not asking for any international assistance, but may 
be willing to accept it if proffered.  He said UN agencies 
were proceeding under that assumption and would provide 
assistance as necessary when assessments were complete.  No 
known international organizations have yet been able to see 
firsthand the conditions on remote islands of the Irrawaddy 
delta or along Burma's southeastern coast.  These areas are 
not frequented by foreign tourists, however. 
MARTINEZ